He had a brother who was 8 years younger, the later World Chess Champion Emanuel Lasker.

For about a year Lasker practised as a physician in Elberfeld, where he met the poet and playwright Else Lasker-Schüler.

In the 1880s Lasker was, next to Curt von Bardeleben, Siegbert Tarrasch who studied in Berlin, Fritz Riemann, Emil Schallopp and Theodor von Scheve, one of the strongest chess players in Berlin and therefore in Germany.

Tarrasch called Lasker a "very genius player, whose strength rarely accorded due value in a tournament because of his nervousness.“.

[12] It contained deep philosophical symbolism, and the theme was "redemption for rationalists and rigid logic truth through the emotional powers of mysticism.

"[13] Lasker died in 1928 only a few months after the death of his second wife, Regina, and is buried in the Jewish cemetery in Berlin-Weissensee.