In 1848, after the outbreak of the revolution, he went to Vienna and entered the student's legion which played a prominent role in the disturbances; he fought against the imperial troops during the siege of the city in October.

He then continued his legal studies at Breslau and Berlin, and after a visit of three years to England, then the model state for German liberals, entered the Prussian judicial service.

He had been brought to the notice of the political world by some articles he wrote from 1861 to 1864, which were afterwards published under the title Zur Verfassungsgeschichte Preußens (Leipzig, 1874), and in 1865 he was elected member to the Prussian House of Representatives.

While he again and again was able to compel the government to withdraw or amend proposals that seemed dangerous to liberty, he opposed those liberals who, unable to obtain all the concessions they called for, refused to vote for the new laws as a whole.

[2] A speech made by Lasker on 7 February 1873, in which he attacked the management of the Pomeranian railway, caused a great sensation, and his exposure of the financial mismanagement brought about the fall of Hermann Wagener, one of Bismarck's most trusted assistants.

Broken in health and spirits by the incessant labors of the time when he did half the work of the Reichstag, he went in 1883 for a tour in America, and died suddenly in New York City in January 1884.