Ernst Immanuel Cohen Brandes

Ernst Immanuel Cohen Brandes (1 February 1844 – 6 August 1892) was a Danish economist, writer, and newspaper editor.

Outraged by his politicized blasphemy conviction for an article anonymously written by Pontoppidan for the Kjøbenhavns Børs-Tidende in 1889, Brandes committed suicide in 1892.

[2] Brandes came to write for the Politiken, which Edvard had helped to found in 1884, before editing his own newspaper, the Kjøbenhavns Børs-Tidende, in 1889 – an idiosyncratic undertaking meant to combine stock price lists and radical literature.

Pontoppidan, who was not charged, admitted he was the author of the two articles when the matter was brought to trial, but faced no penalty despite his admission and his offer to claim legal responsibility in Brandes' place.

[4] The controversial case finally made its way to the Danish Supreme Court, which again acquitted Brandes for the Adam article but upheld the conviction for "Messias" while softening the earlier sentence of two months' imprisonment to a fine of 300 kroner in December 1891.