Gottfried Lengnich

Gottfried Lengnich was born to the family of a wealthy merchant in Danzig (now Gdańsk), Royal Prussia, Kingdom of Poland.

In 1729 Lengnich also became the professor of rhetorics and poetry at the Academic Gymnasium, a Protestant Latin language college located in Danzig.

During the period of interregnum following the death of Augustus II the Strong, Lengnich became involved in local politics and was initially a partisan of Stanisław Leszczyński.

Like Daniel Gralath he was a strong proponent of the autonomy of Royal Prussia within the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and opposed the forces that wanted to involve Danzig into internal Polish affairs, among them being the Confederation of Bar.

Among the latter was the first edition of the Ius publicum Regni Poloniae (Public Law of the Kingdom of Poland) inspired by bishop Andrzej Stanisław Załuski and the Ius publicum civitatis Gedanensis oder der Stadt Danzig Verfassung und Rechte (Public law of the city of Danzig, or the city's constitution and rights, 1769).