Architect. Born in Stadtlengsfeld, Germany, his mother died while giving birth to him. He emigrated to the United States with his father, who was a rabbi, and received his education in the public schools. He failed to get into college and received private instruction in drawing. After he expressed an interest in architecture, his father placed him as an apprentice a well-known architect, and he was taught the conventional five orders and drew many sketches of the Byzantine and Romanesque ornaments that were so popular in that period. After moving with his father to Chicago, Illinois in May 1861 he began looking for an architect job. With the American Civil War raging, in July 1862 he enlisted in Battery M of the 1st Illinois Volunteer Light Artillery. He was involved in many battles from 1862 through 1864 and was also wounded. In the last nine months of service, he was assigned to be a draftsman in the Typographical Engineer's office of the Military Division of Tennessee. When he was discharged in July 1865, he returned to Chicago. He would go on to build an architect career from 1865 to 1871, when he formed a partnership with Edward Burling. Eight months after the partnership began, they were inundated with work as a result of the October 1871 Great Chicago Fire in October of 1871. A gifted civil engineer in addition to being an architect, he, with his last partner Louis Sullivan, designed many buildings including influential skyscrapers that addressed their steel skeleton through their exterior design, such as the Guaranty Building in Buffalo, New York, the Chicago Stock Exchange Building 1894 to 1972 and the Wainwright Building in St. Louis, Missouri. He became known as an expert in acoustics and a pioneer in the development of steel-framed buildings and skyscrapers. He also built auditoriums and theaters. The last major building Dankmar Adler designed was Temple Isaiah in Chicago. He died at the age of 56.