Lessing was the great liberator of the German mind.
He was given two palaces, many privileges, and the title of Liberator et Pater Patriae.
Language was her liberator, and from the first she cherished it.
On his first entry into Milan (15th of May 1796) he received a rapturous welcome as the liberator of Italy from the Austrian yoke; but the instructions of the Directory allowed him at the outset to do little more than effect the organization of consultative committees and national guards in the chief towns of Lombardy.
His services to his country are aptly epitomized in the epitaph on his ancient monument at Ringsted church which describes him as "Sclavorum dominator, patriae liberator et pacis conservator."