The fall of NapoleTracing Language - Rasmus Raskon in 1814 represented yet another national tragedy. Frederik VI was forced to surrender Norway to Sweden, bringing an end to the era of double monarchy in Denmark and Norway.

The loss of Norway was catastrophic for Denmark on a number of levels, partly due to the fact that Denmark had previously imported raw materials and products like timber, iron, copper and glass from the north, and partly because Denmark had had a monopoly on corn export to Norway.

Denmark was thus reduced both economically and geographically. The only apparent solution to the crisis was the development of knowledge, technology and industry. At Copenhagen University the natural sciences were divided into independent basic sciences.

Tracing Language - Rasmus Rask

The language researcher Rasmus Rask (1787-1832) has been credited with laying the seeds of Nordic philology in Denmark. Rask studied all the Nordic languages, although he specialised in the Icelandic language. By comparing Icelandic with a series of other languages he established a relationship between them and their origins.

In 1814 Rask became assistant librarian at the University Library, which at the time was located in the attic of the Church of the Holy Trinity. The main librarian at the time was the warden and literature professor Rasmus Nyerup, who became one of Rask's loyal supporters. In 1813 Rask received a royal bursary to travel to Iceland, where he stayed for two years.

In 1816 Rask set out on a long journey which took him all the way to South East Asia. His travels lasted six and a half years, and went from Sweden and Finland, through Russia and Persia, before bringing him to India and Ceylon. His travels were aimed at tracing Denmark's ancestors, and investigating the relationship between European and Asian languages.

Rasmus Rask approached his task as a systematic scientist, analysing the internal grammatical structure of the languages, as well as their relationship to each other. He became professor of literature, and later of Oriental languages, and his theses were of fundamental importance in the development of comparative philology in Denmark.

The Music of Romanticism - Kuhlau

The works of the composer Daniel Friedrich Kuhlau (1786-1832) marked the entrance of Romanticism into the musical world of Denmark. In reaction to the unrest and uncertainty following in the wake of the revolution, artists throughout Europe focussed their talents on wondrous, mystical and fantastic themes.

Kuhlau was born in Germany, but in 1810 he fled to Copenhagen to avoid military service in the French forces. It is thought provoking that the music, which for modern Danes is the essence of true Danish Romanticism, was composed by a German. Another of the Golden Age's major 'national' composers was C.E.F. Weyse (1774-1842), who was born in the German town of Altona.

In 1811 Kuhlau had his debut in Copenhagen, and was rapidly recognised as the leading piano soloist of the day. His romantic music of 1813, composed for Oehlenschläger's ballad opera Røverborgen (The Robber Baron's Castle), marked the start of a long career at the Royal Theatre, the national highlight of which was J.L. Heiberg's festival play Elverhøj (The Elf Hill) in 1828.

In addition to these dramatic works, Kuhlau also made his mark in the fields of piano and chamber music. Musically he was closely related to Mozart and Beethoven, having his roots in the classical period, but he also heralded the arrival of new inspiration, with compositions which rejuvenated Danish music.

Crime and Punishment

The Golden Age produced many personalities who left their mark on the scientific, cultural and artistic development of Denmark. But there was another side to life in the Golden Age - that experienced by those at the bottom of society, far removed from the security of the middle classes, for whom theft and murder were daily events.

Anders Sandøe Ørsted (1778-1860) was one of the greatest legal talents of the Golden Age. He was quick to realise the necessity of legal reforms, and his laws of 1833-1841 gave criminal law a new basis from which to develop a solid foundation for modern Danish jurisprudence.

In 1815 the new Town hall and Court in Copenhagen stood complete. The buildings had been designed by the architect C.F. Hansen (1756-1845), the state surveyor and a professor at the Art Academy, and were in Hansen's characteristic monumental, classical style. Two arcades connected the Town Hall and Court at Nytorv to the city jail in Slutteri Street.

With its heavy rustic work, and small barred windows, the city jail spoke a formidable architectural language of its own, inspiring the city's citizens to obey the law. This was a period of revolt in the city's prisons, which encouraged the movement towards more modern prison conditions.

Into the Universe - H.C. Schumacher

After Thomas Bugge's death in 1815, the astronomer and professor Henrich Christian Schumacher (1780-1850) was appointed head of the Round Tower Observatory. At the time of his appointment he had just initiated a measurement of degrees from Skagen to Lauenberg, and was living in Altona, Germany. He was therefore often absent from the Round Tower in Copenhagen, although he continued to enjoy Frederik VI's patronage.

In 1821 Schumacher was relieved of his duties as professor at Copenhagen University, and could thus dedicate himself to the building of an observatory in Altona. The house built beside the observatory was designed by the architect C.F. Hansen, and was financed by Frederik VI.

All in all the Danish state invested a huge sum in the Altona observatory, which became a centre for geodetic measuring. Schumacher assembled an extensive geodetic instrument collection in Altona, whilst the Round Tower Observatory remained seriously neglected.

From 1823 until his death Schumacher published the central publication in the world of astronomy, Astronomische Nachrichten. In 1831 he also established an award for the discovery of new comets. But the Three Year War and the end of the absolute monarchy made working in Altona at the expense of the Danish state highly problematic, a state of affairs which almost killed the highly reputed astronomer, who died shortly after.

Outside Inspiration

During the second half of the 1700s there were significant developments in both instrument-making and watchmaking in Denmark. The watchmakers had a hard time competing with the prices of cheap foreign watches, and many of them were reduced to living off repairing and restoring imported watches.

In 1781, Larpent and Jügensen, the first specialised watchmaking factory in Denmark, was founded in Copenhagen. This rejuvenated watchmaking in Denmark, as did an association to support the craft of watchmaking founded on Bornholm by H.C. Ørsted and the surveyor Lauritz Esmarch in 1820. The gap between watchmaking in Denmark and the advances already made overseas was rapidly closing.

Inspiration from overseas was equally central to developments in other areas. The flourishing overseas trade of the 1700s had brought tea and coffee to Europe's shores. These exotic drinks, which were originally the preserve of the upper classes, gradually became common throughout society. It was during the Golden Age that the tea table, with the samovar as a centrepiece, became an institution in its own right.

The manufacture of copious tea and coffee services became an important source of income for both the porcelain factories and sliver smiths. *The elaborate and complicated samovars, which were to be found in almost all upper middle-class households, were, at their best, capable of revealing a harmony between the skills of plumbing and the craft of silversmithing. 

The Modern Museum Man - Christian Jürgensen Thomsen

In 1817 Christian Jürgensen Thomsen (1788-1865) was appointed head of The Museum of Northern Antiquities, which had been founded in 1807 in the University Library by The Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries. Thomsen had actually taken over the running of his father's wholesale business, and it was not until the death of his parents that he sold the business to dedicate himself to museum work.

Thomsen registered the antiquities systematically, dividing them into three major prehistoric periods - the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages. Through this work he achieved a reputation as an archaeologist, despite the fact that he had no formal qualifications. As early as 1819 he opened the museum to the public, thus laying the foundations for a national museum.

In 1832 Thomsen was also appointed curator of The Numismatic Collection. The director of the collection was P.O. Brøndsted, who was succeeded by Thomsen after his death in 1842. From 1839, together with the art historian N.L. Høyen, Thomsen  also ran The Royal Art Collection, thus achieving an absolutely central position in the Danish museum world.

Among Thomsen's many achievements is the founding of an ethnographic collection focussing on the everyday rather than the exceptional. But his greatest achievement remains the founding of the three period system, which continues to be the guiding principle of prehistoric archaeology today.

The Industrial Pioneer - Ole Jørgen Rawert

Ole Jørgen Rawert (1786-1851) was the first man to systematically engage with the development of industry in Denmark. He began his career at the Commercial Department (the Trade and Industry Ministry at the time), a career which was temporarily interrupted by the disastrous years of 1813 and 1814.

Between 1816 and 1819 Rawert undertook the first of his study tours through Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, Holland and England. During his travels he witnessed the rapid advance of industrial development in Europe. Upon his return to Denmark Rawert spent three years he travelling throughout his own country, comparing Danish developments with those he had experienced overseas.

In his Account of the State of Industry in the Danish Provinces (1820), Rawert drew attention to the terrible state of Danish industry, as well as to the vital importance of establishing technical universities where those in industry could learn the skills necessary for progress.

In 1831 Rawert became an inspector of customs and a factory director. He also wrote numerous articles and books analysing and exposing the modernisation of Denmark. With his ideas about improved education and new technology Rawert was a major contributor to paving the way for the massive industrial breakthrough which came after his death.