Outstanding Figures Associated with Bakkehuset

Bakkehuset’s greatest period was the time 200 years ago when Knud and Kamma Rahbek lived there:

 

Knud Lyne Rahbek

Knud Lyne Rahbek was one of the most outstanding literary and cultural figures in Golden Age Denmark. In his role as Professor of Literature, author, literary critic, publisher of periodicals and co-director of the Royal Theatre, he knew the people who moulded the understanding of literature and art at that time. Read more.

 

Kamma Rahbek

Knud Lyne Rahbek’s wife Kamma was well read, spoke several language and was a keen letter-writer. She was a creative nature, as was expressed not least in the artistic boxes she made, and the way she tended the garden. Kamma Rahbek was the lively focal point of the home and a support for the young authors and budding poets who were regular visitors there. Read more.

 

Knud Lyne Rahbek rented Bakkehuset and moved into it permanently in 1787. He married Kamma Rahbek in 1798, and four years later they bought Bakkehuset and moved into the apartment that is a museum today. The couple’s home was a meeting place for the authors, scientists and artists of the time. In addition to figures such as Hans Christian Andersen, the brothers Hans Christian and Anders Sandøe Ørsted, B.S. Ingemann, N.F.S. Grundtvig, Johan Ludvig Heiberg, Steen Steensen Blicher and many others, special mention must be made of:

 

Adam Oehlenschläger

As the poet who wrote works such as The Golden Horns, Adam Oehlenschäger is the personification of Romanticism in Danish literature. He and Rahbek shared a delight in literature. Oehlenschläger became a close friend of Kamma Rahbek and married her sister Christiane. For that reason, too, he was a frequent guest in Bakkehuset. Read more.

 

Johannes Ewald

Johannes Ewald is considered to be one of the first modern Danish authors, and among his works was the ballad opera The Death of Baldur. Rahbek was a great admirer of Ewald and as a young man met the sick and enfeebled poet, who died before the great age of Bakkehuset. Rahbek sought to defend Ewald’s memory partly by publishing his autobiography Life and Opinions in his periodicals. Read more.