Niels Ditlev Riegels

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Niels Ditlev Riegels. Black/white reproduction of a painting by Jens Juel. ND Riegels.jpg
Niels Ditlev Riegels. Black/white reproduction of a painting by Jens Juel.

Niels Ditlev Riegels (also Riegelsen) (1755 – 24 August 1802) was a Danish historian, journalist and pamphleteer.

Denmark constitutional monarchy in Europe

Denmark, officially the Kingdom of Denmark, is a Nordic country and the southernmost of the Scandinavian nations. Denmark lies southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and is bordered to the south by Germany. The Kingdom of Denmark also comprises two autonomous constituent countries in the North Atlantic Ocean: the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Denmark proper consists of a peninsula, Jutland, and an archipelago of 443 named islands, with the largest being Zealand, Funen and the North Jutlandic Island. The islands are characterised by flat, arable land and sandy coasts, low elevation and a temperate climate. Denmark has a total area of 42,924 km2 (16,573 sq mi), land area of 42,394 km2 (16,368 sq mi), and the total area including Greenland and the Faroe Islands is 2,210,579 km2 (853,509 sq mi), and a population of 5.8 million.

Pamphleteer someone who creates or distributes pamphlets

Pamphleteer is a historical term for someone who creates or distributes pamphlets, unbound booklets intended for wide circulation.

Contents

Niels Ditlev Riegels was known for his extensive authorship that was extremely critical of the Danish society and institutions. He was influenced by the radical enlightenment ideas of the French and English thinkers. The American historian H. Arnold Barton has characterised Riegels, along with Michael Gottlieb Birckner, as being one of "the most original thinkers" of the radical group of authors in Denmark in this period. [1]

Age of Enlightenment European cultural movement of the 18th century

The Age of Enlightenment was an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated the world of ideas in Europe during the 18th century, the "Century of Philosophy".

Hildor Arnold Barton was an American historian and a national authority on Scandinavian history, especially the history of Sweden, and of Swedes and other Scandinavians in North America.

Michael Gottlieb Birckner Danish philosopher

Michael Gottlieb Birckner was a Danish priest and philosopher.

Biography

The father of Niels Ditlev Riegels, Hans Riegelsen, was a learned merchant who had traveled widely and had a degree in philology. His mother, Bodil Birgitte Flindt, hailed from a family of landed proprietors. After having been home tutored by his father, who himself had unfulfilled dreams of a professorship, Niels Ditlev Riegels went to the University of Copenhagen in 1770.

Philology is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection between textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics. Philology is more commonly defined as the study of literary texts as well as oral and written records, the establishment of their authenticity and their original form, and the determination of their meaning. A person who pursues this kind of study is known as a philologist.

University of Copenhagen public research university in Copenhagen, Denmark

The University of Copenhagen (UCPH) is the oldest university and research institution in Denmark. Founded in 1479 as a studium generale, it is the second oldest institution for higher education in Scandinavia after Uppsala University (1477). The university has 23,473 undergraduate students, 17,398 postgraduate students, 2,968 doctoral students and over 9,000 employees. The university has four campuses located in and around Copenhagen, with the headquarters located in central Copenhagen. Most courses are taught in Danish; however, many courses are also offered in English and a few in German. The university has several thousands of foreign students, about half of whom come from Nordic countries.

At Copenhagen, Riegels studied theology, and he was known amongst his professors as having a rebellious and inquisitive mind. Despite several years of study, some of them spent at the University of Göttingen and University of Kiel, he never achieved his degree. Instead, he concentrated on the study of church history and published several small tracts in Latin before finally undertaking the task of writing an authoritative history of the church in Danish, of which the first volume was published in 1781. Perhaps on account of this, he was hired as tutor of the pages at the court of Queen dowager Juliane Maria. In this position he clandestinely participated in the coup against the ruling faction, one of whom was the Queen dowager herself. The coup was affected 14 April 1784, with the Crown Prince Frederick taking power alongside the Foreign minister Andreas Peter Bernstorff. Riegels was dismissed with a handsome pension of 1200 Danish rigsdaler for his efforts in the coup, yet he soon became a bitter opponent of the new government, mainly because he was not selected for the post of royal historiographer. From then on, he turned his authorship into a weapon against the ruling circles and everything connected to them. Despite the royal pension that he continued to receive until his death, he did not feel any obligations towards the new rule. He published a stream of pamphlets, books, journals and articles, most of these containing unrelenting criticism of the aristocracy, the church, the academic world and a wide variety of matters concerning how the government handled affairs.

Theology Study of the nature of deities and religious belief

Theology is the critical study of the nature of the divine. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the supernatural, but also especially with epistemology, and asks and seeks to answer the question of revelation. Revelation pertains to the acceptance of God, gods, or deities, as not only transcendent or above the natural world, but also willing and able to interact with the natural world and, in particular, to reveal themselves to humankind. While theology has turned into a secular field, religious adherents still consider theology to be a discipline that helps them live and understand concepts such as life and love and that helps them lead lives of obedience to the deities they follow or worship.

University of Göttingen university in the city of Göttingen, Germany

The University of Göttingen is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded in 1734 by George II, King of Great Britain and Elector of Hanover, and starting classes in 1737, the Georgia Augusta was conceived to promote the ideals of the Enlightenment. It is the oldest university in the state of Lower Saxony and the largest in student enrollment, which stands at around 31,500.

University of Kiel university

Kiel University is a university in the city of Kiel, Germany. It was founded in 1665 as the Academia Holsatorum Chiloniensis by Christian Albert, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp and has approximately 27,000 students today. Kiel University is the largest, oldest, and most prestigious in the state of Schleswig-Holstein. Until 1864/66 it was not only the northernmost university in Germany but at the same time the 2nd largest university of Denmark. Faculty, alumni, and researchers of the Kiel University have won 12 Nobel Prizes. Kiel University is a member of the German Universities Excellence Initiative since 2006. The Cluster of Excellence The Future Ocean, which was established in cooperation with the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel in 2006, is internationally recognized. The second Cluster of Excellence "Inflammation at Interfaces" deals with chronic inflammatory diseases. The Kiel Institute for the World Economy is also affiliated with Kiel University.

Writings

The beginning of Riegels' critical authorship can be traced to the third volume of his Fuldstændig Kirkehistorie ("Complete History of the Church, 1781–86) from 1786. Whereas the preceding volumes conformed to the official interpretation of the Scriptures, the third volume changed considerably in tone. It was a defense of Arianism and other heretical sects that had been suppressed during the late antiquity, creating parallels to contemporary times and how Riegels perceived the lack of tolerance in the Danish church. Many of Riegels' works were published anonymously, including the journal Kiøbenhavns Skilderie ("Image of Copenhagen", 1786–1790), which contained vivid eyewitness accounts of the sordid conditions of the inmates of the penitentiaries, poor houses and insane asylums of Copenhagen. From these experiences he campaigned for a reform of the insane asylum called Pesthuset (later St Hans), with the effect that the donations poured in, though the needed reforms did not take place until long after Riegels' death. [2] Thanks to the deliberate laxity of the post-1784 government, the restrictive censorship laws of Ove Høegh-Guldberg were rarely enforced; yet, one exception was in 1790 when Riegels was fined 200 rigsdaler for his Julemærker fra Landet og Byen ("Weather forecast from the Country and from the City") which had in effect called for an institution of a General Assembly of the Estates. [3]

Arianism is a nontrinitarian Christological doctrine which asserts the belief that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who was begotten by God the Father at a point in time, a creature distinct from the Father and is therefore subordinate to him, but the Son is also God. Arian teachings were first attributed to Arius, a Christian presbyter in Alexandria of Egypt. The teachings of Arius and his supporters were opposed to the theological views held by Homoousian Christians, regarding the nature of the Trinity and the nature of Christ. The Arian concept of Christ is based on the belief that the Son of God did not always exist but was begotten within time by God the Father.

Ove Høegh-Guldberg Danish politician

Ove Høegh-Guldberg was a Danish statesman, historian, and de facto prime minister of Denmark from 1772 to 1784.

Riegels had meanwhile moved to Falster where he had married and bought a farmstead. Since his university days, he had shown an interest in the natural sciences, which amongst other things led to him writing "Forsøg til chirurgiens historie" ("An attempt at the History of Surgery", 1786. Latin version in 1788 De Fatis faustis et infaustis Chirurgiae for which he received honorary medals from Catherine II of Russia, Gustav III of Sweden and the Prussian minister Ewald Friedrich von Hertzberg). [4] He had also begun studying animal anatomy, an interest he pursued by dissecting various farm animals as well as practicing as an unofficial veterinary. He published several Latin papers on his findings and corresponded with physicians around the world, among others the American Founding Father Benjamin Rush. [5]

Falster island in south-eastern Denmark

Falster is an island in south-eastern Denmark with an area of 486.2 km2 (187.7 sq mi) and 43,398 inhabitants as of 1 January 2010. Located in the Baltic sea, it is part of Region Zealand and is administered by Guldborgsund Municipality. Falster includes Denmark's southernmost point, Gedser Odde, near Gedser.

Gustav III of Sweden King of Sweden from 1771 to 1792

Gustav III was King of Sweden from 1771 until his assassination in 1792. He was the eldest son of Adolf Frederick, King of Sweden and Queen Louise Ulrika, and a first cousin of Empress Catherine the Great of Russia by reason of their common descent from Christian August of Holstein-Gottorp, Prince of Eutin, and his wife Albertina Frederica of Baden-Durlach.

Ewald Friedrich von Hertzberg Prussian politician

Ewald Friedrich Graf von Hertzberg was a Prussian statesman.

He had not, however, relinquished his critical authorship. The 1790s saw the publication of several voluminous historical works, amongst them Forsøg til Femte Christians Historie ("An attempt at the History of Christian V of Denmark", 1792), Udkast til Fierde Friederichs Historie efter Høyer ("Outline of the History of Frederick IV of Denmark according to Andreas Hojer", 2 vols., 1795–1800) and Smaa historiske Skrifter ("Minor Historical Works", 3 vols, 1796–1798, containing "A Life of Christian VI of Denmark") which was as critical as his earlier works.

Another interest of Riegels' was the theory of education. He wrote a series of articles on this subject around 1788-1789, inspired by John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau among others. [6] In 1800, he moved to Sorø where he opened a school based on these theories, and died 2 years later aged 47 of a seizure in 1802.

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References

  1. ↑ H. Arnold Barton, 1986, p. 242.
  2. ↑ Christine Stevenson, Madness and the Picturesque in the Kingdom of Denmark, p. 21 in: W.F. Byrnum, Roy Porter & Michael Shepherd (eds.), Anatomy of Madness, vol. III, Taylor & Francis, 2004. ISBN   0-415-32385-1.
  3. ↑ Thomas Munck, Absolute Monarchy in Eighteenth-century Denmark: Centralized reform, Public Expectations and the Copenhagen Press, pp. 220-221 in: The Historical Journal, 1998, 41: pp. 201-224, Cambridge University Press.
  4. ↑ Morten Petersen, 2003, p. 137
  5. ↑ "Letter to Frederik Thaarup", No. 3, p. 333 in: N. Chr. Øst, Østs Materialier til et dansk, biografisk-literarisk Lexicon, 1835
  6. ↑ At udpille Egensindighed af Barnet, can be found at Danish Wikisource

Sources

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