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{{Short description|Danish poet and playwright}}
{{redirect|Oehlenschlaeger|other uses|Saba (singer)|and|Andrea Lykke Oehlenschlæger}}
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{{More citations needed|date=April 2020}}
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{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name     = Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger
| image    = Adam Oehlenschlaeger (1825 painting).jpg
| caption  = Portrait of Adam Oehlenschläger by [[Christian Albrecht Jensen]] (1825)
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1779|11|14|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Copenhagen]], [[Denmark-Norway]]
| death_date  = {{death date and age|1850|1|20|1779|11|14|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Copenhagen]], Denmark
| occupation  = Poet, playwright
| nationality = Danish
| spouse      = Christiane Georgine Elisabeth Heger (1782-1841)
| alma_mater  = [[University of Copenhagen]]
| genre =
| notable_works =''Hakon Jarl hin Rige'' (1807) ''Axel og Valborg'' (1810)<br/> ''Nordens guder'' (1819)
| signature     = Adam Oehlenschläger - signature.jpg
}}{{Conservatism in Denmark}}
'''Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger'''  ({{IPA|da|ˈɛːtɑm ˈkʌtlʌp ˈøˀln̩ˌsleːjɐ}}; 14 November 1779{{snd}}20 January 1850) was a Danish poet and playwright. He introduced [[romanticism]] into [[Danish literature]]. He wrote the lyrics to the song ''[[Der er et yndigt land]]'', which is one of the [[national anthem]]s of Denmark.<ref>{{cite web|author1=Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark|author-link1=Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Denmark)|title=Not One but Two National Anthems|url=http://denmark.dk/en/quick-facts/national-anthems/|website=Denmark.dk|access-date=8 June 2017|archive-date=15 May 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140515093426/http://denmark.dk/en/quick-facts/national-anthems|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://denstoredanske.lex.dk/Adam_Oehlenschl%C3%A4ger|title=Adam Oehlenschläger|website= Den Store Danske|access-date=August 1, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://litteratursiden.dk/forfattere/adam-oehlenschlager|title=Adam Oehlenschläger	|website= Litteratursiden|access-date=August 1, 2020}}
</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://biografiskleksikon.lex.dk/Adam_Oehlenschl%C3%A4ger   |title=Adam Oehlenschläger|website=    Dansk Biografisk Leksikon
|access-date=August 1, 2020}}</ref>

==Biography==
[[File:Adam Gottlob Oehlenschlager by Julius Schultz in Søndermarken 1.jpg|right|thumb|Statue of Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger in Frederiksberg Gardens (Copenhagen)]]

He was born in [[Vesterbro, Copenhagen|Vesterbro]], then a suburb of [[Copenhagen]]. His father, {{ill|Joachim Conrad Oehlenschläger|da}} (1748–1827) was at that time [[organist]] of [[Frederiksberg Church]] and later, keeper of the royal palace of [[Frederiksberg]]. The poet's mother Martha Marie Hansen (1745–1800)  suffered from [[depression (mood)|depression]], which afterwards deepened into [[melancholia|melancholy]] madness.{{refn|group=note|name=first|{{EB1911|inline=1|last=Gosse |first=Edmund |authorlink=Edmund Gosse | wstitle=Öhlenschläger, Adam Gottlob|volume=20|pages=33–34}}}}

Oehlenschläger and his sister [[Sophie Ørsted]] (1782–1818) were taught only to read and write, until their twelfth year. At the age of nine, Oehlenschläger began to write fluent [[Poetry|verses]]. Three years later, he attracted the notice of the poet [[Edvard Storm]] (1749–1794) and as a result Öhlenschläger received an introduction into  [[Scandinavian mythology]].{{refn|group=note|name=first}}
<ref>{{cite web|url=https://runeberg.org/dbl/19/0493.html|title=Ørsted, Sophie Wilhelmine Bertha, 1782-18181|website=Dansk biografisk Lexikon|access-date=August 1, 2020|archive-date=30 November 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231130074129/https://runeberg.org/dbl/19/0493.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Oehlenschläger was [[Confirmation|confirmed]] in 1795, and was to have been apprenticed to a tradesman in Copenhagen.  He also entered the stage where he was offered a small position. In 1797 he made his appearance on the boards in several successive parts, but soon discovered that he possessed no real histrionic talent. Jurist  [[Anders Sandøe Ørsted]]  (1778–1860) who would later marry his sister Sophie, persuaded him to quit the theatre, and in 1800 he entered the [[University of Copenhagen]]. He was disturbed in his studies by the death of his mother, by his inveterate occupation with poetry, and finally by the [[Battle of Copenhagen (1801)|First Battle of Copenhagen]] in April 1801, which, however, inspired a dramatic sketch (''April the Second 1801''), the first work of the kind by his pen that we possess.{{refn|group=note|name=first}}
<ref>{{cite web|url=https://runeberg.org/dbl/19/0465.html|title=Ørsted, Anders Sandøe, 1778-1860|website=Dansk biografisk Lexikon|access-date=August 1, 2020|archive-date=22 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191222114030/http://runeberg.org/dbl/19/0465.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Adam Oehlenschläger statue in Copenhagen, by H.W. Bissen, 1861.jpg|thumb|Adam Oehlenschläger statue in front of the Royal Theater, Copenhagen, by H. W. Bissen, 1861]]

In the summer of 1802, when Oehlenschläger had an old [[Scandinavian romanser|Scandinavian romance]], as well as a volume of [[Lyric poetry|lyrics]] in the press, the young [[Nordic countries|Norse]] philosopher, [[Henrik Steffens]] (1773–1845), returned to Copenhagen after a long visit to [[Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling]] (1775–1854) in Germany. He was full of new romantic ideas. His lectures at the university, in which [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]] and [[Friedrich Schiller|Schiller]] were revealed to the Danish public for the first time, created a great sensation. Steffens and Oehlenschläger met one day resulting in a conversation of sixteen hours. After Oehlenschläger returned home, he wrote at a sitting his  poem ''Guldhornene'', in a manner totally new to Danish literature. The result of his new enthusiasm speedily showed itself in a somewhat hasty volume of poems, published in 1803, now chiefly remembered as containing the  piece called ''Sanct Hansaften-Spil''.{{refn|group=note|name=first}}
<ref>{{cite web|url=  https://www.hu-berlin.de/de/ueberblick/geschichte/rektoren/steffens|title=Henrik Steffens|website= Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin    
|access-date=August 1, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=  https://runeberg.org/salmonsen/2/20/1106.html|title=  Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling|website=  Salmonsens konversationsleksikon|access-date=  August 1, 2020|archive-date=  5 September 2017|archive-url=  https://web.archive.org/web/20170905182842/http://runeberg.org/salmonsen/2/20/1106.html|url-status=  live}}</ref>

The next two years saw the production of several exquisite works, in particular the epic of ''Thors Reise til Jotunheim'', the poem in [[hexameter]]s called ''Langelandsreisen'', and the bewitching fantasy ''Aladdin'' (1805). At the age of twenty-six, Oehlenschläger was universally recognised, even by the opponents of the romantic revival, as the leading poet of [[Denmark]]. He now collected his ''Poetical Writings'' in two volumes. He found no difficulty in obtaining a grant for foreign travel from the government, and he left Denmark for the first time, joining Steffens at the [[University of Halle]] in August 1805. Here he wrote the first of his great historical tragedies, ''Hakon Jarl'', which he sent off to Copenhagen, and then proceeded for the winter months to [[Berlin]], where he associated with [[Wilhelm von Humboldt]], [[Johann Gottlieb Fichte]] and met Goethe for the first time.{{refn|group=note|name=first}}
<ref>{{cite web|url=  https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/gnd118532847.html#ndbcontent|title= Fichte, Johann Gottlieb|website= Deutsche Biographie
|access-date=August 1, 2020}}</ref>

In the spring of 1806 he went on to [[Weimar]], where he spent several months in daily intercourse with Goethe. Autumn of that year was passed with [[Tieck]] in [[Dresden]], and he proceeded in December to [[Paris]]. Here he resided eighteen months and wrote his three famous masterpieces, ''Baldur hin Gode'' (1808), ''Palnatoke'' (1809), and ''[[Axel og Valborg]]'' (1810).{{refn|group=note|name=first}} Oehlenschläger had also made his own translation of ''Aladdin'' into German, adding some new material which does not appear in the 1805 edition; this revised version was published in Amsterdam in 1808. [[Ferruccio Busoni]] later used the text of this translation for the last (choral) movement of his [[Piano Concerto (Busoni)|Piano Concerto Op. 39]]. Later editions of Oehlenschläger's play do not contain this text.{{sfn|Beaumont|1985|p=62}}

In July 1808 he left Paris and spent the autumn and winter in [[Switzerland]] as the guest of [[Germaine de Staël|Madame de Staël]] at [[Coppet]], in the midst of her salon. In the spring of 1809, Oehlenschläger went to Rome to visit [[Bertel Thorvaldsen]], and in his house wrote the tragedy of ''Correggio.'' He hurriedly returned to Denmark in the spring of 1810, partly to take the chair of [[aesthetics]] at the [[University of Copenhagen]], partly to marry the sister-in-law of [[Knud Lyne Rahbek]], to whom he had been long betrothed. His first course of lectures dealt with his Danish predecessor [[Johannes Ewald]], the second with Schiller. From this time forward his literary activity became very great; in 1811 he published the Oriental tale of ''Ali og Gulhyndi'', and in 1812 the last of his great tragedies, ''Stærkodder''.{{refn|group=note|name=first}}
<ref>{{cite web|url=    https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/fr/articles/016051/2014-02-11/|title= Germaine de Staël|website= Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse 
|access-date=August 1, 2020}}</ref>

From 1814 to 1819 his admirers were engaged in a long and angry controversy with [[Jens Immanuel Baggesen|Baggesen]], who represented the old [[didactic]] school. This contest seems to have disturbed the peace of Oehlenschläger's mind and to have undermined his genius. His talent may be said to have culminated in the cycle of verse-romances called ''Helge'', published in 1814. The tragedy of ''Hagbarth og Signe'', (1815), showed a distinct diminution of his powers. In 1817 he returned to Paris, and published ''Hroars Saga'' and the tragedy of ''Fostbrødrene''. In 1818 he was again in Copenhagen, and wrote the [[idyll]] of ''Den lille Hyrdedreng'' and the [[Edda]]ic cycle called ''Nordens Guder''. His next productions were the [[Tragedy|tragedies]] of ''Erik og Abel'' (1820) and ''Væringerne i Miklagaard'' (1826), and the epic of ''Hrolf Krake'' (1829). His last volumes were ''Tordenskjold'' (1833), ''Dronning Margrethe'' (1833), ''Sokrates'' (1835), ''Olaf den Hellige'' (1836), ''Knud den Store'' (1838), ''Dina'' (1842), ''Erik Glipping'' (1843), and ''Kiartan og Gudrun'' (1847).  After his death his ''Recollections'' (1850) were published in two volumes.

==Personal life==
Adam Oehlenschläger married Christiane Georgine Elisabeth Heger (1782-1841) in 1810. She was the sister of [[Kamma Rahbek]] (1775–1829), the wife of [[Knud Lyne Rahbek]] (1760–1830).
Oehlenschläger  died 20 January 1850 and was buried in the cemetery of [[Frederiksberg Church]]. 
<ref>{{cite web|url=    https://www.bakkehusmuseet.dk/en/bakkehusets-social-circle.html|title=    Kamma and Knud Lyne Rahbek|website=    Bakkehuset|access-date=    August 1, 2020}}{{Dead link|date=August 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
<ref>{{cite web|url=     http://www.guldalder.dk/FH_sted9|title= Frederiksberg Kirke og kirkegården|website=   Guide til Dansk Guldalder|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071020175039/http://www.guldalder.dk/FH_sted9|access-date=August 1, 2020|archive-date= 20 October 2007}}</ref>

==Legacy==
[[Image:Oehlenschlaeger and Tegner.jpg|right|thumb|''Oehlenschläger crowned with laurel by Tegner at Lund Cathedral''  <br /> by Constantin Hansen (1866)]]
Adam Oehlenschläger was one of the principal pioneers of the [[romantic movement]] in Europe.
With the exception of [[Ludvig Holberg]] (1684–1754), no Danish writer before 1870 has exercised so wide an influence. 
His work awoke among his countrymen an enthusiasm for the poetry and religion of their ancestors. 
He supplied his countrymen with romantic tragedies at a time when all eyes were turned to the stage. 
His plays fulfilled the stage requirements of the day, and were popular beyond all expectation. 
He performed to an extent that his name remains to this day synonymous with Scandinavian romance.
<ref>{{cite web	|url=    https://denstoredanske.lex.dk/Ludvig_Holberg
 |title=Ludvig Holberg|website=    Den Store Danske|access-date=August 1, 2020}}</ref>

The earliest are the best: Oehlenschlager's dramatic masterpiece being his first tragedy, ''Hakon Jarl''.  Although his inspiration came from Germany, he is not much like a German poet, except when he is consciously following Goethe; his analogy is rather to be found among English poets than his contemporaries.{{refn|group=note|name=first}}

== Honours ==
*In 1829 he was publicly laurel-crowned in Lund Cathedral as the "king of Nordic Poetry" and the "Scandinavian King of Song" by [[Esaias Tegnér]],   Bishop  of the [[Diocese of Växjö]] (1782–1846).{{refn|group=note|name=first}}<ref>{{cite web	|url=    https://runeberg.org/nfch/0342.html|title=Tegnér, Esaias T. |website=Nordisk familjebok |access-date=August 1, 2020}}</ref>
*On his seventieth birthday (14 November 1849) a public festival was arranged in his honor. He was decorated by the king of Denmark as a Knight Grand Cross in the [[Order of the Dannebrog]].<ref>Handelsblad (Het) 27 November 1849</ref>{{refn|group=note|name=first}}

==Footnotes==
===Notes===
{{Reflist|group=note}}

===References===
{{Reflist}}

===Sources===
* {{cite book |last=Beaumont |first=Antony |author-link=Antony Beaumont |year=1985|title=Busoni the Composer |location= London |publisher=[[Faber and Faber]] |isbn=0-571-13149-2}}

===Further reading===
* Andersen, Vilhelm (1899). [https://archive.org/details/adamoehlenschl03andeuoft ''Adam Oehlenschläger, et livs poesi'']  (København, Nordiske forlag).

==External links==
{{wikisource|works=or}}
{{Commons category|Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger|Adam Oehlenschläger}}
* {{Gutenberg author | id=8794| name=Adam Oehlenschläger}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger |sopt=w}} 
* {{Librivox author |id=10142}}
* [https://runeberg.org/authors/oehlensc.html Oehlenschläger], author presentation in [[Project Runeberg]]
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=kHxMAAAAMAAJ ''Aladdin, or, The wonderful lamp''], by Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger, William Blackwood & Sons, 1863

{{s-start}}
{{s-aca}}
{{s-bef|before = [[Jens Wilken Hornemann]]}} 
{{s-ttl|title = Rector of [[University of Copenhagen]]|years = 1831–1832}} 
{{s-aft|after = [[Jens Møller]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Danish Golden Age}}
{{Romanticism}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oehlenschlager, Adam Gottlob}}
[[Category:Adam Oehlenschläger| ]]
[[Category:1779 births]]
[[Category:1850 deaths]]
[[Category:18th-century Danish poets]]
[[Category:Danish male poets]]
[[Category:18th-century Danish dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:National anthem writers]]
[[Category:University of Copenhagen alumni]]
[[Category:19th-century Danish dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Writers from Copenhagen]]
[[Category:Opera librettists]]
[[Category:Danish people of German descent]]
[[Category:Rectors of the University of Copenhagen]]
[[Category:Danish male dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:19th-century Danish poets]]
[[Category:19th-century Danish male writers]]
[[Category:Coppet group]]
[[Category:Grand Crosses of the Order of the Dannebrog]]
[[Category:18th-century Danish male writers]]