Ditlev Gothard Monrad

Ditlev Gothard Monrad

Monrad in his later years

Ditlev Gothard Monrad (born November 24, 1811 in Copenhagen , † March 28, 1887 in Nykøbing , Falster ) was a Danish politician and bishop. He is considered to be the father of the Danish Basic Law of 1849 .

Monrad was considered politically extraordinarily talented and capable. He was one of the leaders of the National Liberal and other forces in Denmark, with the March Revolution the absolutism ended and the " March Ministry " the era of constitutional monarchy rang. This Danish constitutional state exists continuously until today.

During the German-Danish War in 1864 , Monrad was Danish Prime Minister . After the severe defeat, for which he was partly responsible, he emigrated to New Zealand as a broken man, where he wanted to start a new life as a simple farmer and find new strength. He soon returned to Denmark and again worked in politics and as a bishop.

Family and education

DG Monrad, as he is commonly known, was the son of the Norwegian civil servant Otto Sommer Monrad and Charlotte Frederikke, nee Riis. After the Peace of Kiel in 1814, his father kept his country of birth and went to Trondheim . The family moved in the following year and discovered that he was mentally ill. After he tried to kill his wife, she separated from him and moved to Schleswig-Holstein, where she died in 1828. The young DG Monrad saw her only once again in 1825. His father died in 1862 "in deep melancholy". He grew up with his maternal aunt, whose husband was a merchant in Præstø . There he spent six unhappy years. In 1840 he married Emilie Nathalia Lütthans, and three and a half years after her death on February 16, 1875, he married Emma Tutein, the daughter of the politician Peter Adolph Tutein .

There was no higher education available to him in Præstø and normally he would have become a businessman. But the local pastor N. Søtoft recognized his extraordinary talent and collected several hundred Rigsbankdaler for his education. He attended the Latin school in Vordingborg , where he graduated from high school in 1830 with special distinction. He received such awards in all subsequent degrees of his academic career. In Copenhagen he was part of a group of students of the same age who were all to play a more or less important role in public life in Denmark. He was considered to be extremely eloquent and knew his Goethe or Shakespeare like no other . In 1836 he made his theological exam (Cand.theol.) At the University of Copenhagen .

But instead of embarking on the usual career as a pastor, he first studied oriental languages , and in 1838 he completed his master's degree. In September of the same year he traveled to Paris on a scholarship, where he studied Semitic languages with Bournouf, Quatremére and Reynaud, which quickly became aware of the rarely gifted student.

But even the intensive preoccupation with science could not calm his unrest. In addition, he fell in love with Emilie Nathalie Lüthans. Monrad is said to have always been very receptive to women, which may be due to the fact that he never had a real family life as a child. When he finished his preliminary studies in Paris in 1839, he first moved to Denmark before continuing his travel plan to Egypt .

The politician

Political finale

So it so happened that he was in Copenhagen when Frederik VI. died on December 3, 1839. By chance he came across a student meeting that Orla Lehmann had called for the same evening. But Lehmann's proposal for a petition to the new king met with such skepticism that it would never have come about had it not been for DG Monrad, who with his eloquence could change the mind of the assembly.

This was to be the decisive turning point in his life. From now on he was part of political life and only there his versatile abilities could develop fully and his restless mind find the peace that the scientific or spiritual environment could not offer him.

Journalistic apprenticeship

Monrad quickly stood in the front row of the Liberals. A few weeks after Lehmann's student assembly , he began to publish the Flyvende politiske Breve ("Flying Political Letters"). Even the first number caused a tremendous sensation, as he characterized the "principle of the Danish monarchy" as "dependence on the Eastern powers, tendency towards internal fragmentation and enormous weakness in financial terms" with unusual frankness. In the next issue, he mentioned a constitution as the only way out of this misery. On this occasion, he expressed his basic belief that "national and provincial differences fade when the sun of freedom shines". He was quickly indicted and sentenced on September 5 to a fine and one year of censorship .

However, on April 1, he had taken on a post as political editor of the national liberal newspaper Fædrelandet ("the fatherland"). His first article appeared under the heading "Kongen vil ikke handle med Stænderne, saa maa Stænderne handle med Kongen" (the king does not want to trade with the estates, so the estates must deal with the king) and prompted numerous petitions to the estates for one Constitution. But the government responded by banning officials from signing such petitions. This paralyzed the constitutional movement, since the bourgeoisie could not advance this matter without the civil service.

Under these circumstances, Monrad used his time for other things than newspaper articles. After his marriage on May 1, 1840, he became a farm owner in Copenhagen. As such, he was elected on March 17, 1841 in the Copenhagen Citizens' Representation ( Københavns Borgerrepræsentation ). On July 1, 1841, he resigned from the Fædrelandet editorial team. But he resumed his earlier journalistic work to an even greater and more significant extent: in his political letters and later in the Dansk Folkeblad ("Danish People's Gazette"), whose editing he took over in May 1843 after a six-month trip abroad.

The three and a half years at the Folkeblad were his political apprenticeship years, and the competence of the later members of the constituent assembly is attributed to a good part of his basic journalistic work.

During those years his standing among the Liberals grew tremendously, and the government felt that he had become a force to be reckoned with in the future.

After he had applied unsuccessfully for the post of director of the Copenhagen school system (on whose board he sat), he accepted the position of pastor in Vester Ulslev on Lolland in 1846 . Nevertheless, he continued to follow political events. And many people turned their hopes on him. In December 1846 he was elected to the assembly of estates.

1848

A turning point in Danish history was in 1848. Christian VIII died on January 20th, and the National Liberals stormed the new King Frederik VII with the proposal of a new - Eider-Danish - constitution. But the government had other plans and on January 28th issued the Forfatningsrescript ("Constitutional Decree "), in which 52 representatives from across the empire were called to consider how the transition to a free constitution should take place. These men were to be elected partly from the midst of the assembly of estates, partly from the king, the universities, the clergy and the knighthood, in such a way that the duchies ( Schleswig , Holstein and Lauenburg ) had the same number of seats as the actual kingdom of Denmark, although the Danish-speaking population formed the majority in the entire state. Therefore it could appear as if the government wanted to give preference to the German-minded Schleswig-Holsteiners with the Forfatningsrescript . The Danish National Liberals opposed it, while the duchies accepted the proposal on February 17th.

Monrad was strictly against the dualistic view behind the Forfatningsrescript , but nevertheless hoped for favorable results from the direct negotiations between the representatives of the two nationalities and therefore recommended choosing "experienced men". He himself was elected to the Roskilde Estates . The March Revolution in Europe, Germany, Schleswig-Holstein and finally Denmark prevented the further execution of the Forfatningsrescripts . When the news of the outbreak of the uprising in Schleswig-Holstein reached Copenhagen on March 20th, Monrad hurried to the capital, where he attended the 2nd casino meeting ( det store Casinomøde 20th marts ) on the same day , which was convened by Orla Lehmann . Monrad's moderate attitude and recognized efficiency meant that Carl Emil Bardenfleth (1807–1857), one of the national liberal leaders, only turned to him when it came to forming the new “ March Ministry ” (March 22nd). Although Monrad would have preferred to become head of department (a kind of state secretary), he gave in to the insistence of AW Moltke and Barenfleth and became Denmark's first minister of culture. As such he was responsible for the Danish education system and the Danish national church .

Constitutional Father

Monrad was commissioned to work out the draft of the Basic Law of June 1849 , taking the Belgian constitution as a model. In doing so, he created an important national symbol, whose entry into force on June 5, 1849 has been a national holiday since then.

If Monrad had gone alone, the Danish constitution would have been more democratic than the compromise that was ultimately accepted. But Monrad could no longer defend his draft before the constituent assembly of the Reich ( Den grundlovgivende Rigsforsamling ) because he resigned from the March Ministry on November 15, 1848 because of the question of the division of Schleswig. Nor was Monrad re-elected to the Imperial Assembly that dealt with his draft. The seats of the members of the Imperial Assembly appointed by the King, which subsequently became vacant, were filled by the “ November Ministry ” with other of his colleagues, and in a free election he would probably have suffered a defeat. DG Monrad and the Minister of War, Anton Frederik Tscherning , had become rather unpopular because they were held responsible for not implementing the ideas that were made in the March days in military and diplomatic terms.

However, no one could prevent him from defending his work with a pen. He did so in a series of articles in his old newspaper Fædrelandet . In particular, the dispute in the Reich Assembly revolved around the right to vote . Before negotiations began, the setback after the February 1848 Revolution was so severe in Europe, and also in Denmark, that powerful opposition arose to universal suffrage . This happened not least from the liberal side. Monrad opposed this opposition and did so until 1878 in his “Politiske Breve”.

Folketing MP

On February 13, 1849 Monrad was appointed Bishop of Lolland - Falster . From the people he was not received with favor, but it should not be long until making his personality reasserted, and in 1850 he was for the constituency of Maribo in the Folketing elected. He represented this constituency with a brief interruption from 1853 to 1865 when he resigned from his seat. His superior efficiency and exceptional parliamentary skills meant that he was soon recognized as the most important MP in the Folketing.

He was known as a staunch democrat, but he also believed “that government needed authority and that there was discipline among the people. His democratic feelings did not let him forget to show consideration for what has been handed down and for his well-founded rights. ”Monrad did not belong to any party. For the Højre he was always the “revolutionary March Minister”, the national liberals , to whom he could most likely be attributed, could not forgive him that he stood up more for the state than the Eider Danes and that universal suffrage was ultimately his work. He wanted to “definitely be in an alliance with the farmer friends , but not be taken over by them”, and over time his relationship with them became very tense. Nor did he have a party of his own, which he neither wanted nor could found. The saying comes from him:

"Et Parti vil, at the boss shall be gjøre, hvad det vil, and det gjør ikke, hvad han vil"

"A party wants the boss to do what it wants and it doesn't do what he wants."

- Ditlev Gothard Monrad

Nor was he thought of as someone who could hold a party together. Monrad was seen as edgy and uncomfortable, and he often switched sides in the Folketing. Sometimes he attacked both sides, but mostly the Venstre . His biting irony created various personal enemies for him, and even with his friends he is said to have been cool and reserved. Nonetheless, he was highly respected, and even his adversaries always praised his ingenuity and efficiency with full appreciation. But he was feared rather than loved. Hence, he never actually became the regular leader of the folketing. Only in critical periods did people gather behind him as a natural authority.

This happened in the stormy period of 1852–54. On January 28, 1852, Christian Albrecht Bluhme gave up the eider-Danish policy with the Januarkundgørelsen ("January Announcement ") and the state as a whole was raised as a program. In principle, Monrad was of the same opinion, even if he didn't like the details. But he wanted everything to be done legally with the consent of the two Reichstag chambers. So Monrad stood behind Bluhme's government and supported his Succession Law in particular.

That changed with the government of Ørsted . The Reichstag did not have the competence to comment on the new constitutions of Schleswig and Holstein, which, through the right to vote, secured a majority in the estates for forces oriented towards Germany. But when Ørsted presented a completely revised Basic Law and refused to make the Reichstag known in advance with the entire state constitution, and also contrary to Bluhme's promises, suddenly there was the opinion that the "reservation" in the Basic Law gave the king the power to make both constitutional changes and to impose a general state constitution, Monrad gathered resistance.

At Monrad's request, the majority of the two Reichstag chambers passed a sharp address of suspicion to the king to refrain from such a breach of the constitution. But this time the government was able to hold out and took the opportunity on April 26th to dismiss Monrad as a civil servant together with Carl Christian Hall and Carl Georg Andræ . On July 26, 1854, the entire state constitution was finally imposed. However, a 50-member Reichsrat should be elected by the Landsting and Folketing, the king and the estates of the duchies of Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg, but the power of this Reichsrat should be very limited. The Basic Law of 1849 remained in force for the special affairs of the Kingdom of Denmark.

When the Reichstag met in October, Monrad's reaction was unusually violent. He demanded a lawsuit at the Reichsgerichtshof and a refusal of the tax approval to the king. Hall reacted more moderately and only proposed an address which, without affecting the question of the legitimacy of the imposed July regulation, should make suggestions as to how the overall state constitution could be developed in a constitutional and representative direction. Monrad's overreaction is seen as the reason that he was not considered as a candidate minister when the new government was formed on December 12, 1854 under Peter Georg Bang .

Government member again

But they did not want to do without DG Monrad entirely, and so on April 1, 1855 (officially not until December 1) he became the chief director of elementary and civic schools ( Almue- og Borgerskolevæsenet ) and head of the 3rd department of the Ministry of Education Items that were set up especially for him. As high school director in the Ministry of Education, he was responsible for various reforms. So he wrote the draft for the School Act of March 18, 1856, and then worked intensively on its implementation. In 1857 he reformed teacher training, further training courses were created, and finally in 1859 he introduced the training of women teachers. There is hardly a single person to whom the Danish school system owes so much in the 19th century.

Later, under Carl Christian Hall's new government (May 13, 1857), Hall also took over the Ministry of Culture and, from July 10, 1858, also the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Because that was too much for him, Monrad was appointed minister of culture to the Hall I cabinet on May 6, 1859 . In fact, however, he had been the director of the ministry since August 31, 1858.

Monrad's joy about it lasted only a short time, however, as the government had to abdicate on December 2, 1859. At court it was hoped that Monrad would form a new government, but he gave up and preferred to travel to Paris. When he was released, however, he promised the king that he would come back as soon as he was needed.

This happened when Prime Minister Carl Edvard Rotwitt died on February 8, 1860. On February 24th a new government was formed under Hall . Monrad was again Minister of Culture, and he also took over the interior department . In the year and a half that he combined these two offices, he again demonstrated his ability and hard work. 1860–61 he created the law for the betterment of tenant farmers, which pacified the peasant movement. Other of Monrad's laws included the municipal tax legislation of Copenhagen, stamps, inheritance tax, commercial weights, the railway system, church and pastoral affairs, etc. In this parliamentary session he is said to have appeared no less than 766 times at the lectern. Reichstag sessions often lasted until 1:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m., but he was always present - always alert and quick-witted. Maybe this was the happiest time of his life. His reform work was recognized with admiration by all parties and sides. At the end of the session there was a closing party in his honor, attended by 100 members of the Reichstag. Jens Andersen Hansen gave the keynote address.

The disappointment was all the greater when Hall decided in the summer of 1861 to fill the Ministry of the Interior with Orla Lehmann . So on September 15, 1861, Monrad had to give it up and confine himself to the Ministry of Culture, which did little to improve his relationship with Prime Minister Hall. Not only were the two of them too different in character, but also in political views they were divided:

• Hall saw that the contradictions between Danes and German-minded Schleswig-Holsteiners were so strong that they could not be united under a common constitution. He therefore had no objection if the ties between the Duchy of Holstein and the rest of the monarchy gradually loosened under pressure from the German Confederation and the other powers.
• Monrad was an Eider-Dane in 1848 (Denmark including Schleswig), as no other solution seemed possible at that time. But when the situation changed, he returned to the concept of the state as a whole (Denmark including Schleswig plus Holstein). He said that one should try with all one's might to find a comparison with the German opposition, since that was the only way to end the interference of the German Confederation. And that should be done as soon as possible, as the next crisis could come at the most inopportune time for Denmark. In the Reichsrat, he therefore worked to ensure that people should get into conversation with the Germans. In the Council of Ministers he campaigned for a constitutional change in the same direction. It was not until the Holstein Assembly of Estates of 1861 that he was convinced of the impossibility of an overall state constitution at that time. Nevertheless, he approved the entire state constitution of November 18, 1863 , because he thought it could prevent Holstein from possibly resuming its own constitution, and because the comparatively more democratic right to vote was more favorable for the Danes in Schleswig.

Prime Minister in the German-Danish War

Monrad's tenure as Danish head of government fell into one of the most dramatic chapters in Denmark's history : the outbreak of the German-Danish War became increasingly likely after the November constitution was signed . The Germans in Schleswig-Holstein and in the German Confederation protested against the entire Danish state constitution. By Christmas 1863 it became clear that Denmark could not expect any military aid from Sweden-Norway and that the great powers Great Britain , Russia and France advised that the November constitution be withdrawn.

The government refused to do this. The Reichsrat was not informed of the lack of help and was sent home. On December 23, the new King Christian IX. to convene the Reichsrat again to withdraw the November constitution. Prime Minister Carl Christian Hall refused to do so, particularly under pressure from Orla Lehmann . Instead, Hall submitted the resignation of the government on December 24, 1863. The king granted the request on December 28th and instructed Monrad on the same evening to form a new government. Monrad wanted to keep Hall in the new cabinet, at least as minister of culture, but this refused. The new government was constituted on December 31, 1863 with Monrad as Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Minister for Holstein and Lauenburg. Until January 8, 1864 and again from April 3 to July 6, 1864 he was also Foreign Minister.

On January 16, 1864, Prussia and Austria presented the Danes with an ultimatum: They threatened to occupy Schleswig as a pledge if the November constitution was not withdrawn within 48 hours. Since this was supposedly not possible at such short notice, Monrad initially offered to call for new elections to the Reichstag with the prospect of proposing the repeal of the November constitution. But in view of the popular mood, Monrad withdrew this proposal after a few days. On January 31, Prussia and Austria announced the invasion of Schleswig, which began the following day.

The Danish army, with its 40,000 men, was only able to hold out for four days at the Danewerk and withdrew to the Düppeler Schanzen near Sønderborg unnoticed by the enemy . This withdrawal was seen as a shame and led to an uproar in Copenhagen, which Monrad was able to calm down. In Düppel the Danes waged a month-long positional war against the numerically and technically superior enemy. Mistakes made at that time are also at the expense of disputes between the Danish government and the military high command; Danish Minister of War was Carl Lundbye (* 1812; † 1873). The High Command asked the government for an option to withdraw on April 14, but Monrad refused. He ordered chaff to be held at all costs, as it was an important bargaining chip for the Danish government. The Prussians and Austrians were also aware of this when they stormed the Düppeler Schanzen on April 18th. An invasion of the Danish heartland now threatened. This severe defeat represented a long-lasting national trauma for Denmark.

Initially, an armistice was concluded and from the end of April the war opponents negotiated at the London conference. This lasted two months and brought Denmark another, this time diplomatic, defeat. Monrad's ideas about a Danish state as a whole were unrealistic. He wanted to go back to the London Protocol of 1852, which Denmark had violated with the new constitution. Bismarck indicated that he would accept a partition of Schleswig if the rest fell to Prussia. England proposed a boundary being drawn by international arbitration. Monrad doubted whether he would Christian IX. convince them to go along with it, or whether it would be better to fight to the bitter end. So he left the decision to the king, who refused to draw a border by arbitration and instead demanded the Schlei as the southern border of Denmark. Since the German powers had previously agreed to an international arbitration award, Denmark lost the last of the great powers' support. The London conference failed.

Even if the war seemed inevitable, Monrad was responsible for the consequences through his gamble of leaving the decision on the English proposal to the king alone. After the end of the armistice, the war resumed. Monrad preferred to accept this than to expose himself to the wrath of the people in the event that the then mostly Danish city of Flensburg should be lost. When the Austro-Prussian troops conquered the island of Alsen on June 28 and 29, Monrad turned to the French Emperor Napoleon III for mediation . This advocated the peoples' right to self-determination and the solution of national conflicts through referendums. However, Monrad's advance came too late.

On July 8, 1864, at the request of the king, he submitted his resignation. After helping to form a new government, he took his place on the Imperial Council. There he gave a speech that is said to have been so magnificent and moving that “no one in the assembly heard it without the greatest emotion.” With all the strength he could put in his speech, he insisted that Denmark still was not be forced to make peace at any cost:

“Only when the capital has been conquered, when the whole country has been taken, would we have to look to make peace at any price […] If I had the choice between the existence of the Danish people or our political freedom, I would not have to think to choose the former. And if the Danish Schleswig is to be lost for us and into the German Empire, and the choice was based on me as to what to do, then I say that I would follow Schleswig with the kingdom, I would not let go, don't leave it. The integrity of the people is the first and most important thing to me; everything else, whether it's called freedom or whatever, is of secondary importance to me "

- Ditlev Gothard Monrad : Speech to the Reichsrat 1864

After the armistice of July 20, Denmark had to submit to unexpectedly harsh peace conditions: It had to renounce all of Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg, which were initially to be administered jointly by Austria and Prussia. Even in this situation, Monrad still called for resistance, while the king spoke of abdication. Ultimately, however, it was Monrad who left the “rotten” Danish people the following year and emigrated.

emigration

When the Danish Schleswig was lost to Prussia, Monrad was broken physically and mentally. He decided to move far away from the world and politics for the time being, and his choice fell on New Zealand . He sold his holiday home Hummeltofte near Frederiksdal. On November 29, 1865, 70 politicians came to a farewell ceremony. Jens Andersen Hansen again gave the keynote address in which he thanked Monrad for his commitment to freedom and expressed his conviction that "in all his actions he was guided only by the well-being of the fatherland."

The following day, Monrad left with his family and arrived in New Zealand four months later. There he bought 482 acres of land in Karere Block near what would later become Palmerston North . The Monrads were the first to settle in this area. At first he lived in a small mud house, then built himself a wooden house. He raised cows and sheep and planted tobacco. He worked from morning to evening himself, went fishing, cleared the jungle, read with his children and learned the Maori language . In this way he found his full health again, but at the same time awakened a new urge for spiritual activity.

The work was interrupted anyway by the Maoria uprising under Chief Riwha Titokowaru , and Monrad buried his belongings and moved with the family to Wellington in December 1868 to return to Denmark, where he arrived in April 1869. However, his sons Viggo and Johannes returned to Karere and became farmers there.

On his departure, Monrad left behind a valuable collection of old master prints and graphics, including by Rembrandt van Rijn , Rubens , Dürer and van Dyck , which are now part of the New Zealand National Art Gallery .

Return and the last few years

After his return from New Zealand in 1869, Monrad quickly resumed his ministry. In July he became pastor in Brøndby , and from February 1871 bishop in his old Lolland-Falster monastery.

He also resumed his journalistic and political activity. In December 1869 he gave two lectures he called "political reveries". There he developed the alternative: Either defense for life and death, or disarming and transforming Denmark into a "monarchical Hamburg"

From time to time he issued his "Political Letters," many of which were reminiscent of his best earlier days. For a long time he tried in vain to get back into the Reichstag, and only in 1881 did he succeed in being elected in Middelfart . But the Folketing wasn't what he knew 16 years ago. There was a new generation with different basic views and points of view, and the years had not gone by without leaving a trace on Monrad himself.

Monrad did not succeed in mediating between the hardened ideological fronts in the Danish constitutional struggle of that time with its notorious “makeshift arrangements”. Politically, he moved from Højre to Venstre . In 1886 he withdrew completely from politics. He spent his twilight years in Nykøbing , where he devoted himself to his studies. There he led a happy family life with his second wife, Emmy.

On March 28, 1887 , Ditlev Gothard Monrad was found peacefully asleep in his work chair. His widow died in 1894.

In 1859 he received the Commander's Cross of the Order of Danebro , and in 1864 the Grand Cross.

The clergyman

Bishop Monrad.

1846–71 DG Monrad was parish priest several times. 1849–54 and 1871–87 he was Bishop of Lolland and Falster .

As a theologian, his liberalism in terms of church politics differed as much from Grundtvig's ideals of freedom as from the conservatism of Mynster and Martensen . Monrad was characterized by a tolerant understanding of the various church directions.

One of Monrad's first ecclesiastical publications was a poetic "Greeting to Schleiermacher " ( Hilsen til Schleiermacher ), which appeared on the same occasion as Martensen's German poem.

After his theological exam in 1836, he devoted himself first to Semitic studies and then to politics. After his departure as minister, he became Bishop of Lolland-Falster at a relatively young age in 1849. In a review for the songbook of the convent of Roskilde in 1852, he expressed his wish that more older hymns should be recorded there. To show how he meant it, in 1854 he published a proposal for the “Evangelical-Christian songbook” ( Evangelisk-kristelig Salmebog ), in whose foreword he described it as a shame for the church that it did not understand the divine better To use gifts found in the hymns of Kingo , Brorson and Grundtvig.

Before this proposal came out, it was removed from his bishopric and he turned back to politics. After his resignation as Prime Minister in 1864, he turned back to his Semitic language studies. He began a translation of the Old Testament book of Psalms earlier . Now he first published “ Prophets Esaias ” (1865, about the prophet Isaiah ) and shortly afterwards “ Job og Salmerne ” ( Job and the Psalms). But with his emigration to New Zealand, Monrad's Old Testament studies and theological production were interrupted. Although he did not come to New Zealand as a clergyman, he is also known there as Bishop Monrad .

After his return he was first parish priest in Brøndby and in 1871 again Bishop of Lolland-Falster. In the same year he surprised everyone with his sermon book “ Prædikener paa alle Søn- og Helligdagene i Aaret including i Fasten ”, which he dedicated in gratitude to his previous congregation in Brøndby.

In the contemporary Dansk Biografisk Leksikon his biography Frederik Nielsen writes: “A more important collection of sermons has hardly ever emerged from any Danish community. Anyone who is familiar with the art rules of homiletics will perhaps often be tempted to call these sermons informal, but no one will be able to deny that new and uplifting thoughts have been beautifully expressed here, and that beauty has entered the service of truth is. There is life and flight of thoughts in these sermons, but at the same time they are shaped by their own dignity that never seems artificial. The preacher comes, as he says about the church year itself, `` in a cautious way '', and he does not demand attention with rumbling idioms or poetic expressions, but with a clear and convincing speech that reveals a deep knowledge of human nature and great life experience. When these sermons are delivered, the words take on their own weight with the furrowed forehead and deep, penetrating eyes, which quickly made the audience forget the somewhat lisping voice. "

After his death in 1887, the collection of sermons was supplemented with the small additional volume " Ordinationstaler og Prædikener " and was one of the most widely read devotional books in Denmark at the time. Another important work was “ Fra Bønnens Verden ” (From the World of Prayer ) 1876, which his biographer said was on the way to becoming one of the most valuable international and interdenominational edification books. Monrad himself was considered to be someone who put a lot of emphasis on prayer in good times and bad. It is said to have been the inner nerve of his religiosity, and he was convinced that his experience of the power and blessings of prayer could become universal. For him, the principle of forgiveness, as it appears in the Our Father , was in the foreground. Monrad himself experienced what hate can do from other people and how difficult it can be for a fragile person to forgive.

Monrad also had ample opportunity to develop his main religious ideas in the polemic against other points of view. When Georg Brandes started debating religious and moral problems, Monrad responded in the newspaper Fædrelandet with a few articles on “Free Thought and Dr. Brandes' lectures ”. He described his attitude to Grundtvig's direction in the two smaller treatises " Nogle Bemærkninger vedrørende Trosbekjendelsen " (1873: "Some Notes on the Creed") and " Om Slaget ved Catekisms " (1874: "On the Battle with the Catechism") and the introduction on the collection of materials “ Et Bidrag til den apostolske Trosbekjendelses Historie ” (1885–86: “A contribution to the history of the apostolic creed”), which shows how extensive his studies in the field of symbol research must have been.

Grundtvig also prompted him to write the book about Lorenzo Valla and the Council of Basel / Ferrara / Florence " Den første Kamp om den apostolske Trosbekjendelses Oprindelse " (1874: "The first battle for the origin of the apostolic creed"). One of his highlights as a church polemicist was his “ Liberalismens Gjenmæle til Biskop Martensens sociale Ethik ” (1878: “Counter-speech of liberalism to Bishop Martensens social ethics”). In this apologetics of his own ethical and political beliefs, he made an open and sure attack on the weak points in Martensen's conservatism and Christian socialism. This writing is a testimony to how political and religious threads intertwine in Monrad.

On the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the University of Copenhagen in 1879, DG Monrad was awarded an honorary theological doctorate .

Works

• DG Monrads Deltagelse i Begivenhederne 1864: en efterladt Redegørelse ; Edited by Åge Friis. Copenhagen: Gyldendal , 1914. (XXXII, 318 pp.) - ("DG Monrad's participation in the events of 1864 - an accountability report left behind")
• Om politiske Drømmerier: to Forelæsninger; Political Breve no. 1-19 . Copenhagen: CA Reitzel, 1870–1882. - (6 books in one volume) - ("On political reveries - two lectures; Political Letters No. 1–19")
• Om politiske Drømmerier: to Forelæsninger; Old Ny-Zeeland . Copenhagen: CA Reitzel, 1870. (2 books in one volume) - ("On political daydreams - two lectures; Old New Zealand")
• Breve . Edited by Svend Hauge. Det danske Sprog- og Litteraturselskab. Copenhagen: Gad, 1969 (462 pages) - (letters)

literature

Overviews
Both listed titles form the basis of this article and are in Danish:

• Benito Scocozza and Grethe Jensen: Politics Etbinds Danmarkshistorie . 3rd edition, Politikens Forlag 2005 ISBN 87-567-7064-2 (the index of this one-volume standard work on the complete history of Denmark refers to pp. 232 f., 237 f., 245, 247 ff., 458 f. (List of Governments ), 501 (short biography))
• P. Vedel, Ms. Nielsen, Joakim Larsen: Monrad, Ditlev Gothard - DG Monrad . In: Carl Frederik Bricka (Ed.): Dansk biografisk Lexikon. Tillige omfattende Norge for Tidsrummet 1537-1814. 1st edition. tape 11 : Maar – Müllner . Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag, Copenhagen 1897, p. 446–461 (Danish, runeberg.org - three entries by different authors).

Biographies
The following titles have been compiled from the catalog of the Danish Central Library for South Schleswig . All titles are in Danish and sorted chronologically in ascending order according to the year of publication.

• P. Lauritsen: DG Monrad . No. 9 in the Danske Mænd series . Skrifter for Undaunted . Copenhagen: Kirkelig Forening for den Indre Mission i Danmark, 1913. (52 pages)
• Frederik Nørgaard: DG Monrad: et Levnedsløb . Copenhagen: Gad, 1918. (286 pages) ("DG Monrad - A curriculum vitae")
• P. Stavnstrup: DG Monrad: Politiker og Gejstlig . Copenhagen: Berlingske Forlag, 1948. (402 pages) ("DG Monrad - politician and clergyman")
• P. Lauritsen: DG Monrad: Grundlovens Skaber og Folkefrihedens Bannerfører . Copenhagen: Gad, 1950. (2 volumes: 709 pages, 20 plates) ("DG Monrad - Creator of the Basic Law and standard bearer of the freedom of the people")
• Johan Schioldann-Nielsen: DG Monrad - en patografi (with an English summary). Odense: Odense Universitetsforlag, 1983. (585 pp.) Doctoral thesis at Odense Universitet. ISBN 87-7492-453-2 ("DG Monrad - Eine Pathografie ")
• Lars Friis Olsen: Men da tyskerne kom: en folkebog . Copenhagen: Vindrose, 1988. (173 pp.) (About the two Danish politicians DG Monrad (1811–1887) and Th. Stauning (1873–1942), the personal and political similarities between them, and why both failed when the Germans Denmark attacked in 1864 and 1940) ISBN 87-7456-339-4 ("But when the Germans came - A people's book")

Web links

Commons : Ditlev Gothard Monrad  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Kaingahou.co.nz - History ( Memento from October 14, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (today's property that DG Monrad's grandson of the same name built in New Zealand, where the grandfather was once a settler)

swell

1. ^ P. Vedel: Monrad, Ditlev Gothard . In: Carl Frederik Bricka (Ed.): Dansk biografisk Lexikon. Tillige omfattende Norge for Tidsrummet 1537-1814. 1st edition. tape 11 : Maar – Müllner . Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag, Copenhagen 1897, p. 446 (Danish, runeberg.org ).
2. ^ P. Vedel: Monrad, Ditlev Gothard . In: Carl Frederik Bricka (Ed.): Dansk biografisk Lexikon. Tillige omfattende Norge for Tidsrummet 1537-1814. 1st edition. tape 11 : Maar – Müllner . Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag, Copenhagen 1897, p. 448 (Danish, runeberg.org ).
3. ↑ Politics Etbinds Danmarkshistory. 2005, p. 232.
4. ↑ M. Rosenørn cited in Dansk Biografisk Leksikon (1887–1905), XI pp. 450–451.
5. ↑ Politics Etbinds Danmarkshistory. 2005, p. 240 f.
6. ^ Joakim Larsen: DG Monrad . In: Carl Frederik Bricka (Ed.): Dansk biografisk Lexikon. Tillige omfattende Norge for Tidsrummet 1537-1814. 1st edition. tape 11 : Maar – Müllner . Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag, Copenhagen 1897, p. 461 (Danish, runeberg.org ).
7. ↑ ^{a b} Politics Etbinds Danmarkshistorie. 2005, p. 249.
8. ↑ ^{a b c} P. Vedel: Monrad, Ditlev Gothard . In: Carl Frederik Bricka (Ed.): Dansk biografisk Lexikon. Tillige omfattende Norge for Tidsrummet 1537-1814. 1st edition. tape 11 : Maar – Müllner . Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag, Copenhagen 1897, p. 455 (Danish, runeberg.org ).
9. ↑ Politics Etbinds Danmarkshistory. 2005, p. 256.
10. ↑ Martensen's poem was published in: From Schleiermacher's Life. In letters. II, Berlin 1858, p. 475.
11. ↑ ^{a b} Fr. Nielsen: DG Monrad . In: Carl Frederik Bricka (Ed.): Dansk biografisk Lexikon. Tillige omfattende Norge for Tidsrummet 1537-1814. 1st edition. tape 11 : Maar – Müllner . Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag, Copenhagen 1897, p. 459 (Danish, runeberg.org ).

predecessor	Office	successor
Office newly created	Danish Minister of Education March 22, 1848 - November 15, 1848	Johan Nicolai Madvig
Carl Christian Hall	Danish Minister of Education May 6, 1859 - December 2, 1859	Vilhelm August Borgen
Vilhelm August Borgen	Danish Minister of Education February 24, 1860 - December 31, 1863	Christian Thorning Engelstoft