Even hammer

Even Hammer (born July 1, 1732 in Nes (now Ringsaker ), † February 22, 1800 in Molde ) was a Norwegian civil servant and economic author.

His parents were the pastor Ole Hannibalsen Hammer († 1744) and his wife Ellen Evensdotter Meldal († 1766). He remained unmarried.

Hammer was a student at the Cathedral School in Christiania and in 1752 came to the University of Copenhagen. There he achieved his master's degree in 1758 and was then a teacher at his old school from 1756 to 1768. He then went on an educational trip that took him to the universities of Oxford , Cambridge , Leiden , Paris and Göttingen .

He was thus a modern educated man who, under the pseudonym Philonorvagus, brought the economic ideas of the Physiocracy to Norway in 1771 in order to promote the economy and intellectual life in Norway. The font was borne by enthusiastic patriotism and was intended to show the benefits of the physiocratic approaches for Norway-Denmark. In it he also expressed the view that Norway had been sucked out by Denmark. The text thus became one of the sources from which the growing Norwegian national consciousness nourished. He was appointed secretary to the “Norske Chamber” newly established by the Struensee government. After Ove Høegh-Guldberg took over power , this authority was dissolved. In 1773 he became a bailiff in the office of Romsdal, Nordmør og Søndmør and lived in Molde, where he stayed until his death. His time as bailiff coincided with the penetration of the Enlightenment into the Danish-Norwegian empire. Hammer wanted to make administration more professional and economic thinking more scientific. Practical work should also be valued more highly and the people viewed as fellow citizens. He was mainly concerned with the practical implementation of his ideas. There is little written work from him. But his patriotism and the physiocratic ideas that he had put down in his publication determined his conduct of office. This can be seen in the fact that his official correspondence has tripled compared to his predecessors.

He took many initiatives to bring order to society. He bought the Årønes gård estate and turned it into a model estate and achieved that the processing ban on round fish, which offered protection against competition for fish processing in Bergen and Trondheim, was lifted. "Romsdals Practiske Landhuusholdningsselskab" (Romsdals Practical Society of Small Farmers) from 1776, which existed until 1883, goes back to his initiative. He also actively campaigned for the improvement of health care and developed a concrete plan for this in 1777, which, among other things, provided for training for midwives. In the 1790s, a midwifery ordinance came into being.

Hammer was already praised by the press during his tenure, received the honorary title of Justice Council in 1777 and that of Budget Council in 1781. He was a member of " Det Kongelige Norske Videnskabers Selskab " and "Det Nordiske Selskab" in London.

Works

• Philonorvagi velmeente Tanker til Veltenkende Medborgere . Copenhagen 1771
• Vinskibeligheds high Fornødenhed and ærefulde Løn . Copenhagen 1776

Remarks

1. ↑ Moldefolk ( Memento of the original from April 26, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. with transcription of the will in which the court is bequeathed to its servant.  
2. ↑ It is the oldest order of midwives in Norway. The medical officer had to carry out the training. The first trained midwife was Marte Larsdotter Heissa (1753-1817). Source: Distriktsjordmødrer på Sunnmøre

literature

• Arne Apelseth: Article “Even Hammer” in: Norsk biografisk leksikon , accessed on March 28, 2010.