Yours, Frederikke Reventlow

”I seek you once again in the green temple, to converse an hour’s time with you, or stroll with you in your thicket, between flowering jasmines and rose bushes; there we could perhaps also talk about the major events of our time, which will cast blessings or misfortune on our descendents to come. I hope for the first …” On the intimacy Frederikke and Louise shared, 1791

From her marriage to Christian Ditlev Frederik Reventlow in 1774, until her death in 1822, Frederikke Reventlow exchanged weekly letters with her sister-in-law Louise Stolberg. Despite the fact that they rarely saw one another, the two friends had a confidential and close relationship that lasted over six decades and was expressed in the letters they wrote to each other. Museum Lolland-Falster’s annual exhibition this year is based on a selection of the letters Frederikke wrote to Louise. It is in these letters that she puts the life she lived and the thoughts she had about existence and the major events of one of Denmark’s most turbulent periods of history into words.

Frederikke’s letters are a key to understanding the developments society and family life underwent at the end of the 1700s. Whilst war and economic depression rolled over Denmark’s borders, and the winds of political change blew in France, new values based on close family ties and a happy marriage gained ground. Values that Frederikke, in the many letters and papers she left to posterity, was an early spokeswoman for. In Frederikke’s own words, the exhibition invites us into a world of happy family times, the glamour and festivity of royal balls, and the joys and sorrows of raising children. Her letters also chart the political and literary debates of the time, all of which contributed to the values of society today.

With this year’s exhibition, Museum Lolland-Falster wants not only to unveil new aspects of Reventlow family history, but also to show how the family and other values we have today emerged during the period Frederikke describes in her letters. Taking Frederikke Reventlow by the hand, visitors are invited to experience how life unfolded for the Reventlow family at a time when the world was in flames and democracy was on the doorstep.

Museum Lolland-Falster would like to thank the descendents of Frederikke Reventlow, The State Archives and Knuthenborg for their generous loan of exhibits. The exhibition is curated by Mia Ramsing Jensen (MA) and museum curator Jesper Munk Andersen. BACKGROUND AND CHILDHOOD

On June 1st, 1747 Frederikke Reventlow was born at Oldenborg Castle southwest of Hamburg, where her father, Christoph Ernst von Beulwitz, was governor of the royal Danish counties of Oldenborg and Delmenhorst. A few days later she was christened Sophie Frederikke Louise Charlotte von Beulwitz, and according to her letters and records was known as Frederikke.

Frederikke’s father was close to the Danish royal family, and especially to the pietistic queen, Sophie Magdalene. After her marriage to Christian VI, the queen brought not only most of her family to Denmark from Brandenburg-Kulmbach, but also a whole army of German nobles, who were granted some of the most influential positions in the kingdom. Frederikke’s father was one of them. In 1738 he was summoned from a position in Stuttgart to take charge of the education of the then crown prince Frederik (V). Frederikke’s father was part of the burgeoning Enlightenment movement, his initial qualification for the position of royal educationalist. Later, from 1743-1745, he became prefect of Sorø Academy, where due to his education and erudition he was able to contribute to the re-establishment of this Danish academy for nobles, which had been closed for some time.

Frederikke was raised in a home befitting her rank. Music by the leading composers of the day was played on the family’s collection of violins, games of cards were played at elegant, lacquered card tables, there were hunts with ‘Copenhagen Pistols’, and tea and coffee were served in costly East Indian porcelain. The tone and language were German, which was also the language Frederikke spoke throughout her life - apart from when speaking the French she was also fluent in. She did not learn Latin until 1783, something she did with her eldest son, and which she complained progressed at a ‘snail-like’, ‘crawling’ pace. Her upbringing and education adhered to contemporary, cosmopolitan norms for the daughters of the social elite. She learned how to behave among her peers at the court, and to read, write and converse in several languages. She also mastered the skills of needlework and drawing, which were obligatory for a woman of her social standing.

A LIFE IN THE SHADOWS

The life of the family was governed by Frederikke’s father’s career. In 1757 he died at the age of 62, and the family was left suddenly destitute, with no regular income. They had to sell their gold, silver and porcelain collection, as well as a yellow, damask throne bed. The father’s extensive book collection also had to be auctioned. The family were forced to leave the Danish duchy of Holstein, and in the 1760s they moved to Sorø in Zealand. Frederikke’s younger brother was send into the military in 1758 - one less mouth to feed - whilst the widow and her two daughters withdrew to a life of seclusion. Several of Sorø Academy’s scholars visited their home, as did some of the students, including C.D.F. Reventlow, who attended the academy from 1764-66.

It was a time of economic uncertainty for the family, and they were highly dependent on the benevolence of others. Frederikke’s older sister was appointed lady-in-waiting for Queen Juliane Marie, and Wolf Veit Christoph von Reitzenstein, the new principal of Sorø Academy from 1766, secured her younger brother a place at the school. Two years later the principal also came to play a key role in Frederikke’s life. In the summer of 1768 Frederikke’s mother passed away and von Reitzenstein became her guardian and the administrator of her small inheritance. Whilst the situation of her siblings was settled, Frederikke had no security – especially with no prospect of marriage. A solution was provided by her parents’ old patron, the queen dowager Sophie Magdalene. The year after the death of her mother, Frederikke was granted a place at a home for unmarried ladies of rank at Vallø near Køge, an institution the dowager queen had founded, and in which she played an active role. With the prospect of a secluded life surrounded by similarly disposed gentlewomen, Frederikke set out for Vallø in the spring of 1769.

“When I arrived I had lost those who were dearest to me in the world, and had to consort daily with people with whom I perhaps did not feel the greatest of affinities. I may have grown unhappy, if some of my sisters had not been so very good to me. To win their friendship I endeavoured to feel affection for them, to discover and cherish all their good qualities. This was rewarded with such good fortune that they all became fond of me, and I found myself in their midst as in the bosom of my own family.’

On life at Vallø. Frederikke Reventlow, 1769 2. THE PEAK OF HAPPINESS AND INFLUENCE

During the summer of 1772, whilst the broken body of J.F. Struensee - the former royal physician and lover of the queen - was still fresh on the wheel beyond Copenhagen’s ramparts, Frederikke Reventlow’s life at Vallø was about to change radically. At the height of the summer, she was contacted by her friend Carl Wendt, who on behalf of C.D.F. Reventlow asked for her hand in marriage. Frederikke accepted the proposal, and on August 21st the young couple were engaged.

LOVE AND MARRIAGE

C.D.F. Reventlow had fallen in love with Frederikke during the 1760s, when he paid regular visits to her family home. In keeping with the contemporary cultivation of grand emotions and romance, the young couple fell in love, and in their subsequent correspondence their devotion to each other knew no bounds. He looked at dresses for her – ‘never could I love a dress as I love you!’ – whilst only ‘God and Faith’ could compete with her love for him. In Frederikke, C.D.F. had found the perfect wife. She was of noble descent, affectionate and popular. They moved in the same circles, had the same religious convictions and, perhaps most importantly, she was willing to acquire the skills and attributes C.D.F. and his family expected of his bride-to-be.

Two years after their engagement in May 1774, they could sign a marriage settlement that made Frederikke financially secure for the rest of her life. She was given 400 rix dollars annually for personal expenses, and the couple has 2,000 rix dollars to keep house for at Aalstrup Manor in Lolland, which was at their disposal free of charge. On their wedding day on July 24th their happiness was complete. Tears poured down the count’s cheeks, and ‘she was so moved and with such devout earnestness on her brow’ that her sister-in-law Louise completely forgot that she did not actually consider Frederikke to be beautiful!

Their marital bliss reached new heights the year after the wedding, when Frederikke gave birth to the couple’s first child - a son. He was christened Christian, after C.D.F.’s recently deceased father. By 1791, Frederikke had given birth to 12 children, three of whom died as infants. Frederikke dedicated her life to her children and her husband. She watched over them like a ‘miser’, and diligently followed her children’s development and husband’s progress in his government work, which increasingly tied the family to the capital. From the beginning of the 1780s the family residence in Copenhagen became their base, from 1786 in a house in Amaliegade, close to Amalienborg Palace.

A PASSION FOR REFORM AND FAMILY LIFE

1784 was the year that C.D.F. and his close friends A.P. Bernstorff and Ernst Schimmelmann, reached the peak of their influence. In consultation with the newly confirmed Crown Prince Frederik (VI), they assumed power over the deranged King Christian VII, eliminating the influence of the conservative government and the dowager queen Juliane Marie, her private secretary Ove Høgh- Guldberg, and the heir presumptive to the throne, Prince Frederik. The path was now clear for the massive reforms that were to transform the kingdom of Denmark-Norway, and free its copyholders from adscription.

The work was demanding, and C.D.F.’s work ethic and perseverance tied him to his government offices all day. In the meantime, Frederikke kept company with her lady friends. During the winter she socialised in the mansions of the city and the royal palace, and during the summer in the countryside north of Copenhagen, where the family stayed in the country houses of their friends and the royal family. Here Frederikke could nurture her dream of a simple life in harmony with nature, surrounded by the family’s three nannies, lady’s maid, two housemaids and three menservants. Her happiness was complete:

“ My wish to see my faithful husband and our children was fulfilled quicker than I expected, and now I was as happy as one can be only seldom on this earth. Everything, everything was part of my happiness. My soul was filled with joy and a heartfelt gratitude to God, and my tears of joy mingled with those of the best man, the man whose heart feels God’s kindness deepest of all, my husband’s!”

On family life and the joys of marriage. Frederikke Reventlow, 1777 3. MOBILITY AND CRISIS For Frederikke Reventlow and her children, life in Copenhagen was dominated by the rhythm of C.D.F.’s government work. Even though he was tied to the offices at Christiansborg for long periods of time, the family was still constantly on the move. Their home in Amaliegade was their winter base, whilst summers were spent at different country houses. Between this, they visited the family’s estates in Lolland, embarked on lengthy trips on official duty throughout the kingdom of Denmark-Norway, and enjoyed weeklong visits to family and friends. From the upholstered seats of their carriage, Frederikke and the family watched the world and nature pass by. The family’s accounts reveal expenses like tips for inn staff and ferrymen, just as they had to pay a toll of ‘1 Mark’ every time the family returned through the city gates after yet another trip.

Frederikke accepted these conditions for family life. Seldom did she complain about her husband’s workload. On the rare occasions when this happened, her reproach was soon replaced by shame at her selfishness, and as the tears ran down her cheeks her admiration for his work ethic and self- sacrifice reached new heights. She settled for a few hours of his company, and liked to visit the court with her friend Augusta Bernstorff, in the hope that ‘we would perhaps have the chance to see our husbands for some hours’.

THE APPROACHING CRISIS As their beloved children grew up in the family idyll of the Reventlow household, from the end of the 1780s international conflicts and wars slowly started to impinge on the family and their circle. The prosperity that had formed the basis for government reforms was gradually replaced by stagnation and new political agendas centred on foreign policy. Simultaneously, the closely-knit circle of friends and political allies surrounding C.D.F. started to fade away. Conflicts at large in the world had caught up with the family, and they now had to deal with economic depression and upheavals and the newspapers bringing disturbing news from the battlefield of Europe on a daily basis. The monthly publication Minerva and the newspaper Privilegerede Kiöbenhavnske Tidender were brought to the door of the family home, and here Frederikke could read about the latest wars and most recent political developments in France. She was deeply concerned by world events, and despite being convinced of her lack of political acumen, she engaged keenly in discussions of major political and world events with her peers. POLITICAL ISOLATION By the beginning of the new century war was becoming inevitable, and as the kingdom of Denmark-Norway unwillingly entered the battle between England and France, C.D.F.’s conflict of interests with Crown Prince Frederik (VI) intensified. Despite being awarded the title of Prime Minister in 1797 and the Order of the Elephant in 1803, C.D.F. felt increasingly politically isolated. A.P. Bernstorff had passed away, and the new political powers that had succeeded him were more attuned to the crown prince’s growing self-assurance. The desire to retire from politics made itself felt at regular intervals, and the dream of a quiet life in the country, which Frederikke and C.D.F. had continued to cherish throughout their life together, was increasingly becoming a real alternative. In the autumn of 1813 this dream came true. After C.D.F. had been dismissed with honour, the family could finally embark on their final journey back to Lolland and a simple, country life. “… away from the city I feel as free as a bird that has escaped its cage. A single day in the country offers more pleasure than months in town. Ah, why did destiny not determine that I live in the country with my good husband?”

The dream of a life at Pederstrup. Frederikke Reventlow, 1776 4. GOD, KING AND COUNTRY

Her marriage to C.D.F. Reventlow in 1774 brought Frederikke Reventlow into the highest rank of Danish society – second only to the royal family. A life of exclusive privileges, the distinguished title of countess, and an open door to the elevated circles of the royal family, was the position from which she now viewed society and the world. Throughout her life Frederikke understood the world to be based on divinely granted royal power at the top of the kingdom’s hierarchy. The royals had only God above them, and a staff of faithful advisors and loyal subjects beneath them.

KING BY THE GRACE OF GOD AND THE PEOPLE

Despite this, new ideas from France and Germany, inspired by the latest philosophy and literature, had an influence on Frederikke and the surrounding society’s view of the king. The social hierarchy of former times was now disputed, and the new natural order and revolutionary thinking of the period challenged the Christian worldview upon which the legitimacy of the absolute monarchy depended. The politics of the king were now to be ‘just’ and ‘paternal’ with the mutual support of his ‘stout, noble people’. Only through working for the best for the state and society could members of the nobility, like C.D.F. and Frederikke, justify their privileged position. Due to Frederik V and later Christian VII’s lack of interest in governmental work – and their inclination for women and wine – from the 1750s developments in the kingdom of Denmark-Norway meant that the work of government was largely left in the hands of the king’s closest advisors. These were men like A.G. Moltke and J.H.E. Bernstorff, advisors who were qualified by their education and noble birth.

FROM THE SHADOWS OF WAR TO THE HEAT OF BATTLE

While England and France waged war on each other, thanks to efforts of royal officials Denmark- Norway was able to maintain a policy of neutrality throughout most of the 1700s. This secured economic growth, especially in trade and agriculture. But dark clouds were gathering on the horizon. During the 1790s, Copenhagen suffered a series of catastrophic fires, at the same time as involvement in the Napoleonic Wars was becoming more and more inevitable. On April 2nd, 1801 the neutral kingdom of Denmark-Norway was drawn into battle for the first time, in response to the English attack on the Danish navy. The Battle of Copenhagen, despite ending in Danish defeat, was seen by Frederikke as a heroic deed that inspired what was ‘truly Danish’ in the men of the navy. This was not, however, the last time war cast its shadow over the kingdom. In September 1807 the English continued to bombard Copenhagen until the fleets of the navy were surrendered. Frederikke was with the government and royal family in the duchy of Holstein, where they received daily letters about the situation in Copenhagen.

Forced into the war on the side of Napoleon, Denmark-Norway threw itself into the war against England, marking a definitive end to economic growth and optimism in Danish society. Over the following years, massive military expenditure and the decline in custom duties forced Denmark- Norway to its knees, and in 1813 the country entered a heavy economic depression. As if that were not enough, in 1814 Frederik VI had to sign a harsh peace agreement, ceding Norway to Sweden and thus halving the kingdom.

NATION AND FATHERLAND

The radical changes and dramatic events generated renewed interest in and support for the king. During the long reign of Christian VII, the royal family had suffered from the lack of a central, paternal figure. Whilst the dowager queen Juliane Marie lived a secluded life away from the court, the king’s sister Princess Louise Augusta, Frederik the awkward heir assumptive to the throne, and the child crown prince Frederik, were central figures when the court hosted balls or royal banquets. Not until 1790, when the crown prince married his cousin Princess Marie, did the kingdom again have a royal couple that could unite the population and set the tone. The Napoleonic Wars not only renewed loyalty to the king, they also created a heightened consciousness of patriotism and the uniqueness of Danishness. In 1789 Frederikke still had a cosmopolitan attitude to nationality. The product of her German origins and close relationship to the Danish royal family, she saw herself as both Danish and German. In the early 1800s the German aspect waned in Frederikke’s self- perception. Danishness and its roots in nationality had gained a serious grip on the upper echelons of society, and Denmark rallied around the crown prince, who once he was crowned king became the personification of the Danish fatherland they shared.

“When Nelson left again yesterday, a crowd of people accompanied him; it was difficult to keep order among them. At the same time the crown prince arrived from Rosenborg Castle and the masses left Nelson, swinging their hats and shouting hurrah for the crown prince. You will certainly come to hold the Danes dear. How glad I am to be Danish!”

On negotiations with Admiral Nelson during the Battle of Copenhagen. Frederikke Reventlow, 1801 5. FROM ROCOCO TO ROMANTICISM

Frederikke Reventlow was born into the extravagant world of the rococo era. The style of the period influenced not only architecture, furniture and interior design, but also the social conventions and social events of the day. Despite an increasing focus on intimacy and comfort, a formal and controlled staging of and relationship to the body was maintained throughout the rococo period. As part of the trendsetting crowd in Copenhagen, during her marriage Frederikke grew increasingly distanced from the formal and ceremonial, focussing more and more on the intimate. Romanticism had started to bloom.

Rococo fashions encased Frederikke in a corset that reduced her waist small and flattened her chest. Hips were padded below voluminous dresses, and hair was elaborately set. Both the hair, face and chest were powdered white, whilst the cheeks were painted red. Rococo fashions were both time-consuming and artificial. From behind a mask of cosmetics and tight corsets, one could observe others and adopt an attitude that was appropriate to society at the time. One laughed when others laughed, and wept when they wept. In dance classes, Frederikke and her contemporaries learned to control their bodies and thereby assume the postures and express the elegance their life at the top of the social hierarchy and in the midst of court intrigues demanded.

But during the second half of the 1700s, Frederikke’s generation started to read new philosophical writings and literature that focussed on the individual behind the rococo mask. New ideas of ‘the true and natural self’ started to infiltrate the formal social conventions and theatrical staging of rococo life. Dresses became simple, with no corsets or padding, and Frederikke and her close female friends started to invite each other to intimate salons and informal parties. Here they sat on the floor, listening to lectures, played blind man’s buff and played pranks. Their close, genuine and free relationships formed a contrast to the formal conventions still dominant at court. Informality, based on the model of family life, became an important part of the new, natural lifestyle.

THE TRINITY – LITERATURE, EMOTIONS AND NATURE

The literature of the day influenced the life of Frederikke and her circle in many ways. It not only inspired politics and the ways in which people interacted, it also functioned as a guide to the expression of feelings and description of atmosphere. A literary community and cultivation were sought beyond the rigid boundaries of rank, and educated women from non-aristocratic backgrounds were included in Frederikke’s social circle.

It was an era when feelings became fashionable. To reflect the ‘true self’ one had to be capable of expressing powerful emotions and humane values. But doing so took some getting used to, also for Frederikke. Her sister-in-law Louise, a woman of strong character and literary interests, called for strong feelings and stature from Frederikke before she was even married in 1774.

The contrast between the artificiality of the rococo period and the forms of expression made fashionable by romanticism led to highly theatrical demonstrations of the behaviour aspired to. In keeping with this, Frederikke wrote to her sister-in-law Louise of how she had almost flung a book on child rearing away in virtuous indignation. Weeping, she ran instead to the cradle to hold her child in her arms. Her friends were equally sensitive: the wealthy merchant’s wife Frederikke Brun had a convulsive fit due to a moving piece of music, and her sister-in-law Sybille Reventlow developed colic from sheer nerves. Nature also gained a central role around 1800. The French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s understanding of nature as pure and culture as corrupt drove the fashionable and wealthy into the landscape in search of ‘the authentic’. Being with nature was to inspire reflections on human nature and thereby new insight into the self. Experiences of nature were educational and cultivating, and the gardens and parks of the day were to be designed as ‘naturally’ as possible to form the perfect setting for reflection. Frederikke was the incarnation of the love of nature so popular in the upper echelons of society. She preferred to be in the country where her children could learn from nature and where, under the linden tree or gazing upon the burial mound, she could read and answer her letters. In the romantic garden or untamed forests of the estate, she could be inspired by the view and put the feelings nature generated into words.

“Every morning I spend some hours in our small forest; with a favourite book I sit under the holy oak, then in the hollow oak, then in the bower.”

Life at Christianssæde. Frederikke Reventlow, 1789 6. LETTERS

Around 1800 letters were the all-important means of communication, and Frederikke wrote daily letters or messages to the close female friends and family members she was separated from for long periods of time. In her letters she shared her thoughts and feelings – sorrow and happiness, gossip and worries - in accounts of a daily life full of naval battles, rumours of war, birthdays and book recommendations.

BEHIND THE MASK

Frederikke’s letters reveal how she aspired to be seen. In writing, she could express the strong emotions prescribed by contemporary ideals. She could paint a picture of a woman who despised formal court ceremonies and boring balls, but enjoyed nature and life in the country. A woman who read serious literature and discussed it passionately, who had a contemporary Christian view of life and who made a virtue out of living according to its principles. But between the lines her letters also reveal grief over the children God had taken from her, and therefore shame at her lack of trust in his providence. They reveal that rustic, family life was probably more of a dream than a reality, and that Frederikke had to suppress her own needs in order to live up to the ideals and ambitions of C.D.F. Reventlow.

MEMORIES

Letters were like the photographs of later times. They stored memories of good friends, good times and life passing by. They were not necessarily private, and it was not uncommon to exchange other people’s letters, and thereby their news and memories. Many kept the letters of especially dear friends and close family members in portfolios. Rereading letters was a way of revisiting the many good conversations conducted in writing over the years. Louise Stolberg sometimes sent letters written in pencil to the Reventlow family and C.D.F. laboriously inked in the words, so they could be preserved for posterity. These, together with the letters of other loved ones, were kept not only as a memento, but also for the family’s children and descendants. When their memories faded, C.D.F. and Frederikke could turn to the letters and relive happy memories of the past.

Only good letters made it into the portfolio. A good letter could give an account of exciting current events. It is not hard to imagine why letters about the Copenhagen fire of 1795 or the latest court gossip were granted a place in the portfolio. A good letter could be edifying, or illustrative of the author’s humane values. The recipient was to sense the spirit, heart and discernment of the writer. As a piece of inspiring literature, a letter could be a pleasure to read, and since the letters that were kept formed a book of memories, they were also part of the letter writer’s reputation once they were gone.

“He brought us a letter to read from the good Mrs Brun […] it was written with so much spirit, heart and discernment that it was a true pleasure to read. After expressing her own pain at the death of her friend, who remembered her as she slipped away, she moves on to speak of how the grieving husband must suffer, before finally turning, with the most heartfelt love, to the immortalised mother’s spirit for her daughter, who now misses her faithful advisor, and beseeches her to bear in mind her[mother’s] true prayers and teachings.”

On the perfect letter. Frederikke Reventlow, 1820 7. OLD AGE

When Frederikke Reventlow closed her eyes for the last time in July 1822, she had lived full-time in Lolland for almost a decade. Even though Christianssæde Manor was the family headquarters, it was at Pederstrup that the family preferred to be. The same year as the family moved into the manor house here, C.D.F. Reventlow started a major renovation that was not completed until the year Frederikke passed away.

When the family finally left Copenhagen for the lush nature of Lolland, Frederikke was 67 years old. In the cropped landscape surrounding Pederstrup, she could look forward to a quiet old age focussing on values close to home. In the couple’s living rooms days were spent in the company of their children and grandchildren. The family living at the manor was large, with children of all ages. With all the building activity going on, it was almost like a small village. Despite the many children, life in Lolland was peaceful. Many of Frederikke’s close friends and confidantes had passed away, and those that remained no longer lived close to the family. The time previously occupied by fashionable gatherings and free discussions with their friends, was now spent with the family, unless the ‘platonic skipper’ from Nakskov, who their son Christian had formed an acquaintance with in 1818, was brought to listen to C.D.F.’s ‘ethical, philosophical system’. Occasionally a dear friend came by, like Ernst Schimmelmann, who delighted the family by visiting them in 1817. He was filled with enthusiasm by the nature of Lolland, and the following year he paid them another visit, this time as a surprise.

Old & Frail

In Lolland, C.D.F. continued to work for the peasants on his estate, while his family filled their time with outings, reading, teaching and being together. On March 11th, 1821 he had his 74h birthday, and the day after he wrote a letter to his sister Louise Stolberg about the birthday celebrations. The children and grandchildren had performed the comedy Kærlighed uden Strømper (‘Love without Stockings’). It had amused the performers more than the host, who due to his increasing deafness had found the play ‘a little dull.’

Both Frederikke and C.D.F. could feel the passage of the years physically, and Frederikke complained daily about the consequences of old age. In 1802, at the age of 53, C.D.F. wrote: ‘Most of my teeth are already gone, all the lower front teeth are loose.’ Old age could be felt in their everyday lives, and the letters reveal how the couple’s interests and thinking were influenced by their age. Frederikke’s letters are full of memories of atmospheres, people, gardens and homes she no longer dared to travel to due to her advanced age and increasing fraility. At the same time, C.D.F. became increasingly absorbed by passing his knowledge and thoughts on to posterity, and started to really value the many letters from friends and family he had kept – the many memories gathered in the portfolio.

Frederikke wrote less and less during the last years of her life, and the letters she did write became shorter and shorter. She could no longer cope with travelling, and C.D.F. was unwilling to leave his wife alone for long. Frederikke found comfort in the pamphlet ‘Haandbibel for Lidende” (‘Pocket Bible for Sufferers’), which she had been given decades before by Reverend Lavater. Another source of comfort during the last years of her life was the prospect of her sister-in-law Louise Stolberg moving to Pederstrup after becoming a widow in 1821. But before her faithful correspondent could leave the duchies, Frederikke passed away on a summer day at her beloved Pederstrup. Loved by those close to her, and surrounded by C.D.F., her children and her grandchildren, she could close her eyes for the last time with a feeling of gratitude for the joys of life and in the belief that all those she had loved and lost during her lifetime would be waiting for her on the other side.

“I often think of former times […] Christian as a child on good, blessed cousin Beate’s lap, shouting ”Ma-ma!” for the first time. Then him and Ernst leaping around with my husband. I see Benedicte too, with my firstborn, surrounded by their blooming children, and see, in the same moment, the father and grandfather jump around with children of all ages. I thank God for all the good things I have enjoyed, for everything I still have, for the past, for the present and for the rich future where everything lost will be regained in eternity.”

On memories and the belief in that which awaits. Frederikke Reventlow, 1814 8. POSTSCRIPT

“For 48 years I have lived with her in a happy marriage, and I fell in love with her long before. She was the most loving of wives, the most tender of mothers. The loss is felt strongly in our home, also by the servants and subjects. My age gives me hope that I will soon be reunited with her, if God deigns that I be close to her in the home of the blessed. May her memory be unforgettable for her children and grandchildren to the last issue, her blessing rest upon them all.”

C.D.F. Reventlow after the loss of Frederikke, 1822

C.D.F.’s wish to be reunited with Frederikke was granted five years after her death in October 1827, when he closed his eyes for the last time at Christianssæde. The funeral of C.D.F. marked the end of an era in the Reventlow family.

The next generation took over, with Frederikke and C.D.F.’s son Christian at the helm, continuing to work in the spirit of his parents with Pederstrup as his base. The children and grandchildren cherished the memories of Frederikke and C.D.F.’s life together, and stories of the happy family with the couple at its centre filled the recollections of their descendants. The last grandchild to have experienced her grandparents’ time at Pederstrup, Malvine Reventlow, did not pass away until 1891.

By that time, C.D.F. Reventlow had already been written into Danish history as the ally of the peasants, who had freed them from the heavy bonds of adscription, introduced modern farming, and created the foundations for democracy. Despite being of noble descent and having close links to Germany – like both A.P. Bernstorff and Ernst Schimmelmann – in the period after the passing of the Danish constitution and the loss of Schleswig-Holstein he - unlike them - became a symbol of modern times, democracy and the spirit of Danishness. This was not the case for Frederikke. As during her lifetime, in posterity she remained in the shadow of her husband and her peers. Her more extrovert friends, like Frederikke Brun and Charlotte Schimmelmann, stole the attention in the social circles of their time, and with her gentle disposition and her reverence for C.D.F. she had little influence beyond the narrow confines of family life.

Today Frederikke has gained a place in Danish history. Despite her aristocratic background and religious views, her life tells the story of the glorification of family life, child rearing and marriage that parallels the cultivation of the nuclear family that marked the postwar generation. The letters and papers Frederikke left behind are thus some of the earliest evidence we have of the lifestyle and values we now consider to be a natural part of society.

That Frederikke is the focus of this year’s exhibition at Museum Lolland-Falster not only to reveals a new and intimate side of family life in the Reventlow home from 1774-1822. It also reveals how the values and ways of thinking of today were shaped by people like Frederikke Reventlow during a period when feelings were in fashion, the world stood in flames, and democracy was on the doorstep. THE BEGINNINGS OF A BETTER LIFE

“Every morning when I woke I feared that I would be told of my child’s death […] We grasped at every measure; bathing him every other hour in lukewarm milk and giving him musk powder […] How my heart quaked when your eyes before your words told me that my Glut was dead! “Our child is with God”!”

On her son Conrad’s illness and death, 1778

When C.D.F. Reventlow brought the anxious mother the sad news she burst out: “Happy the mother I am; I have given birth to an angel”. Shortly after, she was overwhelmed by grief. She mourned night and day, and neither C.D.F. nor her Christian faith in death as a release from all things worldly could comfort her. During her marriage Frederikke Reventlow buried three of her twelve children.

Frederikke lived at a time when childbirth was highly dangerous, disease was hard to combat, and when the infant mortality rate soared. Sickness and death are therefore central themes in her letters. Over the years, she and her husband had to bid farewell to many of those they loved, and her letters are full of lung disease, consumption, convulsive fits and female friends coughing blood.

Frederikke and C.D.F. had great faith in the advances made by medical science. Sick employees were sent to the kingdom’s first hospital in Frederiksstaden, their children were inoculated against smallpox, and C.D.F. ensured that the midwives in his counties received professional training. The couple had particular faith in the court physician Johan Just von Berger. The contemporary lack of knowledge about the body meant that there was no well-developed system of diagnosis, as a result of which it was often symptoms alone that were described and treated. Berger thus prescribed ass’s milk for a weak constitution, whilst almond oil could be injected into ‘running ears’. Bags of herbs were laid on swollen body parts, and bathing in lukewarm milk was the prescribed cure for convulsive fits.

A devout Christian, Frederikke saw death as the threshold to a better life, and her letters often include graphic descriptions of the deathbeds of female friends. Heartrending death scenes are depicted as beautiful farewells, with the deceased slipping away with Christianity in their hearts and ‘a foretaste of heaven in [their] expression’. When Crown Princess Marie lost yet another child, Frederikke wrote that she bore her loss with ‘Christian devotion to the will of the all-seeing.’ This was a devotion Frederikke herself struggled with in bidding her own children farewell, something which made her feel ashamed at her lack of faith in God. She experienced an inner conflict between her Christian ideals and the pain sometimes inflicted by reality. LOVE AND MARRIAGE

“Just a moment ago I was sitting reading under the linden tree […]; he saw me from his room, then suddenly stood in front of me and took me in his arms, and I thought of the happy past, the happy present and the even happier future.”

On a happy marriage at Christianssæde. Frederikke Reventlow, 1797

Passionate descriptions of spontaneous loving moments with C.D.F. Reventlow – who she affectionately nicknamed ‘the giant’ – fill a significant part of Frederikke Reventlow’s letters. Pictures of the couple’s happiness and spontaneous affection develop in our minds as we imagine him in his room, noticing her under the tree, and feeling the irresistible desire to hold her in his arms.

For Frederikke, her wedding in 1774 marked the beginning of her role as a devoted wife and loving mother with an engaging, intelligent manner and a sensitive heart. She put her own needs aside, and cultivated the ability to express the grand passions so fashionable at the time. C.D.F. started to train his wife-to-be during their engagement, so she could live up to the period’s and especially his own ideals. Her coffee was to be diluted with 2/3 cream, she learned how to make accounts of her expenses, and she – grudgingly – gave up wearing a corset. Frederikke was gradually prepared for a life focussed on close relationships instead of the extravagant lifestyle of the rococo period. A life in a circle of those with literary interests who expressed new freedoms in how they dressed, how they socialised, and in their political convictions.

The up-and-coming statesman C.D.F. also needed a wife whose manner and interests could create the right domestic and social context for his political work. On a personal level she had to accept his domineering personality, and understand and tolerate his stubborn and sometimes childish ways. Frederikke’s affectionate references to C.D.F.’s childish joy in playing games, and her patience in the face of his obstinacy, reveal the extent of her devotion to her husband. The happiness of their marriage is revealed more in the letters’ descriptions of such everyday experiences than in any grand declarations of love.

For Frederikke and C.D.F. marriage was about affinity, mutual love and shared values. Here their shared Christianity and Christian worldview played a central role. Their love of God and faith in his providence permeates Frederikke’s letters. The couple thanked God on a daily basis for each other, their happiness and the many gifts in life he had bestowed upon them. BEST FRIENDS

“ I am more outside than in. Yesterday we were with the peasants who were cutting grass, and my husband taught them all kinds of amusing games. Today he left early to oversee the tree felling and we lunched together in Torrig Forest, where I joined him with the children. It is in Torrig Forest, opposite the burial mound, that I write these lines; here my husband does the work befitting his position.”

Writing letters outdoors, 1782

Writing letters occupied a large part of Frederikke Reventlow’s day. Corresponding with close friends and the immediate family was important at a time when the distance between them was great and letters were their only means of contact. The exchange of letters had to be fit between other daily tasks. So Frederikke both wrote and read letters while the hairdresser was doing her hair, or else she took her post outdoors. If we look out of the windows, we can almost imagine her sitting in the nature surrounding us, from which she drew inspiration for her letters and the emotions they were to reflect. Inside the manor, she was surrounded by portraits of dear friends and family members, prompting memories of those she was often separated from for long periods of time.

Frederikke’s letters reveal how she filled her days. Accounts of life with her family, marriage proposals among her circle of friends, sickness and death, gossip from parties, rumours of war and news from abroad were all committed to paper in her neat handwriting, and sent out into the world. Book recommendations and literary debates were a favourite subject, and many of the leading women of the day not only read but also wrote themselves. Needlework was another favourite pastime, and letters could include small poems or gifts the author had made herself. In this way, Frederikke and her female friends kept each other up to date with the realities of life as well as their daily pursuits.

Letters flowed steadily from her desk to her many correspondents. In addition to her sister-in-law Louise Stolberg, her regular correspondents included Countess Knuth and her cousins Miss Warnstedt and Countess Schulin. During the 1810s, in the correspondence between Frederikke and Countess Knuth, there were only three to four days between their letters. The flow of letters was only interrupted when Countess Knuth was staying close to Frederikke. The eager correspondents can hardly have had time to reply before a new letter arrived. Frederikke also corresponded with a whole range of other friends and acquaintances at home and abroad. MONARCHISM

“Yesterday our dear queen was with us in Charlottenlund, and I had the pleasure of taking a lengthy stroll with her. She was accompanied by the king, the princesses and a large retinue, but I confess that I only saw and heard her, the dear, precious, good soul, our beloved Marie.”

On Queen Marie, 1813

Frederik VI’s queen, Marie, is often named in Frederikke Reventlow’s letters, where she is written about with affection and admiration. Despite the revolutionary thinking flooding Denmark from abroad, Frederikke and many of her peers could not detach themselves from the loyalty to the throne that had marked the absolute monarchy of Denmark-Norway since its beginnings. People competed for royal favour, and being in the company of the royal family was highly coveted. Frederikke’s aversion to endless ceremonial celebrations did not, therefore, prevent her from regarding the royals with uncritical admiration.

Frederikke visited the court on a weekly basis, and was often a guest on social occasions where the royals were present. The contrast between the pomp and circumstance of the absolute monarchy and the contemporary desire for close friendships is expressed in Frederikke’s description of her friendship with Queen Marie and others. Her letters reveal fascination with the royal family, but also the need to express the affinity she felt in the company of the queen. In a letter to her sister-in-law after visiting the queen, she confided her genuine feeling that ‘her heart flowed together with mine’.

Loyalty to the throne was revived by the many tragic events of Frederikke’s lifetime. Devastating fires and raging naval battles preceded bombardments, a debilitating economic depression and a halving of the kingdom. All of this made its way into Frederikke’s letters - first-hand accounts of the turbulent period. In her letters she affiliated herself with loyalty to the fatherland with the king at its epicentre. Whilst the nation state and democracy were waiting in the wings, the Reventlow family still lived in an era when God, king and country continued to be inextricably entwined. SOCIAL OBLIGATIONS

”There was a profusion of both refreshments and food and drinks in the evening: but the Illumination was unlovely. I almost perished from the heat and ennui, and during a game of Trisset was even less attentive than usual […] The relief I felt when I reached my room and could remove all my dull finery and crawl into bed.”

A party hosted by the Swedish envoy, 1779

Frederikke Reventlow was bored by the many of the official social obligations she had in the over- heated halls of the court and the overcrowded homes of prominent figures. Functions she, as the wife of one of the country’s most powerful men, was obliged to attend. The heat of crowded rooms, the uncomfortable clothing, and the amount of candles all contributed to social events that were hot, stifling and sometimes nauseating experiences. Complaints about them were a regular theme of Frederikke’s letters.

There were social occasions on every evening of the week. Here people amused themselves with music, dancing, card playing and dinners. Or they enjoyed one of the many performances that were held on a weekly basis either at the Court Theatre or the theatre at Kongens Nytorv. The strict etiquette of the rococo period still reigned, with its rules for how one should curtsey, whether one could scratch an itch, and on which chair one was allowed to sit. The majority of the guests at these official entertainments stood up for most of the evening. Only the selected few were invited to sit with the royals for a while. Exclusive tea parties, family evenings and intimate salons were therefore a much sought after alternative to the rigid social conventions of endless official events.

The family and its influential friends were also the patrons of young artists, promoting them in the right circles. The Reventlow family financed part of the sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen’s education, and in 1820 he honoured the family by paying a visit to Pederstrup. During his stay his hosts installed a bed in the recently renovated garden room, which from that day to this has been called Thorvaldsen Hall. AMONG FRIENDS

“Yesterday we were at the Bernstorff’s from 6½ to 9 in our recently formed, exclusive tea salon that will only meet at the homes of Augusta, Lotte, Sybille and myself, and which I warmly applaud. A day taken out of the week for the sweet intercourse of a few chosen friends.”

Copenhagen, 1784

At the end of the 1700s time spent with the family and their circle of friends centred on close relationships and pleasures that stimulated thoughts, touched the soul, and liberated the body. We can almost hear the clinking of teacups and sounds of the piano filling the room. The small group of guests enjoyed meaningful conversations about art, philosophy and literature – and maybe a dance or game of charades later in the day.

It is these intimate gatherings that Frederikke describes in her letters. She drank her morning tea and coffee in the arbour surrounded by rose bushes and in the company of her close friends and family. Here her good friend, the popular priest Balthasar Münter, read his sermons aloud, and she and her guests had lively and passionate debates on the interpretation of Christianity. She strolled around the royal family’s gardens in Frederiksberg with a female friend, discussed literature, played blind man’s buff, and read with her friends.

Frederikke’s social circle included some of the most influential women and the most powerful men of her time. C.D.F. Reventlow and his close friends Ernst Schimmelmann and A. P. Bernstorff held key positions in the reformist government of Crown Prince Frederik (VI). The role of their wives as aesthetes and salon hostesses supplemented the political activities of the men. The Reventlow family was thus an active part of a circle of friends that set the tone in both government and society.

With their salons, Frederikke’s friends Charlotte (married to Ernst Schimmelmann) and Frederikke Brun created a forum for new ways of socialising that emphasised intimacy and the relaxation of social conventions. People of rank were not the only people invited, and aspiring artists like the poets Jens Baggesen and Adam Oehlenschläger were frequent guests. One evening salon, with her dear friend ‘Lotte’ Schimmelmann, included a more formal dinner then supper with a new group of guests, before the staging of a play followed by a large ball. It was during the ball that Frederikke and the other members of her exclusive, small circle of friends were invited into the private chambers of their hostess. Here tea was served, and they discussed philosophy, art and literature as people danced in the rooms above them. On a less extravagant evening at Lotte’s, there were pranks, dancing, blind man’s buff, a lecture and a debate on Rousseau. The Reventlows also hosted a party in November 1784, when they dined with the Bernstorffs and Schimmelmanns and played an enthusiastic game of charades. IN THE BOSOM OF THE FAMILY

”We spend our evenings with our children: my husband studies at his desk, surrounded by dancing, drawing, conversations and reading. When my husband feels in need of a moment’s break, he runs through the room with the children, joining in their cries of joy.”

From the house in Amaliegade, 1790

Lively descriptions of the daily life and intimacy of the family are at the heart of Frederikke Reventlow’s letters. If we look around this room, we can almost see the family engaged in their different activities and hear the voices and laughter of children filling the room. In keeping with the ideals of her day, Frederikke was passionate about child rearing and committed to creating a family idyll.

Family life provided a contrast to the formal and ceremonial social life the Reventlows were obliged to engage in. The dream of a simple life in Lolland surrounded by those they held most dear was Frederikke’s ideal of domestic bliss. In the countryside she could enjoy the peace and quiet, and dedicate herself to raising her children. She also noticed that the education of her son Christian was ‘enhanced’ when ‘the book of nature’ was opened before him. The family doctor von Berger also prescribed fresh air and life in the country when the couple’s children were ill.

Frederikke was particularly interested in the education of her children, and she often wrote to her sister-in-law about their different tutors. The children were taught German and French, and in 1786 the ten-year-old son Christian was also given lessons in Danish – a language Frederikke herself never mastered. The boy was also taught workmanship, making small projects like model farms with the tools that were bought for him in 1786, together with some billiard cues.

The Reventlow family employed nannies to help take care of their children, but Frederikke did not think it was good for them to be entirely looked after by staff. In keeping with Rousseau’s writings on child rearing, and unlike many of her peers, Frederikke breast-fed her own children. Over the years the family expanded rapidly and grandchildren soon joined its ranks, which were almost always gathered around Frederikke and C.D.F.

An interest in child rearing, motherhood and child development was an extension of the contemporary glorification of family life. In her letters, especially during the early decades of her marriage, Frederikke noted how she perceived the children of others – their natures, manners and intelligence. In 1777, encouraged by C.D.F., she began to write a book on child rearing. The unfinished manuscript includes close studies of the childhoods of her first children with accounts of the different stages of development they went through, their upbringing and her choices as a mother.