Knud Lyne Rahbek (1760-1830)

Knud Lyne Rahbek was the son of the counsellor and customs inspector Jakob Rahbek and his wife Johanne Riis. He graduated in 1775 from Herlufsholm School, where his profound love of the countryside and the freedom it offered him was founded. He then moved to Copenhagen, where in 1777 he took the newly established final examination in philology in the University.

 

Rahbek was a keen participant in student life in Copenhagen, and he could frequently be seen in different clubs, where he met some of the leading cultural figures of the day. He was profoundly attracted by the theatrical life of the time, to which he contributed as a theatre critic and amateur actor. By the time he was 19 years of age, he was translating plays from French by the famous dramatists of the day such as Diderot, and at the age of 20 he wrote his own first play, Young Darby, which was performed in the Royal Theatre.

 

In 1782-1784, Rahbek together with his friend Ole Johan Samsøe, went on a grand tour of a number of German towns plus Vienna and Paris. At first, Rahbek attended lectures in the University of Kiel, after which he devoted himself mainly to local theatrical life.

An important part of Knud Lyne Rahbek’s activities as an opinion-former was based especially on the periodicals Minerva and Den Danske Tilskuer, which he edited and for which he personally provided a large amount of material. Together with his friend Christen H. Pram, Rahbek published and edited the Minerva from 1785 to 1794, after which he continued it alone, though with breaks in publication and under different names. The periodical contained news and discussions relating to culture, politics and history of ideas and there were also articles of an informative character. Den danske Tilskuer (“The Danish Spectator”) was a more broadly based periodical, which discussed contemporary problems and attitudes, and the contents were both satirical and didactic. Many famous debaters of the time contributed articles, letters, stories etc.

 

From 1790 to 1799, Rahbek was Professor of Aesthetics at Copenhagen University. During his first years, his teaching was very popular, partly because he introduced contemporary literature and drama. He also continued as a teacher both in the Royal School of Drama and in C.J.R. Christiani’s school for boys. In 1816, he was re-appointed to the Chair of Aesthetics in Copenhagen University, placing his main emphasis on Danish language and literature. The subject in which he was most interested was 18th-century literature.

 

From 1809 to his death, Rahbek was a member of the board of directors of the Royal Theatre and played a major role in developing Danish drama. He was also an eager participant in Copenhagen club life and wrote a large number of lyrics and drinking songs – it is these for which he is best known today.

 

In a political and ideological sense, Rahbek was profoundly committed to the bourgeois ideals and ideas that dominated the intellectual milieu in the 1770s and 1780s. He was especially much inspired by the French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau. The object of Rahbek’s work as editor, critic, reviewer, translator, author and teacher was to inform and educate the population and thereby to reinforce the position of the middle classes in society.