It is a generally held view that Grundtvig has had enormous influence on the development of Danish democracy over the last 150 years. At the same time, however, it is well known that it was only late in life that he became a keen champion of the free constitution that was introduced in 1849. For a very long time Grundtvig had reservations about the introduction of democracy due the experience of the French Revolution. The French Revolution had shown the potentially fatal consequences of the destruction of the relationship that exists between the individual’s wish for freedom and the state as the guardian of the common good. In spite of the experience of the French Revolution and the risk that freedom may undermine the necessary idea of the common good, Grundtvig argued in favour of not less but more freedom! As members of society, we assume responsibility for the shared life. And that is best ensured if the individual has freedom in society to assume responsibility.

Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig (1783-1872).

Grundtvig’s demand for freedom exceeded both the Constitution of 1849 and today’s ideas of the relationship between democracy and the welfare state. He was thus opposed to compulsion within the church, school and army: Religion, schooling and military service ought to be a matter of free choice, care for the poor ought to be a local and personal matter, trade ought to have economic freedom, national minorities ought to have cultural freedom, and slavery in the Danish West Indies ought to be abolished. Grundtvig would not maintain the old system, but develop the new one at the same time as popular enlightenment was to provide the consciousnessrelated preconditions for it. In 1848, Grundtvig stated: “The time of the Estates is over, the time of the people has come.” Even though he had reservations regarding the Constitution that was introduced in 1849, he was as a member of the Landsting (upper chamber) very critical of the proposal to limit the right to vote in “the revised constitution” of 1866. He said to the majority of the Landsting on 12 July 1866 that it seemed to have “its actual roots in privilege, in the purse and in arithmetic; three areas that will hardly ever be popular in Denmark”.

Especially in his songs and poems, Grundtvig inculcated his view of popular character and freedom in the Danish language with formulations that have almost become proverbial. He said for example, “We have made great progress when few have too much and fewer too little” from 1820, and “Freedom is the watchword in the Nordic countries, freedom for Loki (Norse god of destruction) and freedom for Thor (Norse god struggling against evil)” from 1832.

“The reason why I at this moment have requested the attention of the assembly is merely that as I belong to those who did what little they could in this country to abolish slavery in the Danish West Indies, I cannot refrain from opposing what has been stated repeatedly in connection with this question that it should be recognised that it is really possible to have full ownership of our fellow human beings, which I therefore in my own name and I should think in the name of all friends of humanity must protest against.”

GRUNDTVIG IN THE NATIONAL CONSTITUTIONAL ASSEMBLY ON 14 DECEMBER 1848.

Under the absolute monarchs, society was subject to comprehensive supervision, which the painter J.Th. Lundbye has illustrated in a drawing of Grundtvig speaking from the rostrum at Borchs Kollegium 1843. Lundbye has placed five upright men in the background of the picture, who are probably representatives of the church, university and police. Grundtvig knew that there were police spies present when he delivered his speeches

This page is part of the electronic publication "The Danish Democracy Canon"
© The Ministry of Education 2008