Relationship

Hans Christian Andersen and his sister, Karen Marie Rosenvinge

One of the most famous Danes of all time is the writer Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875). His international fame is based on his fairy tales, but he was actually a much more versatile writer as he also published novels and some plays, as well as having written about himself, his life, and his friends in his now published diaries. He himself must have felt the need to highlight the fact of his versatility, since he is quoted as having said that the parents of his main readers, that is, the children, would also find something valuable in his stories. Perhaps you felt a little worm of disappointment gnaw at your pride because your fame was based on children’s stories and not on your adult works even though they were considered quite outstanding?

What also corroded his system was the thought of his half-sister, or “his mother’s daughter,” as he calls this sister, Karen Marie Danielsdatter Rosenvinge (1799-1846). They might have been able to make each other’s lives happy if they had been friends, but no, he couldn’t bring anything so natural to her heart and pride. In his opinion, she was an embarrassment to him and the seemingly mild writer, even writing devotional fairy tales for children, was never happy to see or hear of her.

Could the reason for this be that she, being the eldest for six years, had bullied him in childhood? Well, most of her childhood she, who was one of the three illegitimate children of a man who was never married to her mother, was fostered and only lived with the family for a short period of time. The mother of the two children, Karen Marie and Hans Christian, was also born illegitimate and had a reputation for being a good person whom she loved, so why couldn’t her son accept her sister, who started in the same social position? than your son? mother? It is safe to say that he never accepted this sister and that he seems to have suspected that she was leading an immoral and therefore shameful life.

In the article “HC Andersens halvsøster, Karen Marie Rosenvinge, og hendes slægt” (: “Hans Christian Andersen’s half-sister, Karen Marie Rosenvinge and her family” by Bent Østergaard and Kenneth V. Jørgensen it is stated once and for all everything that there is nothing of her in the police files of that time. Or put another way: Karen Marie was not a prostitute and therefore an embarrassment to her family, she was a working laundress like her mother. Most likely, to be sent to work as a maid at the tender age of 9-10 and although she was very upset when she couldn’t get her brother’s address when he left home as a child to try his luck in Copenhagen, she didn’t stalk him when he became famous and therefore richer than anyone in his family.

All he did was propose to come see him a few times when he didn’t know how to get a job or money. That is, her fiancé or perhaps husband, Peter Kaufmann, was the one the famous writer agreed to see, not his sister. She only came once and Hans Christian Andersen noticed that she looked quite young and quite well dressed.

When Karen Marie was found dead in her rooms in 1846, she was buried at Assistens Kirkegården (: The Assistens Cemetary). This beautiful and interesting cemetery would also become the last resting place of his brother when he died in 1875, but it is not known how their graves are placed with each other. Many people still visit his grave, but since the location of his grave has been forgotten, no one goes there. If I had known where she is, I would have visited him as I found out that she has been wronged.