Kamma Rahbek

Karen Margrethe "Kamma" Rahbek was a Danish writer, salonist and lady of letters.

Biography

Karen Margrethe Rahbek was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. She was the daughter of the official Hans Heger and Anne Louise Drewsen.
She grew up in a wealthy home in Nørregade. She received a broad based education and could speak several languages including German, French, Spanish, Latin, Greek and Italian.
In 1798, she married the writer Knud Lyne Rahbek. Her husband was a writer, poet, literary historian and magazine editor.
Her salon at Bakkehuset became a cultural centre and the gathering place for the writers of the Danish Golden age and was considered the salon of the middle class in contrast to the more aristocratic Friederike Brun and Charlotte Schimmelmann.
Among her guests were Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger, who was married to her sister Christiane. Other notable visitors included Jens Baggesen, Sophie Ørsted, Poul Martin Møller, N. F. S. Grundtvig, B. S. Ingemann, H. C. Andersen, Peter Oluf Brøndsted and Johan Ludvig Heiberg. Rahbek befriended the writers of the Romantic style, while her spouse preferred the moralists.
Kamma Rahbek was also a diligent writer. Several of her letters and memories have been published. She died in 1829 at Frederiksberg and was buried in Frederiksberg Ældre Kirkegård.

In popular culture

Kamma Rahbek appears in Jeg har elsket og levet, a 1940 romantic musical about the composer C. E. F. Weyse directed by George Schnéevoigt, Kamma Rahbek.
In 2011, Kamma, a biographical novel by Maria Helleberg, was published.
Her silhouette is used as the logo for Wikipedia's Women in Red initiative.

Related reading

Kirsten Dreyer Kamma Rahbeks brevveksling med Chr. Molbech, 1–3 1994.
Maria Helleberg: Vilde kvinder, milde kvinder : 12 kvindeliv fra guldalderen 2003.
Anne E. Jensen: Kamma Rahbek 1775–1828. I anledning af 200 års dagen den 19. oktober 1975 1975
Hans Kyrre, Knud Lyne Rahbek og Kamma Rahbek og Livet paa Bakkehuset 1929.
Anne Scott Sørensen, "Blomsterpoesi – om Kamma Rahbek og Bakkehuset" in Nordisk salonkultur – et studie i nordiske skønånder og salonmiljøer 1780–1850, Anne Scott Sørensen 1998..