Christian Ditlev Frederik Reventlow

Life & Legacy

Christian Ditlev Frederik, Count of Reventlow (11 March 1748 – 11 October 1827) was a Danish statesman and reformer, the son of Privy Councillor Christian Ditlev Reventlow (1710–1775) by his first wife, baroness Johanne Sophie Frederikke von Bothmer. His influence on the life of the Danish people and, particularly, the conditions of the peasantry, made him very popular. He was the brother of Johan Ludvig Reventlow, who in the late 1700s served as his colleague; salonist Louise Stolberg, who was his intellectual partner and opponent through their extensive mail correspondence; and Commodore Conrad Georg Reventlow.
C. D. F. Reventlow was one of the politicians behind the dissolution of the stavnsbånd, which was a serfdom-like institution, bonding men between the ages of 18 and 36 to live on the estate where they were born. This dissolution is widely regarded as having been the work of Reventlow and his two good friends and colleagues Andreas Peter Bernstorff and Christian Colbjørnsen.
From 1789, Reventlow was a leading member of the school commission which prepared the Danish School Law of 1814, and he actively contributed to the establishment of teacher seminars. Within the field of forestry, Reventlow was the pioneer behind the Fredsskovforordning of 1805, which ensured that new trees was strategically planted as logging was carried out. On his own estates, he practiced his political ideas long before they were made laws – moreover, he founded schools and abolished the Danish version of corvée – hoveri. In 1797, he was appointed Minister of the State – statsminister.
Reventlow's criticism of king Frederik's foreign and economic politics, which later led to war with England and state bankruptcy, increased the distance between him and the king. In 1813, he left his political offices – after having been President of the Danish Exchequer for 29 years – as a protest against the Decree of the State Bankruptcy. He was formally a member of the Council of State, the konseil, but he did not participate in the council's meetings.
Reventlow retreated to his Lolland estates, where he, probably being his own architect, erected the main building of Pederstrup and lived a peaceful life, although still actively working with the development of his estates. When the old statesman died in 1827, he was greatly honoured for having fought for civil liberty and the rights of the common people, and for having commenced the agrarian reforms.