Mathilde Fibiger 
A Fifty Year Memorial 
By Frede Thomsen 
The first real pioneer of the Danish Woman Movement was a 
I little frail and delicate woman by the name of Mathilde Fibiger. Her 
battle-cry was neither sharp nor shrill, but it was heard over the whole 
land. Her little book, Clara Raphael gave rise to a great fight at the 
outposts, and set such a 
number of pens in motion— 
mostly on the offensive— 
that at one time it quite 
took the courage from the 
one who had raised the 
storm. But the opposition 
aroused by the trend of the 
book, and the fight over it, 
proved at the same time 
that, with its moderation, it 
had done useful work, and 
at the right moment. 
Mathilde Fibiger, born 
December 13, 1830, was the 
daughter of an officer who, 
after some years of active 
service in the military acad¬ 
emy at CojDenhagen, was re¬ 
moved to Vejle as head of 
the recruiting station. Both 
he and his wife, nee Aasen, 
were charming and hand¬ 
some people, greatly be¬ 
loved by their children. But 
mutual harmony was lacking and this so increased an unfortunate ner¬ 
vous tension that in 1842 Madame Fibiger went to Copenhagen with 
several of her children, who clung closely to their youthful mother. She 
was only sixteen years of age, and her husband nineteen, when they 
were married. Of the large flock of children, two sons, Adolf and 
Axel, were officers, and Otto was a philologist, while the youngest, 
Vilhelm, died during their stay in Stettin. The daughters, Ilia, 
Amalie, Sigrid, and Mathilde, remained unmarried. Anna married 
a clergyman named Gjellerup, and was the mother of the poet Karl 
Gjellerup.—Mathilde was but fourteen years old when, in 1844, her 
Mathilde Fibiger 
