Anna Christiane Ludvigsen

Anna Christiane Lauterup Ludvigsen (1794–1884) was a Danish poet. Frequently reminded of how she had been blessed in her cradle by the Swiss priest and poet Johann Kaspar Lavater, she felt it was her vocation to write poetry. As she spent most of her life in Southern Jutland, from the 1830s her poetry gained significance as a result of the national uprising among Danish speakers in the area. In 1852, she published the two-volume Markblomster af Anna (Wild Flowers by Anna). After the region came under German rule in 1864, her poetry about the countryside and people's lives became even more popular as the spirit of Danishness emerged.

Biography Born on 14 June 1794 in Aabenraa, Anna Christiane Lauterup was the daughter of the priest Johann Christian Lorenzen Lauterup (1763–1845) and his wife Anna née Bonnichsen (1749–1827). In June 1819 she married the parish priest Jürgen Simon Jessen who died in 1842. In September 1844, she married the farmer Laurenz Paulsen Lauterup (1815–1864). While an infant, she was blessed by the celebrated Swiss poet J. C. Lavater. The event was discussed so frequently that she felt it was her duty to become a poet herself.

Anna Christiane Ludvigsen died in Tinglev on 28 June 1884.