Dorothea Krag

Dorothea Krag (27September 167510October 1754) was a Danish noblewoman and the Postmaster General from 1703 to 1711. She was the first woman to hold the position in Denmark.

Through her second husband, Christian Gyldenløve, Krag inherited the office of Postmaster General. This was expected to be a purely ceremonial position, however she elected to manage to Danish Postal Service, which was unique for a woman of her time and the first in Denmark. As Postmaster General, she reformed the role of postmasters in 1705 and introduced uniforms and post horns in 1709.

Krag's success as Postmaster General was contrasted by her failures as a businesswoman. The debts she had inherited from her second husband continued to mount after his death. Under her ownership, the estate of Gisselfeld nearly fell into bankruptcy. It was not until after her death that their heir was able to realise her and Gyldenløve's intentions for the property.

Biography Dorothea Krag was born on 27 September 1675 to and Helvig von der Kuhla (d. 1676). Her father had been well-liked at court and secured her marriage to Jens Juel, one of the most powerful statesmen in Denmark at the time. She and Juel were married on 11 April 1694; he was 63 years-old.

Through her marriage to Jens Juel, Krag profited from the Atlantic slave trade. Juel had been one of the founders of the Danish West India Company. While staying at Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen, she had a portrait commissioned from Benoît Le Coffre circa 1700. The portrait shows her seated in her mansion with her arm around an African child who wears a metal ring around their neck.

Marriage to Gyldenløve Exactly a year after Juel's death in 1700, Krag married Christian Gyldenløve on 25 May 1701. As King Frederick IV's half-brother and the count of Danneskiold-Samsøe, he had substantial power in Denmark. While he was commanding Danish auxilary troops in Italy, Krag likely traveled with him. This was not uncommon at the time for wives of high ranking military officers. While in Verona in 1702, their son was born. The idea likely came from Krag and was inspired by Roskilde Adelige Jomfrukloster, which had been established, in part, by her former sister-in-law. Having failed to pay interest on his loans, she was forced to sell off parts of Gisselfeld and to take out new loans. She and Ahlefeldt had a daughter in 1717 named . In 1729, the king halved her pension to 2,000 rigsdaler, before terminating the payments altogether in 1732. Because her eldest son had died in 1728, the properties she inherited from Gyldenløve were then given to her grandson. She successfully negotiated with the king and was permitted to run the office on behalf of her children until 1711.

Gisse was dismissed unceremoniously from his role as Chefpostmester in 1706, after which Krag elected not to hire a replacement to run the postal service on her behalf. instead, she relied on two postal administrators in Copenhagen to assist her. She remained in charge of the service as a whole, signing orders, negotiating contracts for transportation, and coordinating the kingdom's postmasters.

Krag had agreed to hand over control of the postal service on 24 September 1711. However, Copenhagen was ravaged by the Great Northern War plague outbreak at the time. The king had fled to Pomerania and the council which oversaw matters in his absence had moved out of the city to Jægersborg. The end of her tenure, therefore, was not noticed by the state and Krag continued to manage the postal service. No formal plan had been prepared on how the service would be run once she left, given that her eldest son was not yet old enough to take charge of it himself. It wasn't until October 1711 that Krag received an order to hand over the postal service to the state, which had made abrupt plans for it to be overseen by Claus Henrik Vieregg and . She did not ceed control until 3 December, having been repeatedly urged to comply with the king's order.

Legacy When Krag left the office of Postmaster General in 1711, the service was more profitable and efficient that it had ever been under her late husband's tenure. Until the 1990s, historians commonly implied that her interest in improving the postal service was merely motivated by personal gain. They often cited her personal clothing expenses, mounting debts, and alleged personal distaste for the office. Since the 1990s, her time as Postmaster General has instead been seen as tenacious and well-led in its own right.