Balthazar Matthias Christensen (25 October 1802 – 21 April 1882) was a Danish
jurist
A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...
Randers
Randers () is a city in Randers Municipality, Central Denmark Region on the Jutland peninsula. It is List of cities and towns in Denmark, Denmark's sixth-largest city, with a population of 64,511 (). From 1829 to 1831 he was a government assistant on the
Guinean
Demographics of Guinea describes the condition and overview of Guinea's peoples. Demographic topics include basic education, health, and population statistics as well as identified racial and religious affiliations.
Population
According to t ...
coast, but in 1839 he returned to Denmark, where he founded a law firm in
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...
. The same year, he became editor of the newspaper '' Fædrelandet'', but in 1841 he was censured and had to resign. From 1840 to 1843 he was a member of the
Copenhagen City Council
The Copenhagen City Council (Danish: ) is the municipal government of Copenhagen, Denmark, and has its seat at Copenhagen City Hall.
The city council is Copenhagen's highest political authority and sets the framework for the committees' tasks. ...
, the
Frederiksberg
Frederiksberg () is a part of the Capital Region of Denmark. It is an independent municipality, Frederiksberg Municipality, separate from Copenhagen Municipality, but both are a part of the region of Copenhagen. It occupies an area of less tha ...
Parish Council and the Copenhagen County Council. In 1846 he was a co-founder of the Society of the Friends of Peasants () and was its president from 1848 to 1958.
He was a member of the
Folketing
The Folketing ( , ), also known as the Parliament of Denmark or the Danish Parliament in English, is the unicameral national legislature (parliament) of the Kingdom of Denmark — Denmark proper together with the Faroe Islands and Greenland. E ...
for long periods in 1849 to 1882, as well as for a short time in the
Landstinget
The Landsting () was the upper house of the Rigsdag, from 1849 until 1953, when the bicameral system was abolished in favour of unicameralism. The Landsting had powers equal to the Folketing, which made the two houses of parliament hard to dis ...
(1853–1866); from 1853–1880 he was State Auditor. As one of the leading figures of Venstre, he contributed to the formation of Carl Edvard Rotwitt's government in 1859. In 1866 he voted against the revised
Constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed.
When these pri ...
and in 1870 joined ('the United Left'). In his later years he had little political influence. From 1864 to 1867 he was a member of the parish council of
Frederiksberg Municipality
Frederiksberg Kommune is a municipality ( Danish, '' kommune'') on the island of Zealand (''Sjælland'') in Denmark. Part of the Capital Region of Denmark and the city of Copenhagen, it is surrounded by Copenhagen Municipality. The municipality, ...
.
Christensen died in 1882 in Frederiksberg, Denmark, and is buried in Copenhagen.