Charlotte Bolette Klein née Unna (1834–1915) was a Danish educator and

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and Entitlement (fair division), entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st c ...

activist. A motivated teacher, from the mid-1870s until 1907 she was the principal of the Arts and Crafts School for Women 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 ...

. Klein was a member of the

Danish Women's Society The Danish Women's Society or DWS () is Denmark's oldest women's rights organization. It was founded in 1871 by activist Matilde Bajer and her husband Fredrik Bajer; Fredrik was a Member of Parliament and the 1908 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. The as ...

and a strong supporter of

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...

. Shortly before her death, she published her ideas in ''Hvad jeg venter af Kvinderne'' (What I Expect of Women).

Early life and education

Born on 29 October 1834 in

Helsingør Helsingør ( , ; ), classically known in English as Elsinore ( ), is a coastal city in northeastern Denmark. Helsingør Municipality had a population of 63,953 on 1 January 2025, making it the 23rd most populated municipality in Denmark. Helsin ...

, Charlotte Bolette Unna was the daughter of the merchant Simon Unna (1792–1852) and Johanne Marie Schrøder (1800–1877). Brought up in a prosperous home, she received a good general education, including piano lessons. From the age of 12, she showed great interest in woman's place in society.

Affiliations

In her thirties, Klein established a close friendship with the feminist

Mathilde Fibiger Mathilde Fibiger (13 December 1830 – 17 June 1872) was a Danish feminist, novelist, and telegraphist. Biography Mathilde Fibiger was born in Copenhagen in 1830. Her father, Captain Johan Adolph Fibiger, was an army officer; her mother was ...

who moved to Helsingør in 1864. Her husband, the architect

Vilhelm Klein Vilhelm Klein (6 March 1835 – 10 February 1913) was a Danish architect who adopted the Historicist approach, frequently emulating the so-called Rosenborg style and the Italian Renaissance style. Early life Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, as the ...

whom she married in October 1866, also supported better conditions for women. Encouraged by Fibiger, in 1871 she became an enthusiastic member of the newly established

. One of the Society's principal objectives was to establish schools where women could receive training allowing them to work professionally. As a result, when the organization founded the Arts and Crafts School for Women in 1875, Klein became its principal. In 1881, the school moved into a new building on H. C. Andersens Boulevard, designed by her husband. Initially she taught at the school without remuneration. With her husband's support, she remained as head until her retirement in 1907. Though they had no children of their own, the couple took special care of Sophy A. Christensen who later became a prominent furniture designer. Charlotte Klein died on 9 March 1915 in the Copenhagen district of

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 ...

and is buried is

Assistens Cemetery An Assistens Cemetery () is a cemetery that functions as an expansion of another, older cemetery often in relation to a city church. Already by the end of the 17th century, Danish authorities deemed that the conditions for inner-city cemeteries we ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Klein, Charlotte 1834 births 1915 deaths People from Helsingør Heads of schools in Denmark 19th-century Danish educators 20th-century Danish educators 19th-century Danish women educators 20th-century Danish women educators Danish headmistresses Danish writers Danish women writers Danish suffragists Danish women's rights activists Burials at Assistens Cemetery (Copenhagen)