Frederik Gottschalk von Haxthausen (14 July 1750 – 6 July 1825) was a Danish- Norwegian army officer, councillor of state, cabinet member and the country's first minister of finance.

Biography

Haxthausen was born in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establishe ...

, came to Norway in 1773 as a first lieutenant of Søndenfjeldske regiment, and rose to the rank of captain and company commander in 1779 and major in 1788. In 1789 he was appointed ''generalkrigskommissær'', the officer in charge of national conscription, and in 1802 became the director of the War Academy (''Krigsskolen''). In 1806 he became the commanding officer of

Akershus fortress Akershus Fortress ( no, Akershus Festning, ) or Akershus Castle ( no, Akershus slott ) is a medieval castle in the Norwegian capital Oslo that was built to protect and provide a royal residence for the city. Since the Middle Ages the fortress ha ...

, a charge he held until 1814. He spent the years 1808–1810 in Denmark as head of the war commissariate, but retained nonetheless all of his Norwegian posts. Haxthausen had a major influence on Prince Christian Frederick as

viceroy A viceroy () is an official who reigns over a polity in the name of and as the representative of the monarch of the territory. The term derives from the Latin prefix ''vice-'', meaning "in the place of" and the French word ''roy'', meaning "k ...

(''stattholder'') of Norway from 1813, joined the interim government of Christian Frederick in March 1814, and on 19 May 1814 he became

Minister of Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

in the first cabinet of independent Norway. During the Swedish campaign against Norway in 1814 he served as a lieutenant general, but was wrongly accused of being a traitor, and on 19 August, 5 days after the

Convention of Moss The Convention of Moss (''Mossekonvensjonen'') was a ceasefire agreement signed on 14 August 1814 between the King of Sweden and the Norwegian government. It followed the Swedish-Norwegian War due to Norway's claim to sovereignty. It also bec ...

, his house and garden was attacked by a mob. Haxthausen had to flee the town and withdrew from all his positions. In 1816 an

impeachment Impeachment is the process by which a legislative body or other legally constituted tribunal initiates charges against a public official for misconduct. It may be understood as a unique process involving both political and legal elements. I ...

process cleared him. After 1814, the Akershus fortress went out of operative military use, so that Haxthausen was the last operative commander of the fortress. He died in Christiania. In 1879, a street of

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

in the

Frogner Frogner is a residential and retail borough in the West End of Oslo, Norway, with a population of 59,269 as of 2020. In addition to the original Frogner, the borough incorporates Bygdøy, Uranienborg and Majorstuen. The borough is named after ...

area close to his home was named after Haxthausen.

References

Sources

* ''Aschehougs konversasjonsleksikon'', Vol. 9, Oslo (1957), H.Aschehoug & co. * ''Oslo byleksikon''

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Haxthausen, Frederik Gottschalk von Government ministers of Norway 1750 births 1825 deaths People from Copenhagen 19th-century Norwegian politicians Ministers of Finance of Norway Norwegian Army generals Norwegian military personnel of the Napoleonic Wars