Ragnhild Louise Kathrine Dorothea Lindegaard Smidt Fabricius Gjellerup (1896–1958) was a Danish lawyer who graduated in 1922 from the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen (, KU) is a public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in Scandinavia, after Uppsala University. ...

. In 1934, she became the first woman in Denmark to serve as a judge.

Biography

Born on 25 March 1896 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 ...

, Ragnhild Louise Kathrine Dorothea Lindegaard Smidt Fabricius was the daughter of Lieutenant Carl Smidt Fabricius (1855–1942) and his wife Christiane Hansine Juliette Knudsen (1860–1924). In 1922, she married Holger Otto Gjellerup (1883–1959), a merchant. Her marriage exerted considerable influence on her career as from 1923 she became secretary at the municipal court in Copenhagen where she remained for the rest of her professional life. In 1927, she was appointed secretary of the probate court (''skifteretten'') until she became a judge in 1934, the first woman in Denmark to do so. She specialized in

probate In common law jurisdictions, probate is the judicial process whereby a will is "proved" in a court of law and accepted as a valid public document that is the true last testament of the deceased; or whereby, in the absence of a legal will, the e ...

, dealing with many complex inheritance cases as a competent mediator. From 1946 to 1950, she headed the arbitral tribunal on housing, also covering business protection. Fabricius Gjellerup was one of the most active members 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 ...

, especially during the

German occupation German-occupied Europe, or Nazi-occupied Europe, refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly militarily occupied and civil-occupied, including puppet states, by the (armed forces) and the government of Nazi Germany at ...

which began in 1940. She was particularly effective in arranging food distribution in the war years, managing the transfer of relief supplies from the countryside. In 1952, she was elected to the board of the Animals Protection Society. In 1951, she became one of the first women to be honoured with the

Order of the Dannebrog The Order of the Dannebrog () is a Denmark, Danish order of chivalry instituted in 1671 by Christian V of Denmark, Christian V. Until 1808, membership in the Order was limited to fifty members of noble or royal rank, who formed a single cla ...

. After an extended period of weakness, Ragnhild Fabricius Gjellerup died in

Skodsborg Skodsborg is a small town/suburb approx. 20 km. north of Copenhagen, Denmark. The town has a population of 1,228 (1 January 2024)

on 29 October 1958, 62 years old.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fabricius Gjellerup, Ragnhild 1896 births 1958 deaths Lawyers from Copenhagen 20th-century Danish lawyers Danish judges Women judges University of Copenhagen alumni 20th-century Danish women lawyers