Carl Christopher Georg Andræ (14 October 1812 – 2 February 1893) was a

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

politician and mathematician. From 1842 until 1854, he was professor of mathematics and mechanics at the national military college. He was elected to the

Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters {{Infobox organization , name = The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters , full_name = , native_name = Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab , native_name_lang = , logo = Royal ...

in 1853. Andræ was by royal appointment a member of the 1848 Danish Constituent Assembly. In 1854, he became

Finance Minister 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 Cabinet of Bang before also becoming

Council President of Denmark The prime minister of Denmark ( da, Danmarks statsminister, fo, Forsætisráðharri, kl, Ministeriuneq) is the head of government in the Kingdom of Denmark comprising the three constituent countries: Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Island ...

1856-1857 as leader of the Cabinet of Andræ. After being replaced as Council President by

Carl Christian Hall Carl Christian Hall (25 February 1812 – 14 August 1888) was a Denmark, Danish politician, statesman. Hall served as the Council President of Denmark (Prime Minister of Denmark, Prime Minister), first from 1857 to 1859 and again from 1860 to 186 ...

in 1857 Andræ continued as Finance Minister in the Cabinet of Hall I until 1858. Being an individualist he, after the defeat of the National Liberals, never formally joined any political group but remained for the rest of his life a sceptical de facto conservative spectator of the 'Constitutional Struggle'.

Early life and education

Andræ was born in Hjertebjerg Rectory on the island of

Møn Møn () is an island in south-eastern Denmark. Until 1 January 2007, it was a municipality in its own right but it is now part of the municipality of Vordingborg, after merging with the former municipalities of Langebæk, Præstø, and Vordingbo ...

. His parents were captain at the Third Jutland Infantry Regiment Johann Georg Andræ (1775–1814) Nicoline Christine Holm (1789–1862). He enrolled at Landkadetakademiet in 1825. In 1829, he was appointed to Second Lieutenant in the Road Corps. He followed a course in mathematics under

Hans Christian Ørsted Hans Christian Ørsted ( , ; often rendered Oersted in English; 14 August 17779 March 1851) was a Danish physicist and chemist who discovered that electric currents create magnetic fields, which was the first connection found between electricity ...

at the College of Applied Sciences before enrolling at the new Militære Højskole in 1830. He graduated with honours in December 1834 and was then made a First Lieutenant in the Engineering Corps. He completed two study trips to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

in 1835–38, and he made significant contributions to the field of

geodesy Geodesy ( ) is the Earth science of accurately measuring and understanding Earth's figure (geometric shape and size), orientation in space, and gravity. The field also incorporates studies of how these properties change over time and equivale ...

Single transferable vote

Andræ developed a ranked voting system of what is now called the

single transferable vote Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate p ...

(STV), which was used in Danish elections from 1855. This was two years before Thomas Hare published his first description of an STV system, without reference to Andræ. Though thoroughly convinced of the soundness of his method of electing representatives and ready to defend it in the cabinet or the parliament, he made no effort to bring it to the attention of scientific men and statesmen in other countries, much less to defend his claim as an inventor.

Personal life

In 1842, Andræ married Hansine Pouline Schack, an early feminist, who commented on his political views in her diaries, published from 1914 to 1920 as ''Geheimeraadinde Andræs politiske Dagbøger''. He died on 2 February 1893. He is buried in

Assistens Cemetery Assistens Cemetery ( da, Assistens Kirkegård) is the name of a number of cemeteries in Denmark. The common nominator is, as the first part of the name implies (Latin: ''assistens'' meaning assisting), an assisting cemetery for a town's churches. ...

in Copenhagen.

Notes

External links

Author profile
in the database

zbMATH zbMATH Open, formerly Zentralblatt MATH, is a major reviewing service providing reviews and abstracts for articles in pure mathematics, pure and applied mathematics, produced by the Berlin office of FIZ Karlsruhe – Leibniz Institute for Informa ...

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Andrae, Carl Christoffer Georg 1812 births 1893 deaths People from Møn Burials at Assistens Cemetery (Copenhagen) Danish Finance Ministers Danish mathematicians Prime Ministers of Denmark Single transferable vote Speakers of the Folketing 19th-century Danish politicians Members of the Rigsrådet (1855-1866)