Vilhelm Herman Oluf Madsen (11 April 1844 – 14 June 1917) was a Danish politician, minister, army officer, businessman and inventor. He was War Minister in the

Deuntzer Cabinet After the 1901 Danish Folketing election, the Council President Johan Henrik Deuntzer of the Venstre Reform Party became the leader of Denmark's first liberal government. The resulting cabinet, which replaced the Cabinet of Sehested consisting ...

1901–1905.

Career

He began his military career in 1859 and served in the

Second War of Schleswig The Second Schleswig War ( da, Krigen i 1864; german: Deutsch-Dänischer Krieg) also sometimes known as the Dano-Prussian War or Prusso-Danish War was the second military conflict over the Schleswig-Holstein Question of the nineteenth century. T ...

of 1864 as a lieutenant. In 1896, at the rank of colonel, Madsen was responsible for the adoption of the

Madsen machine gun The Madsen is a light machine gun that Julius A. Rasmussen and Theodor Schouboe designed and proposed for adoption by Colonel Vilhelm Herman Oluf Madsen, the Danish Minister of War, and that the Royal Danish Army adopted in 1902. It was the wor ...

by the Danish army in 1902 and widely exported. He also constructed the

Madsen 20 mm anti-aircraft cannon The 20 mm AA Machine Cannon M/38 was a 20 mm rapid fire autocannon produced by the Danish company Dansk Industri Syndikat (DISA). The gun, which could be adapted to several tactical uses, was a primary weapon of the military of Denmark. ...

. As

Minister of War A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...

in the Cabinet of J. H. Deuntzer from 1901 to 1905 he supported the Fortification of Copenhagen and this contributed to the conflict that led to the split of the

Venstre Reform Party VenstreThe party name is officially not translated into any other language, but is in English often referred to as the Liberal Party. Similar rules apply for the name of the party's youth wing Venstres Ungdom. (, ), full name Venstre, Danmarks Li ...

as the left wing of the party left the party in protest to form the

Radikale Venstre The Danish Social Liberal Party ( da, Radikale Venstre, , Radical Left) is a social-liberal political party in Denmark. The party was founded as a split from the Venstre Reform Party in 1905. Historically, the centrist party has played a cent ...

. He became a general in 1903 and was elected to the

Folketing The Folketing ( da, Folketinget, ; ), 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 ...

in 1909.

Personal life

Madsen was the father of the physician Thorvald Madsen. He was interested in

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

and was the president of Danish Mathematical Society from 1903 to 1910.

References

Sources

* Bjørn A. Nielsen, ''Den danske hærs rekylgeværer : system V.H.O. Madsen og J.A.N. Rasmussen'', Statens Forsvarshistoriske Museum, 2008. (Forsvarshistoriske skrifter, nr. 6). * Article "Madsen, Vilhelm Herman Oluf", pp. 23–26, in
''Dansk Biografisk Lexikon'', 1. ed, vol. XI, 1897
{{DEFAULTSORT:Madsen, Herman 1844 births 1917 deaths Danish Defence Ministers Danish generals Danish mathematicians Members of the Folketing 19th-century Danish inventors Firearm designers Burials at the Garrison Cemetery, Copenhagen