Martha Wærn née Haslef, also Værn, (22 April 1741 27 January 1812) was a wealthy Norwegian-Danish philanthropist who was raised in Christiania, today's
Oslo. On her death, in accordance with her will, substantial funding was left for the establishment of a boarding school where fatherless middle-class Norwegian and Danish girls could be trained to become good housewives. Known as Det Wærnske Institut, the school opened in 1814 on
Allégade
Allégade (literal translation, lit. "Avenue Street") is the oldest street in the Frederiksberg district of Copenhagen, Denmark. It runs from Frederiksberg Runddel to Frederiksberg Town Hall Square, along the east side of Frederiksberg Park, Freder ...
in
Copenhagen.
Biography
Born on 22 April 1741 in Christiania, Martha Haslef was the younger daughter of the Danish-born merchant Paul Haslef (1706–1781) and Anne Brun (1713–1741). Together with her sister Anna Maria, she was brought up in a well-to-do home in the city. After her mother died when she was an infant, she lived in the family home until she was 30 when she married Morten Wærn, the town clerk, who had been married to her sister until her death in 1771. They had no children.
[
Following her father's death in 1781, they moved to Copenhagen where her husband died in 1796. Martha Wærn had already inherited from her father and now was left with an even larger fortune.][ When she died in Copenhagen on 27 January 1812, she left behind a fortune of 200,000 Danish rigsdaler. In addition to the funds she left for the establishment of the Wærn Institute, she also left a considerable amount to the Norwegian Cadet Corps (Norske Landkadetkorps) and made a donation to Herlufsholm School.][
]
Legacy
Martha Wærn is together with her husband buried in Copenhagen's 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. ...
. Their grave monument was designed by Johannes Wiedewelt
Johannes Wiedewelt (1 July 1731 – 17 December 1802), Danish neoclassical sculptor. He became a court sculptor, introducing neoclassical ideals to Denmark in the form of palace decorations, garden sculptures and artifacts and, especially, mem ...
The Wærn Institute was opened in 1814 as an orphanage and boarding school.[ ]Peder Andreas Kolderup Rosenving
Peter is a common masculine given name. It is derived directly from Greek , ''Petros'' (an invented, masculine form of Greek ''petra,'' the word for "rock" or "stone"), which itself was a translation of Aramaic ''Kefa'' ("stone, rock"), the new ...
and Peter Johan Monrad had been selected by Wærn as the two first directors of the institution. Det Wærnske Institut was from 1821 to 1887 based in Møllmanns Landsted
Møllmanns Landsted, literally Møllmann's Country House, is a mid 18th-century Rococo-style country house now hidden from the street by a row of younger buildings at Allégade 6 in the Frederiksberg district of Copenhagen, Denmark. The building ...
at Allégade 6 and then in Luis Bramsen's Villa Tharand on nearby Kastanievej (No. 2). The institution were in 1914 taken over by Mariaforbundet. .
References
Further reading
* Balslev, Vilhelm: ''Det Wærnske institut gennem hundrede år'' (1913)
* Balslev Wingender. Nete:
Arven efter Martha Wærn
' (1992)
External links
Det Wærnske Institut
{{DEFAULTSORT:Waern, Martha
1741 births
1812 deaths
Philanthropists from Oslo
Danish philanthropists
Danish women philanthropists
19th-century philanthropists
18th-century Danish women
19th-century Danish women
19th-century women philanthropists