Peter Atke Castberg (3 August 1779 – 30 April 1823) was a Danish professor and physician who founded modern

deaf education Deaf education is the education of students with any degree of hearing loss or deafness. This may involve, but does not always, individually-planned, systematically-monitored teaching methods, adaptive materials, accessible settings, and othe ...

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 = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

Biography

Castberg 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, to Peder Leganger Castberg, a priest, and Magdalene Sophie Bentzen, and was educated in

Kongsberg Kongsberg () is a historical mining town and municipality in Buskerud, Viken county, Norway. The city is located on the river Numedalslågen at the entrance to the valley of Numedal. Kongsberg has been a centre of silver mining, arms production ...

until enrolling in university. He studied medicine at the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in ...

and took the public service exam in 1801. He began his practice at

Frederiks Hospital The royal Frederiks Hospital was Denmark's first hospital in the present-day meaning of the word. It was founded by king Frederik V and financed by the earnings from the Norwegian Postal Service. The buildings, situated in Bredgade in Copenh ...

and received his doctorate in medicine in 1802. During his studies and work as a doctor, Castberg found an interest in helping the deaf. He initially attempted to cure them through

galvanism Galvanism is a term invented by the late 18th-century physicist and chemist Alessandro Volta to refer to the generation of electric current by chemical action. The term also came to refer to the discoveries of its namesake, Luigi Galvani, specif ...

, the use of electric current. From 1803 to 1805 he undertook an educational trip to visit deaf schools including school in

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the J ...

, Charles-Michel de l'Épée's school in Paris, and Samuel Heinicke's school. After his return, Castberg sent a report to the government to draw attention to the need to establish an education establishment for the deaf. In the meantime, he began privately tutoring deaf students, choosing the French method of instruction, which emphasized the use of

sign language Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign l ...

. The relevant law was enacted by

Christian IX Christian IX (8 April 181829 January 1906) was King of Denmark from 1863 until his death in 1906. From 1863 to 1864, he was concurrently Duke of Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg. A younger son of Frederick William, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein ...

on 17 April 1807, and the education of 10 students thus officially began at ('the Royal Institute for the Deaf-Mute in Copenhagen'). Castberg was the school's head and head teacher. Castberg encouraged Norwegian Andreas Christian Møller – who had studied at the institute from 1810 to 1815 as there were no schools for the deaf in Norway – to work there as a teacher, which he did from 1817 to 1822, becoming the first deaf teacher of the deaf in the Nordic countries. Castberg would later influence the founding of the first deaf school in Norway. He encouraged Norwegian authorities of the need for education for the deaf; the first Norwegian school for the deaf – and Norwegian

special education Special education (known as special-needs education, aided education, exceptional education, alternative provision, exceptional student education, special ed., SDC, or SPED) is the practice of educating students in a way that accommodates th ...

school in general – was founded in 1824 with Møller as its head. According to the law of 11 April 1817, all deaf children in Denmark were to receive an education at the institute, which led to cramped conditions. Additionally, the

Danish state bankruptcy of 1813 The Danish state bankruptcy of 1813 was a domestic economic crisis that began in January 1813 and had consequential effects until 1818. As Denmark-Norway struggled with the financial burden that the Napoleonic Wars had on the economy, the dev ...

led to increasing financial difficulties. This resulted in the institute being placed under management in 1823. Castberg was made a

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

. Castberg died in Copenhagen in 1823 and is buried at

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. ...

there.

Memorials

A bust of Peter Atke Castberg is located at Skolen på Kastelsvej, a school for deaf and

hard-of-hearing Hearing loss is a partial or total inability to hear. Hearing loss may be present at birth or acquired at any time afterwards. Hearing loss may occur in one or both ears. In children, hearing problems can affect the ability to acquire spoken l ...

children. The street Castbergsvej in

Valby Valby () is one of the 10 official districts of Copenhagen, Denmark. It is in the southwestern corner of Copenhagen Municipality, and has a mixture of different types of housing. This includes apartment blocks, terraced housing, areas with single ...

, Copenhagen, is named after Castberg.

Castberg Prize

Døvefonden, the Danish Deaf Foundation, has since 1970 awarded the Castberg Prize to individuals who further the cause of the deaf. Winners include teacher (1979) and linguist

Elisabeth Engberg-Pedersen Elisabeth Engberg-Pedersen (; born 2 July 1952 in Svendborg) is a Danish linguist and professor of applied linguistics at the University of Copenhagen. She has contributed significantly to the description of Danish Sign Language and was the only si ...

(1994).

References

Notes

Sources

* {{Authority control 1779 births 1823 deaths University of Copenhagen alumni Educators of the deaf 18th-century Danish physicians 19th-century Danish physicians Knights of the Order of the Dannebrog School founders