birth, the government decided that the so-called currency notes, which
could be redeemed for hard silver, would be replaced by notes issued by
the National Bank, worth only one-sixth of the face value of the original
notes. State bankruptcy had arrived. Shares, mortgages, promissory notes,
and other financial paper served as little more than proof of the bankruptcy
of those who held them. And between 1814 (when Denmark was forced
tocedeNorway)and1820,248firmsinCopenhagenwentbroke,anaver-
age of about a fir mevery week.
The so-called royal obligations were the only financial instruments that
escaped thedrastic devaluation, and thiswas precisely whereMichael Kier-
kegaard had placed his money. He had entrusted the management of his
business to others, but he had not turned his back on the world of finance.
In 1808, as part of a patriotic fund drive, Kierkegaard and his relatives paid
out of their own pockets for the construction of a gunboat, and when his
cousin Anders Andersen Kierkegaard’s silk and textile firm, Kierkegaard,
Aabye,andCo.wentbankruptin1820,Michaelundertookextensivedam-
agecontrol,writingoffnolessthaneleventhousandrixdollarsofdebtowed
hi mby the fir m.
Although he was still described as a stocking dealer, hosier, or merely
shopkeeper (sometimes with the prefix “former”) in the parish registries of
baptism and confirmation, when he himself signed up for communion he
advancedsociallyandtermedhimself“merchant.”Thankstotheeconomic
catastrophe,hehadbecomeoneoftherichestmeninthecountry.Agener-
ationlaterhisyoungestsontookcomicandself-consciousconsolationinthe
circumstancethathehadcomeintotheworldinthisparadoxicalfashion:“I
was born in 1813, the year of bankruptcy, when so many other worthless
notes were put in circulation. There is something of greatness about me,
butbecause ofthe badeconomic conditions,Idon’t amountto much.And
a banknote of this sort sometimes becomes a family’s misfortune.”
When he was born, Søren Aabye had three sisters aged sixteen, thirteen,
andeleven,andthreebrothersagedseven,five,andfour.Threeofeachsex
was nice symmetry, and their double names added a peaceful sort of har-
mony. Søren Aabye Kierkegaard broke the equilibrium: As the conclusion
to the flock of seven children he seems to have been as unplanned as the
manner in which itall began. Nor was he an easyboy to deal with. Indeed,
according to his second and third cousins he was a rather mischievous little
fellow whose company was better avoided. One of these cousins thus de-
scribed hi mas “a frightfully spoiled and naughty boy who always hung on
his mother’s apron strings,” while another noted laconically that “as usual,
Søren sat in a corner and sulked.” At home he bore the nickname “the
fork,” because that was the utensil he had named when he had been asked8 {1813–1834}