Soren Kierkegaard

mer of 1848. For someone living across the street from the Castle of Rags
there were plenty of people in need of assistance, and from a household
account book for the period from January 2, 1847, to April 28, 1848, care-
fully kept by his servant Anders, we see that in 1847 alone, he made 271
donations of alms, amounting to 31 rixdollars, 2 marks, and 4 shillings.
There seems to have been a regular little flock of alms seekers, to whom
Anders paid three different rates: 1 mark, 8 shillings, and 4 shillings. The
organ grinder came every Thursday and received the top rate, 1 mark. The
poor woman also generally received 1 mark. The lame man had to be satis-
fied with 8 shillings, while the old man had to put up with half that amount.
In addition to these regular customers there were a number of people who
came only once, usually on Saturdays. There are no surviving accounts of
this sort from later periods, but it is likely that a couple of the inhabitants
of the house on the other side of the street occasionally smoothed out their
rags and paid the well-to-do gentleman across the way an imploring visit.
There is no documentary evidence of Kierkegaard having carried out any
charitable activity on a larger scale, and Peter Christian Zahle was probably
correct in stating: “If he made charitable donations, he did so secretly.”
After a fire in 1849, a sorely tried man who was left with a wife and five
small children sent Kierkegaard a note begging for assistance, but it is not
known how the latter responded. On the other hand, it is known that when
Magnus Eiriksson applied for assistance he was turned down, indeed quite
quickly. And “university student H. who ended as a madman ”also received
rather brisk treatment when he sent Kierkegaard a “treatise of philosophical
content, ”taking the occasion also to ask for economic assistance. “Honored
Mr. H.! ”the student read two hours later, “when you read these lines I will
be on my way to Stettin. S. K. ”But there are also documents that have
been overlooked, revealing charity that was hidden—until now. Among
Peter Christian’s papers is a letter of November 23, 1855, in which John
Belfour Rainals, a former military man, movingly discourses on Peter Chris-
tian’s “noble, blessed brother, whose great, hidden charity I have reason to
praise highly.”
In the context of Kierkegaard’s overall economic situation, these alms
were peanuts, so if Hans Brøchner’s theory that Kierkegaard gave away the
greater part of his fortune as charity is true, then Kierkegaard would scarcely
have had time to do anything else but go around handing out shillings. By
comparison, charity did not make nearly as great an impact on Kierkegaard’s
budget as the carriage tours for which he was famous, even in his life-
time. Receipted monthly bills from Lassen, the hired coachman from Lille
Helliggejststræde, show that in 1850 Kierkegaard spent 132 rixdollars on
carriage rides alone.