dal’s venerable building in Klareboderne, had been founded in 1787 by the
Society for Civic Virtue in order to provide the upper bourgeoisie a more
practical-orientedalternativetotheSchoolofOurLady,theLatingrammar
school better known as the Metropolitan School. Very quickly, however,
theSchoolofCivicVirtuedevelopedintoaregularLatinschool,andthanks
to the autocratic Michael Nielsen, who was the headmaster from 1813 to
1844,theschool earnedareputationof beingoneofthefinest inthecoun-
try. This reputation was in no small measure the result of iron discipline;
indeed, the headmaster’s motto was “Every boy who walks through Klare-
boderne should tremble.”
Like the merchant Kierkegaard, Headmaster Nielsen was a Jutlander and
was in every respect a man of the old school. Like many of his colleagues
he was a titular professor in his field, and there can be no doubt about his
qualificationsasaLatinist.Opinionsconcerninghispedagogicaltalentswere
less flattering, however, and Kierkegaard’s schoolmates seem to be more or
lessinagreementonthis.Forexample,F.L.Liebenberg,whosubsequently
became a literary scholar and an editor, remembered Headmaster Nielsen’s
“barbaric strictness,” and N.C.L. Abrahams, who became a professor of
French literature, called hi ma “tyrant and pedant,” while Pastor Edvard
Anger described hi mas a “despot,” adding that Nielsen “only taught us to
obey, to remain silent in the face of the most outrageous injustice, and to
write Latin compositions.” And for Orla Lehmann, who entered the uni-
versitythreeyearsbeforeKierkegaardandwhosubsequentlybecameapop-
ular liberal politician, the headmaster was nothing but “a peasant boy who
hadbattledhiswaythroughadversityandhadattainedarespectableposition
more by dint of strenuous work than of any exceptional intellectual gifts.
He bore the unmistakable stamp of that past, not merely in his coarse per-
sonality, but also in his notions of education, which had more to do with
chastisement than with encouragement, and were more concerned with
compelling respect than with inspiring us.”
When the pupils showed up at nine in the morning, Nielsen walked
througheachoftheclassrooms,punishingtardinesswithhisspecialty,called
a “double head-slap” (first with the back of the hand, then with the open
palm of the hand), accompanying this with abusive terms such as “scoun-
drel” and “jackass.” Punctuality was literally drummed into the children.
Transgressions were noted in the class’s demerit book and were punished
withdetention;caningwasNielsen’spunishmentformoreseriousoffenses.
In the normal course of events, he kept the students under control by fre-
quentlyuttering“sinde,sinde,”whichisJutlandicfor“keepstill,keepstill.”
Theonlytimedisciplinewasrelaxedwasduringthunderstorms,becauseon
these occasions Nielsen himself would become fearful, folding his hands18 {1813–1834}