Martin Hammerich

Martin Johannes Hammerich (4 December 1811 – 20 September 1881) was a Danish art historian, educator, author, and translator. He was part of the National Liberal movement and a member of the 1848 Danish Constituent Assembly. He was headmaster of Borgerdydskolerne from 1842 to 1867. Early life and education Hammerich was born in Copenhagen, the son of merchant Johannes Hammerich (1777–1852) and Meta Magdalena Adolph (1777–1823). He was the brother of theologian and historian Frederik Hammerich (1809–1877) and the father of engineer Holger Hammerich (1845–1915). He grew up in a wealthy home, graduating from Borgerdydskolerne in Christianshavn in 1828. He then enrolled at the University of Copenhagen where he won the 2nd prize for a paper on freedmen in Ancient Rome before graduating in theology in 1833. He obtained a master's degree in 1836 with a thesis on the Ragnarok myth and its role in Old Norse religion. It was the first thesis written in Danish at the university. He had pointed out the unreasonableness of treating a Nordic subject in Latin in an application and was granted a dispensation despite King Frederik VI's concerns. Travels and early academic career Hammerich's primary interests were philology and mythology, from Iceland to India. After his thesis, he went abroad to continue his studies. He initially traveled to the University of Bonn to study Sanskrit under professor August Wilhelm Schlegel (1767–1845) and later continued to Oxford University where he studied under English orientalist Horace Hayman Wilson (1786–1860). His next journey abroad, in 1838, took him to France, Italy, and Greece.