H.C. Andersen centret

1847

1847: Collected Works in German

January - February

The first volume of the German Gesammelte Werke (Collected Works) is published by Lorck in Leipzig. The title is Das Märchen meines Lebens ohne Dichtung I-II (German for: The Nonfictional Fairy-tale of My Life) . This is HCA's first official autobiography which is thus internationally launched - it is translated by Mary Howitt and released in England during HCA's visit there in the summer of 1847 - 8 years before publication of an official Danish autobiography. An American pirate copy of Mary Howitt's translation, The True Story of My Life, is released in the same year in Boston.

21 February

The new Casino theatre is opened. Thomas Overskou, dramatist and theatre historian, had managed to break the monopoly held by the Royal Theatre, which had, up till then, had the sole right to conduct theatre business within Copenhagen's ramparts. Overskou had persuaded the king, Christian VIII, to license him (issued 3rd August 1846) to run a popular theatre on Sct. Annæ Plads. Overskou does not, however, manage to get the theatre up and running.
Instead, it is the founder of Tivoli Gardens, Georg Carstensen, who in fact has the building constructed. As a joint-stock company, Casino attempts, without much success, to use the building for a winter Tivoli. Regarding the status of Casino before H.W. Lange became director and HCA became house-dramatist, HCA reports in Mit Livs Eventyr (The Fairy Tale of My Life): "For a time, shares in Casino were worth so little that one share was sold for a glass of punch, or so the story goes".

17 March

Sits for the painter C.A. Jensen, who makes a new portrait of HCA for Jørgen Hansen Koch, master builder to the court. HCA was often invited to dinner at Koch's home. Koch was married to Ida Wulff.

1847: The First Trip to England

20 March

Reads fairy-tales aloud for the Students' Association. "The room was jam-packed, I dreadfully nervous. It went quite well" (the almanac).