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Magdalene Charlotte Hedevig Schimmelmann, née Schubart, (Norway 1757-Copenhagen 1816), was a Danish noble and salonist.

Magdalene Charlotte was born to Lieuntenant Carl Rudolph Schubart (1714-59) and Inger Løvenskiold (1732-1808) and married the statesman Count Heinrich Ernst Schimmelan (1747-1831) in 1782. After the coup of the crown prince in 1784, her husband became minister, and she became Denmark's most famous salonist.

Her salon was organized according to the French pattern and was renowned abroad. The latest developments in science, politics and culture were discussed. She considered it a profession to be a salonist. Her salon gathered philosophers and politicians, and played a part in the country's political scene. It was inspired by a form of "aristocratic humanism", and by the ideas of the French revolution in 1789. Her husband opened schools, which she protected, and argued for the abolition of slavery, even though they owned plantations in the Danish West Indies. Until 1807, her political circle of ministers earned money by trading with countries involved in the Napoleonic wars, which made her salon considered to be a center of political corruption, which made it unfashionable.

[edit] See also

• Christine Sophie Holstein

[edit] References

• http://www.kvinfo.dk/side/597/bio/1197/origin/170/