The Danish newspaper Fædrelandet (“The fatherland”) was published over the years 1834-82; in the beginning as a weekly paper, later (from 1840) as a daily. In the 1830s, ’40s and ’50s it was regarded as the nation’s leading opposition voice pleading for a free constitution. Driving forces behind the newspaper were poets and national-liberal politicians, among them C.N. David, Carl Ploug, Orla Lehmann and D.G. Monrad; its readers were primarily the upper middle classes and artists/intellectuals.

One of the paper’s main interests was to initiate a clear culturally and politically liberal profile, merging national politics with the visual arts and written word in a rhetorically powerful tone. Another core mission was to stimulate debate against autocracy; this had to be done very subtly under existing censorship. As a special feature, the newspaper focused its efforts on publishing readers’ letters as a strategy of democracy, rather than printing objective news. This approach often resulted in a nationalistic tone: letters calling for freedom and motivating people to stand up for the country were seemingly given priority, compared to letters dealing with non-liberal issues.

Many Danes travelling abroad or doing the Grand Tour to Italy (including the Scandinavian colony in Rome) received the newspaper by postal service. After 1864, its influence declined, primarily due to the failure of the politics of the national liberals and the defeat of the Schleswig-Holstein War.