Jens Immanuel Baggesen (Korsør 1764 – Hamburg 1826) was born into a poor family but, owing to his early talent, was given the means to enrol at the University of Copenhagen at the age of eighteen. In the capital, his poetic talent as well as his remarkable charm soon caught the attention of Christen Henriksen Pram, one of the leading poets of the day. Baggesen’s first poems were published in Pram’s periodical Minerva in 1783-84. His first main work, Komiske fortællinger (“Comical tales”), followed not long after and met with great enthusiasm.

Baggesen’s almost instant popularity received a blow after the publication of F.L.Æ. Kunzen’s ballad opera Holger Danske (“Ogier the Dane”) in 1789. The fact that Baggesen’s libretto was written in German caused great aversion, and a vicious salvo of polemics was directed towards the young poet, depicting him as an associate of the Germans.

This so-called Holger feud was an important catalyst for Baggesen to leave Denmark and travel through Europe with a grant from Prince Fredrik Christian. Between 1789 and his death in 1826 Baggesen would spend most of his years abroad, constantly moving back and forth between Denmark, Germany, France and Switzerland. During his travels he met some of the great minds of his day, including Klopstock, Wieland, Herder, Schiller, Fichte, Benjamin Constant and Mme de Staël. Baggesen considered himself a true cosmopolitan and, as he stated in 1802, “by nature a European in the widest sense of the word”.

His first journey through Germany and Switzerland, undertaken in 1789-90, inspired Labyrinthen (“The Labyrinth”), a remarkably lively account of his experiences and impressions in these two countries. In 1800, during a farewell party arranged as Baggesen was set to leave Denmark once again, a song was performed in his honour by the young poet and actor Adam Oehlenschläger. This affected Baggesen to such an extent that he embraced Oehlenschläger and metaphorically hailed him as his successor. Later on, however, Baggesen’s appreciation of Oehlenschläger changed to dislike. His reviews of Oehlenschläger’s later work were so ruthless and acerbic that they sparked off a feud which would split the Danish intellectual world for years and was fought out in court, lasting until 1819 and marking Baggesen’s definitive breach with Danish literary life.

In this Baggesenfejden, Oehlenschläger himself was reticent, responding only once and even then only obliquely. Baggesen’s main adversaries came from a generation of young poets and students who idolized Oehlenschläger and depicted Baggesen as the personification of the old, outworn century. Although there is some truth in this allegation of generational jealousy, Baggesen’s satirical, sharply formulated attacks against Oehlenschläger had a longer lasting effect on Danish literature than the latter’s poetry would ever have.