author
Carl Vilhelm Behagen Castenschiold
1837–1919
A Danish officer and estate owner, he is remembered for a vivid firsthand memoir of the 1864 war at Dybbøl. His writing brings military history close through direct experience rather than grand speeches.
1 Audiobook
Indtryk og Minder fra Dybbøl
by Carl Vilhelm Behagen Castenschiold
About the author
Born at Borreby in 1837, he was a Danish officer and later a landowner with close ties to the estate where he was also born and died. Biographical sources describe him as Carl Vilhelm Behagen Castenschiold, educated as a cand.polyt. before moving into military training and service, eventually serving in the artillery.
He is especially associated with the Second Schleswig War. As a young artillery officer, he took part in the fighting around Dybbøl, and those experiences later became the basis for Indtryk og Minder fra Dybbøl, a memoir valued for its direct, personal view of the campaign.
Castenschiold died in 1919. Today he is chiefly of interest to readers of Danish history and memoir, since his work offers a grounded, eyewitness perspective on one of the defining conflicts of nineteenth-century Denmark.