Anders Sandøe Ørsted

For his nephew of the same name, see Anders Sandøe Ørsted (botanist).

Anders Sandøe Ørsted
Prime Minister of Denmark
In office 21 April 1853 – 12 December 1854
Monarch	Frederick VII
Preceded by	Christian Albrecht Bluhme
Succeeded by	Peter Georg Bang
Personal details
Born	21 December 1778(1778-12-21) Rudkøbing
Died	1 May 1860(1860-05-01) (aged 81)

Anders Sandøe Ørsted (21 December 1778, Rudkøbing – 1 May 1860) was a Danish politician and jurist. He served as the Prime Minister of Denmark in 1853-1854 as leader of the Cabinet of Ørsted.

He is considered one of the most important jurists in 19th century Danish legal history. He was a pioneer of connecting jurisprudence and practice and both as a judge and as an author, he successfully worked on making practice the foundation of legislation. Relatively early, he was connected to the state administration and from 1825 to 1848, he was “generalprokurør” (juridical adviser of the government).

His political career was one of paradoxes. As a royal councillor of the absolute monarchy, he was rather liberal and tolerant and therefore often unpopular with the more conservative elements. As the opposition grew stronger however, he became more conservative and as prime minister, he was considered a full-blood reactionary. His attempt to charter a very conservative constitution led to cooperation between the king and the liberals that forced him to resign. In 1855, he was impeached on the charge of breaking the constitution, but he was acquitted and retired to private life.

He was the brother of the famous physicist Hans Christian Ørsted (1777-1851), and uncle of the botanist Anders Sandøe Ørsted (1816-1872).

References

• Dansk Biografisk Leksikon, vol. 16, 1984.
• Svend Thorsen: De danske ministerier, vol 1., Copenh. 1967.

Political offices
Preceded by Christian Albrecht Bluhme	Prime Minister of Denmark 21 April 1853 – 12 December 1854	Succeeded by Peter Georg Bang
Preceded by Peter Georg Bang	Interior Minister of Denmark 21 April 1853 – 29 April 1854	Succeeded by Frederik Ferdinand von Tillisch
Preceded by Carl Frederik Simony	Kultus Minister of Denmark 21 April 1853 – 12 December 1854	Succeeded by Carl Christian Hall

Persondata
Name	Orsted, Anders Sandoe
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	21 December 1778
Place of birth	Rudkøbing
Date of death	1 May 1860
Place of death