Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Oersted, Hans Christian

(Encyclopedia)Oersted or Ørsted, Hans Christian häns krĭsˈtyän örˈstĭᵺ [key], 1777–1851, Danish physicist and chemist. He was professor at Copenhagen from 1806. His discovery (1819) that a magnetic need...

Andersen, Hans Christian

(Encyclopedia)Andersen, Hans Christian, 1805–75, Danish poet, novelist, and writer of fairy tales. Born to an illiterate washerwoman and reared in poverty, he left Odense at 14 for Copenhagen, where he lived with...

Branner, Hans Christian

(Encyclopedia)Branner, Hans Christian, 1903–66, Danish writer. Branner's early novels, often concerned with the irrational fears of childhood, include The Child Playing on the Shore (1937). With The Riding Master...

Christian I

(Encyclopedia)Christian I krĭsˈchən [key], 1426–81, king of Denmark (1448–81), Norway (1450–81), and Sweden (1457–64), count of Oldenburg, and founder of the Oldenburg dynasty of Danish kings. In 1460 he...

Christian V

(Encyclopedia)Christian V, 1646–99, king of Denmark and Norway (1670–99), son and successor of Frederick III. His minister, Griffenfeld, who until his fall in 1676 dominated Christian's reign, made the monarchy...

Christian X

(Encyclopedia)Christian X, 1870–1947, king of Denmark (1912–47) and Iceland (1912–44), son and successor of Frederick VIII and brother of King Haakon VII of Norway. He granted (1915) a new constitution that i...

Genscher, Hans Dietrich

(Encyclopedia)Genscher, Hans Dietrich hänsˈ dēˈtrĭk gĕnˈshər [key], 1927–2016, German political leader. A lawyer and Liberal party member in East Germany, he left the East in 1952, joining the Free Democr...

Delbrück, Hans

(Encyclopedia)Delbrück, Hans häns dĕlˈbrük [key], 1848–1929, German historian, professor at the Univ. of Berlin. His Geschichte der Kriegskunst [history of the art of warfare] (4 vol., 1900–1927) is notabl...

Baldung, Hans

(Encyclopedia)Baldung or Baldung-Grien, Hans häns bälˈdo͝ong, –grēn [key], c.1484–1545, German painter and printmaker, active mainly at Strasbourg. He was surnamed Grien or Grün because of his fondness fo...

Carossa, Hans

(Encyclopedia)Carossa, Hans häns kärôsˈä [key], 1878–1956, German poet and novelist. His autobiographical novel Childhood (1922, tr. 1930) and its sequels (1928, 1941) are noted for clear, graceful style. F�...