User:Aholtman/Christen Pedersen Aaberg

Christen Pedersen Aaberg (15 September, 1819 in Aaberggaard near Vemb - 17 October, 1897, ibid) was a Danish landowner and politician. He was the son of the landowner Peder Christensen Aaberg (1796-1873) and Maren Christensdatter (c. 1794-1876), participated in the First Schleswig War 1848-50 and was the sole owner of the ancestral farm from 1860, a member of the Møborg Municipal Council from 1853 with a few interruptions until his death, its chairman from 1855. He stood as a candidate for the Folketing in Lemvig in 1859, was re-elected in 1861 and represented the electoral district until his death. From 1864-66 he was a member of the Rigsråd.

He was originally a member of the Bondevennernes Selskab, but left them during the constitutional struggle in 1865-66 as one of the "seven wise peasants", and since then belonged to the Centre Party (Mellempartiet) and from the mid-1870s to the Højre. He was not a great orator and never became a leading figure in major politics, but he had solid expertise in his field and was a member of the parliamentary finance committee in 1868-77, 1879-84 and 1887-97. He was interested in railways (he was instrumental in the Vemb-Lemvig Railway Act of 1874 and in the realisation of the Lemvig-Thyborøn Railway in 1894), coastal protection, the heathlands, navigation on the Limfjord, the delta of Ringkøbing Fjord, etc., and was considered an authority on these matters in his area. All his life he was close to Lars Dinesen, took part in the settlement negotiations in 1893-94, and in 1897 was one of those within the Højre who did most to preserve the Reedtz-Thott cabinet. In 1890 he became the first real farmer to be knighted in the Order of the Dannebrog.

He married Kirstine Zilstorff (9 September, 1816 in Agergaard, Bøvling Sogn - 5 February, 1903 in Aaberggaard), daughter of the musician and later owner Niels Sørensen Zilstorff (c. 1778-1843) and of Hanne Harpøth (1789-1848), on 8 December, 1851 in Møborg.

He is buried in Møborg. A monument was erected to him in Lemvig in 1899. He is depicted with a bronze relief portrait on the gravestone from 1907 and on contemporary woodcuts, e.g. from 1877.