Bendix Frantz Ludwig Schow
Bendix Frantz Ludwig Schow (20 April 177818 August 1839) was the mayor of Aabenraa from 1805 to 1837. A German-speaking member of the nobility of Schleswig-Holstein, he played an important role in a period when the rise of nationalism started to create conflicts between the German-speaking minority ruling classes and the Danish-speaking lower-classes of Schleswig. Early life Schow was born and raised in Rendsburg in Schleswig. His father, Jørgen von Schouw, was oberst in the Danish military, serving most of his career in the duchies. Schow studied law at the university in Kiel and graduated in May of 1797. He moved to Copenhagen to work an unpaid internship in Rentekammeret in 1800, and with unusual speed, got a position in the German Chancellery (Danish: Tyske Kancelli) in 1802. While in Copenhagen, he befriended Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann, later to be an important figure in the German nationalist movement to make the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein independent German states, independent of Denmark. Mayor of Aabenraa In 1805, the 27-year-old Schow was appointed by the king as new mayor and official secretary of Aabenraa. That same year, perhaps due to his new appointment, he married Georgine Johanne Christiane Sophie Callisen (1782–1849), daughter