REVENTLOW, CHRISTIAN DITLEV FREDERIK, COUNT

(Lensgreve) born March 11, 1748, Copenhagen, Den. died Oct. 11, 1827, Lolland Danish state official whose agrarian reforms led to the abolition of serfdom in Denmark. Reventlow traveled to several western European countries in the 1760s to study economic conditions. He returned to Denmark in 1770 and entered state service in 1773. He experimented with agrarian reform on the Lolland estates, which he inherited in 1775. In 1784 he was named head of the Rentekammeret (Exchequer), with responsibility for agriculture. On the basis of four earlier experiments he had conducted, Reventlow took measures to ease the lot of crown serfs. In 1786 he persuaded Crown Prince Frederick (later Frederick VI) to create an agrarian commission to study the conditions of the peasantry as a whole. The resulting reforms in 1787 and 1788 put an end to Danish serfdom. Later measures of Reventlow led to clearly defined terms of voluntary peasant service on the large estates. Reventlow retired from public service in 1813 after being dismissed from his post.