Adam Wilhelm Moltke

Born Aug. 25, 1785, in Einsiedelsborg; died Feb. 15, 1864, in Copenhagen. Count; Danish statesman.

Moltke held various ministerial posts from 1831, serving mainly as minister of finance. During the revolutionary upsurge of 1848 he headed a government (from 1848 to January 1852) that included the National Liberals. The Moltke government carried out several important bourgeois reforms that put an end to Danish absolutism. Denmark’s first constitution, adopted by a constituent assembly in June 1849, established a bicameral parliament (Rigsdag) and provided for universal suffrage for men.