Peter Atke Castberg

Peter Atke Castberg was a Danish physician and professor who lived from 1779 to 1823 and is credited with founding modern deaf education in Denmark. Born in Copenhagen, he studied medicine at the University of Copenhagen and received his doctorate in medicine in 1802 after beginning practice at Frederiks Hospital. His work with deaf patients began with an attempt to cure deafness through galvanism, the use of electric current. Between 1803 and 1805 he toured deaf schools in Kiel and Paris and elsewhere, then reported to the government on the need for a school and began tutoring deaf students privately using the French method, which emphasized sign language. A law of 1807 founded the Royal Institute for the Deaf-Mute in Copenhagen, where he served as head and head teacher. He encouraged the Norwegian Andreas Christian Møller to teach there, and Møller became the first deaf teacher of the deaf in the Nordic countries. Castberg was made a Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog, and the Danish Deaf Foundation has awarded a Castberg Prize since 1970.