1872 in Denmark

Incumbents

• Monarch – Christian IX
• Prime minister – Ludvig Holstein-Holsteinborg

  Events

• 1 April – The Danish Meteorological Institute is founded.
• 3 August – Prince Carl, the future King Haakon VII of Norway, is born to Crown Prince Frederick and Crown Princess Louise.
• 20 September – The 1872 Folketing election is held, resulting in a victory for the United Left.
• 12–14 November – The 1872 Baltic Sea storm surge floods large parts of Lolland and Falster. 80 people are killed, 50 ships are wrecked on the east coast of Zealand and other islands, low-lying areas along the Øresund, in Eastern Jutland and on Bornholm are also hard hit.
• 12 December – The central battery ironclad Odin is launched from the Naval Dockyard in Copenhagen.

  Date unknown

• The Book on Adler, a book on pastor Adolph Peter Adler by philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, is published posthumously.
• Brumleby, an enclave of terraced houses and one of the earliest examples of social housing, is completed in Copenhagen.
• Fritz Hansen, a furniture design company, is founded.
• Svendborg Gymnasium, one of the largest upper secondary schools in Denmark, is founded as Svendborg Realskole.

  Births

January–June

• 15 January – Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen, arctic explorer, author and ethnologist
• 16 January – Carl Christensen, systematic botanist, later superintendent at the Copenhagen Botanical Museum
• 17 January – Gudmund Schütte, philologist and historian
• 12 February – Oscar Stribolt, stage and film actor during the silent film era
• 20 March – Karin Michaëlis, journalist and author
• 7 April – Alhed Larsen, painter
• 8 April – Laurits Larsen, Olympic sport shooter, bronze medalist in team free rifle at the 1912 Summer Olympics
• 13 June – Sigvart Werner, amateur photographer famous for his artistic landscape photographs

  July–December

• 9 July – Ejnar Nielsen, painter and illustrator, central proponent of Symbolist painting
• 27 July – Jens Olsen, clockmaker, locksmith and astro-mechanic, constructor of the World Clock in Copenhagen City Hall
• 3 August – Prince Carl, the future King Haakon VII of Norway
• 1 September – Morten Pedersen Porsild, botanist active in Greenland
• 23 September – Valdemar Rørdam, national conservative poet, author of "Denmark in a Thousand Years"
• 11 October – Carl William Hansen, author, Luciferian, wandering bishop and occultist
• 12 October – Carl Emil Krarup, telegraph engineer, mainly known for the invention of the Krarup cable, a kind of loaded cable
• 18 November – Johannes Giersing, chess master
• 27 December – Georg Høeberg, composer and conductor

  Deaths

• 4 March – Carsten Hauch, poet
• 5 March - Alfred Hage, merchant and landowner
• 10 April – Christine Løvmand, artist specializing in painting flowers and still lifes
• 17 June – Mathilde Fibiger, feminist, novelist and telegraphist
• 16 August – Andreas Flinch, goldsmith, wood-engraver and lithographer
• 2 September – N. F. S. Grundtvig, pastor, author, poet, philosopher, historian, teacher and politician
• 3 September – Anders Sandøe Ørsted, botanist, mycologist, zoologist and marine biologist