Marie Toft

Marie Toft was a Danish women's rights activist, pacifist and educator who was raised in Christiania, today's Oslo. She married Morten Wærn, the town clerk, who had been married to her sister until her death. They had no children. After her father's death, they moved to Copenhagen where her husband died in 1796. Marie Toft had inherited a large fortune from both her father and her husband. She left most of her money for the establishment of a boarding school where fatherless middle-class Norwegian and Danish girls could be trained to become good housewives. The school, known as Det Wærnske Institut, opened in 1814 and operated until 1921. It was later revived as a domestic science school and a nursing school. Marie Toft also donated money to other charitable causes, such as the Norwegian Cadet Corps and Herlufsholm School. She bought the title of gehejmekonferensrådinde in 1810 for a gift to the cadet corps. She died in Copenhagen in 1941 and was buried with her husband in Assistens Cemetery.