Christiane Birgitte Koren was born and grew up in Kastrup, where her father ran a factory. She married the Norwegian Lower Court Judge Johan Koren and lived in Norway from 1787. Five of her eight children died before adulthood. She met Knud Lyne Rahbek, Heinrich Steffens, and Adam Oehlenschläger on a journey to Denmark in 1802, and these literary friendships gave her the courage and opportunity to publish Dramatiske Forsøg in 1803.
She is best known for her diaries “Moer Korens” Dagbøger, 1808-1810 and 1813-1815, published as a collected edition in 1915, and Dagbog for Kristiane Koren: paa en Reyse fra Norge til Dannemark begyndt den 6. september 1802, published in 1945. From the perspective of her dual nationality, she describes the period and its cultural personalities warmly, but critically. The diaries are a lively account of life at Madam Møller’s guest house, where she lived in the room next to the young Oehlenschläger during the period when he made his debut and participated in life in the circles of your artists. Her writing is characterised by the Enlightenment’s belief in reason.
