Oehlenschläger was confirmed in 1795, and was to have been apprenticed to a tradesman in Copenhagen. He also entered the stage where he was offered a small position. In 1797 he made his appearance on the boards in several successive parts, but soon discovered that he possessed no real histrionic talent. Jurist Anders Sandøe Ørsted (1778–1860) who would later marry his sister Sophie, persuaded him to quit the theatre, and in 1800 he entered the University of Copenhagen. He was disturbed in his studies by the death of his mother, by his inveterate occupation with poetry, and finally by the First Battle of Copenhagen in April 1801, which, however, inspired a dramatic sketch ("April the Second 1801"), the first work of the kind by his pen that we possess.