Wegner (Norwegian family)

The industrialist Benjamin Wegner

Henriette Seyler (1805–1875), drawn by her sister Molly in 1822. She was a daughter of co-owner of Berenberg Bank Ludwig Erdwin Seyler and Anna Henriette Gossler

Frogner Manor, painted by I.C. Dahl for Benjamin Wegner.

Wegner is a Norwegian family whose members have been noted as industrialists and as lawyers.^[1][2]

History

The family is descended from the industrialist (Jacob) Benjamin Wegner (1795–1864), who was born in Königsberg and who immigrated to Norway in 1822 to become managing director and co-owner of Norway's largest industrial enterprise, Blaafarveværket. He also became the largest co-owner of Hafslund, one of Norway's largest estates, owner of Frogner Manor in Aker (now Oslo), co-owner of the Hassel Ironworks and co-owner of the timber firm Juel, Wegner & Co. Very little is known about Benjamin Wegner's family background. He married Henriette Seyler (1805–1875) in St. Nicholas' Church, Hamburg on 15 May 1824; she was a member of the Berenberg banking dynasty of Hamburg and daughter of co-owner of Berenberg Bank Ludwig Erdwin Seyler and Anna Henriette Gossler; she was a granddaughter of the Swiss-born theatre director Abel Seyler and his first, Hanoverian wife Sophie Elisabeth Andreae on her father's side and of the Hamburg bankers Johann Hinrich Gossler and Elisabeth Berenberg on her mother's side. In Norway, the Wegner family initially lived at Fossum Manor in Modum, and from 1836 at Frogner Manor in Aker.

Benjamin and Henriette Wegner were the parents of

• Judge Johan Ludwig Wegner (born 1830), who married Blanca Bretteville, daughter of Prime Minister Christian Zetlitz Bretteville
• Timber merchant Heinrich Benjamin Wegner (born 1833), who married Henriette Vibe, daughter of classical philologist Frederik Ludvig Vibe
• Elisabeth Sophie Dorothea Henriette Wegner (1838–1906), who married aide-de-camp to King Charles colonel Hans Jacob Nørregaard
• Anna Henriette Wegner (1841–1918), who married the educator and private school owner Bernhard Cathrinus Pauss
• Barrister (from 1875) George Mygind Wegner (1847–1881), who never married

Among Heinrich Benjamin Wegner's descendants are chief of police Jacob Benjamin Wegner (1868–1949), judge in Halden Rolf Benjamin Wegner (1898–1986), chief of police Rolf B(enjamin) Wegner (born 1940) and judge in Asker and Bærum Jens-Sveinung Wegner (born 1948).

Johann Ludwig Wegner and Blanca Bretteville were the parents of the noted feminist Olga Wegner (1858–1943), who married supreme court justice Karenus Kristofer Thinn. They were the parents of the noted lawyer Jakob Thinn.

Sophie Wegner was the mother of the internationally renowned war correspondent Benjamin Wegner Nørregaard, who served as Minister of the Interior in the Tianjin Provisional Government in China, of barrister and President of the Norwegan Bar Association Harald Nørregaard, who founded the law firm (now known as) Hjort, and of wine merchant and consul in Tarragona Ludvig Paul Rudolf Nørregaard. Henriette Wegner was the mother of the surgeon and President of the Norwegian Red Cross Nikolai Nissen Paus, of the lawyer and Director at the Norwegian Employers' Confederation George Wegner Paus and of the engineer and hydropower executive Augustin Paus.^{[2][3][1][4][5]}

References