Else Fenger
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Else Fenger (18 June 1737 – 27 January 1811) was a Danish businessperson and slave trader.[1] She managed the soap and slave trading company Borre & Fenger in Copenhagen after the death of her spouse Peter Fenger (d. 1774). She was one of few women in Denmark of her time to manage a major company.
Biography
[edit]Else Brock was born on 18 June 1737 in Randers, the daughter of merchant Rasmus Brock (1695-1752) and Marie Kirstine Andersdatter Knudsen (1710–45).[2] She was the younger sister of businessman Niels Brock.
She married Peter Fenger on 17 June 1758 in the Church of Our Saviour in Copenhagen. Her spouse was a major industrialist, but at the time of his death, his partner Peter Borre had retired and Fenger had mismanaged the factory to a point that it was threatened by ruin and the family's palatial home in Copenhagen near public auction. Else Fenger managed to get the company back on its feet and keep the family's luxurious living standard and became a well known and respected business figure. Many anecdotes are told about her.
References
[edit]- ^ Gold, Carol, 1942- (2018). Women in business in early modern Copenhagen : 1740-1835. Museum Tusculanum. ISBN 978-87-635-4597-6. OCLC 1038577313
- ^ "Peter Fenger" (in Danish). Dansk Biografisk Leksikon. Retrieved 7 February 2019.