Henrik Pontoppidan

Hendrik Pontoppidan (21 March 1814 in Thisted – 22 February 1901) was a Danish merchant, consul and philanthropist. His parents were priest Børge P. Glahn and Mette Magdalene ( Glahn) but when he was three his father died and he was moved to Thisted to live with family there. Through his life Hendrik Pontoppidan worked extensively with agriculture advocacy and reform. He co-founded several organizations that helped farmers get organized.

He completed his youth studies and then moved abroad to study trade. He studied in Copenhagen, Altona and Manchester and settled in Hamburg. Here he built a large and respected trade and loan business which was connected to many Danish merchants. During the Panic of 1857 Pontoppidan received much help from his Danish connections and emerged from the crisis unscathed. Already in the 1840s the National Bank of Denmark started using him as a commissioner and in 1851 he was made Danish Consul in Hamburg. He proved an effective and impassioned proponent of Danish farmers of Danes living in Hamburg and he founded the Scandinavian Association and was the chairman of it for many years. Skanseparken in Aarhus contains a bust of Hendrik Pontoppidan by the sculptors Vilhelm Bissen and Rasmus Andersen.