Harald Hansen (businessman)

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Harald Andreas Hansen (24 March 1835 – 10 December 1902) was a Danish businessman and politician. He was born in Copenhagen to Andreas Nicolai Hansen and Emma Eliza Grut. He finished school in 1851 and earned a cand.phil. degree in 1852. He then studied commerce in England and Germany and traveled widely in the United States, Australia, and the Far East.

In 1859, while still abroad, he joined his father’s firm, A. N. Hansen & Co. His older brother Alfred had joined the firm in 1856. The two brothers ran the company after their father’s death in 1873. At first Alfred had a leading role, but after Alfred died in 1893 Harald became the sole owner. The company ran a rice and flour mill, a pig farm with a slaughterhouse at Bodenhoffs Plads in Christianshavn, and its own fleet of ships. After fires destroyed the mills in 1885 and 1890, shipping became more important. Harald sold Bodenhoffs Plads to Privatbanken a few years before he died and focused on shipping.

Harald Hansen was active in politics. He served on the Copenhagen City Council from 1870 to 1875 and on the Landsting from 1879 to 1882 and again from 1886 to 1891. He cared about trade and shipping. He belonged to the Højre party but often disagreed with it, especially about expanding the Port of Copenhagen. He supported expansion but opposed the idea of a free port, and he left national politics when Free Port plans were adopted. He was a member of Grosserer-Societetet’s committee from 1893 to 1902.

In 1871 he married Anna Georgiana Cécile de Dompierre de Jonquiéres. They had five children and lived at Sankt Annæ Plads 17 from 1873. Harald Hansen was made a Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog in 1886. He is depicted in Peder Severin Krøyer’s 1888 painting From Copenhagen Stock Exchange in Børsen. He died on 10 December 1902 and is buried in Gentofte Cemetery.

After his death, his sons Andreas Nicolai Hansen and Allan Berry Hansen took over the business. One of Harald’s daughters, Esther Carstensen (1873–1955), became a leading women’s rights activist and editor of the Danish Women’s Society journal.