page_title: Johannes Theodorus Suhr
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Johannes Theodorus Suhr / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: A bill of lading from J. P. Suhr &amp; Søn with a drawing of coal loading in an English port. Now kept in Erhvervsarkivet.
context_page_description: Johannes Theodor Suhr was a Danish merchant and industrialist. He owned the Suhr House at Gammeltorv in Copenhagen as well as Sølyst north of the city and was the founder of the foundation, Den Suhrske Stiftelse.
context_section_description: When their father died in 1815, he and his elder brother Didrik Suhr joined the management of the company which was formally owned by their mother until her death in 1842. The company went through a difficult period with the settlement of its activities in Norway followed by an agricultural crisis but experienced new growth in the late 1820s and early 1830s. The company increasingly specialized in import of coal and iron from Sweden and England. In the 1830s, J. P. Suhr & Søn had a market share of more than 20% of the Danish import of coal and it later grew to 33 &. The company was also active as a money lender with ties to leading bankers in Hamburg.
  In 1827, Suhr moved into the industrial sector when he leased the rolling mill in Frederiksberg. He established a production of copper plates and installed the first large, Danish-built steam engine (20 jp) in 1828. In 1830, he acquired Brede Copper Mill (Brede Værk). In the 1850s, he sold those activities but continued to have investments in industrial enterprises  such as Ørholm, Strandmøllen and M. P. Allerup. He had also investments in industrial enterprises abroad.
  When his mother died in 1842, Suhr became the sole owner of the company after buying out his brother and sisters. At this point he had an estimated net worth of  800,000 Danish rigsdaler and by 1853 it had doubled to 1.6 million rigsdaler. In late 1855 he ceded the company to his nephew Ole Berendt Suhr (1813–1875) but remained active in it for another few years.
caption: A bill of lading from J. P. Suhr & Søn with a drawing of coal loading in an English port
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