page_title: Benjamin Wegner
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Benjamin Wegner / Early life
caption_attribution_description: English: Henriette Seyler drawn by her sister Molly Seyler in 1827 Norsk bokmål: Påskrift: På baksiden: Bedstemor Henriette Wegner født SeylerDepicted person&#58; &#32;Henriette Wegner
context_page_description: Jacob Benjamin Wegner was a Norwegian business magnate, estate owner and timber merchant.
  Born in Königsberg, he moved to Berlin around 1820 and established an independent business as an agent in the British timber and grain trade, and became a close associate of the London firm Isaac Solly and Sons. In 1822, he relocated to Norway, after he had bought Blaafarveværket on behalf of a consortium led by the Berlin banker Wilhelm Christian Benecke. From 1822 to 1849, he was Director General and one of two owners of Blaafarveværket; the company was Norway's largest and most successful industrial enterprise in the first half of the 19th century and by far the world's largest producer of cobalt blue. He was also owner of Frogner Manor, the largest co-owner of the Hafslund estate, a co-owner of the Hassel Iron Works and a co-owner of the timber firm Juel, Wegner & Co. Most of his business activities, both in the timber, grain and cobalt segments, focused heavily on export to England, where he spent much time throughout his life.
  He served as consul general to Norway of the sovereign city-republics of Hamburg, Lübeck and Bremen, and as vice consul of the Kingdom of Portugal.
context_section_description: Jacob Benjamin Wegner, who went by the name of Benjamin, was born in Königsberg, an important port city on the coast of the Baltic Sea. He was the son of Police Commissioner in Königsberg Johann Jacob Wegner (ca. 1757–1797) and Regina Dorothea Harder (1770–1813). His father had previously been married to Regina Dorothea's sister Anna Christina Harder (1765–1791). His father died on 12 January 1797, and his mother remarried to shipbuilder Philipp Gutzeit in 1798. He had a brother, Friedrich Salomon Wegner (born 1793), and several half-siblings from his parent's two other marriages. Philipp Gutzeit was a younger brother of ship's captain and shipbuilder Benjamin Gutzeit, who was the father of the industrialist Wilhelm Gutzeit, the founder of one of Stora Enso's two principal predecessor companies.
  Benjamin Wegner received a solid commercial education and joined a leading Königsberg firm as an apprentice.
caption: His wife Henriette Seyler (1805–75), daughter of Berenberg Bank co-owner L.E. Seyler, drawn by her sister Molly in 1827
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