page_title: Benjamin Wegner
section_title: Family
hierarchical_section_title: Benjamin Wegner / Family
caption_attribution_description: English: Aase and her husband, barrister Harald Nørregaard, painted by Edvard Munch. Harald Nørregaard was a close friend and supporter of Munch, and was Chairman of the Norwegian Bar Association and founded the notable law firm (now known as) Advokatfirmaet Hjort
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: On 15 May 1824, Benjamin Wegner married Henriette Seyler (1805–1875) in St. Nicholas' Church, Hamburg. She was a member of the Berenberg banking dynasty of Hamburg, one of the city's most prominent Hanseatic families, and was the daughter of the banker L.E. Seyler (1758–1836) and Anna Henriette Gossler (1771–1836). Her father was a co-owner of Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. (Berenberg Bank), President of the Commerz-Deputation, and a member of the Hamburg Parliament, and she was a granddaughter of the Swiss-born merchant turned theatre director Abel Seyler and Sophie Elisabeth Andreae from Hanover on her father's side and of the Hamburg bankers Johann Hinrich Gossler and Elisabeth Berenberg on her mother's side. Through her paternal grandfather, she was also descended from the Calvinist theologian Friedrich Seyler and from the Burckhardt, Merian, Faesch, Socin and Meyer zum Pfeil patrician families of Basel, and through her mother from families such as Amsinck and Welser. Henriette Seyler was a niece of Hamburg senator and banker Johann Heinrich Gossler II and a first cousin of Hamburg First Mayor Hermann Gossler (1802–1877). Upon her father's death, Henriette Seyler became a co-owner of Berenberg Bank until 31 December 1836.
  Benjamin and Henriette Wegner had four sons and two daughters, all of whom were born in Norway, where they have many notable descendants. Their oldest son Johann Ludwig Wegner (1830–1893) was a judge and married Blanca Bretteville, a daughter of Prime Minister Christian Zetlitz Bretteville; their second son Heinrich Benjamin Wegner (1833–1911) was a timber merchant and married Henriette Vibe, a daughter of the classical philologist Ludvig Vibe; their oldest daughter Sophie Wegner (1838–1906) married colonel and aide-de-camp to king Charles Hans Jacob Nørregaard; their youngest daughter Anna Henriette Wegner (1841–1918) married the theologian Bernhard Pauss; their youngest son George Wegner (1847–1881) was a supreme court barrister.
  Benjamin Wegner was the grandfather of the lawyer, county governor and chief of police Benjamin Wegner (1868–1949), of the humanitarian and women's rights leader Olga Wegner (the wife of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Karenus Kristofer Thinn), of the internationally noted war correspondent Benjamin Wegner Nørregaard, of the noted lawyer, President of the Norwegian Bar Association and founder of the law firm Hjort Harald Nørregaard, of the wine merchant and consul in Tarragona Ludvig Nørregaard, of the surgeon and President of the Norwegian Red Cross Nikolai Nissen Paus, of the lawyer and Director at the Norwegian Employers' Confederation George Wegner Paus and of the engineer and industrial leader Augustin Paus.
caption: Benjamin Wegner's grandson Harald Nørregaard, painted by Edvard Munch (1899)
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