Amalia Eriksson

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Amalia Eriksson, bronze (1997) by Lena Lervik

Amalia Eriksson (born November 18, 1824 in Jönköping , † January 25, 1923 in Gränna ) was a Swedish businesswoman who is considered the inventor of the polkagris , a sweet .

Life

Amalia Eriksson, née Lundström, was born in Jönköping in 1824 as the fourth of six children. Her parents were Katarina Hagen Andersdotter, who worked as a maid, and the farrier Hovslagaren Jonas Lundström. At the age of ten, she lost her five siblings, parents and relatives in a cholera epidemic .

In 1852 she started working as a housemaid for the surveyor Johan Alvin and his wife in Jönköping. When they moved to Gränna three years later, she followed them and married the tailor Anders Eriksson in 1857. For twelve crowns a year they rented a house on the main street, today's Brahegatan 2. In the following year, Amalia Eriksson gave birth to twins. One of the children was stillborn; they named the surviving daughter Ida. Anders Eriksson died of dysentery the week after Ida's birth and Amalia Eriksson was forced to earn a living for herself and her daughter after her widowhood.

classic polkagris

At the time, it was almost impossible for women to start their own businesses, but in some cases they were able to get exemptions for social reasons. In 1859 Amalia Eriksson applied to be allowed to produce “fine baked goods and so-called polkagrisar”, a kind of sugar candy with a peppermint flavor. After she received the permission of the Magistrate in Gränna, she opened a confectionery in the same year. It was the first in Sweden to produce Polkagris. Production in a former customs house at the southern entrance to the village developed well and Amalia Eriksson began to produce Polkagris poles, which were originally only made on weekends and holidays. To do this, she mixed and heated sugar, vinegar and water, among other things. A small part of the dough was colored red, while the rest was flavored with peppermint oil and kneaded for a very long time. Then the mass was stretched and the different colored strands were twisted together so that the curled candy canes were created. While Amalia Eriksson was the sole manufacturer at the beginning, other bakers in Gränna followed her example as her popularity grew.

Thanks to the Polkagrisar, Amalia Eriksson became wealthy. She was considered one of the most influential people in Gränna. In 1915, Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf and his wife Margaret visited their bakery, as did Carl von Sweden with his wife Ingeborg and their daughters Margaretha, Märtha and Astrid . Amalia Eriksson was 98 years old and died in 1923. She kept the recipe for Polkagris a secret and it was only revealed after her death. Her daughter Ida Eriksson made Polkagrisar until 1945.

Commemoration

She is represented in the collection of the Tekniska museet in Stockholm as one of important Swedish inventors from different eras. The Gränna Museum has an exhibition on local history, in which, among other things, the life of Amalia Eriksson is presented. In 1997, a bronze statue made by Lena Lervik in memory of her was erected in Södrapark in Gränna near Amalia Eriksson's house . Today the Polkagrisar are Gränna's trademarks. Every year on July 25th a world championship in Polkagris production takes place there. Polkagris was included in the Guinness Book of Records when the longest polkagris pole in the world was made at 287.7 meters in 1989.

further reading

  • Alexander Pietrow (CoolCrab): Polkagris . In: Atlasobscura.com . Retrieved December 26, 2019.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sophia Hughes: Amalia Eriksson statue. In: atlasobscura.com. Retrieved December 26, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b c d Svenskt UppfinnareMuseum: Amalia Eriksson - Polkagrisen from June 8, 2010. Accessed April 11, 2018
  3. ^ A b Destination Jönköping: Amalia Eriksson . Retrieved April 11, 2018
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Tekniska museet : Amalia Eriksson - Polkagrisen . Retrieved April 11, 2018
  5. ↑ Deutschlandfunk: A Sweet Swedish Tradition from September 15, 2013. Retrieved April 11, 2018
  6. ↑ Företagskällan: Amalia Eriksson - polkagrisens upphovskvinna . Lesson material, December 8, 2016. Accessed April 11, 2018
  7. ↑ Företagskällan: Amalia Eriksson . Anders Johnson, Entreprenör Lesson Material, September 16, 2015. Retrieved April 11, 2018
personal data
SURNAME Eriksson, Amalia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH November 18, 1824
PLACE OF BIRTH Jonkoping
DATE OF DEATH January 25, 1923
Place of death Gränna