Anna Catharina Asmussen

The "Tine" on the Husum market square

Anna Catharina Asmussen (born May 27, 1793 in Husum ; † November 14, 1868 there ) was a brewery and farm owner who left a large foundation to the city of Husum.

Life

Anna Catharina Asmussen was a daughter of the church mayor, senator and brewer Hans Asmussen (1743-1820). The ancestors on the paternal side had lived in the region since the end of the 16th century and worked there as brewers and farmers without exception. The ancestors of the mother Catharina, nee Woldsen (1760–1833) had also moved here at this time. Most of them were farmers and merchants, but there were also several senators, councilors and mayors of the city.

Anna Catharina Asmussen had a brother named Hans (1789–1827) and a brother named Christian Albrecht (1792–1858), who was second mayor and dichgrave of Porrenkooges in Husum for a long time. After the father died in 1820, the three siblings continued his brewery. The very frugal landlady served herself well into old age and sold yeast to her customers.

The Asmussen-Woldsen Foundation

After the death of her second brother in 1858, Anna Catharina Asmussen and her cousin August Friedrich Woldsen (1792–1868) gave the city their sole inheritance. It was such a large sum that it was called "Husum's immortal benefactor". For the foundation they chose the title “Asmussen-Woldsen's Legacy for the City of Husum”. Asmussen brought in the Rote Haubarg , whose 138 hectares of marshland were worth 64,000 Danish Reichstaler. August Friedrich Woldsen deposited 32,000 thalers.

The donors intended to support “the welfare of the city of Husum and its families”. According to the deed of foundation, they wanted to “work towards the intellectual and moral education of the residents”, help with impoverished poverty and increase prosperity “as far as possible”. The foundation should support students and seminarians with scholarships and pay bonuses to schoolchildren. In addition, a new waiting school was to be built, citizens in need were to be supported and the city and its surroundings were to be beautified.

The foundation came into force in 1872 with an administrative board and auditor. In 1904 their total capital was 450,000 marks. Even after the two world wars and intermittent inflation, the foundation had large estates, the Haubarg and a kindergarten.

Since 1902 a street in the city of Husum commemorates the founder. With the Asmussen-Woldsen memorial, there is a fountain designed by Adolf Brütt on the Husum market square, whose figure called "Tine" identifies the residents with Anna Catharina Asmussen.

literature

• Karl Ernst Laage : Asmussen, Anna Catharina . in: Schleswig-Holstein Biographical Lexicon . Volume 2. Karl Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1970, pp. 45–47