Egmont Harald Petersen

Egmont Harald Petersen, 1913

Egmont Harald Petersen (born October 3, 1860 in Copenhagen ; † August 5, 1914 there ) was a Danish publisher and founder of the Egmont Foundation .

Life

Egmont Harald Petersen was born out of wedlock to Karen Petrine Peterson . Nothing is known about the father except that his name was Egmont. The mother made a living as a seamstress and operator of a small guesthouse. Egmont Harald grew up with his relatives in his mother's home village, always in close contact with her. At the age of 13 he left school to do an apprenticeship as a typesetter in Copenhagen. He lived with his mother again. After graduating, at just 17 years old, Petersen wanted to work but couldn't find a job. His mother encouraged him to become self-employed and even provided the money to buy a hand press by lending her entire household including the sewing machine. On the day he picked up his press, it was May 17, 1878, Petersen found a 25-ore coin. It was supposed to become a symbol for his business establishment and his lucky charm (and is still in the board office of the Egmont publishing group to this day).

Petersen started his one-man printing company P. Petersen Druckerei in his mother's kitchen, later in one of the maids' rooms - the company was run in his mother's name, since Egmont Harald was still a minor and was only to be renamed shortly before his death . Just two years later, the order books were so full that he had to move to new premises, where, in addition to further printing machines, he also hired his first employees. Until his death, Petersen traveled a lot and acquired more and more knowledge and new methods of generating pressure. In 1892 he was the first Dane to produce colored prints and was henceforth called KunstPetersen (also in view of the fact that Petersen was only satisfied with his work when everything was perfect down to the smallest detail).

By 1901 the printing presses were so powerful that Petersen bought a small women's magazine in order to utilize its capacities. He rearranged the content of the sheet and made a family sheet out of it. The circulation had already risen to over 100,000 in 1911 and is now the most successful magazine in Scandinavia. On March 21, 1914, about half a year before his death, he was granted the honor of holding the title of Royal Court Printer , which the publishing group still holds today.

Egmont Harald Petersen had married Anna Elisabeth Abel , a distant cousin , in 1890 . Within ten years the family grew around the daughters Dagmar , Inger and Karen as well as the sons Axel and Holger . The family lived rather modestly by their standards. Despite the staff, parents and children had very intensive contact, which was not everyday for this time and the circles in which the Petersens moved. Petersen had been ailing since late 1913 and was due to have an operation in May 1914 on suspicion of stomach cancer. In anticipation of an unfortunate ending, he wanted to settle his estate. To preserve the company, it was donated to a foundation. The reason for this was that all of his children were not of legal age and his wife Anna had no business acumen for the company. Egmont Harald Petersen died on August 5, 1914, two days after the outbreak of the First World War. The man, who once started alone, left a company with 115 employees with a turnover of 800,000 kroner (around 38 million kroner by today's standards). earned.

In 1951 the publisher was merged with the well-known Egmont Ehapa Verlag .

Curiosities

At that time, Danes did not come of age until they were 25. So Egmont's mother had to sign for everything Egmont did. Therefore, when he was 22 years old, he applied for recognition as an adult. Only then could his mother transfer the company to him.

Web links

• Publishing group website