Ellef Ringnes

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ellef Ringnes (1920)

Ellef Ringnes (born October 25, 1842 in Krødsherad , † March 15, 1929 in Oslo ) was a Norwegian entrepreneur and patron . Among other things, he is known for his financial support to polar researchers Fridtjof Nansen and Otto Sverdrup .

Life

Ellef Ringnes was born in 1842 as the son of the farmer Anders Knudsen Ringnes (1813-1875) and his wife Maren Amundsdatter (1815-1876).

Ringnes began his professional career at the age of 18 as a traveling salesman for the Christiania brewery. In 1876 he founded the Ringnes & Co. brewery together with his older brother Amund Ringnes and the financier Axel Heiberg . Ellef was in charge of the commercial management, while his brother was responsible for production . From 1882 to 1896 he sat on the city council of Christiania, today's Oslo. In 1894 he was appointed to the Scientific Society at Christiania ( Videnskabsselskabet i Christiania ), today's Norwegian Academy of Sciences . Ellef Ringnes co-founded the Holmenkollenbahn in 1896 .

Together with Axel Heiberg and the shipowner Thomas Fearnley (1841–1927), the Ringnes brothers collected private donations for Nansen's Fram expedition from 1893 to 1896. The Ringnes & Co. company alone donated 6,000 crowns . Again with Heiberg, Amund and Ellef Ringnes financed the Second Fram Expedition from 1898–1902 under Captain Otto Sverdrup. The Norwegian Parliament paid 20,000 of the total cost of 216,000 crowns . The remainder was shared equally by the sponsors. The expedition led to extensive geographical discoveries in the Canadian Arctic (about 150,000 km²). Sverdrup named the three largest of the newly discovered islands Amund-Ringnes- , Ellef-Ringnes- and Axel-Heiberg-Insel .

For his services, Ellef Ringnes was decorated with the Order of Saint Olav ( Knight's Cross 1896, Commander 1901, Commander with a Star 1908).

Ellef Ringnes was married to Karen Tonette ("Kaja") Maartmann (1851-1934), the daughter of the merchant and MP Knud Geelmuyden Fleischer Maartmann (1821-1888) , since June 30, 1869 . The couple had 14 children.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Fridtjof Nansen: In night and ice . Volume I, Brockhaus, Leipzig 1897, p. 44
  2. ^ Otto Sverdrup: Nyt Land. Fire Aar i arktiske Egne , Vol. 2, Aschehoug, Kristiania 1903, p. 526
  3. ↑ a b Otto Sverdrup: Nyt Land. Fire Aar i arktiske Egne , Vol. 1, Aschehoug, Kristiania 1903, p. 2


personal data
SURNAME Ringnes, Ellef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Norwegian entrepreneur and patron
DATE OF BIRTH October 25, 1842
PLACE OF BIRTH Krødsherad
DATE OF DEATH March 15, 1929
Place of death Oslo