Jørgen Juergensen

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Jørgen Jürgensen, portrayed by Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg

Jørgen Jürgensen , often Jørgensen or Jorgensen , (born March 29, 1780 in Copenhagen , Denmark ; † January 20, 1841 in Hobart , Vandiemensland, now Tasmania , Australia ) was a Danish adventurer, known as the dog day king ( Hundedagekongen ) after his self- appointment to Protector of Iceland in midsummer 1809 .

prehistory

Jørgen Jürgensen was the son of the court watchmaker Jürgen Jürgensen from Copenhagen and a younger brother of the watchmaker Urban Jürgensen . During his school days, he is said to have only had pranks and rascals on his mind. Nevertheless, he received very good reports, and in the end he learned with two years older. When he was 15, his father gave him his dream: he went to sea in British services, quickly learned about sailing technology and then got to know all the world's oceans. So he came, for example, to Port Jackson , today's Sydney Harbor , to New Zealand, as well as to Vandiemensland Tasmania .

In 1806 he returned home, where in 1807, after the British bombing of Copenhagen, he was given command of a ship under the changed name of Jørgen Jørgensen, with which he was supposed to go on a pirate voyage in the Baltic Sea. In fact, however, he was sailing directly towards a much larger English ship and had to surrender after a short, fierce battle. As a "prisoner of war on word of honor" he was arrested in London , where he made the acquaintance of the merchant Phelps, who was interested in the Icelandic trade in those days of the war. At that time the Royal Danish Monopoly ruled Iceland , and the Danish fleet was defeated, so could not maintain this trade.

"King of Iceland"

Jørgensen sailed twice to Iceland on British ships in 1809. The first time on a merchant ship as an interpreter and the second time on a frigate that Phelps had equipped and had a letter of promise. The Danish governor of Iceland, Count Trampe , already banned trade with Great Britain on June 13th. One day after the frigate arrived in Reykjavík on June 25, Count Trampe was arrested by the ship's crew.

With Phelps' support, Jørgen Jørgensen proclaimed on the same day, d. H. on June 26, 1809, the independence of Iceland from the Kingdom of Denmark and the rule of the people and himself as "Protector". All Danish officials and sales agents were placed under house arrest. The stocks of the monopoly trade were also confiscated, as was the state treasury.

Jørgen Jørgensen settled in the governor's seat, but avoided any form of personal enrichment. He had a fortress built, gave Iceland its own flag, and surrounded himself with a six-man bodyguard made up of local people, and appointed Jón Guðmundsson Effersøe , then 25, to be their chief . This bodyguard undertook various expeditions and arrested, for example, the country's chief judge, Ísleif Einarsson . On July 12, Jørgensen even declared himself provisional sole ruler of Iceland and announced the re-convening of the Althing (National Assembly) , which had been abolished by the Danish Crown shortly before .

In doing so, he contradicted the absolutist sentiments of the Danish king. The Icelandic population tended to wait and see, especially since it was suspected that Jørgensen was acting on behalf of the British government. In addition, Iceland was relatively defenseless.

In the Dansk Biografisk Leksikon from 1895 it says judgmental:

"As an explanation for Jørgensen's own demeanor, in addition to his eccentric character, he apparently already felt himself to be a naturalized Englishman at that time, without a trace of sympathy for his country of birth."

But this curious episode in the history of Iceland only lasted two months. The British warship The Talbot arrived on August 26th , and Jørgensen's “rule” came to an abrupt end. The captain harshly reprimanded Phelps. All of Jørgensen's proclamations were annulled and the self-proclaimed “king” was arrested on the spot for imprisonment in England. Two high-ranking Icelandic officials took over the state, while Count Trampe drove to England to testify.

The Icelanders from Jørgen Jørgensen's bodyguard remained unpunished, but Jón Guðmundsson Effersøe emigrated to the Faroe Islands , for example .

"The reason for Jón Guðmundsson's emigration from Iceland to the Faroe Islands is unknown, but although he and the other bodyguards were spared from prison, there may have been a chief judge who wanted revenge!"

- Don Brandt : Postage stamps tell the story of the Faroe Islands

In England

On the trip to England, fire suddenly broke out on the ship. According to witnesses, Phelps and Jørgensen saved the life of the crew with fearless courage. They were the captain's guests of honor until his arrival in London. After arriving in London Jurgensen sat a year in jail, because he (despite his word of honor to left) the country. He started gambling in prison and became more and more addicted to gambling .

Freed again, he lived an unsteady life and later had to serve two years in prison for unpaid gambling debts. From 1815–17 Juergensen was in the service of the British government in France and Germany, and according to his own report he visited Waterloo , Frankfurt, Weimar (Goethe), Dresden, Berlin and Potsdam ( Sanssouci ). When he returned to London, he continued his wild life and was eventually sentenced to another prison term for fraud. A later verdict then imposed deportation for life. In 1825 he was exiled to Tasmania.

In Australia

In Tasmania he changed his name to Jorgen Jorgenson. He was soon released from detention and went on many expeditions and explorations in the interior of the island. He was the first to describe the indigenous population. He became a prolific and successful writer about his adventurous life. His books were popular in Australia and England at the time, and his unprinted manuscripts were included in the British Museum . As an author, he wrote in English under the name Jorgenson . He wrote travelogues, theological and economic treatises, newspaper articles and autobiographical notes. In 1833 he finally married. In 1835 he was appointed “policecommand”.

Jorgen Jorgenson was found dead in Hobart on January 20, 1841, at the age of 60 (older sources say 1845 or 1850). He died a free man. He was buried in the Catholic cemetery.

reception

The Dansk Biografisk Leksikon from 1906 evaluates his literary work from the anti-democratic point of view of the time as follows:

“He tells well and was quick to grasp, but he is a superficial and plagiarizing phrase-thresher whose complete unreliability comes to the fore wherever it can be checked. J. is most likely a psychological phenomenon, a living head, but with a complete lack of moral support and dominated by the mood of the moment. His inclination for the exciting and adventurous and his desire to assert himself not only determine his life, but permeate everything he tells to the extent that he is not at all clear about the mixture of fiction and truth that is in particular makes up his own memory. Judging by his not a few notable English friends, he [but] must have been a winning personality. "

A plaque in his memory can still be found on the police station building. A relief of him and his wife is on a preserved bridge. He is still highly regarded in Australia today. For Tasmania he became a kind of "national saint". The replica of the Gokstad ship Jorgen Jorgensen ( Aegir since 2013 ), built in Perth in 1987 , was named after Jorgensen. In 2009 a successful play was staged in Reykjavík with the title Do you still know Jørgen?

plant

• The Convict King ( Wikisource in English)
• 1807 - Efterretning om engellændernes og nordamerikanernes fart og handel på Sydhavet ("Report on the voyage and trade of the English and North Americans in the Pacific")
• 1809 - Historical account of the revolution on the island of Iceland in the year 1809 (edited by Óðinn Melsted), University of Iceland Press, Reykjavík 2016 (Heimildasafn Sagnfraeðistofnunar, Volume 3) ISBN 978-9935-23-138-3 .
• 1815 - Tour through France and the Nederlands . London ("Tour through France and the Netherlands")
• 1817 - Travels through France and Germany ("Travels through France and Germany")

literature

• S. Schulesen: Jørgen Jørgensen's usurpation i Iceland i året 1809. 1832. ("Jørgen Jørgensen's usurpation in Iceland in 1809")
• James Francis Hogan: En deporteret konge eller beretning om Jørgen Jürgensen. 1892. ("A deported king, or the report on Jørgen Jürgensen")
• Marius Dalsgaard: Kongen på Iceland. 1916. (Novel: "The King of Iceland")
• Jónas Árnason: I husker vel Jørgen? Kongen af ​​Iceland. Drama, Gråsten 1984. (Drama "Do you still remember Jørgen? The King of Iceland")
• Preben dich: Hundedagekongen. Beretningen about Jørgen Jürgensen, en dansk eventyrer and og oprører, which skabte history i to verdensdele. Chr. Erichsen, Skive 1985, ISBN 87-555-1015-9 . ("Report on Jørgen Jürgensen, a Danish adventurer and rebel who made history in two continents")
• Dan Sprod: The Usurper. Jorgen Jorgenson and his turbulent life in Iceland and Van Diemen's Land 1780-1841 , Blubber Head Press, Sandy Bay, Tas. (Australia) 2001, ISBN 0-908528-29-9 .
• Sarah Bakewell : The English Dane. Novel. Vintage Books, London 2006, ISBN 0-09-943806-2 .
• Kr. Kaalund: Jürgensen, Jørgen . In: Carl Frederik Bricka (Ed.): Dansk biografisk Lexikon. Tillige omfattende Norge for Tidsrummet 1537-1814. 1st edition. tape 9 : Jyde – Køtschau . Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag, Copenhagen 1895, p. 7-10 (Danish, runeberg.org ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Kr. Kaalund: Jürgensen, Jørgen . In: Carl Frederik Bricka (Ed.): Dansk biografisk Lexikon. Tillige omfattende Norge for Tidsrummet 1537-1814. 1st edition. tape 9 : Jyde – Køtschau . Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag, Copenhagen 1895, p. 9 (Danish, runeberg.org ).
2. ↑ Don Brandt: Postage stamps tell the story of the Faroe Islands . Reykjavík 2006
3. ↑ Darling Harbor, Viking vessel, Jorgen Jorgensen