Johan Garmann

Johan Garmann (* 1610 in Haderslev ; † 1673 ; buried April 2. On the Hovin manor in Aker ) was a Norwegian civil servant and merchant. He was part of a network of southern Jutland immigrants under the protection of the Danish governor in Akershus .

family

His parents were the councilor in Haderslev and later a merchant in Bragernes (today Drammen ) Johan Garmann the Elder (around 1580-1651) and his wife Boel Reiminck. his first marriage was around 1640 with Maren Dop († 1654), daughter of the canon and organist in Roskilde Willum Dop and his wife Boel Andersdatter. In his second marriage, he married Margrethe Jespersdatter († 1691 at the earliest) in Copenhagen in January 1661, widow of the Copenhagen merchant Henrik Rosenmeyer the Younger.

Civil service career

His parents had come to Christiania in 1628 and contacted the governor Jens Juel , who got him major commercial contracts with the king and the silver mine in Kongsberg . His son Johan entered the public finance department and made a career under his successors Juels, Christoffer Urne and Hannibal Sehested . Before 1638 he became a lock clerk in Akershus near Oslo, in 1640 a customs officer in Christiania, a clerk in the diocese of Akershus (= Oslo) and in 1647 a tax administrator at the newly established general commissioner. After the fall of Sehested in 1651, the commissariat was abolished in 1652, but Garmann continued his work as a tax administrator. After the land commissioner had been re-established in 1661, he was reappointed tax administrator in 1663. This land commissariat was originally set up as the central administration of state revenue in Norway, like the general commissariat had been. But his sphere of activity was actually limited to Østlandet . Garmann was Land Commissioner in this authority.

In the 1660s Garmann stayed for a long time in Copenhagen, where he met his second wife.

Private sector

His positions were very lucrative. In 1647 he received the royal tithe from the parish in Toten , a region in Oppland . A large part of the church tithe of the Akershus diocese was added. As a tax administrator he received 800 Rigsdaler annually from 1649, and as Land Commissioner from 1661 even 1,000 Rigsdaler. In 1652 he leased the Fossesholm estate with the associated sawmill in Eiker . On the side he was active in the timber trade by buying logs from the farmers, cutting them in his sawmill and then exporting the planks at a high profit. He became so rich that he lent money to the king during the Torstensson War of 1643–1645 and was given valuable land as pledge. Through his connections, he succeeded in exchanging land with crown estates to obtain much more valuable forest land than he gave in exchange. In 1664 he owned eleven sawmills and had large forest areas in Aker and Romerike that could be used for forestry purposes . When he sold Stalsberg Manor in Skedsmo to the governor Ulrik Fredrik Gyldenløve in 1668 , he did not mention that the local farmer was a co-owner of the associated sawmill. Garmann and Gyledenløve ensured that the king, with his absolutist power, declared the purchase agreement to be effective. In the following years the farmer ruined himself with the futile lawsuits for the return of his property share. Through further exchanges of goods, he managed to get almost the entire forest, the logs of which could be rafted to the Maridalsvannet , and built the first regulatory dams in the area to facilitate rafting.

Rådhusgata 7, called Garmannsgaarden. Today the seat of various writers' associations.

Representation in Christiania

In 1647 Garmann built the most elegant house to date in Christiania, today's Rådhusgata 7. It was a much more handsome building than the town hall, which had been built a year earlier. Towards the end of the 17th century the house was temporarily the seat of the deputy governor Just Høeg , and in 1733 it was donated by Christian VI. the city as the new town hall. In 1646 Garmann also secured one of the largest open spaces in the city with a size of 35 decares . In 1646 he acquired the Hovin manor in Aker by exchanging land. He lived there until his death in the spring of 1673. In the following year, his Wirwe married the Court Justice Christian Madssøn Lund, who managed a large part of the fortune. What was left of Garman's forest complex was sold to Gjord Andersen after Lund's death in 1691 and changed hands several times well into the 18th century.

Explanations

1. ↑ The pen scribe supervised the church property. The office was abolished in 1720.
2. ↑ The “General Commissariat” was a financial authority that became necessary in the 17th century due to the wars with Sweden, which under the governor Hannibal Sehested developed into a comprehensive central authority for finances and the military. The General Commissioner was responsible for the financing of the armed forces and supplies in Norway. From 1647 all state taxes had to be paid to the land commissioner so that it was also responsible for the civilian financial administration. The general commissioner was directly subordinate to the governor. In 1650 it was temporarily subordinated to the Danish Rent Chamber. After the fall of Sehested, the authority was abolished.
3. ^ The Landkommissariat was a successor authority that was re-established on the occasion of the two wars with Sweden 1657–1660. It was now divided into "nordafjelske Norge" and "sønnafjelske Norge". They were dissolved again after the end of the war in 1660. In 1661 a new land commissioner was founded, which was supposed to be responsible for the whole country, but only in function for the diocese of Akershus and in Østlandet and was abolished in 1665 and replaced by financial authorities in each diocese.
4. ^ The "Oberhofgerichtsjustitiarius" was the president of the Oberhofgericht.

literature

• Øystein Rian: Johan Garmann . In: Norsk biografisk leksikon ; Retrieved November 22, 2010.