J.H. Dieden J:r

in Swedish

Johan Henrik Dieden

1808 - 1879

Merchant in grain, seeds, spirits and iron.

Johan Henrik Dieden was number three in the line of J.H. Dieden. His grandfather came to Sweden from Germany in the 1750s and his father was a merchant and district court judge in Uddevalla. In 1828, J.H. Dieden came to Malmö. He first apprenticed with the merchant Emanuel Bager, then with Johan Sjöberg.

In 1837 he started out on his own and built a rapidly expanding trading house. Over the course of ten years, he bought up all the houses in the Carolus neighborhood (now part of Caroli City). He mainly trades in grain, seeds and brandy, but he also runs a herring salting business at Kullen, a horseshoe manufacturing in Broby and a store where farmers can buy what they need when they deliver their grain to the house.

Export and Import. Wholesale and retail trade. Fast shipping and humane prices. This is what an advertisement could have looked like.

For his foreign trade, he built up a fleet of smaller ships that handled trade with the east and west coasts, Denmark, Germany and the Baltic countries, but also Holland and England.

J.H. Dieden marries Mariana Bager, daughter of his first employer. They have two children: Johan Henrik (”the 4th”) and Theodor. Mariana dies at the age of only 39 and J.H. then remarries her sister Clara Bager. With her he has the children Marianne, Gotthard and Berthold.

He became the richest man in Malmö. At his death, he was worth 1.500.000 kronor, which was an enormous sum in 1879. Most of it was stocks of brandy and grain, but real estate, goods and shares were also part of the inheritance.

His son Johan Henrik (”the 4:e”) takes over the company. He buys out his siblings, but since he is both a member of the city council and a member of parliament, as well as an Italian and Belgian consul, it is his brother Berthold who runs the company.

His father had already started importing iron before the turn of the century and this now became the company's largest trade item. The store was closed and the company focused on seeds and iron.

Over time, the warehouse buildings in the picture on the right came to fill the entire Hjälmarekajen opposite the Hovercrafts for Copenhagen.

Below: The Diedens and Thotts houses on Östergatan in Malmö were part of the Diedens commercial estate that extended to the church and through the entire Carolus quarter.

When Johan Henrik (4) dies his sons Johan Henrik (5) and Gustav Dieden inherits the estate. Now the company is being divided and sold..

When the company J.H. Dieden J:r celebrates its 100th anniversary in 1937, it only deals in iron and the helm has been taken over by director Swante Holmberg. In 1930, the office and warehouse was been moved down to the harbor and after further relocations and new constructions, the entire Hjälmarekajen opposite the Hovercrafts is filled. The company remained here until the mid-1980s when it was shut down during the days of the shipbuilding crisis.

Marrying into Malmö's upper class

Dieden, Bager, Flensburg, Hedman, Beijer, Faxe, Ståhle, Frick, Kockum ...

The old Malmö families were intermarried and in this way they formed a network where they had their sons educated and could get practice experiences at each others firms. They both cooperated and competed in trade. They owned ships or companies together and at the same time they built up their own fortunes they also strengthened Malmö's position among the great industrial and trading cities in Sweden.

J.H. Dieden's son, Johan Henrik married Natalie Flensburg, Theodor married Marianne von Wright, Gotthard married Ella Kockum, Berthold married Bertha Flensburg. The daughter married captain Sjöcrona.

Grave at Gamla kyrkogården (IDstory) in the vicinity of Gustav Adolfs Torg (IDstory).

References

• About BiBB, an encyclopedia 4.0 nd media company
• Einar Bager 1937, J.H. Dieden J:r 1837-1937
• Text: Christian Kindblad | Foto: Jonas Andréasson

Published: 2004.06 Updated: 2024.12.17

Kategorier 20 Historical persons 45 Malmö 44

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