J.N. Hoffman

in Swedish

Court lawyer Johan Niklas Hoffman

1772-1856

"The gravesite was laid out in 1823 by J. N. Hoffman, and was the first to be fenced and arranged in this cemetery."

The stone is damaged and the decoration that was attached to the many holes has fallen away.

At the same gravesite also lies a Colonel Gustaf Åberg.

The text on the stone is misleading! There are older graves. See the second grave on the other side of the roundabout. That is where the councilman Isak Malmborg lies who died av "hectic" (stress) and was buried on the same day that the cemetery was inaugurated, 10 Nov. 1822.

Back to Johan Niklas Hoffman. He was born in 1772 and died in 1856, over thirty years after he bought the gravesite. With his wife Johanna he had, among other things, a daughter Johanna who was married to Colonel Gustav August Åberg, hence his gravestone on the right. We can assume that both Johannas are also buried here.

Assignment as bankruptcy trustee in Malmö Discont

Johan Niklas Hoffman was county secretary, directly subordinate to county governor Klinteberg. As such, he participated in the clean-up after the major banking scandal of 1817 when Malmö Discont stopped paying and the mayor and councilor of commerce Carl-Magnus Nordlindh, along with the merchants Björkman, Falkman, Ståhle and Kock, were sent to prison. The state had to pay for the "feast" (read scandal) with 430,000 riksdaler, an enormous sum at the time.

Hoffman had surprisingly proven himself to be a man of action in 1811 when, during the peasant unrest, in the absence of his boss, he ordered a distressed Major General Mörner to rush out and give the peasants a beating. It may not seem particularly nice to our eyes, but at the time he was considered to have "a courage, a strength and a resourcefulness that no one had expected from him".

Cultural patron and friend

However, in everyday life he was a man of peace who helped artists, poets and writers. His home was open to art and culture and was visited by, among others, Denmark's great poet Oehlenschläger when he was on his way to Lund to be crowned with a laurel wreath by our own Esias Tegnér in 1829.

Oehlenschläger writes about Hoffman's home: "Many rooms were filled with copper objects and paintings, good furniture everywhere, and a mechanical canary in a cage was immediately set in motion, and had to whistle several melodies to us".

Gravesite at Gamla kyrkogården (IDstory)
next to Gustav Adolfs Torg (IDstory).

References

• About BiBB, a media company and an encyclopedia 4.0
• Text: Christian Kindblad | Foto: Jonas Andréasson

Published: 2004.06 Updated: 2025.06.12

Kategorier 20 Historical persons 45 Malmö 44

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