Broder Knudtzon

Broder Lysholm Knudtzon ( born October 5, 1788 in Trondheim, † March 20, 1864 in Trondheim ) was a Norwegian businessman, politician and philanthropist.

His parents were the businessman Hans Carl Knudtzon (1751-1823) and his wife Karen Müller ( 1752-1818 ). He grew up in Trondheim and from 1796 in Flensburg, where he acquired his education. After his confirmation he moved back to Trondheim. For a short time he was apprenticed to his father, before he traveled to Nantes in 1807 to visit his sister there. He then traveled through Europe, and sought a merchant education. In Paris, he was the Danish poet Adam Oehlenschläger met.

In the fall of 1808, he moved to England, where he acquired a good knowledge of the English language and culture. He learned in England to Lord Byron and other key characters know in the national liberal movement. The spring of 1814 spent Knudtzon along with his brother Jørgen from Cappelen Knudtzon in London. There she supported Carsten Anker in its efforts to British support for an independent Norway. In the autumn of the same year he accompanied his father to Stockholm; they were members of the delegation of the Storting. After the death of his father he was co-owner of the family business, whose leadership he but his brother Christian and his brother- Lorentz Johannsen left. He represented the company abroad. In 1820 he wrote: " I ​​hate business, and for reading there is not leisure. "

In 1833 he was elected as a deputy in the Storting. In the years 1839-1857 he sat on the board of Norges Bank. He has also been since 1821 a member of the Learned Society Det Norske Kongelige Videnskabers Selskab and served from 1825 to 1831 as its secretary. With the help of his friends in England, he made the company's books, including on political economy, accessible. At his death he bequeathed also a part of his own library, and some of Bertel Thorvaldsen's works of art of the learned society.