Arnold Peter Møller (2 October 1876 – 12 June 1965), better known as A. P. Møller, was a Danish

shipping magnate A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through perso ...

, businessman who was the founder of the

A.P. Moller-Maersk Group (), also known simply as Maersk (), is a Danish shipping company, active in ocean and inland freight transportation and associated services, such as supply chain management and port operation. Maersk was the largest container shipping line ...

in 1904.

Biography

A. P. Møller was the son of captain

Peter Mærsk Møller Peter Mærsk Møller (22 September 1836 – 9 February 1927) was a Danish sea captain and the father of Arnold Peter Møller, founder of the Maersk corporation, and grandfather of Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller, who made Maersk the largest container sh ...

and Anna Hans Jeppesen. His mother came from a well known shipping dynasty in

Dragør Dragør () is the main town of Dragør Municipality, (Denmark), which includes the village of Store Magleby. The city hall and seat of the municipal council lies on Kirkevej 7 (postal code 2791 Dragør) in Store Magleby, which has enough space f ...

and his maternal grandfather

Hans Nielsen Jeppesen Hans Nielsen Jeppesen (15 February 1815 – 8 October 1883) was a Denmark, Danish merchant and ship-owner. He bought his first ship in 1850 and his fleet of merchant ships later grew to 10 ships. He was the maternal grandfather of Mærsk- founder ...

was known as "the King of Dragør". The Møller family moved to

Svendborg Svendborg () is a town on the island of Funen in south-central Denmark, and the seat of Svendborg Municipality. With a population of 27,300 (1 January 2022), Svendborg is Funen's second largest city.Funen Funen ( da, Fyn, ), with an area of , is the third-largest island of Denmark, after Zealand and Vendsyssel-Thy. It is the 165th-largest island in the world. It is located in the central part of the country and has a population of 469,947 as of ...

after having lost a power struggle against Anna's sisters and their husbands. In 1904, A. P. Møller and his father founded ''Dampskibsselskabet Svendborg'' (Steamship Company Svendborg) with a capital of DKK 150,000, Katrine Nielsen Jensen
A.P. Møller – Mærsk

Danmarks Radio DR (), officially the Danish Broadcasting Corporation in English, is a Danish public-service radio and television broadcasting company. Founded in 1925 as a public-service organization, it is Denmark's oldest and largest electronic media enterp ...

, 30 June 2005 to take advantage of business opportunities created by the introduction of

steam ship A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships ...

s. A. P. Møller went on to found ''Dampskibsselskabet af 1912'' (Steamship Company of 1912) to be free to operate his business as he chose. The two companies were merged as A.P. Møller-Mærsk in 2003. A. P. Møller married American Chastine Mc-Kinney, with whom he had two sons, Arnold and Hans, and two daughters, Jane and Sally. Arnold, also known under his middle names as

Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Arnold Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller (; 13 July 1913 – 16 April 2012) was a Danish shipping magnate. He was a longtime figure at A.P. Moller–Maersk Group, which was founded by his father. Personal life Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller was born in He ...

, would become the long-term successor to A. P. Møller. The First World War was a very lucrative period for the shipping business, and A. P. Møller managed to take full advantage of the opportunities. After the war his company was the fourth biggest shipping company in Denmark. The company grew steadily in the interwar years and was the biggest in Denmark at the outbreak of the Second World War. Before the German invasion of Denmark in April 1940, A.P. Møller telegraphed his ships not to obey orders from the occupied Denmark. During the

Occupation of Denmark At the outset of World War II in September 1939, Denmark declared itself neutral. For most of the war, the country was a protectorate and then an occupied territory of Germany. The decision to occupy Denmark was taken in Berlin on 17 December ...

from 1940 to 1945, Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller ran a substantial part of the company from the United States. But the family lost a great deal of money because the US government would not pay full compensation for the use of their ships during the war. A. P. Møller was also involved in business ventures outside the shipping industry. He secured a contract on drilling oil in the Danish part of the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

in 1962.A.P. Møller
at Gyldendal Encyklpædi In 1964, Møller joined merchant

Herman Salling Herman Christian Salling (born 20 November 1919 in Aarhus; died 8 May 2006) was a Danish merchant and director. He was a pioneer in the department store and retail business in Denmark. Herman Salling was the son of local merchant Ferdinand Sallin ...

in a 50–50 ownership of the retail chain

Dansk Supermarked Salling Group A/S (until 1 June 2018 Dansk Supermarked A/S) is Denmark's largest retailer, with a market share of 34.9%. It owns several chains of stores - Netto, Føtex, Bilka and Salling. All of these chains operate exclusively in Denmark exce ...

.Forside > Hvem er vi > Historie
at

This chain went on to become the biggest retail company in Denmark. On A.P. Møller's death in 1965, his son

Arnold Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Arnold may refer to: People * Arnold (given name), a masculine given name * Arnold (surname), a German and English surname Places Australia * Arnold, Victoria, a small town in the Australian state of Victoria Canada * Arnold, Nova Scotia Uni ...

succeeded him as chairman and CEO of the A.P. Moller-Maersk Group.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moller, Arnold Peter 1876 births 1965 deaths People from Dragør Municipality People from Svendborg Maersk people Danish businesspeople in shipping Burials at Hellerup Cemetery