Conrad Caspar Hauser (16 February 1743 - 14 December 1824) was a Swiss-Danish merchant, developer and phillantrophist. He contributed to the rebuilding of

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

after the British bombardment of the city in 1807, building many of the houses on Hauser Plads which was later named after him. He was director of the

Danish Asiatic Company Danish Asiatic Company ( Danish: Asiatisk Kompagni) was a Danish trading company established in 1730 to revive Danish trade on the Danish East Indies and China following the closure of the Danish East India Company. It was granted a 40-year mon ...

from 1815 to 1824.

Early life and education

Hauser was born in

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

, the son of Rudolph Hauser (died 1766) and Catharina König (1708–86). In an early age he settled as a merchant in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

Career

Hauser became acquainted with the Danish envoy in Algier Andreas Æreboe and later married his sister. He was of assistance to a number of Danish naval ships stationed in the Mediterranean Sea and in 1776, upon recommendation of admiral Simon Hooglant, he was appointed as Royal Danish Agent with title of ''kommerceråd'' on condition that he would establish a trading house in

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the J ...

. Hauser decided instead to move to

where he joined Reinhard Iselin's trading house. Hauser presented

Heinrich Carl von Schimmelmann Heinrich Carl von Schimmelmann (13 July 1724 – 16 February 1782) was a German-born merchant, banker, nobleman, planter and politician. During the Seven Years' War, he speculated heavily on currency debasement in close association with his bu ...

with a plan for the establishment of a

Danish West India Company The Danish West India Company () or Danish West IndiaGuinea Company (') was a Denmark–Norway, Dano-Norwegian chartered company that operated out of the colonies in the Danish West Indies. It is estimated that 120,000 Atlantic slave trade, enslav ...

which was established by royal charter on 11 May 1778 with Hauser as managing director. Hauser lost some of his considerable wealth in connection with the financial crisis of 1813. He was a director of the

in 1815-1823.

Property

Hauser lived at

Åbenrå Aabenraa (; , ; Sønderjysk: ''Affenråe'') is a town in Southern Denmark The Region of Southern Denmark ( da, Region Syddanmark, ; german: Region Süddänemark, ; frr, Regiuun Syddanmark) is an administrative region of Denmark established ...

41 from 1804 to 1913. After the bombardment of Copenhagen in 1807, Hauser purchased a number of lots with destroyed buildings in the area between

Kultorvet Kultorvet (literally "The Coal Market") is a public square in the Old Town of Copenhagen, Denmark. Together with Købmagergade and the southern part of Frederiksborggade, it forms a pedestrian zone between Nørreport station and Amagertorv on Str� ...

and the street Åbenrå. He constructed a new street at the site which was given the name Hausergade after him in 1811. In 1819 he converted an undeveloped site at its eastern end into a new square, naming it Suhms Plads after the historian

Peter Frederik Suhm Peter Frederik Suhm (18 October 1728 – 7 September 1798), was a Danish historian. Biography Suhm studied at the University of Copenhagen from 1746 to 1751, and one of his teachers was Ludvig Holberg. In 1749 he translated a comedy of Plautu ...

who had lived at the site. The square was colloquially known as Hausers Plads and this name was officially adopted in the 1830s. Hauser's own house was from 1913 the still existing building at Hausers Plads 32.

Personal life

Hauser was married twice. His first wife was Karen Æreboe (1729-1810), a daughter of ''notarius publicus'' Rasmus Æreboe (1685–1744) and Catharina M. Aisberg (1706–54). They married on 6 March 1768 in Marseille. His second wife was Cicilia Marie Ludvigsen (1768-1844) a daughter of ''byfoged'' in

Kalundborg Kalundborg () is a Danish city with a population of 16,211 (1 January 2022),Church of Our Lady in Copenhagen. Hauser belonged to the German Reformed congregation. He died on 14 December 1824 and is buried at

Assistens Cemetery Assistens Cemetery ( da, Assistens Kirkegård) is the name of a number of cemeteries in Denmark. The common nominator is, as the first part of the name implies (Latin: ''assistens'' meaning assisting), an assisting cemetery for a town's churches. ...

References

External links

Conrad Hauser
at geni.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Hauser, Conrad 19th-century Danish businesspeople 18th-century Danish businesspeople Danish Asiatic Company people Swiss emigrants to Denmark 1743 births 1824 deaths