Wilhelm Christian Benecke von Gröditzberg (12 December 1779 - 4 June 1860), né Wilhelm Christian Benecke, was a German banker, merchant, estate owner and art collector. He was ennobled in 1829 as Benecke von Gröditzberg, after he had bought the

fief A fief (; ) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of feudal alle ...

Gröditzberg including a baroque palace and medieval Castle Gröditzberg (now: Grodziec) in

Silesia Silesia (see names #Etymology, below) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Silesia, Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at 8, ...

. Wilhelm Christian Benecke was born in

Frankfurt an der Oder Frankfurt (Oder), also known as Frankfurt an der Oder (, ; Marchian dialects, Central Marchian: ''Frankfort an de Oder,'' ) is the fourth-largest city in the German state of Brandenburg after Potsdam, Cottbus and Brandenburg an der Havel. With a ...

, Germany. During 1822, in partnership with Norwegian industrialist,

Benjamin Wegner Jacob Benjamin Wegner (21 February 1795 – 9 June 1864) was a Norwegian business magnate. He was one of the country's leading mining magnates as the director-general and co-owner of Blaafarveværket, and also had significant interests in o ...

, he bought

Blaafarveværket Blaafarveværket, or the Blue Colour Works, was a mining and industrial company located at Åmot in Modum in Buskerud, Norway, which existed from 1776 to 1898, and which was Norway's largest mining company in the first half of the 19th century. ...

at Åmot in what is now

Modum Municipality Modum is a municipality in Buskerud county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Vikersund. The municipality of Modum was established on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). The area has a long tradition of ...

Buskerud Buskerud () is a Counties of Norway, county and a current electoral district in Norway, bordering Akershus, Oslo, Innlandet, Vestland, Telemark and Vestfold. The region extends from the Oslofjord and Drammensfjorden in the southeast to Hardanger ...

county, Norway. The mining and industrial company Blaafarveværket had been founded in 1773 to extract

cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. ...

from the mines at

Modum Modum is a municipality in Buskerud county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Vikersund. The municipality of Modum was established on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). The area has a long tradition of ...

, Norway. One of the last significant paintings in his collection in private ownership - a signed and dated seascape by Willem van de Velde the Younger, which he had acquired from the Edward Solly collection - was restored "to death" in the restoration workshop of one of the most renowned European museums. In a first-instance court case that lasted 15 years, interested circles succeeded in covering up the disaster with the help of the judiciary. In 1829, Benecke acquired the glass window collection of the Swiss poet Johann Martin Usteri, consisting of 156 windows from the 15th to 18th centuries, most of which are now in the Landesmuseum Zurich.

References

Bibliography

*Wernicke, Ewald (1880)
''Groeditzberg: Geschichte und Beschreibung der Burg''
*Kindingstad, Torbjørn (2002) ''Norges oljehistorie'' (Stavanger: Wigestrand)

External links

Castle Grodziec website
Bankers from the Kingdom of Prussia German bankers 1779 births 1860 deaths People from Frankfurt (Oder) {{Germany-noble-stub

References

Bibliography

Further reading

External links