Carsten Tank Anker
Encyclopedia
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
businessman, civil servant, politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
and one of the Fathers of the Constitution of Norway. He was the owner of the manor house in Akershus
Akershus
- Geography :The county is conventionally divided into the traditional districts Follo and Romerike, which fill the vast part of the county, as well as the small exclave west of Oslo that consists of Asker and Bærum...
at which the original National Assembly (Riksforsamlingen
Riksforsamlingen
Norwegian Constituent Assembly is the name given to the 1814 Constitutional Assembly at Eidsvoll in Norway, that voted the Norwegian Constitution and formalised the dissolution of the union with Denmark...
) of Norway was held. The manor house has since then been given the name Eidsvollsbygningen
Eidsvollsbygningen
Eidsvollsbygningen is a historic Manor House in Eidsvoll in Norway where the Constitution of Norway was made and signed on 17 May 1814. The building was first constructed in 1770 with a total floor area of over 2000 square meters. Around 1800 Carsten Anker bought the building, he renovated it and...
.
Early years
Born in FrederikshaldHalden
is a both a town and a municipality in Østfold county, Norway. The seat of the municipality, Halden is a border town located at the Tista river delta on the Iddefjord, the southernmost border crossing between Norway and Sweden.-History:...
, he was the son of the trader Erik Ancher (1709-1785). In 1759 Carsten left on a journey abroad that was to last for several years, together with his brother Peter
Peter Anker
Peter Anker was a Norwegian diplomat and colonialist.He was born in Fredrikshald as a son of Erik Ancher and Anne Cathrine Tank . He was a brother of Carsten Tank Anker, and changed his name from Ancher to Anker in 1778...
and four cousins from Christiania
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
. From 1771–72 he was an envoy from several of the major Norwegian trading companies in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
to negotiate better conditions for the timber trade on the river Klarälven
Klarälven
Klarälven is a river flowing through Norway and Sweden. Together with Göta älv, which it is called as the river has passed through the lake Vänern, thus regarded as an entity, Göta älv-Klarälven is the longest river in Scandinavia and in the Nordic countries and its Swedish part the longest river...
, without much success. While in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, however, there arose suspicion that he was also working with a secret, political agenda, and when Gustav III
Gustav III of Sweden
Gustav III was King of Sweden from 1771 until his death. He was the eldest son of King Adolph Frederick and Queen Louise Ulrica of Sweden, she a sister of Frederick the Great of Prussia....
conducted his coup d'état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
, Anker was asked by the government in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
to return.
Civil service career
He then started his career as a civil servant. On 10 May 1774 he was appointed secretary in the General-Landøkonomi- og Kommerce-Kollegiet (College of General Rural Economy and Commerce), in 1776 he was made justisråd, in 1781 third deputy of the Bjærgværksdirektoiret (Mining Directory) and in 1784 second deputy. He was given the, mostly honorary, titles of etatsråd and konferensråd in 1779 and 1784 respectively, and on 14 January 1779 he was also made a member of the nobilityNorwegian nobility
Norwegian nobility are persons and families who in early times belonged to the supreme social, political, and military class and who later were members of the institutionalised nobility in the Kingdom of Norway. It has its historical roots in the group of chieftains and warriors which evolved...
. When Bjærgværksdirektoiret was dissolved by royal resolution on 28 January 1791, Anker was given a pension, but kept a position as first director of the so-called Realisations-Kommission (Realisation Committee). This position entailed among other things special responsibility for the government’s Norwegian glassmaking companies. In 1792 he was made first director of det dansk-asiatiske Kompagni (the Danish-Asian Company), a position he kept until 1811. He also acquired considerable property in Norway by buying the historic Eidsvoll Ironworks (Eidsvoll Verk).
Time abroad
As an envoy of det dansk-asiatiske Kompagni, he stayed in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
from January 1805 to take care of the company's business affairs vis-à-vis the English East India Company. This task he seems to have performed in an excellent manner. In 1807 he carried out a large transaction of money for the government in Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, and finalised a deal in ship timber for the navy
Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy
The Royal Danish-Norwegian Navy or The Common Fleet also known simply as the Danish Navy was the naval force of the united kingdoms Denmark and Norway from 1509 to 12 April 1814. The fleet was established when the Royal Danish Navy and the Royal Norwegian Navy was combined by King Hans, when he...
. In 1811 he took up permanent residence at Eidsvoll Ironworks.
Friendship with Christian Frederik of Denmark
During his stay in Copenhagen, he had become an intimate acquaintance of the crown prince, Christian Frederik. When the prince arrived in Norway as stattholder in 1813, Anker was immediately made one of the prince's closest advisors. After the Treaty of KielTreaty of Kiel
The Treaty of Kiel or Peace of Kiel was concluded between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Kingdom of Sweden on one side and the Kingdoms of Denmark and Norway on the other side on 14 January 1814 in Kiel...
the prince held a meeting at Eidsvoll during his journey to Trondheim
Trondheim
Trondheim , historically, Nidaros and Trondhjem, is a city and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. With a population of 173,486, it is the third most populous municipality and city in the country, although the fourth largest metropolitan area. It is the administrative centre of...
, and on the way back he convened the Stormannsmøtet (gathering of notables) of Eidsvoll on 16 February 1814, where it was decided that Norway should declare its independence, and that a National Assembly should be convened, also to be held at Eidsvoll.
National Assembly of 1814
Before the National Assembly gathered, Anker had left Norway, and could therefore not take up his position in the new Norwegian government, where he was appointed councillor of government for the 5th Ministry (economy) on 2 March, and councillor of state on 19 May. In March 1814 he had crossed the North SeaNorth Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
to promote Norway's interests in England. Here he worked to put the interests of Sweden and the great powers up against each other, but achieved little. In 1815 he was dismissed as councillor of state, and returned to Norway, where he developed a close relationship to the crown prince Karl Johan
Charles XIV John of Sweden
Charles XIV & III John, also Carl John, Swedish and Norwegian: Karl Johan was King of Sweden and King of Norway from 1818 until his death...
.
Last years
In the last years of his life Anker's economy was not good; the ironworks was virtually closed down. Yet he continued to administer the government's glassmaking companies, and died during a visit to the glassworks at BiriBiri
-Places:*Biri, Norway, a village and former municipality in Norway*Biri, Hungary, a village in Hungary*Biri, Northern Samar, a municipality in the Philippines*Biri, India, a village in Jaunpur, India*Block Island, an island town in Rhode Island, -Places:*Biri, Norway, a village and former...
. He had literary interests, acted as a patron, and had a large collection of manuscripts and books. In 1784 he married Hedvig Caroline Ernestine Christine Wegener (1763-1846).