Jan Henrik Nitter Hansen (1801–1879) was a Norwegian businessman and politician. He was born at Døsen in the parish of Luster in

Sogn og Fjordane Sogn og Fjordane (; literally "Parish and the Fjords") was a Counties of Norway, county in western Norway, from 1 January 1919 to 31 December 2019, after it was merged to become part of Vestland county. Bordering previous counties Møre og Romsda ...

, Norway. He later relocated to the village of

Lærdalsøyri Lærdalsøyri is the administrative centre of Lærdal Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The village is located along the Lærdalselvi river where it empties into the Lærdalsfjorden, a branch off of the main Sognefjorden. The village is lo ...

, and became the most significant merchant and landowner there.Jan Henrik Nitter Hansen
at the Sogn og Fjordane County Encyclopedia (

Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (), commonly known by its initialism NRK, is a Norwegian state-run, government-influenced radio and television public broadcasting company. The NRK broadcasts three national TV channels and thirteen nat ...

) Much of his real estate was bought at an

auction An auction is usually a process of Trade, buying and selling Good (economics), goods or Service (economics), services by offering them up for Bidding, bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from th ...

in 1828. He also bought a number of ships, which were kept in traffic between

Lofoten Lofoten ( , ; ; ) is an archipelago and a Districts of Norway, traditional district in the county of Nordland, Norway. Lofoten has distinctive scenery with dramatic mountains and peaks, open sea and sheltered bays, beaches, and untouched lands. T ...

and the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

. In 1858, he founded the transport company Nordre Bergenhus Amts Dampskibe (later known as ''Fylkesbaatane i Sogn og Fjordane'') together with mayor Harald Ulrik Sverdrup and jurist Michael Aubert. He was also director of the local

savings bank A savings bank is a financial institution that is not run on a profit-maximizing basis, and whose original or primary purpose is collecting deposits on savings accounts that are invested on a low-risk basis and receive interest. Savings banks ha ...

. Jan Henrik Nitter Hansen was also involved in politics. He served as mayor of

Lærdal Lærdal is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located on the south side of the Sognefjorden in the traditional district of Sogn. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Lærdalsøyri. The old Filefjell Ko ...

municipality from 1844 to 1845 and 1848 to 1857, and served as a deputy representative to the

Norwegian Parliament The Storting ( ; ) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years based on party-list proportional represe ...

in 1851 and 1854. His son Tøger Ravn Jan Henrikson Hansen (b. 1850, Tøger Ravn for short), inherited his business interests, and served as mayor from 1880 to 1881, 1889 to 1901 og 1905 to 1907.

References

1801 births 1879 deaths Deputy members of the Storting Mayors of places in Sogn og Fjordane Norwegian company founders 19th-century Norwegian people People from Lærdal People from Luster, Norway {{Norway-politician-1800s-stub