Table Of ContentDitlev Tamm
The Carlsberg
Story
Founders,
Foundations, and Fortunes
The Carlsberg Story
Ditlev Tamm
The Carlsberg Story
Founders, Foundations, and Fortunes
English translation by Russell Dees
DitlevTamm
University of Copenhagen
Copenhagen, Denmark
ISBN 978-3-030-52669-6 ISBN 978-3-030-52670-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52670-2
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Preface
This book tells the story of the Carlsberg Breweries since their foundation
in 1847. It is a story of a talented family of brewers and, at the same time,
a story of early industrialism. It is a story of beer production and of how
science and business met to create a new way of brewing. It is the story of
how a Danish brewer started a company that ended up becoming one of the
biggest international concerns in its field. It is also the very peculiar story of
how a foundation run by academics could also run a big business.
The story of Carlsberg presented here is based on the Danish version of
the book De klogeste og skarpeste—Historien om Carlsbergfondet, bryggeriet og
vores øl, which was published in Danish in 2018. It was written at the
initiative of the Carlsberg Foundation’s current chairman, Professor
Flemming Besenbacher. He had in mind an account of the most recent
changes in the Carlsberg Foundation’s charter, which paved the way for a
new global Carlsberg. That story, however, cannot be properly understood
except in the context of the earlier history. This book, therefore, tells the
story from the founding of Carlsberg in 1847 until now.
The book is the result of intensive archive studies both at the Carlsberg
Foundation and at the Brewery. In addition, there were intensive
conversations with relevant people. Apart from Flemming Besenbacher, the
following people deserve thanks: Nils Smedegaard Andersen, Carl Bache,
Anders Bering, Jens Bigum, Jan Schans Christensen, Claes Gjermansen,
Zoran Gojkovic, Jørgen Grønborg, Søren Hansen, Jørn P. Jensen, Povl
Krogsgaard Larsen, Flemming Lindeløv, Palle Marcus, Poul Christian
v
vi Preface
Matthiessen, Birger Lindtner Møller, Niels Kærgaard, Ole Olsen, Walther
Paulsen, Niels Petri, Jørgen Buhl Rasmussen, Lars Rebien Sørensen, Majken
Schultz, Birgitte Skadhauge, Anne-Marie Skov, Nina Smith, Poul Johan and
Lise Svanholm, Jess Søderberg, Søren Theilgaard, quaestor Jens Otto Veile,
Carlsberg’s attorney Peter Wengler-Jørgensen, and Per Øhrgaard, who have
my heartfelt thanks for their generous, in-depth conversations from which
this author has learned much. An especially hearty thanks must be given to
Thomas Storgaard, who has helped inexhaustibly in the scouring of the
archives and by providing many valuable comments while the work was
underway.
Thanks also to Carl Bache, Michael Christiansen, Palle Marcus, and P. C.
MatthiessenforvaluablecommentsonthetranslationandtoRussellL.Dees,
thetranslator,whodidagoodjobfindingthe(hopefully)righttermsforquite
complicated concepts.
The translation was made possible thanks to support from the Carlsberg
FoundationandtheKonsulGeorgeandhustruEmmaJorck’sFoundationfor
which I am grateful.
Copenhagen, Denmark DitlevTamm
May 2020
About This Book
The beer industry and the history of beer are fascinating topics. The story
told in this book is about how a large and important Danish brewery came
into being and the foundation behind it, which has preserved its
independence until now. It is about the Carlsberg Foundation and its
relation to the Carlsberg Brewery; it is about management, about the way
Carlsberg later expanded, about beer and science, about large amounts of
money, and about people who have been preoccupied with these things. It is
a family story and also the story of how one of Denmark’s biggest companies
has been owned and run by a foundation governed by scientists and
scholars. It is about fortune in both senses of the word. A lot of money has
been earned on beer, but some luck is also needed to survive in a highly
competitive business world.
Traditionally,beerissomethingdrunkingreatquantitiesinDenmark,and
thisbookbeginsintheearly19thcenturywiththestoryofhowoneparticular
brewer, J. C. Jacobsen, and his son Carl brewed quality beer and, later, gave
their breweries to two foundations, the Carlsberg Foundation and the New
Carlsberg Foundation. Both of these foundations support Danish sciences
and arts. The story of these two talented Danish entrepreneurs and patrons
of the arts is an essential part of the history of Denmark. Neither Denmark
nor Danish science would have been the same without beer or without large
commercial foundations such as the Carlsberg Foundation. Nor would arts
in Denmark have thrived as well without the New Carlsberg Foundation.
vii
viii About This Book
The Carlsberg Story was only fragmentarily illuminated in earlier works
written by, among others, three previous chairmen of the Carlsberg
Foundation.1 The historian Kristof Glamann—member of the board of the
Carlsberg Foundation from 1969–1993—took his account to the beginning
of the 1990s but touched only briefly on the time after 1970. Before
Glamann,2 two earlier chairpersons of the foundation3 had discussed their
chairmanship in autobiographies. Every age needs its own history of the
past. It has its charm that former chairmen write the history of the
foundation or their own stories, but this also holds the risk that their own
efforts will be placed at the center, while more controversial issues are
underemphasized or not mentioned at all. Often, when it comes to business
history and, particularly, when it comes to the people affiliated with the
business, daylight hours are best counted with a sundial, as they say. Less
flattering parts of the story remain in darkness or are dismissed or excused
with brief remarks.
For this new story of Carlsberg and the foundation behind, a unique set
of sources in the form of minutes from meetings at the Carlsberg
Foundation, interviews, correspondence exchanges, etc., were made available
to this author. Diligent minute-takers carefully reproduced often lengthy
negotiations on leadership issues and much else, which is important to
understand the history of Carlsberg. It has been a great pleasure in itself to
be able almost to listen along when these people (who had responsibility for
the foundation over the years) discussed the affairs of the foundation and its
relation to the Carlsberg brewery. They were all scholars; and, if nothing
else, it is characteristic of such people that they think about what they say
and, as a rule, mean at least some of it. Therefore, this book is not a
continuation of older works but tells the history from the beginning based
on new material.
We start out with a description of the founder, J. C. Jacobsen, and his son
Carl Jacobsen, their mindset, and the establishment of the Carlsberg
Foundation in 1876, followed by an account of events in the relationship
between foundation and firm that are relevant to understand how Carlsberg
and the foundation behind it came into existence and are still in existence
today.
The main subject of this book is how the Carlsberg Foundation has run
its breweries, while the foundation’s just-as-important work for Danish
science and culture in connection with the distribution of research funds is
1Pedersen (1942), Glamann (1976 and 1993).
2Glamann (2002).
3Bjerager and Krogsgaard-Larsen (2011) and Matthiessen (2017).
About This Book ix
dealt with only more sporadically. To the extent the book is read as an
occasional critical commentary on the foundation’s competence and work, it
is only in relation to the management of the brewery and not about the
great effort the foundation makes in supporting Danish science and culture.
Today, the foundation distributes millions of Danish crowns to the natural
sciences, the humanities, and the social sciences, and it is important to
remember that when the foundation’s efforts are to be judged.4
The history of the Carlsberg Foundation, breweries, beer, and science is
no less interesting, considering the fact that, as of 2020, Carlsberg is (still)
theworld’sthird-largestbreweryconcernandaplayerontheworldmarket,a
market dominated more and more by a few very large breweries. Just twenty
years ago, not many would have predicted that Carlsberg would be among
themtoday.ThisbooktellsthestoryofhowCarlsberganditsfoundation,the
CarlsbergFoundation,notonlysurvivedinahighlycompetitivebeermarket
butevenclimbedtothetopoftheinternationalheap—albeitatthelowerend
ofthattopechelon.Inreality,theboardoftheCarlsbergFoundationisnotin
apositiontoknowverymuchabouteitherbeerorbusinessmanagement,and
thebookrecountshowthefoundationneverthelessledtheCarlsbergbrewery
to success over the years—especially since the turn of the millennium when
Carlsberg grew truly large. It was not always a cheery story, but it seems at
the moment to be chugging along happily.
Hopefully, the reader is now ready to undertake an extended pleasure trip
during which, of course, it is permitted to stop and enjoy the brewery’s
products, which includes both beer and soft drinks. It is not for nothing
‘that calls for a Carlsberg’ is one of the brewery’s many slogans.
References
Bjerager, A.-L., Krogsgaard-Larsen, P. (2011). Bryggerens lærling : Povl Krogsgaard-
Larsens erindringer. Gyldendal.
Glamann, K. (1976). Carlsbergfondet. Copenhagen: Rhodos.
Glamann, K. (1993). Carlsbergfondet siden 1970 [Eng. trans. The Carlsberg
Foundation since 1970, 1994]. Copenhagen: Carlsbergfondet.
Glamann, K. (2002). En blandet landhandel. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
Matthiessen, P. C. (2017). Følg med tiden. Ikke med strømmen. Copenhagen: Gads
Forlag.
Pedersen, J. (1942). Carlsbergfondet [Eng. trans. The Carlsberg Foundation, 1956].
Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
4You may read about this in other works, in the foundation’s annual reports, and, recently, in the
Carlsberg Foundation’s illustrated annual review.
Contents
1 Introduction 1
1.1 You Can’t Be a Real Country UnlessYou Have a Beer 1
1.2 Shareholders and Foundations 5
References 9
2 1847—Foundation and Founding Fathers 11
2.1 ForThinking Brewers 11
2.2 A Brewer for HisTime 14
2.3 Augustus 21
2.4 Tuborg A/S 25
2.5 The Ørsted Monument 29
2.6 The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters and
the Carlsberg Foundation 34
2.7 Pasteur, His Beer Studies, and Jacobsen 41
2.8 The Carlsberg Laboratory 44
2.9 Frederiksborg Castle 50
2.10 Laboremus Pro Patria 52
2.11 Jacobsen’s Legacy 55
2.12 An Easter Morning 58
2.13 1 October 1888 61
2.14 Carl Jacobsen and New Carlsberg 64
2.15 The Agreement of 1903 67
2.16 Holm’s Foundation 72
References 75
xi
