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Iforum

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Bridging Nations, Cultures and Eras: Gudbrand Gregersen 1824 – 1910 By H. E. Eszter Sándorfi Ambassador of Hungary to Norway

I M P R E S S I O N S    O F   N O R W A Y

Bridging Nations, Cultures and Eras:Gudbrand Gregersen 1824 – 1910

By H. E. Eszter Sándorfi   Ambassador of Hungary to Norway  Gudbrand Gregersen

Last month, on March 15, Hungarians worldwide commemorated the 175th anniversary of the Civic Revolution and War of Independence of 1848-1849, one of the most significant events in Hungary’s modern history. In this era of national awakening in Europe, Hungarians fought to break away from the Habsburg Empire and create their own independent state with civic freedom and liberties. Although the revolution was defeated, this resurgence of a sense of Hungarian nationhood later led to the creation of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in 1867.

This was the time when national art, music and literature flourished. Moreover, national heroes who would be honoured by future generations were born: István Széchenyi, politician, investor, philanthropist, and father of the modernisation of Hungary; Lajos Kossuth, the leader and regent-president, then Prime Minister during the revolution; and the magnificent poet of the revolution, Sándor Petőfi.

The mid-19th century also brought Scandinavian Norway and Central-European Hungary closer than geography would have suggested at the time. As Norway was in union with Sweden, many Norwegians understood and supported Hungary’s fight for national independence. Henrik Ibsen himself was greatly inspired by the Hungarian uprising. At the age of 21, in 1849, he wrote a poem titled Til Ungarn, condemning the cruel repression of the revolution.

Decades later, in 1891, already an internationally renowned playwright, he visited Hungary at the invitation of Count Géza Zichy, a Hungarian aristocrat, composer and playwright. Ibsen saw his play A Doll’s House in the National Theatre in Budapest. He visited the National Museum and the Opera House, and met some of the most prominent artists of the time, such as painter Gyula Benczúr, sculptor Alajos Strobl, and the popular writer Mór Jókai. He was moved by the kindness and hospitality he experienced during his visit and fondly remembered his poem in praise of Hungary as a young man.

A much lesser known but fascinating character who linked our countries of that time was a young Norwegian builder, Gudbrand Gregersen Saági, who later became a bridge engineer and a successful businessman.

Gudbrand Gregersen was born on April 17, 1824, in Modum to farmers Nils Gregersen and Anne Trulsdatter. As a young man, he moved to Christiania where he was apprenticed to a master builder, working on the construction of the Royal Palace. He also took private lessons in geometry and mathematics and studied at the Royal Drawing Academy.

   Commemorative plate on his house in Budapest                     Til Ungarn

He then moved to Copenhagen, where he obtained his journeyman’s certificate in 1844. After travelling through Germany and staying in Vienna for a while, he finally arrived in Pest, Hungary, in 1847. He met the Italian engineer Talagini, in charge of the railway construction in the country, who tasked Gregersen with his first railway bridge construction.

In 1848, when the civic revolution and freedom war against the Habsburg rule started, Gregersen volunteered and worked on the Hungarian side. He took part as an engineer in several military construction projects, including designing and building a pontoon bridge for the freedom fighters at Paks on the Danube. When the revolutionary forces were defeated, he fled to Italy but returned to Hungary in 1851. He settled in Szob, near the Danube north of Budapest, where he started his own business. In 1865, he moved to the capital, setting up his company, Gregersen and Sons Construction.

His company successfully carried out several significant railway projects in Hungary: the rail link between Buda and Nagykanizsa, the railway bridge in Szolnok – which was the longest wooden bridge in Hungary at the time – and the Erzsébet (Elisabeth) bridge in Komárom, to mention a few. As a master of carpentry, he designed and led the carpentry works on the building of the Hungarian Parliament and the Museum of Fine Arts, as well as on the building of the National Theatre in Budapest.

However, he became best known for constructing dams at Szeged, the third largest city in Hungary. In the spring of 1879, the Tisza River breached the old dams, destroying a large part of the town, and more than 150 people drowned. Gregersen was first commissioned to pump out the water, then to build three dams around the town in record time; the longest dam was 15 km long and 9.5 metres high. The following year, there was another flood, but the dams held. In recognition of his efforts, Gregersen, his wife and their children were elevated to the Hungarian nobility in 1884 and decorated by Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary.

While running a successful and growing construction business in his new home country, Gudbrand Gregersen never forgot about his Norwegian roots. After settling in Hungary, he visited Norway 15 times and bought a farm in Modum in 1901. In 1902, he became an honorary member of the Norwegian Engineers and Architects Association. He was awarded Hungarian citizenship in 1875, but also retained his Norwegian nationality. In 1885, he was appointed Knight 1st Class of the Royal Norwegian Order of Saint Olav. He invited many relatives to work with him in Hungary, and many of his descendants still live there.

Building the Szeged dam

Gregersen also raised a large family. He married the Hungarian Alojzia Sümegh (1836-1906). They had 19 children, of whom 12 grew into adulthood. One of his sons, Endre, worked as the Norwegian consul in Hungary. Another son took over the successful firm from Budapest, expanding it to Prague and realising different projects in Central Europe. Unfortunately, the turmoil and bloodshed of the 20thcentury and the post-war Iron Curtain ended this golden era of development and the Gregersen and Sons Company. However, the founder himself was fortunate enough not to experience this: he died on Christmas Eve in 1910 at his country house in Szob, aged 87. He rests in the family mausoleum in the historical Kerepesi Cemetery in Budapest, where Lajos Kossuth and many of the martyrs of the 1956 uprising also found their final peace.

But history never ends. Last year, when we commemorated March 15, 1848, with the Hungarian diaspora at our Embassy, I mentioned this unique story in my welcome speech. During the reception, a distinguished gentleman thanked me for the kind words about his great-great-grandfather. He was Miklós Konkoly-Thege, a descendant of Gregersen (and also a descendant of a well-known 19th-century Hungarian painter with the same name) who immigrated to Norway with his father decades ago and who later became a director of Det Norske Veritas. After many generations, he still feels very close to his great-great grandfather. ‘We are very similar’, he says. ‘He settled in Hungary, did a lot of good things for the country, but in his heart he stayed Norwegian. I have been living in Norway for decades, and built a successful career, and I think like a Norwegian, but my heart is Hungarian.’

People like Gudbrand Gregersen not only build bridges over rivers but also between nations, cultures and eras. It is our responsibility to keep those bridges safe for future generations.

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