David Halberstadt


David Moses Halberstadt was a Jewish Danish businessman. His firm David Halberstadt established a steam mill in Christianshavn in Copenhagen in 1857 and later developed into the largest wholesaler of hides, fur, leather and wool in the Nordic countries.

Early life and education

Halberstadt was born on 122 July 1819 in Copenhagen, the son of merchant Moses Gottschalk Halberstadt and Bolette Bella Davidsen. He attended Borgerdyd School and was then apprenticed to M. Berg in Randers.

Career

After comnpleting his apprenticeship, Halberstadt initially worked for Hartvig Philip Rée in Tanders before moving to Copenhagen where he was employed by J. Levysohn. He was granted citizenship as a merchant and established his own trading house in 1834. It traded as David Halberstadt & Co.after he jst a few months later, he went into a partnership with Philip whom he knew from Randers. The firm started out as a modest grain business but grew rapidly over the course of the next few years and was in 1857 able to purchase H. Puggaard & Co.'s property in Christianshavn where they established a large steam mill. Christianshavn Steam Mill was later owned in a partnership with Isaac Wulff Heyman and Meyer Herman Bing.
The firm had also started trading in hides, fur, leather and wool. These activities grew steadily until it had become the largest firm of its kind in the Nordic countries.. The steam mill in Christianshavn was a few years prior to Halberstadt's death sold to De Forenede Dampmøller.

Other activities

Halberstadt was in 1857 elected for Grosserer-Societetet's committee. He was from 1872 and until his death also a member of the Maritime and Commercial Court. He was for a while a board member of Kjøbenhavns private Laanebank.

Personal life

Halberstadt married Sophie Meyer on 4 December 1851. She was a daughter of merchant Abraham Meyer and Betty v. Halle.
He died on 14 June 1874 and is buried in the Jewish Northern Cemetery in Copenhagen. His widow was married second time to medical doctor Jean Marie Adolphe Marcet and moved to Toulouse.