Kreuger family


The Kreuger family in Sweden originated from Johan Kröger from Germany, who immigrated to Kalmar in 1710. He started a bakery in Kalmar in 1710 and married Helena Schultz.

Johan Kröger

Johan Kröger married Helena Schultz in 1710. However she died the same year. His second wife had at least three sons that changed the spelling of the last name from Kröger to Kreuger but with the same pronunciation :
Anders Kreuger och Maria Bodecker had several children, and at least two sons:
Johan Fredrik Kreuger married twice; 1780 with Anna Sara Cederhvarf and in 1801 with Agata Charlotta Ivendorff. In the first marriage he got a son, the Navy officer Johan Henrik Kreüger that in the end of his career, 1857 was appointed admiral for the Swedish Navy. He was also known for diplomatic skills, particular in negotiations with foreign states regarding reducing customs charges for Swedish goods. He was also an inventor of marine related equipment. At the world exhibition in London and in Paris he was awarded for his new anemometer, that eventually was used for more than 30 years along the Swedish coast. His anemometer did not work with the principle of transferring a rotating shaft to a wind scale but a static wind force to a scale that proved to be very reliable and accurate.

Peter Kreuger (1758–1807)

Peter Kreuger and his wife Ulrika Åbrandt had several children:
Anders Lorentz Kreuger and Maria Callerström had at least three sons and one daughter:
Together with Joseph Jennings, Pehr Edward's sisters husband, Pehr Edward Kreuger founded the trading and shipowner company P.E. Kreuger & Jennings Co. Joseph Jennings died after just a few years. Pehr Edward Kreuger then continued to run the company by himself. Together with his brother Erik Lorentz Kreuger, he also founded a pulp and paper company close to Emån and in 1871 they bought Fredriksdahl Match Manufacturing Co. Per Edward Kreuger was appointed the vice consul for Russia in Kalmar after his father.
Pehr Edward Kreuger and Carolina had several sons and two daughters:
Ernst August Kreuger became the manager for Fredriksdahl Match Manufacturing Co. after his father and together with his brother Fredrik Kreuger he founded two other match companies; Mönsterås Match Manufacturing Co. and Kalmar Match Manufacturing Co. In parallel with the match manufacturing business in Sweden, Fredrik Kreuger also worked with his match trading business in London.
Ernst August brother, Oscar Lorentz Kreuger, founded his own company in Kalmar. He had two sons, Henrik Kreüger and Erik Kreüger.

Ernst August Kreuger and Jenny Emelie

Ernst August Kreuger and Jenny Emelie had four daughters and two sons:
Around 1911–1912 Ernst and his brother Fredrik Kreuger encountered financial problems with their companies in Kalmar. This was the time when Ernst son Ivar Kreuger entered the match business. Ivar was advised by his banker Oscar Rydbeck to turn the factories into a stock corporation in order to raise more capital. This was the starting point for the reformation of the entire Swedish match manufacturing industry as well as the largest match companies in Norway and Finland and finally in 1917 Ivar Kreuger founded the Swedish Match by merging with the largest match company at time in Scandinavia, Jönköping match industry, that had been established in many countries all around the world for many years. This new group then covered the entire Scandinavian match industry and the road laid open for the worldwide expansion.

Gallery - Kreuger family

Gallery - Ernst and Fredrik Kreuger match manufacturing factories in the Kalmar area

Others

Another person with the name Kröger in Kalmar is described in a Swedish encyclopedic dictionary from 1911, when Ivar Kreuger was working as a construction engineer in Stockholm and had not yet become known to the general public. It was David Kröger, a captain from Wismar in Germany that died in Kalmar 1730. Whether David Kröger and Johan Kröger, the baker, belongs to the same family is not clear.