Greta Donner
 |
Margaretha Donner, née Anna Margaretha Lyhtberg, (11 February 1726 in Visby- 24 September 1774 in Visby), was a Swedish buissness person.
Born to merchantss Mathias Lythberg and Johanna Wihadi, she was given a good education and was active as her fathers assistant. In 1744, she married German merchant Jürgen Hinrich Donner from Lübeck: the settled in Visby on Gotland in 1746, and had four children. They bought a building which is know known as ”The Donner House”, on a square called ”Donners place”, were they founded an empire of import and export with Germany and Great Britain. She took care of the accounts. She became a widow in 1751, and took over the business. She made herself responsible for the export, and created a merchant fleet with twenty ships. She also founded a factory on Gotland. She was appreciated by her employees, and called ”Donner Mum” by some, and ”Madam Donner” by others: some business-partners could not imagine a woman as head of such a big business empire, and by them she was sometimes called ”Mr Madam Donner”. She helped her two sons start their own business, but did not allow them any influence in her affairs. She did not make them acquainted with the main business until she had tuberculosis, a terminal illness in these days. She died of tuberculosis in 1774. The Donner empire became bigger under her sons, who also included their wives in their work. It was bankrupted in 1845.
References
See also
Literature
- Boken om Gotland - Andra delen, 1945, AB Sylve Norrbys Bokhandel
- Gotland 1500-1900, ett särtryck ur Den svenska historien, Gotlands Fornsal
- Lingegård Ingeborg, 1985, Gotländska föregångskvinnor, Taurus förlag
- Svahnström Gunnar, 1984, Visby under tusen år, Almqvist & Wiksell Förlag AB
- Öhman Roger, 1994, Vägen till Gotlands historia, Visby, Gotlands Fornsal/Gotlands Läromedelscentral