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They sought sugar and found rum
Flensburg was under the Danish crown for over 400 years and Denmark was one of the colonial powers in Europe. In 1755, the first West Indies sailing ship set out to sea, and a short time later the golden age of trade with the Caribbean islands followed …
Between 1380 and 1864, a Danish empire covered a wide expanse of Northern Europe. Flensburg was controlled by the Danish crown from 1460 to 1864. In the 18th century, the city, along with Altona and Copenhagen, was one of the most important sea trade ports for ships in the West Indies fleet.
In their search for the “white luxury” sugar – the highly sought after cargo for Europe – many large Flensburg merchant families sailed to the Caribbean colonies known as the “Dansk Vestindien” – St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix. These included the Dethleffsen, Christiansen and Pott families as well as many others.
They made the West Indies trade, which flourished from 1814 to 1856, one the city’s most important trading links.
In 1826, captain and shipowner Asmus Brodersen for the first time undertook a voyage of some three months to the Caribbean with his frigate “Urania” – loaded with food, coke and Flensburg bricks.
