Scan Magazine | Special Theme | Norwegian Museums
Photo: Fossekleiva Kultursenter
The fabric of community culture In the second half of the 19th century, a remarkable industrial development took place in Berger in Vestfold. Two new factories, constructed with fresh capital and brand new technology, turned a small Norwegian farm into a world-leading production site for woollen textiles, attracting hundreds of Norwegian and foreign workers. More than a century later, production at Berger has come to a halt, but a dynamic symbiosis between Berger Museum and Fossekleiva Arts Centre keeps the community vibrant and the legacy alive. By Eirik Elvevold
In the winter of 1879, Jürg Jebsen and his son Jens Johannes travelled from the west coast of Norway towards the capital to find the right location for their next textile factory. Having established factories outside Bergen, the well-connected and industrious Jebsens were looking to expand in areas closer to the profitable markets in eastern Norway and Sweden. Their eyes were initially set on Oslo and Drammen, the most developed urban areas in the region, but the plan changed 70 | Issue 98 | March 2017
on, his younger brother, Jørg, followed suit and opened a factory of his own – Fossekleven fabrik – further up the river. In the following century, the two Norwegian factories went on to create some of the world’s best woollen textiles,” says Berger Museum’s managing director, Hanne Synnøve Østerud.
Patterns of industrial transformation when they stopped in Holmestrand and crossed the frozen fjord to spend the night at Berger farm. “The Jebsen family, originally from Denmark, had capital and knowledge but a shortage in energy and waterfalls, so they decided to buy Berger farm in 1879 to get the rights to the local river Bergerelva. Only a year later, in 1880, 21-year-old Jens Johannes opened the textile factory Berger fabrik. Nine years
Today, Berger Museum and Fossekleiva Arts Centre, co-funded and run by the municipalities of Svelvik and Sande and the Vestfold Museums, have replaced textile production in the disused Fossekleven fabrik. In Berger Museum, you can witness how the Jebsens’ two factories gradually transformed Berger from a farm into a dynamic and international industrial community with its own church, school, bank, docks, shop, nursing home and sports association.