The Carlsberg Foundation through 150 years

After completing his schooling at Bisserupske Institut, J.C. Jacobsen continues his studies independently, focusing on mathematics, history and German literature, while working in his father’s brewery. At the age of 17, he attends chemistry lectures by H.C. Ørsted, which prove highly influential for his further development. His studies are later set aside when his father falls ill and requires J.C. Jacobsen’s help at the brewery.

J.C. Jacobsen meets Laura Holst, whom he marries in 1839. Through Laura’s cousins, who study in Copenhagen, J.C. Jacobsen gains deeper insight into academic life. He attends lectures in biology and chemistry, among other subjects.

J.C. Jacobsen is granted royal permission to build outside the city ramparts and acquires a large, well-situated site on Valby Hill, west of central Copenhagen. He begins the construction of Carlsberg, which is completed in 1847. That same year, the first beer is brewed. The brewery is named Carlsberg, after his son Carl and the hill (the old Danish word 'berg') on which the site is located.

A 15,000-square-metre garden on J.C. Jacobsen’s property on Valby Hill is completed after a year of landscaping, using soil from the construction of the brewery. J.C. Jacobsen has a strong interest in botany and brings home many rare plants, trees and other vegetation from his travels across Europe, which are planted in the garden. Between 1851 and 1867, the garden is expanded to twice its original size. Nearly 160 years later, in 2008, J.C. Jacobsen’s Garden opens to the public and is listed for preservation by the Danish Agency for Culture and Palaces. In 2017, the garden undergoes extensive renovation aimed at restoring it closer to its original appearance. The renovation includes, among other things, the re-establishment of the garden’s botanical identity alongside the preservation of significant trees.

J.C. Jacobsen begins the construction of the family’s private villa on Valby Hill, which is completed in 1854. The decoration of the house is inspired by classical antiquity. He later tells his son Carl: “I have built this house, Carl, not to have a magnificent building for my residence, but in order to make something beautiful.”

J.C. Jacobsen establishes the Carlsberg Research Laboratory on part of his property in Valby. His aim is to develop a scientific approach to brewing in order to ensure higher and more consistent beer quality. The purpose of the laboratory is to generate new knowledge for the benefit of Carlsberg and to contribute to society through research.

The Carlsberg Foundation awards its first two grants to physicist Poul la Cour, who receives DKK 1,500 to develop his phonotelegraphic system and the associated physical research, and to Kildeskriftsselskabet, which receives DKK 2,800 for the publication of ’Kancelliets Kopibog under Frederik I’.

J.C. Jacobsen donates DKK 200,000 towards the restoration of the King’s Wing at Frederiksborg Castle on the condition that the castle is to serve as a museum of national history, intended to strengthen the public’s historical awareness and cultural understanding. In doing so, J.C. Jacobsen establishes the Museum of National History, which in the same year becomes a department under the Carlsberg Foundation.

Carl Jacobsen begins building the New Carlsberg brewery, which is inaugurated on 14 August 1882. To avoid confusion between Carlsberg and New Carlsberg, J.C. Jacobsen renames his brewery Old Carlsberg. In his will, J.C. Jacobsen states that his entire estate, including Old Carlsberg, is to be transferred to the Carlsberg Foundation after his death.

The New Carlsberg Glyptotek at Dantes Plads opens and becomes the new home of Carl Jacobsen’s exceptional and extensive art collection. As early as 1882, he opens a small Glyptotek in Valby, but over time he transfers the collection to the City of Copenhagen, making the construction of the new museum possible.

Carl Jacobsen and his wife, Ottilia Jacobsen, establish the New Carlsberg Foundation with the purpose of supporting art and art history. On the same occasion, Carl Jacobsen transfers the brewery New Carlsberg to the Carlsberg Foundation. As a result, the two breweries now share a common owner.

Carl Jacobsen’s mother, Laura Jacobsen, dies.

Laura and J.C. Jacobsen’s villa serves as an honorary residence. In his will from 1882, J.C. Jacobsen stipulates that, after the death of his closest relatives, the villa, garden and greenhouse are to be made available to a man or woman engaged in science, literature or the arts. Over the following eight decades, the residence is home to five scholars and their families. One of the residents is Niels Bohr, who lives in the residence from 1931 to 1962.

On the occasion of J.C. Jacobsen’s 150th birthday, the Carlsberg Foundation donates a building to serve as a new home for the Accademia di Danimarca in Rome – today known as the Danish Academy in Rome.

Carlsberg and Tuborg merge to form United Breweries A/S (DfB), and all five members of the Carlsberg Foundation’s board become members of the new company’s board.

At the Carlsberg Research Laboratory, chemist and professor Morten Meldal and his PhD student Christian Tornøe accidentally discover a copper-catalysed reaction that later proves crucial to the development of so-called click chemistry. In 2022, Morten Meldal receives the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for this discovery.

The Carlsberg Foundation Research Prizes are established on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the birth of the foundation’s founder, J.C. Jacobsen. The prizes aim to support two active researchers in Denmark or abroad who have made decisive contributions to basic research and who enjoy wide scientific recognition.

The Carlsberg Foundation's researcher apartments in Carlsberg Byen are inaugurated and brought into use. The development, which is designed to accommodate researchers from Denmark and abroad, receives several awards, including the Danish Association of Architects’ ‘Store Arne Prize’ and a diploma from the Association for the Beautification of the Capital.

The Carlsberg Academy undergoes extensive restoration, refurbishment and technical upgrading. The ambition of the renovation is to return the building to its original appearance from the mid-19th century, when brewer J.C. Jacobsen built the villa. The work takes place in two phases, in 2019–2021 and 2022–2024.

The Carlsberg Foundation appoints its first CEO. This decision is made with the ambition of future-proofing the foundation organisationally and strengthening its engagement with the foundation’s external relations.