Name Johan Holstein-Ledreborg | ||
 | ||
Died January 29, 1763, Copenhagen, Denmark | ||
Johan Ludvig Lensgreve Holstein til Ledreborg (7 September 1694 – 29 January 1763) was a Danish civil servant and Minister of State of Denmark from 1735 to 1751. The Danish colony Holsteinsborg on Greenland (now Sisimiut), was named after him.
Contents
He was the ancestor of the Holstein-Ledreborg family, including Ludvig Holstein-Ledreborg and the husband of Princess Marie Gabriele of Luxembourg.
In 1739 he built Ledreborg Palace near Lejre, Denmark.
Early life
Johan Ludvig was the son of Johan Georg Holstein who would himself become Danish Prime Minister and Ida Frederikke Joachime of the Bulow family. The birth took place at the Lubz castle which belonged to his maternal grandmother. His tutors during his upbringing included J.W Schroder who later would go on to tutor Christian VI of Denmark. In 1711 his father sent him to Hamburg where he studied with Johann Albert Fabricius for a year. Subsequently he studied and traveled in various places in Germany, the Netherlands, France and England until 1716, when he became a court and civil servant in Denmark.
Career in Denmark
He got the position of court marshal to Crown Prince Christian (later King Christian VI) in 1721. In 1727, he became member of the College of Missions where his father was president and the same year he also became director of the Waisenhuset, an orphanage King Frederick IV founded that year.
When Christian VI became king in 1730, he appointed Holstein stiftsamtmand (amtmann plus leader of the diocese along with the bishop) of Zealand and amtmann of Copenhagen and Roskilde amts. In February of 1734, he was appointed Minister (depurtert) of Finance. As the new king soon became disappointed in the men he originally had chosen to lead the Chanceries, he appointed Holstein leading secretary of the Danish chancery (a position often known as Minister of State) on 12 May 1935, replacing Iver Rosenkrantz. At the same time, he became member of the king's council (Konseillet) In 1740, he also replaced Rosenkrantz as patron of the University of Copenhagen.