Klæbel, Victor Chr.

Biography in relation to Skagen

Victor Chr. Klæbel was of great importance to Skagen, even though he only lived here for a short time from 1905 to 1912. He opened the first pharmacy, he was co-founder and chairman of the tourist association and he was one of the founders of the Skagen Museum.

Victor Christian Emanuel Klæbel trained as a pharmacist in Aalborg at the Aalborg Svane Pharmacy with pharmacist Strøyberg in 1878-82, and he first visited Skagen in 1883, where he stayed at the Brøndums Hotel.

On 16 July 1904 he was granted the privilege of establishing a pharmacy in Skagen. The architect of the building was Thorvald Jørgensen, who also designed the Grenen Badehotel and the conversion of Tuxen's Villa.

The pharmacy was opened on 23 May 1905. Klæbel gave up the pharmacy on 1 September 1912, after which he opened Hjørring Svane Apotek in 1913.

He was an excellent amateur photographer, and a number of his Skagen-related photos are preserved in the Skagen Local History Archive.

In 1906 Klæbel became chairman of the newly founded tourist association, and he co-organised the first exhibitions of Skagen painters' works at the Technical School in Skagen.

In 1908 he co-founded the Skagen Museum, was a member of the board 1908-41 and was made a Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog on 20 December 1928. Chr. Klæbel:

"Without his energy and foresight the museum would hardly have come into being. Degn Brøndum's gifts were magnificent, land, pictures and money, but the initiation, the idea and its realisation in the broadest sense - that is Klæbel's contribution."

In 1912 he moved to Hjørring and later to Copenhagen, but in 1917 the architect Ulrik Plesner designed a summer house in Skagen (Toldergårdsvej 19 in Vesterby) for the family, so he continued to have contact with the town.

Chairman of the museum's board in 1938.