Description Comments

Diary of Olga Monrad (nee Berg)

Object type

Diary

Description: Diary written by Olga Monrad (nee Berg) wife of Ditlev Monrad.
Written in Danish, the diary talks about everyday life on the farm at Karere between 1869 and 1871.

A translation to English by Bodil Petersen can be read from file _019.

Ditlev Gothard Monrad (1811–1887) was a prominent figure in nineteenth-century Denmark: a bishop in the Lutheran church and a noted scholar and politician. He was prime minister of Denmark during the 1864 war against the German Confederation, but when the Danes were defeated and lost considerable territory Monrad’s premiership ended in disrepute.

In March 1866, Monrad arrived in New Zealand, with his family and five young Danish men who also wished to immigrate. He eventually purchased land at Karere in the Manawatu, where he built a house and developed a farm. Some family members settled in New Zealand permanently after Monrad and his wife Emilie (d. 1871) returned to Denmark in January 1869.