AKA: Laurits Thobo-Carlsen; L. Thobo-Carlsen
According to 1890 census data from the Dansk Demografisk Database (State Archives), at age 7 his name was "Hans Laurits Carlsen." However, the 1921 census shows his middle name spelled Lauritz (same as his brother Carl) and last name as the hyphenated "Thobo-Carlsen."
Hans Lauritz Thobo-Carlsen was born in 1883 in Sanderum as the third child in a family of five. In 1888 the family moved to Odense, where his father opened a tobacco trade.
Is commonly credited as founder of the Odense Marcipanfabriks (Odense Marzipan Factory). In fact, the Odense Marzipan Factory was founded on 15 December 1909 on 38th Queen Street in Odense by George Jepsen. However, Jepses never really got started in the factory and sold it after a few months to Hans Lauritz Thobo-Carlsen on 13th August 1910. He paid 3250 dollars at a time when a skilled worker earned a weekly salary of approx. 30 dollars for 58 hours.
Hans Lauritz, who normally called himself L. Thobo-Carlsen, got a comprehensive trade-education and was a bookeeper for several years but wanted to be independent. He was made aware of the little marzipan factory in Queen Street that never really got started, and at the age of 27 years, he bought without knowing anything about the marzipan production. He worked hard as the manager, salesperson and bookkeeper with only one other employee. Production stood at 112.5 kg per day. 30 years later, production was 2-3 tons daily.
Several online sources show his middle name as Laurits. This may be due to misspelling or anglicization, although he may at some point have consiously changed the spelling to differentiate himself from brother Carl who also had the middle name Lauritz.
1882 - 1949 (66 år)
