Kloppenborg and the royal family

 

 

The owner of Bejstrupgård, Hans Diderik Kloppenborg, had plenty of self-confidence. He was a friend of King Frederik VII, but when he wanted to visit the king one day, he was rejected by the court aides and secretaries. He could not just walk in and get an audience with the King without any notice.

 

Kloppenborg was not in the habit of letting others tell him what he should and should not do, so he started protesting loudly. The king heard him and invited him in with the words:

 

– Good grief, Kloppenborg, it's you- well, come on in!

 

- Yes, Your Majesty, but that is exactly what I was trying to do! But these men will not allow me to enter, answered Kloppenborg.

 

 

 

At a dinner in the Prussian national congress, a toast was made to the Prussian king. The dinner guests rose politely but one of them remained seated and refused to join in the toast. It was Hans Diderik Kloppenborg.

 

One of the other guests discreet alerted him to the fact that one was supposed to obey a toast to the king. Kloppenborg was unmoved.

 

– I don't know him, he said bruskly and let his glass stand.

 

 

Hans Diderik Kloppenborg's grandson was named after the grandfather, with the addition of Skrumsager.

 

The grandson served in the regiment Garde du Corps, a sort of bodyguard on horseback. When Emperor Wilhelm was out inspecting the regiment one time, he wanted to see the regiment's finest soldier.

 

Hans Diderik Kloppenborg-Skrumsager was a large and powerful man, he was called forward as the regiment's finest fighter. The emperor asked where he came from and had probably assumed that Kloppenborg-Skrumsager would reply that he was a Schleswiger. But Kloppenborg-Skrumsager replied, without blinking and with a loud voice:

 

– Ich bin ein Däne aus Nordschleswig!

 

As far as we know, the emperor made no comment at all.