Biography | Ernst Wehtje — He Took Berg's Chair at Skanska Cement After the Funeral

Rudolf Fredrik Berg died in Stockholm on 8 December 1907.

The man who stepped into the managing director's chair at Skanska Cement AB was the lawyer Berg had noticed years earlier as secretary of Malmo's city council.

Svenska man och kvinnor is explicit about the introduction. Berg watched the young secretary and called him into the cement company.

Wehtje entered the board in 1897. From 1903 he served as deputy managing director.

The company history on Swedish Wikipedia lists the managing directors in a straight line: R.F. Berg, 1873-1907; Ernst Wehtje, 1907-1936; Ernst Wehtje Jr., 1936-1957.

Some older biographical notices collapse the deputy years into the top job and have him leaving in 1929, when the son became co-director.

The company's own succession list is the cleaner record. He held the chair until he died.

Under him the firm bought the Hallekis limestone and cement works on Kinnekulle and folded lime and brick plants into the group.

Skanska Cementgjuteriet, the 1887 spin-off that later became Skanska, sat in the same family of boards.

Limhamn was the workplace, not a private address.

The old cement works at the harbour are what remains to stand in front of.

The kilns are cold. The name on the 1907 appointment letter is not.

Photo: Jorchr, Limhamn harbour and former cement works, 11 March 2006, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons