Zinn House

The Zinn House (Danish: Zinnske Gård), located at Kvæsthusgade 3, is a historic townhouse around the corner from the Nyhavn Canal in central Copenhagen, Denmark.

The building was later acquired by another wealthy merchant, Johann Ludvig Zinn, who came to Denmark to work for Fabritius & Wewer in 1757 and established his own trading house in 1765.

His daughter, Sophie Dorthea Zinn, described everyday life in the building in her memoirs Grandma's Confessions (Grandmamas Bekjendelser).

It is believed that the Zinn House was the first place in Denmark where the La Marseillaise was sung.

[1] It happened during a dinner for a delegation of French business partners on 20 January 1794 where Honoré-Nicolas-Marie Duveyrier was among the guests.

Other composers of the family lived there, in particular Emil Hartmann, but also at times Niels W. Gade and August Winding.

The journalist Jens Giødwad [da], editor of the magazine Fædrelandet, was a resident in the building from 1870 to circa 1874.

In 1915 Alfred Olsen commissioned the young architect Terkel Jhejle to refurbish the building.

In 1916, he purchased the estate Egebæksvang at Nærum and commissioned Hjejle to expand the main building with a new wing.

[6] During Nazi Germany's occupation of Denmark, Erik Bennike operated a weapons manufactory in the building.

No. 39 seen in a detail from Christian Gedde's map of St. Ann's East Quarter, 1757
The Zinn family's music room
Johan Friederich Zinn
J.P.E. Hartmann in his study
The house prior to the alterations in 1907
One of the oriel windows
The Hartmann plaque