Altenburg House.

In 1830, Henrik's father, Knud Ibsen's business received a boost through the inheritance of his father-in-law's trading house, his distillery, breweries, seafront warehouses, and not least Altenburg House in the center, which stood here until the city fire in 1886. In 1831, when Henrik was three years old, the family moved from Stockmann House up here to Altenburg House. During his childhood, Henrik Ibsen was the eldest son of a vigorous and skilled merchant. As a new businessman, Knud Ibsen increased his turnover while most others in the city suffered due to the crisis in the timber industry and shipping. Henrik Ibsen spent precisely his first seven years of life in a family that had every reason for optimism and faith in the future. Tor Gardåsen at Telemark Museum has described in one of his many books how child-rearing in these bourgeois families was characterized by distance and an almost ritualistic interaction between parents and children. Daily interaction was left to governesses and private tutors, who indoctrinated the children with the idea that they were special, that they were finer than other children and preferably should not play with them. It would, of course, be speculative to claim that such an educational ideal came to characterize Henrik Ibsen, but at least it can be said that this was an upbringing ideal that suited someone with Henrik Ibsen's personality well. He had a touch of arrogance throughout his life.