Lotten Wennberg
Charlotta "Lotten" Christina Wennberg (3 June 1815 in Stockholm - 4 November 1864), was a Swedish philanthropist.
Lotten Wennberg was the daughter of the rich landowner J. O. Wennberg. During her early life, she spent her winters in the capital, where she participated in society life, and her summers on Yxe Manor in Nora Mountain District, where she handed out supplies to the poor, as was expected from an upper class woman. However, she expanded her activity and also started collections of funds to provide poor also from neighboring parishes with supplies. In 1835, her father died: at the time of his death, his affairs was in disorder, and for a while, there were a risk that the family were to be bankrupt. This did not happen, but the risk is said to have made her decide to make philanthropy her main task in life.
In Stockholm, she was constantly active in various charitable activities, providing homes for the homeless, health care for the sick, education for children, supplies for the starved, wood for the frozen, work for the unemployed, "with the same gravity, as if she had been appointed to this task by the state and awarded accordingly by salary". She was to have done this with great energy and good humor: in contrast to what was usual for a contemporary philanthropist, she did not combine her help with religious preaching, but it is known that she did ask for a review from the local parish about the character from the person in question before she agreed to help. Normally, Wennberg helped by simply applying for help in the appropriate poor care, but she did also ask for funds from private contributors and occasionally provided funds herself.
Lotten Wennberg was a member of the Jakobs- och Johannis' församlingars Fruntimmers-Skyddsförening (The Women's Protection Society of the Jakob- and Johannis Parishes) and several other of the charitable societies of the capital were women were admitted. During the cholera of Stockholm in 1853, she was the secretary in the St Jakobs församlingskomittée av den stora välgörenhetsförening för fattiga barn och nödlidande (The St Jakob Parish' Comity of the Great Charity Committee for the Poor Children and The Needing), where she is described as the leading force by Fredrika Bremer, who were also a member.
Her charitable work was described by Fredrika Bremer and Emily Nonnen for Wilhelmina Stålberg, who included her in her dictionary of notable Swedish women in 1864. In 1864, Lotten Wennberg was granted a golden medal for her work in Stockholm by king Charles XV of Sweden. She died of cancer. After her death, the queen, Louise of the Netherlands, founded the charity society Lotten Wennbergs fond för hjälpbehöfvande (The Lotten Wennberg Fund for the Needing) to her memory.