Erik Biering

Erik Biering (born Erik Andreas Mathias Biering; born Svindinge, 1876 – d. Glostrup, Denmark, 1964) was a Danish businessman and diplomat.

Erik Biering
Consuls of European nations in Baku, 1905. From left to right: Ugent Mutafow (Italy), F. Röhll (Germany), E. F. Biering (Denmark), U.M. Feigl (Netherlands).
Vice-Consul of Denmark in Baku
In office 1904–1908
Consul of Denmark for Caucasus
In office 1908–1920
Consul of Denmark for Lithuania
In office 1921–1930
Personal details
Born	(1876-12-23)December 23, 1876 Svindinge, Svendborg County, Denmark
Died	July 4, 1964(1964-07-04) (aged 87) Rigshospitalet Glostrup, Denmark
Resting place	Mariebjerg Cemetery, Gentofte, Denmark
Military service
Branch/service	Danish Military Mission in Berlin
Rank	Major-General

Early life

Born in Svindinge, Svendborg County in 1876 to Frederik Ferdinand Biering (1813–1879), a parish priest and Hansine Marie Caroline Clausen (1830–1912), Biering had 16 siblings. Biering passed his preliminary examination in 1893 in Svendborg Realskole and received commercial training in Denmark and Germany. He completed his military service in 1897 and was discharged as a second lieutenant in 1899.^[1]

Life in Baku

He worked in Hamburg for a while until 1901 when he was invited by his elder half-brother Adam Gottlob Biering (1856–1910) to join him in Baku. Adam took a job as a mechanical engineer in Baku for an oil company owned by the Swedish Nobel family in 1880s. After working with his brother, he borrowed 20,000 rubles from him and founded his own company in December 1901 - Biering & Raabe (later E.F. Biering & Co.) which supplied equipment to the oil industry on an agency and commission basis. Adam's health was later detoriated and sold his business to Erik, while himself moving to Copenhagen.^[2] As Erik grew out of his brother's shadow, his other enterprises followed: in 1904 he was appointed Danish Vice-Consul in Baku and in 1905, he also became Norwegian Vice-Consul. He was appointed in 1908 as Danish Consul for Caucasus,

Later his company grew to become the third largest in the drilling industry in Baku in 1906. In collaboration with Copenhagen's Løshusbank and the Great Northern Telephone Company, Erik Biering also won the lucrative concession to establish a telephone system in and around Baku in 1907. Biering also became chairman of the board of the Orient and Bank Fisheries Company and a member of the board of the Baku branch of Tiflis Commercial Bank. He was also chairman of the Evangelical Lutheran Church and school board in Baku from 1911 to 1920.

In 1918, he was authorized representative of chairman for the Centrocaspian Dictatorship during armistice negotiations with the besieging Turkish army under Nuri Pasha.

Later years

On 1 June 1921, he was appointed Danish consul in Kaunas, Lithuania, from 1923 with the title of Consul General, and in 1925 also as Chargé d’Affaires. In 1930, he was appointed envoy to Yugoslavia, Romania, and Bulgaria, initially residing in Belgrade, but from 1934 in Bucharest. Biering did significant work to promote Danish exports and engineering in these countries.^[1] He remained at his post in Bucharest during the war and revolution. Six months after reaching the age limit on 1 January 1947, he was given a new assignment: on 1 July 1947, he was appointed head of the Danish military mission in Berlin with the rank of Major General.^[3] During negotiations with the Allies, particularly the Russian occupation authorities, his knowledge of the Russian language and mentality proved highly valuable, contributing to his strong position. He stepped down on 15 June 1949, after which he was tasked with a special mission to alleviate the refugee pressure in South Schleswig. Through an agreement with the state government in Kiel, he facilitated the relocation of approximately 20,000 refugees to other parts of Germany. In May 1950, he left the foreign service. He died on 4 July 1964.

Family

He was married to Sigrid Sjöwall (15 January 1883 – 8 August 1960) on 11 October 1904 in Baku. Her father was department head at Nobel's factories, Per Sjöwall (1856–1933). They had two children - Svend (b. 3 September 1905) and Inger (b. 26 November 1907).

Awards

Danish awards

• Knight of the Order of Dannebrog, 1910
• Dannebrog's Medal of Honor, 1924
• Commander 2nd Degree of the Order of Dannebrog, 1934
• Commander 1st Degree of the Order of Dannebrog, 1942
• Grand Cross of the Order of Dannebrog, 1949

Foreign awards

• Order of Civil Merit (Bulgaria), 1st Class
• Order of the Yugoslav Crown, 1st Class
• Order of St. Sava, 1st Class
• Order of Gediminas, 1st Class
• Order of St. Olav, 3rd Class
• Red Cross Medal (Prussia), 2nd and 3rd Class
• Order of the Star, 3rd Class
• Order of the Crown, 1st Class
• Order of the Star of Romania, 1st Class
• Austrian Order of the Red Cross
• Order of the Falcon

Works

• My twenty years in the Caucasus (Danish: Mine tyve aar i Kaukasus), Munksgaard, 1960