Søren Knudsen – Founder of Glud Museum

Søren Knudsen was born in Glud in 1878. His father was a carpenter. He was apprenticed to a painter. After that he went travelling in Germany, France an Switzerland. In Switzerland he was aware of his interest for history. In 1904 he started his own painting company and he got married. Two years later the family moved into Hildesheim where Søren Knudsen lived until his death in 1955.

On his journey’s he had visited the town Hildesheim in Germany and had some very enthusiastic feelings about the town, he would even have liked to live their. That was the reason why he chose the name Hildesheim for his own house.

Later he put up a "Lallekonge" on the gable to the road. He had seen such a figure in Basel placed on the town wall, where it mocked enemies who thought they could capture the town.

Søren Knudsen was a man of strong opinions. This brought him into conflict with many people and authorities. He was an absolutely abstainer and vegetarian and he did not like any milk products, coffee or tobacco.

When Rasmus Thomesøn’s farm was about to be pulled down at the beginning of 1911 he started a campaign to save the farmhouse that had only been changed a little since it was build. He managed to gather 700 kr. Then he began to separate and move the farmhouse to Glud Museum.

Within the next decades he continued to collect houses and objects from Bjerre Herred. Colleagues held him in respect and he worked together with the Danish National Museum about measuring farmhouses.

Søren Knudsen was a very good draftsman who made more than 1.000 drawings especially with motives from Bjerre Herred.