The history of Kläpphagen

In 2019 we found this farm that we knew we could develop into something fantastic. We wanted to preserve as much as possible of the old milieu, but unfortunately we were forced to demolish the old farm building as it was in such bad condition. We recycled all the material that was in good order for the other buildings. This is where our interest in the past and Kläpphagen’s history was born.

In 1861 the first dwelling house was built at Kläpphagen. Here they farmed and also kept cattle. Our story focuses on three brothers and their mother who lived at Kläpphagen at the beginning of the 1900s, great fisherman Rudolf, thinker Hjalmar, god-fearing Reinhold and pious mother Charlotta. In 1901 the Baptist community ELIM was formed, where godly Charlotta played first violin. It was not only in the congregation that she inspired devotion, but she inspired faith in all those around her. So it is not surprising that son Oskar (?) became a preacher and Reinhold a missionary. It is said that when Reinhold ploughed the fields in the harbour marsh, he had what is known as a revelation that he should become a missionary. So he left the plough and went home with the horse, and then on to missionary school in Örebro. There he studied diligently and devoutly for a couple of years before he set off for the Belgian Congo in Africa to work as a missionary. After several years of work and toil with the so-called heathen savages he came home for a visit. He had with him various souvenirs such as a crossbow with poisoned arrows, spears and jungle knives. The poison arrows and crossbow were immediately donated to the Strömstad Museum; these were considered too dangerous to have in the house with three resourceful lads. On Sundays when the others from the farm were in church the boys took the opportunity of target practice with the spears. A couple of years after the visit to Kläpphagen, Reinhold died of acute blood poisoning in the Belgian Congo.

Hjalmar, who was expected to run the farm, was more literary and musically minded. He was an intellectual and wrote many magazine articles, and his sweet tones were a pleasure to the ear of the common man. Rudolf was the only one of the children who was not religious, he dedicated his life to fishing on the boat Freden instead. As luck would have it Rudolf found a serious girl for a wife, Signe, who looked after the farm excellently with the help of Hjalmar and the children. When Rudolf no longer wanted to fish, they continued to run the farm for a number of years, but on a smaller scale, until the end of the 1950s when the last animal was sold.

Evert Taube, who loved Koster, wandered past Kläpphagen one day and being struck by its beauty, knew that this was where he wanted to live. He wanted to buy the whole lot, but it didn’t work out. So Kläpphagen remained the property of the brothers, perhaps luckily, otherwise we would not own the farm today.