The Nottbecks – cosmopolitans of Tampere

The family’s history is inseparable from the growth and development of Tampere.The story begins in St.Petersburg.

In the early 19th century, many entrepreneurial people move to St. Petersburg. One of them is the Baltic-German trader Carl Samuel Nottbeck. He hears of a small cotton spinnery that is for sale in Tampere. Nottbeck and his associates buy the Finlayson factory in March 1836. The new owners boldly modernize the factory. In just a couple of years, a magnificent new building rises on the banks of the Tammerkoski rapids. Carl Samuel Nottbeck sends his 20-year-old son, Wilhelm, to Tampere to learn the art of running a factory.