Jens Vogt

Who was Jens Vogt?

Jens Theodor Paludan Vogt was a Norwegian engineer and first director of Kristiania Sporveisselskab who operated the first tramway in Oslo.

He was the son of priest Niels Nielsen Vogt. He was a nephew of politicians Jørgen Herman Vogt and David Vogt, and a first cousin of Volrath Vogt and Nils Vogt. He grew up in Fiskum and studied at the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. He also studied at the University of Hanover and at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology before he was employed by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration in 1853. Vogt moved to Homansbyen in 1877. He married author Johanne Collett, and had the son Nils Collett Vogt—who became an important Norwegian poet.

Vogt travelled often abroad to study innovations in electrical tramways. In 1883, he visited London and Nantes. In the summer of 1885, he travelled to Antwerpen and co-founded the International Association of Public Transport. Trygve Poppe succeeded him as director of Kristiania Sporveisselskap on 1 January 1894.