Allegedly the find of two thunderbolts (flint axes) back in 1873 kindled the interest in Danish prehistory in the then 10 year old Rudkøbing merchant son Jens Winther. At first the archaeological interest had to be put away for the holidays from Odense Kathedralskole where he in 1879 took his preliminar examine and then became a merchant apprentice at Faaborg. After having done his his military service at Nyborg, he finally returned to Rudkøbing, and joined in his father's business which he took over in 1892.
The prehistoric interest had bitten Jens Winther firmly. But since he did take his merchant job serious, he therefore - in his younger years - only allowed himself to spend Sundays with doing excavations. After the age of sixty years, he allowed himself, however, to take leave from the commitments of the business world on weekdays, and instead go digging, doing museum work, or simply sat in his modestly equipped office behind the store, to work on his archaeological material and prepare it for release.
In 1905 Jens Winther founded and paid for the construction of Langeland Museum, and out of own pocket he paid for all expenses of museum operations through to 1945. And thus he also paid for out of his own pocket, the museum's major expansion in 1932.
Jens Winther was a both generous and personally frugal man who, despite the fact that he kept his own person in the background, he also knew his own worth and the importance of being master in his own house. In order to avoid interference in the museum's excavations, memos, audits, etc. Jens Winther renounced on government subsidies, and even in a period he prohibited the powerful leader of the National Museum, Sophus Müller, access to Langeland Museum.
During the excavation of the burial site at Stengade, a horse skeleton, ridetøj, stirrups, bridles, etc. was found, On the stirrups and bridles, there are inlaid gold, and since it is Danefæ, the National Museum in those days demanded to have the things turned over. Since Winther however would not let it go, the National Museum finally agreed to put the matter at rest. Now when Jens Winther later in life was offered a Knight's Cross, which his modesty forbade him to accept, he said no thanks to accolades, but added that if they believed he had done something which deserved recognition, he would recall the horse harness at Langeland Museum, that the National Museum sought, and that the best recognition the public could give him was to ensure that this harness by no means would be removed from Langeland Museum.
Along with its indispensable housekeeper, chauffeur, secretary and assistant in the field, Miss Hornum, Jens Winther was a known and perhaps even festive element in the Rudkøbingske cityscape when he with downcast hood in the big convertible moved out to yet another excavation.
In an article in Politiken Dr. Phil John Brøndsted once described it as follows:
“If you take a stroll at Rudkøbing mainstreet, Østergade, you
ll have the chance of getting to see something similar to a Field Marshal in a rolling sardin tin: It's Winther, stout and sturdy in a weathered armygrey open car on his way to his archeological workplace somewhere at the long island”
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