Henrik Johan Ibsen was born on 20 March 1828 in Stockmanngarden into an affluent merchant family in the prosperous port town of Skien in Bratsberg (Telemark).He was the son of the merchant Knud Plesner Ibsen (1797-1877) and Marichen Cornelia Martine Altenburg (1799-1869), and he grew up as a member of the Ibsen-Altenburg-Paus extended family, which consisted of the siblings Ole and Hedevig Paus and their tightly knit families.