Herman Hansen, also known as "Orange-Herman" (born December 11, 1819, died November 30, 1892 in St. Petersburg) was an enterprising and versatile Norwegian businessman in the Christiania of the time.

Herman's father was a shoemaker at Akershus Fortress [1], but died at the age of 39 during the cholera epidemic in Christiania in 1833. The mother was left with the two children Herman and Martina. They lived in a small attic apartment in Lakkegata. Herman, then 13, had to contribute to the family's livelihood. He first tried himself as a wise boy, as he was quick to the bone and intelligent, but soon found a more profitable business in buying and reselling oranges, which at the time was a rare fruit. He walked around the offices in the center with orangesto sell. A few years later he started a business where he rented out costumes for masquerade balls and the like. In the summer he went around the cities along the Oslo Fjord and made money from speed skating. He became acquainted with a plasterer named Guidotti who lived in Hammersborg. The plasterer was looking for living models, and Herman established himself as a collector of "living, wild animals" that Guidotti could portray in plaster. Among the animals he provided were a bear, a fox and a monkey. This led him to start traveling around and show off a rich menagerie. He also brought with him jugglers and acrobats who performed various pieces of art; even he still entertained with sprints on these journeys. In 1843 he was in Tromsø, and shortly afterwards he got fortunate in Arkhangelsk.

The success in Arkhangelsk gave more flavor, and he went on to the Russian steppes. After many adventures, he came to Crimea around the same time as the Crimean War broke out. He began selling uniforms and field equipment to the military, and this proved to be a lucrative business. Eventually he switched to trading in diamonds, precious metals, oriental rugs and silk goods. He settled in Tbilisi. The mother and sister were left at home in Christiania, and the mother died of pneumonia in 1861 without seeing her son again. When he returned home on a visit in 1869, he had become a multimillionaire in Russia. He returned to Russia to continue his business, but kept in close contact with his sister, visiting his hometown about every two years. Martina was also on several long visits to Tblisi and later to St. Petersburg. Herman also made sure that his sister well off, but she continued to sew linen.

He died in 1892 in St. Petersburg, as a very rich man. He left behind his much younger, Polish widow, and two sons.

At the time of the inheritance settlement, most of the fortune went to his two sons in Russia. However, his sister Martina also inherited significant sums, which were converted into legacies. She died in 1893, a few months after her brother. Herman's Polish widow had then visited Christiania to persuade the cancer-stricken Martina to bequeath everything to Herman's two sons. Martina refused, and made sure to set up a will in which she created a number of legacies for charitable purposes, but also made sure that her relatives in Norway were installed as heirs. Thirteen days later she died. Herman's widow filed a lawsuit on behalf of her two sons, in which she contested Martina's heirs' right to the funds she had inherited from Herman. The inheritance dispute lasted for a number of years, but in 1903 the Russian Supreme Court upheld the Norwegian heirs. Then the Norwegian heirs made claims against the legacy board that ruled over the legacies that Martina had created in her will; they felt that they were awarded less than they were entitled to. The Supreme Court upheld the endowment board; the decision was made in 1912.

One of the legacies after Martina Hansen provided the basis for Martina Hansen's Hospital in Bærum. A portrait of Herman Hansen hangs on the ground floor of the hospital.