My name is Jacob Wallström. I have been using the GTD method since 2001, and I have noticed the lack of good applications suitable for this method. So in 2006 I founded Ghost Park Software to develop a high quality GTD application for the Mac.
I enjoy being outdoors, even when developing software. My favorite place for programming is Spökparken (The Ghost Park) which is a nice park close to where I live in Stockholm, Sweden. Read on for the story behind the name of the park, which is quite amazing (and totally irrelevant).
The Ghost Park was given its name after after the Ghost Castle (Spökslottet) located in the park. The Ghost Castle was built in 1699–1701 for the Dutch businessman Hans Peter Scheffler. In the year 1780 squire Jakob von Balthazar Knigge moved in. He was said to be cruel and malicious, and that he had made his fortune as a sea pirate. King Gustav III made him a knight, but with no official motivation. Maybe the reason was best kept a secret. It was rumored that Knigge had hidden a gold and silver treasure in the house. Late one evening a black carriage with black horses stopped at the gate of the Ghost Castle. It was the devil himself that had come for Knigge, who was never to be seen again.
At least that is what was said. In reality Knigge had died peacefully in his bed and was given a decent burial at Adolf Fredrik’s graveyard nearby the mansion. He testified a large amount of money for the elderly, sick and young.
The rumors really got going when a small landslide revealed a tomb with a skeleton at the northern end of the park in 1840. Nobody knew who was buried there, but some speculated it was Scheffler, the original owner of the mansion. When Stockholm University built a café for the students, the skeleton was moved to Adolf Fredrik’s graveyard. By the late 19th century the ghost stories were in full swing. A priest was said to have tried exorcise the ghosts, but he was thrown out of a window and broke a leg.
Nowadays the mansion houses the university’s art collection and is also used for meetings and conferences. The park seems perfectly peaceful and there are no signs of ghosts, at least as long as you don’t provoke them…
Software development, Ghost Park style
A source of Knigge’s wealth?
Knigge’s tombstone still standing at the graveyard of Adolf Fredrik’s church
Carefree students drinking porter above the old tomb in 1895
The Ghost Castle today