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The Sound region has for centuries been the arena for a number of bloody wars between Denmark and Sweden.
However the period after 1720 has been marked by a peaceful development between the two sister countries.
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The present solidarity and dynamics of the Sound region is not a matter of course. For almost a thousand years Sweden and Denmark has fought over the borders between the two states and over the reign of the Baltic. In the 17th and 18th century it was particularly the nationality of the Scanian countries, which was the cause of conflict. Countless wars, peace treaties and diplomatic efforts, where the big powers of that time interfered and created the borders, we know today.
However, the 20th centuries´ decision to form the Europe of regions has in many ways made a rigid perception of these borders much more flexible.
In the brief survey below you can inform yourself of the main points in the historic development and in the left menu you can see a more detailed historic explanation.
The Conquests of the Viking Age and the Unification of Denmark
From the Sound region fierce attacks against the areas around the North Sea were made. Written sources thus tell of an attack on the monastery Lindisfarne, an English island outside Northumberland. Almost a hundred years later (880) we also know that the area north of the Thames was established and recognized as a Viking dominion; the Danelaw. In the period large conquest expeditions were made against the Frankish Empire (Normandy)
In the 1000th century the Scandinavian control of the Dane law desisted, but in 1013 the Danes regained power, when Swein Forkbeard conquered England. His son, King Canute took over this North Sea reign, which lasted until 1042. The dream of a continued Danish North Sea reign was shattered for good when the Normans conquered England in 1066.
In Denmark Harald Bluetooth unified, by way of a number of successful attacks, the four main land areas, Jutland, Funen, Zealand and Scania which contemporary sources refer to as Denmark.
Viking Ship with Soldiers
Halör
The period 1050-1200 had bloody civil wars and the efforts to establish supremacy in te Baltic. The internal conflicts were mainly power struggles between magnates and the royal power, but also between the royal power and the church.
During Absalon´s time as archbishop (1177-1201) the royal power and the church had a common interest in fighting the Wends, who often attacked the areas in the Sound region – in their home countries. These were heathen societies and the attacks were therefore named crusades.
The successful attacks and conquests culminated with the conquest of the island Rügen and Estonia.
Valdemar on crusade against Rügen
The Crusade Against Rügen 1169
Times of Crises and Conflicts
In the 13th century the collaboration between the royal power and the church ended. At the same time the magnates came into conflict with the royal power. Under Erik Menved an expensive and aggressive foreign policy was pursued, especially against Northern Germany and during the reign of his successor Christoffer 2. almost all of Denmark was pawned. The Scanian countries were left for Sweden, but were reunited with Denmark in the reign of Valdemar Atterdags in 1360, where all of Denmark once again became a unified realm.
The competition and the conflicts in the North German trade league, the Hanseatic League, led to the formation of the Kalmar Union under Queen Margrethe.
The introduction of the Sound Dues and the conflicts with the Hanseatic Leagues led to unrest among the Swedish mountain men. The Engelbrekt rebellion in 1434 spread all the way to Scania and caused the dethroning of Erik of Pomerania.
The union enemies in Sweden tasted blood and the union could not be upheld in the long run.
Kärnan in Helsingborg
The Goose Tower
Gurre Castle
Denmark – the Big Power
Christian 2´s was defeated against Sweden, who left the union in 1523. The king was dethroned and the crown was taken over by Frederik 1. After his death in 1533 civil war broke out in Denmark, Grevens fejde (The Count´s feud). When the feud ended, Frederik 1´s son, Christian 3. took over the throne in 1536. Denmark was a North European big power at the time, and had full control over the entrance to the Baltic.
Sweden, who had undergone a positive development, felt boxed in by Denmark and this created serious conflicts.
The Seven Year war (1563-70) became a trial of strength between the old big power, Denmark and the upstart, Sweden. However, Denmark´s position didn´t change.
Sweden Felt Fenced-in
Power Change in the North
During the 17th century the division between Denmark and Sweden culminated. The Kalmar War, the Horn War, Karl 10th Gustav´s war and the Scanian War were violent encounters, which particularly hit the population in Zealand and Scania.
You could claim that the Horn war via the peace in Brömsebro meant a power change in the North. After this war Sweden took over the role as the big power in the North. The great catastrophe for Denmark was the loss of the Scanian countries at the Roskilde peace treaty after the Karl 10th Gustav´s war. The Scanian war could be looked upon as a rematch, but the attempt to get Scania back failed.
The Danes´ last attempt to regain the Scanian countries was done the Great Nordic war in the beginning of the 18th century. But after the battle of Helsingborg in 1710, Denmark had to accept that the Sound had become the new border between Denmark and Sweden.
Gustav Horn
Karl X Gustav at Storebælt
The Peace in Roskilde
The Battle of Lund 1676
After the Great Nordic War people as well as the landscape on both sides of the Sound had been ravaged by the many wars and great efforts were made to create more efficient agriculture and forestry in Scania and Zealand.
Towards the end of the 18th century an attempt was made to create a friendlier atmosphere between the two countries. For example the Swedish king Gustav 3. made a state visit to Denmark.
Gustav III at Fredensborg
A Time of Reconciliation
Denmark and Sweden took opposite sides in the Napoleonic wars and Denmark was forced to give up Norway. In spite of this conflict situation at the beginning of the century, the century still held a strengthening of the peaceful and friendly connections between Denmark and Sweden. A very active movement was created, the Scandinavism, which advertised a Danish-Swedish union. Although this did not succeed, a number of peaceful and fruitful contacts were made, not least among the students on both sides of the Sound.
Three flags, but one people
Sturzen-Becker
Karl XV and Frederik VII
Students´ meeting in 1845
The beginning of the 20th century had hopes for a peaceful time in Europe. But around 1914 the First World War broke out. The Scandinavian countries were united in a declaration of neutrality and the countries succeeded in staying out of the war. But the war still had an effect on Scandinavia; Denmark as well as Sweden made large sums by trading with the warring countries.
Three Nordic Kings 1914
The Mining of the Sound
The Second World War
The Second World War became a much more tangible experience in the Sound region, as Denmark was occupied by Germany. With that Scania became a neighbour to the war. The Danish Jews became a particularly threatened group from October 1943. But forces on both sides of the Sound were able to ferry the Jews across to Sweden, where they found refuge until the liberation in May 1945.
Den 9. april 1940
The Lights in Helsingborg
The Sabotage Against the Coast Railway
The Escape Across the Sound
Assistant Chief Constable in Helsingborg Carl Palm
On the evening of May 4th 1945 you could hear that the Germans had surrendered in Denmark and everywhere people crowded happily in the streets. The Danish Brigade in Sweden had been assembled in Helsingborg and was ferried across the Sound the next day to Elsinore, where they i triumphal progression drove through Stengade to Copenhagen.
After the war the good contacts between Denmark and Sweden were revived. The post war time has been marked by an intensification of the traffic between the countries benefiting culture, trade and feeling of belonging. A feeling of belonging, which momentarily are forgotten, at the yearly football matches!
Elsinore May 5th 1945.
Swedish Crofts
Viking Age and the Unification
By the end of the 970´s King Harald conquered Zealand and parts of Scania. Then he built the large ring castle Trelleborg in Zealand. The castle has been dated to around the year 978. In Scania it seems to have been the Sound coast and the south coast, which were conquered.
In the beginning of the 980´s the great slave revolt erupted at the Baltic coast.
The period in Nordic history, which involves the youngest phase of the Iron Age, is called The Viking Age. The period is characterized by cultural assent with close cultural connections between the Nordic countries, for instance in areas like mythology, building style and decoration.
The beginning of the period is marked by a violent expansion over geographic areas. Many factors have played a part. A steep rise in population in the original Viking countries, i.e. Norway, Denmark and Sweden, probably plays an important part. A change in the heathen religion during the 6th century towards more martial gods could be another. The martial ideal is evident in the fact that when a man fell in battle immediately was sent to Odin´s residence, Valhalla. Another factor has probably been the highly developed Nordic naval architecture and the introduction of the sail.
By the end of the Viking Age the Christian religion advances heavily in Scandinavia. Early on the European missionaries had gone north, but now they were supported by the domestic kings and magnates. Norway and Jutland was Christianized in the first wave because of these areas´ close proximity to the Christian countries. Norway had close contact to England. Through the conquests of Harald Bluetooth in the 970´s and the foundation of what was to become a united Danish realm, Christianity was introduced, probably by force. From Scania and Norway the new doctrine spread to Västergötland, Östergötland and Småland and by the middle and the end of the 12th century the main areas around the lake Malaren and Uppland were Christianized.
The Viking Age is said to have started with an attack on the monastery Lindisfarne in England in the year 793. Certainly it is not possible to name the start of a period by one of the first attacks in Europe. If anything this implies that you have become so powerful that you can extend your sphere of interest far beyond the sea. This year does not comply either with the archaeological material. In the early 8th century we see an increase in rich graves here. In Bornholm, for instance, excavations have revealed incredible magnificent graves from this period. To date the beginning of the Viking Age back to the 8th century is probably not far off.
When did the Viking Age end then? There have been many different years to choose from. The problem is that the Viking Age has never existed. The period is just a latter-day invention designed to divide up the past in smaller and easily understandable periods. The Battle of Hastings in England in 1066 is thought by many to be a good end, while other more vaguely mention the year 1050, when the Danish royal power was forced to give up their attempt to conquer England.
However the problem is that the Battle of Hastings definitely isn't a memorable year for the happenings here in Scandinavia. Instead we should choose the year 1103. In this year Lund became diocese for the entire North, when the archbishop I Bremen/Hamburg was forced to divide up his power. In this year Christianity was definitely introduced and with it the European cultural heritage.
Harald Bluetooth
We don't know when the reign of Harald Bluetooth began. His father, Gorm, was hostile towards the Christians. However, in hear 948 three bishops were ordained in Jutland. This signifies that Harald at this time perhaps had taken over after his father.
Harald Bluetooth was married to Tofa, the daughter of a Wendish prince. Only a rune stone from Sønder Vissinge in Denmark provide information about Tofa: " Tofa, Mistivoj's daughter, Harald the Good, the bride of Gorm' s son, set up this monument for his mother."
Harald had the children Sweyn Forkbeard, who became a Danish king later on, Håkon, who ruled in Semland, Tyra, who was first married to the Swedish king Styrbjørn and later to the Norwegian king, Olav Trygvasson, and Gunhild, who was married in England. Adam of Bremen also mentions the son Iring, whom Harald had sent to England, but who had been killed there. It is also said that the king had other wives besides Tofa. Adam mentions for instance Gunhild and Saxo relates at the end of the 12th century that the king had married Gyrid, Styrbjørn´s sister.
Harald´s father in law Mistivoj had adopted the Christian faith and in the year 968 he had sanctioned the establishment of the Episcopal residence in Oldenburg. Mistivoj held on to Christianity and died in the monastery Bardowiek. Harald´s marriage to Tofa must have taken place in the 960´s. In the year 974 his son Sven is said to have been a small child. Perhaps it in connection with this marriage that Harald is baptized
Harald Bluetooth formed an alliance through his wife with a Wendish prince. The purpose of the alliance could have been to secure Harald´s expansion plans in Scandinavia and perhaps in England. In the 960´s the battle of Norway seems ho have become topical. Adam of Bremen writes in the year of 1070:
"Harald expanded his domain on the other side of the ocean to the Norwegians and the Angles. In Norway Hakon reigned and when the Norwegians had dethroned him because of his reckless behaviour, Harald reinstated him by way of his authority and made him conciliatory towards the Christians."
In order to rule over England as well as Norway, and especially the Oslo inlet it was necessary to have a large fleet. It is not unreasonable to view the building of the enormous Aggersborg at Limfjorden as naval base for this conquest. The myths relate how the Norwegian king Harald was brutally murdered and how Harald Bluetooth later sailed to Norway with the Norwegian Hakon Jarl and an enormous fleet. This is supposed to have happened around the year 970.
When the German emperor Otto I died in the year 973, the Danes rebelled against the German suzerainty in Hedeby in Southern Jutland. Harald Bluetooth was supoorted in the fight by his Norwegian ally, Hakon Jarl. According to Snorre Sturlason, Hakon Jarl later crossed the Sound and burned and ravaged on both sides of the Sound on his way back to Norway. This information is important. If it is true it indicates that Zealand and Scania hadn´t yet been conquered by King Harald.
In the beginning of the 980´s the great slave revolt erupted at the Baltic coast. It is all said to have been a heathen counter attack on the Christians. In Denmark Harald´s son, Sweyn, tried to take over. Adam writes:
"Suddenly a rebellion started, the Danes renounced Christianity, made Sweyn king and declared war on Harald… In this miserable war Harald and his supporters were defeated. The king himself was wounded and fled the battle, boarded a ship and he managed to escape to the society in the land of the slaves, which is called Jumne."
King Harald died of his wounds here and was taken, according to Adam, back to Denmark by his soldiers, where he was buried in the church I Roskilde, which he had built on the honour of the Holy Trinity. Harald must have died in the year 985 or 986.
Danmark´s Birth Certificate
The War Harbour in Foteviken
In the Sound area Foteviken on the Scanian Sound coast forms a strategic situated natural harbour very likely for the Scanian war fleet. In the inlet´s mouth towards Høllviken they built an almost 300 metres long obstruction of stone and wood under the water. Only a small opening in the middle made it possible for a ship to sail through.
The obstruction at the mouth of Foteviken was found and partly examined in the beginning of the 1980´s. The place has been marked on a map drawn by hand as early as the 1680`s and was named " Stiigan ". The name alludes to the many wooden posts, which have been hammered down here. A year ring dating suggests that the construction may have been begun in the time of Harald Bluetooth and finished later. Later on stone was used to extend the obstruction. On the other side of the obstruction they had to row the ship almost a kilometre south in the deep channel, which runs in the otherwise shallow inlet. Finally they had to round a synthetic lake, before they reached the basin, which probably was here. Opposite the basin was the royal estate with a smaller chapel and the village. However, there have been no excavations in the exciting Viking Age environment.
Roar Ege
At the end of the 12th century the church and the king started a close collaboration. Valdemar the Great and and Bishop Absalon carried out a crusade against the heathen Wends in North Germany.
The King´s Officials
The long reign of King Niels from 1104-34, marks a consolidation period, where the church and royal power mutually fortify their position in the society. The royal power seems not to challenge the magnates, but extends its positions by appointing officials, among others a chamberlain, who was to take care of the financial circumstances and monetary matters in the realm, and later the king´s chancellor, who was his personal secretary. Incidentally this position was reserved for the bishop in Roskilde.
For the operation of the churches a tithe is introduced on production around 1125, which is allotted to the church and the clergy and this marks a step in the direction of the financial integration of the church into the medieval society, which is taking shape.
The military functions are separated and are transferred to the army and its officers. The duty of the men of the realm to volunteer for the defence of the nation goes back the Viking Age, but the arrangement is now modernised. The king´s housecarls of magnates are changed into a circle of local officials, or ombudsmen, which took care of the local administration. Larger units were managed by the king´s earl, magnates like for instance Skjalm Hvide, who was earl of Zealand. In Scania the king had a special official, or governor, the "gælker".
The Bastrup Tower
The Battle of Fotevik
The Battle of Fotevik, June 4th 1134 signified the end of the long reign of King Niels. The battle is described as one of the most bloody in medieval Denmark. The cause was a long conflict between the descendants of Svend Estridsen (1047-74), about who was to succeed King Niels on the throne.
King Niels, who was the son of Sven Estridsen, landed with his son Magnus and a great army in Fotevik in the south-western part of Scania, in order to settle accounts with his closest rival, Erik Emune, who was the son of King Niels´ brother, Erik Ejegod. Erik Emune was supported by the archbishop in Lund, Asser, as well as by a mercenary German army of approximately 300 riders. It is believed that this was the first time a cavalry was used in Denmark.
The result was that King Niels´ army was destroyed, which had catastrophic consequences for the political stability in Denmark. Magnus, the son, fell and King Niels only just escaped. Three weeks later he was murdered by dissatisfied citizens in Slesvig. Among the fallen was a large part of the Danish administration, among them 5 bishops and around 60 clergymen. It is not known how many of the rank and file was killed. The Battle of Fotevik is described as early as 1138 in the Roskilde Chronicle and somewhat later by Saxo.
The Roskilde Chronicle
King Valdemar the Great and Absalon
King Valdemar the Great appointed his childhood friend Absalon (who belonged to the Hvide family) bishop in Roskilde in 1158. He did this although Absalon still was not thirty years old, which was necessary to become a bishop. With this a cooperation was established and the good relationship betwen the church and the royal power was revived.
Højbro Plads
The Expedition to the Wendish Coast
In 1159 Valdemar and Absalon went on an expedition to the Wendish coast. Wendish raids had for a long time ravaged the Danish coast. The Danish attack on the Wendish was in reality also a raid and not a crusade, which was what they said.
The Crusade Against Rügen
The royal power was strengthened in the period with the confiscation of the church´s property at the Reformation in 1536. Class struggle between the king, the nobility and the peasants, which culminated in connection with the Count´s Feud 1534-36, makes the period until around 1550 stagnant. The royal power entrenches itself behind new fortress-like castles, e.g. Malmøhus.
Deteriorating Conditions for the Productions
Up to the 14th century Europe had experienced a strong upturn with population increase, new cultivations and flourishing trade and shipping. In the 14th century dark clouds gathered and a marked deterioration began. In the end of the 13th century they had terminated new cultivations and it began to become difficult to provide labour for the estates. Reasons for the decline may have been that the exploitation had reached a natural level, because the population was reduced. The market was saturated. In addition it is to be supposed that the great cultivation had brought with it a marked clearing of forest with had resulted in erosion and sand drift.
Climate changes (falling temperatures) also resulted in periods of crop failures. It was a general ecological crisis.
The Political Crisis
The crisis involved a diminishment of the population, changes in the structure of the population, but also changes in the power structure. The king continued to be the head of the realm, but his exertion of power, had to take place in cooperation with the aristocracy. The noble magnates strengthened their position, when the principalities were inherited.
The bishops´ fiefs also wanted sovereignty and the started a number of conflicts especially between the archbishops Jacob Erlandsson and Jens Grand.
At the same time Erik Menved led a very aggressive policy and he strengthened the fortifications in the kingdom. This was evident in the Sound region, where a number of castles were renovated or built.
The old circular defence tower in Helsingborg was exchanged for the square Kärnan. This tower construction became a massive and impenetrable castle. The walls were more than 4 metres thick and the tower´s height was 30 metres. It had to be able to withstand the art of war of the times. Falsterbohus was also rebuilt and this castle also had a square tower. The rebuilding of these two castles started around 1310. Falsterbohus took over the tasks of the Skanør Castle and Helsingborg and Kärnan developed into the crown's most important fortification in Scania. Erik Menved also expanded the Lindhold Castle in Southern Scania. This castle also had a square tower.
In Bornholm Hammershus is gradually developed into the largest castle in the North. In Vordingborg a castle complex is built to the defence of the country´s south border and in Kalundborg in in West Zealand the old fortification of Esbern Snare is enlarged. Finally in Valdemar Atterdag´s time (1340-1375) an administrative centre with a central castle is built in Gurre in North Zealand.
Kärnan, Helsingborg
Kärnan in Sections
The Interior of Kärnan
Hammershus
Vordinborg Castle
The Castle Hill
Gurre
Gurre Complex
Weakened Royal Power
The expansion policy and the military expansion was dearly bought and Erik Menved´s pledging almost led to the dissolution of the kingdom under his successor Christofer II. The royal power weakened and the bad economy and the pledging continued. It went so far that the Holsteiner counts Gerhard of Rendsborg and Johan af Plön had the real power in Denmark. Johan possessed large parts of Zealand, Scania, Blekinge, Halland and Lolland. In Scania the economy was tolerable thanks to the Scanian market, but here they were dissatisfied with Johan of Plön´s pro-German rule. The result was that the archbishop in Lund, Karl Eriksen, began a campaign among the Scanian magnates, which led to the election of the Swedish king Magnus Eriksson as king in Scania at a meeting in Kalmar in 1332.
After this Swedish troops went into Scania and a peace was made with Johan. The Scanian parliament then accepted Magnus as their king and Magnus took over Johan´s pledge, paid 34000 mark in silver and could then call himself king of Sweden, Norway and Scania. 10000 mark of the pledge was for the Helsingborg castle. The pledge included Scania, Blekinge and Ven. These areas were thus united with Sweden from 1332.
In 1341, the year after Valdemar Atterdag had become king of Denmark, even southern Halland was handed over to Sweden.
The Conflict with the Hanseates
Valdemar succeeded in rebuilding Denmark and in 1360 Scania, Halland and Blekinge could be reunited with the Danish kingdom. This took place after a long siege of Helsingborg Castle.
Valdemar thus strengthened the Danish kingdom and the result was that the Hanseatic towns felt threatened. Several Hanseatic towns made an alliance with Sweden and Norway. The Swedish king Albreckt of Mecklenburg and the Hanseatic towns carried out a conquest against Scania in 1368. Peace was made in 1370 and Denmark kept Scania, but the Hanseates took over Falsterbo, Skanör, Malmö and Helsingborg. In addition the Danes were forced to give up 2 thirds of the income from the Scanian market.
Mass Killings
Scull Shot
The Kalmar Union
The daughter of Valdemar Atterdag, Margrethe succeeded in skilfully establishing a three state union between Denmark, Sweden and Norway in 1397. The agreement was signed in Kalmar. The background was that Sweden was dissatisfied with the pro-German policy of Albreckt of Mecklenburg, at the same time as Denmark had great problems with the Hanseates. A strong Nordic union, The Kalmar union, was to become the prescription against these problems.
Søborg Castle
Margrehe 1.
Gjorslev Castle
Erik of Pommern
Dalowo
The Expansion of Market Towns
The Scanian market lost more and more importance and the centre of gravity of the trade was moved from Skanør and Falsterbo to Malmo and Copenhagen. One idea behind of the Kalmar Union was that a united North would better withstand The Hanseates and king Erik of Pommern (1412-39) thus led a policy, which would strengthen the market towns of the Sound region. Several towns were given market towns rights, Helsingborg in 1414 and Elsinore in 1426. In addition Landskrona was founded in 1413, first of all to trade with Holland and England.
The coronation of Erik of Pomerania
Erik of Pommern and the Sound Duty
One idea behind of the Kalmar Union was that a united North would better withstand The Hanseates and king Erik of Pommern (1412-39) thus led a policy, which would strengthen the market towns of the Sound region. Several towns were given market towns rights, Helsingborg in 1414 and Elsinore in 1426. In addition Landskrona was founded in 1414, first of all to trade with Holland and England.
In 1429 the Sound duty was introduced, which was to compensate for the lost income form the Scanian market. It was natural that the charging of the duty was placed in the narrowest part of the Sound and therefore the fortification Krogen was built in Elsinore.
Competition and Conflicts
But it was not only the local trade that was interesting. Even foreign merchants played a big part, especially in Elsinore. The competition with the Hanseatic towns continued, but new players entered the scene, for instance the Dutch, who had the same privileges and the Hanseates in 1490.
The Danish policy of concentrating the efforts on the market towns and trying to outcompete the Hanseatic towns became costly and brought with it increases of taxation among the peasants. Sweden reacted most violently. Here the mountain men (part farmer, part mine owner) lost great income in connection with the boycott of the Hanseates, as the possibilities of the sale of iron products lessened.. The result was that an uprising started under the leadership of the Swede Engelbreckt Engelbrecktsson.
The rebellion spread to large parts of Sweden and Erik of Pommern felt threatened. He sent a Scanian troop against Engelbreckts´s troops in southern Halland. But the Scanians went over to Engelbreckt´s side and made peace with him. In 1436 they refused to pay a tax, which Erik of Pommern demanded. The Scanians once again showed their dissatisfaction by taking the side of the Swedish rebels. This was a contributing cause to the fact that Erik was dethroned as a union king and had to leave the North.
Power Struggle in Denmark – The Count´s Feud
Denmark´s king after the dethronement of Christian 2.s in 1523, Frederik I., had given the growing Lutheranism his cautious support, even though he had promised the Catholic bishops in his strict coronation charter to fight all "heresy". After the death of Frederik I.s in 1533 the bishops refused to recognize his son, Christian as the king. Mostly because he had openly embraced Lutheranism and had introduced it in the areas in Schleswig, with which his father had endowed him. The citizens of Malmo and Copenhagen wanted to reinstate Christian 2., but the bishops did not want that either, as he, as his cousin Christian, also was an eager follower of the teachings of Luther.
Divisions between the aristocracy and the middle classes led to a violent civil war, the so-called Count´s Feud, where the bourgeoisie and the Jutlandic peasants put Count Christoffer of Oldenburg (hence the name)in charge of Lubeck´s army against the Danish aristocracy. In this situation Sweden supported the Jutlandic aristocracy's preferred heir to the throne Frederik´s son, Christian. And in 1534 Christian became the king of Denmark under the name Christian 3. In unison with the extremely professional general Johan Rantzau the king defeated the army from Lubeck and slaughtered the Jutlandic peasant army, led by Skipper Clement.
Frederik 1.
Christian 3. The Reformation King
The End of the Union
The Nordic unification efforts, which took place under Queen Margrete´s Kalmar Union from 1397 finally ebbed out in the beginning of the 16th century, when a wave of national awakening washed over Denmark and Sweden. The first decade of the 16th century was one long confrontation between the two parties and with Christian II and The Bloodbath in Stockholm in 1520; an end was finally put to the unification efforts.
After this Sweden established herself seriously as a national state, aggravating conflicts of interests arose, but the Brömsebro Pact from 1541 prevented direct confrontation for some time to come.
Aggressive Kings
Around 1560 two young, aggressive kings, Frederik II and Erik XIV had come to power. This led to direct confrontations and the Nordic Seven-Year Was of 1563-70 was the result. The concrete reasons for the outbreak were many and somewhat banal, but basically Sweden felt fenced in by the Danish-Norwegian kingdom.
For some time it had been a nuisance that export south from Småland had to go through Danish territory, and westwards Sweden only had one exposed strongpoint, Älvsborg, at the mouth of the Göta River.
The Siege of Elfsborg 1563
Terror against the Civilians
Älvsborg was captured by the Danes in September 1563 and had to be bought back by the Swedes in the final end. Fighting was fierce by land as well as by sea and by the end of the war both countries were almost ruined, among other things because of the cost of mercenaries, who considered looting and ravaging as part of their payment. The strategy was to avoid direct confrontations and military losses and instead let the civilian population be at the receiving end.
The civilian population in the Scanian countries and south Sweden was affected the most. Both parties in the war used terror against the civilian population to an unprecedented extent. Rönneby in Blekinge was attacked September 4th 1564 be the Swedes and king Erik said later:
"The water was coloured red as blood by the dead bodies. The enemies were so frightened, that they didn´t put up much resistance, so we killed them like pigs, and the town lost more than two thousand men, besides the women and children the Fins killed".
In 1565 Denmark used a blockade of the Sound as a weapon in the war and thus created dangerous enemies. Sweden was self-sufficient with foods, but especially Holland was deeply dependant of corn supplies from the Baltic countries and was severely struck. Famine broke out in the country and Holland and Spain contemplate a war declaration on Denmark. In addition the Sound Duty was increased significantly in 1567. The income from this increased in one year from 45.000 rix-dollar in 1566 to 132.000 the following year, but Frederik II´s 3000 mercenaries cost 150.000 rix-dollar – a month!
September 13th 1570 a peace treaty was signed in Stettin, which tried to take mediation in future conflicts into account.
The Battle of the Sound
Swedish ships in the Sound
War and City Plans
Around the year 1600 the Dutchmen were responsible for around 80 % of the yearly ship tonnage through the Sound. Thus it was of vital importance to maintain good relations with the Dutchmen. However the perpetual increase of the Sound Duty and crises situations, where ships were arrested was a thorn in the side of the Dutch and other shipping nations.
Especially the relationship with Sweden was problematic. The Swedish economy flourished with export of raw materials like iron, minerals, wood for ship building and agricultural goods from the southern areas, but Sweden felt fenced in by the Danish Baltic Sea empire.
The Kalmar War 1611-13
The Danish and Swedish chancellors prevented further confrontations for a time, but the ambitious Danish king, Christian IV (1588-1648) aspired to "propagate, improve and enhance the state of the country", as it was stated in the coronation charter that he had to sign at his accession. It was this passage in the coronation charter Christian used in his request to the chancellery January 31. 1611, when he referred to Swedish violations, which he would not stand for:
"...as it would bring about in posterity a bad memory in Our grave, because We have tolerated and allowed that, which a lawful king must not allow or tolerate and which We have sworn at our coronation and coronation charter and have promised by name and by seal..."
The alleged violations related to the conditions in northern Scandinavia, including Sweden´s access to the Norwegian Sea. The chancellors were reluctant, but when the king threatened to declare war in his capacity as duke of Slesvig-Holstein, he had his way.
Map from around 1600
Map Dedicated to Gustav II Adolf
Christian IV
Christian IV´s Flagship
The Fortress Varberg
The Siege of Kalmar
Scania was ravaged
This time too, it was mostly the civilian population that suffered. Scania was ravaged by Gustav Adolf in 1612 and he himself said:
"We have been in Scania and we have burned most of the province, so that 24 parishes and the town of Vä lie in ashes. We have met no resistance, neither from cavalry nor footmen, so we have been able to rage, plunder, burn and kill to our hearts´ content. We had thought of visiting Århus in the same way, but when it was brought to our knowledge that there were Danish cavalry in the town, we set out for Markaryd and we could destroy and ravage as we went along and everything turned out lucky for us."
Christian IV won the Kalmar War, but this time too the civilian population paid a heavy price. After the war Christian IV started the building of a number of fortified towns, which could protect the civilian population in wartime. The market towns Vä and Åhus in north-eastern Scania were abandoned and instead the fortified town of Christiansstad was built. In Blekinge Christianobel was founded and in Halland Halmstad was fortified.
At the peace in Knärød in 1613 Denmark took over the fortress of Elvsborg until a compensation of 1.000.000 rix-dollars was paid. Holland´s policy was that no big power should have total control of the Baltic. Therefore the Danish victory led to the signing of a Swedish-Dutch defence alliance in The Hague in 1614.
The Peace in Knærød 1613
The Swedish Instrument of Debt
The increasing central governing meant that a number of new towns were founded, often for military reasons. The most prominent became Kristianstad in northwestern Scania. The market towns Vä and Åhus were shut down and they built an entirely new town, which better could withstand the attacks of the Swedes in the area. Dutch experts were called in and in 1614 they started to build a town with perpendicular streets surrounded by fortified bastions.
The town also had a magnificent church, the Trinity Church, which is considered one of the main works of the Christian IV period. It was built in the renaissance architecture of the time and was inaugurated in 1628.
The church has an equilateral Greek cross. There are a number of slender granite pillars, which carry a very elaborate roof construction. The opulent altar in black alabaster and white marble was made in the Netherlands. The organ is a brilliant renaissance work of art.
The Fortress Christiansstad
Christianopel
The Church Room
The Side Entrance
Ornate Baroque
Sweden dominates
The next time Christian IV wanted to go to war was when he in 1626 involved himself in the Thirty Years´ War and that same year was defeated ignominiously at Lutter am Barenberge. This time Christian IV had gone to war in his capacity as North German duke and on his own account, that is, with a mercenary army. This ended in disaster and Denmark was now seriously weakened, whereas Sweden was victorious in the Baltic area.
By the end of the 1630´s the Danish king convinced the Chancellery and the Estates of the Realm to establish a standing army, which was financed through a considerable raise of the Sound Duty.
From 1636 to 1639 the king´s income from the Sound Duty rose from 266.000 to 620.000 rix-dollars.
In the course of the 1640´s war and recession set in. Around this time the value of the corn export was about 400.000 rix-dollar a year, the steer export was around 50.000 stk. a year, while the value of the yearly import constituted around 400.000 rix-dollar.
The Horn War 1643-45
As a reaction to the continued increase of the Sound Duty, the Netherlands entered into a mutual defence and alliance treaty with Sweden, which became disastrous, when Sweden without warning attacked Denmark in 1634 from the south. Jutland was occupied, but at first the navy prevented a total disaster. In Scania field marshal Gustav Horn began a campaign and Denmark was threatened by war on two fronts. The province was ravaged once again and the Horn War was remembered for many years the.
The united Dutch-Swedish fleet defeated the Danes at Fehmern and at the peace in Brömsebro in 1645 the Danes had to give up Gotland, Øsel, Jemtland and Herjedalen in Norway and surrender Halland to Sweden for a period of 30 years. This was the beginning to the end of the Danish Baltic reign and at the same time the prosperity of the period of Christian IV ended with his death in 1648.
Danish naval control
Sound Duty gambling
Three Fleets in the Sound 1644
Kolberger Heide 1644
Brömsebro
The Brömsebro Stone
The Karl Gustav Wars 1657-60
In 1657 disaster struck the Danish kingdom with a vengeance. Denmark declared war on Sweden in the hope of revenging the defeat form the 1640´s, but was run down in the summer of 1657 and the following winter, when Karl X Gustav went over the ice to Zealand and approached Copenhagen. A quick peace was made in Roskilde. The peace negotiator on the Swedish side was the former Danish chancellor Corfitz Ulfeldt, who was married to Christian IV´s daughter, Eleonore Christine.
The peace terms were severe: Denmark must forever give up the Scanian countries, although paragraph 9 secured a cultural autonomy in Scania. The occupation ended with a so-called peace banquet in Frederiksborg Castle, whereupon the Swedish king went to Scania, where he inspected the captured areas.
Karl X Gustav
Crossing the Ice to Funen
Ivernæs in Funen
Erik Dahlberg
Large Oversæt
The Roskildepeace
The Vicarage in Høje Tåstrup
Joachim Gersdorf
Corfitz Ulfeldt
The Arrival at Frederiksborg Castle
The Peace Banquet
Karl X Gustav in Elsinore
Karl X Gustav is Received in Helsingborg
Karl X Gustav Arrives in Landskrona
Karl X Gustav Arrives in Malmo
Karl X Gustav Outside Christiansstad
The War continues
Six months later Karl X Gustav regretted that he did not annex all of Denmark. He occupied Zealand and captured Elsinore and Kronborg, which fell after a three-weeks´ siege.
Copenhagen was besieged, but was relieved after a naval battle in the Sound by a Dutch fleet, which had formed an alliance with Denmark. The events culminated with the storm of Copenhagen in February 1659, when the Swedish attack was repelled.
The Siege of Kronborg
The Naval Battle
The Battle in the Sound
Slaget i Öresund
(Tegning)
The Assault on Copenhagen 1660
The Storming of Copenhagen
Sketch of the Attack
Instant Sketch
An error has occurred An error has occurred
The Peace
Peace was made once again in 1660, by which Bornholm returned to Denmark and Trondhjem´s estate to Norway.
Changes in the status of Scania, Halland and Blekinge were not discussed and it was clear that Denmark´s ally, Holland and the other European big powers, did not want any changes in the relations around the Sound. The manoeuvre of the international politics was to prevent one power to control both sides of the Sound.
A later observer, Robert Molesworth noticed in 1691 that Christian IV was favoured by the Dutch war against Spain and that king Jacob I of England favoured the Danes, because of his marriage to a Danish princess. Molesworth noticed that Danish sovereignty over the Sound would correspond to Spain having invoked power over the Straits of Gibraltar and the entrance to the Mediterranean. The Sound Duty was still functioning, but the income, according to Molesworth, had dropped from 150.000 rix-dollars in 1645 to 80.000 in the 1690´s.
Axel Urup (1601-71)
The Peace Treaty 1660
The Scanian War 1675-79
The so-called Scanian War was a Danish-Norwegian war of revenge with the purpose of recapture Scania, which Denmark lost in the Karl Gustav-Wars in 1657-60.
After the death of Karl X Gustav Sweden was governed by regency headed by Gabriel De La Gardie. After the peace in Copenhagen the foreign policy was a matter of avoiding war and the guarding of the Danish border. This was to be done by a balance policy between the great power blocks of Europe.
Opposite the big power France stood a union between Austria, Holland, Spain and Brandenburg. In 1672 Sweden approached France and they formed an alliance. When the European Great War began Denmark joined Sweden´s enemies and when France succeeded in making Sweden go to war against Brandenburg, Denmark and Sweden ended up on different sides in the European conflict. When the Swedes were defeated in Swedish Pomerania, the Danes attacked Sweden seeing the opportunity to revenge the disastrous defeat in 1658.
Danish Attack
The Dutch and Danish fleet defeated the Swedish fleet south of Øland in the summer of 1676. The Swedish battle ship Kronan, at the time the biggest warship in Europe, was sunk.
On the command of the Danish king Christian V around 15.000 men were landed in Rå south of Helsingborg and subsequently the citizens of Helsingborg pledged allegiance to the Danish king. Furthermore a Danish mayor was elected.
The Danish Invasion Fleet 1676
The Naval Battle of Øland
The Invasion Fleet on its Way to Råå
The Capture of Helsingborg
A Bloody War
The Scanian was a cruel and bloody war, which mainly took place on Scanian soil. The Danes drove the Swedes back and gained control over all of Scania except Malmo. Many Scanians joined the Danes. Violent battles were fought at Christiansstad, Halmstad, Lund and Landskrona.
The Battle of Lund was the bloodiest battle ever fought between Denmark and Sweden. The young king Karl XI led the Swedish troops. The battle turned the war in favour of the Swedes and they were able to drive the Danish troops back. At the end the Danes only held Landskrona and Helsingborg, but they were forced to face the fact that the situation was hopeless. Thousands of refugees crossed the Sound to Denmark.
The Citadel in Landskrona
The Capture of Landskrona
Landskrona Surrenders to Christian V
The Siege of Christiansstad 1676
The Capture of Christiansstad
Karl XI
The Battle of Malmo 1677
The Battle of Landskrona 1677
The Battle of Tirups Hed, Landskrona
The Battle in Køge Bay 1677
At sea the Swedish navy had lost, but the Danish army were defeated on land.
You could say that France settled the war. Sweden´s ally, France, had the upper hand on Denmark´s ally, Holland, and made peace on behalf of Sweden too. As Holland had made up with France Denmark stood alone at the negotiations and came out of the war empty handed at the peace settlements with Sweden in Lund in 1679.
In Sweden they were not satisfied with the way France handled Swedish interests. Similarly the Danes were dissatisfied with the Dutch having abandoned them in the final phase of the war. This led to Denmark and Sweden exchanging allies. Denmark made an alliance with France and Sweden came to an accord with Holland.
Political Marriage
After the war a political rapprochement took place between Sweden and Denmark and they formed an alliance, which was confirmed by the marriage of Carl XI and the Danish princess Ulrika Eleonora. She was taken across the Sound to a cannon salute and arrived in Helsingborg in May 1680. In Helsingborg she met with Carl XI´s mother, Hedvig Eleonora. Then they travelled through a landscape ravaged by their war to the wedding festivities in Skottorp in southern Halland, where the priest Haqvin Spegel waited to officiate at the wedding.
The Danish Princess Ulrika Eleonora
Large Aria sopra le Nozze di Sua Maesta il Re de Svecia (1680). Diderik Buxtehude
After 1830 the contacts across the Sound were increased. Joint scientific congresses were held and a number of large students´ meetings manifested the Scandinavian sense of community for the years to come.
A Married Royal Couple
In 1766 the Swedish King Gustav III married the Danish Princess Sofie Magdalene. Gustav visited Denmark as a crown prince as early as 1770 and as Swedish King he visited briefly in 1786. July 9th King Gustav was received at Marienlyst Castle in Elsinore, where the king had arrived at 12 o´clock. He dined accompanied by Turkish chamber music from oboists of the Royal Life Guards and oboists from Kronborg. At 6 PM he went to Hellebæk to visit the rifle factory and in the evening he returned to Sweden.
Inoffical Visit
King Gustav came back in October 1787, this time on an unannounced visit to Copenhagen. The periodical "Minerva" wrote, that every "Scandinavian " must feel great joy over the sense of community that this visit stood for. Thus "Scandinavian" became a household word.
But the Danes were a bit worried at this latest visit, which took the court by surprise, and they feared a hidden agenda with regards to foreign policy. At the first visit the Danish king had spat in the soup and left the meal abruptly, so they feared what the autocratic, but deranged king would do or be persuaded to do. Gustav had plans to expand in the east, but Denmark had formed an alliance with Russia and in 1788 the two parties as a result of the alliance fell out with each other.
Gustav III Murdered
However, in 1792 the Swedish king was murdered during a masked ball at Stockholm's Castle and the threat of war blew over for the time being. That same year the Danish professor Sneedorf held a lecture in the Nordic Society in London saying how important it was that the three Nordic countries united and in 1794 another federation of neutrality was signed by Denmark and Sweden. At that occasion the Danish foreign minister Bernsdorff said: "Everything that brings Denmark and Sweden closer to each other is natural; all that separates them in unjust and unnatural".
The Napoleon War
In spite of the federation of neutrality Sweden and Denmark took different sides during the Napoleonic war and it came to minor incidents between the two parties in 1808-09 and later in 1813. After the dethroning of the Swedish King Gustav IV Adolf a Danish Prince Christian August was elected heir to the throne, but after his sudden death a former French general Bernadotte took the throne. Bernadotte converted to the Protestantism on the Swedish consulate in Elsinore and then travelled across the Sound.
The outcome of the Napoleonic wars meant that Sweden lost Finland in 1809 and Denmark lost Norway, which instead was united with Sweden in 1814. Norway's transition to Sweden entailed that the mutual relationship was cooled down, but in the course of a few decades the contact was increased considerably among other things because of the improvement of the means of communication.
Monument in memory of Christian August
The Swedish consulate in Elsinore
Bernadotte disembarks in Helsingborg
The Bernadotte Monument in Helsingborg
Revolution and Civil War 1848
When the absolute monarchy fell in Denmark in the revolution year of 1848 the possibilities of Scandinavism increased and the new king of Denmark Frederik VII, had, like his Swedish colleague, quite a different view of Scandinavism than that of their fathers. The political Scandinavism now went as far as to help with troops in the Danish-German war in 1848.
This resulted in great enthusiasm around the Sound. One example of this is that several hundred citizens from Elsinore went to Helsingborg one Sunday in May in 1848 to celebrate that Swedish troops were to land in Denmark. A great party was held with citizens of Helsingborg at the Hotel Mollberg.
The Swedish soldiers were placed in Funen, but were never actively used in the war, which ended with armistice negotiations in Malmo in the late summer of 1848. Until the end of the war Swedish troops were on guard in the winter of 1849-50.
The unification thoughts also blossomed at the Danish and Swedish court in the 1850´s and here they as far as to discuss a union under a Swedish king. Frederik VII was childless and thus it would be opportune with one king ruling Sweden-Norway and Denmark. This union would then play a greater part in European high politics. The great powers of Europe had opinions in this matter and they felt that the integrity of the Danish monarchy should be preserved. This was stated clearly at conferences held in London in 1850 and 1852.
A New Danish King
The succession in Denmark was then moved to Prince Christian of Slesvig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and his heirs. Perhaps this time – with the problems concerning Denmark's southern border and the uncertain succession after the childless Frederik VII – was decisive when it came to a more extensive Scandinavian union. But it was missed with the passing of the Danish succession law of 1852, according to which the Glücksburger Christian IX was to succeed Frederik VII.
But many Danes had doubts about this Christian, who was to be their new king and that Frederik preferred a Swedish successor to the Danish Christian was quite clear. Oscar I as well as Frederik had planned for a union. Lively propaganda was carried through in Europe in order to make the great powers to approve of a union between the Nordic states. Many (among them Sturzen-Becker) wrote pamphlets in order to influence the European press. When Oscar I fell ill and died in 1859 the throne and the union plans were taken over by the son Karl XV.
Jovial Friendship
There was an even better personal chemistry between the new Swedish king Karl XV and Frederik VII. They met on several occasions, for instance in Ljungbyhed in 1860 and in connection with the student meeting in Copenhagen in 1862 and at a great meeting in Skodsborg in 1863 and the same year also at Bäckeskog in Scania. They formed a jovial friendship and the conditions for a union seemed good. Karl, with his unassuming style was popular in Denmark as well as Sweden. He was also very generous with his promises to the Danes and gave, in connection with the meeting in Skodsborg a verbal promise that Swedish troops would support the Danish defence of its southern border, which once again was threatened by the Germans.
Karl XV in Elsinore
Fredensborg Castle´s Park in 1862
But the promises were broken, when the Danish-German war started in 1863. At first the king was supported by foreign minister Mandelstrøm and the Swedish envoy in Copenhagen, Hamilton, but was later overruled by the ministers of the state. The Swedish government explained that they were not going to send any troops, a decision, which went against the wishes of Karl XV. In connection with this political turbulence Frederik VII died and Christian IX became king of Denmark. The union ideas began to fade away because of the broken Swedish promises, the distrust of the Swedish government and the new Danish king's negative attitude and Scandinavism lost ground.
Scandinavism was not a political program, which was to be carried through. The Scandinavists met from time to time and successively new ideas, sympathizers and symbols evolved. It started as a cultural statement in the literary circles, developed into a real sense of community with plenty of toasts and cheers among students and the middle classes. Then it evolved into a political unification idea, where the kings had far reaching union plans, which finally went to pieces because of the reality of the European higher politics.
It is open to discussion how strong the mutual will and solidarity really was. If one compares it with other contemporary unification efforts in Germany and Italy – which succeeded – it was not because the political, religious and linguistic differences were greater – on the contrary. Another question was the surrounding world, particularly the attitude of the European great powers.
Russia and Prussia did not look mildly on a united command of the Sound and thus the entrance to the Baltic – in other words the classic problem in European higher politics concerning the Sound and Baltic region. But would the European great powers have gone against the will of the people in the time of dawning liberalism?
During the First World War the Nordic countries succeeded in staying neutral, but the warring countries made demands on the mining of the Sound. It was also possible to co-ordinate the foreign policy during the war, but afterwards there was much disagreement about the continuation of the policy of neutrality and the foreign policy collaboration.
A Neutral Skandinavia
At the outbreak of the war Denmark, Norway and Sweden declared themselves neutral in to the two big power blocks. This was partly the result of a diplomatic cooperation, which took place before the outbreak of war. As early as 1909 and 1910 joint neutrality initiatives were negotiated, and an agreement was reached in 1912. The Scandinavians´ neutrality declaration was thus well prepared and the three countries protested jointly against the English perception that all of the North Sea was to be considered war area, as well as the Germans´ mine blocade of the SOund and the Belts.
The Malmo Meeting
In order to strengthen the joint Nordic policy the three Scandinavian kings met at the so-called Three Kings´ Meeting with their foreign ministers in Malmo on December 18th and 19th in 1914. Malmo´s possibilities of arranging this kind of summit was at this point very limited, but with a bit of good will it was possible for the participants to be accommodated. King Christian lived at Herslow, Haakon at the widow Kockum and Gustav at the county mayor, while the foreign ministers Scavenius, Ihlen and Wallenberg lived at Hotel Kramer.
Behind a splendid setting of student singers from Lund, the waving from balconies, visits to museums and churches, the diplomatic work was in progress. The result of the meeting was a new good will for increased Scandinavian cooperation. It was obvious that the wounds from Denmark´s loss at the German border, and Norway´s liberation from Sweden, had now healed. Hjalmar Bratning wrote in his newspaper that you could now get a glimpse of "The United States of the North, being formed under free circumstances".
Three Bareheaded Kings
Drawing of The Monarchs
The Scandinavism Is Revived
The meeting had evidently reawakened certain Scandinavistic hopes and it was followed by more Inter Scandinavistic gatherings. In Copenhagen the prime ministers and the foreign ministers gathered in March 1916 and in Kristiania (Oslo) a ministers´ meeting was held in September that same year. All three countries had problems with violations, done by the warring countries against the neutral. Especially problematic was the question of access to the Baltic. Here Denmark as well as Sweden landed in diplomatic difficulties.
Germany had free passage between the North Sea and the Baltic via the Kieler Channel, but naturally they did not want England to have the same opportunity for access to the Baltic. Therefore the Germans demanded that the belts were to be blocked by mines.
The neutrality declaration form the Scandinavian countries meant that none of the sides were to be given any advantages. The Danes, who were dependent on the English, landed in a difficult situation. If the Danes refused the German demand, the Germans would mine the belts anyhow, and then there was only one thing left for the Danes to do and that was to attack Germany, which was completely hopeless. Denmark also wanted to secure its domestic navigation and in the final end, they decided to close off the belts.
German Pressure
The Swedish government refused the German demand for the mining of the Swedish side of the Sound, but accepted to turn off all lighthouses and light buoys in the Sound in order to make passage difficult. The Germans closed off international waters south of the Sound in order to limit access further, but there was another fairway, close to Skanör, where vessels could pass. The Germans now demanded that this fairway should be mined and the Swedes gave in in the summer of 1916. The Baltic was thus completely closed off for English vessels and almost 100 English ships were closed in in the Baltic. Only one mine free passage was left, and Swedish war ships, which were to ensure that only Swedish ships passed, guarded it.
Pro-German Neutrality
The German fleet thus dominated the area. It had great significance for the Swedish decision that Gustav V´s queen, Victoria, had influenced the king in a pro-German direction. This was also the case with Prime Minister Hammarskjöld´s perception of the character of neutrality. He had promised Berlin that Sweden would maintain a "favourable neutrality", while the allied had been informed of a "strict Swedish neutrality".
The Germans tried several times to get Sweden involved in the war. Prince Max of Baden, who was related to the Swedish Queen Viktoria, took an active part in these pressure attempts. The royal couple were interested, but the government was mutually disagreeing. Foreign minister Wallenberg wanted to show more sympathy towards England and the Socialist opposition, lead by Branting, demanded strict neutrality, also towards Germany.
Sweden on the German Side
The Swedish government´s relationship to Great Britain was tense, even tenser than the relationship between Denmark and Great Britain. The Danish government had made an agreement with Great Britain about the import of goods, against the Danish guaranty that they would not be resold to Germany. The Swedish prime minister refused a similar agreement and therefore Sweden was hit by a severe shortage of goods. The shortage was especially serious in the winter of 1916-17, when Hammarskjöld received the nickname "Hungerskjöld".
The relationship between the allied and Sweden became even more strained, when it was clear that the Swedish government had helped the Germans with the conveyance of cipher telegrams form the German government to German interests, via the Swedish foreign department. Even before this scandal was exposed a government crisis had forced the Swedish government to resign, and a conservative government took over. It held the power from March to September 1917. Then the Left won the election to the parliament's second chamber, and a new government led by Nils Edén took over with Hjalmar Branting as minister of finance. It was a coalition government between Social Democrats and Liberals.
Scandinavia Under Economical Pressure
The total German submarine war hit both the Danish and Swedish merchant navy. When The United States entered the war in 1917, England had supplies with the help of the Americans. Convoys escorted the transports across the Atlantic and England was no more dependant on supplies from Denmark and Sweden. This threatened the Danish and Swedish economy perceptibly. The English anger at the Danish and Swedish indulgence of the Germans became expensive for the Scandinavians. Furthermore the total submarine war brought with it that the transport of goods was difficult.
All this led to the reopening of the Kogrund fairway in 1918. However, the reduced trade with the big powers in Europe led to an increase in trade between the Nordic countries. The new Swedish government worked hard to improve relations with the allied. The efforts were not entirely fruitless, first and foremost thanks to the Swedish chief negotiator, Marcus Wallenberg´s friendly relations with the British blockade minister
At the end of the war in November 1918 the trade started up again. However, the lack of raw materials was great and prices rose. This led to further demands for increased wages, and a series of strikes and violent demonstrations occurred, especially in Copenhagen. But Denmark and Sweden had gotten off cheaply from the First World War. The Nordic countries developed into stable democracies and woman suffrage was introduced all over the North.
The contacts between the European states were revived; the growing air transport diminished the distances and arms reduction negotiations and the League of Nations gave hopes for a bright future.
If the relationship between the three Nordic states immediately after the dissolution of the union between Sweden and Norway in 1905 had been somewhat strained, the experience from the neutrality policy resulted in a certain common platform, even though circles in Denmark had been anxiously about the Swedish-German rapprochement.
Arms Reduction and Rearmament
In Denmark the arms reduction policy became the foundation stone in the government coalition between the Social Democratic Party and the Social Liberal Party, who formed a government firstly in 1924-26 and again from 1929 to the occupation of Denmark in 1940. The relationship with Germany became the decisive factor. Could and should they resist if a big power attacked Denmark? The Social Liberals maintained that it was useless, but in the Social Democratic Party there was an increasing resistance to the arms reduction. A defence settlement between the two parties in 1937 resulted in an increase of the defence budget.
Watchdog of the North:
The Watchdog of the North
That same year a debate of a joint Nordic defence federation to the preservation of neutrality was started. In Sweden wide circles looked at a threat against Denmark and Finland as synonymous with a threat against Sweden and they started a heavy armament, which also found its way as an argument in the Danish debate. However, it was a fact that the governments of the other countries found it much to risky to enter into a defence federation with Denmark, who was so close to an obvious aggressive Germany.
The Danish Prime Minister Thorvald Stauning was clearly annoyed by the debate and in a speech in Lund in March 1937 he reacted in strong terms and rejected the role as the
"I have heard the argument that Norway, Sweden and Finland would feel insecure if Denmark does not establish a defence at the Danish southern border, a defence, which Sweden can approve of. Is this not a dangerous consideration? I do not think that any responsible man would support this. Has Denmark been given the task as watchdog or some other guard duty on behalf of the North? To my knowledge no such deal has been negotiated. From history we know that it was a widespread belief in 1864 that Swedish troops would come to Denmark´s rescue in the enforced war. Naturally nobody came".
Thorvald Stauning
When Denmark was occupied by Germany April 9th 1940, the Germans demanded a blackout. Along the blacked out Danish side of the Sound, the lights from the neutral Helsingborg became a symbol of freedom.
April 9th 1940 Denmark was occupied by German troops. The Germans stayed in the background and the Danish government reluctantly entered into a co-operation with the occupying power until August 1943.
From 1943 there were special circumstances in the Sound region, because of the short and fast connection to Scania in the neutral Sweden, where the Swedes received thousands of Danish refugees with hospitality and solicitude.
The Occupation of Denmark April 9th 1940
On Hitler's orders plans were worked out under the code name "Weserübung" for a military offensive against Norway. Denmark was only supposed to have been a stepping-stone for the German attack. For that purpose the Germans felt that an occupation of Eastern Jutland would be enough. But the Germans decided to occupy all of Denmark. The German General von Kaupisch were appointed leader of the operations against Denmark. A force of 40.000 men was at his command. Around April 9th they knew that something was going on, and that it was only a question of time, before Denmark was occupied too. At approximately 04.00 AM the Germans troops crossed the border in Southern Jutland. All over the country German troops were deployed and the Danish military did not have a chance. There were fights in Denmark, 11 Danish soldiers died and 20 were wounded. The German casualties were never published.
The occupation can simply be divided into two phases.
The Collaboration Phase: April 9th 1940- August 1943
It was a kind of a peace occupation, where the Germans stayed in the background. The Danish government continued, general elections were held and the Danish military, police and judicial system was still functioning.
Et højdepunkt her var Danmarks tiltrædelse af antikomintern-pagten den 25.11.1941, hvor Danmark kom i selskab med Tysklands allierede.
The Rebellion Phase: August 29th 1943-May 5th 1945
The collaboration continued officially until August 29th 1943, when the government - because of the public feeling, the Germans´ threats of death penalties for sabotage and the supposition that the Germans would lose the war - resigned and left the daily administration to their permanent secretaries. The resistance movement extended their activities and organized a "shadow Cabinet", The Danish Liberation Council. The Germans responded by sending Danish Communists to concentrations camps in Germany, internment of the Danish military, persecution of the Jews and terror gangs. Activities, which made many flee the country.
In the Sound region the opportunities to escape were good. One of the reasons being the short and fast connection to Scania in the neutral Sweden, where the Swedes, with hospitality and solicitude, received thousands of Danish refugees. A gesture, which brought the Sound region and the two countries closer together.
The Occupation of Elsinore
The Germans arrived late in Elsinore. It was not until 6 PM on April 9th that the garrison commander in Kronborg, colonel O.H. Permin received a telephone call saying that a German advance party would arrive in town. The advance party arrived at 9 PM, accompanied by a pro-Nazi Danish policeman from Elsinore, superintendent O. Madsen. They were accommodated in the youth hostel, "Wisborg", south of Elsinore. The late arrival meant that the Danish soldiers commanded by colonel Helge Bennike from the 11th battalion in Holbæk, without the permission of their superiors was transported to Helsingborg with the H-H-Ferries and the navy´s surveying ship "Freja", which was stationed in Elsinore harbour. April 11th a German battalion was quartered in the cornet school in Kronborg. The battalion commander accommodated himself in Hotel Øresund in the centre of town.
Flight of Soldiers from Elsinore
Small Large April 9th 1940
Small Large Denmark as a Germany´s breadbasket
Resistance and Terror in Denmark
During the autumn of 1942 small groups came into existence, who attacked the German occupation power.
In the Sound region two groupes, Kopa/Bopa and Holger Danske, firstly organized this. They were effective firghting organizations and carried out some of the biggest sabotages against the Germans and their Danish collaborators.
The Development of the Resistance
Apart from pinpricks against the Germans and their Danish camp followers (spitting and abuse) it was relatively quiet in Elsinore – as in the rest of the country in the first occupation years. But when the 109 Communists were taken from Vestre Prison to the Horserød Camp, which is only 7 kilometres west of Elsinore, it activated the local Communists.
Illegal Magazines
When Eigil Larsen, the leader of the Communists in Elsinore, escaped from the Horserød Camp, an effective illegal printing of magazines were organized. The magazine "Ny Tid" became the most important illegal newspaper in North Zealand and was published throughout the occupation. Eigil Larsen was the initiator of "Ny Tid" and he found the illegal magazines very important for the resistance.
The First Train Sabotage in Denmark
The Danish Communist Party´s leader asked Eigil Larsen to organize the incipient sabotage in the Copenhagen area. This organisation was called Communist Partisans (KOPA). Eigil Larsen decided to sabotage one of the Germans´ many ammunition trains on the coast railway. Form his stay in stationmaster Engelsen´s hus in Nivå, Eigil Larsen knew the schedules and routines of the coast railway. He decided on an area in Egebæksvang Forest in Espergærde as the target for the first action. Here the trains move through a curve and by bending one of the rails it was possible, via centrifugal force, to overturn the train. At this point the organisation did not have any explosives.
Through Kristian Engelsen, Eigil Larsen came in contact with three men with the necessary physical strength and professional skills. They took care of the practical things. After a failed attempt on August 31st 1942, which was discovered by the police, the action was a success on November 6th. The coast railway was blocked for 2 1/2 days before the tracks were clear. The action caused a lot of attention and the Danish police suspected Eigil Larsen and did their best to catch him. But in vain.
The First Train Sabotage
German Railway Guard
Eigil Larsen
KOPA/BOPA
Small Large Denmarks´s first train sabotage
The Escalation in 1943
In the course of 1943 the resistance in Elsinore mostly consisted of strikes in the Elsinore Shipyard and a few failed fires. The only serious sabotage action was a bombing attempt against the ship "Minden" on August 25th 1943. The bomb exploded in the hands of a 62 years old Communist saboteur. He died.
He was so badly mangled that they did not identify him until closing time. His bicycle was the only left in the bicycle rack!
When the official collaboration policy stopped in the end of August 1943 wider circles of the population were involved in the resistance. In the Elsinore area illegal escape routes to Sweden and the organisation of civilian and military waiting groups was the result.
One of the most important sabotages against the German occupation power was an efficient telephone exchange organized by Dansk Samling in Sct. Olaigade, Elsinore. For a long period of time they were able to tap into the communication to and from the Gestapo headquarters in Wisborg. The leader of this action was a German refugee.
Bakowsky
The Gestapo Headquarter
The Military Waiting Groups
With the Russian victory in the Soviet Union in the course of 1943, the English and American landing in Sicily and the military breakdown of Italy – and the internment of the Danish military August 29th 1943, things had changed. BOPA (earlier KOPA) had intensified the sabotages and the Danish government no longer dared take the responsibility of their collaboration with the Germans. Mainly because they demanded the death penalty for the saboteurs. The government left the daily administration of Denmark to the permanent secretaries.
The Cooperation with England
The resistance movement´s connection to England was close and from here the disarmed Danish army was ordered to cooperate with BOPA. This resulted in cooperation with the newly established Danish Liberation Council, who inserted officers in a number of military town leaderships (M-groups) all over the country. Here they should participate in coordinating the cooperation between the Conservative, Social Democratic and Communist resistance and the military. They were supposed to assist the English if they invaded Denmark and establish bridgeheads for the Danish army in Sweden, The Danish Brigade, when it arrived in Denmark.
The Military Waiting Groups in Elsinore
In Elsinore it was the naval captain Jens Westrup, who should take on the difficult task of establishing cooperation between the different groups. In Elsinore these consisted of the Communists, the Social Democrats, the Conservatives, Dansk Samling and the military. It was a complicated structure, but all M-groups in Elsinore were affiliated with certain political groupings.
Tit-For-Tat Murders
The reticence of the German occupation power in Denmark changed from January 1944. Hitler called a meeting with the German leaders in Denmark on December 30th 1943. He demanded that for every killed German or pro-German helpers, five Danes were to be killed.
Organized Terror Corps
In order to make sure of this he sent R.O. Bovensiepen to Denmark in January 1944. He terrorized via the Schalburg and Hipo Corps the Danish population for the next 18 months with murder and arson. The Schalburg Corps was named after a Danish officer, who fell on the Eastern Front in 1942. He was born in Russia and had experienced the Russian Revolution. He was an ardent anti-Communist, participated actively in the Finnish Winter War and joined the SS in 1940. He lived on the North Coast in Hellebæk and the Schalburg Corps stayed in Hellebækgård, the present boarding school in Hellebæk.
The Peter Group and the Brøndum Gang
Besides the two terror corps the Germans used smaller groups of Danish and German terrorists like for instance the Peter Group, the Brøndum Gang and the Loretzen Group. The carried out more than 200 murders in Denmark.
The tasks of the terror groups were murders and terror bombings as retaliation for the resistance movement´s sabotages. Most often 3-4 members assisted in murders and more at terror bombings. The German security police´s files of anti-German Danes chose the victims of the so-called tit-for-tat murders, but many were chosen at random.
The Peter Group worked in secret. If the Danish police accosted the members, they were to say nothing and the Germans would pick them up.
Henning Brøndum and Bothilsen-Nielsen, who terrorized all over Denmark, led the Brøndum Gang.
Henning Brøndum
The Brøndum Gang
The Lorentzen Gang
Large The Brøndum Gang takes a coffee break between interrogations
The Murder in Skotterup
In the Elsinore area a number of innocent people were murdered. The Brøndum Gang murdered the chairman of the houseowners´ association engineer Snog-Kristensen, Copenhagen. The murder took place on the beach in Skotterup in front of one of Gestapo´s residences, Villa Rosenlund in Snekkersten.
Gestapo Villa
The Murder of Otto Bülow
The murder of sculptor Otto Bülow in Elsinore became the most dramatic. It was a typical tit-for-tat murder. The background was a tragic and unfortunate incident in Elsinore Shipyard. A German immigrant had been liquidated here by the resistance movement on the suspicion that he had informed on 14 Communists in Elsinore. Later it was established that this was not the case.
Immediately the Brøndum Gang arrived in Elsinore and they shot Otto Bülow in revenge. The whole town participated in the funeral of the popular and eccentric artist.
Apart from these murders the terror groups also lit fires in Gilleleje Seaside Hotel, Hulerød Seaside Hotel, and on July 27th the Hillerød train was blown up in Lillerød Station. Three were killed and fifteen were wounded. In Copenhagen and Århus the terror groups were even more violent. But it must be noted that Hitler´s demand for five murdered Danes for every German was not carried out. The resistance movement thus liquidated approximately 400 Danish camp followers, while the Germans "only" liquidated approximately 200 Danes in revenge.
Revenge Murder
Otto Bülow, 1940
The Informer Problems
(Venter på tekst)
The Disaster in Snekkersten
Informer activities meant that one of the best escape routes in Snekkersten, the Thomsen-Escape Route was uncovered because an informer had overheard a telephone call from H.C. Thomsen´s Snekkersten Inn, to where two men from "the Holger Danske Group" in Copenhagen were to arrive and recreate.
The result was that the Gestapo shot down the two men from behind, when they got off the train in Snekkersten Station and walked down the path, Grønnegangen. Immediately after Thomsen was arrested, tortured and sent to the concentration camp Neuengamme, where he died. The informer was not apprehended until after the Liberation.
In an amateur narrow-gauge film immediately before Thomsen´s arrest you get an impression of the jolly inn-owner.
A memorial stone was erected on the spot, where they fell, after the Liberation. In the newspapers of the time you can see how the Germans wanted the murders described, but also how Ritzaus handled the matter.
The Murders in Grønnegangen
H.C.Thomsen
Memorial stone for Thomsen
Small Large H.C. Thomsen rescued many refugees
German Executions
April 11th 1945 shock waves swept over Elsinore, when it was rumoured that the Germans that same morning had executed four young people from Elsinore. And this at a time, when everybody knew that it was only a question of time before the Germans had to surrender.
Poul Erik Krogshøj Hansen (20 years old) and Knud Petersen (19 years old) were after secondary school apprenticed as shipbuilders to Elsinore Shipyard. Here they met Carl Jørgen Erik SKov Larsen (21 years old) and Henning Wieland (22 years old, who had served their apprenticeship in Aalborg Shipyard. All four went to Elsinore Technical School in order to take their naval architects´ exam.
The two first mentioned went into the resistance movement in connection with the persecution of the Jews in October 1943. At this point Krogshøj Hansen were arrested by the Germans and interned in Horserød, but he got off and was released. In the spring of 1944, he formed a new group with three friends, which was affiliated with the resistance organisation, BOPA. The participated in many forms of resistance work, the printing of illegal magazines, courier work and sabotage. Wieland was arreste by the Gestapo in the autumn of 1944, accused of sabotaging German ships. He strongly denied having done it and he was released.
Poul Erik Krogshøj Hansen
Henning Wieland
Knud Petersen
Carl Jørgen Erik Skov Larsen
An Acquaintance Informed on Him
In May 1945 the group was uncovered after an acquaintance of the two young men from Aalborg had informed on them. Some of the group´s members were arrested by Hipo-men (Hillfs-Polizei = Danes in German service) in Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen. They were so badly beaten up that they could not hold back the names of the others in the group.
The four resisters were sentenced to death and executed in Ryvangen April 11th 1945, where they were buried immediately. After the liberation Poul Erik Krogshøj Hansen´s and Knud Petersen´s bodies were taken to Elsinore cemetery, where they were buried next to each other.
Plaque of the four is hanging in Espergærde Gymnasium and HF. After the verdict the doomed were allowed to write farewell letters to their families. These letters can be read in the book "De sidste timer" (Copenhagen).
The informer, 26 years old hipo man, Oluf Bloch Klagenberg was later sentenced to death. The sentence was later reduced to 10 years imprisonment. This brought on protests and strikes, so the courts had to raise the sentence to life imprisonment.
Informer Liquidations
The informers, who betrayed the resisters to Gestapo, posed such a danger to the resistance movement that they had to be liquidated. They could not be imprisoned, and to take them to Sweden would endanger the resisters themselves.
One of Denmark´s best known and feared resisters was Ben Faurschou-Schmidt, nicknamed "The Flame". He supposedly killed more than 7 informers, before he committed suicide in 1944, when the Germans had him surrounded in a villa in Copenhagen.
"The Flame" belonged to the resistance organisation "Holger Danske". In 1943744 he hung out in the Snekkersten Inn. He was a close friend of the people, who organized the escape routes. The son of the Innkeeper, the 15 years old Frantz Thomsen was once present when "The Flame" killed a suspected informer.
An amateur film shows "The Flame" as the centre of attention in Snekkersten Inn.
Small Large The Flame with he Ziegler family
Small Large New Years Eve 1943 in Snekkersten Inn
Large New Years Eve 1943 in Snekkersten Inn
Examples From Elsinore
In the Elsinore area there were also a number informer liquidations. In the autumn of 1944 the Holger Danske Group executed a pro-Nazi superintendent, Madsen.
An especially hated person in the area was Johan Ochel. He was employed as an interpreter in the Gestapo headquarters in Elsinore and he was nicknamed "The Viennese Child". He terrorized the area brutally.
On March 15th Kristian Engelsen´s men liquidated "the Viennese Child" opposite Svingelport in Elsinore. The place is called "Simon Spies´ Square. The weapon was a Husquarna machine gun, which the group had stolen from the Social Democrats. The Danish army in the resistance movement was careful not to let any of Swedish arms help go to the Communists.
Resistance and Terror in Sweden
The neutral Sweden defended its neutrality against the Allies and the Germans. In Pålsjö Cemetery's gravestones the tragic results can be read. Here you can also read the epitaphs of a number of soldiers, who died in connection with the shipwreck of a war ship and were washed ashore in the Scanian coast.
War Graves – Pålsjö Cemetery Relates
In the northern part of Helsingborg is Palsjö Cemetery. At the entrance of the cemetery there are to signs. One says that here is "Commonwealth war graves", and the other informs of "Deutsche kriegsgräben".
These two burial plots relate how northwestern Scania experienced the Second World War and how foreign young soldiers found their last resting place here – far from their home.
Of the 113 pilots from the British Commonwealth, who died in the Second World War in Swedish territory, 47 are buried in Pålsjö Cemetery. A few metres next to them lay German soldiers, who died in the same was in this area. They have found their final resting place not far form their enemies from the West Alliance, but also next to fellow countrymen, who died during the First World War. 93 German soldiers lay here.
The "Commonwealth war graves" consists of 47 meticulously placed white marble stones and a big sword-decorated cross in the one end. The gravestones tell that it is mainly young soldiers in their twenties. Some death dates appears more often than others and nobody died alone.
On the night of July 4th 1942 Bruce Morgan and J. Samson died with four other fellow soldiers. The next morning Helsingborg Dagblad said:
"British plane crashed in Lerberget.
Was hit by the air defence on the Danish side over Hornbæk."
Helsingborg experienced the reality of war at 1 one o´clock last night – perhaps closer than ever. Two aeroplanes, which in all probability were English, flew in a southern direction along the Sound and back, when the Danish air defence fired at them with an unheard of intensity.
One of the planes crashed approximately 200 metres from Lerberget. One of the seven-crew members, a Canadian was saved and taken to Helsingborg´s Hospital. In spite of an intensive search there have been no signs of the other six."
The two aeroplanes had been on a mission to drop mines in the Sound, and in the course of the next couple of days five mines were rendered harmless by minesweepers. They were on their way home from the assignment, when one the planes were shot down. Of the seven-crew members only the Canadian, who flew the plane, survived. The others were buried here in Pålsjö Cemetery July 17th 1942 and several thousands of Helsingborg´s population slowed their sympathy.
Flowers arrived from high-ranking military persons and institutions, but also from ordinary people. The inhabitants in the area around Lerberget had sent a flower tribute and in Helsingborg they had collected money for a gift for the surviving hospitalised Canadian.
The police in Helsingborg sent the death message to Canada with newspaper clippings from the funeral. After some time an answer came from Bruce Morgan´s stepparents. The answer is quoted in Göte Friberg´s book "Stormcentrum Øresund".
"For the last twenty years we have taken care of him like he was our own son. The message you sent that his body has been taken out of the sea and that he has been buried with military distinction, have brought us happiness. These young men have given their life for us, and the freedom of the world, and although our hearts are crying, we are proud of them. The beautiful thoughts and the loving work, which the inhabitants of your town have expressed towards these heroes, was completely overwhelming and we are very grateful to you all."
Bruce Morgan
J. Samson
J. Kennedy died, 21 years old on August 30th 1944 with twenty others. The next day Helsingborg Dagblad said:
According to the available reports seven aeroplanes have crashed during overflights Tuesday night in the areas around the following towns: Knäred, Vittsjö, Örkelljunga, Båstad, Ljungby and Svensköp, and in the waters outside Vejbystrand. Five of the planes were of British nationality. Swedish air defence before the crash according to a close investigation hit some of the planes.
A large number of English aeroplanes flew back after a planned bombing expedition against Königsberg (Kaliningrad). They had been discovered by a German fighter and forced to withdraw. Over the Sound Danish and Swedish sides fired at them. Six planes crashed in northwestern Scania, among other places in Båstead and Skälderviken. Two planes that crashed in Svensköp in Scania and in Agunnaryd in southern Småland had been under fire from the Swedish air defence.
21 pilots were buried on September 7th ceremoniously in Pålsjö Cemetery. The Swedish crown princess, who was English, had sent a wreath. On the D.L.D Moon´s gravestone it says:" To the world, he was only one but to us he was all the world."
The next day they lowered wreaths in the Skälderviken, where one of the planes had crashed.
J. Kennedy
D. L. D. Moon
Six young boys died on February 8th 1945, among them P.L Kirkpatrick, 20 years old from Australia. Helsingborg Dagblad said the following on February 9th:
"Aeroplane Crashed in Brohult, completely demolished.
Cattleman´s house 40 metres from the crash, only one pilot found yesterday."
For the first time a foreign aeroplane has crashed inside the Helsingborg city boundary. This happened yesterday evening around 8 o´clock, when a four-engine British bomber was shot over Helsingborg and crashed at Brohult´s farm."
There was a lot of activity in the air space in the beginning of February. The Allies carried out massive bombing expeditions against German cities Berlin and Dresden. February 8th a number of allied planes entered Helsingborg´s air space from the north and was fired at by air defences in Sofiero. One of the aircrafts was hit and flew burning over the Tågaborg district and crashed at Brohult´s farm, east of Helsingborg.
In his book "Stormcentrum Öresund" Göte Friberg has testified to the despair, which the men at the anti-aircraft gun felt after the shooting, and Helsingborg municipality made a demand that the minister of defence should change the directives for the shooting of the air defence.
The aircrafts were shot down by the Swedish air defence and at the funeral the memories of the dead were praised by representatives of the Swedish defence and afterwards the families thanked for the marks of honour via Helsingborg Dagblad.
P. L. Kirkpatrick
Helsingborg Dagblad February 9th 1945
German soldiers
A few metres from "The Commonwealth War Graves" German soldiers are buried. More than 40 of them died on March 1st 1945. Among these Heinz Reck, 26 years old and Horst de Wall, 20 years old. The next day this piece of news dominated Helsingborg Dagblad:
"Horrifying ship´s disaster near Helsingborg.
German war ship with 70 men capsized in the storm."
A German war ship, a minesweeper was on its way to Aalborg form Copenhagen. The had to turn back because of the storm, but capsized between Viken and Hornbæk and sank outside Vikingestrand in northern Helsingborg. The disaster was this not due to any war action. 42 dead bodies floated ashore along the coast from Landskrona and to the north, most of them just north of Landskrona.
Even these had their last resting place in Pålsjö Cemetary. Many people attended the funeral and the number of people, which had participated in the rescue work, was remarkable. This was not a question of Germans or Englishmen, but a question of life and death.
From the burial report in Helsingborg Dagblad:
"It was a moving moment when seven fishermen from "Gravarna" laid down a wreath and chauffeur Karl O. Hjelm said the last words for the dead and asserted that he and his firends had done what they could to save the their lives during the ill-fated storm night."
Helsingborg Dagblad March 2nd 1945
Helsingborg Dagblad March 10th 1945
A Forign Crowd of Peoble
Far from their homes here in Pålsjö Cemetery almost one hundred young men lay buried, one hundred of the many millions, who were sacrificed in the Second World War. Most of the victims of the world war are buried in the same way far from their homes. Göte Friberg, a policeman from Helsingborg gave this precise description of the ceremonies in Pålsjö Cemetary, a description, which probably covers thousands of other funerals during the Second World War:
"No families, no close friend were present, just a collection of correct men with and without uniform and in the background a large, silent, foreign crowd of people."
Göte Friberg
The Brigade drives through Stengade; Elsinore May 5th 1945.
The Liberation – Denmark
May 4th 1945 in the evening it was announced in the radio that the Germans had surrendered effective from the next morning.
The Freedom Message From London
The Liberation – as Seen from Elsinore
The Liberation Evening May 4th 1945
On May 4th the liberation message was sent in the BBC´s news bulletin at 8.30 PM. The Germans had capitulated, however, not in Norway, and the capitulation was in force the next day, Saturday, May 5th, 8 o´clock AM. Everywhere in Denmark people tore down their blackout curtains, lit candles and crowded the streets jubilantly. In the local cinema the film was stopped so people could participate in the cheering in the streets.
German Surrender Without a Fight?
During the night there was hectic activity in the resistance movement and the military waiting groups in Elsinore and the partners in Sweden. The situation was tense. They had no way of knowing how the Germans troops would react. Kronborg, for instance, had 3000 German soldiers stationed with cannons and heavy arms.
The uncertainty and confusion about this was tragically illustrated in Bornholm, the southern part of the Sound region, where the German commandant refused to surrender to the Russians. This resulted in a devastating and – acknowledged from all sides – unnecessary Russian bombardment of Rønne and Nexø.
Strategic Core Area
Helsingborg as well as Elsinore were central strategic areas. For Helsingborg´s part it was the huge organizational task of gathering, in a few hours, the Danish Brigade (Danforce) from the destinations in Småland and the camps north of Stockholm to the central disembarkation place in Helsingborg.
It was a late decision. They also had to decide how the Swedish army should be depolyed to support the landing on the eastern coast of Zealand.
Swedish Generals Say Goodbye
The Liberation Day, May 5th, 1945
It was night before the town leadership was told that the Danish Brigade was ordered to land i Elsinore. In the evening on May 4th the town leadership had taken up headquarters in the Brewery Wiibroe and at 4AM the German patrolling in the streets ceased. At 8 AM the German ships in the harbour hoisted the peace flag and all over Elsinore Dannebrog (the Danish flag) was hoisted accompanied by the church bells.
On the morning of May 5th the Liberation Council had ordered the town leadership in Elsinore to concentrate on the following:
- Elsinore harbour was to be cleared of German obstructions.
- Make sure that the Germans in the strongly fortified Kronborg would not shoot at the Brigade on their was across the Sound.
The task was solved like this:
- At 8,50 AM the resistance movement had disarmed the German posts at the ferry berth
- At 9,00 AM the harbour was occupied by 15 armed and 50 unarmed resisters
- At 9,00 AM the town leadership and mayor Peder Christensen negotiated a deal with the German commandant in Kronborg, which allowed the Brigade to land freely in Elsinore.
At 11,30 AM the first troops from the Brigade landed in Elsinore harbour without problems.
The End og the Occupation!
The Waiting Groups Take Action
The Arrival of the Brigade
On May 4th the Danish Prime Minister Vilhelm Bull ordered the Brigade to come home. The Germans had surrendered. The Danish camps were gathered in one big accumulation camp in Helsingborg and on the morning of May 5th 1945, a fleet consisting of almost anything that could float made out for Elsinore.
On departure there were celebrations and on arrival in Elsinore the popular Social Democratic mayor Peder Christensen held a moving welcome speech. Then they went on to Copenhagen, where 3 of the Brigade's privates were murdered and 13 wounded by Hipo-snipers in the amateurish and irresponsible entry.
The Brigade on Its Way
The Homecoming of the Brigade in Elsinore
The Mayor in Elsinore Receives Them
The arrival of the Brigade resulted in cheers and the following days the town was dominated by the people of the Brigade and the resistance movement. At the same time there were confrontations between the Danes, the Germans and their Danish henchmen. The judicial reckoning began on liberation day.
You might say that the liberation day in Elsinore ended happily, although there were strong feeling against German refugees, German soldiers and the Danes, who had collaborated with the Germans. In Scania the liberation was greeted with joy, even though it was a great organisational challenge to the authorities and the many civilian helpers.
The Svea Column
The Four Inscriptions on the Svea Column
The Liberation - Sweden
The liberation message created enthusiasm in Helsingborg. The arrival of the Danish Brigade and departure for Elsinore and the joy of the many refugees marked Helsingborg.
The Liberation Seen From Helsingborg
The Stream of Refugees
In the last period of the war the stream of refugees increased considerably. This was among other things due to the negotiations of Folke Bernadotte, which made it possible for many prisoners from the concentration camps to be released and sent to Sweden. The majority of these transports passed through Copenhagen and Malmo and the released prisoners were placed in different camps in Scania. Malmo and Helsingborg were middle stations and in Helsingborg, Ramlösa was used as a transition camp. The health spa was not sufficient and therefore they had to use anything, like schools, industrial premises and hotels. 16.000 refugees arrived in Scania in less than a month. This required a comprehensive organisation to take care of all the refugees. Everybody had to go through a health and security control. Everybody had to be clothed and fed.
The Flag Hoisted for Denmark
"The news that Denmark is free again is celebrated, especially by all citizens of Helsingborg with utmost joy. To show our joy and as a tribute to a free Denmark, the flag will be hoisted all over Helsingborg".
These words could be read on the editorial page in Helsingborg´s Dagblad on May 5th 1945. The night before the news of Denmark's freedom had reached Elsinore. When the last ferry sailed to Helsingborg on the evening of May 4th, the citizens of Elsinore stood on the quay and shouted: Give them our regards!"
Helsingborg Dagblad, May 6th 1945
Thousands of Helsingborg Citizens at Freedom Bonfire
On the evening of May 5th thousands of people had gathered at "Fria bad", north of the town centre. A torchlight procession lit a gigantic freedom bonfire on the beach. They wanted to send freedom greetings to Denmark. Several times during the war bonfires had been lit to send greetings to the occupied Danes. Now they want to greet peace in the same way.
Earlier that day the whole town had followed the newspaper's call for the hoisting of the flag and everywhere there were Swedish and Danish flags. Thousands of people had gathered in the harbour to say goodbye to the first returning Danish troops that had been trained in Sweden. This was the starting signal to a long row of returning Danes. A thanksgiving served was held in the Gustav Adolf Church. The church was full.
Peace Service
Norway´s Freedom Celebrated Too in Ramlösa
With the joy of Denmark´s liberation people now awaited the liberation of Norway. When it came, happiness was complete, not least in the Ramlösa camp, where many Norwegians had been accommodated. In the camp they also showed their gratitude to the policemen in Helsingborg, who had supported the refugees all the way.
This time too, a peace service was held in the Gustav Adolf Church with the dynamic and popular vicar Gunnar Stenberg.
Celebration in Ramlösa
Gigantic Transport Task
By the end of the war more than 100.000 non-Swedes were in Sweden. Some stayed, but most of them had to be transported home. A minute planning was implemented. Everybody could not leave at the same time, or form the same harbour. Many thousand returning refugees passed Helsingborg, Malmo and Trelleborg. Among others, Bruno Kreisky returned to Austria and Willy Brandt to West Germany.
But not only refugees returned home. German soldiers and Russian prisoners of war in Norway were also transported via Sweden. In the course of 1945 122.000 soldiers were transported and many of the Germans soldiers passed through Scania. Detailed planning was also required here, not least for security reasons. One tragic chapter was the Balts, who where forced out of Sweden, when the Soviet Union demanded that those, who had participated in the war against Soviet, were to be extradited. Dramatic and tragic scenes took place in Trelleborg, when the Balts were forced on board the ferry to a dark and insecure future.
Göte Friberg Acclaimed
Social minister Gustaf Möller came to Helsingborg a few weeks after the liberation. He was there to unveil a memorial stone and at the dinner afterwards in Grand Hotel he paid tribute superintendent Friberg as a man you could trust. Möller and Friberg both received a distinction from the Danish freedom movement for their efforts during the war. When Denmark needed help trustworthy persons were in demand.
During the dinner Möller said that Sweden during the war had decided to sende one million cartridges to Denmark. When the people in Stockholm considered how this could be done without the Germans finding out, the answer in minister level was: "That´s very simple, we´ll just let Friberg in Helsingborg handle it". The transport was a success, of course. Möller also stated that the government, now ought to sanction "everything that had happened in Helsingborg concerning hidden transports to and from Denmark".
You may ask if the solidarity had ever been greater in the Sound region than it was in May 1945
"Stormcentrum Öresund"
Kommunication
People in Scania and Sealand has always crossed the Sound. War and new boarder didn´t prevent these travels over the Sound.
Buxtehude was a good example of a Sound citizen, who worked on both sides of the Sound, in spite of war and trouble in the area.
Via the text icon a mini guide to the whole period appears. In the left menu you will find elaborations and perspectives.
Water Unites
Historically a sound has always served as an important connecting factor between the provinces. Among other things because water as a way of transportation, was much more passable than transport through forests, mountain and marshy areas. And in the cases, where you can actually see the landscape on the other side of the sound, a feeling of solidarity arises.
As early as the 11th century Adam of Bremen stated that connections between Zealand and Scania were quite common, especially between Elsinore and Helsingborg. And ever since there has been lively contacts across the Sound only temporarily reduced in connection with wars.
Kogge and knarr
In the Middle Ages the contacts between Scania and Zealand were considerable. Lund in Scania was thus the church capital of all of Denmark and the extensive herring fishing in the Sound had its international trade centre en Skanør, the so-called Scanian market.
During the Renaissance it was natural for a man like Tycho Brahe to travel back and forth between Scania, Hven and Zealand, and in the 17th century you will note that Buxtehude worked as a composer and organist in Elsinore´s as well as Helsingborg´s churches.
When the Scanian countries after 1658 became Swedish; the Sound became the border between two states for the first time. This certainly had a negative impact on the contacts across the Sound, but nevertheless the populations kept visiting each other. The Swedish scientist Linné relates this in his Scanian journey in 1749, where it is also clear that the many wars and the separation from Denmark had isolated and made large parts of Scania poor.
Oversættes
Linné
The steam engine had a revolutionary impact for the Sound service. With the steamships the service became dependent of wind and weather and in the 19th century regular traffic across the Sound began. There is no doubt that this development had as much if not greater importance as the Scandinavian movement.
When the railway network was established on both sides of the Sound, two different transport networks could now be integrated via train ferries.
The Ferryman
The Steamship Horatio
The New Station for the Coast Railway
The Telegraph – The internet of the Past
With the invention of the telegraph in the 19th century we had a new and revolutionary means of fast communication over short and long distances. In connection with trade, politics and military functions this means of communication can hardly be overvalued. Very quickly it was worldwide and one of the first Swedish and Danish initiative was the burying of Denmark´s first subterranean cable in 1855 in the short stretch between Vedbæk via Hven to Hillesborg north of Landskrona on the Scanian side. And with this Sweden and Denmark connected on the net.
In Scandinavia the "childhood" of the aeroplanes took place in the Sound region. To be the first to fly across the Sound became an ambitious goal for the flying aces of that day.In the course of the 1920´s the sight of aeroplanes became more and more common and Kastrup and Bulltofta became centres for regular air commuting across the Sound.
Ellehammer´s Aeroplane
Kastrup Airport
Bulltofta Airfield
The Sound as Escape Route
The German occupation of Denmark during the Second World War became a communication breakthrough between the Danish and Swedish population. The neutral Sweden literally became a light in the dark for the occupied Denmark. The Sound became an escape route for thousands of Danish refugees, first of all the Danish Jews and members of the resistance. And as the world war developed the water, where Danish soldiers could cross and establish a secret army on Swedish soil. A gesture, where the expression sister nation had a special meaning on both sides of the Sound.
After the Second World War´s travel limitations across the Sound, there was almost an explosion in the number of travellers in the 1950´s. The decisive factor was the abolition of the compulsion to show a passport between Denmark and Sweden and the growth in motoring. In the wake of this a very special ferry culture developed, where the journey changed into sheer pleasure trips with singing and beers in a duty free environment.
Sankt Ibb
Knut Viking
The Train Ferry Malmøhus
The Sound Integration
The extension and the efficiency of the communication across the Sound in the last third of the 20th century, almost mean a reunification of the historic connection between the Scanian and Zealand provinces. According to the business conditions on the labour market, the housing market, retail prices and cultural offerings the population commuted freely and inevitably across the narrow passage between Malmo and Copenhagen and Elsinore-Helsingborg.
The H-H-Line
The H-H-Connection
The short distance between Zealand and Scania had through the 20th century been a challenge for many creative minds´ proposals for a fixed link between the provinces. In the year 2000 a combined bridge and tunnel link was carried out. The bridge has since been a further alternative to the passage and has intensified the contacts.
It is especially the connection between Copenhagen and Malmo, which benefits from this, but here are plans now to tie Elsinore and Helsingborg with a fixed link.
Plan for a Fixed Connection
The Ring Line
A Historical and Natural Region in Europe
Perhaps the most efficient peace movement is that people visit each other. The fact that the opportunities for this have been increased over history in the Sound region means that it has become an everyday thing to cross the national borders. Nobody sees the Sound as a border anymore, but rather a connection link. As it has always been. This development is being furthered all over Europe.
Interreg regioner
The communication in the Middle Ages must be seen in the light of Denmark´s role a the dominant Baltic power.
Scania´s central position meant that Denmark´s church centre was placed in Lund and that Scania´s southern trade place, Skanør at Falsterbo, became an international, financial power centre. The ships shuttled between the regions.
A Common Cultural Area
You could say that Zealand had two cultural areas; a southwestern area, which consisted of cultivated plains and a northeastern with forests.
Scania similarly had three cultural areas; one southern with plains, which had been cultivated early, one northern with forest areas and forest settlements and small woods, which have been named "national settlements". In this area and in North Zealand new cultivation areas were created through the clearing of forest and in these areas the place name ending –röd/ryd is common. The cultivation pattern in northwestern Scania and in North Zealand was similar. It must be added that the contacts between Scania and Zealand was most intense between Helsingborg and Elsinore.
The place names can be traced to "the throat" (hals), by which they meant the narrowest part of the Sound. The people around the North Sound was called "halsinger" and both towns were called "halsingarnas borg" and "halsingarnas öre" (beach). The importance the area around "halsen" had for the contacts between Zealand and Scania was early attested by Adam of Bremen in his work "De hamburgska ärkebiskoparnas historia" (1070). He noted that you could "sail to Scania from many places in Zealand. The shortest distance is from Helsingborg, where the narrowest part of the Sound is called Halsen and where the population is called halsingar".
One may establish from this that North Zealand and north western Scania very early were quite homogeneous
Three Cultural Areas
New Settlements in Zealand
Settlements in Scania
Although the development of the cities in the Sound region was modest compared to the Hanseatic towns, the Danish kingdom had some advantages. Especially the herring fishing in the Sound.
Skanör Church
The Herring
The demand for herring, which was salted with salt from Lünebürger Heide, was great as the Catholic Church demanded meat-free days in connection with Lent. Often even Friday was considered a meat-free day.
As early as the 12th century Falsterbonäs became a centre for the herring trade, which took place from August 24th to October 9th. In this period thousands of visitors gathered there and that meant a significant upturn for Skanør and Falsterbo. Form the beginning Skanør was the main area, but in the 14th century Falsterbo became more important.
Traders from England, Scotland, Flanders and Normandy came to the herring market, but the most dominating traders came from Germany, especially Lübeck. They traded other goods besides herring. There was wide array of different goods, among them horses, butter, iron, tar, corn and handicraft products.
The dominance of the Lübecks was evident because they had their own church in Falsterbo. The fishing and the Scanian market in Skanør and Falsterbo yielded a large income to the Danish kingdom. A good fishing year in the 14th century could mean an export of 300.000 barrels of herring and it is estimated that one third of the Danish king´s income came from the Scanian market. The large production and the great demand made Skanør and Falsterbo to the most important market of the region in the 14th century.
All the way back in prehistoric times there have been trade between the North and Southern Europe and in the late Iron Age and early Viking Age amber, fur and slaves have been sold and traded for luxury goods like glass.
In the 8th century the trade between the Mediterranean and Northern Europe was arranged via the Frankish realm, but when it succumbed in the beginning of the 9th century and the Arabs conquer large parts of the Mediterranean the North in the Viking Age came to play an important part in north-south as well as the east-west trade. In southern Scandinavia Hedeby in Southern Jutland became a prominent trade centre, whereas further to the east and north are Gotland and Birka in Sweden.
Trade Routes
Shiptypes
It was mainly the Vikings´ ship technology, which secured them a preferential position in the Baltic trade from around the year 800. Magnates and peasants fitted out ships for expeditions in long ships, which could carry around 9 tons.
The later developed, but also clinker-built ships of the knar type, which also were used for sailing in the North Atlantic, could carry around 20 tons.
In the beginning of the period it was probably difficult to discern between looting- trade- and colonization expeditions, but around the transition to the Middle Ages around the year 1050, trade plays a more important part. This is mainly due to the ship type the kogge, which could carry up to 30 tons and around the year 1200 up to 200 tons.
Knarr
Kogge
The Malmøkogge
Goods Types
From around this time the trade also changes to more everyday articles like corn, fish and meat, which come from the surplus production provided by the new cultivation methods. These products could be sold in the town communities, which flourishes in the course of the 12th and 13th century in Northern Germany. These Hanseatic towns came to control large parts of the trade in the Baltic by way of an organizational and technological superiority.
The world famous scientist Tycho Brahe s many trips to Scania, Hven and Copenhagen in the last half of the 16th century is marked example of the intense communication, which existed between the regions.
Uraniborg in Ven
The renaissance prince Frederik II saw Tycho´s greatness and offered his support. February 18th 1567 he was awarded a yearly sum of 500 daler, a very large governmental support. The king had, during his inspections in the building site of Kronborg, come to think of the island Ven as a suitable place for Tychos activities. Tycho was offered the island on favourable terms, if it could prevent him from leaving Denmark. Tycho Brahe accepted.
A Symbolic Castle
The central part of the ground plan was made up of a square, which measured 60 feet, approximately 15,5 metres on every side. This square was divided by perpendicular corridors, which formed four smaller square rooms. The corridors also tied the central part with symmetrical extensions in the north and south and with symmetrical entrance portals in east and west.
The building consisted of two storeys, attic and basement. On the outside there were balconies, which were used for astronomical observations. The basement functioned as a chemical laboratory.
Astronomy and chemistry/medicine was the sciences he was to engage in and two statuette niches marked this over the entrance portals. Two short Latin inscriptions connected these allegorical works of art: Despiciendo suspicio och Suspiciendo despicio, which roughly means, "When I look down, I look up" and "When I look up, I look down". The first maxim refers to the chemical experiments and the other undoubtedly on the astronomical observations. The deeper meaning is that chemistry and astronomy are connected.
Uranienborg
Ground plan
Uraniborg - a View of Life
Uranienborg was not only Tycho Brahe´s home and workplace, but it also expressed architecturally and in other ways, the philosophy and the view of life, which characterized Tycho Brahe. A belief in research and the mapping of reality was to make us understand the cosmological connections.
A Renaissance Garden
The garden was, just like the castle, very symmetrical lay out. They also considered the practical use of a garden and planted fruit trees and sowed vegetables and herbs, which could be used in medical recipes.
We know that Tycho as well as his learned sister Sophie Brahe, who lived with him for long periods of time, devoted themselves to the manufacturing of medicinal preparations, in fact to such an extent, that the pharmacies in Copenhagen complained about the competition. It is very likely that Sophie Brahe participated in the lay out and the care taking of the garden, although there are no evidence of this.
Tycho Brahe leaves Ven
Tycho Brahe stayed in Ven for 21 years until 1597, when felt forced to leave Denmark. It is said that he had fallen out with the inhabitants in Ven, that he neglected his duties and that the new king Christian IV did not support him like Frederik II had done.
The circumstances surrounding Tycho Brahe´s fall are still unclear and much debated. Form Rostock Tycho Brhae wrote the kin in 1597 that he had not gone into exile and emphasized his loyalty. The king reproached him for having left without permission and pointed out several unsolved problems. He wrote of the peasants in Ven: "There have been complaints about you from our poor subjects in Ven". And of Tycho´s negligence of the church in Ven: "...as the word of the baptism have been neglected with your knowledge for a long time against the use of the realm that is notorious for anybody".
That Tycho Brahe did not take care of his estate obligations is probably correct, but one may wonder why the controversy with the peasants was brought up in a time, where it was the right of any lord of the manor to exploit his subjects and when the plight of the peasants was increased significantly.
Buxtehude – A Sound Citizen
It is difficult to say how the man in the street experienced Scania´s abrupt transition to Sweden at the peace treaties in 1658 and 1660. In paragraph 9 in the Roskilde peace treaty it was stated that all estates in Scania had the right to maintain their distinctive cultural characteristics and inherited rights, so nothing prevented them from living as they had done before. Furthermore it was difficult to say how much nationality meant for the individual. Sweden as well as Denmark was at this time complex – in reality multinational states, which to some extent demanded some loyalty from their citizens, but hardly a national disposition in the modern sense. That came with Romanticism's worship of the nation and the people at the end of the 18th century.
The example of the composer Diderich Buxtehude may illuminate this connection. Posterity has not succeeded in establishing where he was born – in Holstein, Elsinore or Helsingborg – in any case he was born in an area, which belonged to the Danish state around 1637. His father, Johannes Buxtehude came from Oldesloe in Holstein – to where he probably had emigrated originally. In 1638 he became an organist at the Maria Church in Helsingborg. In the years 1638-41 the father worked in Helsingborg and here Diderich had some childhood years. In 1642 the father was the organist at the St. Olai Church in Elsinore, where he was active until around 1670. Diderich Buxtehude thus spent his childhood and youth in Helsingborg and Elsinore.
Music with Class
During the first half of the 17th century the musical scene at the Danish court and in the major churches was of a very high standard. (It is to be remembered that the court and the churches at that time were the most important customers, when it came to music and thus the music scene evolved around these institutions). Names like Heinrich Schütz and John Dowland are still remembered. Schütz was a church musician in Copenhagen and there he established the court orchestra. Dowland, a famous lutanist and composer, was a court musician. He lived in Elsinore. Johann Lorentz worked during the first half of the 17th century as a royal organ builder and he built or rebuilt all the important organs in the Sound region in a quite conservative renaissance style, a style, which then were represented by Schütz and Dowland. One of the most important remnants of Lorentz´s activity is in the organ facade in the Holy Trinity Church in Kristianstad.
New Organs
Diderich Buxtehude followed his father's footsteps and became the organist in the Maria Church in Helsingborg. In 1660 he applied for and got the organist post in Elsinore´s Maria Church. Probably because this post was better paid and by taking it he came closer to the rest of his family. In the time up to 1668, where he went to Lübeck to apply for a post there, he lived in the same house as his mother and father. The house still stands.
Simultaneously the old Lorenz organs were modernized in a modern Baroque style, a style, which was represented musically by Diderich Buxtehude. The German organ builder did the modernization and he was the man behind the building and rebuilding of organs in Copenhagen, Elsinore, Halmstad, Helsingborg, Landskrona and Malmo.
Diderich Buxtehude experienced and participated in a very active renewal of the music scene through the new building, which was made. Two years after he had moved to Elsinore he came back to Helsingborg to supervise the rebuilding of the organ in the Maria Church. This indicates that the Swedish takeover in Scania in 1658 did not affect the music scene right away.
The Maria Church in Helsingborg
Saint Anne Street in Elsinore
The Old Organ
Choir Organ in the Mariakyrkan (Church of St, Mary)
Connections over the Sound
In his time in Elsinore Buxtehude kept in close touch with Swedish as well as Danish officials. The only piece of music we know of that Buxtehude wrote in his time in Elsinore, is from 1665 and dedicated to Christoffer Schneider, a Swedish postmaster and later consul resident in Elsinore. From his time in Elsinore Buxtehude also was friendly with the Swedish court conductor and organist Gustav Büben. Perhaps it was on his request that Buxtehude composed the wedding cantata to the wedding between Carl XI Gustav and his Danish queen Hedvig Eleonora in 1680.
Large Aperte mihi portas iustitiae, Elsinore 1665. (Diderik Buxtehude)
In Lübeck
In 1668 Buxtehude moved to Lübeck, probably for career reasons, but also to get away from the meagre financial circumstances in the devastated Sound region. The three Maria Churches in Helsingborg, Elsinore and Lübeck are the main threads in his life. Even though he spent most of his active life in Lübeck and even though he achieved fame and honour there, he never forgot his roots by the Sound. That was why the periodical "Nova litteraria Maris Balthici" could claim in 1707: "He considered Denmark his native country" (Patriam agnoscit Daniam).
Diderich Buxtehude´s career as a composer and an organist culminated in Lübeck and great composers like Händel and Bach came and listened to his music. He was especially renowned for his "Lübecker Abendmusiken", which were concerts in connection with the evensong before Christmas. He wrote new organ works for this every year.
After Sweden´s conquests in the 17th century, it became the dominating power in the North and the Baltic. Sweden was surrounded by countries, which wanted their lost areas back. Among these Denmark, Russia and Saxony (including Poland) formed and alliance against Sweden.
The use of the steam engine in ships and trains also signified a revolution in the communication of the Sound Region. The extension of the infrastructure on both sides of the Sound and the connection between train traffic and ship traffic encouraged the investment in the magnificent Elsinore Station building at Elsinore harbour in 1891.
Oresund – the center
The dream of the old great North and nationalistic unification efforts were specifically united in the time after 1830 in the movement called "the Scandinavism". Its centre of gravity was to become the Sound region, and here efforts were made to bridge over the Sound. Scania had after all been part of Denmark's cultural centre before the Swedes took over, so it was natural that a rapprochement with Denmark was positively viewed in this landscape.
Regular steamship communications between Scania and Denmark began with the service Malmo-Copenhagen in 1828. Thus the Sound again had begun to work as a communication link – and not as a "blue wall" – between Sweden and Denmark. The new technique and the new ideas went hand in hand and were also able to motivate each others´ existence.
The New Infrastructure
An important factor in this was the gradually improved infrastructure, especially the steam ships and railways. Elsinore was the first provincial town, which was visited by Denmark's first steam ferry, "Caledonia" as early as 1819. Throughout the 1920´s and 30´s there was irregular traffic along the coast. At the end of 1842 there was a permanent steam ship connection via the ferry "Hamlet" between Elsinore and Copenhagen. In 1945 the service also included Helsingborg. Moreover, from 1856 there was a permanent connection between Elsinore and Helsingborg.
This meant that it was possible to transport family members and luggage over greater distances. The steam ships landed at various places along the way from where people were rowed ashore to the desired summer residences. With the steam ships and the railway connection between Copenhagen and Elsinore via Hillerød it was possible for the head of the family to travel to the city and take care of business in the summertime too.
Vedbæk´s Harbour
The North Railway
The Hornbæk Railway
Klampenborg
The Industrialism of Malmo
Malmo was industrialized and urbanized to a great extent between 1860 and 1900, where the population was more than tripled. Large industries were founded. Already in 1840 Frans Fredrik Kockum had founded a mechanical workshop, in which railway cars were built in the 1850´s and in the 1870´s shipbuilding began. In 1966 the Malmo wool factory was founded, which became one of the largest textile factories in the North. The Malmo Mill from 1881 became Sweden's largest producer of wheat flour and Malmo Assorted Chocolates (Mazetti) grew to be one of the largest in the business. In 1890 The Scanian Cement Ltd started a cement factory in Limhamn. The main railway was finished in 1864 and Malmo had a railway station area, which was the largest in Sweden.
Malmo´s Harbour in the 1880´s
Kockum´s Factories
Malmo Station
Through his municipal activities Consul Olsson could press the questions concerning improved communications. In the period 1865-85 he contributed to making it possible for Helsingborg to have railway lines in every direction. At first to Billeberga-Esløv, then to Hässleholm and to Åstorp and Värnamo. Thus the city was connected with the big railways and had railway lines to Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo. At the same time the harbour was enlarged and made deeper with more new basins and Sweden´s first train ferry connection to abroad was opened on the H-H- fairway in 1892.
The enlargement of the harbour had en effect on the Helsingborg shipping business and at the end of the century the city had the third largest merchant navy. Petter Olsson started more industries, among them tileworks, the steam mill and the rubber factory, where Henry Dunker later would start the rubber shoe fabrication. He was enthusiastic about the development of the city, but also about Evangelical religion. The mission building on Kullagatan was built thanks to Petter Olsson. He was throughout his life faithful to his religious beliefs and said that he would make Helsingborg to "a city, which honoured God". His large family spent the summers in the leisure villa "Öresundslyst" on the Danish side of the Sound.
Another important factor concerning the industrial revolution was the establishment of infrastructure, which connected North Zealand to the metropolitan area. The sea route was there, of course, but in 1864 the north railway was opened with connection to Copenhagen via Hillerød. The transportation of goods from the terminus to the town centre was done via a horse drawn line and from this the name "Trækbanen".
Out of fear of competition from the capital there was local resistance against the establishment of the North railway and the Coast railway, which was opened in 1897. With the opening of the Hornbæk railway in 1906 a substantial improvement of the area's infrastructure was the result with better connections to the surrounding area, among other things cloth is transported from Hellebæk, tile from Ålsgårde and paper from Havreholm. The transport development was to some extent also a result of the transformation of the area to a recreational area for the metropolitan region. And to some extent, this is still the case.
The sea trade´s fear that the new communications would certain parts of the trade transport was well-founded and with the final lifting of protection zones around the market town in 1920, the time where obstacles were put in the way of the free trade, was finally over.
Around the turn of the century the most important factors for the industrial development was provided: First of all with the establishment of the shipyard, the necessary capital and investments and labour, which also came to the town, an extension of the infrastructure and the lifting of earlier days´ restrictions on production and trade. With the establishment of Elsinore Technical School in 1885, a modern education of the work force was also begun.
The Railway Terrain
If the 1800´s was the century of the steamship and the railway, the aeroplane became the icon of the first part of the 20th century. In the Sound region it already started in 1906 with Ellehammer´s famous flight, in 1910 the Sound was crossed in aeroplane and the development of aeroplane types and airports picked up speed on both sides of the Sound.
From Steam to Plane
Steam ships and railways had revolutionized the communications in the 19th century and in the Sound region the new transportation systems became very important. The North Railway/Coast Railway in Zealand and the Main Railway (West Coast Railway in Scania were tied together with the train ferry connection between Helsingborg and Elsinore.
Another invention helped revolutionize the communications of the 20th century. The internal combustion engine did not only make motoring possible, but also a new collective means of transport – the air transport. The light internal-combustion engine could be used in aircrafts. But the road to the collective air transport was complicated and fantastic.
Ellehammer – The First in the North
The American Wright was the first to really take off from the surface of the earth in December 1903, but as early as three years later, September 12th 1906, the Dane, Ellehammer, flew ca.42 metres ca. 30 centimetres above the ground. In 1912 he constructed a helicopter, but in 1916 he crashed and did not revive his interest in aviation until the 1930´s, where he took part in the planning of Kastrup Airport, which opened in 1925.
Ellehammer Flying
The Sound in the Centre
In Europe France became the centre of aviation and enthusiasts form all over came to learn. Perhaps the temptation was the adventure, the venture or the joy of the novelty, but also the enormous attention, which the pilots were granted. Air shows gathered huge crowds, the pilots were considered heroes and was worshipped like idols. In Stockholm the "aviation Baron", Carl Cederström was constantly cheered, but it was in Scania and Denmark that the aeroplane first took hold.
As early as 1909 the Dane Folmer Hansen tried to fly from Sofiro North of Helsingborg in Scania to Marienlyst outside Elsinore, but he had to cancel because of bad weather. In 1910 a price of 5.000 kroner was offered to the one, who could cross the Sound first. Carl Cederström loaded his aeroplane on to a goods wagon for Copenhagen in order to take this price. But a Danish aviator, Svendsen, came first, when he flew from Copenhagen to Malmo July 17th, 1910. Carl Cederström first crossed the Sound August 24th, 1910.
The Sandfangeren in Stockholm
The First Swedish Aeroplane
In Stockholm the Swedish Aeronautic Society (SAS) arranged aviation weeks in the autumn of 1910. As usual big crowds gathered to get a glimpse of the aviator idols, especially Carl Cederström. But the big sensation came from the Sound region. Two aviator enthusiasts and engineers from Landskrona, Oscar Ask and Hjalmar Nyrop, who already in April had displayed the first Swedish built aeroplane on the City Hotel in Landskrona.
The aeroplane only had one problem. It could not fly very far and it hopped more than it flew. Nyrop and Ask had collegial difficulties and split up Nyrop continued his work with improving the machine and replaced the two-cylindered boxer motor with a three-cylindered fan engine. The test flights in Ljungbyhed, the first airport in Sweden, were not very promising and the aeroplane was called the grasshopper.
In the beginning of September 1910 he finally succeeded in getting the aeroplane in the air. It was the first time a Swedish aeroplane flew – and stayed in the air for almost five minutes.
The News in a Hotel
Danish-Scanian Cooperation
It was this Ask-Nyrop aeroplane, which was presented in Stockholm. The Scanian, Oscar Ask and the Danish descendant, Hjalmar Nyrop constructed the engine and the plane´s pilot was the Dane Knud Thorup. The presentation of the first functioning Swedish aeroplane was an example of Scanian-Danish cooperation.
After a crash Nyrop gave up his work with aeroplanes, but Ask developed his company in Landskrona further and built more planes, until he joined forces with Enoch Thulin, who became a giant in early Scandinavian aviation industry.
Thulin, the Pioneer
The Scanian Thulin started as early as 1908 to study aviation technique and the art of aviation in France and in 1912 in Lund he defended his thesis, "On Air Resistance in Flat Surfaces". September 24th 1913 he became the first to fly across and back the Baltic, when he flew the distance Landskrona-Stralsund-Trelleborg. In 1914 he flew the distance Paris-Landskrona.
Thulin managed to get through hundreds of spectacular aviation shows and he built Scandinavia´s first real aviation industry in Landskrona, AB Enoch Thulin´s Aeroplane Factory, a further development of the company he ran earlier with Oscar Ask.
Enoch Thulin
Thulin-Plane
Aviation Industry in Landskrona
During the First World War Thulin´s aviation factory grew and before long it had one thousand employees. 99 aeroplanes were built, almost 600 aviation engines and also 300 cars. Thulin was very popular among his employees. He was a scientist, constructor, manufacturer and aviator. The aeroplanes were built as light as possible. They consisted of light tree constructions covered with heavy canvas, and the landing wheels looked like bicycle wheels.
Aviation School in Ljungbyhed
Thulin started an aviation school in Ljungbyhed in 1915, which quickly became a centre for a pilot education. In the school Thulin used aeroplanes from his factory in Landskrona. In the beginning of the 1920´s they had educated more than 100 pilots. Among them the first Swedish woman pilot, Elsa Andersson. She was the daughter of a farmer in Strövelstorp between Helsingborg and Ängelholm and a strange woman of her time. She was also a parachutist. After some successful show jumps in Kristianstad and Helsingborg, she plunged to the ground in Askersund and died.
Thulin´s Aviation School
Elsa Andersson
Thulin Dies
Thulin died in 1919 during a flight at Landskrona. After his death the factory in Landskrona was forced to close down. It had become mush too difficult to compete with the many manufacturers around the world. Moreover the demand decreased after the world war and the subsequent arms reduction efforts. The aviation industry in all of Europe decreased and there was not yet any civilian aviation traffic, which needed aeroplanes. The aviation school in Ljungbyhed closed too, but was reopened in 1926 as the air force´s own aviation school.
Post and Passenger Traffic
In the 20´s the aviation traffic developed into also to include transport of post and passengers. In Denmark the Danish Airline Company (DDL) had gone into regular air traffic. A number of airline companies in Europe, among them the Danish DDL and the Swedish SLA (Swedish Air Traffic AB), founded the International Air Traffic Association (IATA). DDl and the German, Deutsche Luftrederei (DL) started a co-operation in 1920 on the line Copenhagen – Malmo – Warnemünde – Berlin. German passenger planes were used and among the pilots were Hermann Göring, who in this way came in contact with Scandinavia.
Airports and Traffic Planes
The airports either lay in the sea (aeroport) or on land (aerodrom). The aerodromes were large grass fields. Enoch Thulin carried out a campaign as early as 1914 to get the authorities to lay out private airfields. In Scania Bulltofta Airport was opened in 1924 and thus became Sweden´s first airport for regular traffic. For a long time it was Sweden´s most important international airport, until Bromma in Stockholm was opened for traffic in 1936. In the 30´s concrete fields were laid out, which made traffic with bigger aeroplanes possible.
By means of the air traffic the Sound region was tied together early with other regions in Europe. Kastrup Airport was opened in 1925 and quickly became Scandinavia´s centre of international air traffic. An airline connection shuttling between Bulltofta and Kastrup made it possible for the Scanians to reach the whole world via Kastrup.
After the opening of Sturup Airport in the beginning of the 1970´s the shuttle service was abolished and replaced by the hydrofoil boats between Malmo and Kastrup. It also ended with the opening of the Sound Bridge, which turned Kastrup into a joint Danish-Swedish airport in line with the collaboration, which marked the infancy of aviation in the Sound region.
With regular air services across the Sound the region had a supplement to the regular ferry service, which was developed during the 19th century. As early as the 1880´s they had developed the first project sketches for a regular service across the Sound, at first a draft of a railway tunnel from Elsinore to Helsingborg. Around the turn of the century a similar plan was made of a connection between Copenhagen and Malmo.
The reasons for a fixed connection were a question of connections to the continent and ideas of better connections to the other parts of the Baltic region and the global market. In 1914 the Swedish engineer, Albrecht Quistgaard, together with the Dane, Heinrich Ohrt, presented concession applications to the Danish and Swedish government, but the world war interfered with the plans for a fixed connection.
Bridge Plans in the 1930´s
In the 1930´s plans for the building of bridges came up again. In Denmark several bridge projects were carried through as public tasks in order to relieve unemployment. The Little Belt Bridge between Funen and Jutland was finished in 1935 and the Storstrøm Bridge with a fixed connection to the south was also started. In Sweden they were evidently afraid fall behind and in the argumentation for the establishment of a fixed connection, the connection to the continent and the rest of Europe played an important part.
The examination project from the Technical University in Stockholm, which was published in The Technical Journal in 1935, was the first to present concrete proposals. Here it was a question of a combined road and railway bridge between Elsinore and Malmo. In 1936 the first concrete proposal for a fixed connection between Malmo and Copenhagen came. Three Swedish and Three Danish companies were behind the proposal, but this time a world war interfered again.
Sketch for Railway Bridge
Sketch for a Sound Bridge
Thousands of Danish refugees were welcomed in Scania.
Upon arrival in Helsingborg and Malmø the refugees were interrogated by the Swedish police and put in the hastily built refugee camps..
The German occupying power did almost nothing to stop this illegal communication.
Everyday life in Elsinore continued for the first three years almost normally.
But the blackout, the ice winters, the lack of goods and the many rationings gradually made life more difficult. But the lights from Helsingborg were a gleam in the dark.
The Germans required a blackout already that the same evening at 7 PM. A demand that was hard to meet with such short notice in Elsinore.
In Helsingborg the Swedish authorities also required that lights were put out, but on May 24th they chose to let the lights shine again. In an almost religious manner the shining Scanian coast became a symbol of freedom for the entire northeastern part of the Sound region.
The blackout and the subsequent oppressive atmosphere in everyday life, was the thing the Elsinore citizens complained most about as the war progressed. Gradually it became a tradition to defy the blackout demand and exchange bonfire greetings between Elsinore and Helsingborg.
The blackout was also the first thing that the population lifted themselves on the evening of May 4th. The blackout curtains were removed and candles were put in the windows. A tradition, which has lasted for many years in Denmark on the anniversary of the Liberation. But now it has almost disappeared.
But the nationally known "national anthem" of Elsinore still remains: Henry Karlsen´s "Kronborg Waltz, where one the well known lines related the atmosphere: "Soon they will put on the lights in Helsingborg, they are like a thousand stars...
Office Party at Christmas
Large The Kronborg Waltz
Swedish Customs Are Imported to Denmark
The magical light from Sweden and the need to escape from the restriction ridden everyday in Denmark, became the start of the national encounter with "The Blue Wall", the separation between the two countries, which the Sound had constituted since 1660.
Now Sweden became a symbol of freedom. Everything Swedish was good. Swedish films, Swedish singers/actors, literature and Swedish customs. One example is the Swedish Lucia tradition, which was not known in Denmark earlier. The custom came to Sweden in the 18th century via German workmen´s Christmas tradition from the Rhine, where a girl, dressed in white and with lights in her hair, walked around handing out sweets. In western Sweden they had the traditional "lusse night", in connection with the long night between December 12th and 13th, where they entered the stables and fed the animals a treat. Those two traditions were merged to the tradition we know today on both sides of the Sound, where a lucia bride is leading a row of singing girls dressed in white with candles in their hands.
Swedish Customs
Swedish Cultural Export to Denmark
Small Large Swedish culture export to Denmark
Large Jag har bott vid en landsväg
The Great Escape – Denmark
Thousands of Danes fled to Sweden in october 1943 across the Sound. Many from Gilleleje, Elsinore, Snekkersten and Espergærde.
Before October 1943
Shortly after the occupation the German occupying power banned travels between the Scandinavian countries. It was necessary to apply for a visa, which the Danes were to administer, but under German control. At the same time a Danish coast police was established to patrol the eastern Danish waters from Hundested in the north to Gedser in the south. The Danish marine was to control the adjacent waters.
From when Denmark was occupied April 9th 1940 to August 1943 only few refugees came from Denmark to Sweden. Partly because of the relative peaceful circumstances in Denmark, but also because of Sweden´s restrictive refugee policies. It appears from Swedish police reports that the Swedish policy of neutrality towards the strong and victorious Germany meant that they often sent the refugees back to Denmark.
The Coast Police
Vendepunktet (Overskriften skal oversættes til engelsk)
After a series of intense events August 29th 1943 in connection with the resignation of the Danish government and the internment of the Danish military, the number of refugees in September increased to 609, of which 61 were Jews. The rest was first and foremost military persons, resistance people, stateless persons, policemen, but also some unemployed and adventurers, who fled from the blacked out and restriction-ridden Denmark.
Flygtningestrømmen vokser (Rubrikken skal oversættes til engelsk)
The internment of the Danish army, the hostage-taking and the increasing tit-for-tat murders led to a marked increase in the refugee stream to Sweden in the course of the month of September. A number of artists and intellectuals, among them quite a few Jews, began to see the writing on the wall and arrange the crossing to the neutral Sweden.
The nuclear physicist Niels Bohr crossed September 30th, the same day as the architects Poul Henningsen and Arne Jacobsen escaped from Skodsborg together with girlfriends and a fifth party, Herbert Marcus, who was also an oarsman. The boat had been collected by a Falck van in the Bagsværd Lake, as it was prohibited to have smaller vessels less than five kilometres from the coast. It was a dramatic crossing in an overloaded boat, which was unsuitable for that type of transport. Arne Jacobsen was of Jewish origin, and Poul Henningsen was on the list of the tit for tat murders, but he did not know that at the time. They both reached Stockholm, where they spent the rest of the war.
October 2. 1943: The Mass Escape of the Danish Jews
Dette tekstafsnit skal oversættes til engelsk fra Staffan eller Stigs tekst.
Duckwitz
The Hunts for The Jews
The night between October first and second 1943 the Germans started a hunt for the Jews in Denmark with the object of sending them to the concentration camp Theresienstadt in the protectorate Bohemia-Moravia, the present Czech Republic. Officially the Germans explained in the daily press that the Jews were to blame for the disturbances in August. In order to compensate they simultaneously released the disarmed Danish soldiers.
The result was that 234 Jews were apprehended. The raid had follow ups in October and November, where an additional 190 Jews were apprehended. They were deported and 53 of them died in the camp. Most of them old and sick.
Concentration Camps in Europe
Theresienstadt
Sverige ändrar inställning
In the light of the events in August the Swedish state re-evaluated its policy of neutrality. October 2nd Sweden announced publicly that they would receive the Danish Jews as refugees. In close cooperation with – especially the Scanian authorities and administration, a number of privately based, illegal escape routes along the entire Zealand east coast were established.
The Civilian Resistance
The persecution of the Jews became a turning point for many Danes in their attitude towards the German occupying power. The close integration of the Danish Jews in the Danish society meant that the racial policy of Nazism offended the sense of justice of many Danish citizens. A larger number of the population now resisted actively; often citizens, who had no affiliation with the existing part of the resistance movement, who mostly were connected to the Communist Party and the Dansk Samling party.
In Copenhagen the students went on strike and some of them organized a collection of money, which came to very large sums: Approximately 1 million kroner, which in 1993 correspond to 20 million kroner.
Thousands of Jewish fellow citizens from Copenhagen made for the Sound coast, where there was total chaos for the first few days with regards to the organisation of this migration. Escape routes sprung up and at first without mutual connections.
In Stockholm the Danish architect, Ole Helweg took the initiative for a meeting with the Swedish foreign minister and Ebbe Munck, who was the representative of the Danish resistance movement in Sweden, and with the help of Jewish circles in Sweden a boat was provided, which sailed from Malmo and this became the beginning of the Danish-Swedish refugee service, which was to sail 367 trips with refugees.
Very different people started separately or in groups to organize escape routes from the metropolitan area to the Swedish coast. Most came over from Copenhagen itself, but also from Gilleleje on the north coast and Snekkersten south of Elsinore were for a period of time became veritable escape centres.
From Where?
Ebbe Munch
Vellykket redningsaktion (Rubrik oversættes til engelsk)
The result was that the vast majority of Denmark´s, approximately 95% 7000 Jews in the course of October crossed over to safety on the other side of the Sound. Approximately 2-3000 directly from Copenhagen, where 80% of the Jews lived.
The Great Escape-Sweden
On arrival to the Scanian harbours in Helsingborg and Malmo the refugees were interrogated by the Swedish police and sent to hastily established refugee camps.
Swedish Refugee Policy
The First Foreigners´ Laws
The close cooperation with the Swedish authorities ensured that so many people got over. The background was a change in the Swedish refugee policy after August 29th 1943.
At that time Sweden pursued and immigration policy, which was very restrictive. According to the first foreigners´ law from 1927 a person could be refused admission at the border "if it could be assumed that he had planed to apply for a permanent stay, and that it in all likelihood could be assume that he was not able to earn a living."
January 1st 1938 a new foreigners law was introduced, which was in force, when the intense persecution of the Jews went on in November in Germany and Austria. That, which really separated the new law from the previous, was that there was s passage on political refugees, which said that if there was a reason to believe that a refugee had political motives, the directory of social services should decide whether the individual was allowed to stay.
But the Jews were not considered political refugees! In principle the Swedish border was closed to them. As the Jews according to the Nuremberg-laws were not German citizens, they could not be sent to any state and therefore they would not be allowed in the country.
The Escape to Sweden
The J-Passports
As Sweden did not demand a visa of travellers from Germany, it was required that the passport showed who could return to the country, and thus be allowed to enter Sweden. So Sweden demanded, at Germans and Jews had different passports! Otherwise compulsory visa had to be introduced when travelling to Sweden.
Switzerland had the same demands. The Germans introduced a special passport law on October 5th 1938. According to this law the Jews had to have a "J" stamped on the first page of their passports. Whether the German passport law was a result of the Swedish and Swiss demands, or if it would have been introduced anyway, is difficult to establish, but the facts remain: Sweden issued such demands and Germany introduced a passport law, which satisfied the Swedish demands.
Gøre Friberg, superintendent of police in Helsingborg during the war, was well informed on the conditions and he wrote in his book "Stormcentrum Øresund":
Immediately after the German passport, we, who worked in the border stations, that is, the passport control, received a circular letter from the social services. It said that people wit a "J" passport were to be considered immigrants. They were not to enter the country without special permission. This came to apply to all Jews, when the few of them, who could be considered political refugees, did not count in the immigration statistics." (p. 31). Furhermore Friberg wrotes: "It is a fact that the result of the Swedish foreigners´ legislature in practice was, that the fleeing Jews were turned away at the Swedish border.
Protection of Swedish Labour
The Swedish immigration and refugee policy was meant to protect Swedish labour against competition many people from the unions and the academic circles participated in this cool-headed position. In Lund a meeting was called in the Academic Society on March 6th 1939, and a clear majority of the more than a thousand students present voted for a resolution, which warned against the immigration of "foreign elements".
Even after April 9th 1940, when the Germans occupied Denmark, only a few refugees arrived in Sweden from the other side of the Sound. Until August 28th 1943 only 150 Danish refugees were granted asylum in Sweden.
After August 29th 1943
But there were people, who helped the refugees. Not least in the police in Helsingborg, where Gösta Friberg and Carl Palm with white lies and cunning, with thought and hard work saved many. But Friberg also relates in his book, how he on October 2nd 1943 was told by the foreign ministry in Stockholm that the border police from now on could discount all passport formalities.
In the first three war years only 150 refugees arrived in Sweden, but in one week in October several thousand arrived. In one day, 900 arrived in Helsingborg. In the month of October approximately 7000 Jewish-Danish refugees arrived in Scania.
Chief Constable Göte Friberg
The Security Police in Helsingborg
Refugee Pressure on Helsingborg
Helsingborg received in the course of the hectic month of October 1943 more than 4000 Jewish refugees and an enormous organising was required. During the first refugee accumulation in the begining of October the Grand Hotel was filled and several other hotels. It was then necessary to find a refugee camp, which could be used for some time, before the refugees were taken further up the country in order to make room for others.
Ramlösa Spa, which was hibernating, was opened and functioned as a receiving central for all those, who were landed in Landskrona and north. The Ramlösa camp had a permanent doctors´ station, headed by a Danish doctor. As the flow of refugees were steady it was important that they could taken to new camps further up in the country and such an organisation quickly started to function.
Joint Cooking in Ramlösa
Small Large Helsingborg – Accommodation in Ramlösa Spa
"To Separate the Grain From the Chaff"
The camp had staff, whose task it was to find "stickers", i.e. Nazi spies and other observers, who posed as refugees. The most dangerous were placed in the prison in Kalmar. It was somewhat sensitive that Sweden held "stickers" interned for the Danes until the end of the war. It was a silent arrangement without any papers between the Danes and the Swedes, who trusted each other.
It was clear that Göte Friberg from Helsingborg and the detective superintendent in Malmo, Richard Hansen, was involved in this arrangement. Richard Hansen repeated a conversation with the defence minister Per Edwin Sköld in these words, reported in a series of articles in "Svenska Dagbladet"1984-85 by Orvar Magnegård: "You must know that the government closes its eyes for what you are doing. If it is discovered, we cannot do anything to defend or help you. However, after the war you and police superintendent will be forgiven.
In the beginning of 1945 16,700 Danish refugees had arrived in Sweden, and 60% of these came via the Helsingborg area. All in all approximately 25.000 foreigners arrived in Helsingborg int he course of 1943-45.It was the events of August 29th 1943, which opened up Sweden.
Denmark in Sweden
Bøn til stjernerne
Terrorbander
Hærger mit land.
Natten splintres af bombebrag,
Clearingsmord på den lyse dag!
Vi emigranter
Ser ikke land
Tågebanker
Skjuler mit land
Miner driver i Øresund,
Mørket gaber med ild i mund.
Ønsker og tanker
Naar ikke land
Milde stjerner,
Lys for mit land!
Lad med fred på den klare dag
Røgen ringle fra husets tag,
Arbejdets kærner
Fylde mit land
(Den danske digter Otto Gelsted fra sit eksil i Sverige)
The Unofficial Denmark in Sweden
After August 29th 1943 the Danish envoy in Stockholm, chamberlain J.C.W. Kruse and his entire staff declared themselves independent and were thus ready to make an effort for the refugees, which poured over the Swedish border. The Swedes now received the Danes with open arms and they were allowed to establish a Danish press service. The editor Erik Seidenfaden had approximately 40 employees and was now able to transmit the attitude of the "unofficial" Denmark to the world public as a news service.
The Resistance in Sweden
It was also from Stockholm the Danish Liberation Council´s representative, Ebbe Munch, cleverly facilitated the connection between the resistance movement in Denmark and the allied authorities. In reality Munch functioned as an unofficial envoy and held the administrative and financial threads in his hand. A refugee office also established in Stockholm headed by professor Stephan Hurwitz and the later conciliator, Sigurd Wechselmann.
From Malmo editor Leif Hendil, Ekstra Bladet (Danish newspaper) directed the biggest Danish escape route: Danish-Swedish Refugee Service. A large part of the money to this came from Swedish Jews.
Leif Hendil
The Reception of the Refugees in Scania
At the reception in Helsingborg or Malmo the refugees went through medical examination, and were fitted out, if necessary. The police – often in cooperation with the Danish police, also investigated their circumstances, because they were afraid of spies.
After these preliminary arrangements they were allowed to travel on in Sweden, if they had contacts, which could procure work and housing. If not, they were sent to refugee camps in the neighbourhoods of Helsingborg and Malmo.
With so many people crammed in the hastily established refugee centres, it was no wonder that harassments arose. Not just internally among the refugees, but also in relation to the Swedish hosts. The Danish poet, Otto Gelsted was among the first to escape in October 1943. Here he came in close contact with a group of fellow Jewish refugees and in his memoir novel: "The Refugees in Husaby", he conveys a well-informed picture of the atmosphere.
The Reception in Malmo
Work, Schooling and Education
At this time there was a lack of labour in Sweden, and many entered the Swedish labour market. All in all the Danish refugees were helped in every kind of way by the Swedish authorities and private citizens. Schools were established for the children; Danish students were admitted to the universities, scientists and artists were allowed to continue their work.
On November 15th 1943 a Danish school was established in Lund with 40 pupils. January 1st 1944 primary school started and July 1st the school had 170 pupils and 25 teachers. A dansih school was also established in Göteborg, which had 200 pupils and 25 teachers at the end of the war. Furthermore there were smaller Danish schools in Helsingborg, Jönköping and Norrköping.
Danes studied at the universities in Lund, Uppsala, Stockholm and Göteborg and in 1944 final Danish jurisprudence university exams were held in Stockholm. Examiners and external examiners were Danish and eight students passed the exams. As the world war progressed and Germany lost footing, many of the refugees wanted to leave their mark on the course.
The editor of one of Denmark´s largest newspapers, Herbert Pundik has explained this in his memoirs; "Det kan ikke ske i Danmark (1993) (It Cannot Happen in Denmark):
One of the historians of the occupation in Denmark, Hans Kirchhoff assessed in 2001 the reasons why
Children on the Run
The Gratitude of the Refugees
The weak Danish military was given, in the autumn of 1943, permission to establish a secret highly trained army in Sweden, Danforce. Also called: The Danish Brigade. A clear breach of Sweden´s neutrality policy.
Time Lines for the Decision Making Process
The Danish Resistance Army in Sweden 1943-45
After some considerations the Swedes also gave the Danes the opportunity to establish a secret army, "The Danish Brigade". The Swedes armed the brigade and ended up promising them air force and naval support in case of the landing of the brigade in Denmark.
For a third of the 17-18.000 Danish citizens in Sweden the Brigade became their basis in an otherwise apathetic and empty existence as refugees. With the Danish traditions of the Brigade, the firm organisation and the strong fellowship and not least the feeling of their being able to save Denmark, many found a meaning in life.
The Resistance Army
The Danish Brigade became a small Danish resistance army in the neutral Sweden. The Brigade was established on November 15th 1943 at the request of the Danish intelligence service and Danish and Swedish Social Democratic politicians and was officially dissolved on July 10th 1945.
At its height in the spring of 1945 the force included approximately 5000 Danish refugees with a core of 8-900 officers from the Danish army and navy. The Brigade also included 200 women.
Calling it a police force, which after the war should help to maintain law and order in Denmark, solved the problem of explaining the presence of a Danish army in the neutral Sweden. The real intention with the Danish Brigade´s tasks was during the whole period uncertain. Among the brigadiers themselves as well as among the Danish and Swedish politicians and the Allies.
However, one important aspect was clear among the politicians on both sides of the Sound and the top officers: The resistance army was a nationalist Army, which was to be the resigned politicians´ counterbalance to the Danish Liberation Council and influence of the resistance movement and with them the Communists in occupied Denmark.
In step with the development of the war, it was the progression of these matters, which was the cause of disagreements. The Danish collaboration government's resignation in August 1943 and the internment of the Danish officers, created space for an alternative, secret "government": The Danish Liberation Council, established in September 1943. This was cross-party, self-established organisation, which coordinated the efforts of the growing, illegal resistance movement. The influence of the Communists in the Danish Liberation Council was considerable and was due to their prominent role in the military sabotage and the illegal magazine distribution. However, it became the Social Democrat, Frode Jacobsen, who, in opposition to his leading party colleagues, became the leading figure. In contrast to the resigned government the Danish Liberation Council had the support of the population. This development meant:
- that the Social Democratic top politicians was robbed of their domination role in Danish politics, which was lost to their hereditary enemy, the Communists
- that the officers in the Danish army felt outdone by a flock of untrained extremist civilians.
The humiliation was great. Firstly the officers had not been allowed to show their worth on April 9th 1943. Between these two, normally hostile parties, a community of interests were created. By establishing an effective military alternative to the resistance army, under Social Democratic control, the politicians could secure themselves against a presumed Communist coup and the officers could re-establish the lost military honour.
There was agreement on the strategic (long term) goals, but disagreement on the tactics (how the goal was to be achieved).
- Should the Brigade be deployed before the Germans had surrendered? Perhaps supported be the Swedish military?
- Should the Brigade be deployed, when the Germans had surrendered?
The Placing of the Brigade in Sweden
The Brigade wanted to be placed in southern Scania, close to Denmark. But the Swedish government refused, because of the neutrality policy and because they were afraid of how the Germans would react. The Germans would probably not stand for such an obvious provocation so close to the Danish border.
In the spring of 1945, the Brigade had, with the increasing help of the Swedes, developed into a ramified military organisation with seven military camps in southern and middle Sweden. Five of them, Sofienlund, Ronneby Bruden, Ryds Brun, Tingsryd and Karlskrona on the border between southern Småland and Blekinge.
The Placement of the Camps
The First Camp, Sofielund
Memorial Stone
The Brigade´s Strength and Organisation
The Brigade never became, in spite of an elite training in the manner of the commando units we know today, a fighting unit, which could be deployed against the German occupying power in the Denmark. To the disappointment of the Brigade soldiers, the English officers, headed by general Dewing refused vehemently to let the Brigade try a suicidal mission like that.
In 1945 the Brigade consisted of five battalions, with major general K. Knudtzon as the commander.
- Four battalions with light equipment, light machine guns and small arms.
- Fifth battalion was heavily equipped with a machine gun company, a company equipped with 81 mm and 120 mm mortars.
Together the were a regiment, which could be bcaked up by a smal Danish fleet (Karlskrona) and squadron of planes, however they had not been trained to work with the English planes.
Brigade Commander K. Knutzon
The Mortar Group
Sätre Brün: Exercise
Women´s Army Corps in Hortunaholm
The International Influence
The discussions concerning this changed in step with the developments in the European battlefields in 1944 and 1945. The Danish Liberation Council's close connection to the Englishmen's international organisation of European resistance movements (SOE), meant that the English consistently rejected the Danish officers´ anit-Communist agenda.
The English foresaw that they´d might need the Brigade. In close cooperation with the resistance movement the united forces could tie down German troops in Northern Europe.
The End in Sight
As the war progressed in 1944, it gradually became clear for most people that the Germans would lose the war. The tactics of the English and the Americans were to avoid concentrating their troops in Germany. They were not interested in a war in Denmark, where they would to use manpower. They wanted the Germans to surrender without a fight. The Germans wanted the same, so they could concentrate on the defence of Germany.
The result of these strategic and tactical deliberations was that they did not want to deploy the Danish Brigade, as it would complicate things. The Brigade was to arrive after the Germans had surrendered. Then they could make sure that the Danish Liberation council and thus the Communist resistance movement were held in check.
The Soviet Union was not blind to the deliberations of the Allies and in the course of 1945 a radical change occurred. The Soviet Union did not want a Danish nationalist army under the command of right-wing officers to take away the pronounced influence of the Danish Communist resistance movement. In short: They felt, like the English and the Americans, but for other reasons, that the Brigade could stay where it was: Deep in the forests of Småland.
Internal Frustration
The international development and its effects were not easy to understand for the officers and privates in the Brigade. The boring military training and the wish to get in action was prominent.
The people in the Brigade were told again and again that they should wait. The internal division were many and the leadership had a hard time holding it all together.
As the war progressed many of the Brigade soldiers felt that they let down the resistance movement in Denmark by taking a "holiday" in Sweden. However, apart from some attempts of rebellion form officers as well as privates, they succeeded to hold it all together until May 4th 1945, when the Brigade was sent to Elsinore, Zealand.
Bathing Life
The Locals
In the 1950´s the compulsory presentation of passports was abolished in Scandinavia. Enterprising businessmen created a new and popular entertainment in the Sound region. Pleasure trips between Scania and Zealand.
No Passports
At midnight in July 12th 1952 the passport free conditions were introduced between the Nordic countries and the following day there was a lot a activity in the Sound, when 55.000 passengers and almost 4000 cars crossed the Sound on the ferries. The passport free conditions and the increasing motoring resulted in a further need of ferries. Gradually the ferry traffic developed into pleasure traffic parallel to the business traffic.
Helsingborg´s Dagblad, July 13th 1952
Pleasure Boats
In the 50´s the Copenhagen boats became a clear element in the Scanian harbours. The little white boat "Saint Ibb" had taken "moonlight trips" from Copenhagen to Ven, Helsingborg and Mölle. "Stadt Kiel sailed Helsingborg/Landskrona and Copenhagen for many years, but the shipping company, who really picked up speed was the Viking Boats. Their boats sailed the Sound from 1955 to 1968. They mainly sailed from Copenhagen to Landskrona and Helsingborg, but sometimes also to Malmo and Ven. Above all they were used for pleasure traffic. The ferry ticket wasn't always that important and they gave out free tickets everywhere. Many had so many free tickets that they were impossible to use. It was evident that that it was the food and the drink, which provided income for the shipping company.
Saint Ibb
The Scarlett-Boats
At this time the so-called Scarlett-boats sailed between Landskrona and Copenhagen. Their history is special. In Denmark after the war there was a lack of American dollars, which made i impossible to get American goods and American films. Thus the Danes missed the Hollywood film "Gone With the Wind", which was shown in Swedish cinemas in 1939. A Danish ship owner, Jørgen Jensen, had the brilliant idea of starting a cinema line. Ships were provided in 1949 for this cinema transport, which sometimes was combined with a Bakken (Danish amusement park) transport. They sailed the Swedes to Bellevue, so they could go to Bakken. And then they sailed to Copenhagen to collect Danes to cinemas in Sweden.
To begin with they went to Palladium in Malmo, where "Gone With the Wind" was shown, but form the summer of 1949 the cinema trips went to Landskrona. While the films were showed the Swedes were taken home from Bellevue and when the Swedes were taken home the film had ended and the Danes was sailed to Copenhagen. On the way food and drink were served at low costs and there was life music and dancing.
This traffic was the background for the so-called Scarlett boats, which trafficked Landskrona and Tuborg until 1980. Scarlett O´Hara in the film "Gone with the Wind" gave names to the boats, for instance Hanne Scarlett, Lilli Scarlett and Dana Scarlett.
The Sound Law
Many boats were floating restaurants and there was a lot of drinking. The restaurant owners in the Sound towns protested against the unfair competition as the boats could serve tax-free alcohol. In addition it was known to be quite lively onboard and the Danish and Swedish governments decided in 1961 to lessen the attraction of these pleasure trips. The Sound law, limitations in the alcohol sale were introduced and in the performing of live music. The amount of alcohol and the amount of cigarettes had to be in proportion with the number of passengers. After that the customs authorities often thought that the number of passengers did not correspond to the amount of alcohol that was sold and the number of Copenhagen boats diminished considerably.
Form Monopoly to Competition in the H-H-Line
Even Adam of Bremen established that the shortest distance between Scania and Zealand is at Helsingborg and it was not strange that the most intensive traffic landed there.
The traffic on the H-H-Line in the beginning of the 50´s was run entirely by the DSB (Danish State Railways), but in 1955 there was competition. It was the Swedish company Linjebuss (LB), who with its first ferry, Betula, began its epoch on the Sound. Betula was owned by the Swedish Sugar Factories Ltd. and sailed sugar beet cargoes between Mörbylånga in Öland and Begkvara at the Småland coast. This transport was seasonally adjusted to say the least and at other times the boat could be sued at the H-H- Line as a car ferry. Primula, Carola, Betula II, Regula and Ursula followed up Betula. The LB boats became popular and the concept of "touring" was introduced as the name for a passage with the serving of food.
The LB-ferries was for a long time considered more cosy with their high salons, who had a nice view of the Sound, in comparison to DSB´s "basement ferries", where you had to sit below the car deck. On the LB you glided, but on the DSB you glided. In Helsingborg the basement ferries were called "the U-boats". DSB did not build a boat with salons above the car deck until 1967. It was "Najaden", and later the sister-ferry "Kärnan", "Kronborg" and "Holger Danske". With this the DSB had seriously entered the competition. Another company would enter the H-H-traffic, and that was the so-called Sundbusserne", which started traffic in March 1958. They solely aimed at the passenger traffic.
Elsinore Harbour 1955
Najaden
Sundbusserne
Enormous Traffic all Over the Sound
The Sound traffic increased and the harbours in the Sound had really become lively by the end of the 1950´s.
In the 1960´s the DSB ferries Dan, Helsingør, Helsingborg, Svea, Kronborg and Kärnan sailed the Sound. The LB ferries were at that time Betula and Primula and the Sundbusserne Henrik I, Jeppe, Pendula and Pernille. In addition the route to Snekkersten was trafficked by Freia and Mols. Helsingborg-Copenhagen was trafficked by Gay Viking, Rolf Viking, Laboe, Lucullus, Stadt Kiel and Sankt Ibb.
At this time 20 ships sailed between Helsingborg and harbours on the other side of the Sound. The number of boats, lines and travellers were impressing at the end of the 50´s and the beginning of the 60´s. In the H-H-line approximately 8 millions passenger were transported in 1961. In 1962 after the introduction of the Sound law, the passenger number in the H-H-line increased to 8,5 millions, but the traffic in Copenhagen diminished, i.e. the traffic that was entirely pleasure trips.
Between Malmø and Copenhagen the train ferry Malmøhus sailed, the most elegant boat in the Sound, and the Sound company´s Absalon, Gripen and Ørnen. These three were called "the big boats". From 1957 the Centrum Line or, as it was called initially, the New Copenhagen Line, sailed between Malmø and Copenhagen with more boats, among them the old Kalmarsund I, which had renamed Kirsten Piil and had been used on the line Helsingborg-Copenhagen, Sundpilen and MS Alte Liebe, renamed Ørestad. That same year "Limhamn" and "Dragør" trafficked the line Limhamn-Dragør and the route Landskrona-Tuborg was trafficked by the Scarlett-lines. This description of the traffic around 1960 does not cover all the facts, but the question is if the 1955-60 was not the most intensive, when it comes to the number of boats on the Sound.
Snekkersten Harbour
Concentration in the H-H-line
Gradually as the motoring gained more importance the ferry traffic was concentrated more and more to the north Sound, where the distance across the water was the shortest. As the great Europe roads from Gothenburg and Stockholm met in Helsingborg, it became natural to take the closest way to Denmark. When the train ferry Malmøhus was closed down in the middle of the 80´s, there were only ferries left between Limhamn and Dragør in the south Sound parallel to the hydrofoil boats between Malmø and Copenhagen.
In 1972 more than 11 millions passenger sailed between Helsingborg and Elsinore and in 1998 more than 13 millions passengers sailed the H-H-line. It was like transporting the whole Danish and Swedish population in just one year!
The following conversation between a man from Helsingborg and a man from Elsinore took place in the middle of the 70´s.
- I think that Helsingborg is the largest passenger harbour in the world.
- I see!
- Do you know which is the second largest?
- Could that be New York?
- No!
- Could it be London?
- Could it be Dover or Calais?
- I give up, which is it?
-Elsinore!
- But then Elsinore is as big as Helsingborg!
- No... We have boats for Snekkersten!
Today (2003) the H-H-Line is trafficked by three companies. The number of boats is small in comparison with the golden days around 1960, but the number of passengers is still impressive, in spite of the emergence of the Sound Bridge. In 2002 12 millions persons travelled with the ferries between Elsinore and Helsingborg and these cities are the only ones that still have boat traffic across the Sound. The large ferries Tycho Brahe, Aurora and Hamlet have a whole different capacity than the boats in the 50´s and 60´s.
But there are those, who plan for a tunnel between Helsingborg and Elsinore.
The increased communications furthered the contacts between Scania and Zealand. The metropolitan region became more and more accessible for the Swedes and southern Sweden became a popular holiday resort for many Danes. In the sixties the television also contributed to a rapprochement between the peoples. Swedish programs were seen by many Danes and vice versa.
The Movement of Labour
The movement of labour across the Sound is very old. Since the Middle Ages people have gone where there was work and a place to settle. Even in the time of "the blue wall", when you had to have a passport to pass the border, the fishermen communities around the Sound coast kept in close contact. In the 19th century a great number of people emigrated from southern Sweden to the Copenhagen area.
The industrialization brought with it an extensive exchange of ideas; labour and entrepreneur spirit across the Sound and the close contacts of the occupation years was vital for many people.
After the war Denmark was marked by the stagnation, which the wartime economy inevitably brought with it. Work and shopping hungry Danes replaced the stream of refugees. The development in Denmark did not turn until the end of the 50´s. The market determined unemployment was replaced by a structurally determined demand for labour.
In the middle of the 1970´s the unemployment rate rose again, when the market conditions stagnated. Approximately 17.000 Danes chose to cross the Sound to find work and sometimes also to settle.
Denmark experienced, especially during the 80´s a number of structural changes in connection with the dismantling of the old industrial society and the welfare system began to creak in its joints. It looks like southern Sweden has to go through the same process.
It remains to be seen if the membership of the EU and the efforts to strengthen the regional integration can be the tools, which are needed to recreate the dynamics in the Sound region.
Bridge Vision
Danish Crofters
The increasing ferry and car traffic in the 1960´s brought with it new opportunities to travel the neighbouring countries. The big city people in the Copenhagen area could enjoy new leisure time and holiday opportunities, not least when it became possible for Danes to buy holiday cottages in Sweden.
The second industrial wave, which took place on both sides of the Sound after the Second World War, led to an increasing urbanization. The old towns were depopulated to a great extent. In the forest villages in southern Småland and north Scania many houses were empty. These crofts (often with timbered wooden houses) became attractive for many big city people from the densely populated Zealand. Into the car, across with the ferry (or the bridge by now) and after a one-hour car ride, you are, seen through Danish eyes, in the middle of the wilderness.
The concept became so extensive that Danish "crofters" formed a society, which had approximately 5.000 members in 2002. But even more Danes own houses today in southern Sweden. Areas like Markaryd and Tingsryd in Småland today exists in the mental map of Denmark. However, the society "Danish Crofters" stresses that they are not working on getting the old Scanian countries back to Denmark. The society Denmark´s entry to the great forests has also contributed to keep the culture in the landscape.
There is in fact just one communication channel before the Sound Bridge, which have been able to assert itself on both sides of the Sound: TV. And then again it started with Radio Mercur, the first commercial radio in the region. In 1958-62 it broke the monopoly of Danmarks Radio and with rock and pop music as bait transmitted from international waters in the Sound. This reinforced the flight of listeners from Danmarks Radio to Sweden´s program 3, which was well under way. By means of the new FM-radios many Copenhageners long ago had sought refuge from the many didactic programmes, which characterized DR1 and 2.
The commercial radio created quite a sensation and the state powers finally succeeded in ending the adventure. Among other things by establishing a third radio channel, which finally began transmitting the music of the new age.
The joint radio listening was now replaced by TV and the populations on both sides of the Sound often looked at each other´s programmes. There were also direct joint programmes in the so-called Nordvision. In many Sound citizens´ childhood there was at first one channel on each side, then two Swedish and one Danish.
When the Danes finally got around to the second channel the media picture had changed into an endless supply of channels in numerous languages. The dyas when Hylands Hörna, Nordisk Musikquiz and Swedanes were able to delight in prime time on both sides of the Sound, is over, but the cultural integration doesn´t have to be weakened on that account.
The first concrete bridge plans appeared during the industrialization of the 19th century. More proposals were to follow, but it was not until the last decades of the 20th century that the decision makers on both sides of the Sound became serious about the proposals.
Transport Corridor and Supporting Idea for the Development of Copenhagen
The Question of a fixed connection across the Sound was already discussed after the end of the Second World War at regional and national level in Sweden and Denmark. The European economy faced a new reconstruction boom. In Copenhagen and Scania they saw a fixed Sound connection as a possibility to strengthen the economic development of the region and the as Scandinavia´s natural "gateway" to the continent.
From Capital to European Metropolis
The Danish City Plan Laboratory, a society of city planners, sat down immediately after war with the politicians in Copenhagen to discuss the city´s future development of the city. The discussions ended in 1947 in the so-called "Finger Plan". It was an attempt to gather the expected development in well-planned frames, so they could avoid a repetition of the fast and aimless house building in Copenhagen's bridge quarter. The future development was to be done in the form of radial infra structure lines form the city centre towards the market town ring, Køge, Roskilde, Frederikssund, Hillerød and Elsinore. Along these lines stations were to be placed like pearls on a string with houses and retail trade.
The workplaces were in Copenhagen. An extended S-train net along the whole finger plan structure had the task to transport the population between home and work. As the ownership of a car became possible for more and more, the road system was extended according to the same finger plan system. The areas between the fingers were defined as green wedges, which were reserved for agriculture and forest and recreation. In practice the extensions were limited until the middle of the 1970´s to Køge Bay and the Roskilde area, as the politicians wanted to protect the North Zealand landscape from this city development.
The Finger Plan 1947
The Sound City – a New Vision
The vision of a Sound city was formulated in 1959 by professor Peter Bredsdorf and his Swedish collegue Sune Lindstrøm. The vision was drawn on a napkin in one of Copenhagen´s well-known restaurants, Brønnum´s Café. (The napkin is kept in the Danish City Plan Laboratory). On the napkin you can see the fixed connections Copenhagen/Malmø and Helsingborg7Elsinore. The coast railway and the west coast railway has been linked in the north and south to a real Sound ring line, the blood circulation of the system.
Bredsdorf and Lindstrøm already then had an idea, which looked like the Finger plan, but the difference was that it reached across the Sound. Malmø/Lund and Helsingborg are not farther away from the Copenhagen centre than the towns in the market town ring. The three Scanian cities could, in each their individual way, strengthen Copenhagen as the capital. Malmø has large industries, like Kockum´s Shipyard and just 20 kilometres from Malmø is Lund with the largest university in the North. Helsingborg was and is Northwest Scania´s regional centre with extensive trade and service functions for Sweden´s contacts with Europe.
Even at government level they fixed connections were drawn up in the 50´s. The Danish and Swedish governments committed themselves, at a meeting in the Nordic Council in 1953, to work for a fixed Sound connection. A Danish-Swedish government commission presented in the following 10-15 years many proposals for connections Malmø-Copenhagen and Helsingborg-Elsinore. It was the Swedes who pressed for a decision. The then Danish communication minister, Kai Lindberg, made it clear in 1962 that the decision concerning a national connection across the Great Belt had to precede the decision of an international connection. The Danes later stuck to this decision.
The Napkin Sketch
Project Plan for the H-H-Conncetion
Project Plan for the K-M-Connection
Ørestad – an Idea From the 60´s
The one thing that should prove to have a decisive influence on the placement of the Sound bridge Copenhagen-Malmø was the new projected district Ørestad in west Amager between the Copenhagen centre and the Kastrup airport. In 1962 Copenhagen elected a new Chief Burgomaster, Urban Hansen, who was elected on his promise to build houses. Urban Hansen became interested in the areas in western Amager and Amager Common, which the municipality and the state owned jointly.
In 1964/65 an architectural competition was held concerning a new district in the area. The winning project presupposed a Sound Bridge, subways to the centre of Copenhagen and that Copenhagen's airport was moved to Saltholm. The proposal contained a massive house building around a number of station areas with approximately 12.500 persons in each, linked with an efficient metropolitan and suburban electric train system.
Everything according to principles, which were very similar to those, which had already been carried out in Køge Bay and Roskilde. The second price in the architectural competition went to a proposal, whose idea it was that Copenhagen should grow outwards in stages from the old medieval town to western Amager. The enclosed city Copenhagen should become an open Sound city, everything according to the vision on Bredsdorf´s and Lindstrøm´s napkin.
Urban´s Plan
Urban Hansen was known and notorious for his enterprise. Among the people he was called the new Christian IV. In west Amager his enterprise did not only went as far as the neighbourhood Remiseparken and the Urban Plan. All in all the building on Amager was quite modest until the end of the 80´s. Bad communication to and from the island made the politicians unwilling to develop Amager.
It is interesting to note that one of the two winners of the second prize in the architectural competition was Knud E. Rasmussen (nicknamed Black Knud). He became the plan director in Copenhagen and thus a man with great influence on the designing of the Ørestad, which is sprouting up in west Amager.
The Ørestad idea was already there in the 60´s. It is one of the evidence that the Sound region and is opportunities to develop Copenhagen into an economic power centre was of current interest even back then. In the favourable market conditions of the 60´s everything went along at blinding speed. The number of cars increased rapidly. The Copenhagen labour market did not only extend to the market town ring around the city, but reached far to cities like Ringsted, Næstved and Slagelse, from where people commuted every day to work in Copenhagen.
Copenhagen´s First Real Region Plan 1973
In 1967 the counties and municipalities in the Copenhagen area began to discuss a revision of the Finger Plan. They wanted partly to catch up to the rapid development, partly to relate the planning to the Sound regional perspective. The plans were put forward to the public and resulted finally in "Region Plan 1973".
Region Plan 1973 broke with the principle that the development of the area had to take place according to the Finger Plan structure with Copenhagen as the centre. A new transport corridor, with roads and railways, were to be placed across the fingers in a corridor from Køge, via Høse Tåstrup and Allerød to Elsinore. Where the corridor crossed its fingers centres for houses and businesses. The transport corridor was then to go on to Helsingborg, either north of Elsinore (Højstrup-Sofiero) or south of the city via the so-called ferry corridor. Region Plan 1973 also contained plans for a Sound Bridge from Malmø to Copenhagen via Saltholm, where a new airport was to replace Kastrup.
Swedish Decision on Bridge, 1973
Next to these plans the Swedish parliament (Riksdagen) passed a Sound connection for trains and cars between Helsingborg and Elsinore in 1973. The Swedish decision was never fully read in the Danish parliament (Folketinget). The Danish landslide election in 1973 came between and after that the composition of the parliament had become extremely complicated. The state's taxation policy had become political dynamite. The result was that not only the Sound connection, but also the Great Belt connection were put in cold storage. At the same time the first oil crisis arrived with subsequent recession, unemployment and lessened traffic in roads as well as railways.
The Industry´s Lobby
Around 1980 the work to create a European home market without national obstacles had come to a halt. This was the cause of worry in the European Industry, who wanted to do better in the competition with USA and Japan. The managing director of Volvo P.G. Gyllenhammar took the initiative in 1983 to the forming of a lobby organisation, "European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT). Members in the organisation were the top executives in by and large every large European industries, for instance Philips, Siemens, Nestlé, Unilver and Fiat.
In December 1984 ERT published the report "Missing Links", which contained demands of among other things a Sound bridge, a connection across the Fermen Belt and a coupling of the Scandinavian railway system with the future European high-speed system. The infrastructure had to be in place, when the single market was in place. The industry had realized that its need for storage capacity for manufactured goods as well as components, demanded costs, which constituted approximately 40% of the total investments of the industry. Therefore ERT wanted to create the conditions to introduce the Japanese "Just in time" principles for the production. This implied that the manufacturing did not take place until after the customer had ordered. This is quite demanding when it comes to the delivery of a product and all obstacles, like ferries and border passing, make up stops.
The Industry´s Lobby Pays off
Volvo made up 10% of Sweden´s export in 1983. When the Swedish government in December 1984, decided to close down the shipyard in Uddevalla, which had 2300 employees, P.G Gyllenhammar entered the discussions. He negotiated with the Swedish government and the result was that Gyllenhammar located a Volvo factory with 1000 jobs in Uddevalla and the government promised to build a 40 kilometres motorway south of Uddevalla. This was the beginning of the Scandinavian "link" to Europe, which is described in the ERT-report "Missing Links", and which in reality forced the Swedish government to work for a Sound bridge and a Femern Belt connection.
With this first idea in the bank P.G. Gyllenhammar started a Scandinavian version of the ERT in 1984. It was called the Scandinavian Link Consortium (Scan-Link) and had its head office in "Dansk Industri´s " (Danish Industry) building in Copenhagen. Scan-Link was established as a private limited company with an ownership circle consisting of 55 companies and banks in the North. The idea of Scan-Link was primarily to get the Danish and Swedish governments to build the Sound Bridge and the Femern Belt connection and to establish a cohesive motorway system and a railway system for high speed trains from Oslo, Gothenburg and Stockholm to Copenhagen and Hamburg.
Elsinore-Helsingborg and/or Malmø-Copenhagen
The Danish/Swedish government commission form the 1950´s continued to have meetings in the 60´s and 70´s to discuss possible solutions for the Sound. Their proposals became topical again in 1984-85, when Scan-Link was formed. The commission´s reports contained many different proposals. The proposals, which was considered the best from an economic point of view was a "both and"-solution, i.e. a railway tunnel Helsingborg-Elsinore and a 4-lane motorway Copenhagen-Malmø. In 1985 the Swedish-Danish commission received new instructions. They were to evaluate the possibilities for a combined road and railway connection Malmø-Copenhagen and furthermore make economic and environment evaluations of the earlier proposals. At DSB (The Danish Railways) and SJ (The Swedish Railways) they wanted to work for a railway connection Malmø-Copenhagen. The position was shared be the Danish Social democrats. Therefore DSB began its own investigations of such a project.
The Great Belt Bridge Is Carried in 1986
June 12th 1986 the Danish parliament decided to build the Great Belt Bridge as a road and railway bridge. With this the road was open for a Danish stand on a Sound connection. The political negotiated settlement on the Great Belt contained compensation for worried Jutland municipalities and the mayors in Korsør and Nyborg, the old ferry harbours were to be shut down, when the bridge was finished. A motorway north of Arhus was to be built and 2500 governmental jobs were to be moved from the naval station Holmen in Copenhagen to Korsør and Frederikshavn. The latter had great significance, when the decision on the Sound connection was made in 1991.
The Sound Bridge: New Investigations 1987
In 1987 the Danish/Swedish commission published their investigations of possible Sound connections. They now recommended a combined road and railway connection Malmø-Copenhagen.The earlier proposal of a both and-solution was still there as an alternative. Especially SJ was dissatisfied with the work of the commission, as an all-railway solution had not been investigated. The commission was given the task to look solely at an all-railway solution, in comparison with the combined road-railway solution. The alternative Elsinore-Helsingborg was completely taken off the list of possibilities.
The Scan-Link Consortium was now worried that the Danish/Swedish commission would arrive at all-railway connection as the best alternative. The consortium therefore initiated their own economic consequence calculation of such a railway connection.
The Sound connection now began to meet popular resistance. A grass-root movement "Scan-Link? No thanks" was formed in June 1987. The effect of this was that they prioritised investigations into the different alternatives´ environmental consequences.
Copenhagen´s Development Strategy 1989
1988-89 became turbulent years in the difficult decision process concerning the Sound Bridge. The political attitude to the project changed in favour of combined road and railway connection between Malmø and Copenhagen. It all started when Denmark´s economical problems was put on the political agenda by the self-appointed "Forum for Industrial Development", with the future Social democratic Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen as one of the promoters. Their analyses pointed at a structure problem in Danish industry and a necessary aiming at research and a knowledge intensive development of the business community.
The then Prime Minister Poul Schlüter (Conservative) did not want to leave the initiative in the question of the future development of the business community to the opposition. He arranged with the Social democratic leader to set up an "initiative group" in the spring of 1989, which should put forward ideas and suggestions for a new strategy concerning the city-and business community development of Copenhagen. In the group were several strong Social democratic representatives like Copenhagen´s new Chief Burgomaster Jens Kramer-Mikkelsen, county mayor Per Kaalund and LO´s then vice-chairman Hans Jensen.
The initiative must be seen in the light of the fact that Copenhagen had been marked by the economic crisis in the 70´s and 80´s. In this period Copenhagen saw many bankrupt companies as the government intentionally carried out a moving out of its institutions and authorities to other parts of the country, where the state also invested in infra structure.
Immediately before the initiative group started its work, the Danish/Swedish government commission published their new research results in February of 1989. From an economic point of view they recommended a combined road and railway solution while an all-railway solution was considered to be the best from an environmental point of view.
The financing of the combined Sound connection was proposed to function after the same principles as the Great Belt Bridge, i.e. a bridge subjected to a duty. The price was to be determined by the ticket prices in the ferry traffic between Helsingborg and Elsinore. The train operators DSB and SJ had to pay a fixed yearly duty – no matter how many trains that trafficked the bridge.
With an all-railway connection DSB and SJ had to manage the financing an operation alone. This made SJ change its attitude and recommend a combined road and railway. Sj also had to consider the economic aspects. If Sj were forced to finance such a large investment and tie up huge sums in a railway connection across the Sound, they would be forced to refrain from transporting goods via the Swedish Baltic lines to Germany and Poland. DSB initially stuck to its support for an all-railway connection also for economic reasons. They counted on that they could make money on the transporting of Swedish railway goods through Denmark.
The Initiative Group´s Plans for Copenhagen 1989
The initiative group for the development of Copenhagen presented its ideas in 1989. The plans for a combined road and railway connection across the Sound was stressed, the Ørestad on west Amager and the subway between Copenhagen city and the airport made up the positive development process, which would make the wheels turn again.
The group´s heavy arguments for the proposals were that Copenhagen, since the beginning of the 1970´s only had been allotted approximately 10% of the government´s traffic investments in spite the fact that 85% of the most trafficked roads were in and around Copenhagen. The EU´s single market from 1992 was also used as an argument. Copenhagen were to be prepared for the competition from other big cities – not form other Danish cities but from metropoles like Stockholm, Hamburg and Berlin.
The Würtzen-Commission 1990
The suggestions and recommendations of the initiative group were backed up politically by the government Venstre (Liberal), Conservative and Radical Venstre (Liberal) in spite the fact the Radical Venstre strictly speaking, was against the combined road and railway connection.
The fact that the proposals were taken seriously was evident when the ministry of finance in January 1990 set up the so-called Würtzen-commission, who took over the planning of the Sound bridge, the subway, Ørestad and Kastrup from the ministry of traffic. The Würtzen-commission was given the task to work out a cohesive plan for traffic investments in the Copenhagen area and the financing of them. Inspired by England´s so-called "New Towns" the commission proposed to finance a subway from Frederiksberg via the city to Ørestad and Kastrup though the selling of land in Ørestad to industrial and housing companies.
Insufficient Public Debate
The Würtzen-commission´s plans were published in the beginning of 1991 and was received by a surprised population. The work with the extensive plans had been done without the public knowing much about what was going on. The polls showed that many were negative.
December 12th 1990 Denmark had a new coalition government with Venstre and Conservatives, but without the bridge-sceptical Radical Venstre. In Sweden it looked as if the Social democrats were on their way to a defeat in the 1991 election. The possibility of a non-socialist government in Sweden with a bridge-hostile Centre Party, made the governments in Denmark and Sweden act fast. The public resistance never had time to organize before both governments in the summer of 1991 had carried the Sound Bridge. In the spring of 1992 the Danish parliament also carried the law of the establishing of Ørestaden, according to the directions of the Würtzen-commission.
The spectacular future plans for the Copenhagen area made the Danish Social democrats and DSB change their minds in 1989-90. They were now positive about a combined road and railway connection. DSB´s motives were still economic, but now they no longer considered the goods transports. The development in Amager would make Kastrup an attractive traffic junction with extensive traffic to Copenhagen city, Malmø and Roskilde. The changed attitude of the Social democrats was probably due to the political lobbyism from companies like Scan-Link, but probably also the many new jobs, which they could supply for the strong Social democratic mayors in Copenhagen.
The bridge decision had a peculiar epilogue in the autumn of 1993. The Danes was already then building land connections while the Swedes still discussed the environmental consequences of the bridge. The planning of the bridge had to sanctioned by the Swedish Water Court, which consisted of a judge, two engineers and two layman. In Denmark it was believed for a long time that the Water Court would stop the project. But the Water Court´s criticism of the bridge project turned out to be a part of the Swedish process and the tactics around the decided bridge building. When the Water Court said yes in the end, the bridge had already been projected.
In the government agreement between Sweden and Denmark there were clauses of price parity between the bridge toll and the ferry ticket price Helsingborg-Elsinore, and that the government was to begin negotiations with Germany of a connection across the Femern Belt.
The bridge toll is still debated and the Femern Belt is facing its final solution in 2003. The Danish and German governments are agreeing about the land connections in their respective countries, but they have not yet agreed of a financing model for the bridge itself, which will be a road and railway bridge.
There are many descriptions of the organisation and development of the EU. You can read about the Commission, the Council of Ministers, the EU-parliament and the development since the Rome treaty in 1957. Until now people have not been very interested in the regional policy of the EU, although it has gained greater importance lately.
European Regional Policy
Almost everywhere in the on border areas of Europe they try to overcome the obstacles that national borders always have created. The goal is to create an integrated business life and an integrated labour market with out removing the differences in culture and standards. These efforts created conflicts of interest between the regions on the one side and the national governments on the other. In the Sound region it is the regionally elected politicians in eastern Denmark and Scania, which are behind the attempts to create cooperation and new development possibilities across the Danish-Swedish border in the Sound.
The Beginning of the European Cooperation, 1948
The fight for an increased regional independence actually started immediately after the Second World War, when the governments started to realize that cooperation was the best way to avoid new wars in Europe. If you could weave together the economies of the European countries, nobody would choose war as a solution to conflicts.
The new development was started with the formation of the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) in 1948. The next year the European Council was founded, a superior authority for European cooperation.
In 1951 the Coal and Steel Union was founded, which later (1957) developed into the European Community (The EU of our time). The Nordic Council and EFTA was also founded in the 1950´s. All these cooperation organisations had the same goal: A future peaceful co-existence through economical, political and cultural cooperation.
The cooperation have in fact been so successful that the national states´ authority within their own borders have been exposed to pressure from regional authorities and border areas, which want en increased independence. When you talk of the future of Europe the concept "the Regions of Europe, must be seen in this perspective.
The Birth of the European Regional Policy, 1957
The OEEC, as well as the European Council, The Nordic Council and EFTA were so-called inter-state cooperative organs, where unanimity was demanded in the decisions. It was another matter when it came to the Coal and Steel Union, the later EU. Here the cooperation to a great extent was marked by federal ideas, which originally had been inspired by France, West Germany, Italy and the Benelux-countries. Here was a vision of the future European United States, which appears of the Rome-treaty, which has been the foundation stone in the cooperation since 1957.
Exactly because of the extensive union ideas in the Rome-treaty the six countries could not get more European states to join the cooperation. However, in 1957 they made the European Council to form a Municipal Congress, where popularly elected, regional and local, politicians could meet to discuss common problems and solutions for the economic development of the regions. The strategy of the six EU countries was simply to get "a Trojan Horse" into the countries outside the EU, through the mobilising of "sub-national" authorities.
In the Municipal Congress a region could discover that a neighbouring region, which lay on the other side of a national border and perhaps had the same goals and wishes for this development, did not gain a hearing for their plans or sufficient financial support form its national government. In other words: The Municipal Congress was the mutual birthplace of the European regional policy.
The Sound Council Is Formed, 1963
The forming of the Sound Council in 1963, a forerunner of the Sound Committee must be seen in the light of this. Here sat 30 regional politicians form the Copenhagen area and Scania and discussed among other things the design and placing of the a fixed Sound connection and other planning questions.
It was probably due to the Sound council that they in the 60´s and 70´s stuck to the idea of a Sound connection between Malmø and Copenhagen as a part of the Danish development plans for a "Ørestad" in Amager and of a new large airport in Saltholm.
If the question had become a Danish and Swedish government matter, it had probably resulted in a connection between Helsingborg-Elsinore, which would have shortened the distance between Stockholm and Copenhagen and had been much cheaper to build because of the short distance in the north Sound.
The Vision of 1963
Fixed Connection
The Convention of the European Council of Regional Independence
In 1966 the Municipal Congress presented a proposal for at treaty, which contained common rules and norms for the right to a regional independence in the areas of infrastructure, the localization of housing and business, welfare policy and more. The problems in the border regions were used as an argument to force the national states to delegate parts of its decision right to the regional level. The parliamentary assembly of the European Council, which consists of politicians, which also sit in their respective national parliaments, did not pass the proposal, but agreed to start an inspection of the special problems of the border regions.
The European Border Regions Organize Themselves
The inspections of the European Council did not lead to any new initiatives. In 1971 ten European border regions therefore formed their own organization (AEBR). It consisted of the French/German border regions around the Rhine and the Dutch/German Euregio-region between Enschede (NL) and Gronau (D). The Organization had from the beginning observation status in the Municipal Congress. Later the organization played an important part when the content of the Interreg-programme of the EU´s border regional cooperation was to be worked out in 1990.
.The EU: The Number of Members Increases
The EU: The Number of Members Increases
The Oil crises and economic stagnation of the 1970´s had consequences for the beginnings of the regional consciousness. The industrial society was in crisis and that hit hard in Copenhagen and Scania. Denmark had just joined the EU (with Great Britain and Ireland in 1973). This should have implied that the Folketing (Danish parliament) accepted an increased regional cooperation across the borders of the country, but that did not happen at all. Incidentally Sweden had chosen to stay outside the EU and lead an independent economic policy more or less unaffected by the EU.
The Nordic Convention of Cooperation 1977
The Nordic Council passed a convention in 1977, which opened up the possibilities of a regional cooperation agreement in the North. It also contained an agreement of a common Nordic labour market, a Nordic passport union and cultural and educational cooperation. But the convention on the whole just upheld the already existing practice between the Nordic countries. Real regional independence and cooperation across the Sound was not in the political programme in the 1970´s.
That it looked almost the same in the rest of Europe is evident from the European Council´s work for a regional self-government. The Municipal Congress had taken the initiative in 1966 and in 1971 some European border regions had organized themselves. But the European Council did not sanction a convention until 1980, which called on all members of the European Council to accept the right to regional self-government and transfrontier regional cooperation. However, the convention did not contain any obligations to transfer sovereignty from a national to a regional level. The convention was followed up in 1985 by a charter on the basic rights of regional autonomy. The charter was passed after pressure from the European border regional organisation (AEBR) and has the same status of the charter on human rights. The treaty contains fiancial support for transfrontier cooperation between the European regions. This was, by the way, the decision, which was the basis of the EU´s Interreg-programme from 1990.
A Breakthrough for the European Regional Policy 1983-1984
1983-84 marked in many ways a breakthrough for the integrations efforts of the EU. The European industrial giants organized themselves on the initiative of the managing director of the Volvo Group. P.G. Gyllenhammar. A lobby organisation was formed (European Round Table of Industrialists" (ERT), whose goal it was to establish a real European home market and thus improve the conditions of the industry to compete against Japan and the US. The means were, apart from a harmonisation of laws and rules, extensive investments in the European road and railway system, including fixed connections across the Sound and the Femern Belt. This revived the border regional cooperation in all of Europe and fueled the ideas of the regional development of the Sound and the argumentation for a fixed connection.
In January France took over, with the then President Francois Mitterand, the chairmanship of the EU. With the West German Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl the Rome-treaty's idea of a European home market was re-introduced. The proposal was presented at the European Council´s meeting in Fontainebleau in June 1984.
This European market without any border related obstacles was soon to be called "The Single Market". At this time the EU-commission introduced its new growth-philosophy, "The European Spatial Development Perspective" (ESDP), where the regions themselves have to generate their economic growth based on their own conditions. The regions themselves must head their own development plan and the structure fund support from the EU was done additional, i.e. the EU-support was not accessible until you had reached a 50% co-financing from the regional parties. This was to ensure that the structure fund means had to be used for activities and projects that had a full regional backing.
The EU-Parliament Becomes a Platform for the Border Regions, 1989
The EU Parliament became a battlefield for the border regions´ political projects from 1989. With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the prospects that many Eastern European countries now could apply for membership the EU had a new, large task. It was about countries where you could see latent conflicts, which was suppressed by the earlier Communist central government. The European Council now helped to protect the opportunities of democracy in Eastern Europe. Efficient border regions in the EU became demonstration models and good examples. Eastern European communities could be persuaded that their cultural identity and possible solidarity with communities on the other side of a national border not necessarily had to lead to a new national state risking violent conflicts and civil war.
The Interreg-Programme Is Established 1990
The Organisation for border regions (AEBR) argued successfully for the European Parliament to distribute 21 millions ECU (now EURO) form the structure fund to so-called "Article 10"-projects, pilot projects in selected border regions. These "Article 10" –projects were the forerunners of the first Interreg-Programme (1990-93).
The acceptance of the national states of the regions´ great importance to the European integrations process was mirrored in the Maastricht-Treaty in 1992. Now a Region Committee was established, which obtained status as a hearing instance for certain bills from the EU-Commission.
The Sound region did not figure in the "Article 10"-projects and in the Iterreg I (1990-93). The discussions in different European assemblies about the regions´ key role i the integrations process of Europe, contributed to the understanding of Swedish and Danish MPs´ strong interest in the Sound region 1990. This engagement led to the big decision on the Sound Bridge, the Metro in Copenhagen, the City Tunnel in Malmø, and the beginning of the decision-making process for the connection across the Femern Belt.
The Sound Region Gets Its Own EU-Programme
In 1993 the Sound Committee was formed to replace the Sound Council. One of the first tasks of the new committee was to formulate the concrete content of a EU-programme for the region, attached to the structure funds (Interreg III A). The region had an advance promise of such a programme for the period 1994-99, including 13 millions ECU. The activity areas in the Interreg II-programme was: Education of regional experts in Sound integration, the development of industry and tourism, education cooperation, environment and sustainable development, infra structure, culture and media cooperation.
Totally 59 Interreg II A programmes started in the European border regions. The present Interreg III A-programme for the Sound region for the period 2000-2006 contains: The removal of administrative obstacles, a socially functioning region and the marketing of the whole region.
The Interreg-programmes have contributed to an explosively increasing number of cooperative organs in the Sound area, which cover many aspects of soicety life: The Øresund University, The Øresund Network, Medicon Valley Academy, The Øresund Science Region, IT Øresund, the H-H-Samarbetet, Info Business Øresund, Øresund Development, Øresund Environment, Øresundstid, Pilelandet and so on. The distribution of tasks between the many Sound organisations is no well defined and some organisations will probably not survive. That was the case with Infotek Øresund, which were the attempt of the libraries to gather all card indexes in one portal. There is still a lack of initiatives to form Sound based organs in important areas like tourism and regional planning-
Help From the Danish and Swedish Government
Good intentions, the will to cooperate and the Interreg Programmes does not automatically integrate the Sound area. If the Sound Area is to become realized, the people on both side of the Sound experience toe region as a whole, when it comes to studies, work and cultural life.
There are many obstacles to such a realization. Lack of information, rigid bureaucracy or differences in culture and mentality may be the reasons for such obstacles. There are also practical problems. Persons, who commute across the Sound to work of study, have to relate to tax systems, health care, the children´s schools, rules concerning company cars, workplace at home and so on. First of all this is a task for the governments to make it practically possible
The Barrier-Report 1999
The Danish and Swedish governments prepared a report in 1999, The Sound – "a Region Becomes Reality". The report had the following conception of the integration cooperation: "The Sound region has unique possibilities to develop into a transfrontier, regional power centre in Northern Europe, with an international force of attraction of company establishments and investments. The development in the Sound region may, if it is handled right by all the participants, be of great value to the region and for all of Denmark and Sweden".... "The governments in Sweden and Denmark share the region´s enthusiasm and optimism of the future and are ready to contribute to the realizing of the vision."
The report points to a number of proposals to speed up the Sound integration. These are initiatives in the labour market, the social area, tax politics, infra structure, business life, the building sector, environment issues, the education area and the cultural life.
Almost none of the proposals have led to practical political action. It is only the information sector; with for instance "Øresund Direkt" and the information on Danish-Swedish tax condition, which have been developed. This is why there is dissatisfaction in the regional authorities of the Sound region, who turn against the governments´ lack of will to take on the responsibility to develop the cooperation across the Sound.
This regional dissatisfaction is not uncommon in the Europe of today. The regions´ fight for regional independence is still going on – as it has since the beginning of the 1950´s
The Barrier Report
The architecture of the Sound region from past to present is, naturally marked by the European architecture, but often with a distinctive Nordic characteristic.
Architecture is about the art of building. The different styles in history are thus part of the art history. This is why art history concepts are often used, when we talk about architecture. This survey is an attempt to show some of the characteristics of the styles of building in the different eras.
In the left menu you will find detailed explanations with examples from the cultural heritage of the Sound region.
Dolmens and Passage Graves
The dolmens and passage graves are probably the oldest architecture of the Sound region. The stone dolmens are the oldest and they are built around 3000 BC. I.e. a few hundred years before the Egyptian pyramids.
The stone dolmens were built from large stone blocks and originally they were covered by a round or long eath mound. A younger form of grave is the passage graves, which are larger than the dolmens; a long passage leads into a chamber, whose longitude axis across the passage. Often the chamber is so long that large cover stones have been laid side by side to form the ceiling.
The Gantofte dolmen
The Passage Grave in Gillhög
The Building Style of the Viking Age
From the late Viking Age finds have been made, which makes it possible to reconstruct living quarters, the so-called long houses. Typical of these were that they had roof supporting rafters, which went all the way to the ground. The monumental Trelleborg castles were placed behind round ramparts and the adjacent buildings were placed in symmetrical patterns. Several Trelleborg castles have been found in the Sound region. It has also been possible to form an impression as to how the heathen temples looked.
Reconstruction of Fyrkat
Trelleborg´s rampart
The Uppåkra Temple
Romanesque Building Style
The Romanesque building style was the first style, which was spread all over Europe. It came to the North around the year 1000 in connection with the extensive church buildings. There are of course distinctions between how the style appears in a small village church and a cathedral, but there are a number of common characteristics: massive, thick walls, relatively small round arched windows, round vaults and the clear division of long houses, choir and apse. In the Spound region the cathedral in Lund is the most brilliant example of a Romanesque cathedral.
Vä Church
Roman Ground Plan
The progress of the engineering made it possible to construct higher and statelier buildings. The changes could be seen in the southern and central Europe and reached the North in the 14th century. Pillars and supporting arches allowed more elegant buildings with the pointed vaults and windows is the typical Gothic characteristic.
The larger churches often had a pillar passage around the whole church and even behind the altar. Petri Church in Malmo is built in Gothic style, while Helsingborg´s Church of St. Mary and Elsinore´s Church of St. Mary are examples of Baltic Gothic style.
The Buttresses of the St. Mary Church
S:t Mary´s Church in Elsinore
With the building style of the Renaissance came a great change. Not only in building style, but also in relation to the building owner. It was no longer the church, but Princes and rich merchants, who had their own palaces built. The vertical ambition was left behind and the proportions of Antiquity were sought. For example by using the golden section.
The buildings of the Renaissance show great variation and the finest example of Nordic renaissance building is absolutely the Kronborg Castle.
But there are many examples of the building style of the Renaissance in the many manors built by the nobility and in the town houses of the ruling classes.
Glimmingehus
Tolder David Hansens Gård
During the renaissance of the 17th century a special building style was developed in the Sound region, the style of Christian 4. The style is characterized in the choice of materials, which are tiles and in the markings between the storeys, which are sand stone bands. The Trinity Church in Kristianstad and Frederiksborg Castle are typical examples.
The Summer House at Frederiksborg
The Trinity Church in Kristianstad
The Baroque is not very well represented in the Sound region. The Baroque can be seen as a more bombastic form of the Renaissance, where more marked features and contrasts was to clarify the power. To see a good example of this you must go to Sweden, where Kalmar cathedral is a fine example.
In the Sound region, however, there are some examples of the Baroque. For example Kronborg Castle, Fredensborg Castle, a few kilometre outside Elsinore. The inspiration is most clear in the symmetry of the buildings and the dominating dome of the main building. But it lacks the depth and the contrast in the ornaments of the front, which is typical of the bombastic Baroque style.
Kalmar Cathedral
Baroque at Kronborg
Fredensborgs castle
Baroque House in Elsinore
Rococo, or late Baroque, is a later development of the Renaissance, but now with twisted snail formations in the facade ornaments. However, in the North you won´t find a multitude of imaginative decorations as in France. Another typical feature is the abrupt roofs, frontons and portals.
In the Sound region you can find examples of the style in Landskrona, Elsinore and Copenhagen.
Sugar Refinery in Elsinore
By the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, it became fashionable to imitate the architecture of Antiquity and the Middle Ages. It was not a matter of inspiration but pure imitation. In Copenhagen the Church of Our Lady is an example of neo classicistic style with a direct imitation of the temple building of Antiquity.
Population development and urbanization in the latter part of the 19th century created a building boom in the large cities, where the architects were allowed to experiment with historicism in all the new buildings. Especially in the most expansive cities, Helsingborg, Malmo and Copenhagen. Touches of neo classicism, neo romanticism and neo gothic are quite pronounced in these cities. The styles were mixed with the so-called Viking style and that led to the architectural concept "National Romanticism", which is quite hard to define.
The Town Hall in Helsingborg
The Terrace in Helsingborg
Summer House in Hornbæk
A clear end to the interest for the historic styles can be seen in Art Nouveau, which spread around the 20th century. Rounder lines and new soft façade ornaments, where the possibilities of the concrete were used, became the ideal for some of the houses of the ruling class..
In Helsingborg you can see a large well-preserved villa area in the Art Nouveau style in the area Olympia.
The Art Nouveau District in Helsingborg
Around the nineteen-hundreds experiments were established everywhere in Europe constructing residential areas around the metropoles. The so-called garden cities.
The background for this was the industrialisation in the eighteen-hundreds, when the cities gradually developed into disease provoking places. In Elsinore they were inspired by the English far-seeing architects and built Hamlets Vænge and The negro Village outside the town centre of the old medieval town. Quality buildings which still exist.
Hamlet,s Vænge
House in the Negro Village
A house must function! That became the ideal of the so-called Functionalism. Clean and smooth facades, large windows, everything hygienic, became the ideal of the 1930´s. The building style dominated almost all forms of buildings from summer cottages to municipal institutions like concert houses, sports centres, airports and the most popular houses of the times, the so-called bungalows.
In the Sound region there are many examples of the building style of the Functionalism, where famous architects like Marcelius and Arne Jacobsen are represented.
The style has been die hard, but has been modified gradually.
Early Functionalism
The Concert House in Helsingborg
Arne Jacobsens Bellavista
Hornbæk Seaside Hotel
Bungalow in Snekkersten
The Gantofte dolmen outside Helsingborg is an impressive example of the earliest architecture from the Stone Age.
This period in our Nordic past covers 4.000 BC until 1.800 BC.
It is characteristic that agriculture spread and the population thus became more settled than before. This also changed the way people lived together. The tools, the flint axes, changed and new ways of storage became necessary, for example pottery. Instead of a population, which mainly lived off hunting and fishing, it was now the crops from the increasing agriculture, which became principal basis of existence. This is also why the period is called The Peasant Stone Age.
The Peasant Stone Age is normally divided into three periods referred to by the archaeologists as:
Eolithic
The Megalith Graves
The burial customs of the period means that there are still distinct traces in the cultural landscape of the Sound region after these early and enterprising peasants in the form of large stone graves. The so-called dolmen and passage graves. They are commonly called megaliths
In current Denmark we know about 6000 dolmen and 700 passage graves, but it is often only remnants, which can be seen.
Calculations estimate that there have been 20-25.000 of these megaliths in the period 3.500-3.200 BC. (See Odense Museum) A very interesting social historical phenomenon.
Traditionally the dolmens are dated the Eolithic period and the passage graves to the Paleolithic period, but the two megaliths are inextricably linked.
The large stone graves were for several hundred years used as single graves (chieftains?) and later as the common burial ground for the local area.
In Uppåkra, south of Lund, a complete temple from pagan times has been excavated. The find is unique. The temple was not particularly big , just 13 metres long and 6,5 metres wide.
Through many archaeological excavations in the Scanian villages along the Sound, we have been able to determine that most of the medieval villages date back to the end of the Viking Age, i.e. the end of the 10th century – beginning of the 11th century. The same pattern is evident in many places in the rest of Denmark. The explanation must be that a strong central government took over at this time and introduced a new organisation, which covered the then important villages. It is probably not wrong to note that the beginning of this restructuring began through Harald Bluetooth´s conquest of the Sound region, in all probability in the end of the 970´s.
In earlier times the settlements were scattered in the landscape, but now all farms were placed close to each other in so-called "town streets". From the Malmo-area there are many examples of so-called pit houses. Characteristically they are 4x5 meter in size with a roof post in every house end and was dug approximately 1 meter into the ground. These pit houses are often seen far from the settlements in the "town streets", despite the fact that they are contemporary with these.
An example of a farm in a town street from the 11th century is the large long house, which was found in Tygelsjö village just south of Malmo. Usually the long house faced east. Heavy post holes show that the walls were plank walls; the house had a width of six meters and a length no less than 30 meters. Angle dug post holes outside the walls show that the roof´s rafters went down in the ground. The pitch makes 8 metres of roof height probable.
In Lockarp, another of the villages in the present Malmo, a whole magnate farm from the 11th century has been excavated. North was the large hall building with bow shaped long walls. South of his four houses form a group in an open square with large living quarters in the south. In the middle of the square there was a building with a smaller part jutting out towards the east, probably a wooden chapel. In all probability the archaeologists have found the first magnate farm in the new town, which was created on the place a thousand years ago. This is the oldest mission time and you may ask yourself why the graves are missing. Perhaps they had already built a church farther away; perhaps they did not bury the Christian way as we know it. We don´t really know.
Long House
Trelleborg Fortresses in General
In Denmark there are remnants of the four so-called " trelleborg fortresses". The fortresses have had a very uniform and strictly geometrical structure. The fortress type had a circular rampart with gates facing the four corners of the world. Two crossing roads have gone through the fortress and the uniform long houses are grouped in four-winged yard formations along the main roads. Close to the gates there was a church.
Earlier they thought that these fortresses had been built by the Viking King Sweyn Forkbeard and had functioned as training camps for the forces, which were sent to England. However, by way of year ring dating we have been able to prove that the fortresses have entered into the unification of the kingdom, which Sweyn Forkbeard´s father Harald Bluetooth carried through in the 970´s.
The best preserved ring fortress is Trelleborg in Zealand. 16 long houses have been found inside the ramparts and 15 in fan-shape just outside. 157 Christian graves have been found outside one of the gates and mark the place of the wooden church. Year ring dating shows that the fortress has been built around the years 975-978.
In Funen there was a trelleborg fortress in Odense. All traces above the ground has disappeared now entirely. However, excavations have been made in the moat outside the fortress. A piece of wood has been dated to just after 980. There is a church close to the fortress.
The ring fortress Fyrkatis situated app. 70 kilometres north of Aarhus in Northern Jutland. 16 long houses have formed four groups of farms inside the ramparts. Via year ring dating the time of the construction established to the middle or the end of the 970`s. Remnants of a church outside of the ramparts have not been found, and there have been any archaeological excavations in the area.
Aggersborg at the north coast of Limfjorden is the larges of all the trelleborg fortresses. The diameter is an impressive 240 metres. Inside the ramparts there were no less than 48 long houses in 12 large, square groups. Just outside the northern gate the stone church from the early Middle Ages remains. It substituted the wooden church, which must have been built here by Harald Bluetooth.
Reconstruction Slagelse
Fyrkat
The Design of the Trelleborgs
In the middle of the medieval town Trelleborg at Scania´s south coast well-preserved remnants of the trelleborg fortress, which gave the present town its name, has been found. The lower parts of the ramparts and the dry moats, which are situated outside the ramparts, could be seen along the western quadrant, while smaller excavations towards east and south revealed the total size.
Contrary to the Danish fortresses, Trelleborg´s fortress has not been circular, but the deviance from the circular shape is minimal. Another special feature is, that they haven´t found upright holes from building activity inside the fortress area. As the rampart has been added later, there must have been long houses there. Very likely they have been of a type, which do not leave any traces, for instance because the walls have rested on a wooden foundation above ground.
A no wooden objects have been preserved; it has not been possible to make a year ring dating. However, with the so-called C14 technology the time has been established to be around the 970`s.
Trelleborg in Scania
Trelleborg´s rampart.
The Asa temple in Uppåkra
In Uppåkra just south of Lund we have found and excavated a complete temple building from pagan times. The find is completely unique. The temple was not very big, only 13 metres long and 6.5 metres wide. It had faintly curved long walls of rough, vertical oak planks, or "sticks", which had been dug down in a groove in the ground more than a metre deep. The middle part of the building, which were separated from the outer walls, consisted of four enormous wooden posts. The holes in these are unusually large and the depth is remarkable – more than 2 metres. The archaeologists found at least three different floor levels, which signifies that the temple had been rebuilt several times during its existence. From the building, perhaps as early as the 5th and 6th century to the Viking Age.
The building had three entrances, two to the south and one facing north. Each opening was framed by strong side posts and the south western opening had an advanced part. There is no doubt that this was the main entrance of the temple.
Valuable Finds
In the wall grooves and the post holes several hundreds gold coins were found. These paper thin, very small, gold pieces are believed to have been used as sacrificial gifts. Each one was struck with motives representing men or women. The fact that they were found in such a large number in the post holes and wall planks in the Uppåkra temple, indicates that these magnificent coins were sacrificed in connection with the building of the temple.
In the Uppåkra temple two fantastic finds have been made. Just next to the fireplace, which is placed in centrally in the building, they have dug down a bronze cup and a glass bowl. This was probably done in the 7th century. The roughly 20 centimetres tall cup is decorated with a band of thin gold pieces, which is struck with pictures. There are no cups like it and it may be made on the spot. The glass bowl is from the area north of the Black Sea and is dated to the 6th century.
In connection with the temple building in Uppåkra sacrifices to the gods have been made. Many lance and spearheads have been found near the temple south as well as north of the building. Several of them have been deliberately destroyed by bending and twisting the points. Noth of the temple there was a heap of destroyed weapons. Here they also found remnants of a magnificent helmet and plates for shields. The sacrifices may be in connection with the god, Oden, who was the war god. A small bronze figurine from Uppåkra represents a man with a horn clad helmet. The figurine only has one eye. This may signify that the figurine represents Odin, which is consistent with the weapons sacrificed in the area.
A Reconstructed Temple
The building archaeologist Sven Rosborn at Fotevikens museum recreated the temple in 2004. The enormous dimensions of the post holes and the plank wall construction and the fact that the whole building was excavated, makes it rather easy to calculate the probable size. As the four post holes in the middle of the building had enormous proportions and the post holes were so deeply embedded in the ground, the reason can only be that the post have formed a tall middle tower, which has towered above the rest of the building. A later reconstruction has been made by archaeologists in Lund, but that does not take into consideration the differences in the archaeological material and must thus be an improbable model, which is not based on what the available source material actually says about the construction.
The Post Holes of the Uppåkra Temple
The Sacrifical Finds of the Uppåkra Temple
The Interior of the Temple
The cathedral in Lund, which was inaugurated in the beginning of the 12th century is an example of Roman architecture on a large scale.
The apse seen here is among the most well-preserved parts of the church
Knud the Holy did not have a good relationship with the magnates, but his ambition was to strengthen the royal power with the power of the church. In his time Lund´s first stone church was built (1083). It was called Knud the Holy´s Cathedral, as the king had donated the field, on which the church was built. In 1085 he once again donated a gift to the Episcopal residence in Lund. It was several properties on both sides of the Sound. In addition the Lund cathedral was to receive tax money from the city of Lund, but also from the towns Lomma and Helsingborg.
The background for this was that the Danish towns paid a property tax to the king as the king owned the land that the cities were built on. The tax was called Midsummer tax. It was parts of this tax that Knud the Holy donated to the cathedral in Lund. This is noted in Knud the Holy´s donation latter from May 21st 1085. (The donation letter is quoted in Lund´s Cathedral´s first obituary, memory book from the middle of the 12th century). As the Midsummer tax only was paid by towns it is clear that Lund, Lomma and Helsingborg was founded before May 21st 1085 and that these three were the first towns in Scania.
In 1089 Lund had a new archbishop, Asser and in his time Lund became the episcopal set for all the North. This happened in 1103 and after this the building of Lund´s new cathedral was begun. It was built in the same place as Knud the Holy´s cathedral, but was to have dimensions, which was proper for a large archbishopric. (Lund was archbishopric for the North until 1152, when Norway had its own organisation while Sweden was released from Lund´s archbishopric in 1164 and after that Lund´s Cathedral was solely a Danish cathedral). To carry out this important building, the architect Donatus, who was probably of Lombardic origin, was called in. The high altar was inaugurated in 1123 and the church was finished in 1145. The church room is considered by many as one of the most beautiful in the Roman art.
Lund in the 16th Century
Lund Domkirke
Astronomical Clock
Gospel Script
The Archbishop
In 1089 Lund had a new archbishop, Asser and in his time Lund became the episcopal set for all the North. This happened in 1103 and after this the building of Lund´s new cathedral was started.
As the builder of the impressive prestige building the Lombardi architect, Donatus, was summoned. The church room is considered by many to be among the most outstanding in the Roman church art. And the rough restoration in the 19th century is deplored by many. Characteristic of the Lombardi inspired art is the extensive use of decorative elements on portal figures.
Italian Influence (the south portal)
The South Portal
The Troll, Finn
Building the Churches
We may have difficulties imagining the vast investment, which was needed to build the churches. In the early Middle Ages more than 2500 churches were built in the Danish area. This testifies to the strong grip the Christian church had on the population.
In the beginning the churches were built of wood, the so-called stave churches, but from the middle of the 11th century they began to build stone churches.
The building material in the Sound region was usually limestone, which was cut to a cube form. This almost square stone was called ashlar. (The oldest preserved stone church in the North is Dalby Church outside Lund).
Sometimes the ashlar was supplemented with other stones from fields. (Example of such a mixture of building materials can be seen in the southern wall of Tveje Merløse Church).
In the 12th century it became more common with tile and early examples of the the use of tile are Gumlösa Church in Scania and Tikøb Church in Zealand.
Tveje Merløse Church
Bjernede Church
Bjernede Kirke
Round Churches
There are examples of special kinds of ground solutions for the medieval churches. The round churches, which are typical of Bornholm, are special. In Helsingborg the Michael Chapel at the castle a round church and in Zealand Bjernede Church is the only example.
Østerlars Church
Nylars-Cross
Nylars Church
Portal Nylars Church
Most churches had a simple ground plan. One big room was for the parishioners. This room was called the aisle or the nave. This room was extended with the choir, which ended in an apse, where the altar was placed. The aisle and the choir was often bounded with a vault, the so-called triumphal arch.
The big churches in Dalby and Lund had a much more sophisticated ground plan. The nave or the aisle in these churches looked like the Roman basilica, which meant that the aisle had three naves, of which the one in the middle was elevated and let the light in. In these churches there were also crypts and Lund´s Cathedral was given the form of a Latin cross.
Magnate Churches
The magnate churches differed from the ordinary churches. The often had twin towers and a gallery for the prominent.
Fjenneslev´s church
Aakirkeby Church
Our Lady Monastery in Elsinore was built during the second half of the 15th century. It is very well preserved and is thus unique in Europe. It is a fine example of the Baltic Gothic.
The Our Lady Monastery in Elsinore is unusually well preserved. It was built and rebuilt in the latter half of the 15th century.
The Ground Plan
The ground plan was typical for the monastery buildings of southern Europe. The different wings in the almost square building had different functions. The economy department with cooking facilities was in the north wing and the monastery church (The Mary Church) in the south. Inside is a roofed cloister, which goes all the way round the square inner yard.
The Karmelite Monastery
The Cloisters
The Frater Hall
Baltic Gothic
The building material is brick, which is typical of the north European or Baltic Gothic. The three naves in the church are also typical of the north European style, where the middle nave does not let in the light. This half basilica style testifies to the influence of the Wend Hanseatic towns and is also present in the Mary Church in Helsingborg, which was built at the same time as the Our Lady Monastery.
Gothic pointed arches can be seen everywhere in doors, windows, house ends and in the cloister. The ends of the church are a display of brick Gothic's architecture. The east and west end have stair formed edges with four vertical dims on each side of the 11 metres tall middle window. Above this window and above the side windows there are broader dimmers with varying patterns (circular, pear shaped and pointed arches).
Inside the monastery the gothic vaults and columns are richly varied. Most common are the simple cross vaults, which are in the church and in the cloister, but in the chapter hall (Laxmand hall) there are sophisticated net vaults with inlaid symbols and coat of arms. Some ornaments, done by the sculptor Adam van Düren, are in the chapter hall. He built Glimmingehus and he also restored Lund´s Cathedral. With this artist we are brought nearer a new age and in the monastery there are many things, which testifies to the dawning age of the Renaissance. One example is the stone building opposite the entrance of the monastery church, and which was attached to the monastery from the start. The building is interesteing as it contains elements from the Gothic as well as the Renaissance. On the house end there are horizontal profile bands and vaulted sides, which are typical of the renaissance style.
The west house
The West House End
The East House End
The Monastery from the west
The Chapter Hall
In the inner rooms of the monastery there is an abundant variation in Gothic vaults and pillars. The simple cross vault is predominant in the church and corridors, while the chapter hall or the Laxmand hall has sophisticated net vaults with engraved symbols and coats of arms.
Ornamental figures in the corners remind the noble karmelite monks of the temptations of earthly life. The originator of these figures and the other sandstone work is probably the sculptor and architect Adam van Düren, who also is in charge of the building of the late medieval castle Glimmingehus in Østerlen in Scania and later the restoration of Lund Cathedral.
The Laxmand Hall
Madonna Figure
Dawning Renaissance
Adam van Düren portends another age. The Karmelite monastery is a traditional medieval building, but many traits in the ornamentation point towards the dawning Renaissance.
Not only the monastery points toward a new age. Diagonally opposite the monastery church there is a stone building, which originally is associated with the activities of the monastery. When you walk around in the building you enter the Renaissance from the Middle Ages. On the western gable end, which faces St. Annægade, and represents a later addition you will see the horizontal profile bands, which is typical of the Renaissance. The northern gable facing the monastery complex is ornamented with the fluctuating gable ends typical of the Renaissance. These can also be found in mansions and royal castles later in time.
The Carmelite House
The Carmelite House, the north end
The Church of St. Mary
The late medieval church is situated right in the centre of the old Helsingborg. In the Helsingborg of the 21th century it is not a dominating part of the town picture and can hardly be seen from the sea. It is actually a little difficult to see, but when you are standing in front of it, you have to admire the beauty of the thorough Gothic gilding style. If you go inside a great deal of Helsingborg´s late medieval church culture´s interior is preserved.
The Eastern Facade of the Church of St. Mary
The St. Mary Church was finished in 1410 after a long building period of about 100 years. It is built as a basilica and is almost a cathedral. The mid aisle is, like the great Gothic cathedrals in Europe, low and has no windows under the vault. The building style is often called half basilica or "pseudo basilica". The same characteristics can be seen on the other side of the Sound, where the Mary Church in Elsinore has the same architectural traits.
The Gothic characteristics are prominent, the pointed arched windows and the pointed vaults. This also can be seen in the gable doorsteps of the exterior and the external buttresses, which support the church.
The church replaced an earlier Roman sandstone church from the 12th century. And in comparison to the small houses of the time, it became a striking and dominant building in Helsingborg. There were other churches in town, but only Kärnan and the Nicolai Monastery were able to compete with the dominant St. Mary Church.
The Western Front of the Church of Saint Mary
The Vault of the Church of Saint Mary
Helsingborg in the Year 1400
The Art Treasures of the Middle Ages
The font is from the 14th century and cut from Gotland limestone. Originally it was painted and scientific examinations point towards fragments of red and blue oil paint.
The altarpiece is in remarkable good condition. It is painted around the time of the church´s inauguration in the period 1449-1452. Probably by a master from Stralsund. In the centre of the piece the scene with Mary and the newborn Jesus dominates. The motifs around are from the life of Christ as it is described in the New Testament.
The altarpiece, which is designed as some sort of cupboard can be closed at certain periods in the church year. During Lent, for example. Here the viewer must do without the sculptures and contents himself with looking on the motifs from Christ´s last days. One of these scenes shows how Jesus drives the merchants from the temple. An interesting detail here is that the appearance of some of the coins in this motif can be located in Stralsund. One detail which makes it probable that the altarpiece have been made n this town.
The triumph crucifix in Gothic style is from the latest Middle Ages. It is interesting that the foot of the cross says 1753. But it only states the time when the crucifix was repainted/restored. This is further complicated by the fact that the cross itself is of a later date that the crucifix. The originator of the crucifix is unknown, but experts assume that it is made in the southern part of Scandinavia.
The original plaster, which covered the church walls has later been removed. The walls now appear as brick walls. However, there are still remnants of the old plaster behind the altar, where there are still fragments of the old murals. Among them the saints: S:t Magnus and Brandanus. The murals are from the 15th century and are done by the so-called: Helsingborgmester, (Helsingborgmaster), whose somewhat better preserved murals can be seen in Brunnby Church in the Kulla peninsula.
From the Middle Ages are also the so-called piscinan at the bottom in the choir wall.
The Altarpiece of the Church of Saint Mary
The closed altar cabinet
The merchants are driven from the temple
St. Mary´s Church´s Crucifix
The Font of the Church of St. Mary
The Mural of the Church of St. Mary
The Picscina of the Church of St. Mary
A New Day Dawning
The tower was not finished before 1500. I.e. by the beginning of the century which was not only to change the church organisation and dogmatism in the North, but also the Middle Ages as it was later called.
However, the medieval origin of St. Mary Church is still very pronounced. Despite the later modernizations with pulpit, organ and rows of benches. The church is, rightfully so, characterized as an example of what the Middle Ages can display when it comes to stylish architecture, capable constructions and amazing craftsmanship.
Tycho Brahe was a Renaissance man and of course he built a Renaissance castle. The small castle functioned as habitation, laboratory and as the demonstration of the ideal of the Renaissance
Adam van Düren is responsible for several important buildings in the time of the transition from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. He renovated Lund´s Cathedral, but he was also the architect behind the Laxmand hall in the Our Lady monastery in Elsinore and he designed the late medieval castle Glimmingehus in Österlen in Scania. The builder was the vassal in Gotland and the later admiral Jens Holgersen Ulfstand.
The castle, which was built in 1499, was originally an outdated building. It could handle a local peasant rebellion, but no a siege with the new military device, the cannon. Perhaps the building was designed as a nostalgic memory of the Middle Ages and the romance of chivalry, based on the interest of the renaissance man´s interest for the past and the need to assert himself. This is evident from the interior of the castle, which consists of reliefs, which portrays the builder, and objects they had taken with them from Gotland.
Glimminge
Jens Holgersen Ulfstand
Kneels with his dog.
Örup and Bollerup
Örup and Bollerup are other Scanian examples of late medieval buildings with one leg in the style of the renaissance. In Bollerup you can see, that the gothic decoration is just scenery. Scalding holes have changed into brick ups and have no defence function whatsoever.
Örup´s
Bollerup, Scania
Christ figure
Borgeby by Lödde River
Billehuset
Castles and Manor Houses
The enormous income of the royal power and the aristocracy in the period was largely invested in prestigious renaissance buildings. Form the latter part of the 16th century the aristocracy started a massive building of manors, which even today marks the Scanian landscape. Approximately 150 of these buildings are still standing, while approximately 20 have disappeared.
The number of genuine renaissance manor houses was reduced in connection with the 19th century´s romantic restoration fad, but some buildings are fairly well preserved.
Building Chart
Vittskövle, Skarhult, Torup
One early and very well preserved example is Vitskövle Castle in north western Scania, which is the largest castle building in Scania. It was built by the Brahe family in the 1550´s. Vittskövle castle still has some of the massive weight of the medieval castle. The castle is shut in by broad moats. In connection to the castle there is a chapel dedicated to the Brahe family.
Skarhult in Eslöv´s municipality in Scania also has a massive and well preserved castle. The building style with swung house ends points toward the renaissance.
Torup is a building with a medieval style (as Vitskövle)and was built 1537-50.
Vitskövle
Family Portrait in Vittskövle
Nobel Family
Skarhult
Svenstorp and Rosendal
Svenstorp in Lund´s municipality was built in the so-called Christian IV-style. Typical of this style is the red tile in combination with horizontal bands and window casings in white sandstone. Svenstorp is not a fortress, more an opulent summer castle. The entrance portal is ascribed to Hans van Steenwinkel, who also worked with Kronborg.
Rosendal in Helsingborg is a very preserved rennaisance building.
Svendstorp
Anders Bille
Zealandic Manors
In mid- and south Zealand which belonged to the nobility, as did Scania, there are a number of manors in the Renaissance style. Gisselfeld is also among the early manors, which was built in the time after the Count´s Feud. Is says 1547 on the main building, begun by Per Oxe and finished before his death in 1575.
Vallø close to Køge has certain similarities to Skarhult in Scania: Massive with the two towers five storeys high. The original building from 1580-86 the south wing with the two towers only had two storeys, but it was heightened around 1610.
Lystrup close to Fakse is an early example of Dutch Renaissance, and like Svenstorp in Scania red bricks in combination with white sandstone have been used. It s obviously a smaller castle, built for Eiler Grubbe in 1579. The many sandstone works may have been done by Hans Steenwinkel the older, who also worked in Kronborg.
Gisselfeld
Gavnø
Lystrup Castle
The Architecture of Kronborg
In his work "the History of Kronborg" from 1939 V. Wanscher sums up his art historic description of the castle during its different building stages:
When we are to determine Kronborg´s placing in art history, which we are better prepared than the old, we should stress that this castle is unique among the north European through its greatness and rhythmical idea. Kronborg unites the late Gothic architecture with the renaissance baroque.
The square shape was taken from the time of Erik of Pommern, but still it was not until much rebuilding that Kronborg could fill out and assert the shape.
Such are also the strict processing of the façades, especially the external with their strict walls and widely distributed square windows in the third storey, the watchman´s gallery, the dormer ends and the square corner tower, a heritage from the late Gothic architecture..."
Wanscher thus claims that Kronborg contains elements from three different styles, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque. The watchman´s gallery, which Wanscher mentions, was covered in the second building stage, but on the other side even the windows of the castle church in Gothic pointed arch style can be pointed out as another Gothic style element.
Wanscher mentions that the sandstone lining of the second stage, like the building of the east wing are elements, which endow the castle a more homogenous (cubic) character, perhaps inspired by southern palaces. The dominating styles in the external decoration of the castle are renaissance of the strongly decorative Flanders type, with decorated towers, gables, window casings and portals.
If you want to look for models out in the world, you will get lost. This is partly due to the fact that the master builders and the craftsmen had gone away from the uncertain relationships in the Netherlands (The Netherlands suffered under Spanish rule and grave conflicts was especially hard on the Protestants). The Danish king offered safe conditions and career opportunities in the north. Knowledge and competence was imported, but the building became unique and Kronborg had its own style and a unique placing.
The Interaction
The interaction between the towers and the gables are striking. It is typical of the Nordic renaissance, but the extensive decorative touches are also striking.
The east wing, the last to be built, is in its lower part designed with a so-called diamond or ashlar joint. This leads to the Italian renaissance, but once again with a very decorative stamp.
The portals are also numerous. Mercury and Hermes – probably a reference to the importance of the Sound duty, flank the main entrance. Originally this portal was meant for Skanderborg Castle, but it was moved to Kronborg.
The Main Portal, Kronborg
The Castle Yard
The castle church has gothic windows
Renaissance Houses
The building of Kronborg was founded on a practical cooperation between the royal power, the town and many hired craftsmen, who lived in Elsinore. The activities surrounding the building, but even the increasing trade and the business brought in by the Sound duty, led to the increase of the population. This also led to a clear element of foreign inhabitants, for instance Germans, Dutchmen and Englishmen. This meant that new houses had to be built. Some of the houses had a direct connection to the work in Kronborg. This was the case with for instance the customs officer David Hansen's house in Stengade 76, built in 1579.
Jörgen Kock built a stone house in Malmo around 1525 – an early example of the affluent resources of the upper classes. The house still has the staircase house ends of the Gothic, but the horizontal bands of sand stone and the decorations of the house end front anticipates the entry of the renaissance style.
Stengade 70 - 76
Hansen´s Epitaph
Strandgade
Kock´s House, Malmø
Half-timbered Houses
Apart from stone houses there are many half-timbered houses in renaissance style. A beautiful example of this is mayor Iver Pedersen´s estate (from around 1600) o the corner of Stengade and Skyttenstræde.
Half-timbered houses in renaissance style are common in the entire Sound region and not least in Ystad, whose atmosphere is reminiscent of that of Elsinore.
Stengade-Skyttenstraede
Frederiksborg Castle appears in Dutch Renaissance style.
The castle was built in the time of Frederik 2.s.
Christian 4. carried out an extensive restoration and left his own architectural stamp on the castle, the so-called Christian 4. style, where the characteristic mix of red brick and decorative sandstone mixes and frames is recognized from several royal and noble buildings of the age.
The king and thus also the state power and the administration became more resident i Copenhagen. Certainly the king at the same time extended his properties in North Zealand and he often stayed there, but he created connections to Copenhagen by building so-called King´s roads, so he could get quickly to and from the capital.
The navy and other and other armament activities played an important part in the capital. The naval dockyard was far and away the largest enterprise in the country.
The Expansive Copenhagen
Copenhagen Outside the Stock Exchange
Copenhagen with the Stock Exchange
Rundetårn (The Round Tower)
Rosenborg Castle
Another example is Rosenborg Castle, which was built in 1605-1634 with constant changes in the building plans. The castle developed into a mixture of intimate private residence and magnificent representation palace, where the king impressed his guests with clever music installations.
After the building of the castle plans are made for a systematic building of an adjoining garden layout. A sketch from the year 1649 exists, which shows a typical Renaissance layout with low, geometrical beds. In 1647 the first garden book, Horticultura Danica is published and there is information of ordered plants for the Rosenborg Garden.
Rosenborg Garden
Horticultura1647
Garden Work
The King´s Garden
He continued in his father´s steps and continued building in North Zealand, and began around 1600 a rebuilding of Frederiksborg Castle, so it had a more uniform look. The large castle was finished in 1626. If Kronborg appeared as a closed fortification, Frederiksborg Castle had a large open courtyard, where the fountain and the surrounding buildings gave a more open, more representative and modern impression.
But the castle had simultaneously lost its significance as a fortification and instead functioned as a magnificent frame for the royal power.
Like Frederik II built his summer castle near Kronborg, Christian IV built a house next to Frederiksborg Castle, which was called "Sparepenge" and even "The Bath", where it was more comfortable and informal to stay.
Frederiksborg is built in Dutch renaissance with towers and spires with richly decorated house ends.
The Audience Gate
Iron Grating
FrdgSlot
Renaessance Style
Frederiksborg is built in Dutch renaissance with towers and spires with richly decorated house ends.In the time of Christian IV the characteristic mixture of red bricks and decorative sandstone bands, which is seen on many of the royal and noble buildings of the time, was developed. Like Frederik II built his summer castle near Kronborg, Christian IV built a house next to Frederiksborg Castle, which was called "Sparepenge" and even "The Bath", where it was more comfortable and informal to stay.
The Baroque is not is not prevalent in the building fronts of the Sound region. However, you can see the inspiration in some buildings. For example Fredensborg Castle a few kilometres outside Elsinore, where the vaulted dome signals Baroque. However, the more grandiose touches of depth and contrast, typical of the facades of the Baroque are missing.
Wanscher stresses in his description of the castle that details, which was added in the second building stage by Antonius van Opbergen, are done in Baroque, which is very early. This also applies to the now missing dome on the south tower and the end of the church, which is called "Kakkelborg", and which appears clearly against the sea.
The East House End, baroque
Frontons, cut off roofs and portals are typical characteristics in the buildings of Rococco or late Baroque.
The grandiose 18th century buildings in Elsinore present several fine examples of the style. There are also fine examples in Copenhagen. For example Amalienborg and in Landskrona on the other side of the Sound.
The hectic building activity of the 19th century became almost an exhibition of the architecture of earlier times. There are blatant copies, imitations and mixes of style. Thus Elsinore Station from 1891 is built in Renaissance style. The phenomenon is called: Historicism.
Historicisme og nationalromantik
The predominant architectural direction in the 19th century is the so-called Historicism, where architecture and building restoration borrow style elements from different earlier periods in an attempt to find a modern idiom. In the second half of the 19th century a direction with affiliation to the Scandinavian and national romantic currents are developed. This style refers to the shared past, the Viking Age, but is also has a tight connection to the skønvirke style of the time.
The new building of Marienlyst Seaside Hotel from 1897 was, especially with the characteristic tower, which disappeared in the 1930´s, built in the characteristic building style of the time with extensive use of wood for house end constructions and eaves and ornamental traits from the Viking Age. The style is also known as "Skønvirke"("Liberty" or "Modern Style") and is connected with late-romanticism with a Scandinavian stamp. It is found in Aalgaarde Seaside Hotel, Dragør Seaside Hotel and the first real summer house building activities in Ålsgårde and Hornbæk from around the beginning of the century.
If you go to Falsterbo in Scania the style can be found and even in Ramlösa there are examples of the Viking Age style and late-romantic wooden constructions. Furthermore the style can be found in a number of official buildings. The old ferry station in Helsingborg is a good example and Østerport Railway Station and other stations along the coast is a pure exhibition of this style.
Marienlyst Seaside Hotel
Helsingborg´s Old Ferry Station
Villa Svea
Villa Dana
Klampenborg Station
Ålsgårde Seaside Hotel
Viking Style Arild
Viking House
Log house
Østerport Station
Roof and Spire
Elsinore new Town Hall
Elsinore new Town Hall was finished in 1855. Previously it had been the object of a heated debate, which wasn´t or isn´t unusual, when major changes were on the agenda. The reason for the new building was that the old town hall from the 16th century was in need of a renovation of the jail. On the way they realized that a rebuildig like that required that the old town hall had to be demolished.
The debate was whether the new Town Hall should be built in Axeltorv.
Finally the new Town Hall was built where the old one had been, but they didn´t avoid the budget excesses, known from the the present time.
Had they known in 1854/55 that the Sound Duty would disappear just two years later, the town probably wouldn´t have had such an impressive building.
Elsinore Town Hall 1830
Helsingør Toldkammer
The Custom House
Restoration Craze
Around the middle of the 1900th century a restoration craze set in. A great del of the Scanian manors was transformed from solid renaissance buildings into polished new gothic and French Chateau style in innumerable variations. Romantic fanaticism and romance of chivalry became prevalent, but also ambitions to recreate the perfect roman or gothic building.
Seen through our eyes the results was extremely rough restorations, as for instance the cathedral in Lund and the estates Svaneholm and Vrams Gunnarstorp, or even direct cultural disasters, like when they tore down the old Roman church in Asmundtorp and erected a new Gothic chamber of horrors, or the architect's dream of the perfect Roman church (The church in Torlöse).
Of course all of this happened with the best of intents and in many cases in close collaboration between Scanian building owners and Danish architects and as a manifestation of the common Nordic nationality and the realization of Scandinavism.
Marsvinsholm
Torrlösa Church
The period 1900-1940 is where the industrial society and the rules of the parliamentary system set in.
The development of a new transport and communication technology created new possibilities for co-operation in the Sound region
Helsingborg as Example
If you want to follow the development from historicism´s style imitation at the end of the century via jugend and art nouveau to the ideal of modernism, Helsingborg is a fine example. Helsingborg expanded heavily in the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century and a great need for new buildings was the result. The architectural styles, which marked this period were therefore richly represented in the town. Classic style imitation can be found to a great extent. At Stortorget´s (the great square) upper part is the medieval inspired terrace and around the square there are many style imitations, for instance the Scania Bank building (opposite the post office) with baroque imitations and the Trade Bank from 1904 with antique touches. The city architect Alfred Hellerström designed the Trade Bank and he also designed Helsingborg´s town hall and the university library in Lund, both in neo-gothic monumental style.
Alfred Hellerström was then inspired to design buildings in the jugend style, which immediately after the turn of the century had a short, but important influence on especially the upper-class milieu. Immediately before 1910 an entire villa neighbourhood in this style was built in the Olympia district. Besides Hellerström several other architects participated in the designing of these jugend style neighbourhoods, among them Carl Rosenius and Ola Anderson. The houses had round towers and round corners, arched frontons, varied window styles and many ornaments, altogether a clear break from the 19th century´s strict building styles.
A strange building, in the transition period between classicism and modernism is the crematorium from 1929. It was designed by Ragnar Östberg, who is mostly known as the architect behind the town hall in Stockholm. The dome of the crematorium, which inside is carried by classic columns, has a historicist element, but the smooth surface points towards a pure modernism.
Scania Bank
The Crematorium in Helsingborg
Hamlets Vænge was constructed during the period from 1917-28 and was under strong inspiration from the contemporary English garden cities.
(Photo: Helsingør Bymuseum
The Stockholm Exhibition in 1930 ushered in the modern, functionalist architecture and interior design in Scandinavian. It was the day of reckoning with the style mixing and decorative style of the time.
The Modernism
The Swedish architect Gunnar Asplund, who was behind the exhibition, inspired a number of architects and designers all over the North. Among these were the Danes, Poul Henningsen and Arne Jacobsen, who were behind several buildings on both sides of the Sound. They both fled to Sweden in 1943.
The Stockholm Exhibition in 1930
Modernism and Functionalism
The Stockholm exhibition in 1930 marked the entry of the modern, functionalist style in Scandinavia. The exhibition had buildings by Gunnar Asplund, among others, done in white, with supporting concrete constructions and large windows in glass and steel. The focus of the exhibition was everyday needs and it showed many examples of different housing and modern interiors. The inspiration is clear in the Blidah Park in Copenhagen and Arne Jacobsen´s famous Bellavista neighbourhood at Bellevue at Strandvejen north of Copenhagen.
The perhaps most interesting example of early modernism in Sweden, is the concert house in Helsingborg, which was finished in 1932. It was designed by Sven Markelius and is very similar to the students´ house he designed for the technical college in Stockholm in 1930.
The project of the concert house itself is very interesting inasmuch as Markelius´ first proposal was clearly classicist, but eventually the proposal was reworked and ended finally with its present functionalist style with smooth, white plastered walls, large glass fronts to let in the light in the vestibule and semi circled wings with cloakroom and restaurant.
In Hornbæk on the North Zealand Coast you find the first examples of summer cottages in the late-romantic Viking style, but also the fashionable, functionalist seaside hotel from 1935.
Early Functionalist-inspired Architecture
Art Nouveau for the Middle Class
While upper classes built white Art Nouveau houses the middle classes built Art Nouveau-styled bungalows. To oppose the acute housing shortage the state established a state housing fond, whose aim it was to create possibilities for cheap funding for the dream of everyman to buy a house with a garden.. This meant that you could buy finished drawings for bungalows at the architect, which in turn reduced the building costs.
The most significant characteristics of the bungalows are the square shape in red or yellow tile and the low pyramid-shaped roof covered with roofing felt, which in the 1930´s was a new and cheap material.
It was a standardized and simplified version of Art Nouveau, a relatively unpretentious house without any architectural refinements.
However, the cheap houses still signalized something modern. For example the bungalows´ windows an Art Nouveau detail, which indicated that the builder employed modern building techniques. The strict and symmetrical facades are more like the facades of classicism than the more free forms of modernism.
In most cases quality materials were used in the wall and wood constructions in connection with the high residential basements and many available room, mean that you often see bungalows in older Danish residential neighbourhoods. In the Elsinore area there are several bungalows in the old Snekkersten.
In Lund an Art Nouveau neighbourhood was established in 1937 with fitted wooden house and type drawn bungalows.
In the course of the 1940´s the interest in the hip roof dampened and they started to build more houses with gable roofs. A contributory factor could be that it was difficult to procure asphalt during the war to the production of roofing felt, which was necessary for the hip roof. The stronger construction of the gable roof could easier carry the heavy roof tiles. Examples of this building style can be seen in the district Eskilsminne in Helsingborg, where they built 60 small Art Nouveau detached houses in the beginning of the 1940´s. Each house is 56 square metres and there is a toilet with a bath in the high basements.
The initiative and the interest for building these small and light houses were part of the Swedish People´s Home Project (folkehjemsprojekt).
Art Nouveau in Helsingborg