History History

It all began on the island of Seeland or Sjælland with the Bromme Culture. The collections of the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen wonderfully illustrate this period during which the first populations of gatherers-hunters developed a fascinating civilization based on the cutting of flints and amber. This fossilized resin, harvested on the Jutland coast between the Baltic and the North Sea, was considered very precious. Skillfully cut into beads or pendants, it was used as offerings or ornaments. These jewels were often inlaid in the weaving of textiles. Some of the exceptional pieces displayed in the museum's showcases weigh up to 8 kg.

Amber circulated throughout Europe, and was found as far away as Greece, in the royal tombs of Mycenae dating back to 1600 BC! In addition, many megalithic monuments attest to a religious consciousness and complex funeral rites. This is evidenced by the many stones engraved with abstract symbols, whose meaning seems to be magical, found in the graves of this first Danish society that was not afraid of challenges!

Over the centuries, this peninsula located at the crossroads between northern and southern lands has attracted the covetousness of peoples mostly Germanic and answering to the sweet names of Cimbres and Angles. In their turn, the Danes from present-day Sweden chose to settle there, but more permanently. They left their name to the region. These conquerors, who lived divided into clans, would later give birth to the Viking clans. At the beginning of the 8th century, they tried to unite and found a first kingdom, making Denmark the oldest kingdom in Europe! Traces of urbanization attest to the creation of cities such as Ribe, near the North Sea, South Jutland, which would be the oldest orAarhus, open on the Kattegat. This period, known as the Viking Age, was marked by the epics of these Normans (another name used in the Frankish chronicles), superstitious pagans, daring navigators, fearless explorers, gifted traders and tireless warriors whose story runs until the 11th century. The highly original museography on the ground floor of the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen brilliantly reconstructs the life of these little-known but nevertheless very endearing "men of the North".

Harald with the Blue Tooth, a lover of purple berries like blueberries or a man with spoiled teeth, history has not yet decided! His conversion to Christianity brought him the support of the Holy Germanic Empire and allowed him to establish his kingdom with a new capital, Roskilde, located about thirty kilometers from present-day Copenhagen, on the edge of the fjord of the same name. A strategic position for anyone wishing to control the Bay of Kattegat and access to the two seas already mentioned earlier. Its foundation was followed by the establishment of a very powerful bishopric and the construction of a red brick cathedral, a true Gothic masterpiece, used as a royal necropolis. A short detour to Roskilde also allows you to visit theViking Ship Museum and to see these formidable ships from port to starboard! A consortium of Scandinavian industrialists, including the Nokia and Ericsson groups, has appropriated the nickname of the famous Harald. His Blue Tooth, once translated into English, became Bluetooth... the very popular wireless communication tool used worldwide!

He was one of the most outstanding rulers of his time, skilfully juggling tradition and innovation, just like the country he ruled from 958 to 986. Born of the union between Gorm the Elder and Thyra of Denmark, he came from the Jelling dynasty, which originated in the eponymous town of Jelling, located in the south of the Jutland peninsula. It gave kings to Norway and England during the 10th and 11th centuries. Thanks to her perseverance and tactical enterprise, power was stabilized, the economy gained momentum, which helped to improve the living conditions of her people and to develop cultural life, and the country converted to Christianity. Until then, the Danish fleet, which had consisted mainly of ships for military use, was equipped with cargo ships for commercial purposes. The runes, an ancient writing system, were not neglected and many stones were erected. Among the most famous, the Jelling Stones, a Unesco World Heritage Site, erected by Harald and his father. Like an epic, they bear witness to the key events of the reign of the man whom history has immortalized for his blue tooth! Yet in 2018, Harald was on the front page of the world's newspapers. And what a scoop! A 13 year old child would have found his prestigious treasure! A treasure composed of coins and fabulous objects! Pearls, brooches, an incredible Thor's hammer... A treasure buried after losing the battle against his son Sven. Oh, children... His grave is in the church in Roskilde.

The official birth of Copenhagen, then called København "the port of the merchants", is told in the Gesta danorum, a text written towards the end of the 12th century. It is to Absalon, bishop of Roskilde, that we owe this fact. The city grew up around a small harbour on the Øresund River, a gift from King Valdemar, his younger brother, who chose the city as his new capital. The latter imposed a monarchy that was henceforth hereditary and consecrated by the Church, with Christianity recognized as the official religion. The kingdom then turned to the Baltic, which became a Danish sea! Prosperity was established thanks to herring fishing. Once dried, these fish were sold in all the capitals and major ports of Europe, much to the displeasure of Lübeck, a major city in the powerful Hanseatic League. The small country had become a powerful kingdom..

Called the Dannebrog, which means "Danish garment", it is made up of a white cross on a red background, which can be found identically in the flags of other Scandinavian countries. Its origin is a mixture of legend and history. The year is 1219. Valdemar the Victorious is leading a crusade against pagan Estonia. Things were looking rather bad for his troops when a banner with a silver cross suddenly appeared in the sky. The king sees this as a divine message to his soldiers, who are emboldened to fight until the final victory. A second version tells that at the end of this same battle, the white tunic of the king, entirely reddened with the blood of his adversaries except for the place of his belt and his harness, would be the origin of this flag.

The Hanseatic League was an association of merchant cities in northern Europe. The economic wealth of the Danes aroused the jealousy of the Teutons. Following several attacks, it succeeded in destroying the fortress of Copenhagen in 1369 and forced the Danes to sign the Treaty of Stralsund the following year, obliging them to open the Øresund ports to its goods. Malmö and Helsinborg, formerly dependent on the kingdom of Denmark, were trading posts and office towns of the league.

The Union of Kalmar, Copenhagen again became the capital of the Kingdom. The Scandinavian countries decided to form an alliance in the face of the fearsome Hanseatic League and its economic preponderance. This was done with the Union of Kalmar, which saw Sweden and Norway come under the control of Denmark, then the most populous and richest country in Scandinavia. Denmark was the most populous and wealthiest country in Scandinavia at the time. It was very large, owning the southern part of these territories and controlling all the accesses to the Baltic and the North Sea. Christian I of Denmark, of the house of Oldenburg, was elected king by the Danes.

The status of Copenhagen as the capital was made official with the installation of King Erik of Pomerania. This was followed by the establishment of a toll in the Sund Strait, a very important source of revenue; the construction of Kronborg Castle in Elsinore to reinforce the defensive system already in place; the foundation of the University and the organization of merchants and craftsmen into guilds. Copenhagen then had 10,000 inhabitants. Sweden, exasperated by the increasingly heavy taxes, broke away from the Union and obtained its independence, thus giving birth to its own kingdom.

The 16th century was the century of reforming and building kings. The pivotal figure in history was Christian III. His coup d'état of August 12, 1536, imposed Lutheranism as the official religion, church property was confiscated and the Catholic majority was eliminated from the Council of State. Another important point was that the kingdom's finances were rigorously cleaned up. As for Christian IV, known as the builder, he undertook various developments during a long reign (1588-1648) tragically marked by military setbacks with Sweden. New districts entrusted to German and Dutch architects - Chritianshavn on the island of Amager, Nyhavn "the new port" or the seafarers' district of Nyboder - doubled the surface area of Copenhagen. The sovereign also had the sumptuous royal residence of Rosenborg (1606), the Stock Exchange and the famous Round Tower built. The city was in a state of blissful prosperity at the time, which was reinforced by the Eighty Years' War in the Netherlands, during which many refugees from that country, then the most advanced in Europe, settled in Denmark, thus contributing to its development. This immigration helped to modernize various aspects of society and to establish trade links with the Netherlands. In the 17th century, Denmark, which already owned Greenland and Iceland, began to develop other colonies, forts and trading posts across the sea in Africa, the West Indies and India.

Born in the 16th century, he was the embodiment of the man of modern times. A scholar, speaker of several languages, lover of the arts, astronomer and reformer at heart, his court was one of the most refined in Europe. At the age of 11, when his father King Frederick II died, he ascended the throne. His sense of strategy and politics, his interest in science and the navy, determined profound changes in the history of Denmark. From 1610 onwards, numerous fortresses were built on the territorial borders and along the shores, the fleet was multiplied by three in terms of the number of vessels capable of going to the end of the world, where the East India Company was founded in 1616 with the aim of economically suffocating the Habsburg giant! Unfortunately, numerous wars and the loss of certain territories marked the end of his reign. Invested to the end, he went so far as to hock his royal crown... in order to finance his army. To find out more about his daily life, a visit to his residence, Rosenborg Castle, is a must.

Wars against Sweden were to follow one another for almost 100 years (Kalmar war, Tortosan war, ...). Copenhagen was a powerful city... but located only a cannon range away from Sweden which targeted it. During the siege of 1659 and after six months of resistance, Denmark was forced to abandon Skåne, Blekinge and Halland to its rivals. Bruised by these attacks, isolated at the eastern end of the country, its political balance wavered. Frederick III took advantage of the circumstances to impose an absolute monarchy by relying on the commercial bourgeoisie, which was very useful in weakening the aristocracy. The Royal Law was applied from 1665 (until 1848). A century of galleys followed in the wake of the Black Death and a terrible fire that devastated the royal residence. Despite the vagaries of history, Frederick IV, a great lover of Italy where he stayed twice, had Frederiksberg Castle (1700 to 1735) and Fredensborg Castle (1720 to 1726) built in the Italian Baroque style; they symbolised the long-awaited conclusion of the Great Northern War against the Russian tsarate.

This was followed by the first Golden Age under Frederick V (1746 to 1766). A new economic boom opened the doors to a period of splendour symbolised by the emergence of a triumphantly rococo Frederikstaden ("Frederick's City") in Copenhagen. The architect Nikolai Eigtved was involved in the construction of the four palaces of Amalienborg, and artistic life experienced a period of splendour marked by the opening of the Academy of Fine Arts in 1754 and the publications of the first great Nordic writer, Ludvig Holberg. This luminous period saw the bourgeoisie once again increase its power, partly thanks to the minister Struensee, who took advantage of the insanity of King Christian VII, who came to the throne in 1766, to carry out important reforms. It was not a good idea! He was executed a few years later...

However, the worst was yet to come... with the Napoleonic Wars between France and England. During this conflict, Denmark had opted for neutrality. But Admiral Nelson had decided otherwise. He had finally found an effective way to get rid of a major maritime competitor. After defeating the Danish fleet off Copenhagen, the British pulled out a secret clause incriminating the Danes, who were a priori willing to lend a hand to Napoleon. This pretext was enough for them to bombard the city. The result: hundreds of victims, Christiansborg Castle damaged, Notre Dame and a third of the houses destroyed. The treaty of Kiel (January 14, 1814) was signed. The ruined country had to cede Norway still in its possession to Sweden.

Paradoxically, this period of turmoil was accompanied by an intense cultural life, so much so that we speak of the Danish Golden Age! All the arts were concerned. The neoclassical movement took hold in painting and sculpture. Undisputed master, C. W. Eckersberg is exhibited with his pupils at the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen. Among his famous paintings is the very touching double portrait of Hanna and Bella from 1820. The artist Bertel Thorvaldsen embodied the art of the time, creating colossal statues of Christ and the apostles for the Cathedral of Our Lady. In his will, the sculptor bequeathed his personal collection and the models of his works to the city, which have since been displayed in the Thorvaldsen Museum. Literature came to the fore in Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales and Søren Kierkegaard's existential philosophical thoughts. The sciences were not to be outdone. Hans Christian Ørsted discovered electromagnetism...

A second golden age and a new constitution. Despite the euphoria, the country faced a political crisis with the extinction of the House of Oldenburg on the death of Frederick VII. This branch, called the House of Denmark, a family from Lower Saxony in Germany, ruled from 1448 to 1863. He was succeeded by Prince Christian of Sonderburg-Glücksburg, who became king as Christian IX. This shrewd strategist succeeded in marrying several of his children to heirs of European royal families, so that history knows him as the "father-in-law of Europe". It should not be forgotten that he made possible many social reforms, such as a pension for the elderly in 1891, unemployment insurance and elements of family policy in 1892. At the same time, Denmark was moving into the modern age. In politics first of all, with the election of the first municipal council by restricted suffrage in Copenhagen, a victory of the bourgeoisie over absolutism, and the establishment in 1849 of the Rigsdag, the bicameral royal parliament renamed Folketinget in 1953, which has been housed in Christianborg Palace since its creation. Technological then, with the construction in 1847 of the railway linking Roskilde and the central station.

The dark hours of the First World War did not affect the country too much, as it was relatively spared due to its neutrality. The centre-left Radical Social Liberal party and the Left Liberal Venstre party shared power for two decades, initiating important social and labour law reforms. In 1915, women were granted the right to vote. The 1920s brought a new face to the city with the opening of Kastrup Airport in Copenhagen, the world's first civilian airport, in 1925 and the installation of public lighting in 1928. However, like most of Europe between the wars, the difficult social situation saw unemployment soar and the arrival in power of the Social Democrats, Denmark's leading party until 2001.

This time the country's neutrality was not respected. The German armies occupied Denmark on 9 April 1940 without imposing many restrictions. But three years later, as the Resistance grew in strength, political freedoms and the right to strike were abolished, and the first round-ups and deportations were carried out. King Christian X, under house arrest in his palace until the surrender of the German forces on May 4, 1945, declared himself opposed to this procedure. Meanwhile, Copenhageners organized to allow their Jewish fellow citizens to cross into Sweden by hiding them in fishing boats. For a long time, Denmark was held up as an example of humanitarian and humanist commitment. After the Liberation, the country entered a long period of social democracy, during which the efficient social welfare system still in place was established. The post-war period was marked by economic reconstruction, but also by the reign of the social democrats, whose ideology had perfectly integrated the capitalist mechanisms. The opening towards the outside world was greater: no longer neutral, Denmark became one of the founding members of NATO in 1949, and then sought to organize a sort of Scandinavian common market within the Nordic Council (the result of which was, in particular, the creation of the SAS airline).

Ecological awareness started very early in Copenhagen, as early as 1962, with the pedestrianization of the old city centre: the famous Strøget. It was reinforced during the following decade by the political will to react to the two oil crises. The 1960s were marked by happy, glamorous and celebrity moments alternating with moments of protest and opposition. On June 10, 1967, the people of Copenhagen gathered in the Holmens Kirke, the "Church of the Sailors", to celebrate the wedding of Crown Princess Margrethe to Henri de Laborde de Monpezat. A union blessed by the births of Crown Prince Frederik in 1968 and Prince Joachim in 1969. The princess ascended the throne in 1972 as Margrethe II, succeeding her father, Frederick IX. On the other hand, the young protesters made their presence felt by requisitioning a military site that had been turned into a squat. Unemployed people and hippies proclaimed Christiania a "free city", which was entirely self-managed from 1971 until 2003. In 1973, Denmark became a member of the European Community. It said yes to Europe but no to the euro.

Although integrated into the European Community, Denmark feared losing its identity. Hence the development of a strong nationalist feeling which resulted in the famous "no" of the Danes to Maastricht in the June 1992 referendum. The EEC negotiated a compromise that exempted Denmark from four points of the treaty: the single currency, common defence, European citizenship, and cooperation in police and immigration matters (but the kingdom ended up joining the Schengen area in 2001). In June 1993, in the second referendum, 56.81% of Danes said "yes" to this "Maastricht lite" as it was called. On the other hand, they said "no" again to the abandonment of the Danish krone!

The turn of the ^21st century was one of challenge and daring, particularly in terms of architecture. Major names responded to calls for projects, integrating monumental edifices into cities in the throes of redevelopment. The work never stopped: the Øresund bridge to Malmö in Sweden, the pedestrianization of city centers, the transformation of industrial buildings and warehouses into housing. In Copenhagen, the former port areas have become a city open to the future. In the west, the Navy has freed up its land on Christianshavn Island, an area invested with culture and knowledge. Its jewel, the Opera House designed by architect Henning Larsen, was inaugurated in 2005. Another achievement, the Black Diamond, a vast dark granite building, extension of the Royal Library, rivals the concert hall designed by Jean Nouvel. The opening of new metro lines facilitates urban travel in a capital that defends its commitment to ecology. In 2014, it was named "European Green Capital" by the European Commission. Copenhagen is expanding at a dizzying pace, while preserving its integrity and improving the lives of its inhabitants. The only thorn in its side is the difficult management of the crisis linked to the flow of migrants into Denmark. On this subject, a new museum, Vardemuseerne, inaugurated in 2022, received a special mention at the German Design Awards 2023 for its layout.

In 2022, after celebrating her Golden Jubilee - the fiftieth anniversary of her accession to the throne - on January 14, 2024, Queen Margrethe abdicated, leaving the kingdom to the Crown Prince, her eldest son, King Frederik X.

In April 2024, a terrible fire ravaged the Copenhagen Stock Exchange, causing the facade of the historic 17th-century building and its 54-meter-high spire to collapse.