Kingdom of Denmark

 

The Danish national flag.

Supposably fell from the sky in 1219, at a battle in Estonia

to the Danish King, Valdemar Sejr.

 

The Royal Danish code of arms, latest version from 1972.

 

Map of Denmark, excluding Faro Islands & Greenland.

 

My country of birth (Aarhus) and place of living until my 25'th year, were I moved to Singapore.

I have collected some links to Denmark if you wish to take a closer look, before going to the pictures which I have listed at the end of the page.

I hope you will enjoy your visit to my native country, which is truly a land of fairytale's in many ways and forever will be home for me, no matter where I am.

 

 

Historic brief.

The 1'st signs of humans are from 8000 BC, with the 1'st found artifacts belonging to the stoneage peoples. About 2000 BC the society changed from hunting to agiculture, a period refered to as the younger stone age.

About 1800-500 BC the period of Bronze arived in Denmark, which was a cultural grand period. A highly skilled craftsmanship culture creating such wounders as the sunwagon. ( Sol vognen )

About 500 BC - 950 AC is the period of Iron age, which brings sophisticated agriculture & warfare equipment from the Roman empire who was close by in Southern Germany.

The Viking age are from 800-1000 AC and the time we concured big parts of Northern Europe. In 865 we invadaed Britain who in 878 had to surender under the King Alfred 3/4 of England (East areas.) A unsucessfull invasion of Paris took place in 885, but gave us Normadiet as a substitute to stay away from Paris.!

In 1013 the entire England was concured, but we lost it again in 1042.

The viking world, places visited by vikings.

 

Christianity arived in Denmark in the 10'th century, as the Catholic church of Rome. This however did not stop us from inveading Rugen in 1169, Pommeren and partly Mecklenburg in 1184, all in present days Germany & Poland.

In 1170 the marrige between the Cathlich Church & Danish King was sealed in Ringsted, and again in 1177 Absalon was appointed Bishop of Lund ( Now in Sweden ) who declared that priest had to live in celibacy & each Bishop was entitled for tax from his area. A decision meeting firce resistance, but remained for a long time to come. This was the end of the sofar free Danish farmers, who furthermore was burdend by a new class of lords appointed by the king as pay for participating in the was aganinst the Venders.

The newly rich lords bought ower the fams by suitable persuadsion, who this way enslaved Danish farmers for the next 600 years. It was also the start of new land accusitions from the forest, who was cut down to make way for the lords castles and the new churches with their belonging lands ( about 2000 churches was build 1150-1250 )

In 1202 Valdemar concured the County of Holstein, and in 1219 Estonia but he was captured in 1223. Defeated in 1227 at Bornhoved much of his concured possesions was lost, except Rugen & Estonia. The next centry was aunrestfull period with the lords opposing the King, which was murdered in 1286.

It got worse, as the following Kings was weak, slowly putting Denmark in debt with the Count of Holstein, and the Danish King Cristian II died without a country, as it was pocessed by the Count of Holstein. Until 1340 were a Jysk Knight rose to the Count of Holstein and killed him, starting the liberation of Denmark. A period of re-union followed and in 1360 the Kingdom was re-united under Valdemar 4 ( Had to sell of Estonia in the process.!)

In 1387 the King died, and was followed by his vife Magrethe I who had a unique talent to unite the many parties, including getting the Counts of Holstein to be under the Dansih Crown. In 1389 she beat the German king of Sweden, and created the Nordic union of Kalmar ( consisting of Denmark, Norway & Sweden.)

However the Swedes, was generally not happy in the union, and there were many trobles, until finally in 1520 where the Danish King assembled the entire Swedish nobelty in Stockholm, and had them all be-headed. That was the beginning to the end, in 1523 Gustav Wasa lead a uprise against the Danes, and he bacame King of Sweden same year.

The first Danish Bible was published in Malmo, 1524, it was banned by the catholic bishops.!!!! but the teachings of Luther was spreading still.

The years to follow had a veakended danish king, and a increasing powerfull danish nobelty and lords & Church, until the reformation & civil war who lead to the end of the Catholic church in Denmark and in 1536 the Protestant Hertug Christian of Sleswig had defeated the powerfull church & who had all their upper members imprisoned.

The kingdom of Denmark was declared to be a Lutheran Protestant

All church propperty was confiscated by the King, who now was a powerfull person. Later came Christian the 4'th who is the founder of many institutions in Denmark, and also initated the industrial era in Denmark. He also had apassion to re-create the Nordic union, whih lead to several wars with Sweden, which we all lost, go invaded by the swedes twice, and forever lost the Skane, Halland & Blekinge (present days south Sweden.) The defeat lead to the danish nobelty had many of their rigths removed as they had failed to protect the country, and the King became sole ruler (1660-1834).

The issue with Sweden was however not solved, and it became worse when Sweden got a new King being son of the Hertug of Sleswig, and a 2'nd son becoming Zar of Russia. This lead to a Danish agreement with Preusia on Hostein becoming Danish teritory, in retrun for Oldenburg and Demlerhost in (Germnay.) During the napoleon war Denmark was neutral until we got attacked by the British navy who bomared Copenhagen in 1807. This forced us to make an alliance with napoleon, which was a bad idea. Sweden used the situation to get Russian help to invade Norway, which then was lost in 1814.

The period was the lowest in history for the Danish farmers who was under the heaviest pressure ever from the nobelty, and since 1733 the danish farmers basically had been slaves for the lords. (starting from boys 4 years old.) This black period if time ended in 1788, when self-ownership of farms was re-instated. It was further supported in 1814 by the introduction of schools for all children being minimum 7 years.

By the end of the 18'th century slavery was abandoned in Danish West India, ( Now US Virgin Islands) and the Jews in Denmark was granted danish citizenship.

In the 1830-1850 the farmers rose with demands of higher levels of freedom, the truble in Slesvig - Holstein were some parties whised to become meber of preusia, leading a war between Denmark & Perusia which we won, lead to the new Danish constitution the 5'th of June 1849.

The Danish King de-clined from total powers and we now had our 1'st elected goverment in history by the Danish people.

However a seperate agreement for Slesvig - Holstein was never implemented, (Holstein wished to join Perusia.) leading to a new war with Prusia in which we lost both Slesvig and Holstein 1864. The refroms for the farmers continued and in 1919 it was completed, no more duties to perform for any lords, counts or whatever, who had much of their land confiscated and distributed to farmers.

The 1'st world war was raging, we were neutral and ammended the constitution in 1915 to give wimen the right to vote and sold the Danish East Indies to the USA in 1917. The worker union had cconvinced the parliment, to make working hours 8 per day being one of the 1'st victories for the social democrates in Denmark.

At the end of world war 1, Denmark requested to have Slesvig returned by the vinning parties of the war, by letting the poeple of Slesvig decide which country they wished to belong to. The vote was carried out in 1920, and the north part of Slesvig decied to return to Denmark, the south wished to stay with Germany. Thus this is todays borderline between Denmark and Germany. ( Many Danish had migrated to USA to avoid going into the German army in ww 1.)

Anyway to my knowledge it is the only border in the world, that I know of who is decided by the peole living in the area, but perhaps it is time to use the concept again some places today.!

In 1940 we were then inveaded by Nazi Germany, who wanted to get hold of raw materials in Norway, invaded the same day. The German occupation of Denmark was, in compareson to many other places in Europe, a gentle invasion and little damage was made in the beginning.

Greenland was requested to come under American military protection by the Danish Gesant to US in 1941 togehter with Iceland. Back at home the goverment of Denmark, initially coorporated with the German occupation forces, until middle of 1942 were the co-orporation ended. A German appointed Danish politician friendly to the Germans was placed as Primeminister, but also he ended this in 1943, not villing to follow directives. Thus Denmark was under German military command from 1943 until the end of the war.

Until this point in time, the Danish jews had been untouched by the Germans, not even wearing the jewish star to identification but this ended on October 1'st 1943 where the German army launched a campaign to round up the Jews for deportation to Germany ( Concentration camps.)

This lead to the creation of a rescue mission by the danish people, being "bring the jews to Sweden who is neutral and they will be safe". This was achived by using samll fishing boats, bringing people over the sea in small groups, and thus the majority of them was rescued. About 6000 was rescued and only 492 ended up in the German concetration camps.

The 2'nd world war ended for most of Denmark, on may the 4'th 1945 but exclusive of the Island of Bornholm as the german comander only wanted to surender to the British, not the Russians. As a result the Russians bomed Bornholm to pices and the Germans surendered on the 9'th of May, still to the Russians, who stayed on there for 2 years.

During the war Iceland however decided to declare itself for a republic, which was accepted by Denmark after the war, details see Iceland web page.

In 1945 was a founding member of the United Nations, but Denmark retook its neutral position, until 1949 were we joined NATO togehter with Norway. The Nordic unity improved and in 1952 the pasport regulation within nordic countries was abandoned, thus you could & can travel without your pasport, assuming you are a citizen of one country.

In 1972 King Fredrik the 9'th dided, and for the 2'nd time in history we got a Queen as head of State, Magrethe II, who is our current head of State, a extemely popular & talented lady.

Also in 1972 Denamrk joined the European Comunity, where the current intentions to incrase the powers of the European parlement is beeing challenged in Denmark, by the anti europa side. They have called the Danish prieminister to the supreme court as they claim the last treaty with EC is against the constitution of Denmark.

Will be interesting to see how that turn out.!

 

By the way, did you know that,

 

 

Now to some pictures, which I think are Danish delights....

 

Aarhus city,

a location inhabited long time, a Bishops city in 948

.

 

View from my parents house on a winter day,

 

My parents pride every summer, a blooming garden

The girls guard of Skive, on parade 1988

The yacht club in Skive

The yacht club in Skive, 6 months later...

View of Karup aa, & Skive Technical College

The old city of Ebeltoft, with house's from the 16'th century

 

Environmentally friendly energy, windmill park at Ebeltoft port,

made on a pier out in the Baltic sea.

The place to bring your kids, LEGOLAND in Billund

Picture shows replica of Amalienborg Castle, Copenhagen.

The official residence of the Danish Royal family.

Sankthansbaal in Struer, 23'rd of June 1988.

Takes place every year on this date, you are welcome to join.

A tradition from ancient times in Denmark, where you burn of a toy witch

who is sent Bloksbjerg, which is located at the mountain of Brocken in Germany.

 

The winner of tour de France 1996, Bjarne Riis of Herning, Denmark

The champion returning to his hometown.

 

A pedestrian street in Herning, actually the old main street now changed to be by foot only.

A concept used in most Danish cities, to make a nice environment for people of all ages.

 

Kronborg castle, the spiritual home of Hamlet & Holger Danske.

Build by 2 Danish Kings Fredrik the 2'nd & Christian the 4'th, started in 1574 & completed in 1585

Now home foe the Royal Danish Maritime museum.

 

4'th of July, the national day of the United States of America.

Celebrated every year at Rebild bakker, Jylland, Denmark.

By Americans of Danish origin, Americans & Danes.

My own family also have relatives in Omaha, Nebraska, USA.

Have been in Rebild 4 times, which is great fun, even when it rains....

 

Fredensborg Castle,

the summer residence of the Danish Royal family,

 

Christiansborg Castle,

the residence of the Danish parliament, since 1849

where the Danish king steeped down from power and transferred it to the People of Denmark.

The Royal family have since been Official head of State, currently Queen Margrethe II

 

 

More pictures will follow in September,

 

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