To be or not to be: That is the question before Danish courts considering the right of the Freetown of Christiania – a 40-year-old hippie squatter commune – to exist . (Patti McCracken)
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Denmark’s hippie haven faces shutdown
Christiania has flown its own flag for decades now, but the Danish government and real estate interests say, Enough!
By Patti McCracken | Contributor / February 17, 2009 edition
Copenhagen, Denmark
COPENHAGEN, Denmark
The whole thing started with a hole in a fence around an abandoned military barracks in central Copenhagen.
Parents in the neighborhood tugged at the hole to widen it. Soon it was big enough for their little kids to scramble through to play in the grassy open spaces within.
Not long after, squatters cut a large patch out of the fence and commandeered the whole barracks for their own use. They named the area “Christiania,” stuck out a flag, and declared themselves free from the rule of Danish law. Nearly four decades later, the flag is still flying.
This derelict army depot’s run as a makeshift playground was short. But it has had a long and often troubled run as a refuge for Copenhagen’s fringe society. And now the Danish government, which has been listing right in recent years, has given up on clemency for the collective. It appears determined to finally dissolve the self-governing community of nearly 1,000 in what it calls “normalization.”
But Christiania took a preemptive strike late last year and filed a couple of lawsuits, which are now being heard by Denmark’s Eastern High Court. Decisions are expected at the end of this month.
The first suit cites as precedent a 1973 agreement that briefly allowed the commune to exist as a “social experiment.” The second is, in essence, a class-action suit filed by the residents, claiming a right to live on the site without eviction, because they have now possessed it into the third generation.
In October, police evicted residents from a house on the rim of the commune, setting off a six-hour showdown.
Christianites lobbed beer bottles and Molotov cocktails at police, and were answered with sprays of tear gas. Danes caution that if the court rules against Christiania in either case, more widespread rioting is a given.
The situation is more farce than tragedy, but Denmark is once again the stage for a pondering first posed 400 years ago by Hamlet: To be or not to be.
• • •
For Danes, the question is a fiery one, igniting on one side deeply held principles about freedom, nonconformity, and tolerance. A great number of Danes look to Christiania as the alter ego of the nation, and its right to exist is robustly defended. “In Denmark, everything is occupied and controlled. There’s not much space left in the cities, but Christiania is a kind of asylum. People feel more freer there than in the rest of the society,” says Rene Elley Karpantschof, a sociologist at the University of Copenhagen. But those opposed are fed up with the deeply rooted drug use, the land occupation, and the snubbing of laws. “It has been made a haven for criminals from neighboring countries, like Sweden or Norway,” says Jesper Nielsen, a cultural historian at Denmark’s National Museum. “So you could say they accept a criminal form of control within Christiania, but they resist control from without.”
Christiania, which takes its name from the Christhavn district in which it sits, began as a protest against the lack of affordable housing. The far left grandly championed the squatters. “Christiania is the land of settlers. It is so far the biggest opportunity to build up a society from scratch,” wrote well-known counterculture activist and journalist Jacob Ludvigsen as the squatters set up. Dilapidated army barracks were transformed into houses, and warehouses were outfitted with printing presses. Kindergartens were created, more houses built, stores and clinics opened, and a local post office was opened. No one paid utilities, rent, or taxes. Money was doled out equally, and smoking hash was as common as blinking. The “Freetown of Christiania” designed its own postage stamp, its own constitution, and its own flag. It had its own currency. It was known for its freewheeling lifestyle and funky, brightly painted houses.
Eventually, Christiania agreed to pay for utilities and a nominal tax per house. But the area, centrally located and with a pristine waterfront, has long been eyed by developers.
“When I first came here, I was Red. I was for a revolution,” says Hjordis Oppedal, an artist who moved to Christiania in 1976 and maintains a studio there. “At first I didn’t like the drug users here, the addicts. But I realized all people have rights and I learned to keep an open mind.” Yet the hard drug use spiraled out of control, and an underworld of dealers swooped in to tap the growing market. What began as an anticapitalist utopia became a battleground of drug lords fighting for real estate. Police began regular raids on the drug-laden kiosks along Pusher Street, the commune’s main street.
Concerned that history was about to be swept away, the National Museum snatched up one of the infamous kiosks and put it on permanent display. Residents say the days of hard drugs are over, but they keep a lid on exposure and strictly forbid photos and videos. As one young Christianite mother, holding the hand of her blond toddler, explained recently, “There are drugs here, and we don’t want the police coming around.” The stalls remain, but police still sweep through. “Many people are ready to fight for Christiania,” says Dr. Karpantschof. “If the state wants to continue to try to destroy it bit by bit, there will be a whole lot of unrest.”
But the flag of tolerance doesn’t wave freely. Living space is at a premium inside the commune, so it is officially closed to new residents. Tolerance is relative and random within the Freetown of Christiania. Musician and artist Denis Agerblad was invited to take over the downstairs of a house for use as a studio. But soon he found he had to contend with three teenage squatters.
“It just happened one day that we had people pushing on the other side of the door, trying to get in,” says Mr. Agerblad. “They were actually drilling and eventually got in. As far as I know, they’re still living there.” Parents in Christiana “will do anything” to get living space there for their grown children, he adds.
• • •
Christiania was born under a hopeful light at a time when Denmark was darkened by social problems. The commune held out the ideal that there was the possibility of another possibility. But its revolution is complete. Today’s Denmark is among the wealthiest, safest, most liberal, most socially articulate of nations. Two recent surveys have ranked Danes as the happiest people in the world (one by Stockholm-based World Values Survey, another by University of Leicester in England). The nation’s evolution leaves the Freetown of Christiania chained to the past. A museum piece.
3. kenmandu | 02.19.09
Leave the place be - developers have trashed every other bit of land there is in Europe and the USA. Alcoholics are more of a threat world-wide that soft drug takers - a proven fact, with liquor addled brains accounting for most of the world’s woes and most dangerous inhabitants– like CEOs, Real Estate Agents, and mortgage brokers, to name but a few. This little Hippie town in Denmark may be a relic of the past, but the way the future is shaping up — is that such a bad thing?
4. rebelmouse | 02.19.09
For me, Denmark is fascist middle age society, when foreigners from East Europe (and other poor countries) are in question. Danish massively discriminate people from East Europe at every step. Beside it, people born in DK are autmoaticaly members of the church and high taxes like in the middle age serve to finance imperialist wars and royal family (Greenland is still under occupation of DK and they attack Iraq/Avganistan together with USA). During that time Danish are enjoying in their life, and now hegemonist mentality of authority (such mentality have ordinary people also) attack Danish people also. But not addapted Danish than those who are different, in this case: ideologically. Christiania is disturbance for capitalism and their philosophy of profit, politicians are taking money from rich people so politicians must serve capitalists: politicians must make possibility for riches to buy/possess property in center of Copenhagen. So, peaceful community like Christiania could exist until politicians decide different. All peaceful communities depend from will of enemy: politicians. They didn’t prepare themselves for war, so capitalism is better organized and therefore capitalism will win. Plus during so many years, authorities had time to send their people in Christiania to become there part of community.
I hope they will try to protect their community, but I don’t believe they will succeed, even I don’t believe that all people who are there are ready to fight with authorities, so their only tactic can be: help of people from Ungdomshuset for violent actions and trying to get mass support of ordinary people at peaceful demonstration. But I think their community will loose, because they lived in idyll so many years without violent fight with authorities. They are not ready for fight in their head first of all. It is simply psychology. Beside it, I saw Christiania like Ghetto for some kind of people, I never saw it like liberated space (liberated from capitalism). Capitalism is in heads of people, not only in economic relations in community. Christiania is one step toward liberation, but next steps are not made…
5. Comrade Chaos | 02.19.09
Wow…I remember visiting this place for a few hours way back in 1983. What I remember of it was it being a ‘haven’ for the selling of pot & hashish. I do not recall ‘hard drugs’ being openly sold. There was a big picture painted on a building of a camera with a red slash thru it: “Don’t try to take pictures-we will bust your camera.”
Everyone I met in there was friendly and mellow.
Maybe they should leave it alone so it does serve as a glimpse, a living example, of the past.
6. Zac in CA | 02.19.09
Such a shame that business interests are so eager to destroy this place. That, much more than criminality and drug use, will be the factor that sways the Danish government’s opinion over Christiania, I bet.
7. Brian | 02.19.09
I hardly think this place rates as a showcase of freedom. While I have no use for greedy developers, I also have little sympathy for left over 60s mediocrity.
8. Fred | 02.19.09
That’s really unfortunate, they are peaceful people that have clearly established a precedent, and what’s the big deal about using soft drugs? It’s also a big tourist attraction for the capital, and unfortunately a shutdown will be violent…Let them be!
Fred
http://www.fourpointreport.blogspot.com
9. Sarah Henderson | 02.20.09
That is amazing. I wish I had known it was there when I first went to Denmark 30 years ago. That would have been an interesting site to see. I liked Denmark. I remember everything being clean and everything thing seemed blond. The sunlight was very bright and so everything popped: corners of buildings, Hans Cristian Anderson, the mermaid. Clean and fresh. There was this Comedia Del Arte Show right inside Tivoli and the curtain to open the show was beatiful, it was a peacock. The memory is so long a ago it feels like a dream. I remember being in the Glyptotek (sp) Museum and seeing this statue and thinking “this is the same exact sculture we have in the main lobby of our dorm back at Mary Washington.
Wonderful article. I wish I could go to Denmark before anything happens to Christiania. I hope you do a follow up piece. I would love to know what happens.
12. Rick | 04.15.09
Bevar Christiania!
I had the good fortune to meet and visit a long-time resident who narrated the history of this social experiment. Every major decision is decided by consensus at town meetings; if you want to have a say, you show up to the meeting. The hash dealers were numerous but also protected the area from dealers of hard drugs (which are much more prevalent in the downtown area near the train station). Much to the chagrin of the Danish government, the Navy made a deal with the Christianians to let them stay there if they agreed not to expand their population. There is no official land ownership, but people have their apartments (or a small plot of land, as was the case with my Christianian acquaintance). The area also hosts some of the finest music in the area, including legendary jazz artists from the U.S. Unfortunately, Christiania lies between the Metro station and an ultra-expensive housing development, and land developers are pushing to evict so that they can build a shopping district. The police busted most of the hash dealers in a massive sting operation. Since then there have been gunshots fired as outsiders move in on the empty turf, and the area is nowhere near as vibrant as it used to be. Drugs aside, this social experiment is worth preserving and is far more important to the cultural identity of Copenhagen than yet another Fotex grocery store. It’s too bad the politicians are in bed with the developers.
13. Derek Spicewood | 06.21.09
More than a 1000 people live in Christiania. The place serves as possibly one of the most cultural places in Europe. There are many concerts held, ecology and liberty are held high, and there occurs extremely few incidents involving violence — except when enforced by the government advocated police forces.
It is extremely sad to see such intolerance unfold, as the right winged government are practicing. It is outright fascism.
For those commenters who are lashing out against the 60s, hippies, or/and Christiania, I have only despite for your attitudes, which only shows your ignorance towards humanity, liberty and freedom for all — add to that your lack of understanding of the composition, foundation, purpose, residents, businesses and visitors of Christiania.
16. Mark | 09.25.09
Just Bulldoze the place! That hippie thinking has contributed to much of what now troubles the world….do your own thing mentality that has contributed to crime, chaos, lack of civility, etc.
Just Bulldoze the place and rebuild it into a place safe and sane for Danes to live in!!
17. Jürgen Ravelsustrech | 09.25.09
I´ve been ther, I love the hippies, but now ther are cups infiltred in there, that´s not what it was, but the place is lovely, and the waterfall amazing, I hope someday Christiania returns as how it was ten years ago.
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1. Anarchist | 02.18.09
Long Live Christiania! The residents will defend their rights to living freely!
Remember Ungdomshuset!