DENMARK (
Danmark), a small kingdom of
Europe, occupying part of a
peninsula and a group of islands dividing the Baltic and North
Seas, in the middle latitudes of the eastern coast. The kingdom
lies between 54° 33' and 57° 45' N. and between 8 ° 4' 54" and 12°
47' 25" E., exclusive of the island of
Bornholm, which, as will be seen, is not to be
included in the Danish
archipelago. The peninsula is divided
between Denmark and
Germany
(Schleswig-
Holstein). The
Danish portion is the northern and the greater, and is called
Jutland (Dan.
Jylland). Its northern part is actually insular, divided
from the mainland by the Limfjord or Liimfjord, which communicates
with the
North Sea to
the west and the
Cattegat
to the east, but this strait, though broad and possessing
lacustrine characteristics to the west, has only very narrow
entrances. The connexion with the
North Sea dates from 1825. The
Skagerrack bounds
Jutland to the north and
north-west. The
Cattegat
is divided from the Baltic by the Danish islands, between the east
coast of the Cimbric peninsula in the neighbourhood of the German
frontier and south-western
Sweden.
There is little variety in the surface of Denmark. It is
uniformly low, the highest elevation in the whole country, the
Himmelbjerg near
Aarhus in
eastern Jutland, being little more than 500 ft. above the sea.
Denmark, however, is nowhere low in the sense in which
Holland is; the country is
pleasantly diversified, and rises a little at the coast even though
it remains flat inland. The landscape of the islands and the
south-eastern part of Jutland is rich in
beech-woods,
corn-fields and meadows, and even the minute
islets are green and fertile. In the western and northern districts
of Jutland this condition gives place to a wide expanse of
moorland, covered with heather, and ending towards the sea in low
whitish-grey cliffs. There is a certain
charm even about these monotonous tracts, and it
cannot be said that Denmark is wanting in natural beauty of a quiet
order. Lakes, though small, are numerous; the largest are the
Arresii and the Esromso in
Zealand, and the chain of lakes in the
Himmelbjerg region, which are drained by the largest river in
Denmark, the Gudenaa, which, however, has a course not exceeding 80
m. Many of the meres, overhung with thick beechwoods, are extremely
beautiful. The coasts are generally low and sandy; the whole
western shore of Jutland is a succession of
sand ridges and shallow lagoons, very dangerous to
shipping. In many places
the sea has encroached; even in the 19th century entire villages
were destroyed, but during the last twenty years of the century
systematic efforts were made to secure the coast by groynes and
embankments. A
belt of
sand dunes, from Soo yds. to 7 m. wide, stretches
along the whole of this coast for about 200 m. Skagen, or the Skaw,
a long, low, sandy point, stretches far into the northern sea,
dividing the
Skagerrack from the Cattegat. On the western
side the coast is bolder and less inhospitable; there are several
excellent havens, especially on the islands. The coast is nowhere,
however, very high, except at one or two points in Jutland, and at
the eastern extremity of Moen, where
limestone cliffs occur.
Continental Denmark is confined wholly to Jutland, the
geographical description of which is given under that heading. Out
of the total area of the kingdom, 14,829 sq. m., Jutland, including
the small islands adjacent to it, covers 9753 sq. m., and the
insular part of the kingdom (including
Bornholm), 5076 sq. m. The islands may be
divided into two groups, consisting of the two principal islands
Fiinen and
Zealand, and the
lesser islands attendant on each. Fiinen (Dan.
Fyen), in
form roughly an
oval with an axis
from S.E. to N.W. of 53 m., is separated from Jutland by a channel
not half a mile wide in the north, but averaging io m. between the
island and the
Schleswig
coast, and known as the Little
Belt. Fiinen, geologically a part of southern
Jutland, has similar characteristics, a smiling landscape of
fertile meadows, the typical
beech-forests clothing the low hills and the
presence of numerous erratic blocks, are the superficial signs of
likeness. Several islands, none of great extent, lie off the west
coast of Fiinen in the Little Belt; off the south, however, an
archipelago is enclosed
by the long narrow islands of Aerti (16 m. in length) and Langeland
(32 m.), including in a triangular area of shallow sea the islands
of Taasinge, Avernako, Dreio, Turo and others. These are generally
fertile and well cultivated. Aeroskjobing and Rudkjobing, on Aero
and Langeland respectively, are considerable ports. On Langeland is
the great
castle of
Tranekjaer, whose record dates from the 13th century. The chief
towns of Fiinen itself are all coastal.
Odense is the principal town, lying close to a
great inlet behind the peninsula of Hindsholm on the north-east,
known as
Odense Fjord.
.^ The key issue is that many of them show little desire to fit into their adopted country.- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
All these towns are served by
railways radiating from
Odense. The strait crossed by the
Nyborg-
Korsor ferry
is the Great Belt which divides the Fiinen from the Zealand group,
and is continued south by the LangeIands Belt, which washes the
straight eastern shore of that island, and north by the Samso Belt,
named from an island 15 m. in length, with several large villages,
which lies somewhat apart from the main archipelago.
Zealand, or Sealand (Dan.
Sjaelland), measuring 82 m.
N. to S. by 68 E. to W. (extremes), with its fantastic coast-line
indented by fjords and projecting into long spits or promontories,
may be considered as the
nucleus of the kingdom, inasmuch as it contains
the capital,
Copenhagen, and such important towns as
Roskilde, Slagelse, Korsor,
Naestved and
Elsinore (Helsingor). Its
topography is described
in detail under
Zealand. Its
attendant islands lie mainly to the south and are parts of itself,
only separated by geologically recent troughs. The eastern coast of
Moen is rocky and bold. It is recorded that this island formed
three separate isles in 1 ioo, and the village of Borre, now 2 m.
inland, was the object of an attack by a fleet from
Lubeck in 1510. On Falster is the
port of
NykjObing, and
from Gjedser, the extreme southern point of Denmark, communication
is maintained with Warnemiinde in
Germany (29 m.). From
NykjObing a bridge nearly one-third of a mile
long crosses to Laaland, at the west of which is the port of
Nakskov; the other towns are
the county town of Maribo with its fine church of the 14th century,
SaxkjObing and ROdby. The island of Bornholm lies 86 m. E. of the
nearest point of the archipelago, and as it belongs geologically to
Sweden (from which it is
distant only 22 m.) must be considered to be physically an
appendage rather than an internal part of the kingdom of
Denmark.
The surface in Denmark is almost everywhere formed by the
so-called
Boulder
Clay and what the Danish geologists call the
Boulder Sand. The former, as is well known,
owes its origin to the action of
ice
on the mountains of
Norway in
the
Glacial
period. It is unstratified; but by the action of water on it,
stratified deposits have been formed, some of
clay, containing remains of
arctic animals, some, and very extensive ones,
of sand and
gravel. This
boulder sand forms almost
everywhere the highest hills, and besides, in the central part of
Jutland, a wide expanse of
heath
and moorland apparently level, but really sloping gently towards
the west. The deposits of the boulder formation rest generally on
limestone of the
Cretaceous
period, which in many places comes near the surface and forms
cliffs on the sea-coast. Much of the Danish
chalk, including the wellknown limestone of Faxe,
belongs to the highest or " Danian " subdivision of the
Cretaceous
period. In the south-western parts a succession of strata,
described as the Brown
Coal or
Lignite formations, intervenes
between the
chalk and the
boulder clay; its
name is derived from the deposits of
lignite which occur in it. It is only on the
island of Bornholm that older formations come to light. This island
agrees in geological structure with the southern part of Sweden,
and forms, in fact, the southernmost portion of the Scandinavian
system. There the boulder
clay
lies immediately on the primitive rock, except in the south-western
corner of the island, where a series of strata appear belonging to
the
Cambrian,
Silurian,
Jurassic and Cretaceous formations, the true
Coal formation, &c., being
absent. Some parts of Denmark are supposed to have been finally
raised out of the sea towards the close of the Cretaceous period;
but as a whole the country did not appear above the water till
about the close of the
Glacial period. The upheaval of the
country, a movement common to a large part of the Scandinavian
peninsula, still continues, though slowly, north-east of a line
drawn in a south-easterly direction from Nissumfjord on the west
coast of Jutland, across the island of Fyen, a little south of the
town of Nyborg. Ancient seabeaches, marked by accumulations of
seaweed, rolled stones, &c., have been noticed as much as 20
ft. above the present level. But the upheaval does not seem to
affect all parts equally. Even in historic times it has vastly
changed the aspect and configuration of the country.
The climate of Denmark does not differ materially from that of
Great Britain in the same
latitude; but whilst the summer is a little
warmer, the winter is colder, so that most of the evergreens which
adorn an English
garden in the
winter cannot be grown in the open in Denmark. During
thirty
years the annual mean temperature varied from 43.88° F. to 46
22° in different years and different localities, the mean average
for the whole country being 45.14°. The islands have, upon the
whole, a somewhat warmer climate than Jutland. The mean
temperatures of the four coldest months, December to March, are
33.26°,
31. 64°, 31 82°, and 33.98° respectively, or for
the whole winter 32.7°; that of the summer, June to August, 59.2 °,
but considerable irregularities occur.
Frost occurs on an average on twenty days in each
of the four winter months, but only on two days in either October
or May. A fringe of
ice generally
lines the greater part of the Danish coasts on the eastern side for
some time during the winter, and both the
Sound and the Great Belt are at times impassable
on account of ice. In some winters the latter is sufficiently firm
and level to admit of sledges passing between
Copenhagen and
Malmo. The annual rainfall varies between 21 58
in. and 27.87 in. in different years and different localities. It
is highest on the west coast of Jutland;. while the small island of
Anholt in the Cattegat has an annual rainfall of only 15.78 in.
More than half the rainfall occurs from July to November, the
wettest month being September, with an average of 2.95 in.; the
driest month is April, with an average of 1 14 in. Thunderstorms
are frequent in the summer. South-
westerly winds prevail from January to March,
and from September to the end of the year. In April the east wind,
which is particularly searching, is predominant, while
westerly winds prevail from
May to August. In the district of
Aalborg, in the north of Jutland, a cold and
dry N.W. wind called
skai prevails in May and June, and is
exceedingly destructive to vegetation; while along the west coast
of the peninsula similar effects are produced by a
salt mist, which carries its influence from 15
t& 30 m. inland.
The
flora of Denmark presents
greater variety than might. be anticipated in a country of such
simple physical structure. The ordinary forms of the north of
Europe grow freely in the mild
air and protected soil of the islands
and the eastern coast; while on the heaths and along the sandhills
on the
Atlantic side there
flourish a number of distinctive species. The Danish forest is
almost exclusively made up of beech, a
tree which thrives better in Denmark than in any
other country of Europe. The
oak and
ash are now rare, though in ancient
times both were abundant in the Danish islands. The
elm is also scarce. The almost. universal
predominance of the beech is by no means of ancient origin, for in
the first half of the 17th century the
oak was still the characteristic Danish
tree.
.^ Seeking Islamic law: Muslim leaders openly declare their goal of introducing Islamic law once Denmark's Muslim population grows large enough - a not-that-remote prospect.- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
But
again, abundant traces of ancient extensive forests of
fir and
pine are found in the numerous.
peat bogs which supply a large proportion of the
fuel locally used. In Bornholm, it
should be mentioned, the flora is more like that of Sweden; not the
beech, but the
pine,
birch and
ash are the most abundant trees.
The wild animals and birds of Denmark are those of the rest of
central Europe. The larger quadrupeds are all extinct; even the red
deer, formerly so abundant that in
a single hunt in Jutland in 1593 no less than 1600 head of
deer were killed, is now only to be
met with in preserves. In the prehistoric " kitchenmiddens "
(
kj okkenmodding) and elsewhere, however, vestiges are
found which prove that the urochs, the wild
boar, the
beaver, the
bear and the
wolf
all existed subsequently to the arrival of man. The usual domestic
animals are abundantly found in Denmark, with the exception of the
goat, which is uncommon. The
sea fisheries are of
importance. Oysters are found in some places, but have disappeared
from many localities, where their abundance in ancient times is
proved by their
shell moulds on
the coast. The Gudenaa is the only
salmon river in Denmark.
Population
The population of Denmark in 1901 was 2,449,540. It was 929,001
in 1801, showing an increase during the century in the proportion
of 1 to 2.63. In 1901 the average
density of the population of Denmark was 165.2
to the square mile, but varied much in the different parts. Jutland
showed an average of only 109 inhabitants per square mile, whilst
on the islands, which had a total population of 1,385,537, the
average stood at 272.95, owing, on the one hand, to the fact that
large tracts in the interior of Jutland are almost uninhabited, and
on the other to the fact that the capital of the country, with its
proportionately large population, is situated on the island of
Zealand. The percentages of urban and rural population are
respectively about 38 and 62. A notable movement of the population
to the towns began about the middle of the 19th century, and
increased until very near its end. It was stronger on the islands,
where the rural population increased by 5.3% only in eleven years,
whereas in Jutland the increase of the rural population between
1890 and 1901 amounted to 12.0%. Here, however, peculiar
circumstances contributed to the increase, as successful efforts
have been made to render the land fruitful by artificial means. The
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A Danes are a yellow-haired and
blue-eyed Teutonic race of middle stature, bearing traces of their
kinship with the northern Scandinavian peoples.
.^ Those who quote "If you can't convince them, confuse them" are more dangerous than the suicide bombers.- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
The independent
tenure of the land by a vast number of small
farmers, who are their own masters, gives an
air of carelessness, almost of truculence, to the
well-to-do Danish peasants. They are generally slow of speech and
manner, and somewhat irresolute, but take an eager interest in
current politics, and are generally fairly educated men of extreme
democratic principles. The result of a fairly equal distribution of
wealth is a marked tendency towards equality in social intercourse.
The townspeople show a
bias in
favour of French habits and fashions.
.^ At the same time, there's a number of attitudes they take from Islam," says the psychologist, who emphasizes that "Islam" has more of a cultural than a religious meaning here.- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
^ The further assumption that more than half of all rapists in Denmark are Muslims is without any basis in fact, as criminal registers do not record religion.- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
The preponderance of the female population over the
male is approximately as 1052 to 1000. The male
sex remains in excess until about the twentieth
year, from which age the female
sex
preponderates in increasing ratio with advancing age. The
percentage of
illegitimacy is high as a whole, although
in some of the rural districts it is very low. But in Copenhagen
20% of the births are illegitimate. Between the middle and the end
of the 19th century the rate of mortality decreased most markedly
for all ages. During the last decade of the century it ranged
between 19.5 per thousand in 1891 and 15.1 in 1898 (17.4 in 1900).
Emigration for some
time in the 19th century at different periods, both in its early
part and towards its close, seriously affected the population of
Denmark. But in the last decade it greatly diminished. Thus in 1892
the number of emigrants to Transatlantic places
rose to 10,422 but in 1900 it was only 3570. The
great bulk of them go to
the United States; next in favour is
Canada.
Communications
The roads of Denmark form an extensive and well-maintained
system. The railway system is also fairly complete, the state
owning about three-fifths of the total mileage, which amounts to
some 2000. Two lines enter Denmark from Schleswig across the
frontier. The main Danish lines are as follows. From the frontier a
line runs east by
Fredericia, across the island of Flinen by
Odense and Nyborg, to Korsiir on Zealand, and thence by Roskilde to
Copenhagen. The straits between
Fredericia and Middelfart and between Nyborg
and Korsor are crossed by powerful
steam-ferries which are generally capable of
conveying a limited number of railway wagons. This system is also
in use on the line which runs south fromRoskilde to the island of
Falster, from the southernmost point of which, Gjedser,
ferrysteamers taking railway cars serve Warnemunde in Germany. The
main lines in Jutland run (a) along the eastern side north from
Fredericia by
Horsens,
Aarhus,
Randers,
Aalborg and
HjOrring, to Frederikshavn, and (
b)
along the western side from
Esbjerg by Skjerne and Vemb, and thence across
the peninsula by
Viborg to
Langaa on the eastern line. The lines are generally of standard
gauge (q. ft. 82 in.), but there is
also a considerable mileage of light narrow-
gauge railways. Besides the numerous
steam-ferries which connect island and island, and Jutland with the
islands, and the Gjedser-Warnemiinde route, a favourite passenger
line from Germany is that between
Kiel and KorsOr, while most of the German Baltic
ports have direct connexion with Copenhagen. With Sweden
communications are established by ferries across the
Sound between Copenhagen and
Malmo and
Landskrona, and between
Elsinore (Helsingor) and
Helsingborg. The postal
department maintains a
telegraph and
telephone service.
Industries
The main source of wealth in Denmark is
agriculture, which employs about two-fifths
of the entire population. Most of the land is freehold and
cultivated by the owner himself, and comparatively little land is
let on
lease except very large
holdings and
glebe farms. The
independent small farmer (
bonder) maintains a hereditary
attachment to his
ancestral holding. There is also a class of cottar freeholders
(
junster). Fully 74% of the total area of the country is
agricultural land.
Of this only about one-twelfth is meadow land. The land under
grain crops is not far short of
one-half the remainder, the principal crops being oats, followed by
barley and
rye in about equal quantities, with
wheat about one-sixth that of
barley and hardly one-tenth that
of oats.
Beet is extensively
grown. During the last forty years of the 19th century
dairy-farming was greatly developed
in Denmark, and brought to a high degree of perfection by the
application of scientific methods and the best machinery, as well
as by the establishment of joint dairies. The Danish government has
assisted this development by granting money for experiments and by
a rigorous system of inspection for the prevention of
adulteration. The
co-operative system plays an important part in the industries of
butter-making,
poultry-farming and the
rearing of
swine.
Rabbits, which are not found wild in Denmark, are bred for
export. Woods cover fully 7% of the area, and their preservation is
considered of so much importance that private owners are under
strict control as regards cutting of
timber. The woods consist mostly of beech, which
is principally used for
fuel, but
pines were extensively planted during the 19th century. Allusion
has been made already to the efforts to plant the extensive heaths
in
Jutland with
pine-trees.
Rates and taxes on land are mostly levied according to a uniform
system of
assessment,
the unit of which is called a
Tonde Hartkorn. The Td.
Htk., as it is usually abbreviated, has further subdivision, and is
intended to correspond to the same value of land throughout the
country. The Danish measure for land is a
Tonde Land (Td.
L.), which is equal to 1.363 statute acres. Of the best
ploughing land a little over 6 Td.
L., or about 8 acres, go to a Td. Htk., but of unprofitable land a
Td. Htk. may represent 300 acres or more. On the islands and in the
more fertile part of Jutland the average is about 10 Td. L., or 132
acres. Woodland,
tithes,
&c., are also assessed to Td. Htk. for fiscal purposes. In the
island of Bornholm, the
assessment is somewhat different, though the
general state of agricultural holdings is the same as in other
parts. The selling value of land has shown a decrease in modern
times on account of the agricultural depression. A
homestead with land
assessed less than 1 Td. Htk. is legally called a
Huus or
Sted, i.e. cottage, whilst a
farm assessed at 1 Td. Htk. or more is called
Gaard, i.e. farm. Farms
of between 1 and 12 Td. Htk. are called
Bondergaarde, or
peasant farms, and are
subject to the restriction that such a holding cannot lawfully be
joined to or entirely merged into another. They may be subdivided,
and portions may be added to another holding, but the
homestead, with a certain
amount of land, must be preserved as a separate holding for ever.
The seats of the
nobility
and landed gentry are called
Herregaarde. The peasants
hold about
73% of all the land according to its value. As
regards their size about 30% are assessed from 1 to 4 Td. Htk.;
about 33% from 4 to 8 Td. Htk.; the remainder at about 8 Td. Htk.
An annual sum is voted by parliament out of which loans are granted
to cottagers who desire to purchase small freehold plots.
The fishery along the coasts of Denmark is of some importance
both on account of the supply of food obtained thereby for the
population of the country, and on account of the export; but the
good fishing grounds, not far from the Danish coast, particularly
in the North Sea, are mostly worked by the fishing vessels of other
nations, which are so numerous that the Danish government is
obliged to keep
gun-boats stationed
there in order to prevent encroachments on
territorial
waters.
Other Industries
The mineral products of Denmark are unimportant. It is one of
the poorest countries of Europe in this particular. It is rich,
however, in clays, while in the island of Bornholm there are
quarries of freestone and
marble. The factories of Denmark supply mainly
local needs. The largest are those engaged in the construction of
engines and
iron ships. The
manufacture of woollens and
cotton, the domestic manufacture of
linen in Zealand,
sugar refineries, paper mills, breweries, and
distilleries may also be mentioned. The most notable manufacture is
that of
porcelain. The
nucleus of this industry was
a factory started in 1772, by F. H. Muller, for the making of
china out of Bornholm clay. In 1779
it passed into the hands of the state, and has remained there ever
since, though there are also private factories. Originally the
Copenhagen potters imitated the
Dresden china made at
Meissen, but they later produced graceful
original designs. The creations of Thorvaldsen have been largely
repeated and imitated in this ware. Tradeunionism flourishes in
Denmark, and strikes are of frequent occurrence.
Commerce
Formerly the commercial legislation of Denmark was to such a
degree restrictive that imported manufactures had to be delivered
to the customs, where they were sold by public auction, the
proceeds of which the importer received from the custom-houses
after a
deduction was
made for the duty. To this restriction, as regards foreign
intercourse, was added a no less injurious system of inland duties
impeding the commerce of the different provinces with each other.
The want of roads also, and many other disadvantages, tended to
keep down the development of both commerce and industry.
.^ However, the new Danish government has made it extremely difficult for Danish citizens to bring a foreign spouse to Denmark.- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
The vexed question, of many centuries' standing, concerning the
claim of Denmark to
levy dues on
vessels passing through
the
Sound, was settled by the abolition of the dues in 1857. The
commerce of Denmark is mainly based on home production and home
consumption, but a
certain quantity of goods is imported with a view to
re-exportation, for which the free port and bonded warehouses at
Copenhagen give facilities. In modern times the value of Danish
commerce greatly increased, being doubled in the last twenty years
of the 19th century, and exceeding a total of fifty millions
sterling. The value of export
is exceeded as a whole by that of import in the proportion,
roughly, of 1 to 1.35. By far the most important articles of export
may be classified as articles of food of animal origin, a group
which covers the vast export trade in the
dairy produce, especially
butter, for which Denmark is famous. The value
of the butter for export reaches nearly 40% of the total value of
Danish exports. A small proportion of the whole is imported chiefly
from
Russia (also Siberia) and
Sweden and re-exported as of foreign origin. The production of
margarine is large, but not
much is exported,
margarine being largely consumed in Denmark
instead of butter, which is exported. Next to butter the most
important article of Danish export is
bacon, and huge quantities of eggs are also
exported. Exports of less value, but worthy of special notice, are
vegetables and
wool, bones and
tallow, also dairy machinery,
and finally
cement, the
production of which is a growing industry. The classes of articles
of food of animal origin, and living animals, are the only ones of
which the exportation exceeds the importation; with regard to all
other goods, the reverse is the case. In the second of these
classes the most important export is home-bred horned
cattle. The trade in live
sheep and
swine, which was formerly important, has mostly
been converted into a dead-
meat
trade. A proportionally large importation of
timber is caused by the scarcity of native
timber suitable for building purposes, the plantations of firs and
pines being insufficient to produce the quantity required, and the
quality of the wood being inferior beyond the age of about forty
years. The large importation of coal, minerals and metals, and
goods made from them is likewise caused by the natural poverty of
the country in these respects.
Denmark carries on its principal import trade with Germany,
Great Britain and
the United States of
America, in this order, the
proportions being about 30, 20 and 16% respectively of the total.
Its principal export trade is with Great Britain, Germany and
Sweden, the percentage of the whole being 60, 18 and 10. With
Russia,
Norway and
France (in this order) general trade is less
important, but still large. A considerable proportion of Denmark's
large commercial fleet is engaged in the carrying trade between
foreign, especially British, ports.
Under a law of the 4th of May 1907 it was enacted that the
metric system of
weights
and measures should come into official use in three years from
that date, and into general use in five years.
Money and Banking
The unit of the Danish monetarysystem, as of the Swedish and
Norwegian, is the
krone (crown), equal to is. 13d., which
is divided into ioo
Ore; consequently 72 ore are equal to
one
penny. Since 1873
gold has been the standard, and
gold pieces of 20 and 10 kroner are
coined, but not often met with, as the public prefers
bank-notes. The principal
bank is the
National
Bank at
Copenhagen, which is the only one authorized to issue notes. These
are of the value of 10, 50, loo and Soo kr. Next in importance are
the Danske Landmands Bank, the Handels Bank and the Private Bank,
all at Copenhagen. The provincial
banks are very numerous; many of them are at the
same time
savings
banks. Their rate of interest, with few exceptions, is 31 to
4%. There exist, besides, in Denmark several mutual
loan associations (
Kreditforeninger),
whose business is the granting of loans on
mortgage.
Registration of mortgages is compulsory in
Denmark, and the system is extremely simple, a fact which has been
of the greatest importance for the improvement of the country.
There are comparatively large institutions for
insurance of all kinds in Denmark. The
largest office for life
insurance is a state institution. By law of
the 9th of April 1891 a system of
old-age pensions was established for
the benefit of persons over sixty years of age.
Government
.^ Elisabeth Arnold and Elsebeth Gerner Nielsen, two members of the Danish parliament, are "offended" by our article "Muslim Extremism: Denmark's had Enough" (Aug.- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
The Landsthing, or upper house, however, is evidently
intended to form the conservative element in the constitutional
machinery. While the 114 members of the Folkething (House of
Commons) are elected for three years in the usual way by universal
suffrage, 12 out of the 66
members of the Landsthing are life members nominated by the
crown. The remaining S4 members of
the Landsthing are returned for eight years according to a method
of proportionate representation by a body of deputy
electors. Of these deputies
one-half are elected in the same way as members of the Folkething,
without any property qualification for the voters; the other half
of the deputy
electors are
chosen in the towns by those who during the last preceding year
were assessed on a certain minimum of income, or paid at least a
certain amount in rates and taxes. In the rural districts the
deputy electors returned by election are supplemented by an equal
number of those who have paid the highest amounts in taxes and
county rates together. In this manner a representation is secured
for fairly large minorities, and what is considered a fair share of
influence on public affairs given to those who contribute the most
to the needs of the state. The
franchise is held byevery male who has
reached his thirtieth year, subject to independence of public
charity
and certain other circumstances. A candidate for either house
of the Rigsdag must have passed the age of twenty-five. Members are
paid ten kroner each day of the
session and are allowed travelling expenses.
The houses meet each year on the first
Monday in October.
.^ If present trends persist, one sociologist estimates, every third inhabitant of Denmark in 40 years will be Muslim.- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
.^ Elisabeth Arnold and Elsebeth Gerner Nielsen, two members of the Danish parliament, are "offended" by our article "Muslim Extremism: Denmark's had Enough" (Aug.- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
The
budget is considered by the Folkething at the
beginning of each
session.
The revenue and expenditure average annually about f4,700,000. The
principal items of revenue are customs and
excise, land and house tax, stamps, railways,
legal fees, the state lottery and death duties. A considerable
reserve fund is maintained to meet emergencies. The public debt is
about
-f13,50o,000 and is divided into an internal debt,
bearing interest generally at 32%, and a foreign debt (the larger),
with interest generally at 3%. The revenue and expenditure of the
Faeroes are included in the
budget for Denmark proper, but
Iceland and
the West Indies
have their separate budgets. The Danish treasury receives nothing
from these possessions; on the contrary, Iceland receives an annual
grant, and the West Indian islands have been heavily subsidized by
the Danish finances to assist the
sugar industry. The administration of
Greenland entails an annual
loss which is posted on the budget of the ministry of finances. The
state council (
Statsraad) includes the
presidency of the council
and ministries of war, and marine, foreign affairs, the interior,
justice,
finance, public
institution and ecclesiastical, agriculture and public works.
For administrative purposes the country is divided into eighteen
counties (
Amter, singular
Amt), as follows. (I)
Covering the islands of Zealand and lesser adjacent islands,
Copenhagen, Frederiksborg, Holbaek, Soro, Praesto. (2) Covering the
islands of Laaland and Falster, Maribo. (3) Covering Fiinen,
Langeland and adjacent islets,
Svendborg, Odense. (4) On the mainland,
HjOrring, Aalborg, Thisted,
RingkjObing,
Viborg,
Randers, Aarhus, Vejle, Ribe.
(5) Bornholm. The principal civil officer in each of these is the
Amtmand. Local affairs are managed by the
Amstraad and
Sogneraad, corresponding to the
English county council and parish council. These institutions date
from 1841, but they have undergone several modifications since. The
members of these councils are elected on a system similar to that
applied to the elections for the Landsthing. The same is the case
with the provincial town councils. That of Copenhagen is elected by
those who are rated on an income of at least 400 kroner (2
2). The burgomasters are appointed by the crown, except at
Copenhagen, where they are elected by the town council, subject to
royal approbation. The financial position of the municipalities in
Denmark is generally good. The ordinary budget of Copenhagen
amounts to about 1,100,000 a year.
Justice
For the administration of justice Denmark is divided into
herreds or hundreds; as, however, they are mostly of small
extent, several are generally served by one
judge (
herredsfoged); the townships are
likewise separate jurisdictions, each with a
byfoged.
There are 126 such local judges, each of whom deals with all kinds
of cases arising in his district, and is also at the head of the
police. There are two
intermediary Courts of Appeal (
Overret), one in
Copenhagen, another in Viborg; the Supreme Court of Appeal
(
Hojesteret) sits at Copenhagen. In the capital the
different functions are more divided. There is also a Court of
Commerce and Navigation, on which leading members of the trading
community serve as assessors. In the country, Land Commissions
similarly constituted deal with many questions affecting
agricultural holdings. A peculiarity of the Danish system is that,
with few exceptions, no civil cause can be brought before a court
until an attempt has been made at effecting an amicable settlement.
.^ Comments are screened for relevance, substance, and tone, and in some cases edited before posting.- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
In this manner three-fifths of all the causes are
settled, and many which remain unsettled are abandoned by the
plaintiffs. Sanitary matters are under the control of a Board of
Health.
.^ No one can bring into the country an intended spouse under the age of 24.- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
The relief of
the poor is well organized, mostly on the system of out-
door relief. Many workhouses have
been established for indigent persons capable of work. There are
also many almshouses and similar institutions.
Army and Navy
The active army consists of a life guard
battalion and 10
infantry regiments of 3 battalions each,
infantry, 5
cavalry regiments of 3
squadrons each, 12 field batteries (now re-armed with a Krupp Q.F.
equipment), 3 battalions of fortress
artillery and 6 companies of engineers, with
in addition various local troops and details. The peace strength of
permanent troops, without the annual contingent of recruits, is
about 13,500 officers and men, the annual contingent of men trained
two or three years with the colours about 22,500, and the annual
contingent of special reservists (men trained for brief periods)
about 17,000. Thus the number of men maintained under arms (without
calling up the reserves) is as high as 75,000 during certain
periods of the year and averages nearly 60,000. Reservists who have
definitively left the colours are recalled for short
refresher trainings, the
number of men so trained in 1907 being about 80,000. The field army
on a war footing, without
depot
troops,
garrison troops
and reservists, would be about 50,000 strong, but by constituting
new cadres at the outbreak of war and calling up the reserves it
could be more than doubled, and as a matter of fact nearly 120,000
men were with the colours in the manoeuvre season in 1907. The term
of service is eight years in the active army and its reserves and
eight years in the second line. The armament of the infantry is the
Krag-jorgensen of -314 in. calibre, model 1889, that of the field
artillery a
7 .
5 cm. Krupp Q.F. equipment, model 1902. The
navy consists of 6 small battleships, 3
coast defence
armour-clads, 5 protected cruisers, 5
gun-boats, and 24
torpedo craft.
Religion
The national or state church of Denmark is officially styled "
Evangelically Reformed," but is popularly described as Lutheran.
The king must belong to it.
.^ At the same time, there's a number of attitudes they take from Islam," says the psychologist, who emphasizes that "Islam" has more of a cultural than a religious meaning here.- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
The Mormon apostles for a considerable time
made a special
raid upon the
Danish peasantry and a few hundreds profess this faith. There are
seven dioceses, Fiinen, Laaland and Falster, Aarhus, Aalborg,
Viborg and Ribe, while the
primate is the
bishop of Zealand, and resides at Copenhagen,
but his
cathedral is at
Roskilde. The
bishops have
no political function by reason of their office, although they may,
and often do, take a prominent part in politics. The greater part
of the pastorates comprise more than one parish. The benefices are
almost without exception provided with good residences and glebes,
and the
tithes, &c.,
generally afford a comfortable income. The
bishops have fixed salaries in lieu of tithes
appropriated by the state.
Education and Arts
.^ Racism in Swedish Education system (Offer low quality courses in English but high quality courses in Swedish) [198 words] .- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
The instruction in primary schools is gratuitous.
.^ Jewish parents were told by one school principal that she could not guarantee their children's safety and were advised to attend another institution.- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
The schools are
under the immediate control of school boards appointed by the
parish councils, but of which the
incumbent of the parish is
ex-officio member; superior control is exercised by the
Amtmand, the rural
dean, and the
bishop, under the Minister for
church and education. Secondary public schools are provided in
towns, in which moderate school fees are paid. There are also
public grammar-schools. Nearly all schools are day-schools. There
are only two public schools, which, though on a much smaller scale,
resemble the great English schools, namely, those of Soro and
Herlufsholm, both founded by private munificence. Private schools
are generally under a varying measure of public control. The
university is at
Copenhagen. Amongst numerous other
institutions for the furtherance of science and training of various
kinds may be mentioned the large
polytechnic schools; the high school for
agriculture and veterinary art; the royal library;
the royal
society of sciences; the museum of northern antiquities; the
society of northern antiquaries, &c. The art museums of Denmark
are not considerable, except the museum of Thorvaldsen, at
Copenhagen, but much is done to provide first-rate training in the
fine arts and their
application to industry through the
Royal Academy of Arts, and its schools.
Finally, it may be mentioned that a sum proportionately large is
available from public funds and regular parliamentary grants for
furthering science and arts by temporary subventions to students,
authors, artists and others of insufficient means, in order to
enable them to carry out particular works, to profit by foreign
travel, &c. The principal scientific societies and institutions
are detailed under
Copenhagen. During the earlier part of the
19th century not a few men could be mentioned who enjoyed an
exceptional reputation in various departments of science, and
Danish scientists continue to contribute their full share to the
advancement of
knowledge. The society of sciences, that of northern antiquaries,
the natural history and the botanical societies, &c., publish
their transactions and proceedings, but the
Naturhistorisk
Tidsskrift, of which 14 volumes with 259 plates were published
(1861-1884), and which was in the foremost rank in its department,
ceased with the death in 1884 of the editor, the distinguished
zoologist, I. C. Sch16dte.
Another extremely valuable publication of wide general interest,
the
Meddelelser om Gronland, is published by the
commission for the exploration of Greenland. What may be called the
modern " art " current, with its virtues and vices, is as strong in
Denmark as in
England.
Danish
sculpture will be
always famous, if only through the name of Thorvaldsen. In
architecture the
prevailing fashion is a return to the
style of the first half of the i 7th century,
called the
Christian
IV.
style; but in this
branch of art no marked excellence has been obtained.
Authorities.-J. P.
Trap,
Statistisk Topographisk Beskrivelse of Kongeriget Danmark
(Copenhagen, 1859-1860, 3 vols., 2nd ed., 1872-1879); V.
Falbe-Hansen and W. Scharling,
Danmarks Statistik
(Copenhagen, 1878-1891, 6 vols.). (Various writers)
Vort Folk i
det nittende Aarhundrede (Copenhagen, 1899 et seq.),
illustrated; J. Carlsen, H. Olrik and C. N. Starcke,
Le
Danemark (Copenhagen, 1900), 700 pp.; illustrated, published
in connexion with the
Paris
Exhibition.
Statistisk Aarbog (1896, &c.). Annual
publication, and other publications of Statens Statistiske
Bureau, Copenhagen;
Annuaire
meteorologique, Danish Meteorological Institution, Copenhagen;
E. Loffler,
Dcinemarks Natur and Volk (Copenhagen, 1905);
Margaret Thomas,
Denmark Past and Present
(London, 1902).
(C. A. G.; O. J. R. H.)
History Ancient. - Our earliest
knowledge of Denmark is derived from
Pliny, who speaks of three islands named "
Skandiai," a name which is also applied to Sweden. He says nothing
about the inhabitants of these islands, but tells us more about the
Jutish peninsula, or Cimbric
Chersonese as he calls it. He places the
Saxons on the neck, above them
the Sigoulones, Sabaliggoi and Kobandoi, then the Chaloi, then
above them the Phoundousioi, then the Charondes and finally the
Kimbroi. He also mentions the three islands called Alokiai, at the
northern end of the peninsula. This would point to the fact that
the Limfjord was then open at both ends, and agree with
Adam of Bremen
(iv. 16), who also speaks of three islands called Wendila,
Morse and Thud. The
Cimbri and Charydes are mentioned
in the
Monumentum Ancyranum as sending embassies to
Augustus in A.D. 5. The Promontorium Cimbrorum is spoken of in
Pliny, who says that the Sinus
Codanus lies between it and Mons Saevo. The latter place is
probably to be found in the highlying land on the N.E. coast of
Germany, and the Sinus Codanus must be the S.W. corner of the
Baltic, and not the whole sea.
Pomponius Mela says that the
Cimbri and Teutones dwelt on the
Sinus Codanus, the latter also in Scandinavia (or Sweden). The
Romans believed that these Cimbri
and Teutones were the same as those who invaded
Gaul and
Italy
at the end of the 2nd century B.C. The Cimbri may probably be
traced in the province of Aalborg, formerly known as Himmerland;
the Teutones, with less certainty, may be placed in Thyth or
Thyland, north of the Limfjord. No further reference to these
districts is found till towards the close of the
migration period, about the
beginning of the 6th century, when the
Heruli, a nation dwelling in or near the basin
of the
Elbe, were overthrown by
the Langobardi. According to
Procopius (
Bellum Gothicum, ii. 1
5), a part of them made their way across the "
desert of the Sla y s," through the lands of the
Warni and the Danes to Thoule (i.e. Sweden). This is the first
recorded use of the name " Danes." It occurs again in
Gregory
of Tours (
Historiae Francorum, iii.
3) in
connexion with an irruption of a GStish (loosely called Danish)
fleet into the
Netherlands (
c. 520). From this
time the use of the name is fairly common. The heroic
poetry of the
Anglo-Saxons may
carry the name further back, though probably it is not very
ancient, at all events on the mainland.
According to late Danish tradition Denmark now consisted of
Vitheslaeth (i.e. Zealand, Moen, Falster and Laaland), Jutland
(with Fyen) and Skaane. Jutland was acquired by
Dan, the
eponymous ancestor of the Danes. He also won
Skaane, including the modern provinces of Halland,
Kristianstad,
MalmOhus and Blekinge, and these remained part of Denmark until the
middle of the 17th century. These three divisions always remained
more or less distinct, and the Danish kings had to be recognized at
Lund, Ringsted and Viborg, but
Zealand was from time immemorial the centre of government, and
Lejre was the royal seat and national
sanctuary. According to tradition this dates
from the time of Skitildr, the
eponymous ancestor of the Danish royal family
of Skikildungar. He was a son of Othin and husband of the goddess
Gefjon, who created Zealand. AngloSaxon tradition also speaks of
Scyld (i.e. Skioldr), who was regarded as the ancestor of both the
Danish and English royal families, and it represented him as coming
as a child of unknown origin in a rudderless
boat. There can be little doubt that from a remote
antiquity Zealand had been a religious
sanctuary, and very probably the god Nerthus
was worshipped here by the
Angli
and other tribes as described in Tacitus (
Germania, c.
40). The Lejre sanctuary was still in existence in the time of
Thietmar of Merseburg (i. 9), at
the beginning of the 11th century.
In Scandinavian tradition the next great figure is Frole the
peace-king, but it is not before the 5th century that we meet with
the names of any kings which can be regarded as definitely
historical. In
Beowulf we hear of a Danish king
Healfdene, who had three sons, Heorogar, Hrothgar and Halga. The
hero
Beowulf comes to the
court of Hrothgar from the land of the G6tar, where Hygelac is
king. This Hygelac is undoubtedly to be identified with the
Chochilaicus, king of the Danes (really Gotar) who, as mentioned
above, made a
raid against the
Franks c. 520. Beowulf
himself won fame in this campaign, and by the aid of this definite
chronological datum we can place the reign of Healfdene in the last
half of the 5th century, and that of Hrothgar's nephew Hrothwulf,
son of Halga, about the middle of the 6th century. Hrothgar and
Halga correspond to Saxo's Hroar and Helgi, while Hrothwulf is the
famous Rolvo or Hrolfr Kraki of Danish and Norse
saga. There is probably some historical truth in
the story that Heoroweard or Hiorvar6r was responsible for the
death of Hrolfr Kraki. Possibly a still earlier king of Denmark was
Sigarr or Sigehere, who has won lasting fame from the story of his
daughter Signy and her lover Hagbar5r.
From the middle of the 6th to the beginning of the 8th century
we know practically nothing of Danish history. There are numerous
kings mentioned in Saxo, but it is impossible to identify them
historically. We have mention at the beginning of the 8th century
of a Danish king Ongendus (cf.
.^ At the same time, there's a number of attitudes they take from Islam," says the psychologist, who emphasizes that "Islam" has more of a cultural than a religious meaning here.- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
The founder of this line was Ivarr Viofa6mi of Skaane,
who became king of Sweden. His daughter Auo'r married one Hroerekr
and became the mother of Haraldr Hilditonn. The
genealogy of Haraldr is
given differently in Saxo, but there can be no doubt of his
historical existence. In his time it is said that the land was
divided into four kingdoms - Skaane, Zealand, Fyen and Jutland.
After a reign of great splendour Haraldr met his death in the great
battle of Bravalla (Bravik in OstergOtland), where he was opposed
by his nephew Ring, king of Sweden.
The battle probably took place about the year 750. Fifty years
later the Danes begin to be mentioned with comparative frequency in
continental annals. From 777-798 we have mention of a certain
Sigifridus as king of the Danes, and then in 804 his name is
replaced by that of one Godefridus. This Godefridus is the
Godefridus-Guthredus of Saxo, and is to be identified also with Guc
rti r the Yngling, king in Vestfold in Norway. He came into
conflict with
Charlemagne, and was preparing a great
expedition against him when he was killed by one of his own
followers (
c. 810). He was succeeded by his brother
Hemmingus, but the latter died in 812 and there was a disputed
succession. The two claimants were " Sigefridus nepos Godefridi
regis " and " Anulo nepos Herioldi quondam regis " (i.e. probably
Haraldr Hilditonn). A great battle took place in which both
claimants were slain, but the party of Anulo (0.N. Ali) were
victorious and appointed as kings Anulo's brothers Herioldus and
Reginfridus. They soon paid a visit to Vestfold, " the extreme
district of their
realm, whose
peoples and chief men were refusing to be made subject to them,"
and on their return had trouble with the sons of Godefridus. The
latter expelled them from their kingdom, and in 814 Reginfridus
fell in a vain attempt to regain it. Herioldus now received the
support of the
emperor, and
after several unsuccessful attempts a
compromise was effected in 819 when the
parties agreed to share the
realm. In 820 Herioldus was baptized at
Mainz and received from the
emperor a grant of Riustringen
in N.E.
Friesland. In
827 he was expelled from his kingdom, but St Anskar, who had been
sent with Herioldus to preach
Christianity, remained at his post. In 836
we find one
Hone as king of the
Danes; he was probably a son of Godefridus. During his reign there
was trouble with the emperor as to the overlordship of Frisia. In
the meantime Herioldus remained on friendly terms with
Lothair and received a further
grant of Walcheren and the neighbouring districts. In 850 Horic was
attacked by his own nephews and compelled to share the kingdom with
them, while in 852 Herioldus was charged with treachery and slain
by the
Franks. In 854 a
revolution took place in Denmark itself. Horic's nephew Godwin,
returning from exile with a large following of Northmen, overthrew
his uncle in a three
days' battle in which all members of
the royal house except one boy are said to have perished. This boy
now became king as " Horicus junior." Of his reign we know
practically nothing. The next kings mentioned are Sigaf rid and
Halfdane, who were sons of the great
Viking leader Ragnarr Loobrok. There is also
mention of a third king named Godefridus. The exact
chronology and
relationship of these kings it is impossible to determine, but we
know that Healfdene died in
Scotland in 877, while Godefridus was
treacherously slain by
Henry of
Saxony in 885. During these
and the next few years there is mention of more than one king of
the names Sigefridus and Godefridus: the most important event
associated with their names is that two kings Sigefridus and
Godefridus fell in the great battle on the Dyle in 891.
We now have the names of several kings, Heiligo, Olaph (of
Swedish origin), and his sons Chnob and Gurth. Then come a Danish
ruler Sigeric, followed by Hardegon, son of Swein, coming from
Norway. At some date after 916 we find mention of one "Hardecnuth
Urm " ruling among the Danes.
Adam
of
Bremen, from whom these
details come, was himself uncertain whether " so many kings or
rather tyrants of the Danes ruled together or succeeded one another
at short intervals." Hardecnuth Urm is to be identified with the
famous Gorm the old, who married Thyra Danmarkarbot: their son was
Harold Bluetooth.
(A. M w.)
Medieval and
Modern. - Danish history first becomes
authentic at the beginning
of the 9 th century. The Danes, the southernmost branch of the
Scandinavian family, referred to by
Alfred (
c. 890) as occupying
Jutland, the islands and Scania, were, in 777, strong enough to
defy the Frank empire by harbouring its fugitives. Five years later
we find a Danish king, Sigf rid, among the princes who assembled at
Lippe in 782 to make their
submission to
Charles the
Great. About the same time
Willibrord, from his see at
Utrecht, made an unsuccessful
attempt to convert the " wild Danes." These three salient facts are
practically the sum of our knowledge of early Danish history
previous to the
Viking period.
That mysterious upheaval, most generally attributed to a love of
adventure, stimulated by
the pressure of over-population, began with the ravaging of
Lindisfarne in 793, and virtually terminated with the establishment
of Rollo in
Normandy (9r
r). There can be little doubt that the earlier of these expeditions
were from Denmark, though the term Northmen was originally applied
indiscriminately to all these terrible visitants from the unknown
north. The rovers who first chastened and finally colonized
southern
England and
Normandy were certainly
Danes.
The Viking raids were one of the determining causes of the
establishment of the feudal monarchies of western Europe, but the
untameable freebooters were themselves finally subdued by the
Church. At first sight it seems curious that
Christianity should
have been so slow to reach Denmark. But we must
bear in mind that one very important consequence
of the Viking raids was to annihilate the geographical remoteness
which had hitherto separated Denmark from the Christian world.
Previously to 793 there lay between Jutland and England a sea which
no
keel had traversed within the
memory of man.
.^ The Danish role during WW2..for those who don't know.- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
Nor was
communication with the west by land any easier. For generations the
obstinately
heathen Saxons had lain, a compact and
impenetrable mass, between Scandinavia and the Frank empire, nor
were the measures adopted by
Charles the Great for the conversion of the
Saxons to the true faith very much to the liking of their warlike
Danish neighbours on the other side. But by the time that Charles
had succeeded in " converting " the Saxons, the Viking raids were
already at their height, and though generally triumphant, necessity
occasionally taught the Northmen the value of concessions. Thus it
was the desire to secure his Jutish kingdom which induced Harold
Klak, in 826, to
sail up the
Rhine to
Ingelheim, and there accept
baptism, with his wife, his son
Godfred and 400 of his
suite,
acknowledging the emperor as his overlord, and taking back with him
to Denmark the missionary
monk
Ansgar.
.^ Contrary to media reports, the real news from Denmark is not flirting with fascism but getting mired in inertia.- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
Meanwhile the Danish monarchy was attempting to aggrandize
itself at the expense of the Germans, the
Wends who then occupied the Baltic littoral as
far as the
Vistula, and the
other Scandinavian kingdoms. Harold Bluetooth
Danis
expansion. (94 o -9 86) subdued German territory south of the
p Eider, extended the
Danevirke, Denmark's great line of defensive
fortifications, to the south of Schleswig and planted the military
colony of Julin or Jomsborg,
at the mouth of the
Oder. Part of
Norway was first seized after the united Danes and Swedes had
defeated and slain King
Olaf Trygvesson at the battle of Svolde
(1000); and between 1028 and 1035
Canute the Great added the whole kingdom to his
own; but the union did not long survive him. Equally short-lived
was the Danish dominion in England, which originated in a great
Viking expedition of King
Sweyn
I.
The period between the death of
Canute the Great and the accession of
Valdemar I. was a
troublous time for Denmark.
.^ Those who quote "If you can't convince them, confuse them" are more dangerous than the suicide bombers.- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
^ At the same time, there's a number of attitudes they take from Islam," says the psychologist, who emphasizes that "Islam" has more of a cultural than a religious meaning here.- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
Yet, throughout this
chaos, one thing made for future
stability, and that was the growth and consolidation of a national
church, which culminated in the erection of the archbishopric of
Lund (
c. 1104) and the
consequent ecclesiastical independence of Denmark. The third
archbishop of Lund was
Absalon (1128-1201), Denmark's
first great statesman, who so materially assisted
Valdemar I. (1157-1182)
and
Canute VI.
(1182-1202) to establish the dominion of Denmark over the Baltic,
mainly at the expense of the Wends. The policy of
Absalon was continued on a
still vaster scale by
Valdemar II. (1202-1241), at a time when
the German kingdom was too weak and distracted to intervene to save
its seaboard; but the treachery of a
vassal and the loss of one great battle sufficed
to plunge this unwieldy, unsubstantial empire in the
dust. (See Valdemar I., Ii., and
Absalon.) Yet the age of the
Valdemars was one of the most glorious in Danish history, and it is
of political importance as marking a. turning-point. Favourable
circumstances had, from the first, given the Danes the
lead in Scandinavia. They held the
richest and therefore the most populous lands, and geographically
they were nearer than their neighbours to western civilization..
Under the Valdemars, however, the ancient patriarchal system. was
merging into a more complicated development, of separate estates.
The monarchy, now dominant, and far wealthier than before, rested
upon the support of the great nobles, many of whom held their lands
by feudal
tenure, and
constituted the royal
Raad, or council. The clergy,
fortified by royal privileges, had also risen to influence; but
celibacy and independence of
the civil courts tended to make them more and more of a separate
caste. Education was spreading.
Numerous Danes, lay as well as clerical, regularly frequented the
university of
Paris. There were
signs too of the rise of a vigorous middle class, due to the
extraordinary development of the national resources (chiefly the
herring fisheries,
horse-breeding and
cattle-rearing) and the foundation of
gilds, the oldest of which, the
Edslag of Schleswig, dates from the early 12th century.
The
bonder, or yeomen, were prosperous and independent,
with well-defined rights. Danish territory extended over 60,000 sq.
kilometres, or nearly double its present area; the population was
about 700,000; and 160,000 men and 1400 ships were available for
national defence.
On the death of
Valdemar II. a period of disintegration
ensued. Valdemar's son, Eric Plovpenning, succeeded him as king;
but his near kinsfolk also received huge appanages, and
Period
of family discords led to civil wars. Throughout the
disintegra- 1 th and part of the 1 4th century, struggle
ra ed
tion. 3 P 4 Y? gg g between the Danish kings and the
Schleswig dukes; and of six monarchs no fewer than three died
violent deaths. Superadded to these troubles was a prolonged
struggle for supremacy between the popes and the crown, and, still
more serious, the beginning of a
breach between the kings and nobles, which had
important constitutional consequences. The prevalent disorder had
led to general lawlessness, in consequence of which the royal
authority had been widely extended; and a strong opposition
gradually arose which protested against the abuses of this
authority. In 1282 the nobles extorted from King Eric Glipping the
first
Haandfaestning, or charter, which recognized the
Danehof, or national assembly, as a regular branch of the
administration and gave guarantees against further usurpations.
Christopher II. (1319-1331) was constrained to grant another
charter considerably reducing the
prerogative, increasing the privileges of
the upper classes, and at the same time reducing the
burden of
taxation. But aristocratic
licence proved as mischievous as royal
incompetence; and on the death of Christopher II. the whole kingdom
was on the
verge of
dissolution. Eastern
Denmark was in the hands of one
magnate; another
magnate held Jutland and Fiinen in
pawn; the dukes of Schleswig were
practically independent of the Danish crown; the Scandian provinces
had (1332) surrendered themselves to Sweden.
It was reserved for another Valdemar (Valdemar IV., q.v.) to
reunite and weld together the scattered members of his heritage.
Vatde= His long reign (1340-1375) resulted in the
re-establish-
mar IV., ment of Denmark as the great Baltic
power. It is also
1340= a very interesting period of her
social and constitutional
1375. development. This great
ruler, who had to fight, year after year, against foreign and
domestic foes, could, nevertheless, always find time to promote the
internal prosperity of his much afflicted country. For the
dissolution of Denmark,
during the long anarchy, had been internal as well as external. The
whole social fabric had been convulsed and transformed. The
monarchy had been undermined. The privileged orders had aggrandized
themselves at the expense of the community. The
yeoman class had sunk into semi-
serfdom.
.^ For Adib Farakish: There's no reason to be upset [432 words] .- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
^ There are no moderate muslims [57 words] .- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
To make an end of this universal lawlessness
Valdemar IV. was obliged, in the first
place, to re-establish the royal authority by providing the crown
with a regular and certain income. This he did by recovering the
alienated royal demesnes in every direction, and from henceforth
the annual
landgilde, or
rent, paid by the royal tenants, became the
monarch's principal source of revenue. Throughout his reign
Valdemar laboured incessantly to acquire as much land as possible.
Moreover, the old distinction between the king's private estate and
crown property henceforth ceases; all such property was henceforth
regarded as the hereditary possession of the Danish crown.
The national army was also re-established on its ancient
footing. Not only were the magnates sharply reminded that they held
their lands on military tenure, but the towns were also made to
contribute both men and ships, and
peasant levies, especially archers, were
recruited from every parish. Everywhere indeed Valdemar intervened
personally. The smallest detail was not beneath his notice. Thus he
invented nets for catching wolves and built innumerable
water-mills, " for he would not let the waters run into the sea
before they had been of use to the community." Under such a ruler
law and order were speedily reestablished. The popular tribunals
regained their authority, and a
supreme court of justice,
Det Kongelige Retterting, presided over by Valdemar
himself, not only punished the unruly and guarded the prerogatives
of the crown, but also protected the weak and defenceless from the
tyranny of the strong. Nor did Valdemar hesitate to meet his people
in public and periodically render an account of his stewardship. He
voluntarily resorted to the old practice of summoning national
assemblies, the so-called
Danehof. At the first of these
assemblies held at Nyborg, Midsummer Day 1314, the bishops and
councillors solemnly promised that the commonalty should enjoy all
the ancient rights and privileges conceded to them by Valdemar II.,
and the wise provision that the
Danehof should meet
annually considerably strengthened its authority. The
keystone to the whole
constitutional system was " King Valdemar's Charter "issued in May
1360 at the
Rigsmiide, or parliament, held at Kalundborg
in May 1360. This charter was practically an act of national
pacification, the provisions of which king and people together
undertook to enforce for the benefit of the commonweal.
The work of Valdemar was completed and consolidated by his
illustrious daughter
Margaret (
1 375
-
1 4 12), whose crowning achievement was the Union of
Kalmar (1397), whereby she sought
to combine the three northern kingdoms
The Union f o into
a single state dominated by Denmark. In any
1397Kalma, case Denmark was bound to be the only
gainer by the Union. Her population was double that of the two
other kingdoms combined, and neither Margaret nor her successors
observed the stipulations that each country should retain its own
laws and customs and be ruled by natives only. In both Norway and
Sweden, therefore, the Union was highly unpopular. The Norwegian
aristocracy was too
weak, however, seriously to endanger the Union at any time, but
Sweden was, from the first, decidedly hostile to Margaret's whole
policy. Nevertheless during her lifetime the system worked fairly
well; but her pupil and successor, Eric of
Pomerania, was unequal to the
burden of empire and embroiled
himself both with his neighbours and his subjects. The
Hanseatic
League, whose political ascendancy had been shaken by the
Union, enraged by Eric's efforts to bring in the Dutch as
commercial rivals, as well as by the establishment of the Sound
tolls, materially assisted the Holsteiners in their twenty-five
years' war with Denmark (1410-35), and Eric VII. himself was
finally deposed (1439) in favour of his nephew, Christopher of
Bavaria.
The deposition of Eric marks another turning-point in Danish
history. It was the act not of the people but of the
Rigsraad (Senate), which had inherited the authority of
the
Growth of ancient
Danehof and, after the
death of Margaret,
the power grew steadily in power at the
expense of the crown.
of the As the government grew more
and more aristocratic,
nobles. the position of the
peasantry steadily deteriorated. It is under Christopher that we
first hear, for instance, of the
Vornedskab, or
patriarchal control of the landlords over their tenants, a system
which degenerated into rank
slavery. In Jutland, too, after the repression,
in 1441, of a peasant rising, something very like
serfdom was introduced.
On the death of Christopher III. without heirs, in 1448, the
Rigsraad elected his distant cousin, Count Christian of
Oldenburg, king; but Sweden
preferred Karl Knutsson (Charles " VIII."), while Norway finally
combined with Denmark, at the conference of
Halmstad, in a double of the Union.
election which practically terminated the Union, though an
agreement was come to that the survivor of the two kings should
reign over all three kingdoms. Norway, subsequently, threw in her
lot definitively with Denmark. Dissensions resulting in
interminable civil wars had, even before the Union, exhausted the
resources of the poorest of the three northern realms; and her ruin
was completed by the ravages of the Black Death, which wiped out
two-thirds of her population.
.^ Unfortunately for them, Danish voters do see the problems and threw their coalition out of office last November.- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
Far otherwise was it in the wealthier kingdom of Sweden. Here
the clergy and part of the
nobility were favourable to the Union; but the
vast majority of the people hated it as a foreign usurpation.
Matters were still further complicated by the continual
interference of the
Hanseatic League; and Christian I.
(1448-1481) and Hans (1481-1513), whose chief merit it is to have
founded the Danish fleet, were, during the greater part of their
reigns, only nominally kings of Sweden. Hans also received in
fief the territory of Dietmarsch from
the emperor, but, in attempting to subdue the hardy Dietmarschers,
suffered a crushing defeat in which the national banner called "
Danebrog " fell into the enemy's hands (1500).
.^ In a momentous election last November, a center-right coalition came to power that - for the first time since 1929 - excluded the socialists.- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
On the succession of Hans's son,
Christian II. (1513-1523), Margaret's
splendid
dream of a Scandinavian
empire seemed, finally, about to be realized. The young king, a man
Christian of character andenius had wide views and
original
IL, 1513= g
1523. ideas. Elected king of
Denmark and Norway, he suc ceeded in subduing Sweden by force of
arms; but he spoiled everything at the
culmination of his triumph by the hideous
crime and blunder known as the
Stockholm massacre, which converted the
politically divergent Swedish nation into the irreconcilable foe of
the unional government (see Christian Ii.). Christian's contempt of
nationality in
Sweden is the more remarkable as in Denmark proper he sided with
the people against the
aristocracy, to his own undoing in that age
of privilege and
prejudice. His intentions, as exhibited to
his famous
Landelove (National Code), were progressive and
enlightened to an eminent degree; so much so, indeed, that they
mystified the people as much as they alienated the
patricians; but his
actions were often of revolting brutality, and his whole career was
vitiated by an incurable double-mindedness which provoked general
distrust. Yet there is no doubt that
Christian II. was a true patriot, whose
ideal it was to weld the three northern kingdoms into a powerful
state, independent of all foreign influences, especially of German
influence as manifested in the commercial tyranny of the Hansa
League. His utter failure was due, partly to the vices of an
undisciplined temperament, and partly to the extraordinary
difficulties of the most inscrutable period of European history,
when the shrewdest heads were at
fault and irreparable blunders belonged to the
order of the day. That period was the period of
the
Reformation, which profoundly affected the politics of
Scandinavia. Christian II. had always subordinated religion to
politics, and was Papist or Lutheran according to circumstances.
But, though he treated the Church more like a foe than a friend and
was constantly at war with the
Curia, he retained the
Catholic form of church worship and never
seems to have questioned the papal supremacy. On the flight of
Christian II. and the election of his uncle,
Frederick I. (1523 -
Frederick 1 533), the
Church resumed her jurisdiction and every-
1., 1523= thing
was placed on the old footing. The newly
1533. The elected
and still insecure German king at first remained
Reforma=
neutral; but in the autumn of 1525 the current of
tion.
Lutheranism began to run so strongly in Denmark as to threaten to
whirl away every opposing obstacle. This novel and disturbing
phenomenon was mainly due
to the zeal and eloquence of the ex-
monk Hans Tausen and his associates, or
disciples, Peder Plad and Sadolin; and, in the autumn of 1526,
Tausen was appointed one of the royal chaplains. The three ensuing
years were especially favourable for
the Reformation, as during that time
the king had unlooked-for opportunities for filling the vacant
episcopal sees with men after his own
heart, and at
heart he was a Lutheran. The reformation movement
in Denmark was further promoted by
Schleswig-Holstein influence.
Frederick's eldest son Duke Christian had, since 1527, resided at
Haderslev, where he collected round him Lutheran teachers from
Germany, and made his court the centre of the propaganda of the new
doctrine. On the other hand, the Odense
Recess of the 10th of August 1527, which put
both confessions on a footing of equality, remained unrepealed; and
so long as it remained in force, the spiritual jurisdiction of the
bishops, and, consequently, their authority over the " free
preachers " (whose ambition convulsed all the important towns of
Denmark and aimed at forcibly expelling the
Catholic priests from their churches) remained
valid, to the great vexation of the reformers. The inevitable
ecclesiastical crisis was still further postponed by the superior
stress of two urgent political events - Christian
II.'s invasion of Norway (1531) and the outbreak,
in 1533, of "
Grevens fejde," or " The Count's War "
(1534-36),
The the count in question being Christopher of
Oldenburg, count's
great-nephew of King Christian I., whom Lubeck and War, her allies,
on the death of
Frederick I., raised up
1533=
against Frederick's son
Christian III. The Catholic
3?'
party and the lower orders generally took the part of Count
Christopher, who acted throughout as the nominee of the
captive Christian II., while
the
Protestant party,
aided by the Holstein dukes and Gustavus
Vasa of Sweden, sided with
Christian III. The
war ended with the capture of Copenhagen by the forces of Christian
III., on the 29th of July 1536, and the triumph of so devoted a
Lutheran sealed the fate of the
Roman Catholic Church in Denmark,
though even now it was necessary for the victorious king to proceed
against the bishops and their friends by a
coup d'etat,
engineered by his German generals the Rantzaus. The
Recess of 1536 enacted that the
bishops should forfeit their temporal and spiritual authority, and
that all their property should be transferred to the crown for the
good of the
commonwealth. In the following year a
Church
ordinance, based
upon the canons of Luther, 1Vlelanchthon and B ugenhagen, was drawn
up, submitted to Luther for his approval, and promulgated on the
2nd of September 1537. On the same day seven " superintendents,"
including Tausen and Sadolin, all of whom had worked zealously for
the cause of the Reformation, were consecrated in place of the
dethroned bishops. The position of the superintendents and of the
reformed
church generally was consolidated by the Articles of Ribe in
1542, and the constitution of the Danish church has practically
continued the same to the present day. But Catholicism could not
wholly or immediately be dislodged by the teaching of Luther. It
had struck deep roots into the habits and feelings of the people,
and traces of its survival were distinguishable a whole century
after the triumph of the Reformation. Catholicism lingered longest
in the
cathedral
chapters. Here were to be found men of ability proof against the
eloquence of
Hans
Tausen or Peder Plad and quite capable of controverting their
theories - men like
Povl Helgesen, for instance, indisputably
the greatest Danish theologian of his day, a scholar whose voice
was drowned amidst the clash of conflicting
creeds.
Though the Reformation at first did comparatively little for
education,' and the whole spiritual life of Denmark was poor and
feeble in consequence for at least a generation afterwards the
change of religion was of undeniable, if
of ? g
g ?
theEffects Re temporary, benefit to the state
from the political
formation. point of view. The enormous
increase of the royal revenue consequent upon the
confiscation of the
property of the Church could not fail to increase the financial
stability of the monarchy. In particular the suppression of the
monasteries benefited the crown in two ways. The old church had,
indeed, frequently rendered the state considerable financial aid,
but such voluntary assistance was, from the nature of the case,
casual and arbitrary. Now, however, the state derived a fixed and
certain revenue from the confiscated lands; and the possession 1 It
is true the university was established on the 9th of September
1537, but its influence was of very gradual growth and small at
first.
of immense landed property at the same time enabled the crown
advantageously to conduct the administration. The
gross revenue of the state is estimated to have
risen threefold. Before the Reformation the annual revenue from
land averaged 400,000 bushels of
corn; after the confiscations of Church property
it averaged 1,200,000 bushels. The possession of a full
purse materially assisted the
Danish government in its domestic administration, which was indeed
epoch-making. It enabled Christian III. to pay off his German
mercenaries immediately after the religious
coup d'etat of
1536. It enabled him to prosecute
shipbuilding with such energy that, 'by
1550, the royal fleet numbered at least thirty vessels, which were
largely employed as a maritime
police in the
pirate-haunted Baltic and North Seas.
It enabled him to create and remunerate adequately a capable
official class, which proved its efficiency under the strictest
supervision, and ultimately produced a whole series of great
statesmen and admirals like
Johan Friis,
Peder Oxe,
Herluf Trolle and
Peder Skram. It is not too much to say that
the increased revenue derived from the
appropriation of Church property,
intelligently applied, gave Denmark the
hegemony of the North during the latter part
of Christian
III.'s reign, the whole reign of
Frederick II. and the
first twenty-five years of the reign of
Christian IV., a period embracing, roughly
1544= speaking, eighty years (1544-1626). Within this
period
1626. Denmark was indisputably the leading
Scandinavian power. While Sweden, even after the
advent of Gustavus
Vasa, was still of but small account in Europe,
Denmark easily held her own in Germany and elsewhere, even against
Charles V., and was
important enough, in 1553, to mediate a peace between the emperor
and
Saxony.
.^ The next nine months did witness some fine-tuning of procedures: Immigrants now must live seven years in Denmark (rather than three) to become permanent residents.- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
^ The further assumption that more than half of all rapists in Denmark are Muslims is without any basis in fact, as criminal registers do not record religion.- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
Still, the fact remains that, for a time, Denmark
was one of the great powers of Europe.
Frederick II., in his later years
(1571-1588), aspired to the dominion of all the seas which washed
the Scandinavian coasts, and before he died he was able to enforce
the rule that all foreign ships should strike their topsails to
Danish men-of-war as a token of his right to rule the northern
seas. Favourable political circumstances also contributed to this
general
acknowledgment of Denmark's maritime
greatness. The power of the Hansa had gone; the Dutch were
enfeebled by their contest with
Spain; England's
sea-power was yet in the making;
Spain, still the greatest of the
maritime nations, was exhausting her resources in the vain effort
to conquer the Dutch. Yet more even than to felicitous
circumstances, Denmark owed her short-lived greatness to the great
statesmen
and administrators whom
Frederick II. succeeded in gathering about him. Never before, since
the age of Margaret, had Denmark been so well governed, never
before had she possessed so many political celebrities nobly
emulous for the common good.
Frederick II. was succeeded by his son Christian IV. (April 4,
1588), who attained his majority on the 17th of August 1596, at the
age of nineteen. The realm which Christian IV. was to govern had
undergone great changes within the last
of two
generations. Towards the south the boundaries of the Danish state
remained unchanged. Levensaa and
1v., 1588. the
Eider still separated Denmark from
the Empire. Schleswig was recognized as a Danish
fief, in contradistinction to Holstein, which owed
vassalage to the Empire. The " kingdom " stretched as far as
Kolding and Skedborg, where the
" duchy " began; and this duchy since its amalgamation with
Holstein by means of a common
Landtag, and especially
since the union of the dual duchy with the kingdom on almost equal
terms in 1533, was, in most respects, a semi-independent state.
Denmark, moreover, like Europe in general, was, politically, on the
threshold of a
transitional period. During the whole course of the 16th century
the monarchical form of government was in every large country, with
the single exception of
Poland, rising on the ruins of
feudalism. The great powers
of the late 16th and early 17th centuries were to be the strong,
highly centralized, hereditary monarchies, like
France, Spain and Sweden. There seemed to be no
reason why Denmark also should not become a powerful state under
the guidance of a powerful monarchy, especially as the sister state
of Sweden was developing into a great power under apparently
identical conditions. Yet, while Sweden was surely ripening into
the dominating power of northern Europe, Denmark had as surely
entered upon a period of uninterrupted and apparently incurable
decline. What was the cause of this
anomaly ? Something of course must be
allowed for the superior and altogether extraordinary genius of the
great princes of the house of Vasa; yet the causes of the decline
of Denmark lay far deeper than this. They may roughly be summed up
under two heads: the inherent weakness of an elective monarchy, and
the absence of that public spirit which is based on the intimate
alliance of ruler and ruled.
Whilst Gustavus Vasa had leaned upon the Swedish peasantry, in
other words upon the bulk of the Swedish nation, which was and
continued to be an integral part of the Swedish body-politic,
Christian III. on his accession had crushed the middle and lower
classes in Denmark and reduced them to political insignificance.
Yet it was not the king who benefited by this blunder. The Danish
monarchy since the days of Margaret had continued to be purely
elective; and a purely elective monarchy at that stage of the
political development of Europe was a mischievous
anomaly. It signified in the
first place that the crown was not the highest power in the state,
but was subject to the aristocratic
Rigsraad, or council
of state. The
Rigsraad was the permanent owner of the
realm and the crown-lands; the king was only their temporary
administrator. If the king died before the election of his
successor, the
Rigsraad stepped into the king's place.
Moreover, an elective monarchy implied that, at every fresh
succession, the king was liable to be bound by a new
Haandfaestning, or charter. The election itself might, and
did, become a mere formality; but the condition precedent of
election, the acceptance of the charter, invariably limiting the
royal authority, remained a reality. This period of aristocratic
rule, which dates practically from the accession of Frederick I.
(1523), and lasted for nearly a century and a half, is known in
Danish history as
Adelsvaelde, or rule of the nobles.
Again, the king was the ruler of the realm, but over a very
large portion of it he had but a slight control. The crown-lands
and most of the towns were under his immediate jurisdiction, but by
the side of the crown-lands lay the estates of the nobility, which
already comprised about one-half of the superficial area of
Denmark, and were in many respects independent of the central
government both as regards
taxation and administration. In a word, the
monarchy had to share its dominion with the nobility; and the
Danish nobility in the 16th century was one of the most exclusive
and selfish aristocracies in Europe, and already far advanced in
decadence. Hermetically sealing itself from any intrusion from
below, it deteriorated by close and constant intermarriage; and it
was already, both morally and intellectually, below the level of
the rest of the nation. Yet this very aristocracy, whose claim to
consideration was based not upon its own achievements but upon the
length of its pedigrees, insisted upon an amplification of its
privileges which endangered the economical and political interests
of the state and the nation. The time was close at hand when a
Danish magnate was to demonstrate that he preferred the utter ruin
of his country to any
abatement of his own personal dignity.
All below the king and the nobility were generally classified
together as " subjects." Of these lower orders the clergy stood
first in the social scale. As a spiritual estate, indeed, it had
ceased to exist at the Reformation, though still represented in the
Rigsdag or diet. Since then too it had become quite
detached from the nobility, which ostentatiously despised the
teaching profession.
.^ At the same time, there's a number of attitudes they take from Islam," says the psychologist, who emphasizes that "Islam" has more of a cultural than a religious meaning here.- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
The burgesses had not yet recovered from the disaster of "
Grevens fejde "; but while the towns had become more dependent on
the central power, they had at the same time been released from
their former vexatious subjection to the local magnates, and could
make their voices heard in the
Rigsdag, where they were
still, though inadequately, represented. Within the Estate of
Burgesses itself, too, a levelling process had begun. The old
municipal patriciate, which used to form the connecting
link between the
bourgeoisie
and the nobility, had disappeared, and a feeling of common civic
fellowship had taken its place. All this tended to enlarge the
political views of the burgesses, and was not without its influence
on the future.
.^ Rotten in Denmark - the same all over Europe [2197 words] .- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
There can, indeed, be no
doubt that the Danish and Norwegian merchants at the end of the i
6th century flourished exceedingly, despite the intrusion and
competition of the Dutch and the dangers to neutral
shipping arising from the
frequent wars between England, Spain and the
Netherlands.
At the bottom of the social
ladder lay the peasants, whose condition had
decidedly deteriorated. Only in one respect had they benefited by
the peculiar conditions of the 16th century: the rise in the price
of corn without any corresponding rise in the land-tax must have
largely increased their material prosperity. Yet the number of
peasant-proprietors had diminished, while the obligations of the
peasantry generally had increased; and, still worse, their
obligations were vexatiously indefinite, varying from year to year
and even from month to month. They weighed especially heavily on
the so-called
Ugedasmaend, who were forced to work two or
three days a week in the
demesne lands. This increase of
villenage morally depressed
the peasantry, and widened still further the
breach between the
yeomanry and the gentry. Politically its
consequences were disastrous. While in Sweden the free and
energetic peasant was a salutary power in the state, which he
served with both mind and
plough, the Danish peasant was
sinking to the level of a bondman. While the Swedish peasants were
well represented in the Swedish
Riksdag, whose proceedings
they sometimes dominated, the Danish peasantry had no political
rights or privileges whatever.
Such then, briefly, was the condition of things in Denmark when,
in 1588, Christian IV. ascended the throne. Where so much was
necessarily uncertain and fluctuating, there was room for an almost
infinite variety of
development. Much depended on the character and
personality of the
young prince who had now taken into his hands the reins of
government, and for half a century was to guide the destinies of
the nation. In the beginning of his reign the hand of the young
monarch, who was nothing if not energetic, made itself felt in
every direction. The harbours of Copenhagen, Elsinore and other
towns were enlarged; many decaying towns were abolished and many
new ones built under more promising conditions, including
Christiania, which was
founded in August 1624, on the ruins of the ancient city of Oslo.
Various attempts were also made to improve trade and industry by
abolishing the still remaining privileges of the Hanseatic towns,
by promoting a wholesale
immigration of skilful and well-to-do Dutch
traders and handicraftsmen into Denmark under most favourable
conditions, by opening up the rich
fisheries of the
Arctic seas, and by establishing joint-stock
chartered
companies both in the East and
the West Indies. Copenhagen especially
benefited by Christian IV.'s commercial policy. He enlarged and
embellished it, and provided it with new harbours and
fortifications; in short, did his best to make it the worthy
capital of a great empire. But it was in the foreign policy of the
government that the royal influence was most perceptible. Unlike
Sweden, Denmark had remained outside the great religious-political
movements which were the outcome of the Catholic reaction; and the
peculiarity of her position made her rather hostile than friendly
to the other
Protestant states. The possession of the
Sound enabled her to close the Baltic against the Western powers;
the possession of Norway carried along with it the control of the
rich fisheries which were Danish monopolies, and therefore a source
of irritation to England and
Holland. Denmark, moreover, was above all
things a Scandinavian power. While the territorial expansion of
Sweden in the near future was a matter of necessity, Denmark had
not only attained, but even exceeded, her natural limits.
Aggrandizement southwards, at the expense of the German empire, was
becoming every year more difficult; and in every other direction
she had nothing more to gain.
Nay,
more, Denmark's possession of the Scanian provinces deprived Sweden
of her proper geographical frontiers.
.^ The next nine months did witness some fine-tuning of procedures: Immigrants now must live seven years in Denmark (rather than three) to become permanent residents.- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
^ If present trends persist, one sociologist estimates, every third inhabitant of Denmark in 40 years will be Muslim.- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
^ For years, Danes lauded multiculturalism and insisted they had no problem with the Muslim customs - until one day they found that they did.- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
But
the antagonistic interests of the two countries in Germany during
the
Thirty
Years' War precipitated a fourth contest between them
(1643-45), in which Denmark would have been utterly ruined but for
the heroism of King Christian IV. and his
command of
the sea during the crisis of the struggle. Even so, by the
peace of Bromsebro (February 8, 1645) Denmark surrendered the
islands of
Oesel and
Gotland and the provinces of
Jemteland and Herjedal (in Norway) definitively, and Halland for
thirty years.
The freedom from the Sound tolls was by the same treaty also
extended to Sweden's Baltic provinces.
The peace of Bromsebro was the first of the long series of
treaties, extending down to
our own days, which
mark the
progressive shrinkage of Danish territory into an irreducible
minimum. Sweden's
appropriation of Danish soil had begun,
and at the same time Denmark's power of resisting the encroachments
of Sweden was correspondingly reduced. The Danish
national debt, too,
had risen enormously, while the sources of future income and
consequent recuperation had diminished or disappeared. The Sound
tolls, for instance, in consequence of the
treaties of Bromsebro and Kristianopel (by the
latter treaty very considerable concessions were made to the Dutch)
had sunk from 400,000 to 140,000 rix-dollars. The political
influence of the crown, moreover, had inevitably been weakened, and
the conduct of foreign affairs passed from the hands of the king
into the hands of the
Rigsraad. On the accession of
Frederick III.
(1648-1670) moreover, the already diminished royal
prerogative was still
further curtailed by the
Haandfaestning, or charter, which
he was compelled to sign. Fear and hatred of Sweden, and the never
abandoned hope of recovering the lost provinces, animated king and
people alike; but it was Denmark's crowning misfortune that she
possessed at this difficult crisis no statesman of the first rank,
no one even approximately comparable with such competitors as
Charles X.
of Sweden or the " Great Elector "
Frederick William of
Brandenburg. From the
very beginning of his reign
Frederick III. was resolved upon a
rupture at the first convenient opportunity, while the nation was,
if possible, even more bellicose than the king. The apparently
insuperable difficulties of Sweden in
Poland was the
feather that turned the scale; on the 1st of
June 1657, Frederick III. signed the manifesto justifying a war
which was never formally declared and brought Denmark to the very
verge of ruin. The extraordinary
details of this dramatic struggle will be found elsewhere (see
FREDERICK III., king of Denmark, and
Charles X., king of Sweden);
suffice it to say that by the peace of Roskilde (February 26,
1658), Denmark consented to cede the three Scanian provinces, the
island of Bornholm and the Norwegian provinces of Baahus and
Trondhjem; to renounce all
anti-Swedish alliances and to exempt all Swedish [[Viii. 2
?I]]., vessels, even when carrying foreign goods, from all
tolls. These terrible losses were somewhat retrieved by the
subsequent treaty of Copenhagen (May 27, 1660) concluded by the
Swedish regency with Frederick III. after the failure of Charles
X.'s second war against Denmark, a failure chiefly owing to the
heroic defence of the Danish capital (1658-60). By this treaty
Treaty of Sweden gave back the province of
Trondhjem and the
T
Copen= isle of Bornholm and released Denmark from the most
hagen, onerous of the
obligations of the treaty of Roskilde.
1660. In fact the peace of Copenhagen came as a welcome
break in an interminable series of disasters and humiliations.
Anyhow, it confirmed the independence of the Danish state. On the
other hand, if Denmark had emerged from the war with her honour and
dignity unimpaired, she had at the same time tacitly surrendered
the dominion of the North to her Scandinavian rival.
But the war just terminated had important political
consequences, which were to culminate in one of the most curious
and interesting revolutions of modern history. In the first place,
it marks the termination of the
Adelsvaelde, or rule of
the nobility. By their cowardice, incapacity,
fished,
egotism and treachery during the crisis of the struggle, the Danish
aristocracy had justly forfeited the respect of every other class
of the community, and emerged from the war hopelessly discredited.
On the other hand, Copenhagen, proudly conscious of her
intrinsic importance and of
her inestimable services to the country, whom she had saved from
annihilation by her constancy, now openly claimed to have a voice
in public affairs. Still higher had risen the influence of the
crown. The courage and resource displayed by Frederick III. in the
extremity of the national danger had won for " the least expansive
of monarchs " an extraordinary popularity.
On the 10th of September 1660, the
Rigsdag, which was
to repair the ravages of the war and provide for the future, was
opened with great ceremony in the
Riddersaal of the
castle of Copenhagen. The first
bill laid before the Estates by the government was to impose an
excise tax on the principal
articles of
consumption, together with subsidiary taxes
on cattle,
poultry, &c., in return
for which the abolition of all the old direct taxes was promised.
The nobility at first claimed exemption from taxation altogether,
while the clergy and burgesses insisted upon an absolute equality
of taxation. There were sharp encounters between the presidents of
the contending orders, but the position of the Lower Estates was
considerably prejudiced by the dissensions of its various sections.
Thus the privileges of the bishops and of Copenhagen profoundly
irritated the lower clergy and the unprivileged towns, and made a
cordial understanding impossible, till Hans
Svane, bishop of Copenhagen, and
Hans Nansen the
burgomaster, who now openly came forward as the leader of the
reform movement, proposed that the privileges which divided the
non-noble Estates should be abolished. In accordance with this
proposal, the two Lower Estates, on the 16th of September,
subscribed a memorandum addressed to the
Rigsraad,
declaring their willingness to renounce their privileges, provided
the nobility did the same; which was tantamount to a declaration
that the whole of the clergy and burgesses had made common cause
against the nobility. The opposition so formed took the name of the
" Conjoined Estates." The presentation of the memorial provoked an
outburst of indignation. But the nobility soon perceived the
necessity of complete surrender. On the 30th of September the First
Estate abandoned its former standpoint and renounced its
privileges, with one unimportant
reservation.
The struggle now seemed to be ended, and the financial question
having also been settled, the king, had he been so minded, might
have dismissed the Estates. But the still more important question
of reform was now raised. On the 17th of September the burgesses
introduced a bill proposing a new constitution, which was to
include local self-government in the towns, the abolition of
serfdom, and the formation of a national army. It fell to the
ground for want of adequate support; but another proposition, the
fruit of secret discussion
between the king and his confederates, which placed all fiefs under
the control of the crown as regards taxation, and p rovided for
selling and letting them to the highest bidder, was accepted by the
Estate of burgesses. The significance of this
ordinance lay in the fact that it shattered
the privileged position of the nobility, by abolishing the
exclusive right to the possession of fiefs. What happened next is
not quite clear. Our sources fail us, and we are at the
mercy of doubtful rumours and more
or less unreliable anecdotes. We have a
vision of intrigues, mysterious conferences,
threats and
bribery, dimly
discernible through a shifting
mirage of tradition.
The first glint of light is a letter, dated the 23rd of
September, from Frederick III. to
Svane and Nansen, authorizing them to communicate
the arrangements already made to reliable men, and act quickly, as
" if the others gain time they may possibly gain more." The first
step was to make sure of the city trainbands: of the
garrison of Copenhagen the
king had no doubt. The headquarters of the conspirators was the
bishop's palace near
Vor Frue church, between which and
the court messages were passing continually, and where the document
to be adopted by the Conjoined Estates took its final shape. On the
8th of October the two burgomasters,
Hans Nansen and Kristoffer Hansen, proposed
that the realm of Denmark should be made over to the king as a
hereditary kingdom, without
prejudice to the privileges of the Estates;
whereupon they proceeded to Brewer's Hall, and informed the Estate
of burgesses there assembled of what had been done. A fiery oration
from Nansen dissolved some feeble opposition; and simultaneously
Bishop Svane carried the clergy along with him. The so-called "
Instrument," now signed by the Lower Estates, offered the realm to
the king and his house as a hereditary monarchy, by way of
thank-offering mainly for his courageous deliverance of the kingdom
during the war; and the
Rigsraad and the nobility were
urged to notify the
resolution to the king, and desire him to
maintain each Estate in its due privileges, and to give a written
counterassurance that the revolution now to be effected was for the
sole benefit of the state. Events now moved forward rapidly. On the
10th of October a deputation from the clergy and burgesses
proceeded to the Council House where the
Rigsraad were
deliberating, to demand an answer to their propositions. After a
tumultuous scene, the aristocratic
Raad rejected the "
Instrument " altogether, whereupon the deputies of the commons
proceeded to the palace and were graciously received by the king,
who promised them an answer next day. The same afternoon the guards
in the streets and on the ramparts were doubled; on the following
morning the gates of the city were closed,
powder and bullets were distributed among the
city
train-bands, who were
bidden to be in readiness when the alarm
bell called them, and
cavalry was massed on the environs of the city.
The same afternoon the king sent a
message to the
Rigsraad urging them to
declare their views quickly, as he could no longer hold himself
responsible for what might happen. After a feeble attempt at a
compromise the
Raad gave way. On the 13th of October it signed a
declaration to the effect that it associated itself still with the
Lower Estates in the making over of the kingdom, as a hereditary
monarchy, to his
majesty and
his heirs male and female. The same day the king received the
official communication of this declaration and the congratulation
of the burgomasters. Thus the ancient constitution was transformed;
and Denmark became a monarchy hereditary in Frederick III. and his
posterity.
But although hereditary
sovereignty had been introduced, the laws
of the land had not been abolished. The monarch was specifically
now a sovereign over-lord, but he had not been absolved from his
obligations towards his subjects. Hereditary
sovereignty per se was not held to
signify unlimited dominion, still less
absolutism. On the contrary, the magnificent
gift of the Danish nation to Frederick III. was made under express
conditions. The " Instrument " drawn up by the Lower Estates
implied the retention of all their rights; and the king, in
accepting the gift of a hereditary crown, did not repudiate the
implied inviolability of the privileges of the donors.
Unfortunately everything had been left so vague, that it was an
easy matter for ultra-royalists like Svane and Nansen to ignore the
privileges of the Estates, and even the Estates themselves.
On the 14th of October a committee was summoned to the palace to
organize the new government. The discussion turned mainly upon two
points, (I) whether a new oath of
homage should be taken to the king, and (2) what
was to be done with the
Haandfaestning or royal charter.
The first point was speedily decided in the affirmative, and, as to
the second, it was ultimately decided that the king should be
released from his path and the charter returned to him; but a rider
was added suggesting that he should, at the same time, promulgate a
Recess providing for his own and his people's welfare. Thus
Frederick III. was not left absolutely his own master; for the
provision regarding a Recess, or new constitution, showed plainly
enough that such a constitution was expected, and, once granted,
would of course have limited the royal power.
It now only remained to execute the resolutions of the
committee. On the 17th of October the charter, which the king had
sworn to observe twelve years before, was solemnly handed back to
him at the palace, Frederick III. thereupon promising to rule as a
Christian king to the
satisfaction of all the Estates of the
realm. On the following day the king, seated on the topmost step of
a lofty
tribune surmounted
by a baldaquin, erected in the midst of the principal square of
Copenhagen, received the public
homage of his subjects of all ranks, in the
presence of an immense concourse, on which occasion he again
promised to rule " as a Christian hereditary king and gracious
master," and, " as soon as possible, to prepare and set up " such a
constitution as should secure to his subjects a Christian and
indulgent sway. The ceremony concluded with a grand banquet at the
palace. After
dinner the queen
and the clergy withdrew; but the king remained. An incident now
occurred which made a strong impression on all present. With a
brimming
beaker in his hand,
Frederick III. went up to Hans Nansen, drank with him and drew him
aside. They communed together in a low voice for some time, till
the burgomaster, succumbing to the influence of his potations,
fumbled his way to his
carriage with the assistance of some of his
civic colleagues.
.^ At the same time, there's a number of attitudes they take from Islam," says the psychologist, who emphasizes that "Islam" has more of a cultural than a religious meaning here.- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
We can follow pretty plainly the stages of the progress from a
limited to an absolute monarchy. By an act dated the 10th
= of January 1661, entitled " Instrument, or
pragmatic
sanction," of the king's hereditary right to the kingdoms of
Denmark and Norway, it was declared that
rule. all the
prerogatives of
majesty, and
" all
regalia as an absolute
sovereign lord," had been made over to the king. Yet, even after
the issue of the " Instrument," there was nothing, strictly
speaking, to prevent Frederick III. from voluntarily conceding to
his subjects some share in the administration. Unfortunately the
king was bent upon still further emphasizing the plenitude of his
power. At Copenhagen his advisers were busy framing drafts of a
Lex Regia Perpetua; and the one which finally won the
royal favour was the famous
Kongelov, or " King's Law."
This document was in every way unique. In the first place it is
remarkable for its literary excellence. Compared with the barbarous
macaronic
jargon of the
contemporary official language it shines forth as a masterpiece of
pure, pithy and original Danish. Still more remarkable are the tone
and
tenor of this royal law. The
Kongelov has the highly dubious honour of being the one
written law in the civilized world which fearlessly carries out
absolutism to the last
consequences. The monarchy is declared to owe its origin to the
surrender of the supreme authority by the Estates to the king. The
maintenance of the indivisibility of the realm and of the Christian
faith according to the
Augsburg Confession, and the observance of the
Kongelov itself, are now the sole obligations binding upon
the king. The supreme spiritual authority also is now claimed; and
it is expressly stated that it becomes none to crown him; the
moment he ascends the throne, crown and
sceptre belong to him of right. Moreover, par.
26 declares guilty of
lese-majeste whomsoever shall in any
way usurp or infringe the king's absolute authority. In the
following reign the ultra-royalists went further still. In their
eyes the king was not merely autocratic, but sacrosanct. Thus
before the
anointing of
Christian V. on the
7th of June 1671, a ceremony by way of symbolizing the new
autocrat's humble submission to the Almighty, the officiating
bishop of Zealand delivered an oration in which he declared that
the king was God's immediate creation, His vicegerent on earth, and
that it was the bounden duty of all good subjects to serve and
honour the celestial majesty as represented by the king's
terrestrial majesty. The
Kongelov is dated and subscribed
the 14th of November 1665, but was kept a profound secret, only two
initiated persons knowing of its existence until after the death of
Frederick III., one of them being
Kristoffer Gabel, the king's chief
intermediary during the revolution, and the other the author and
custodian of the
Kongelov, Secretary Peder Schumacher,
better known as Griffenfeldt. It is significant that both these
confidential agents were plebeians.
The revolution of 1660 was certainly beneficial to Norway. With
the disappearance of the
Rigsraad, which, as representing
the Danish crown, had hitherto exercised sovereignty over both
kingdoms, Norway ceased to be a subject principality. The sovereign
hereditary king stood in exactly the same relations to both
kingdoms; and
1660. thus, constitutionally, Norway was
placed on an equality with Denmark, united with but not subordinate
to it. It is clear that the majority of the Norwegian people hoped
that the revolution would give them an administration independent
of the Danish government; but these expectations were not realised.
Till the cessation of the Union in 1814, Copenhagen continued to be
the headquarters of the Norwegian administration; both kingdoms had
common departments of state; and the common
chancery continued to be called the Danish
chancery. On the other hand
the condition of Norway was now greatly improved. In January 1661 a
land commission was appointed to investigate the financial and
economical conditions of the kingdoms; the fiefs were transformed
into counties; the nobles were deprived of their
immunity from taxation; and
in July 1662 the Norwegian towns received special privileges,
including the
monopoly of
the lucrative timber trade.
The
Enevaelde, or absolute monarchy, also distinctly
benefited the whole Danish state by materially increasing its
reserve of native
talent. Its
immediate consequence was to throw open every state appointment to
the middle classes; and the middle classes of that period, with
very few exceptions, monopolized the
intellect and the energy of the nation. New
blood of the best quality nourished and stimulated the whole body
politic. Expansion and progress were the watchwords at home, and
abroad it seemed as if Denmark were about to regain her former
position as a great power. This was especially the case during the
brief but brilliant administration of Chancellor Griffenfeldt.
Then, if ever, Denmark had the
chance of playing once more a leading part in
international politics. But Griffenfeldt's difficulties, always
serious, were increased by the instability of the European
situation, depending as it did on the ambition of
Louis XIV. Resolved to
conquer the Netherlands, the French king proceeded, first of all,
to isolate her by dissolving the Triple Alliance. (See
Sweden and Griffenfeldt.) In
April 1672 a treaty was concluded between France and Sweden, on
condition that France should not include Denmark in her system of
alliances without the consent of Sweden. This treaty showed that
Sweden weighed more in the French balances than Denmark. In June
1672 a French army invaded the Netherlands; whereupon the elector
of
Brandenburg
contracted an alliance with the emperor Leopold, to which Denmark
was invited to accede; almost simultaneously the
States-General
began to negotiate for a renewal of the recently expired Dano-Dutch
alliance.
In these circumstances it was as difficult for Denmark to remain
neutral as it was dangerous for her to make a choice.
An alliance with France would subordinate her to Denmark in
the Sweden; an alliance with the Netherlands would expose
Great her to an attack from Sweden. The Franco-Swedish
Northern alliance left Griffenfeldt no choice but to
accede to the War.
opposite league, for he saw at once that the ruin of the
Netherlands would disturb the
balance of power in the north by
giving an undue preponderance to England and Sweden. But Denmark's
experience of Dutch promises in the past was not reassuring; so,
while negotiating at
the
Hague for a renewal of the Dutch alliance, he at the same time
felt his way at
Stockholm towards a commercial treaty with
Sweden. His Swedish mission proved abortive, but, as he had
anticipated, it effectually accelerated the negotiations at
the Hague, and frightened
the Dutch into unwonted liberality. In May 1673 a treaty of
alliance was signed by the ambassador of the
States-General at
Copenhagen, whereby the Netherlands pledged themselves to pay
Denmark large subsidies in return for the services of Io,000 men
and twenty warships, which were to be held in readiness in case the
United Provinces were attacked by another enemy besides France.
Thus, very dexterously, Griffenfeldt had succeeded in gaining his
subsidies without sacrificing his
neutrality.
.^ Fomenting anti-Semitism: Muslim violence threatens Denmark's approximately 6,000 Jews, who increasingly depend on police protection.- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
When, in December 1674, a Swedish army invaded Prussian
Pomerania, Denmark was
bound to intervene as a belligerent, but Griffenfeldt endeavoured
to postpone this intervention as long as possible; and Sweden's
anxiety to avoid hostilities with her southern
neighbour materially assisted him to postpone
the evil day. He only wanted to gain time, and he gained it. To the
last he endeavoured to avoid a rupture with France even if he broke
with Sweden; but he could not restrain for ever the foolish
impetuosity of his own sovereign,
Christian V., and his fall in the beginning
of 1676 not only, as he had foreseen, involved Denmark in an
unprofitable war, but, as his friend and
disciple,
Jens Juel, well observed, relegated her
henceforth to the humiliating position of an international catspaw.
Thus at the peace of
Fontainebleau (September 2, 1679)
Denmark, which had borne the brunt of the struggle in the Baltic,
was compelled by the inexorable French king to make full
restitution to Sweden, the treaty between the two northern powers
being signed at Lund on the 26th of September. Freely had she spent
her blood and her treasure, only to emerge from the five years'
contest exhausted and empty-handed.
By the peace of
Fontainebleau Denmark had been sacrificed
to the interests of France and Sweden; forty-one years later she
was sacrificed to the interests of
Hanover and
Prussia by the peace of Copenhagen (1720),
which ended the Northern War so far as the German powers were
concerned. But it would not have terminated advantageously for them
at all, had not the powerful and highly efficient Danish fleet
effectually prevented the Swedish government from succouring its
distressed German provinces, and finally swept the Swedish fleets
out of the northern waters. Yet all the
compensation Denmark received for her
inestimable services during a whole decade was 600,000 rixdollars!
The bishoprics of
Bremen and
Verden, the province of
Farther Pomerania and the isle of Riigen which her armies had
actually conquered, and which had been guaranteed to her by a whole
catena of treaties, went partly to the upstart electorate of
Hanover and partly to the
upstart kingdom of
Prussia,
both of which states had been of no political importance whatever
at the beginning of the war of spoliation by which they were,
ultimately, to profit so largely and so cheaply.
The last ten years of the reign of Christian V.'s successor,
Frederick IV. (1699-1730),
were devoted to the
nursing
and development of the resources of the country, which had suffered
only less severely than Sweden from the effects F IV rederick 1699
., of the Great Northern War. The court, seriously pious,
1730. did much for education. A wise economy also
contributed to reduce the
national debt within manageable limits,
and in the welfare of the peasantry
Frederick IV. took a deep
interest. In 1722 serfdom was abolished in the case of all peasants
in the royal estates born after his accession.
The first act of Frederick's successor, Christian VI.
(1730-1746), was to abolish the national
militia, which had been an intolerable burden
upon the peasantry; yet the more pressing agrarian difficulties
were not thereby surmounted,
Christian as had been hoped.
The price of corn continued 1746/730= to fall; the
migration of the peasantry
assumed alarming proportions; and at last, " to preserve the land "
as well as to increase the defensive capacity of the country, the
national
militia was
re-established by the
decree
of the 4th of February 1733, which at the same time bound to the
soil all peasants between the age of nine and forty. Reactionary as
the measure was it enabled the agricultural interest, on which the
prosperity of Denmark mainly depended, to
tide over one of the most dangerous crises in its
history; but certainly the position of the Danish peasantry was
never worse than during the reign of the religious and benevolent
Christian VI.
Under the peaceful reign of Christian's son and successor,
Frederick V. (1746-1766),
still more was done for commerce, industry and agriculture. To
promote Denmark's carrying trade, treaties were made with the
Barbary Frederick States,
Genoa and
Naples; and the East Indian
1766.
Trading Company flourished exceedingly. On the other hand the
condition of the peasantry was even worse under
Frederick V. than it had been
under Christian VI., the
Stavnsbaand, or regulation which
bound all males to the soil, being made operative from the age of
four. Yet signs of a coming amelioration were not wanting. The
theory of the physiocrats now found powerful advocates in Denmark;
and after 1755, when the press censorship was abolished so far as
regarded political economy and agriculture, a thorough discussion
of the whole agrarian question became possible. A commission
appointed in 1757 worked zealously for the
repeal of many agricultural abuses; and several
great landed proprietors introduced hereditary leaseholds, and
abolished the servile tenure.
Foreign affairs during the reigns of Frederick V. and Christian
VI. were left in the capable hands of J. H. E. Bernstorff, who
aimed at steering clear of all foreign complications and preserving
inviolable the
neutrality of Denmark. This he succeeded in
doing, in spite of the
Seven Years' War and of the
difficulties attending the thorny Gottorp question in which Sweden
and Russia were equally interested.
.^ At the same time, there's a number of attitudes they take from Islam," says the psychologist, who emphasizes that "Islam" has more of a cultural than a religious meaning here.- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
(1766-1808), one of the
1808, most eventful periods of modern Danish history. The
king himself was indeed a semi-idiot, scarce responsible for his
actions, yet his was the era of such striking personalities as the
brilliant
charlatan
Struensee, the great philanthropist and reformer C. D. F.
Reventlow, the ultra-conservative Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, whose mission
it was to repair: the damage done by Struensee, and that generation
of alert and progressive
spirits which surrounded the young crown prince
Frederick, whose first act, on taking his seat in the council of
state, at the age of sixteen, on the 4th of April 1784, was to
dismiss Guldberg.
A fresh and fruitful period of reform now began, lasting till
nearly the end of the century, and interrupted only by the brief
but costly war with Sweden in 1788. The emancipation of the
peasantry was now the burning question of the day, and the whole
matter was thoroughly ventilated. Bernstorff and the crown prince
were the most zealous advocates of the peasantry in the council of
state; but the honour of bringing the whole peasant question within
the range of practical politics undoubtedly belongs to
C. D. F.
Reventlow. Nor was the reforming principle limited to the
abolition of serfdom. In 1788 the corn trade was declared free; the
Jews received civil rights; and
the negro slave trade was forbidden. In 1796 a special ordinance
reformed the whole system of judicial procedure, making it cheaper
and more expeditious; while the
toll ordinance of the 1st of February 1797 still
further extended the principle of
free trade.
.^ Freedom of speech in Denmark [136 words] .- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
^ Freedom of speech: Danish Cartoons and John Lennon [585 words] .- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
^ Denmark has a much broader spectrum of welfare costs than countries in North America.- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
But in September 1799 under strong
pressure from the
Russian
emperor
Paul, the Danish
government forbade anonymity, and introduced a limited
censorship.
It was Denmark's obsequiousness to Russia which led to the first
of her unfortunate collisions with Great Britain. In 1800 the
Danish government was persuaded by the
tsar to accede to the second Armed Neutrality
League, which Russia had just concluded with Prussia and
the
Napo- Sweden. Great Britain retaliated by laying an
embargo on the vessels of the
three neutral powers, and by sending a considerable fleet to the
Baltic under the command of Parker and
Nelson. Surprised and unprepared though they
were, the Danes, nevertheless, on the 2nd of April 180t, offered a
gallant resistance; but their fleet was destroyed, their capital
bombarded, and, abandoned by Russia, they were compelled to submit
to a disadvantageous peace.
The same vain endeavour of Denmark to preserve her neutrality
led to the second breach with England. After the peace of
Tilsit there could be no further
question of neutrality.
Napoleon had determined that if Great Britain
refused to accept Russia's
mediation, Denmark, Sweden and
Portugal were to be forced to
close their harbours to her ships and declare war against her. It
was the intention of the Danish government to preserve its
neutrality to the last, although, on the whole, it preferred an
alliance with Great Britain to a league with
Napoleon, and was even prepared for a breach
with the French emperor if he pressed her too hardly. The army had
therefore been assembled in Holstein, and the crown prince
regent was with it. But the
British government did not consider Denmark strong enough to resist
France, and Canning had private trustworthy information of the
designs of Napoleon, upon which he was bound to act.
.^ Something Rotten in Denmark: $30,000 bounty [66 words] .- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
Denmark was offered an alliance, the
complete restitution of her fleet after the war, a
guarantee of all her
possessions,
compensation for all expenses, and even
territorial aggrandizement.
Dictatorially presented as they were, these terms were liberal
and even generous; and if a great statesman like Bernstorff had
been at the head of affairs in Copenhagen, he would, no doubt, have
accepted them, even if with a wry face. But the prince
regent, if a good patriot, was a
poor politician, and invincibly obstinate. When, therefore, in
August 1807,
Gambier arrived
in the Sound, and the English plenipotentiary Francis James
Jackson, not perhaps the most
tactful person that could have been chosen, hastened to
Kiel to place the British demands
before the crown prince, Frederick not only refused to negotiate,
but ordered the Copenhagen authorities to put the city in the best
state of defence possible. Taking this to be tantamount to a
declaration of war, on the 16th of August the British army landed
at Vedback; and shortly afterwards the Danish capital was invested.
Anything like an adequate defence was hopeless;
Loss of a
bombardment began
which lasted from the 2nd of
Norway. September till the
5th of September, and ended with
Treaty of the
capitulation of the
city and the surrender of the
Kiel, 1814. fleet intact,
the prince regent having neglected to give orders for its
destruction. After this Denmark, unwisely, but not unnaturally,
threw herself into the arms of Napoleon and continued to be his
faithful ally till the end of the war. She was punished for her
obstinacy by being deprived of Norway, which she was compelled to
surrender to Sweden by the terms of the treaty of Kiel (1814), on
the 14th of January, receiving by way of compensation a sum of
money and Swedish Pomerania, with Riigen, which were subsequently
transferred to Prussia in exchange for the duchy of
Lauenburg and 2,000,000
rix-dollars.
On the establishment of the German
Confederation in 1815, Frederick VI.
acceded thereto as duke of Holstein, but refused to allow Schleswig
to enter it, on the ground that Schleswig was an integral part of
the Danish realm.
The position of Denmark from 1815 to 1830 was one of great
difficulty and
distress.
The loss of Norway necessitated considerable reductions of
expenditure, but the economies actually practised fell far short of
the requirements of y P q
after 1815. the diminished
kingdom and its depleted
exchequer; while the agricultural depression
induced by the enormous fall in the price of corn all over Europe
caused fresh demands upon the state, and added Io,000,000
rix-dollars to the national debt before 1835. The last two years of
the reign of Frederick VI. (1838-1839) were also remarkable for the
revival of political life, provincial consultative assemblies being
established for Jutland, the Islands, Schleswig and Holstein, by
the ordinance of the 28th of May 1831. But these consultative
assemblies were regarded as insufficient by the Danish Liberals,
and during the last years of Frederick VI. and the whole reign of
his successor,
Christian VIII. (1839-1848), the
agitation for a free constitution, both in Denmark and the duchies,
continued to grow in strength, ins spite of press prosecutions and
other g ? P P P repressive measures. The rising national
feeling in Germany also stimulated the separatist tendencies
of the of the duchies; and
"Schleswig-Holsteinism," as it now began to be called, evoked in
Denmark the
counter-movement
known as
Eiderdansk-politik, i.e. the policy of extending
Denmark to the Eider and obliterating German Schleswig, in order to
save Schleswig from being absorbed by Germany. This division of
national sentiment within the monarchy, complicated by the
approaching extinction of the Oldenburg line of the house of
Denmark, by which, in the normal course under the
Salic law, the succession
to Holstein would have passed away from the Danish crown, opened up
the whole complicated SchleswigHolstein Question with all its
momentous consequences. (See
Schleswig-Holstein
Question.) Within the monarchy itself, during the following
years, " Schleswig-Holsteinism " and " Eiderdanism " faced each
other as rival, mutually exacerbating forces; and the efforts of
succeeding governments to solve the insoluble problem broke down
ever on the rock of nationalist passion and the interests of the
German powers. The unionist constitution, devised by
Christian VIII.,
and pro mulgated by his successor, Frederick VII. (1848-1863), on
the 28th of January 1848, led to the armed intervention of Prussia,
at the instance of the new German parliament at
Frankfort; and though with
the help P l g P of
Russian
and British
diplomacy,
the Danes were ultimately successful, they had to submit, in 1851,
to the government of Holstein by an international commission
consisting of three members, Prussian, Austrian and Danish
respectively.
Denmark, meanwhile, had been engaged in providing herself with a
parliament on modern lines. The constitutional rescript of the 28th
of January 1848 had been withdrawn in favour of an electoral law
for a national assembly, of whose 152 members 38 were to be
nominated by the king and to form an Upper House
(
Landsting), while the remainder were to be elected by the
people and to form a popular chamber (
Folketing). The
Bondevenlige, or
philo-peasant party, which objected to the king's
right of nomination and preferred a one-chamber system, now
separated from the National Liberals on this point. But the
National Liberals triumphed at the general election; fear of
reactionary tendencies finally induced the Radicals to accede to
the wishes of the majority; and on the 5th of June 1849 the new
constitution received the royal sanction.
At this stage Denmark's foreign relations prejudicially affected
her domestic politics. The Liberal Eiderdansk party was for
dividing Schleswig into three distinct administrative belts,
according as the various nationalities predomin ated (language
rescripts of '85),but German sentiment was opposed to any such
settlement and, still worse, the great continental powers looked
askance on the new Danish constitution as far too democratic. The
substance of the notes embodying the exchange of views, in 1851 and
1852, between the German great powers and Denmark, was promulgated,
on the 28th of January 1852, in the new constitutional
decree which, together with the
documents on which it was founded, was known as the Conventions of
1851 and 1852. Under this arrangement each part of the monarchy was
to have local
autonomy,
with a common constitution for common affairs. Holstein was now
restored to Denmark, and Prussia and
Austria consented to take part in the
conference of
London, by which
the integrity of Denmark was upheld, and the succession to the
whole monarchy settled on Prince Christian, youngest son of Duke
William of SchleswigHolstein-
Sonderburg-Gliicksburg, and husband of
Louise of
Hesse, the niece of
King Christian VIII. The " legitimate " heir to the duchies, under
the
Salic law, Duke
Christian of
Sonderburg-Augustenburg, accepted the
decision of the
London
conference in consideration of the purchase by the Danish
government of his estates in Schleswig.
On the 2nd of October 1855 was promulgated the new common
constitution, which for two years had been the occasion of a fierce
contention between the Conservatives and the Radicals. It proved no
more final than its predecessors.
The representatives of the duchies in the new common
Rigsraad protested against it, as subversive of the
Conventions of 1851 and 1852; and their attitude had the support of
the German powers. In 1857,
Carl Christian Hall became
prime minister.
After putting off the German powers by seven years of astute
diplomacy, he realized the
impossibility of carrying out the idea of a common constitution
and, on the 30th of March 1862, a royal
proclamation was issued detaching Holstein
as far as possible from the common monarchy. Later in the year he
introduced into the
Rigsraad a common constitution for
Denmark and Schleswig, which was carried through and confirmed by
the council of state on the 13th of November 1863. It had not,
however, received the royal assent when the death of Frederick VII.
brought the "
Protocol
King "
Christian
IX. to the throne. Placed between the necessity of offending
his new subjects or embroiling himself with the German powers,
Christian chose the remoter evil and, on the 18th of November, the
new constitution became law. This once more opened up the whole
question in an acute form. Frederick, son of Christian of
Augustenburg, ref using to be bound by his father's engagements,
entered Holstein and, supported by the Estates and the German diet,
proclaimed himself duke. The events that followed; the occupation
of the duchies by
Austria
and Prussia, the war of 1864, gallantly fought by the Danes against
overwhelming odds, and the astute diplomacy by which
Bismarck succeeded in
ultimately gaining for Prussia the seaboard so essential for her
maritime power, are dealt with elsewhere (see
Schleswig-Holstein
Question). For Denmark the question was settled when, by the
peace of
Vienna (October 30,
1864), the duchies were irretrievably lost to her. At the peace of
Prague, which terminated the
Austro-Prussian War of 1866,
Napoleon III. procured the insertion in
the treaty of
.^ However, the new Danish government has made it extremely difficult for Danish citizens to bring a foreign spouse to Denmark.- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
Finally, in 1878, by
a separate agreement between Austria and Prussia,
paragraph v. was
rescinded.
The salient feature of Danish politics during subsequent years
was the struggle between the two Tings, the
Folketing or Lower House, and the Landsting, or
Upper House of the Rigsdag. Th is contest began in 18 2
when a com- g g g %, bination of all the Radical parties,
known as the United Left," passed a vote of want of confidence
against the government and rejected the budget.
Nevertheless, the ministry, supported by the
Landsting,
refused to resign; and the crisis became acute when, in 1875, J. B.
Estrup became
prime minister.
.^ The coming European civil war.- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
The Left was willing to vote 30,000,000 crowns for extraordinary
military expenses, exclusive of the fortifications of Copenhagen,
on condition that the amount should be raised by a property and
income tax; and, as the
elections of 1875 had given them a majority of three-fourths in the
popular chamber, they spoke with no uncertain voice. But the Upper
House steadily supported Estrup, who was disinclined to accept any
such compromise. As an agreement between the two houses on the
budget proved impossible, a provisional financial decree was issued
on the 12th of April 1877, which the Left stigmatized as a breach
of the constitution. But the difficulties of the ministry were
somewhat relieved by a split in the Radical party, still further
accentuated by the elections of 1879, which enabled Estrup to carry
through the army and navy defence bill and the new military penal
code by leaning alternately upon one or the other of the divided
Radical groups.
After the elections of 1881, which brought about the
reamalgamation of the various Radical sections, the opposition
presented a united front to the government, so that, from 1882
onwards, legislation was almost at a standstill. The elections of
1884. showed clearly that the nation was also now on the side of
the Radicals, 83 out of the 102 members of the
Folketing
belonging to the opposition. Still Estrup remained at his post. He
had underestimated the force of public opinion, but he was
conscientiously convinced that a Conservative ministry was
necessary to Denmark at this crisis. When therefore the
Rigsdag rejected the budget, he advised the king to issue
another provisional financial decree. Henceforth, so long as the
Folketing refused to vote supplies, the ministry regularly
adopted these makeshifts. In 1886 the Left, having no
constitutional means of dismissing the Estrup ministry, resorted
for the first time to negotiations; but it was not till the 1st of
April 1894 that the majority of the
Folketing could arrive
at an agreement with the government and the
Landsting as
to a budget which should be retrospective and sanction the
employment of the funds so irregularly obtained for military
expenditure. The whole question of the provisional financial
decrees was ultimately regularized by a special
resolution of the
Rigsdag; and the retirement of the Estrup ministry in
August 1894 was the immediate result of the compromise.
In spite of the composition of 1894, the animosity between
Folketing and
Landsting continues to characterize
Danish politics, and the situation has been complicated by the
division of both Right and Left into widely divergent groups. The
elections of 1895 resulted in an undeniable victory of the extreme
Radicals; and the budget of 1895-1896 was passed only at the last
moment by a compromise. The session of 1896-1897 was remarkable for
a
rapprochement between the ministry and the " Left Reform
Party," caused by the secessions of the " Young Right," which led
to an unprecedented event in Danish politics - the voting of the
budget by the Radical
Folketing and its rejection by the
Conservative
Landsting in May 1897; whereupon the ministry
resigned in favour of the moderate Conservative
Herring cabinet, which induced the Upper House
to pass the budget. The elections of 1898 were a fresh defeat for
the Conservatives, and in the autumn session of the same year, the
Folketing, by a crushing majority of 85 to 12, rejected
the military budget. The ministry was saved by a mere
accident - the
expulsion of Danish
agitators from North
Schleswig by the German government, which evoked a passion of
patriotic protest throughout Denmark, and united all parties, the
war minister declaring in the
Folketing, during the debate
on the military budget (January 1899), that the armaments of
Denmark were so far advanced that any great power must think twice
before venturing to attack her.
.^ Fomenting anti-Semitism: Muslim violence threatens Denmark's approximately 6,000 Jews, who increasingly depend on police protection.- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
The session 1900-1901 was remarkable
for the further disintegration of the
Conservative party still in office
(the Sehested cabinet superseded the Horring cabinet on the 27th of
April 1900) and the almost total
paralysis of parliament, caused by the
interminable debates on the question of taxation reform. The crisis
came in 1901. Deprived of nearly all its supporters in the
Folketing, the Conservative ministry resigned, and King
Christian was obliged to assent to the formation of a " cabinet of
the Left " under Professor Deuntzer. Various reforms were carried,
but the proposal to sell the Danish islands in the West Indies to
the United States fell through. During these years the relations
between Denmark and the German empire improved, and in the country
itself the cause of social
democracy made great progress. In January
1906 King Christian ended his long reign, and was succeeded by his
son
Frederick VIII. At the
elections of 1906 the government lost its small absolute majority,
but remained in power with support from the Moderates and
Conservatives. It was severely shaken, however, when Herr A.
Alberti, who had been minister of justice since 1901, and was
admitted to be the strongest member of the cabinet, was openly
accused of nepotism and abuse of the power of his position. These
charges gathered weight until the minister was forced to resign in
July 1908, and in September he was arrested on a charge of
forgery in his capacity as
director of the Zealand Peasants' Savings Bank. The ministry, of
which Herr Jens Christian Christensen was head, was compelled to
resign in October. The effect of these revelations was profound not
only politically, but also economically; the important export trade
in Danish butter, especially, was adversely affected, as Herr
Alberti had been interested in numerous dairy companies.
Bibliography. - I. General History.
Danmarks Riges
Historie (Copenhagen, 1897-1905); R. Nisbet Bain,
Scandinavia (Cambridge, 1905); H. Weitemeyer,
Denmark (London, 1901); Adolf Ditlev Jorgensen,
Historiske Afhandlinger (Copenhagen, 1898);
ib.
Fortaellinger af Nordens Historic (Copenhagen, 1892). II.
Early And Medieval History. SaXO,
Gesta Danorum
(Strassburg, 1886);
Repertorium diplomaticum regni Danici
mediaevalis (Copenhagen, 1894);
Ludvig Holberg,
Konge
og Danehof (Copenhagen, 18 95); Poul Frederik Barford,
Danmarks Historic 1319-1536 (Copenhagen, 1885);
ib.
1536-1670 (Copenhagen, 1891). III. 16TH TO 19TH
Century.
Philip P. Munch,
Kobstadstyrelsen i
Danmark (Copenhagen, 1900);
Peter Edvard Holm,
Danmark Norges indre Historic, 1660-1720
(Copenhagen, 1885-1886);
ib. Danmark Norges Historic,
1720-1814 (Copenhagen, 1891-1894); Soren Bloch Thrige,
Danmarks Historic i vort Aarhundrede (Copenhagen, 1888);
Marcus Rubin,
Frederick VI.'s Tid fra Kielerfreden
(Copenhagen, 1895)
Christian
Frederick von Holten,
Erinnerungen; Der deutsch-deinische
Krieg (Stuttgart, 1900); Niels
Peter Jensen,
Den anden slesvigske Krig
(Copenhagen, 1900); S. N. Mouritsen,
Vor Forfatnings
Historic (Copenhagen, 1894); Carl Frederik Vilhelm Mathildus
Rosenberg,
Danmark! i Aaret 1848 (Copenhagen, 1891). See
also the special bibliographies appended to the biographies of the
Danish kings and statesmen. (R. N. B.)
Literature The present language of Denmark
is derived directly from the same source as that of Sweden, and the
parent of both is the old Scandinavian (see
Scandinavian Languages). In
Iceland this tongue, with some modifications, has remained in use,
and until about 110o it was the literary language of the whole of
Scandinavia. The influence of Low German first, and High German
afterwards, has had the effect of drawing modern Danish constantly
farther from this early type. The difference began to show itself
in the 12th century. R. K. Rask, and of ter him N. M. Petersen,
have distinguished four periods in the development of the language.
The first, which has been called Oldest Danish, dating from about 1
ioo and 1250, shows a slightly changed character, mainly depending
on the system of inflections. In the second period, that of Old
Danish, bringing us down to 1400, the change of the system of
vowels begins to be settled, and masculine and feminine are mingled
in a common gender. An indefinite article has been formed, and in
the conjugation of the verb a great simplicity sets in. In the
third period, 1400-1530, the influence of German upon the language
is supreme, and culminates in the Reformation. The fourth period,
from 1530 to about 1680, completes the work of development, and
leaves the language as we at present find it.
The earliest work known to have been written in Denmark was a
Latin biography of Knud the Saint,
written by an English monk iElnoth, who was attached to the church
of St Alban in Odense where King Knud was murdered. Denmark
produced several
Latin writers
of merit. Anders Sunesen (d. 1228) wrote a long poem in hexameters,
Hexaemeron, describing the creation. Under the auspices of
Archbishop Absalon the
monks of
Sorb began to compile the annals of Denmark, and at the end of the
12th century Svend Aagesen, a cleric of Lund, compiled from
Icelandic sources and oral tradition his
Compendiosa historic
regum Daniae. The great
Saxo Grammaticus wrote his
Historia Danica under the same patronage.
It was not till the 16th century that literature began to be
generally practised in the
vernacular in Denmark. The oldest laws which
are still preserved date from the beginning of the 13th century,
and many different collections are in existence.' A single work
detains us in the 13th century, a treatise on
medicine2 by Henrik Harpestreng, who died in
1244. The first royal
edict
written in Danish is dated 1386; and the Act of Union at Kalmar,
written in 1397, is the most important piece of the
vernacular of the 14th
century. Between 1300 and 1500, however, it is supposed that the
Kjaempeviser, or Danish
ballads, a large collection of about Soo epical
and lyrical poems, were originally composed, and these form the
most
precious legacy of the Denmark of
the middle
ages, whether judged historically or poetically. We
know nothing of the
authors of these poems, which treat of the heroic adventures of the
great warriors and lovely ladies of the chivalric age in strains of
artless but often exquisite beauty. Some of the subjects are
borrowed in altered form from the old
mythology, while a few derive from Christian
legend, and many deal with national history. The language in which
we receive these
ballads,
however, is as late as the 16th or even the 17th century, but it is
believed that they have become gradually modernized in the course
of oral tradition. The first attempt to collect the ballads was
made in 1591 by Anders Sorensen Vedel (1542-1616), who published
ioo of them. Peder Syv printed ioo more in 1695. In 1812-1814 an
elaborate collection in five volumes appeared at
Christiania, edited by
W. H. F. Abrahamson, R. Nyerup and K. M. Rahbek. Finally, Svend
Grundtvig produced an exhaustive edition,
Danmarks gamle
Folkeviser (Copenhagen, 1853-1883, 5 vols.), which was
supplemented (1891) by A. Olrik.
In 1490, the first
printing press was set up at Copenhagen, by
Gottfried of Gemen, who had brought it from
Westphalia; and five years later the first
Danish book was printed. This was the famous
Rimkronike 3;
a history of Denmark in rhymed Danish verse, attributed by its
first editor to Niels (d. 1481), a monk of the monastery of Sorb.
It extends to the death of Christian I., in 1481, which may be
supposed to be approximately the date of the poem. In 1479 the
university of Copenhagen had been founded. In 1506 the same
Gottfried of Gemen published a famous collection of proverbs,
attributed to Peder Laale. Mikkel,
priest of St Alban's Church in Odense, wrote
three sacred poems,
The Rose-Garland of Maiden Mary,
The Creation and 1 Collected as
Samling af gamle danske
Love (5 vols., Copenhagen, 1821-1827).
Henrik Harpestraengs Laegebog (ed. C. Molbech,
Copenhagen, 1826).
Ed. C. Molbech (Copenhagen, 1825).
Human Life, which came out together in 1514, shortly
before his death. The popular Lucidarius also appeared in
the vulgar tongue.
These few productions appeared along with innumerable works in
Latin, and dimly heralded a Danish literature. It was the
Reformation that first awoke the living spirit in the popular
tongue.
Christiern Pedersen (q.v.;
1480-1554) was the first man of letters produced in Denmark. He
edited and published, at Paris in 1514, the Latin text of the old
chronicler,
Saxo Grammaticus; he worked up in
their present form the beautiful halfmythical stories of
Karl
Magnus (Charlemagne) and
Holger Danske (Ogier the
Dane). He further translated the Psalms of
David and the New Testament, printed in 1529, and
finally - in conjunction with Bishop Peder Palladius - the
Bible, which appeared in 1550. Hans
Tausen, the bishop of Ribe (1494-1561), continued Pedersen's work,
but with far less literary
talent. He may, however, be considered as the
greatest orator and teacher of the Reformation movement. He wrote a
number of popular
hymns, partly
original, partly translations; translated the
Pentateuch from the Hebrew; and published
(1536) a collection of sermons embodying the reformed doctrine and
destined for the use of clergy and laity.
The Catholic party produced one controversialist of striking
ability, Povel Helgesen 1 (b. c. 1480), also known as
Paulus Eliae. He had at first been inclined to the party of reform,
but when Luther broke definitely with the papal authority he became
a bitter opponent. His most important polemical work is an answer
(1528) to twelve questions on the religious question propounded by
Gustavus I. of Sweden. He is also supposed to be the author of the
Skiby Chronicle,' in which he does not confine himself to
the duties of a mere annalist, but records his personal opinion of
people and events. Vedel, by the edition of the
Kjaempeviser which is mentioned above, gave an immense
stimulus to the progress of literature. He published an excellent"
translation of Saxo Grammaticus in 1575. The first edition of a
Danish Reineke Fuchs, by Herman Weigere, appeared at
Lubeck in 1555, and the first authorized Psalter in 1559. Arild
Huitfeld wrote Chronicle of the Kingdom of Denmark,
printed in ten volumes, between 1595 and 1604.
There are few traces of dramatic effort in Denmark before the
Reformation; and many of the plays of that period may be referred
to the class of school comedies. Hans Sthen, a lyrical poet, wrote
a morality entitled
Kortvending (" Change of Fortune "),
which is really a collection of monologues to be delivered by
students. The anonymous
Ludus de Sancto Kanuto 3 (c. 1530)
which in spite of its title, is written in Danish, is the earliest
Danish national drama. The
burlesque drama assigned to Christian Hansen,
The Faithless Wife, is the only one of its kind that has
survived.
.^ The authors claim that 40% of Danish welfare expenses are consumed by Muslim immigrants.- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
Beside these works
Ranch wrote a famous moralizing poem, entitled "
A new song, of the nature and song of certain birds, in which many
vices are punished, and many virtues praised." Peder Clausen
(1545-1614), a Norwegian by birth and education, wrote a
Description of Norway, as well as an admirable translation
of Snorri Sturlason's
Heimskringla, published ten years of
ter Clausen's death. The father of Danish
poetry, Anders Kristensen Arrebo (1587-1637),
was bishop of Trondhjem, but was deprived of his see for
immorality. He was a poet of considerable genius, which is most
brilliantly shown in an imitation of Du Bartas's
Divine
Semaine, 1 See
Povel Eliesens danske Skrifter
(Copenhagen, 1855, &c.), edited by C. E. Secher.
2 See Monumenta historiae Danicae (ed. H. Rbrdam, vol.
i., 1873).
3 Ed. Sophus Birket Smith (Copenhagen, 1868), who also edited
the comedies ascribed to Chr. Hansen as De tre aeldste danske
Skuespil (1874), and the works of Ranch (2876).
4 His works were edited by Gustav
Storm (Christiania, 1877-1879) the
Hexaemeron, a poem on the creation, in six books, which
did not appear till 1661. He also made a translation of the
Psalms.
He was followed by Anders Bording (1619-1677), a cheerful
occasional versifier, and by Thbger Reenberg (1656-1742), a poet of
somewhat higher gifts, who lived on into a later age. Among
prose writers should be mentioned
the grammarian Peder Syv,5 (1631-1702); Bishop
Erik
Pontoppidan (1616-1678), whose
Grammatica Danica,
published in 1668, is the first systematic analysis of the
language; Birgitta Thott (1610-1662), a lady who translated
Seneca (1658); and Leonora
Christina Ulfeld, daughter of Christian IV., who has left a
touching account of her long imprisonment in her
Jammersminde. Ole
Worm
(1588-1654), a learned
pedagogue and antiquarian, preserved in his
Danicorum monumentorum libri sex (Copenhagen, 1643) the
descriptions of many antiquities which have since perished or been
lost.
In two spiritual poets the
advancement of the literature of Denmark
took a further step. Thomas Kingo 6 (1634-1703) was the first who
wrote Danish with perfect ease and grace. He was a Scot by descent,
and retained the vital energy of his ancestors as a birthright. In
1677 he became bishop in Fiinen, where he died in 1703. His
Winter Psalter (1689), and the so-called
Kingo's
Psalter (1699), contained brilliant examples of lyrical
writing, and an employment of language at once original and
national. Kingo had a charming fancy, a clear sense of form and
great rapidity and variety of utterance. Some of his very best
hymns are in the little volume he
published in 1681, and hence the old period of semi-articulate
Danish may be said to close with this eventful decade, which also
witnessed the birth of Holberg. The other great hymn-writer was
Hans Adolf Brorson (1694-1764), who published in 1740 a great
psalm-book at the king's command,
in which he added his own to the best of Kingo's. Both these men
held high posts in the church, one being bishop of Fiinen and the
other of Ribe; but Brorson was much inferior to Kingo in genius.
With these names the introductory period of Danish literature ends.
The language was now formed, and was being employed for almost all
the uses of science and
philosophy.
Ludvig Holberg (q.v.;
1684-1754) may be called the founder of modern Danish literature.
His various works still retain their freshness and vital
attraction. As an historian his style was terse and brilliant, his
spirit philosophical, and his data singularly accurate.
.^ At the same time, there's a number of attitudes they take from Islam," says the psychologist, who emphasizes that "Islam" has more of a cultural than a religious meaning here.- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
In his thirty-three dramas, sparkling comedies in
prose, more or less in imitation of
Moliere, he has left his most important positive
legacy to literature. Nor in any series of
comedies in existence is decency so rarely sacrificed to a desire
for popularity or a false sense of wit.
Holberg founded no school of immediate imitators, but his
stimulating influence was rapid and general. The university of
Copenhagen, which had been destroyed by fire in 1728, was reopened
in 1742, and under the auspices of the historian Hans
Gram (1685-1748), who founded the
Danish
Royal
Academy of Sciences, it inspired an active intellectual life.
Gram laid the foundation of
critical history in Denmark. He brought to bear on the subject a
full knowledge of documents and sources. His best work lies in his
annotated editions of the older chroniclers. In 1744 Jakob Langebek
(1710-1775) founded the Society for the Improvement of the Danish
Language, which opened the field of
philology. He began the great collection of
Scriptores rerum Danicarum medii aevi (9 vols.,
Copenhagen, 1772-1878). In
jurisprudence Andreas Hier (1690-1739)
represented the new impulse, and in
zoology Erik Pontoppidan, the younger. This
last name represents a lifelong activity in many branches of
literature. From Holberg's college of Sorb, two learned professors,
Jens Schelderup Sneedorff (1724-1764) and Jens Kraft (1720-1765),
disseminated the seeds of a wider culture. All these men were aided
by the generous and enlightened patronage 5 See Fr. W.
Horn,
Peder Syv (Copenhagen,
1878). See A. C. L. Heiberg,
Thomas Kingo (Odense,
1852).
of Frederick V. A little later on, the German poet Klopstock
settled in Copenhagen, bringing with him the
prestige of his great reputation, and he had a
strong influence in Germanizing Denmark. He founded, however, the
Society for the
Fine
Arts, and had it richly endowed. The first prize offered was
won by Christian Braumann Tullin (1728-1765) for his beautiful poem
of
May-day. Tullin, a Norwegian by birth, represents the
first accession of a study of external nature in Danish poetry; he
was an ardent
disciple of
the English poet
Thomson.
Christian Falster (1690-1752) wrote satires of some merit, but most
of his work is in Latin. The
New Heroic Poems of Jorgen
Sorterup are notable as imitations of the old folk-literature.
Ambrosius Stub (1705-1758) was a lyrist of great sweetness, born
before his due time, whose poems, not published till 1771, belong
to a later age than their author.
The Lyrical Revival. - Between 1742 and 1749, that is
to say, at the very climax of the personal activity of Holberg,
several poets were born, who were destined to enrich the language
with its first group of lyrical blossoms. Of these the two eldest,
Wessel and Ewald, were men of extraordinary genius, and destined to
fascinate the attention of posterity, not only by the brilliance of
their productions, but by the suffering and brevity of their lives.
Johannes Ewald
(q.v.; 1743-1781) was not only the greatest Danish lyrist of the
18th century, but he had few rivals in the whole of Europe. As a
dramatist, pure and simple, his
bird-like
instinct of song carried him too often into a
sphere too exalted for the stage; but he has written nothing that
is not stamped with the exquisite quality of distinction. Johan
Herman Wessel' (1742-1785) excited even greater hopes in his
contemporaries, but left less that is immortal behind him. Af ter
the death of Holberg, the affectation of Gallicism had reappeared
in Denmark; and the tragedies of Voltaire, with their
stilted rhetoric, were the most popular dramas of the
day. Johan Nordahl Brun (1745-1816), a young writer who did better
things later on, gave the
finishing touch to the
exotic absurdity by bringing out a wretched
piece called
Zarina, which was hailed by the press as the
first original Danish tragedy, although Ewald's exquisite
Rolf
Krage, which truly merited that title, had appeared two years
before. Wessel, who up to that time had only been known as the
president of a club of wits, immediately wrote
Love without
Stockings (1772), in which a plot of the most abject
triviality is worked out in strict accordance with the rules of
French tragedy, and in most pompous and pathetic Alexandrines. The
effect of this piece was magical; the Royal
Theatre ejected its
cuckoo-brood of French plays, and even the
Italian opera. It was now essential that every
performance should be national, and in the Danish language. To
supply the place of the opera, native musicians, and especially J.
P. E. Hartmann, set the dramas of Ewald and others, and thus the
Danish school of
music
originated. Johan Nordahl Brun's best work is to be found in his
patriotic songs and his hymns. He became bishop of
Bergen in 1803.
Of the other poets of the revival the most important were born
in Norway. Nordahl Brun, Claus Frimann (1746-1829), Claus
Fasting (1746-1791), who edited
a brilliant aesthetic journal,
The Critical Observer,
Christian H.
Pram (1756-1821),
author of
Staerkodder, a romantic epic, based on
Scandinavian legend, and Edvard
Storm (1749-1794), were associates and mainly
fellowstudents at Copenhagen, where they introduced a style
peculiar to themselves, and distinct from that of the true Danes.
Their lyrics celebrated the mountains and rivers of the magnificent
country they had left; and, while introducing images and scenery
unfamiliar to the inhabitants of monotonous Denmark, they enriched
the language with new words and phrases. This group of writers is
now claimed by the Norwegians as the founders of a
Norwegian
literature; but their true place is certainly among the Danes,
to whom they primarily appealed. They added 1 His collected works
were edited by Fr. Barford (Copenhagen, 5th ed., 1879).
2 Wessel's Digte (3rd ed., 1895) are edited. by J.
Levin, with a biographical introduction.
3 A biography by his friend, K. L. Rahbek, is prefixed to a
selection of his poetry (6 vols., 1824-1829).
nothing to the development of the drama, except in the person of
N. K. Bredal (1733-1778), who became director of the Royal Danish
Theatre, and the writer of
some mediocre plays.
To the same period belong a few prose writers of
eminence. Werner Abrahamson
(1744-1812) was the first aesthetic critic Denmark produced. Johan
Clemens Tode (1736-1806) was eminent in many branches of science,
but especially as a medical writer. Ove Malling (1746-1829) was an
untiring
collector of
historical data, which he annotated in a lively style. Two
historians of more definite claim on our attention are Peter
Frederik Suhm (1728-1798), whose
History of Denmark (II
vols., Copenhagen, 1782-1812) contains a mass of original material,
and Ove Guldberg (1
731-1808). In
theology Christian Bastholm (1740-1819) and
Nicolai Edinger Balle (1744-1816), bishop of Zealand, a Norwegian
by birth, demand a reference. But the only really great
prose-writer of the period was the Norwegian, Niels Treschow
(1751-1833), whose philosophical works are composed in an admirably
lucid style, and are distinguished for their depth and
originality.
The poetical revival sank in the next generation to a more
mechanical level. The number of writers of some talent was very
great, but genius was wanting. Two intimate friends, Jonas
Rein (1760-1821) and Jens Zetlitz
(1761-1821), attempted, with indifferent success, to continue the
tradition of the Norwegian group. Thomas Thaarup (1749-1821) was a
fluent and eloquent writer of occasional poems, and of homely
dramatic idylls. The early death of Ole Samsoe (1759-1796)
prevented the development of a dramatic talent that gave rare
promise. But while poetry languished, prose, for the first time,
began to flourish in Denmark. Knud Lyne Rahbek (1760-1830) was a
pleasing novelist, a dramatist of some merit, a pathetic elegist,
and a witty song-writer; he was also a man full of the literary
instinct, and through a long
life he never ceased to busy himself with editing the works of the
older poets, and spreading among the people a knowledge of Danish
literature through his magazine,
Minerva, edited in conjunction with C. H.
Pram.
Peter
Andreas Heiberg (1 75 8 - 18 44 was a political and aesthetic
critic of note. He was exiled from Denmark in company with another
sympathizer with the principles of
the French Revolution, Malte Conrad
Brunn (1775-1826), who settled
in Paris, and attained a world-wide reputation as a geographer. O.
C. Olufsen (1764-1827) was a writer on
geography,
zoology and political economy. Rasmus Nyerup
(1759-1829) expended an immense energy in the compilation of
admirable works on the history of language and literature. From
1778 to his death he exercised a great power in the statistical and
critical departments of letters. The best historian of this period,
however, was Engelstoft (1774-1850), and the most brilliant
theologian Bishop Mynster (1775-1854). In the annals of modern
science
Hans Christian Oersted
(1777-1851) is a name universally honoured. He explained his
inventions and described his discoveries in language so lucid and
so characteristic that he claims an honoured place in the
literature of the country of whose culture, in other branches, he
is one of the most distinguished ornaments.
On the
threshold of
the romantic movement occurs the name of
Jens
Baggesen (q.v.; 1764-1826), a man of great genius, whose work
was entirely independent of the influences around him.
Jens
Baggesen is the greatest comic poet that Denmark has produced;
and as a satirist and witty lyrist he has no rival among the Danes.
In his hands the difficulties of the language disappear; he
performs with the utmost ease extraordinary
tours de force of style. His astonishing
talents were wasted on trifling themes and in a, fruitless
resistance to the modern spirit in literature.
Romanticism
With the beginning of the 19th century the new light in philosophy and poetry,
which radiated from Germany through all parts of Europe, found its
way into Denmark also. In scarcely any country was the result so
rapid or so brilliant. .^ Rotten in Denmark - the same all over Europe [2197 words] .- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
The splendid
cultivation of metrical art threw other branches into the shade;
and the epoch VIII. 2 'a ' of which we are about
to speak is eminent above all for mastery over verse. The swallow who heralded the summer
was a German by birth, Adolph Wilhelm Schack von Staffeldt l
(1769-1826), who came over to Copenhagen from Pomerania, and
prepared the way for the new movement. Since Ewald no one had
written Danish lyrical verse so exquisitely as Schack von
Staffeldt, and the depth and scientific precision of his thought
won him a title which he has preserved, of being the first
philosophic poet of Denmark. The writings of this man are the
deepest and most serious which Denmark had produced, and at his
best he yields to no one in choice and skilful use of expression.
This sweet song of Schack von Staffeldt's, however, was early
silenced by the louder choir
that one by one broke into music
around him. It was Adam Gottlob
Ohlenschldger (q.v.; 1 7791850), the greatest poet of Denmark, who
was to bring about the new romantic movement. In 1802 he happened
to meet the young Norwegian Henrik Steffens (1773-1845), who had
just returned from a scientific tour in Germany, full of the
doctrines of Schelling. Under the immediate direction of Steffens,
Ohlenschldger began an entirely new poetic style, and destroyed all
his earlier verses. A new epoch in the language began, and the
rapidity and matchless facility of the new poetry was the wonder of
Steffens himself. The old Scandinavian mythology lived in the hands of Ohlenschldger
exactly as the classical Greek religion was born again in Keats.
He aroused in his people the slumbering sense of their Scandinavian
nationality.
The retirement of Ohlenschlfiger comparatively early in life,
left the way open for the development of his younger
contemporaries, among whom several had genius little inferior to
his own. Steen Steensen Blicher (1782-1848) was a Jutlander, and
preserved all through life the characteristics of his sterile and
sombre fatherland. After a struggling youth of great poverty, he
published, in 1807-1809, a translation of
Ossian; in 181 4 a volume of lyrical poems; and
in 1817 he attracted considerable attention by his descriptive poem
of
The Tour in Jutland. His real genius, however, did not
lie in the direction of verse; and his first
signal success was with a story,
A Village
Sexton's Diary, in 1824,
which was rapidly followed by other tales, descriptive of village
life in Jutland, for the next twelve years. These were collected in
five volumes (1833-1836). His masterpiece is a collection of short
stories, called
The Spinning Room. He also produced many
national lyrics of great beauty. But it was Blicher's use of
patois which delighted his
countrymen with a sense of freshness and strength. They felt as
though they heard Danish for the first time spoken in its fulness.
The poet Aarestrup (in 1848) declared that Blicher had raised the
Danish language to the dignity of Icelandic. Blicher is a stern
realist, in many points akin to Crabbe, and takes a singular
position among the romantic idealists of the period, being like
them, however, in the love of precise and choice language, and
hatred of the mere commonplaces of imaginative writing.
Nikolai Frederik Severin
Grundtvig (q.v.; 1783-1872), like Ohlenschldger, learned the
principles of the German romanticism from the lips of Steffens. He
adopted the idea of introducing the Old Scandinavian element into
art, and even into life, still more earnestly than the older poet.
Bernhard Severin Ingemann
(q.v.; 1789-1862) contributed to Danish literature historical
romances in the style of
Sir Walter Scott.
Johannes Carsten Hauch (q.v.;
1790-1872) first distinguished himself as a disciple of
Ohlenschlger, and fought under him in the strife against the old
school and Baggesen. But the master misunderstood the disciple; and
the harsh repulse of Ohlenschldger silenced Hauch for many years.
He possessed, however, a strong and fluent genius, which eventually
made itself heard in a multitude of volumes, poems, dramas and
novels. All that Hauch wrote is marked by great qualities, and by
distinction; he had a native
bias
towards the mystical, which, however, he learned to keep in
abeyance.
1 See F. L. Liebenberg, Schack Staffeldts samlede Digte
(2 vols., Copenhagen, 1843), and Samlinger til Schack
Staffeldts Levnet (4 vols., 1846-1851).
2 Blicher's Tales were edited by P. Hansen (3 vols.,
Copenhagen, 1871), and his Poems in 1870.
Johan Ludvig Heiberg (q.v.;
1791-1860) was a critic who ruled the world of Danish taste for
many years. His mother, the Baroness
Gyllembourg-Ehrensvard (q.v.; 1773-1856),
wrote a large number of anonymous novels. Her knowledge of life,
her sparkling wit and her almost faultless style, make these short
stories masterpieces of their kind.
Christian Hviid Bredahl (1784-1860) produced six volumes of
Dramatic Scenes' (1819-1833) which, in spite of their many
brilliant qualities, were little appreciated at the time. Bredahl
gave up literature in despair to become a peasant farmer, and died
in poverty.
Ludvig Adolf Bbdtcher (1793-1874) wrote a single volume of
lyrical poems, which he gradually enlarged in succeeding editions.
He was a consummate artist in verse, and his impressions are given
with the most delicate exactitude of phrase, and in a very fine
strain of imagination. He was a
quietist and an epicurean, and the closest parallel to
Homer in the literature of the
North. Most of Bodtcher's poems deal with
Italian life, which he learned to know
thoroughly during a long residence in
Rome. He was secretary to Thorwaldsen for a
considerable time.
Christian
Winther (q.v.; 1796-1876) made the island of Zealand his loving
study, and that province of Denmark belongs to him -no less
thoroughly than the
Cumberland lakes belong to Wordsworth.
Between the latter poet and Winther there was much resemblance. He
was, without compeer, the greatest
pastoral lyrist of Denmark. His exquisite
strains, in which pure imagination is blended with most accurate
and realistic descriptions of scenery and rural life, have an
extraordinary
charm not easily
described.
The youngest of the great poets born during the last twenty
years of the 8th century was
Henrik Hertz (q.v.; 1797-1870). As a
satirist and comic poet he followed Baggesen, and in all branches
of the poetic art stood a little aside out of the main current of
romanticism. He introduced into the Danish literature of his time
inestimable elements of lucidity and purity. In his best pieces
Hertz is the most modern and most
cosmopolitan of the Danish writers of his
time.
It is noticeable that all the great poets of the romantic period
lived to an advanced age. Their prolonged literary activity - for
some of them, like Grundtvig, were busy to the last - had a
slightly damping influence on their younger contemporaries, but
certain names in the next generation have special prominence.
Hans Christian Andersen (q.v.;
1805-1875) was the greatest of modern fabulists. In 1835 there
appeared the first collection of his
Fairy Tales, and won him a world-wide
reputation. Almost every year from this time forward until near his
death he published about
Christmas time one or two of these unique
stories, so delicate in their
humour and pathos, and so masterly in their
simplicity. Carl Christian Bagger (1807-1846) published volumes in
1834 and 1836 which gave promise of a great future, - a promise
broken by his early death.
Frederik Paludan-Muller (q.v.;
1809-1876) developed, as a poet, a magnificent career, which
contrasted in its abundance with his solitary and silent life as a
man. His mythological or
pastoral dramas, his great satiric epos of
Adam Homo (1841-1848), his comedies, his lyrics, and above
all his noble philosophic tragedy of
Kalanus, prove the
immense breadth of his
compass, and the inexhaustible riches of his
imagination. C. L. Emil Aarestrup (1800-1856) published in 1838 a
volume of vivid erotic poetry, but its quality was only appreciated
after his death. Edvard Lembcke (18r5-1897) made himself famous as
the admirable translator of
Shakespeare, but the incidents of
1864 produced from him some volumes of direct and manly patriotic
verse.
The poets completely ruled the literature of Denmark during this
period. There were, however, eminent men in other departments of
letters, and especially in
philology.
Rasmus Christian Rask (1787-1832)
was one of the most original and gifted linguists of his age. His
grammars of Old Frisian, Icelandic and AngloSaxon were unapproached
in his own time, and are still admirable. Niels
Matthias Petersen (1791-1862), a disciple of
Rask, was the author of an admirable
History of Denmark in the
Heathen 3 Edited (3 vols., 2nd ed., 1855, Copenhagen) by F. L.
Liebenberg.
Antiquity, and the translator of many of the sagas.
Martin Frederik Arendt (1773-1823), the botanist and archaeologist,
did much for the study of old Scandinavian records. Christian
Molbech (1783-1857) was a laborious lexicographer, author of the
first good Danish dictionary, published in 1833. In Joachim
Frederik Schouw (1789-1852), Denmark produced a very eminent
botanist, author of an exhaustive
Geography of Plants. In later years he
threw himself with zeal into politics. His botanical researches
were carried on by Frederik Liebmann (1813-1856). The most famous
zoologist contemporary with these men was Salomon Dreier
(1813-1842).
The romanticists found their philosopher in a most remarkable
man,
Soren Aaby Kierkegaard
(1813-1855), one of the most subtle thinkers of Scandinavia, and
the author of some brilliant philosophical and polemical works. A
learned philosophical writer, not to be compared, however, for
genius or originality to Kierkegaard, was Frederik Christian
Sibbern (1785-1872). He wrote a dissertation
On Poetry and Art
(3 vols., 1853-1869) and
The Contents 'of a MS. from the
Year 2135 (3 vols., 1858-1872).
Among novelists who were not also poets was Andreas Nikolai de
Saint-Aubain (1798-1865), who, under the
pseudonym of
Carl Bernhard,
wrote a series of charming romances. Mention must also be made of
two dramatists, Peter
Thun Feorsom
(1777-1817) ,who produced an excellent translation of
Shakespeare (1807-1816), and Thomas
Overskou (1798-1873), author of a long series of successful
comedies, and of a history of the Danish theatre (5 vols.,
Copenhagen, 18J4-1864).
Other writers whose names connect the age of romanticism with a
later period were Meyer Aron Goldschmidt (1819-1887), author of
novels and tales; Herman Frederik Ewald (1821-1908), who wrote a
long series of historical novels; Jens Christian Hostrup
(1818-1892), a writer of exquisite comedies; and the miscellaneous
writer Erik Biigh (1822-1899). In zoology, J. J. S. Steenstrup
(1813-1898); in philology, J. N. Madvig (1804-1886) and his
disciple V.
Thomsen (b.
1842); in antiquarianism, C. J.
Thomsen (1788-1865) and J. J. Asmussen Worsaae
(1821-1885); and in philosophy, Rasmus Nielsen (1809-1884) and Hans
Brochner (1820-1875), deserve mention.
The development of imaginative literature in Denmark became very
closely defined during the latter half of the 19th century. The
romantic movement culminated in several poets of great
eminence, whose deaths
prepared the way for a new school. In 1874 Bodtcher passed away, in
1875 Hans Christian Andersen, in the last week of 1876 Winther, and
the greatest of all,
Frederik Paludan-Muller. The
field was therefore left open to the. successors of those
idealists, and in 1877 the reaction began to be felt. The eminent
critic, Dr
Georg Brandes, had long
foreseen the decline of pure romanticism, and had advocated a more
objective and more exact
treatment of literary phenomena. Accordingly, as soon as all the
great planets had disappeared, a new
constellation was perceived to have
risen, and all the stars in it had been lighted by the enthusiasm
of Brandes. The new writers were what he called Naturalists, and
their sympathies were with the latest forms of
exotic, but particularly of
French
literature. Among these fresh forces three immediately took
place as leaders - Jacobsen, Drachmann and
Schandorph. In J. P. Jacobsen (q.v.;
1847-1885) Denmark was now taught to welcome the greatest artist in
prose which she has ever possessed; his romance of
Marie
Grubbe led off the new school with a production of unexampled
beauty. But Jacobsen died young, and the work was really carriedout
by his two companions.
Holger Drachmann
(q.v.; 1846-1908) began life as a marine painter; and a first
little volume of poems, which he published in 1872, attracted
slight attention. In 1877 he came forward again with one volume of
verse, another of fiction, a third of travel; in each he displayed
great vigour and freshness of touch, and he rose at one leap to the
highest position among men of promise. Drachmann retained his
place, without rival, as the leading imaginative writer in Denmark.
For many years he made the aspects of life at sea his particular
theme, and he contrived to rouse the patriotic enthusiasm of the
Danish public as it had never been roused before. His various and
unceasing productiveness, his freshness and vigour, and the
inexhaustible richness of his lyric versatility, early brought
Drachmann to the front and kept him there. Meanwhile prose
imaginative literature was ably supported by Sophus
Schandorph (1836-1901),
who had been entirely out of sympathy with the idealists, and had
taken no step while that school was in the ascendant. In 1876, in
his fortieth year, he was encouraged by the change in taste to
publish a volume of realistic stories,
Country Life, and
in 1878 a novel,
Without a Centre. He has some relation
with Guy de Maupassant as a close
analyst of modern types of character, but he
has more
humour. He has been
compared with such Dutch painters of low life as
Teniers. His talent reached its height in the
novel called
Little Folk (1880), a most admirable study of
lower middle-class life in Copenhagen. He was for a while, without
doubt, the leading living novelist, and he went on producing works
of great force, in which, however, a certain motonony is apparent.
The three leaders had meanwhile been joined by certain younger men
who took a prominent position. Among these Karl Gjellerup and Erik
Skram were the earliest. Gjellerup (b. 1857), whose first works of
importance date from 1878, was long uncertain as to the direction
of his powers; he was poet, novelist, moralist and biologist in
one; at length he settled down into line with the new realistic
school, and produced in 1882 a satirical novel of manners which had
a great success,
The Disciple of the Teutons. Erik Skram
(b. 1847) had in 1879 written a solitary novel,
Gertrude
Coldbjornsen, which created a sensation, and was hailed by
Brandes as exactly representing the "
naturalism " which he desired to see
encouraged; but Skram has written little else of importance. Other
writers of reputation in the naturalistic school were Edvard
Brandes (b. 1847), and Herman Bang (b. 1858). Peter Nansen (b.
1861) has come into wide notoriety as the author, in particularly
beautiful Danish, of a series of stories of a pronouncedly sexual
type, among which
Maria (1894) has been the most
successful. Meanwhile, several of the elder generation, unaffected
by the movement of
realism,
continued to please the public. Three lyrical poets, H. V. Kaalund
(1818-1885), Carl Ploug (1813-1894) and Christian Richardt
(1831-1892), of very great talent, were not yet silent, and among
the
veteran novelists were
still active H. F. Ewald and Thomas Lange (1829-1887). Ewald's son
Carl (1856-1908) achieved a great name as a novelist, but did his
most characteristic work in a series of books for children, in
which he used the
fairy tale, in
the manner of Hans Andersen, as a vehicle for
satire and a theory of morals. During the whole
of this period the most popular writer of Denmark was J. C. C.
Brosboll (1816-1900), who wrote, under the
pseudonym Carit Etlar, a vast number of
tales. Another popular novelist was Vilhelm BergsOe (b. 1835),
author of
In the Sabine Mountains (1871), and other
romances. Sophus Bauditz (b. 1850) persevered in composing novels
which attain a wide general popularity. Mention must be made also
of the dramatist Christian Molbech (1821-1888).
Between 1885 and 1892 there was a transitional period in Danish
literature. Up to that time all the leaders had been united in
accepting the naturalistic formula, which was combined with an
individualist and a radical tendency. In 1885, however, Drachmann,
already the recognized first poet of the country, threw off his
allegiance to Brandes,
denounced the exotic tradition, declared himself a Conservative,
and took up a national and patriotic attitude. He was joined a
little later by Gjellerup, while Schandorph remained stanchly by
the side of Brandes. The camp was thus divided.
.^ Other Europeans (such as the late Pim Fortuyn in Holland) have also grown alarmed about these issues, but Danes were the first to make them the basis for a change in government.- Something Rotten in Denmark? :: Daniel Pipes 19 January 2010 8:50 UTC www.danielpipes.org [Source type: General]
Of the authors who came forward during this period of
transition, the strongest novelist proved to be Hendrik Pontoppidan
(b. 1857). In some of his books he reminds the reader of Turgeniev.
Pontoppidan published in 1898 the first volume of a great novel
entitled
LykkePer, the biography of a typical Jutlander
named Per Sidenius, a work to be completed in eight volumes. From
1893 to 1909 no great features of a fresh kind revealed themselves.
The Danish public, grown tired of
realism, and satiated with pathological
phenomena, returned to a fresh study of their own national
characteristics. The cultivation of verse, which was greatly
discouraged in the eighties, returned. Drachmann was supported by
excellent younger poets of his school. J. J. Jorgensen (b. 1866), a
Catholic decadent, was very prolific. Otto C. Fonss (b. 1853)
published seven little volumes of graceful lyrical poems in praise
of gardens and of farm-life. Andreas Dolleris (b. 1850), of Vejle,
showed himself an occasional poet of merit.
Alfred Ipsen
(b. 1852) must also be mentioned as a poet and critic. Valdemar
Rordam, whose
The Danish Tongue was the lyrical success of
1901, may also be named. Some attempts were made to transplant the
theories of the symbolists to Denmark, but without
signal success. On the other
hand, something of a revival of
naturalism is to be observed in the powerful
studies of low life admirably written by Karl Larsen (b. 1860).
The drama has long flourished in Denmark. The principal theatres
are liberally open to fresh dramatic talent of every kind, and the
great fondness of the Danes for this form of entertainment gives
unusual scope for experiments in halls or private theatres; nothing
is too
eccentric to hope
to obtain somewhere a fair
hearing. Drachmann produced with very great
success several romantic dramas founded on the national legends.
Most of the novelists and poets already mentioned also essayed the
stage, and to those names should be added these of Einar
Christiansen (b. 1861), Ernst von der Recke (b. 1848), Oskar Benzon
(b. 1856) and Gustav Wied (b. 1858).
In
theology no names
were as eminent as in the preceding generation, in which such
writers as H. N. Clausen (1793-1877), and still more Hans Larsen
Martensen (1808-1884), lifted the
prestige of Danish divinity to a high point.
But in history the Danes have been very active. Karl
Ferdinand Allen (1811-1871)
began a comprehensive history of the Scandinavian kingdoms (5
vols., 1864-1872).
Jens Peter Trap (1810-1885) concluded his great statistical
account of Denmark in 1879. The 16th century was made the subject
of the investigations of
Troels Lund. About 1880 several of
the younger historians formed the plan of combining to investigate
and publish the sources of Danish history; in this the
indefatigable Johannes Steenstrup (b. 1844) was prominent. The
domestic history of the country began, about 1885, to occupy the
attention of Edvard Holm (b. 1833), O. Nielsen and the
veteran P. Frederik Barfod
(1811-1896). The naval histories of G. Liitken attracted much
notice. Besides the names already mentioned, A. D. Jorgensen
(1840-1897), J. Fredericia (b. 1849), Christian Erslev (b. 1852)
and Vilhelm Mollerup have all distinguished themselves in the
excellent school of Danish historians. In 1896 an elaborate
composite history of Denmark was undertaken by some leading
historians (pub. 1897-1905). In philosophy nothing has recently
been published of the highest value. Martensen's
Jakob
Bohme (1881) belongs to an earlier period. H. Hoff ding (b.
1843) has been the most prominent contributor to
psychology. His
Problems of Philosophy and his
Philosophy of
Religion were translated into English in 1906. Alfred Lehmann
(b. 1858) has, since 1896, attracted a great deal of attention by
his sceptical investigation of psychical phenomena. F. Running has
written on the history of thought in Denmark. In the criticism of
art,
Julius Lange (1838-1896),
and later Karl Madsen, have done excellent service. In literary
criticism Dr
Georg Brandes is notable for
the long period during which he remained predominant. His was a
steady and stimulating presence, ever pointing to the best in art
and thought, and his influence on his age was greater than that of
any other Dane.
Authorities.-R. Nyerup,
Den danske Digtekunsts Historie
(1800-1808), and
Almindeligt Literaturlexikon (1818-1820);
N. M. Petersen,
Literaturhistorie (2nd ed.,
1867-1871, 5 vols.); Overskou,
Den danske Skueplads
(1854-1866, 5 vols.), with a continuation (2 vols., 1873-1876) by E
Collin; Chr. Bruun,
Bibliotheca Danica (3 vols.,
1872-1896); Bricka,
Dansk biografisk Lexikon (1887-1901);
J. Paludan,
Danmarks Literatur i Middelalderen
(Copenhagen, 1896); P. Hansen,
Illustreret Dansk
Literaturhistorie (3 vols., 1901-1902); F. W.
Horn,
History of the Scandinavian North from
the most ancient times to the present (English translation by
Rasmus B.
Anderson
(Chicago, 1884), with bibliographical appendix by Thorwald
Solberg); Ph. Schweitzer,
Geschichte der Skandinavischen
Litteratur (3 pts.,
Leipzig, 1886-1889), .forming vol. viii. of the
Geschichte der Welt- litteratur. See also Brandes,
Kritiker og Portraiter (1870); Brandes,
Danske
Ditgere (1877); Marie Herzfeld,
Die Skandinavische
Litteratur and ihre Tendenzen (Berlin and
Leipzig, 1898); Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen,
Essays on Scandinavian Literature (London, 18 95);
Edmund Gosse,
Studies in the Literature of Northern Europe (new ed.,
London, 1883); Vilhelm Andersen,
Litteraturbilleder
(Copenhagen, 1903); A. P. J. Schener,
Kortfattet Indledning til
Romantikkus Periode i
Danmarks Litteratur
(Copenhagen, 1894). (E. G.)
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