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- [size=+2]The Tale Of Christiania[/size]
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The story of Christiania is colour full, long, and filled with battles, victories and defeats. Many of the people who began the experiment do not live here anymore, but the dream of a life lived in freedom and the idea of a city ruled by its inhabitants continues. Now 25 years later, people from near and far still feel attracted to the magical mixture of anarchy and love of the Freetown. It all began in 1970 when a group of citizens knocked down the fence at the corner of Prinsessegade and Refshalevej close to the Grey Hall. They wanted a playground for their kids and something green to look at.
The same year an exhibition took place at Charlottenborg called "Noget for Noget" (Give and Take), where all sorts of hippies, freaks and people into macrobiotics showed themselves off, sold their goods and exhibited their art, including theatre, pictures, and happenings. An alternative newspaper called Hovedbladet (Head Magazine) was published in connection with the exhibition.
One of the articles discussed the abandoned military barrack in Badsmandsstraedes kaserne and put forward thousands of possible ideas for their use, not least as homes for the numerous young people who were unable to find accommodation elsewhere. However, the squatters movement and the alternative forces "The New Society" summer camp in Thy also needed a place for them to be able to realize their dreams. The article resulted in a massive immigration of people form all sections of society, who came to create an alternative life based on communal living and freedom. This was the birth of Christiania.
- The police made many attempts to remove people from the area, but had to give up since the area was too big and there were too many people.
Christiania thus became a political issue which eventually ended up in Parliament. Christiania agreed to pay for the use of water and electricity, and in return recife political acceptance as a "social experiment". The experiment was to continue until a competition of suggestions for the use of the area could be arranged. In the following year, 1973, the government changed, and with it the attitude towards Christiania. Now the plan was to clear the area and close it down.
The same year NATO had a summit in Copenhagen. For the occasion the theatre group Sogvognen staged a huge happening involving hundreds of participants. A "NATO-army" occupied the Danish Radio and other strategic points making it appear as if Denmark was occupied by NATO forces. For several hours the whole nation was in serious doubt as to whether the events were true or merely a gimmick.
In the meantime, Christiania was getting organized. Ten minor areas with self government were established, the highest authority being The Common Meeting in which all citizens could participate. While the garbage team worked out a system of garbagesorting, the blacksmith made heaters out of old oil barrels. At Loppen all kinds of music was played - from turkish folk music to amateur rock and jazz.
These first years Christiania was marked by, and became well known for its theatre and politial action. In 1974 twelwe lists of candidates were put up for the city council election. Technically, the candidates were working together and managed to get a woman from the Women´s List into the city council. She created quite a turmoil both in the council and in the media by turning up to the meetings breast-feeding her child. Was this at all acceptable?
Also in 1974, the first Christmas for the poor and lonely was arranged and Solvognen organized an army of Father Christmass' who generously handed out presents to both young and old from the city´s department stores. Naturally they were arrested but as a consequence, pictures of the Police beating up Father Christmass' hit the front pages of the papers worldwide. Christmas for the poor and lonely remains a sacred tradition and every year approximately 1200 people are served a free Christmas dinner.
- By 1975 Christiania had become a political pawn between the State and the City council. Finally the Government decided that the area was to be cleared by April 1976.
By now, Christiania had organized lots of activities - a communal bath house, a nursery and a kindergarten, garbage collection and recycling, as well as communal shops and factories which were doing well. Solvognen put on "Elverhøj" in the Grey Hall parodying the popular and nationalistic play. This version of the play brought the Freetown a lot of attention. People were also mobilizing themselves for the coming confrontation with the State. A rainbow army was organized by dividing the people into work groups, each of which had their own colour characterizing the different tasks. Red for outgoing action, green for food and nutrition, blue for consciousness, raising etc.
Everyone in Denmark was invited to Christiania and almost 10.000 showed up. Some of the hottest Danish rock-groups at the time produced a record in aid of Christiania, which became extremely popular.
On last of April 1976, nothing happened. At the very last minute, the Parliament had decided to postpone closing down Christiania. Instead, most of April became a huge manifestation of alternative Denmark. The National Museum of Denmark published a book on the alternative community in Christiania, and architects and town planners spoke enthusiastically of the ideas of the Freetown.
- At this point in time Christiania brought charges against the State. The competition that had been planned in 1973 had still not taken place. As the Parliament had decided that the inhabitants of Christiania could stay until then, the Christianites felt that the decision to clear the area in 1976 was a breach of faith.
It was expected that the trial would postpone the closure of Christiania. In 1977, the Christiania exhibition "Kærlighed og kaos" (Love and Chaos) opened at Charlottenborg, and a huge working festival was put into action. The Freetown was cleaned and repaired from top to bottom. Some of the people from Christiania produced the record "Vores Musik" (Our Music), which included some rare examples of local poets.
In 1978, the case was lost in the Supreme Court, and Christiania had to mobilize itself yet again. A plan to get hundreds of thousands of people to defend Christiania was launched, and again the Freetown put up candidates for the City elections. The agenda included a demand for Christiania to be preserved on its own terms and conditions - for the good of everyone. The Christiania List managed to get a representative onto the council, a man who during the following years became well known for his tough speeches against jerry builders and bulldozer slumclearance. The Parliament now decided that a plan for the area should be produced and that the place had to be "normalized", although they did not give any clues as to how.
- In Copenhagen the Police virtually made a witch hunt against the junkies and the hash dealers of the city. At the same time heroin was introduced to Denmark. In Christiania, this became evident both through a rapid growth of hash dealing, and in an increasing number of junkies.
The community tried to cooperate with the Police in cleaning the hash market for junk, but we were betrayed by the Head of Police who instead made a mega-raid on the hash dealers.
Christiania now had to take action itself and so organized withdrawal programmes for the junkies, and took action against the drug dealers. This peaked in early 79/80, when a blockade against junk was activated. The junkies were offered withdrawal treatment and the dealers thrown out. Even though these were very black years, another side of blackness was in full bloom. "Rockmaskinen" (The Rock Machine) in Fredens Ark (the Ark of Peace) became in 1978 the home of the growing punk scene in Copenhagen.
Around the Freetown, lots of cabarets and shows were playing. In Operaen, Månefiskeren, Rockmaskinen and Bøssehuset (the Gay House), the local culture was in full bloom. And in 1981, a group of actors took a trip to Modena, Italy, to show their art, at an invitation of the council.
In 1982 the Goverment hired a private city development firm to make a future plan for the area. While the Christianites built up, rearranged, grew gardens, and gave birth to a lot of kids, the development firm produced a report which suggested that Christiania was developed as an experimental city within wide frames of self-government.
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