Copenhagen was the hometown of Hans Christian Andersen from 1819, when he arrived in town to become famous, till his death in 1875. Throughout his life he found inspiration in his surroundings. In his works one recognizes a Copenhagen in rapid development - from a small town hiding behind the ramparts to a sprawling modern city.
The exhibition took the shape of a walk through the capital following in the footsteps of Hans Christian Andersen. Along the way doors were opened and we were introduced to the Copenhageners he shared the city with. Original artefacts and pictures told the real fairytale of the author and the city for children and adults alike.

In connection to the Golden Days festival, this year bearing the title “1700s - Globalization, Gossip and Greed”, the Museum of Copenhagen relaunch the salon in a unique cooperation with the art group Ingen Frygt.

Get wise in an excentric tent-system

The old gilded Banquet Hall of the Museum of Copenhagen provide the backdrop when Ingen Frygt activate 9 years’ work in an excentric tent-system, mixed with artefacts from the museum’s own collection and flotsam from Copenhagen’s 18^th century subconscious.

In this room we continue some of the controversial dialogues from the Enlightenment. Not necessarily to reach an answer, but to get wiser trying. Experience learned presentations, unexpected angles, shocking allegations, touching singing and explosive flavours: it is the 1700s in 2010 in the middle of Copenhagen.

Tickets of 50 kr. can be bought at the Museum of Copenhagen.

Program

Terra Incognita SOLD OUT

Wednesday September 8th 2010 at 6.30 - 9.00 pm

Utopias and Castles in the Air

Wednesday September 15th 2010 at 6.30 - 9.00 pm

Coquetry

Wednesday September 22th 2010 at 6.30 - 9.00 pm

Manliness

Wednesday September 29th 2010 at 6.30 - 9.00 pm

All Nights of Enlightenment are presented in Danish.
Only exception is the performance piece Let’s Get Personal, that will be performed in English on September 15th. The rest of Utopias and Castles in the Air will be presented in Danish.

Read more about Golden Days

Read more about Ingen Frygt

Pictures from the exhibition. From left to right: Still from the movie “My favorite Graffiti, Queen Louise’s Bridge around 1898, still from video of the eviction of the asylum seekers from Brorson Church in 2009.

Nørrebro is presented at the Museum of Copenhagen from June 25th to August 29th 2010, when we show the exhibition “Nørrebro - stories from a neighbourhood”. The exhibition is curated by young Nørrebroers who through their own productions and dips in the museum’s picture archives put words, pictures and sound to the before and now of Nørrebro.

Street riots and green parks

Violent street riots, small worker’s tenement apartments, crowds, Turkish greengrocers and the buzz of languages from all over the world. Those are some of the things coming to mind when the talk is about the most densely populated and most culturally diverse neighbourhood in Copenhagen - Nørrebro. The myths of Nørrebro are thriving and associations are to a restless neighbourhood with a turbulent history. But Nørrebro is also new and old communities, green parks, street art and cosy communal kitchens. With the exhibition “Nørrebro - stories from a neighbourhood” the Museum of Copenhagen wishes to break with any preconceived perceptions of Nørrebro. Therefore the museum passes the microphone to Nørrebro itself and lets its inhabitants tell their different stories about their neighbourhood and the people that lived and lives there.

17 young people tell about Nørrebro

In the exhibition the four themes “Meeting”, “Movement”, “Home” and “Out” present stories about present Nørrebro in dialogue with historical photographs and films from the picture archives of the Museum of Copenhagen. The contemporary material is created by young Nørrebroers, who for the last 1 ½ years have been working at the Museum of Copenhagen collecting and producing stories about Nørrebro as part of the Nørrebro Project.

Camping in the Nørrebro Park

Using cameras, microphones and laptops the young people have created first hand accounts from those parts of Nørrebro, they deem to need a bit of spotlight. Experience pictures from a 24 hour tent camping in the Nørrebro Park, meet the passengers of the 5A bus on a ride down Nørrebrogade or enter the cosy, smoky locales of the Café Viking. In the exhibition you can also go back to the times when horse drawn carriages filled Queen Louise’s Bridge towards the end of the 19^th century and view the dramatic photos of the clearing of the Allotria House in the 1980s.

Se videos from the Nørrebro Project.

From demolishing the ramparts to the eviction from the church

The exhibition is a journey through the history of Nørrebro from the demolition of the city’s ramparts and the following construction of the new “-bro” neighbourhoods to the eviction of the asylum seekers from the Brorson Church, the emerging of new street art and modern trash movements. In the exhibition one can experience the conflicts that have helped create Nørrebro and how the inhabitants’ attitudes to the city have changed over time.

Detours build new city

The art and architecture community Büro Detours are behind the exhibition’s architecture. The artists have donned their worker’s dungarees and reached for hammer, wood, nails and white paint bucket to recreate the museum’s exhibition rooms as a new city. In this city visitors can experience an array of art works consisting of wooden constructions especially created by the Detours artists for this exhibition. Detours work with an aspiration to create possibilities for randomness in the shaping of the city space. Therefore each artist has been given free reins to create the works that the material, the themes and the space inspire. As one of the artists, Cemilie explains, this approach means that the work is done based on a very loose plan, changing as the artists occupy the space. Excactly as cities themselves change their form and appearance according to the people inhabiting, using and creating them.

Tags change the exhibition

As Nørrebro has changed its appearance through time, so the exhibition will mirror this picture of the ever changing neighbourhood. At different events visitors and street artists are invited to take possession of the Detour city elements using tags, art and comments and thereby change the cityscape. The idea is to fill the white wooden surfaces with street art. When the exhibition opens the historic pictures and the productions of the Nørrebro Project will stand out clearly on the white background. But as the exhibition is gradually taken over by the street art and comments of visitors they will assume another role and change their meaning. Just as the real Nørrebro this city will become noisy and new meanings can be added to the four themes.

Read more about Büro Detours.

Press

Download high resolution photos from the exhibition.

The Søren Kierkegaard Collection at the Museum of Copenhagen contains items that have either been in the possesion of the world famous philosopher or things that can be related to this essential thinker. In the collection, you’ll find furniture, personal belongings and portraits depicting Kierkagaards parents and his fiancée Regine Olsen as well as chandeliers that used to light up Kierkegaards dwellings, his wallet, silver mounted meerschaum pipes and presentation copies of Kiekegaard’s works.

A true Copenhagener

Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) was born, lived and died in Copenhagen. In his brief life he very rarely travelled abroad, and thus his world famous body of work was coming into existence within the ramparts defining the capital in the first half of the 19th century. Kierkegaard was a renowned figure in the streets of Copenhagen, as he took pleasure in strolling and observing his fellow human son lengthy walks. Meanwhile, the philosopher was himself an object of observation as well as satirical attacks on his person from among others the magazine the Corsar, from where the sketch to the right is taken from.

13 tempestuous months

Two months after his final university examination, Kierkegaard was engaged to Regine Olsen who was nine years his senior. The young woman was to play a defining role in Kierkegaards life and writings. He called the engagement of after 13 tempestuous months in 1841, but kept a keen interest in Regine Olsen for the rest of his life, which some of the items on display at the Museum of Copenhagen testify. In the Søren Kierkegaard Collection, the gold engagement ring that was given to Regine Olsen by Kierkegaard is exhibited. Regine Olsen gave Kierkegaard the ring back once he called of the engagement, and due to legend, the philosopher had the five diamonds of the ring mounted into a cross, which he bore to the day he died. After the break-up, Regine Olsen went on to marry Johan Frederik Schlegel who was later to become the governor of the Danish West Indies. The ring Kierkegaards successor gave Regine Olsen on their engagement day is also on display in the Søren Kierkegaard Collection.

A cupboard without shelves

Among the gems of the Collection is a unique Brazilian Rosewood pedestal cupboard that was made according to Kierkegaard’s instruction for a particularly moving reason. In the philosopher’s own choice of words, the cupboard was “...constructed according to my design and this because of something my beloved said in her agony: She said that she would willingly thank me all her life for my permission to remain with me, even if she had to live in a small cupboard. With an eye to this, this cupboard is constructed to be without shelves. - Everything is kept carefully in the cupboard, everything that reminds me of her and all that could remind her of me”.

Click the Time line to explore the life of Søren Kierkegaard (Danish). This online version of the Collection has been realized with the aid of a string of web components developed by the Heritage Agency of Denmark.

Learn more about Copenhagen in the time of Kierkegaard in the Power and autocracy exhibition, and order the guided tour of the exhibition.

The pictures from the Day & Night photo competition could be seen at the Museum of Copenhagen beween May 28th and June 7th 2010.

The Museum of Copenhagen and Copenhagen Photo Festival co-hosted the photo competition Day & Night. The competition was for anyone who like to photograph and document life in the city. Anyone could join with their own urban space images. To participate you simply had to upload two images representing two different worlds, states or situation from life in the city - one taken during the day, one taken in the night.

Competition photos uploadet to the WALL

A lot of people followed the call to capture their own personal Copenhagen in pictures taken by day and by night. The many pictures have been uploadet to the WALL and are now included in the picture collection of the Museum of Copenhagen. The three winners was chosen by a panel consisting of:

Thomas Borberg, Photo Editor, Politiken
Louise Holmgren, Art Photographer, Peter Lav Gallery
Sacha Maric, Fashion Photographer, Blink Productions

1st Prize

Nomis

2nd Prize

Filip

 


3rd Prize

Cecilia

Honorary Mention

JulieUmulie

More information about Copenhagen Photo Festival at www.copenhagenphotofestival.com

See the uploaded pictures.

Read more about the WALL.

Had you followed the route straight ahead and up and you would have arrived in Amager. Had you drawn out the 3^rd drawer to the right and, you would have found the police station. Occasioned by the 23rd International Conference on History of Cartography in Copenhagen in July 2009, the Museum of Copenhagen exhibited a number of strange representations of the Danish capital, in cooperation with the Danish Royal Library.

Read more about the Museum of Copenhagen’s previous special exhibitions.

The history of Copenhagen’s homosexuals, bisexuals and transpersons tells of a journey from secretive nightly meetings on the city ramparts to sequined Pride parades on the City Square.

The Museum of Copenhagen had a look at the many different aspects of Copenhagen’s LGBT history. Capital punishment and AIDS campaigns, invisible spinsters and proud rainbow mums, covert companionships and the world’s first same-sex legal unions.

Read more about the Museum of Copenhagen’s previous special exhibitions.

The keys of the city took centre stage in this exhibition about the life, treasures, power and entrances of Copenhagen. Keys are our access to the secret and closed, to the private and secure, to the prohibited and wondrous. They mark the difference between yours and mine, private and shared, but also possess memories, conflicts and repression. Keys can be traces of lost buildings and human destinies or markers of social and cultural divides. They also have a symbolic aspect, as when an honorary citizen or mayor is presented with the keys of the city and a controlling side, as with keys to prisons and hard labour plants.

See the exhibition “Keys to Copenhagen”.

Read more about the Museum of Copenhagen’s previous special exhibitions.

Gerda Gadeballade (Miss Street Trouble), the Falafel Fairy and all their friends from the museum's toy collection had fun in the city.
From October 9th 2009 to May 16th 2010.

As winter darkness settled over the city, the Museum of Copenhagen opened its doors to a magical world of city fun and games. With the help of Shane Brox - a familiar face from the DR children's TV-programme "Shanes Verden" - we brought the museum's huge collection of old toys from Copenhagen to light. Not only could children of all ages explore the weird and wonderful scenes made out of old toys, city waste, museum artefacts and creative contraptions, they could also join in the fun themselves.

Read more about the Museum of Copenhagen's previous special exhibitions.

The stories behind the artefacts

A guided tour can contribute to your understanding of the history of Copenhagen while providing you with a completely unique opportunity to hear the entertaining stories and surprising anecdotes that are hidden behind the museum's many photographs, paintings and historical artefacts. Guided tours are available in connection with all long-term exhibitions and special exhibitions. A guided tour lasts approximately 1 hour.

Please click here for further information regarding long-term exhibitions at the Museum of Copenhagen.

Prices

Adult groups: 500 DKK plus admission fees. Please note that admission to the museum is free of charge on Fridays. School groups from the 7th grade and up: 500 DKK. Maximum number of participants: 25/or a school class. Please note that a surcharge is added to cover security costs when guided tours are booked to take place outside normal opening hours.

Book a guided tour

Guided tours may be booked by phone at +45 33 21 07 72 on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays between 9.00 - 11.00 or by e-mail to museum@copenhagen.dk.

November 21.th 2009 - August 1.st 2010

The Museum of Copenhagen presented an imaginative, freewheeling exhibition on the bicycle culture of Copenhagen.

From November 2009 to August 2010 you we able to follow the history of the bicycle tradition from the Draisine to the modern bicycle at the Museum of Copenhagen. You could learn about local inventions such as the Long John or Christiania bike so prominent in the everyday life of the city with kids, goods and friends being transported around by bike.

The exhibition explored the biking habits of Copenhageners throughout the ages and also focused on the representation of bicycles in art, literature and popular music. The exhibition also contained a number of personal tales of bicycling and the city from contemporary Copenhageners. Finally, initiatives by the city and by organisations to promote and facilitate bicycling in the urban setting also had a place in the exhibition.

Hear podcast about cycling culture in Copenhagen from The Guardian

Walking tours for all

From May until September the Museum of Copenhagen arranges regular theme-based public walking tours of the city. The walking tours provide you with an opportunity to experience the history of the city in a unique manner, whereby your entire sensory apparatus is stimulated. The themes range from Absalon's Copenhagen in the Middle Ages to the most recent stories of modern-day Copenhagen. For further information regarding themes and practical information, please see our website closer to the dates in question. A walking tour lasts approximately 1½ hours.

Walking tours for schools and other educational institutions

The Museum of Copenhagen also carries out walking tours aimed at school classes (7th -10th grade), gymnasium/HF and VUC. Here a maximum of 30 participants applies.  Remember to book.

Price: 800 DKK.

Walking tours

If you have been asked to arrange a walking tour for a group of individuals, you can book a special tour of Copenhagen through the Museum of Copenhagen. The museum can provide walking tours for groups of up to 30 individuals - 7 days a week. Remember to book.

Price: 1000 DKK.

For further details and booking

Walking tours may be booked at telephone no. +45 33 21 07 72 on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays: 9.00 - 11.30 or by sending an e-mail to: museum@copenhagen.dk

While Copenhagen expands beyond its ramparts, the Bourgeoisie spend money recklessly and the town's streetlights have recently become fuelled by gas.  Join us while we revisit a period of expansion within the history of Copenhagen, where the foundations of the ensuing industrialised democratic welfare society established. This exhibition tells the story of Copenhagen from the passing of the Constitution during the 1840s up until the enfranchisement of Danish women in 1908.

The City overflows its banks

If a city could overflow its banks, this would be a fitting description of Copenhagen during the second half of the 19th century. While the military ramparts that had protected the town from the world beyond it for centuries were blown up in 1857 and the town gates were torn down, the city expanded beyond Vesterbro, Nørrebro and Amager.

Amusements and the poor

The recently emerged industrial bourgeoisie became the new ruling class in the city, gaining great influence on the development of the city following the passing of the Constitution in 1849, and the establishment of new industrial- and working-class neighbourhoods and new residential neighbourhoods. Shopping and amusement facilities, new factories and political measures - all leave their mark on the street- life. While women, servants, the poor, imbeciles and criminals were not quite as visible in the life of the community, the exhibition also tells the story of their lives.

Gas and steam

A ballot-box from Copenhagen's first municipal council in 1840, the first gas pipeline, model steam-engines, trains and trams, fragments of the old town-gates that had been torn down and souvenirs from the recently opened Tivoli gardens and amusement park. The exhibition shows all the innovations that took place around the year 1850.

The 1888 Art exhibition

You can also meet the new era in a special exhibition room dedicated to the 1888 Nordic Industrial, Farming and Art Exhibition. Here,amongst other things, you can see the original model of the huge exhibition building that was situated on the site of the present day City Hall .

Maintaining a high profile

Top hat and high profile. The industrial Bourgeoisie promoted themselves during the ensuing period by hosting a wealth of functions. See images representing the bourgeoisie's activities around the city that were painted on the targets of the Royal Shooting Society who as a matter of fact owned the building in which the Museum of Copenhagen is housed today.

Guided Tours

If you would like to hear more about 19th century Copenhagen, feel free to book a guided tour of the exhibition.

Copenhagen grew to become a new city at the height of the autocratic period. The King was firmly seated on the throne, magnificent palaces shot up and foreign trade brought porcelain, aromatic spices and smoky tobacco to the city.  This exhibition tells the story of Copenhagen when it was the residential seat of the reigning autocratic monarchy, a period that lasted up until the Danish Golden Age when the Bourgeoisie came to power.

The rise and fall of Autocracy

Following the introduction of Autocratic rule in Denmark in 1660, the king began shaping the town of Copenhagen so that it would do him justice. Copenhagen became the economic centre of the Danish - Norwegian double monarchy and impressive buildings were built within the town.  An original 18th century model of Frederik the 5th's horseman statue on Amalienborg Slotsplads is on view in the exhibition, demonstrating the way in which the royal court, military and navy placed their marks upon the town. Meanwhile, the majority of citizens experienced their lives becoming more and more regulated by the extensive bureaucracy that was part of the autocratic model.  However, the resulting prosperity dwindled with the result that the town became over-populated by the middle of the 19th century, which in turn resulted in an increase in the social hardship experienced by its citizens. Alongside this sequence of events the Bourgeoisie developed a new cultural and political consciousness which eventually led to the end of autocratic rule.

Luxury goods and the poor

Gilded mirrors, wigs, exclusive Chinese tea set(s) and a palanquin! This exhibition is rich in luxury items that once belonged to the 18th century aristocracy and their close contacts abroad. Navy cannons lined up and ready while tobacco jars, cotton, porcelain and silverware bear witness to worldwide trade relations and a home production of much sought after luxury goods. Yet 18th century Copenhagen was not just for the wealthy. It was also home to numerous tramps and poor people, even if there are not very many traces of their existence left in the town today. However, you can see a boy's uniform from one of the first Danish orphanages, Opfostringshuset, that has survived up until the present.

Fires in the town

At the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th century, Copenhagen came alight in more than one sense of the word. Its citizens began to speak strongly of a free constitution, and in the exhibition you can see punch-bowls and pictures from the Bourgeoisie clubs where discussions were highly animated. In 1801, the English bombed the capital and set fire to the town. Experience the dramatic images of the major fire catastrophes to take place in the town and see the fire fighting equipment that was in use at the time, together with a watchman in full uniform.

Celebrities of the Danish Golden Age

Many of the celebrities, who are still remembered today, were based in Copenhagen during the first half of the 19th century.  Meet H.C. Andersen, the writer of fairy-tales, Søren Kierkegaard the philosopher, sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, ballet master August Bournonville, composer Niels W. Gade, inventor H.C. Ørsted, C.W. Eckersberg and Chresten Købke the painters and C.F. Hansen the architect. Their personal belongings are on display in the exhibition which thereby also tells the story of the town's flourishing cultural life.

Guided Tours

Learn all about the exhibition and Copenhagen during the autocratic period by booking a guided tour.

Walking tours of Copenhagen

Experience the magnificent architecture and town-planning of the autocratic period on the Autocratic Copenhagen - Royal Power and Everyday-life walking tour.

    

From the enfranchisement of Danish women in 1908 to the hosting of the European Capital of Culture in 1996 - Copenhagen certainly underwent extensive changes, socially, politically and economically speaking, in less than 100 years. This exhibition tells the story of welfare society's road to victory within the capital. 

A painted frieze, 50 metres in length, depicts the history of Copenhagen

Which of the historical events that took place during the 20th century left the greatest marks on Copenhagen? In finding the answers to this question, you can follow a 50 meter long painted frieze that runs through the exhibition. It depicts the most significant events and construction projects in the history of the city. While some are related to the royal-court, others deal with the everyday life of ordinary people in the street. Ellehammer's motorbike, the twisted remains of Langelinie Pavillonen's copper roof which was blown up during the Occupation, folksinger Cæsar's guitar, souvenirs from Christiania, a so-called "clap" hat from the 1992 UEFA European Football Championship, not to mention a model of the Øresund Bridge,  each artefact symbolises a very special moment in the 21st century's Copenhagen history.

Citizen rights and municipal aid  

The exhibition depicts a century in which democratically elected politicians helped create the modern cityscape and welfare society of contemporary Copenhagen. The most significant shifts took place during the 1920s and '30s and the '60s and '70s, resulting in huge changes of attitude towards working-life and leisure-time. These changes also resulted in significant changes in the relationship between the city council and members of the general public. While poor families were more or less left to fend for themselves during the inter-war period, during the later periods these citizens received the right to assistance from the public authorities.

Neon city lights

The end of the Occupation also marked another important turning-point. Following five years of darkness, the city lights returned with an even more dazzling glow. See the neon signs and cinema posters, and hear the sound of famous radio-programs from the post war period. Other mundane artefacts from 20th century Copenhagen, such as office equipment and signs from the town hall, trade-unions and employers' associations, are also on display in the exhibition. Shop inventory, packaging, street signs, sports equipment, record players, Carmen Curlers, transistor radios and lots, lots more are also on display.

Guided Tours

Experience history come alive and book a guided tour of the exhibition.

What does an archaeologist do besides excavating finds?

Are you curious to see how things work in a museum? If so, be sure to visit the Museum of Copenhagen's recently opened Behind the Scenes workshops. Here, you can look on while recently excavated and collected artefacts are accessed to the museum.  Archaeologists and other museum professionals are ready to tell you how they go about accessing, cleansing, identifying, registering and examining museum artefacts.

Opening hours

These workshops do not have fixed opening hours. However, you can remain up-to-date by registering for our newsletter or visiting our website on a regular basis.