| Kommunication
| | People in Scania and Sealand has always crossed the Sound. War and new boarder didn´t prevent these travels over the Sound.
Buxtehude was a good example of a Sound citizen, who worked on both sides of the Sound, in spite of war and trouble in the area.
Via the text icon a mini guide to the whole period appears. In the left menu you will find elaborations and perspectives.
You return to the mini guide when You click on the title of the theme. |
Water Unites
Historically a sound has always served as an important connecting factor between the provinces. Among other things because water as a way of transportation, was much more passable than transport through forests, mountain and marshy areas. And in the cases, where you can actually see the landscape on the other side of the sound, a feeling of solidarity arises.
As early as the 11th century Adam of Bremen stated that connections between Zealand and Scania were quite common, especially between Elsinore and Helsingborg. And ever since there has been lively contacts across the Sound only temporarily reduced in connection with wars.
Kogge and knarr |
The Middle Ages
In the Middle Ages the contacts between Scania and Zealand were considerable. Lund in Scania was thus the church capital of all of Denmark and the extensive herring fishing in the Sound had its international trade centre en Skanør, the so-called Scanian market.
Lund | 
Herrings | 
The Scanian market |
The Renaissance
During the Renaissance it was natural for a man like Tycho Brahe to travel back and forth between Scania, Hven and Zealand, and in the 17th century you will note that Buxtehude worked as a composer and organist in Elsinore´s as well as Helsingborg´s churches.
Tycho Brahe | 
Buxtehude |
Limited Contacts
When the Scanian countries after 1658 became Swedish; the Sound became the border between two states for the first time. This certainly had a negative impact on the contacts across the Sound, but nevertheless the populations kept visiting each other. The Swedish scientist Linné relates this in his Scanian journey in 1749, where it is also clear that the many wars and the separation from Denmark had isolated and made large parts of Scania poor.
The Transport Revolution
The steam engine had a revolutionary impact for the Sound service. With the steamships the service became dependent of wind and weather and in the 19th century regular traffic across the Sound began. There is no doubt that this development had as much if not greater importance as the Scandinavian movement.
When the railway network was established on both sides of the Sound, two different transport networks could now be integrated via train ferries.
The Ferryman | 
The Steamship Horatio | 
The New Station for the Coast Railway |
The Telegraph – The internet of the Past
With the invention of the telegraph in the 19th century we had a new and revolutionary means of fast communication over short and long distances. In connection with trade, politics and military functions this means of communication can hardly be overvalued. Very quickly it was worldwide and one of the first Swedish and Danish initiative was the burying of Denmark´s first subterranean cable in 1855 in the short stretch between Vedbæk via Hven to Hillesborg north of Landskrona on the Scanian side. And with this Sweden and Denmark connected on the net.
Aeroplanes
In Scandinavia the ”childhood” of the aeroplanes took place in the Sound region. To be the first to fly across the Sound became an ambitious goal for the flying aces of that day.In the course of the 1920´s the sight of aeroplanes became more and more common and Kastrup and Bulltofta became centres for regular air commuting across the Sound.
Ellehammer´s Aeroplane | 
Kastrup Airport | 
Bulltofta Airfield |
The Sound as Escape Route
The German occupation of Denmark during the Second World War became a communication breakthrough between the Danish and Swedish population. The neutral Sweden literally became a light in the dark for the occupied Denmark. The Sound became an escape route for thousands of Danish refugees, first of all the Danish Jews and members of the resistance. And as the world war developed the water, where Danish soldiers could cross and establish a secret army on Swedish soil. A gesture, where the expression sister nation had a special meaning on both sides of the Sound.
The Lights in Helsingborg | 
The Escape Across the Sound | 
Medical Examination | 
Oversæt | 
The Four Inscriptions on the Svea Column |
The Ferries
After the Second World War´s travel limitations across the Sound, there was almost an explosion in the number of travellers in the 1950´s. The decisive factor was the abolition of the compulsion to show a passport between Denmark and Sweden and the growth in motoring. In the wake of this a very special ferry culture developed, where the journey changed into sheer pleasure trips with singing and beers in a duty free environment.
Sankt Ibb | 
Knut Viking | 
The Train Ferry Malmøhus |
The Sound Integration
The extension and the efficiency of the communication across the Sound in the last third of the 20th century, almost mean a reunification of the historic connection between the Scanian and Zealand provinces. According to the business conditions on the labour market, the housing market, retail prices and cultural offerings the population commuted freely and inevitably across the narrow passage between Malmo and Copenhagen and Elsinore-Helsingborg.
The H-H-Line | 
The H-H-Connection | 
Swedish Crofts | 
Three flags |
The Sound Bridge
The short distance between Zealand and Scania had through the 20th century been a challenge for many creative minds´ proposals for a fixed link between the provinces. In the year 2000 a combined bridge and tunnel link was carried out. The bridge has since been a further alternative to the passage and has intensified the contacts.
It is especially the connection between Copenhagen and Malmo, which benefits from this, but here are plans now to tie Elsinore and Helsingborg with a fixed link.
Plan for a Fixed Connection | 
The Sound Bridge | 
The Ring Line |
A Historical and Natural Region in Europe
Perhaps the most efficient peace movement is that people visit each other. The fact that the opportunities for this have been increased over history in the Sound region means that it has become an everyday thing to cross the national borders. Nobody sees the Sound as a border anymore, but rather a connection link. As it has always been. This development is being furthered all over Europe.
Interreg regioner |
The Middle Ages
| | The communication in the Middle Ages must be seen in the light of Denmark´s role a the dominant Baltic power.
Scania´s central position meant that Denmark´s church centre was placed in Lund and that Scania´s southern trade place, Skanør at Falsterbo, became an international, financial power centre. The ships shuttled between the regions. |
A Common Cultural Area
You could say that Zealand had two cultural areas; a southwestern area, which consisted of cultivated plains and a northeastern with forests.
Scania similarly had three cultural areas; one southern with plains, which had been cultivated early, one northern with forest areas and forest settlements and small woods, which have been named “national settlements”. In this area and in North Zealand new cultivation areas were created through the clearing of forest and in these areas the place name ending –röd/ryd is common. The cultivation pattern in northwestern Scania and in North Zealand was similar. It must be added that the contacts between Scania and Zealand was most intense between Helsingborg and Elsinore.
The place names can be traced to “the throat” (hals), by which they meant the narrowest part of the Sound. The people around the North Sound was called “halsinger” and both towns were called “halsingarnas borg” and “halsingarnas öre” (beach). The importance the area around “halsen” had for the contacts between Zealand and Scania was early attested by Adam of Bremen in his work “De hamburgska ärkebiskoparnas historia” (1070). He noted that you could “sail to Scania from many places in Zealand. The shortest distance is from Helsingborg, where the narrowest part of the Sound is called Halsen and where the population is called halsingar”.
One may establish from this that North Zealand and north western Scania very early were quite homogeneous
Three Cultural Areas | 
New Settlements in Zealand | 
Settlements in Scania |
The Scanian Market
Although the development of the cities in the Sound region was modest compared to the Hanseatic towns, the Danish kingdom had some advantages. Especially the herring fishing in the Sound.
The Scanian market |
Herrings | 
Skanör Church | 
The Castle Hill |
The Herring
The demand for herring, which was salted with salt from Lünebürger Heide, was great as the Catholic Church demanded meat-free days in connection with Lent. Often even Friday was considered a meat-free day.
As early as the 12th century Falsterbonäs became a centre for the herring trade, which took place from August 24th to October 9th. In this period thousands of visitors gathered there and that meant a significant upturn for Skanør and Falsterbo. Form the beginning Skanør was the main area, but in the 14th century Falsterbo became more important.
International Market
Traders from England, Scotland, Flanders and Normandy came to the herring market, but the most dominating traders came from Germany, especially Lübeck. They traded other goods besides herring. There was wide array of different goods, among them horses, butter, iron, tar, corn and handicraft products.
The dominance of the Lübecks was evident because they had their own church in Falsterbo. The fishing and the Scanian market in Skanør and Falsterbo yielded a large income to the Danish kingdom. A good fishing year in the 14th century could mean an export of 300.000 barrels of herring and it is estimated that one third of the Danish king´s income came from the Scanian market. The large production and the great demand made Skanør and Falsterbo to the most important market of the region in the 14th century.
Trade and Towns
All the way back in prehistoric times there have been trade between the North and Southern Europe and in the late Iron Age and early Viking Age amber, fur and slaves have been sold and traded for luxury goods like glass.
In the 8th century the trade between the Mediterranean and Northern Europe was arranged via the Frankish realm, but when it succumbed in the beginning of the 9th century and the Arabs conquer large parts of the Mediterranean the North in the Viking Age came to play an important part in north-south as well as the east-west trade. In southern Scandinavia Hedeby in Southern Jutland became a prominent trade centre, whereas further to the east and north are Gotland and Birka in Sweden.
Trade Routes |
Shiptypes
It was mainly the Vikings´ ship technology, which secured them a preferential position in the Baltic trade from around the year 800. Magnates and peasants fitted out ships for expeditions in long ships, which could carry around 9 tons.
The later developed, but also clinker-built ships of the knar type, which also were used for sailing in the North Atlantic, could carry around 20 tons.
In the beginning of the period it was probably difficult to discern between looting- trade- and colonization expeditions, but around the transition to the Middle Ages around the year 1050, trade plays a more important part. This is mainly due to the ship type the kogge, which could carry up to 30 tons and around the year 1200 up to 200 tons.
Kogge and knarr | 
Knarr | 
Kogge | 
The Malmøkogge | 
Model |
Hork |
Goods Types
From around this time the trade also changes to more everyday articles like corn, fish and meat, which come from the surplus production provided by the new cultivation methods. These products could be sold in the town communities, which flourishes in the course of the 12th and 13th century in Northern Germany. These Hanseatic towns came to control large parts of the trade in the Baltic by way of an organizational and technological superiority.The Renaissance
| | The world famous scientist Tycho Brahe s many trips to Scania, Hven and Copenhagen in the last half of the 16th century is marked example of the intense communication, which existed between the regions. |
Uraniborg in Ven
The renaissance prince Frederik II saw Tycho´s greatness and offered his support. February 18th 1567 he was awarded a yearly sum of 500 daler, a very large governmental support. The king had, during his inspections in the building site of Kronborg, come to think of the island Ven as a suitable place for Tychos activities. Tycho was offered the island on favourable terms, if it could prevent him from leaving Denmark. Tycho Brahe accepted.
A Symbolic Castle
The central part of the ground plan was made up of a square, which measured 60 feet, approximately 15,5 metres on every side. This square was divided by perpendicular corridors, which formed four smaller square rooms. The corridors also tied the central part with symmetrical extensions in the north and south and with symmetrical entrance portals in east and west.
The building consisted of two storeys, attic and basement. On the outside there were balconies, which were used for astronomical observations. The basement functioned as a chemical laboratory.
Astronomy and chemistry/medicine was the sciences he was to engage in and two statuette niches marked this over the entrance portals. Two short Latin inscriptions connected these allegorical works of art: Despiciendo suspicio och Suspiciendo despicio, which roughly means, ”When I look down, I look up” and ”When I look up, I look down”. The first maxim refers to the chemical experiments and the other undoubtedly on the astronomical observations. The deeper meaning is that chemistry and astronomy are connected.
Uranienborg | 
Ground plan |
Uraniborg - a View of Life
Uranienborg was not only Tycho Brahe´s home and workplace, but it also expressed architecturally and in other ways, the philosophy and the view of life, which characterized Tycho Brahe. A belief in research and the mapping of reality was to make us understand the cosmological connections.
A Renaissance Garden
The garden was, just like the castle, very symmetrical lay out. They also considered the practical use of a garden and planted fruit trees and sowed vegetables and herbs, which could be used in medical recipes.
We know that Tycho as well as his learned sister Sophie Brahe, who lived with him for long periods of time, devoted themselves to the manufacturing of medicinal preparations, in fact to such an extent, that the pharmacies in Copenhagen complained about the competition. It is very likely that Sophie Brahe participated in the lay out and the care taking of the garden, although there are no evidence of this.
The Garden | 
Ground plan |
Tycho Brahe leaves Ven
Tycho Brahe stayed in Ven for 21 years until 1597, when felt forced to leave Denmark. It is said that he had fallen out with the inhabitants in Ven, that he neglected his duties and that the new king Christian IV did not support him like Frederik II had done.
The circumstances surrounding Tycho Brahe´s fall are still unclear and much debated. Form Rostock Tycho Brhae wrote the kin in 1597 that he had not gone into exile and emphasized his loyalty. The king reproached him for having left without permission and pointed out several unsolved problems. He wrote of the peasants in Ven: ”There have been complaints about you from our poor subjects in Ven”. And of Tycho´s negligence of the church in Ven: ”...as the word of the baptism have been neglected with your knowledge for a long time against the use of the realm that is notorious for anybody”.
That Tycho Brahe did not take care of his estate obligations is probably correct, but one may wonder why the controversy with the peasants was brought up in a time, where it was the right of any lord of the manor to exploit his subjects and when the plight of the peasants was increased significantly.
Buxtehude – A Sound Citizen
It is difficult to say how the man in the street experienced Scania´s abrupt transition to Sweden at the peace treaties in 1658 and 1660. In paragraph 9 in the Roskilde peace treaty it was stated that all estates in Scania had the right to maintain their distinctive cultural characteristics and inherited rights, so nothing prevented them from living as they had done before. Furthermore it was difficult to say how much nationality meant for the individual. Sweden as well as Denmark was at this time complex – in reality multinational states, which to some extent demanded some loyalty from their citizens, but hardly a national disposition in the modern sense. That came with Romanticism’s worship of the nation and the people at the end of the 18th century.
The example of the composer Diderich Buxtehude may illuminate this connection. Posterity has not succeeded in establishing where he was born – in Holstein, Elsinore or Helsingborg – in any case he was born in an area, which belonged to the Danish state around 1637. His father, Johannes Buxtehude came from Oldesloe in Holstein – to where he probably had emigrated originally. In 1638 he became an organist at the Maria Church in Helsingborg. In the years 1638-41 the father worked in Helsingborg and here Diderich had some childhood years. In 1642 the father was the organist at the St. Olai Church in Elsinore, where he was active until around 1670. Diderich Buxtehude thus spent his childhood and youth in Helsingborg and Elsinore.
Music with Class
During the first half of the 17th century the musical scene at the Danish court and in the major churches was of a very high standard. (It is to be remembered that the court and the churches at that time were the most important customers, when it came to music and thus the music scene evolved around these institutions). Names like Heinrich Schütz and John Dowland are still remembered. Schütz was a church musician in Copenhagen and there he established the court orchestra. Dowland, a famous lutanist and composer, was a court musician. He lived in Elsinore. Johann Lorentz worked during the first half of the 17th century as a royal organ builder and he built or rebuilt all the important organs in the Sound region in a quite conservative renaissance style, a style, which then were represented by Schütz and Dowland. One of the most important remnants of Lorentz´s activity is in the organ facade in the Holy Trinity Church in Kristianstad.
New Organs
Diderich Buxtehude followed his father’s footsteps and became the organist in the Maria Church in Helsingborg. In 1660 he applied for and got the organist post in Elsinore´s Maria Church. Probably because this post was better paid and by taking it he came closer to the rest of his family. In the time up to 1668, where he went to Lübeck to apply for a post there, he lived in the same house as his mother and father. The house still stands.
Simultaneously the old Lorenz organs were modernized in a modern Baroque style, a style, which was represented musically by Diderich Buxtehude. The German organ builder did the modernization and he was the man behind the building and rebuilding of organs in Copenhagen, Elsinore, Halmstad, Helsingborg, Landskrona and Malmo.
Diderich Buxtehude experienced and participated in a very active renewal of the music scene through the new building, which was made. Two years after he had moved to Elsinore he came back to Helsingborg to supervise the rebuilding of the organ in the Maria Church. This indicates that the Swedish takeover in Scania in 1658 did not affect the music scene right away.
The Maria Church in Helsingborg | 
Saint Anne Street in Elsinore | 
The Old Organ | 
Buxtehude | 
Choir Organ in the Mariakyrkan (Church of St, Mary) |
Connections over the Sound
In his time in Elsinore Buxtehude kept in close touch with Swedish as well as Danish officials. The only piece of music we know of that Buxtehude wrote in his time in Elsinore, is from 1665 and dedicated to Christoffer Schneider, a Swedish postmaster and later consul resident in Elsinore. From his time in Elsinore Buxtehude also was friendly with the Swedish court conductor and organist Gustav Büben. Perhaps it was on his request that Buxtehude composed the wedding cantata to the wedding between Carl XI Gustav and his Danish queen Hedvig Eleonora in 1680.
| |
 | | Large | Aperte mihi portas iustitiae, Elsinore 1665. (Diderik Buxtehude) |
| | Large | Aria sopra le Nozze di Sua Maesta il Re de Svecia (1680). Diderik Buxtehude |
In Lübeck
In 1668 Buxtehude moved to Lübeck, probably for career reasons, but also to get away from the meagre financial circumstances in the devastated Sound region. The three Maria Churches in Helsingborg, Elsinore and Lübeck are the main threads in his life. Even though he spent most of his active life in Lübeck and even though he achieved fame and honour there, he never forgot his roots by the Sound. That was why the periodical “Nova litteraria Maris Balthici” could claim in 1707: “He considered Denmark his native country” (Patriam agnoscit Daniam).
Diderich Buxtehude´s career as a composer and an organist culminated in Lübeck and great composers like Händel and Bach came and listened to his music. He was especially renowned for his “Lübecker Abendmusiken”, which were concerts in connection with the evensong before Christmas. He wrote new organ works for this every year.Limited Contacts
| | After Sweden´s conquests in the 17th century, it became the dominating power in the North and the Baltic. Sweden was surrounded by countries, which wanted their lost areas back. Among these Denmark, Russia and Saxony (including Poland) formed and alliance against Sweden. |
The Karl Gustav Wars 1657-60
In 1657 disaster struck the Danish kingdom with a vengeance. Denmark declared war on Sweden in the hope of revenging the defeat form the 1640´s, but was run down in the summer of 1657 and the following winter, when Karl X Gustav went over the ice to Zealand and approached Copenhagen. A quick peace was made in Roskilde. The peace negotiator on the Swedish side was the former Danish chancellor Corfitz Ulfeldt, who was married to Christian IV´s daughter, Eleonore Christine.
The peace terms were severe: Denmark must forever give up the Scanian countries, although paragraph 9 secured a cultural autonomy in Scania. The occupation ended with a so-called peace banquet in Frederiksborg Castle, whereupon the Swedish king went to Scania, where he inspected the captured areas.
Karl X Gustav | 
Crossing the Ice to Funen | 
Ivernæs in Funen | 
Erik Dahlberg | 
Karl X Gustav at Storebælt |
The Roskildepeace
The peace terms were severe: Denmark must forever give up the Scanian countries, although paragraph 9 secured a cultural autonomy in Scania. The occupation ended with a so-called peace banquet in Frederiksborg Castle, whereupon the Swedish king went to Scania, where he inspected the captured areas.
The Peace in Roskilde | 
The Vicarage in Høje Tåstrup | 
Joachim Gersdorf | 
Corfitz Ulfeldt | 
The Arrival at Frederiksborg Castle |
The Peace Banquet | 
Karl X Gustav in Elsinore | 
Karl X Gustav is Received in Helsingborg | 
Karl X Gustav Arrives in Landskrona | 
Karl X Gustav Arrives in Malmo |
Karl X Gustav Outside Christiansstad |
The War continues
Six months later Karl X Gustav regretted that he did not annex all of Denmark. He occupied Zealand and captured Elsinore and Kronborg, which fell after a three-weeks´ siege.
Copenhagen was besieged, but was relieved after a naval battle in the Sound by a Dutch fleet, which had formed an alliance with Denmark. The events culminated with the storm of Copenhagen in February 1659, when the Swedish attack was repelled.
The Siege of Kronborg
| 
The Siege of Kronborg | 
The Naval Battle | 
The Battle in the Sound | 
The Battle of the Sound |
Slaget i Öresund
(Tegning) | 
The Assault on Copenhagen 1660 | 
The Storming of Copenhagen | 
Sketch of the Attack | 
Instant Sketch |
The Peace
Peace was made once again in 1660, by which Bornholm returned to Denmark and Trondhjem´s estate to Norway.
Changes in the status of Scania, Halland and Blekinge were not discussed and it was clear that Denmark´s ally, Holland and the other European big powers, did not want any changes in the relations around the Sound. The manoeuvre of the international politics was to prevent one power to control both sides of the Sound.
A later observer, Robert Molesworth noticed in 1691 that Christian IV was favoured by the Dutch war against Spain and that king Jacob I of England favoured the Danes, because of his marriage to a Danish princess. Molesworth noticed that Danish sovereignty over the Sound would correspond to Spain having invoked power over the Straits of Gibraltar and the entrance to the Mediterranean. The Sound Duty was still functioning, but the income, according to Molesworth, had dropped from 150.000 rix-dollars in 1645 to 80.000 in the 1690´s.
Axel Urup (1601-71) | 
The Peace Treaty 1660 |
Linné´s Scanian Journey 1749
A vicar´s son from Småland, well under way with a unusual scientific career in Uppsala, came to Scania in t1749. This Carl Linnaeus (ennobled to von Linné) had gone to Scania on a national economic assignment; sent out by the Swedish parliament. The goal was to map the resources of the province and suggest changes.
Linné was empirical and made, like Tycho Brahe, careful observations, but he was also very systematic and he wanted to arrange reality in a well-ordered system. He was a scientist in the spirit of the Enlightened Age.
Scania – an Isolated Region
Linné was to describe the natural resources of Scania and recommend steps, which could strengthen the economy of the province. Naturally Linné could not let go of botany, so he arranged and described the growth of plants in different places, but he was also interested in other things in the Scanian landscape.
Scania was still marked by the devastation and death, which had been caused by war and the plague. The province was far from the centre of the kingdom and was completely cut off from Denmark. It was an isolated region with too little contact to the outside world to grow and develop. Linné also thought that the Scanian farmers held on too stubbornly to old habits and were afraid of changes. The conservative peasants needed knowledge and modern agricultural methods.
Linné - a famous botanist | 
Linné´s Birthplace in Råshult | 
Linné´s Journey |
The Fertility of Scania
Still Linné had many good things to say about Scania, which he considered Sweden´s, perhaps Europe´s, best cultivation area. On the climate in Malmo Linné wrote: “This is not any worse than in Holland. All the colour herbs and pharmaceutical herbs, which are planted and sold from Holland, could just as well grow here...” In Skanør too, he emphasized the advantages of the climate:
“I know of no country, which looks more like Zeeland in Holland in climate and soil, and I
cannot see why what grows in Holland could not be planted here; therefore plantations of colouring herbs and other economical herbs should be planted here.”
Thus Linné emphasized that the mild climate of Scania ought to be utilized better through the introduction of new financially beneficial plants, so they could avoid importing these plants from for instance Holland. Furthermore he could compare the herring to the Dutch. “The herring, which is caught at Kullen is hardly inferior to the Dutch herring as to size and fatness.”
Linné often compared with Holland. He had spent time in Holland for several years in the course of the 1730´s and had taken his doctor´s degree in medicine there as well as published a number of scientific writings.
Humidity, Shifting Sand and Mould Drift
Linné did not thrive on Scania´s damp autumn and the lack of firewood, something that he was not accustomed to in Småland and Uppsala.
“Here in Scania one notices that the clay walls spread a mouldy, damp and unpleasant smell, especially for one, which is not used to it and this vapour becomes more strong when it rains. In this plain landscape it is evident that we have an advantage in the north with lovely fireplaces, where wee dry our bodies in cold and damp weather.” At a visit in Herrestad Linné stated: “In this place the peasants´ houses, and often the squires´ too, mostly damp and filled with an infrequent nausea.”
The open plain landscape also held other problems: “Kämpinge Town in the south-western corner of Scania was plagued by shifting sand, which blew into town like big snowdrifts and ruined the farmers´ fields.” The problem existed in many places, and Linné took it very seriously. He mentioned the importance of the planting in order to dampen the shifting sand:
“The Dutch have employed this on their sand dunes. For this purpose they use a grass kind that they call crest. Around Ängelholm many and sparse plantations been laid out and these have, for a great part, had a
fortunate effect.”
Half-timbered House | 
Scanian House |
Willow planting
Mould drift and drying up made up other problems in the Scanian plain, especially in high-situated fields. The solution for this was, according to Linné, to increase the planting of willows and other trees. This would dampen erosion, maintain moisture and additionally provide firewood for the heating of damp houses:
“Most important for the Scanian plain it that all dikes are planted with willows and other hardwood trees along the inner sides of the banks of earth. They will then gain a considerable strength and every third year branches can be cut and weaved into small fences, which can be set up on the banks. When these have worked for two years and become dilapidated, they can be used for firewood the third year, when the fields are laid out. Besides this such trees embellish the landscape, affords shelter form the wind, which dries up the soil and in an invisible dust takes away the finest mould and thus daily impoverishes the soil.”
“Willow planting is a necessity for Scania, without it the country will hardly be able to obtain its future livelihood.”
The Popular Traditions of Scania
In addition to all his records of how Scanian agriculture and economic life could be improved, Linné was also interested in the popular traditions of Scania. Here he describes the celebration of Midsummer Eve on the square in Skanør in 1749:
“The young farmhands and servant girls had gathered in the square. The boys had provided poles and the girls had provided flowers. The poles were chained together to a high mast with cross spears and in a couple of minutes the whole pole was covered with flowers and wreaths, which hung down from the end of the spears. The finished maypole, which was beautiful and magnificent, was put up with cries of joy and the youth danced around it all night, in spite of the rain.”
In Linné´s description of Midsummer in Skanør and Falsterbo, it is evident that the contact with Denmark had not been broken all together: People came from distant places, and formerly many came from Denmark.”
Midsummer Pole |
Linné – Also a Man of Trifles
Nothing was too small or too trivial for Linné. He writes from his stay in Malmo:
“Pencils from England of an unusual sort can be obtained at Mayor Borg. They could not be sharpened with a knife, only with the help of heat or light could you press them together with your fingers, and they smelled of sealing wax. This meant that they were made of graphite with very little resin. It would be useful for us, who are so well-supplied with lead ore, but still so little of graphite, which can be made into pencils.”
Linné had many great and small thoughts of Scania´s development.The Transport Revolution
| | The use of the steam engine in ships and trains also signified a revolution in the communication of the Sound Region. The extension of the infrastructure on both sides of the Sound and the connection between train traffic and ship traffic encouraged the investment in the magnificent Elsinore Station building at Elsinore harbour in 1891. |
Oresund – the center
The dream of the old great North and nationalistic unification efforts were specifically united in the time after 1830 in the movement called “the Scandinavism”. Its centre of gravity was to become the Sound region, and here efforts were made to bridge over the Sound. Scania had after all been part of Denmark’s cultural centre before the Swedes took over, so it was natural that a rapprochement with Denmark was positively viewed in this landscape.
Regular steamship communications between Scania and Denmark began with the service Malmo-Copenhagen in 1828. Thus the Sound again had begun to work as a communication link – and not as a “blue wall” – between Sweden and Denmark. The new technique and the new ideas went hand in hand and were also able to motivate each others´ existence.
Ophelia |
The New Infrastructure
An important factor in this was the gradually improved infrastructure, especially the steam ships and railways. Elsinore was the first provincial town, which was visited by Denmark’s first steam ferry, “Caledonia” as early as 1819. Throughout the 1920´s and 30´s there was irregular traffic along the coast. At the end of 1842 there was a permanent steam ship connection via the ferry “Hamlet” between Elsinore and Copenhagen. In 1945 the service also included Helsingborg. Moreover, from 1856 there was a permanent connection between Elsinore and Helsingborg.
This meant that it was possible to transport family members and luggage over greater distances. The steam ships landed at various places along the way from where people were rowed ashore to the desired summer residences. With the steam ships and the railway connection between Copenhagen and Elsinore via Hillerød it was possible for the head of the family to travel to the city and take care of business in the summertime too.
Caledonia | 
Hamlet |
Ophelia | 
Vedbæk´s Harbour | 
The North Railway |
The North Railway | 
Train Timetable | 
The Hornbæk Railway | 
Klampenborg |
The Industrialism of Malmo
Malmo was industrialized and urbanized to a great extent between 1860 and 1900, where the population was more than tripled. Large industries were founded. Already in 1840 Frans Fredrik Kockum had founded a mechanical workshop, in which railway cars were built in the 1850´s and in the 1870´s shipbuilding began. In 1966 the Malmo wool factory was founded, which became one of the largest textile factories in the North. The Malmo Mill from 1881 became Sweden’s largest producer of wheat flour and Malmo Assorted Chocolates (Mazetti) grew to be one of the largest in the business. In 1890 The Scanian Cement Ltd started a cement factory in Limhamn. The main railway was finished in 1864 and Malmo had a railway station area, which was the largest in Sweden.
Malmo´s Harbour in the 1880´s | 
Kockum´s Factories | 
Malmo Station |
The Infrastructure
Through his municipal activities Consul Olsson could press the questions concerning improved communications. In the period 1865-85 he contributed to making it possible for Helsingborg to have railway lines in every direction. At first to Billeberga-Esløv, then to Hässleholm and to Åstorp and Värnamo. Thus the city was connected with the big railways and had railway lines to Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo. At the same time the harbour was enlarged and made deeper with more new basins and Sweden´s first train ferry connection to abroad was opened on the H-H- fairway in 1892.
The enlargement of the harbour had en effect on the Helsingborg shipping business and at the end of the century the city had the third largest merchant navy. Petter Olsson started more industries, among them tileworks, the steam mill and the rubber factory, where Henry Dunker later would start the rubber shoe fabrication. He was enthusiastic about the development of the city, but also about Evangelical religion. The mission building on Kullagatan was built thanks to Petter Olsson. He was throughout his life faithful to his religious beliefs and said that he would make Helsingborg to “a city, which honoured God”. His large family spent the summers in the leisure villa “Öresundslyst” on the Danish side of the Sound.
Infrastructure
Another important factor concerning the industrial revolution was the establishment of infrastructure, which connected North Zealand to the metropolitan area. The sea route was there, of course, but in 1864 the north railway was opened with connection to Copenhagen via Hillerød. The transportation of goods from the terminus to the town centre was done via a horse drawn line and from this the name “Trækbanen”.
Out of fear of competition from the capital there was local resistance against the establishment of the North railway and the Coast railway, which was opened in 1897. With the opening of the Hornbæk railway in 1906 a substantial improvement of the area’s infrastructure was the result with better connections to the surrounding area, among other things cloth is transported from Hellebæk, tile from Ålsgårde and paper from Havreholm. The transport development was to some extent also a result of the transformation of the area to a recreational area for the metropolitan region. And to some extent, this is still the case.
The sea trade´s fear that the new communications would certain parts of the trade transport was well-founded and with the final lifting of protection zones around the market town in 1920, the time where obstacles were put in the way of the free trade, was finally over.
Around the turn of the century the most important factors for the industrial development was provided: First of all with the establishment of the shipyard, the necessary capital and investments and labour, which also came to the town, an extension of the infrastructure and the lifting of earlier days´ restrictions on production and trade. With the establishment of Elsinore Technical School in 1885, a modern education of the work force was also begun.
The New Station for the Coast Railway | 
Oversæt | 
Oversæt | 
The Railway Terrain |
Aeroplanes
| | If the 1800´s was the century of the steamship and the railway, the aeroplane became the icon of the first part of the 20th century. In the Sound region it already started in 1906 with Ellehammer´s famous flight, in 1910 the Sound was crossed in aeroplane and the development of aeroplane types and airports picked up speed on both sides of the Sound. |
The Aeroplane
If the 1800´s was the century of the steamship and the railway, the aeroplane became the icon of the first part of the 20th century. In the Sound region it already started in 1906 with Ellehammer´s famous flight, in 1910 the Sound was crossed in aeroplane and the development of aeroplane types and airports picked up speed on both sides of the Sound.
From Steam to Plane
Steam ships and railways had revolutionized the communications in the 19th century and in the Sound region the new transportation systems became very important. The North Railway/Coast Railway in Zealand and the Main Railway (West Coast Railway in Scania were tied together with the train ferry connection between Helsingborg and Elsinore.
Another invention helped revolutionize the communications of the 20th century. The internal combustion engine did not only make motoring possible, but also a new collective means of transport – the air transport. The light internal-combustion engine could be used in aircrafts. But the road to the collective air transport was complicated and fantastic.
Ellehammer – The First in the North
The American Wright was the first to really take off from the surface of the earth in December 1903, but as early as three years later, September 12th 1906, the Dane, Ellehammer, flew ca.42 metres ca. 30 centimetres above the ground. In 1912 he constructed a helicopter, but in 1916 he crashed and did not revive his interest in aviation until the 1930´s, where he took part in the planning of Kastrup Airport, which opened in 1925.
Ellehammer´s Aeroplane | 
Ellehammer Flying |
The Sound in the Centre
In Europe France became the centre of aviation and enthusiasts form all over came to learn. Perhaps the temptation was the adventure, the venture or the joy of the novelty, but also the enormous attention, which the pilots were granted. Air shows gathered huge crowds, the pilots were considered heroes and was worshipped like idols. In Stockholm the “aviation Baron”, Carl Cederström was constantly cheered, but it was in Scania and Denmark that the aeroplane first took hold.
As early as 1909 the Dane Folmer Hansen tried to fly from Sofiro North of Helsingborg in Scania to Marienlyst outside Elsinore, but he had to cancel because of bad weather. In 1910 a price of 5.000 kroner was offered to the one, who could cross the Sound first. Carl Cederström loaded his aeroplane on to a goods wagon for Copenhagen in order to take this price. But a Danish aviator, Svendsen, came first, when he flew from Copenhagen to Malmo July 17th, 1910. Carl Cederström first crossed the Sound August 24th, 1910.
The Sandfangeren in Stockholm |
The First Swedish Aeroplane
In Stockholm the Swedish Aeronautic Society (SAS) arranged aviation weeks in the autumn of 1910. As usual big crowds gathered to get a glimpse of the aviator idols, especially Carl Cederström. But the big sensation came from the Sound region. Two aviator enthusiasts and engineers from Landskrona, Oscar Ask and Hjalmar Nyrop, who already in April had displayed the first Swedish built aeroplane on the City Hotel in Landskrona.
The aeroplane only had one problem. It could not fly very far and it hopped more than it flew. Nyrop and Ask had collegial difficulties and split up Nyrop continued his work with improving the machine and replaced the two-cylindered boxer motor with a three-cylindered fan engine. The test flights in Ljungbyhed, the first airport in Sweden, were not very promising and the aeroplane was called the grasshopper.
In the beginning of September 1910 he finally succeeded in getting the aeroplane in the air. It was the first time a Swedish aeroplane flew – and stayed in the air for almost five minutes.
The First Swedish Aeroplane | 
The News in a Hotel |
Danish-Scanian Cooperation
It was this Ask-Nyrop aeroplane, which was presented in Stockholm. The Scanian, Oscar Ask and the Danish descendant, Hjalmar Nyrop constructed the engine and the plane´s pilot was the Dane Knud Thorup. The presentation of the first functioning Swedish aeroplane was an example of Scanian-Danish cooperation.
After a crash Nyrop gave up his work with aeroplanes, but Ask developed his company in Landskrona further and built more planes, until he joined forces with Enoch Thulin, who became a giant in early Scandinavian aviation industry.
Thulin, the Pioneer
The Scanian Thulin started as early as 1908 to study aviation technique and the art of aviation in France and in 1912 in Lund he defended his thesis, “On Air Resistance in Flat Surfaces”. September 24th 1913 he became the first to fly across and back the Baltic, when he flew the distance Landskrona-Stralsund-Trelleborg. In 1914 he flew the distance Paris-Landskrona.
Thulin managed to get through hundreds of spectacular aviation shows and he built Scandinavia´s first real aviation industry in Landskrona, AB Enoch Thulin´s Aeroplane Factory, a further development of the company he ran earlier with Oscar Ask.
Enoch Thulin | 
Thulin-Plane |
Aviation Industry in Landskrona
During the First World War Thulin´s aviation factory grew and before long it had one thousand employees. 99 aeroplanes were built, almost 600 aviation engines and also 300 cars. Thulin was very popular among his employees. He was a scientist, constructor, manufacturer and aviator. The aeroplanes were built as light as possible. They consisted of light tree constructions covered with heavy canvas, and the landing wheels looked like bicycle wheels.
Aviation School in Ljungbyhed
Thulin started an aviation school in Ljungbyhed in 1915, which quickly became a centre for a pilot education. In the school Thulin used aeroplanes from his factory in Landskrona. In the beginning of the 1920´s they had educated more than 100 pilots. Among them the first Swedish woman pilot, Elsa Andersson. She was the daughter of a farmer in Strövelstorp between Helsingborg and Ängelholm and a strange woman of her time. She was also a parachutist. After some successful show jumps in Kristianstad and Helsingborg, she plunged to the ground in Askersund and died.
Thulin´s Aviation School | 
Elsa Andersson |
Thulin Dies
Thulin died in 1919 during a flight at Landskrona. After his death the factory in Landskrona was forced to close down. It had become mush too difficult to compete with the many manufacturers around the world. Moreover the demand decreased after the world war and the subsequent arms reduction efforts. The aviation industry in all of Europe decreased and there was not yet any civilian aviation traffic, which needed aeroplanes. The aviation school in Ljungbyhed closed too, but was reopened in 1926 as the air force´s own aviation school.
Post and Passenger Traffic
In the 20´s the aviation traffic developed into also to include transport of post and passengers. In Denmark the Danish Airline Company (DDL) had gone into regular air traffic. A number of airline companies in Europe, among them the Danish DDL and the Swedish SLA (Swedish Air Traffic AB), founded the International Air Traffic Association (IATA). DDl and the German, Deutsche Luftrederei (DL) started a co-operation in 1920 on the line Copenhagen – Malmo – Warnemünde – Berlin. German passenger planes were used and among the pilots were Hermann Göring, who in this way came in contact with Scandinavia.
Airports and Traffic Planes
The airports either lay in the sea (aeroport) or on land (aerodrom). The aerodromes were large grass fields. Enoch Thulin carried out a campaign as early as 1914 to get the authorities to lay out private airfields. In Scania Bulltofta Airport was opened in 1924 and thus became Sweden´s first airport for regular traffic. For a long time it was Sweden´s most important international airport, until Bromma in Stockholm was opened for traffic in 1936. In the 30´s concrete fields were laid out, which made traffic with bigger aeroplanes possible.
By means of the air traffic the Sound region was tied together early with other regions in Europe. Kastrup Airport was opened in 1925 and quickly became Scandinavia´s centre of international air traffic. An airline connection shuttling between Bulltofta and Kastrup made it possible for the Scanians to reach the whole world via Kastrup.
After the opening of Sturup Airport in the beginning of the 1970´s the shuttle service was abolished and replaced by the hydrofoil boats between Malmo and Kastrup. It also ended with the opening of the Sound Bridge, which turned Kastrup into a joint Danish-Swedish airport in line with the collaboration, which marked the infancy of aviation in the Sound region.
Bulltofta Airfield |
Kastrup Airport |
Regular Services
With regular air services across the Sound the region had a supplement to the regular ferry service, which was developed during the 19th century. As early as the 1880´s they had developed the first project sketches for a regular service across the Sound, at first a draft of a railway tunnel from Elsinore to Helsingborg. Around the turn of the century a similar plan was made of a connection between Copenhagen and Malmo.
The reasons for a fixed connection were a question of connections to the continent and ideas of better connections to the other parts of the Baltic region and the global market. In 1914 the Swedish engineer, Albrecht Quistgaard, together with the Dane, Heinrich Ohrt, presented concession applications to the Danish and Swedish government, but the world war interfered with the plans for a fixed connection.
Bridge Plans in the 1930´s
In the 1930´s plans for the building of bridges came up again. In Denmark several bridge projects were carried through as public tasks in order to relieve unemployment. The Little Belt Bridge between Funen and Jutland was finished in 1935 and the Storstrøm Bridge with a fixed connection to the south was also started. In Sweden they were evidently afraid fall behind and in the argumentation for the establishment of a fixed connection, the connection to the continent and the rest of Europe played an important part.
The examination project from the Technical University in Stockholm, which was published in The Technical Journal in 1935, was the first to present concrete proposals. Here it was a question of a combined road and railway bridge between Elsinore and Malmo. In 1936 the first concrete proposal for a fixed connection between Malmo and Copenhagen came. Three Swedish and Three Danish companies were behind the proposal, but this time a world war interfered again.
Sketch for Railway Bridge | 
Sketch for a Sound Bridge |
Escape Route
| | Thousands of Danish refugees were welcomed in Scania.
Upon arrival in Helsingborg and Malmø the refugees were interrogated by the Swedish police and put in the hastily built refugee camps..
The German occupying power did almost nothing to stop this illegal communication.
|
Everyday Life
Everyday life in Elsinore continued for the first three years almost normally.
But the blackout, the ice winters, the lack of goods and the many rationings gradually made life more difficult. But the lights from Helsingborg were a gleam in the dark.
The Blackout
The Germans required a blackout already that the same evening at 7 PM. A demand that was hard to meet with such short notice in Elsinore.
In Helsingborg the Swedish authorities also required that lights were put out, but on May 24th they chose to let the lights shine again. In an almost religious manner the shining Scanian coast became a symbol of freedom for the entire northeastern part of the Sound region.
The blackout and the subsequent oppressive atmosphere in everyday life, was the thing the Elsinore citizens complained most about as the war progressed. Gradually it became a tradition to defy the blackout demand and exchange bonfire greetings between Elsinore and Helsingborg.
The blackout was also the first thing that the population lifted themselves on the evening of May 4th. The blackout curtains were removed and candles were put in the windows. A tradition, which has lasted for many years in Denmark on the anniversary of the Liberation. But now it has almost disappeared.
But the nationally known “national anthem” of Elsinore still remains: Henry Karlsen´s “Kronborg Waltz, where one the well known lines related the atmosphere: “Soon they will put on the lights in Helsingborg, they are like a thousand stars...
The Lights in Helsingborg | 
Office Party at Christmas |
Swedish Customs Are Imported to Denmark
Swedish Customs Are Imported to Denmark
The magical light from Sweden and the need to escape from the restriction ridden everyday in Denmark, became the start of the national encounter with “The Blue Wall”, the separation between the two countries, which the Sound had constituted since 1660.
Now Sweden became a symbol of freedom. Everything Swedish was good. Swedish films, Swedish singers/actors, literature and Swedish customs. One example is the Swedish Lucia tradition, which was not known in Denmark earlier. The custom came to Sweden in the 18th century via German workmen´s Christmas tradition from the Rhine, where a girl, dressed in white and with lights in her hair, walked around handing out sweets. In western Sweden they had the traditional “lusse night”, in connection with the long night between December 12th and 13th, where they entered the stables and fed the animals a treat. Those two traditions were merged to the tradition we know today on both sides of the Sound, where a lucia bride is leading a row of singing girls dressed in white with candles in their hands.
Swedish Customs | 
Swedish Cultural Export to Denmark |
| |
 | Small | Large | Swedish culture export to Denmark |
| | Large | Jag har bott vid en landsväg |
The Great Escape – Denmark
Thousands of Danes fled to Sweden in october 1943 across the Sound. Many from Gilleleje, Elsinore, Snekkersten and Espergærde.
The Escape Across the Sound |
Before October 1943
Shortly after the occupation the German occupying power banned travels between the Scandinavian countries. It was necessary to apply for a visa, which the Danes were to administer, but under German control. At the same time a Danish coast police was established to patrol the eastern Danish waters from Hundested in the north to Gedser in the south. The Danish marine was to control the adjacent waters.
From when Denmark was occupied April 9th 1940 to August 1943 only few refugees came from Denmark to Sweden. Partly because of the relative peaceful circumstances in Denmark, but also because of Sweden´s restrictive refugee policies. It appears from Swedish police reports that the Swedish policy of neutrality towards the strong and victorious Germany meant that they often sent the refugees back to Denmark.
The Coast Police |
Vendepunktet (Overskriften skal oversættes til engelsk)
After a series of intense events August 29th 1943 in connection with the resignation of the Danish government and the internment of the Danish military, the number of refugees in September increased to 609, of which 61 were Jews. The rest was first and foremost military persons, resistance people, stateless persons, policemen, but also some unemployed and adventurers, who fled from the blacked out and restriction-ridden Denmark.
Flygtningestrømmen vokser (Rubrikken skal oversættes til engelsk)
The internment of the Danish army, the hostage-taking and the increasing tit-for-tat murders led to a marked increase in the refugee stream to Sweden in the course of the month of September. A number of artists and intellectuals, among them quite a few Jews, began to see the writing on the wall and arrange the crossing to the neutral Sweden.
The nuclear physicist Niels Bohr crossed September 30th, the same day as the architects Poul Henningsen and Arne Jacobsen escaped from Skodsborg together with girlfriends and a fifth party, Herbert Marcus, who was also an oarsman. The boat had been collected by a Falck van in the Bagsværd Lake, as it was prohibited to have smaller vessels less than five kilometres from the coast. It was a dramatic crossing in an overloaded boat, which was unsuitable for that type of transport. Arne Jacobsen was of Jewish origin, and Poul Henningsen was on the list of the tit for tat murders, but he did not know that at the time. They both reached Stockholm, where they spent the rest of the war.
October 2. 1943: The Mass Escape of the Danish Jews
Dette tekstafsnit skal oversættes til engelsk fra Staffan eller Stigs tekst.
Werner Best | 
Duckwitz |
The Hunts for The Jews
The night between October first and second 1943 the Germans started a hunt for the Jews in Denmark with the object of sending them to the concentration camp Theresienstadt in the protectorate Bohemia-Moravia, the present Czech Republic. Officially the Germans explained in the daily press that the Jews were to blame for the disturbances in August. In order to compensate they simultaneously released the disarmed Danish soldiers.
The result was that 234 Jews were apprehended. The raid had follow ups in October and November, where an additional 190 Jews were apprehended. They were deported and 53 of them died in the camp. Most of them old and sick.
Concentration Camps in Europe | 
Theresienstadt | 
Martin Nielsen |
Sverige ändrar inställning
In the light of the events in August the Swedish state re-evaluated its policy of neutrality. October 2nd Sweden announced publicly that they would receive the Danish Jews as refugees. In close cooperation with – especially the Scanian authorities and administration, a number of privately based, illegal escape routes along the entire Zealand east coast were established.
The Civilian Resistance
The persecution of the Jews became a turning point for many Danes in their attitude towards the German occupying power. The close integration of the Danish Jews in the Danish society meant that the racial policy of Nazism offended the sense of justice of many Danish citizens. A larger number of the population now resisted actively; often citizens, who had no affiliation with the existing part of the resistance movement, who mostly were connected to the Communist Party and the Dansk Samling party.
In Copenhagen the students went on strike and some of them organized a collection of money, which came to very large sums: Approximately 1 million kroner, which in 1993 correspond to 20 million kroner.
Escape Routes
Thousands of Jewish fellow citizens from Copenhagen made for the Sound coast, where there was total chaos for the first few days with regards to the organisation of this migration. Escape routes sprung up and at first without mutual connections.
In Stockholm the Danish architect, Ole Helweg took the initiative for a meeting with the Swedish foreign minister and Ebbe Munck, who was the representative of the Danish resistance movement in Sweden, and with the help of Jewish circles in Sweden a boat was provided, which sailed from Malmo and this became the beginning of the Danish-Swedish refugee service, which was to sail 367 trips with refugees.
Very different people started separately or in groups to organize escape routes from the metropolitan area to the Swedish coast. Most came over from Copenhagen itself, but also from Gilleleje on the north coast and Snekkersten south of Elsinore were for a period of time became veritable escape centres.
From Where? | 
Ebbe Munch |
Vellykket redningsaktion (Rubrik oversættes til engelsk)
The result was that the vast majority of Denmark´s, approximately 95% 7000 Jews in the course of October crossed over to safety on the other side of the Sound. Approximately 2-3000 directly from Copenhagen, where 80% of the Jews lived.
The Great Escape-Sweden
On arrival to the Scanian harbours in Helsingborg and Malmo the refugees were interrogated by the Swedish police and sent to hastily established refugee camps.
Swedish Refugee Policy
The First Foreigners´ Laws
The close cooperation with the Swedish authorities ensured that so many people got over. The background was a change in the Swedish refugee policy after August 29th 1943.
At that time Sweden pursued and immigration policy, which was very restrictive. According to the first foreigners´ law from 1927 a person could be refused admission at the border “if it could be assumed that he had planed to apply for a permanent stay, and that it in all likelihood could be assume that he was not able to earn a living.”
January 1st 1938 a new foreigners law was introduced, which was in force, when the intense persecution of the Jews went on in November in Germany and Austria. That, which really separated the new law from the previous, was that there was s passage on political refugees, which said that if there was a reason to believe that a refugee had political motives, the directory of social services should decide whether the individual was allowed to stay.
But the Jews were not considered political refugees! In principle the Swedish border was closed to them. As the Jews according to the Nuremberg-laws were not German citizens, they could not be sent to any state and therefore they would not be allowed in the country.
The Escape to Sweden |
The J-Passports
As Sweden did not demand a visa of travellers from Germany, it was required that the passport showed who could return to the country, and thus be allowed to enter Sweden. So Sweden demanded, at Germans and Jews had different passports! Otherwise compulsory visa had to be introduced when travelling to Sweden.
Switzerland had the same demands. The Germans introduced a special passport law on October 5th 1938. According to this law the Jews had to have a “J” stamped on the first page of their passports. Whether the German passport law was a result of the Swedish and Swiss demands, or if it would have been introduced anyway, is difficult to establish, but the facts remain: Sweden issued such demands and Germany introduced a passport law, which satisfied the Swedish demands.
Gøre Friberg, superintendent of police in Helsingborg during the war, was well informed on the conditions and he wrote in his book “Stormcentrum Øresund”:
Immediately after the German passport, we, who worked in the border stations, that is, the passport control, received a circular letter from the social services. It said that people wit a “J” passport were to be considered immigrants. They were not to enter the country without special permission. This came to apply to all Jews, when the few of them, who could be considered political refugees, did not count in the immigration statistics.” (p. 31). Furhermore Friberg wrotes: “It is a fact that the result of the Swedish foreigners´ legislature in practice was, that the fleeing Jews were turned away at the Swedish border.
Göte Friberg |
Protection of Swedish Labour
The Swedish immigration and refugee policy was meant to protect Swedish labour against competition many people from the unions and the academic circles participated in this cool-headed position. In Lund a meeting was called in the Academic Society on March 6th 1939, and a clear majority of the more than a thousand students present voted for a resolution, which warned against the immigration of “foreign elements”.
Even after April 9th 1940, when the Germans occupied Denmark, only a few refugees arrived in Sweden from the other side of the Sound. Until August 28th 1943 only 150 Danish refugees were granted asylum in Sweden.
After August 29th 1943
But there were people, who helped the refugees. Not least in the police in Helsingborg, where Gösta Friberg and Carl Palm with white lies and cunning, with thought and hard work saved many. But Friberg also relates in his book, how he on October 2nd 1943 was told by the foreign ministry in Stockholm that the border police from now on could discount all passport formalities.
In the first three war years only 150 refugees arrived in Sweden, but in one week in October several thousand arrived. In one day, 900 arrived in Helsingborg. In the month of October approximately 7000 Jewish-Danish refugees arrived in Scania.
Chief Constable Göte Friberg | 
The Security Police in Helsingborg |
Refugee Pressure on Helsingborg
Helsingborg received in the course of the hectic month of October 1943 more than 4000 Jewish refugees and an enormous organising was required. During the first refugee accumulation in the begining of October the Grand Hotel was filled and several other hotels. It was then necessary to find a refugee camp, which could be used for some time, before the refugees were taken further up the country in order to make room for others.
Ramlösa Spa, which was hibernating, was opened and functioned as a receiving central for all those, who were landed in Landskrona and north. The Ramlösa camp had a permanent doctors´ station, headed by a Danish doctor. As the flow of refugees were steady it was important that they could taken to new camps further up in the country and such an organisation quickly started to function.
Medical Examination | 
Joint Cooking in Ramlösa |
| |
| Small | Large | Helsingborg – Accommodation in Ramlösa Spa |
“To Separate the Grain From the Chaff”
The camp had staff, whose task it was to find “stickers”, i.e. Nazi spies and other observers, who posed as refugees. The most dangerous were placed in the prison in Kalmar. It was somewhat sensitive that Sweden held “stickers” interned for the Danes until the end of the war. It was a silent arrangement without any papers between the Danes and the Swedes, who trusted each other.
It was clear that Göte Friberg from Helsingborg and the detective superintendent in Malmo, Richard Hansen, was involved in this arrangement. Richard Hansen repeated a conversation with the defence minister Per Edwin Sköld in these words, reported in a series of articles in “Svenska Dagbladet”1984-85 by Orvar Magnegård: “You must know that the government closes its eyes for what you are doing. If it is discovered, we cannot do anything to defend or help you. However, after the war you and police superintendent will be forgiven.
In the beginning of 1945 16,700 Danish refugees had arrived in Sweden, and 60% of these came via the Helsingborg area. All in all approximately 25.000 foreigners arrived in Helsingborg int he course of 1943-45.It was the events of August 29th 1943, which opened up Sweden.
Denmark in Sweden
Bøn til stjernerne
Terrorbander
Hærger mit land.
Natten splintres af bombebrag,
Clearingsmord på den lyse dag!
Vi emigranter
Ser ikke land
Tågebanker
Skjuler mit land
Miner driver i Øresund,
Mørket gaber med ild i mund.
Ønsker og tanker
Naar ikke land
Milde stjerner,
Lys for mit land!
Lad med fred på den klare dag
Røgen ringle fra husets tag,
Arbejdets kærner
Fylde mit land
(Den danske digter Otto Gelsted fra sit eksil i Sverige)
The Unofficial Denmark in Sweden
After August 29th 1943 the Danish envoy in Stockholm, chamberlain J.C.W. Kruse and his entire staff declared themselves independent and were thus ready to make an effort for the refugees, which poured over the Swedish border. The Swedes now received the Danes with open arms and they were allowed to establish a Danish press service. The editor Erik Seidenfaden had approximately 40 employees and was now able to transmit the attitude of the “unofficial” Denmark to the world public as a news service.
The Resistance in Sweden
It was also from Stockholm the Danish Liberation Council´s representative, Ebbe Munch, cleverly facilitated the connection between the resistance movement in Denmark and the allied authorities. In reality Munch functioned as an unofficial envoy and held the administrative and financial threads in his hand. A refugee office also established in Stockholm headed by professor Stephan Hurwitz and the later conciliator, Sigurd Wechselmann.
From Malmo editor Leif Hendil, Ekstra Bladet (Danish newspaper) directed the biggest Danish escape route: Danish-Swedish Refugee Service. A large part of the money to this came from Swedish Jews.
Ebbe Munch | 
Leif Hendil |
The Reception of the Refugees in Scania
At the reception in Helsingborg or Malmo the refugees went through medical examination, and were fitted out, if necessary. The police – often in cooperation with the Danish police, also investigated their circumstances, because they were afraid of spies.
After these preliminary arrangements they were allowed to travel on in Sweden, if they had contacts, which could procure work and housing. If not, they were sent to refugee camps in the neighbourhoods of Helsingborg and Malmo.
With so many people crammed in the hastily established refugee centres, it was no wonder that harassments arose. Not just internally among the refugees, but also in relation to the Swedish hosts. The Danish poet, Otto Gelsted was among the first to escape in October 1943. Here he came in close contact with a group of fellow Jewish refugees and in his memoir novel: “The Refugees in Husaby”, he conveys a well-informed picture of the atmosphere.
The Reception in Malmo | 
The Reception in Malmo | 
The Reception in Malmo |
Work, Schooling and Education
At this time there was a lack of labour in Sweden, and many entered the Swedish labour market. All in all the Danish refugees were helped in every kind of way by the Swedish authorities and private citizens. Schools were established for the children; Danish students were admitted to the universities, scientists and artists were allowed to continue their work.
On November 15th 1943 a Danish school was established in Lund with 40 pupils. January 1st 1944 primary school started and July 1st the school had 170 pupils and 25 teachers. A dansih school was also established in Göteborg, which had 200 pupils and 25 teachers at the end of the war. Furthermore there were smaller Danish schools in Helsingborg, Jönköping and Norrköping.
Danes studied at the universities in Lund, Uppsala, Stockholm and Göteborg and in 1944 final Danish jurisprudence university exams were held in Stockholm. Examiners and external examiners were Danish and eight students passed the exams. As the world war progressed and Germany lost footing, many of the refugees wanted to leave their mark on the course.
The editor of one of Denmark´s largest newspapers, Herbert Pundik has explained this in his memoirs; “Det kan ikke ske i Danmark (1993) (It Cannot Happen in Denmark):
One of the historians of the occupation in Denmark, Hans Kirchhoff assessed in 2001 the reasons why
Settlement | 
Children on the Run | 
Employment | 
The Gratitude of the Refugees |
The Danish Brigade
The weak Danish military was given, in the autumn of 1943, permission to establish a secret highly trained army in Sweden, Danforce. Also called: The Danish Brigade. A clear breach of Sweden´s neutrality policy.
The Danish Brigade |
Ebbe Munch | 
Time Lines for the Decision Making Process |
The Danish Resistance Army in Sweden 1943-45
After some considerations the Swedes also gave the Danes the opportunity to establish a secret army, “The Danish Brigade”. The Swedes armed the brigade and ended up promising them air force and naval support in case of the landing of the brigade in Denmark.
For a third of the 17-18.000 Danish citizens in Sweden the Brigade became their basis in an otherwise apathetic and empty existence as refugees. With the Danish traditions of the Brigade, the firm organisation and the strong fellowship and not least the feeling of their being able to save Denmark, many found a meaning in life.
The Resistance Army
The Danish Brigade became a small Danish resistance army in the neutral Sweden. The Brigade was established on November 15th 1943 at the request of the Danish intelligence service and Danish and Swedish Social Democratic politicians and was officially dissolved on July 10th 1945.
At its height in the spring of 1945 the force included approximately 5000 Danish refugees with a core of 8-900 officers from the Danish army and navy. The Brigade also included 200 women.
Calling it a police force, which after the war should help to maintain law and order in Denmark, solved the problem of explaining the presence of a Danish army in the neutral Sweden. The real intention with the Danish Brigade´s tasks was during the whole period uncertain. Among the brigadiers themselves as well as among the Danish and Swedish politicians and the Allies.
The Task
However, one important aspect was clear among the politicians on both sides of the Sound and the top officers: The resistance army was a nationalist Army, which was to be the resigned politicians´ counterbalance to the Danish Liberation Council and influence of the resistance movement and with them the Communists in occupied Denmark.
In step with the development of the war, it was the progression of these matters, which was the cause of disagreements. The Danish collaboration government’s resignation in August 1943 and the internment of the Danish officers, created space for an alternative, secret “government”: The Danish Liberation Council, established in September 1943. This was cross-party, self-established organisation, which coordinated the efforts of the growing, illegal resistance movement. The influence of the Communists in the Danish Liberation Council was considerable and was due to their prominent role in the military sabotage and the illegal magazine distribution. However, it became the Social Democrat, Frode Jacobsen, who, in opposition to his leading party colleagues, became the leading figure. In contrast to the resigned government the Danish Liberation Council had the support of the population. This development meant:
- that the Social Democratic top politicians was robbed of their domination role in Danish politics, which was lost to their hereditary enemy, the Communists
- that the officers in the Danish army felt outdone by a flock of untrained extremist civilians.
The humiliation was great. Firstly the officers had not been allowed to show their worth on April 9th 1943. Between these two, normally hostile parties, a community of interests were created. By establishing an effective military alternative to the resistance army, under Social Democratic control, the politicians could secure themselves against a presumed Communist coup and the officers could re-establish the lost military honour.
There was agreement on the strategic (long term) goals, but disagreement on the tactics (how the goal was to be achieved).
- Should the Brigade be deployed before the Germans had surrendered? Perhaps supported be the Swedish military?
- Should the Brigade be deployed, when the Germans had surrendered?
The Placing of the Brigade in Sweden
The Brigade wanted to be placed in southern Scania, close to Denmark. But the Swedish government refused, because of the neutrality policy and because they were afraid of how the Germans would react. The Germans would probably not stand for such an obvious provocation so close to the Danish border.
In the spring of 1945, the Brigade had, with the increasing help of the Swedes, developed into a ramified military organisation with seven military camps in southern and middle Sweden. Five of them, Sofienlund, Ronneby Bruden, Ryds Brun, Tingsryd and Karlskrona on the border between southern Småland and Blekinge.
The Placement of the Camps | 
The First Camp, Sofielund | 
Memorial Stone |
The Brigade´s Strength and Organisation
The Brigade never became, in spite of an elite training in the manner of the commando units we know today, a fighting unit, which could be deployed against the German occupying power in the Denmark. To the disappointment of the Brigade soldiers, the English officers, headed by general Dewing refused vehemently to let the Brigade try a suicidal mission like that.
In 1945 the Brigade consisted of five battalions, with major general K. Knudtzon as the commander.
- Four battalions with light equipment, light machine guns and small arms.
- Fifth battalion was heavily equipped with a machine gun company, a company equipped with 81 mm and 120 mm mortars.
Together the were a regiment, which could be bcaked up by a smal Danish fleet (Karlskrona) and squadron of planes, however they had not been trained to work with the English planes.
Brigade Commander K. Knutzon | 
The Mortar Group | 
Sätre Brün: Exercise | 
Women´s Army Corps in Hortunaholm |
The International Influence
The discussions concerning this changed in step with the developments in the European battlefields in 1944 and 1945. The Danish Liberation Council’s close connection to the Englishmen’s international organisation of European resistance movements (SOE), meant that the English consistently rejected the Danish officers´ anit-Communist agenda.
The English foresaw that they´d might need the Brigade. In close cooperation with the resistance movement the united forces could tie down German troops in Northern Europe.
The End in Sight
As the war progressed in 1944, it gradually became clear for most people that the Germans would lose the war. The tactics of the English and the Americans were to avoid concentrating their troops in Germany. They were not interested in a war in Denmark, where they would to use manpower. They wanted the Germans to surrender without a fight. The Germans wanted the same, so they could concentrate on the defence of Germany.
The result of these strategic and tactical deliberations was that they did not want to deploy the Danish Brigade, as it would complicate things. The Brigade was to arrive after the Germans had surrendered. Then they could make sure that the Danish Liberation council and thus the Communist resistance movement were held in check.
The Soviet Union was not blind to the deliberations of the Allies and in the course of 1945 a radical change occurred. The Soviet Union did not want a Danish nationalist army under the command of right-wing officers to take away the pronounced influence of the Danish Communist resistance movement. In short: They felt, like the English and the Americans, but for other reasons, that the Brigade could stay where it was: Deep in the forests of Småland.
Internal Frustration
The international development and its effects were not easy to understand for the officers and privates in the Brigade. The boring military training and the wish to get in action was prominent.
The people in the Brigade were told again and again that they should wait. The internal division were many and the leadership had a hard time holding it all together.
As the war progressed many of the Brigade soldiers felt that they let down the resistance movement in Denmark by taking a “holiday” in Sweden. However, apart from some attempts of rebellion form officers as well as privates, they succeeded to hold it all together until May 4th 1945, when the Brigade was sent to Elsinore, Zealand.
Bathing Life | 
The Locals | 
In the Field | 
Harvest Festival | 
Swedish Generals Say Goodbye |
The Homecoming of the Brigade in Elsinore | 
The Mayor in Elsinore Receives Them | 
Elsinore May 5th 1945. |
The Liberation - Sweden
The liberation message created enthusiasm in Helsingborg. The arrival of the Danish Brigade and departure for Elsinore and the joy of the many refugees marked Helsingborg.
The Liberation Seen From Helsingborg
The Stream of Refugees
In the last period of the war the stream of refugees increased considerably. This was among other things due to the negotiations of Folke Bernadotte, which made it possible for many prisoners from the concentration camps to be released and sent to Sweden. The majority of these transports passed through Copenhagen and Malmo and the released prisoners were placed in different camps in Scania. Malmo and Helsingborg were middle stations and in Helsingborg, Ramlösa was used as a transition camp. The health spa was not sufficient and therefore they had to use anything, like schools, industrial premises and hotels. 16.000 refugees arrived in Scania in less than a month. This required a comprehensive organisation to take care of all the refugees. Everybody had to go through a health and security control. Everybody had to be clothed and fed.
The Flag Hoisted for Denmark
“The news that Denmark is free again is celebrated, especially by all citizens of Helsingborg with utmost joy. To show our joy and as a tribute to a free Denmark, the flag will be hoisted all over Helsingborg”.
These words could be read on the editorial page in Helsingborg´s Dagblad on May 5th 1945. The night before the news of Denmark’s freedom had reached Elsinore. When the last ferry sailed to Helsingborg on the evening of May 4th, the citizens of Elsinore stood on the quay and shouted: Give them our regards!”
The Peace Message | 
Helsingborg Dagblad, May 6th 1945 |
Thousands of Helsingborg Citizens at Freedom Bonfire
On the evening of May 5th thousands of people had gathered at “Fria bad”, north of the town centre. A torchlight procession lit a gigantic freedom bonfire on the beach. They wanted to send freedom greetings to Denmark. Several times during the war bonfires had been lit to send greetings to the occupied Danes. Now they want to greet peace in the same way.
Earlier that day the whole town had followed the newspaper’s call for the hoisting of the flag and everywhere there were Swedish and Danish flags. Thousands of people had gathered in the harbour to say goodbye to the first returning Danish troops that had been trained in Sweden. This was the starting signal to a long row of returning Danes. A thanksgiving served was held in the Gustav Adolf Church. The church was full.
Peace Service |
Norway´s Freedom Celebrated Too in Ramlösa
With the joy of Denmark´s liberation people now awaited the liberation of Norway. When it came, happiness was complete, not least in the Ramlösa camp, where many Norwegians had been accommodated. In the camp they also showed their gratitude to the policemen in Helsingborg, who had supported the refugees all the way.
This time too, a peace service was held in the Gustav Adolf Church with the dynamic and popular vicar Gunnar Stenberg.
Celebration in Ramlösa |
Gigantic Transport Task
By the end of the war more than 100.000 non-Swedes were in Sweden. Some stayed, but most of them had to be transported home. A minute planning was implemented. Everybody could not leave at the same time, or form the same harbour. Many thousand returning refugees passed Helsingborg, Malmo and Trelleborg. Among others, Bruno Kreisky returned to Austria and Willy Brandt to West Germany.
But not only refugees returned home. German soldiers and Russian prisoners of war in Norway were also transported via Sweden. In the course of 1945 122.000 soldiers were transported and many of the Germans soldiers passed through Scania. Detailed planning was also required here, not least for security reasons. One tragic chapter was the Balts, who where forced out of Sweden, when the Soviet Union demanded that those, who had participated in the war against Soviet, were to be extradited. Dramatic and tragic scenes took place in Trelleborg, when the Balts were forced on board the ferry to a dark and insecure future.
Göte Friberg Acclaimed
Social minister Gustaf Möller came to Helsingborg a few weeks after the liberation. He was there to unveil a memorial stone and at the dinner afterwards in Grand Hotel he paid tribute superintendent Friberg as a man you could trust. Möller and Friberg both received a distinction from the Danish freedom movement for their efforts during the war. When Denmark needed help trustworthy persons were in demand.
During the dinner Möller said that Sweden during the war had decided to sende one million cartridges to Denmark. When the people in Stockholm considered how this could be done without the Germans finding out, the answer in minister level was: ”That´s very simple, we´ll just let Friberg in Helsingborg handle it”. The transport was a success, of course. Möller also stated that the government, now ought to sanction “everything that had happened in Helsingborg concerning hidden transports to and from Denmark”.
You may ask if the solidarity had ever been greater in the Sound region than it was in May 1945
Göte Friberg | !["Stormcentrum Öresund"](../billeder/1900-1940/09-06-tn.jpg ""Stormcentrum Öresund"")
"Stormcentrum Öresund" |
The Ferries
| | In the 1950´s the compulsory presentation of passports was abolished in Scandinavia. Enterprising businessmen created a new and popular entertainment in the Sound region. Pleasure trips between Scania and Zealand. |
No Passports
At midnight in July 12th 1952 the passport free conditions were introduced between the Nordic countries and the following day there was a lot a activity in the Sound, when 55.000 passengers and almost 4000 cars crossed the Sound on the ferries. The passport free conditions and the increasing motoring resulted in a further need of ferries. Gradually the ferry traffic developed into pleasure traffic parallel to the business traffic.
Routes | 
Helsingborg´s Dagblad, July 13th 1952 |
Pleasure Boats
In the 50´s the Copenhagen boats became a clear element in the Scanian harbours. The little white boat ”Saint Ibb” had taken ”moonlight trips” from Copenhagen to Ven, Helsingborg and Mölle. ”Stadt Kiel sailed Helsingborg/Landskrona and Copenhagen for many years, but the shipping company, who really picked up speed was the Viking Boats. Their boats sailed the Sound from 1955 to 1968. They mainly sailed from Copenhagen to Landskrona and Helsingborg, but sometimes also to Malmo and Ven. Above all they were used for pleasure traffic. The ferry ticket wasn’t always that important and they gave out free tickets everywhere. Many had so many free tickets that they were impossible to use. It was evident that that it was the food and the drink, which provided income for the shipping company.
Saint Ibb |
Knut Viking |
The Scarlett-Boats
At this time the so-called Scarlett-boats sailed between Landskrona and Copenhagen. Their history is special. In Denmark after the war there was a lack of American dollars, which made i impossible to get American goods and American films. Thus the Danes missed the Hollywood film ”Gone With the Wind”, which was shown in Swedish cinemas in 1939. A Danish ship owner, Jørgen Jensen, had the brilliant idea of starting a cinema line. Ships were provided in 1949 for this cinema transport, which sometimes was combined with a Bakken (Danish amusement park) transport. They sailed the Swedes to Bellevue, so they could go to Bakken. And then they sailed to Copenhagen to collect Danes to cinemas in Sweden.
To begin with they went to Palladium in Malmo, where ”Gone With the Wind” was shown, but form the summer of 1949 the cinema trips went to Landskrona. While the films were showed the Swedes were taken home from Bellevue and when the Swedes were taken home the film had ended and the Danes was sailed to Copenhagen. On the way food and drink were served at low costs and there was life music and dancing.
This traffic was the background for the so-called Scarlett boats, which trafficked Landskrona and Tuborg until 1980. Scarlett O´Hara in the film ”Gone with the Wind” gave names to the boats, for instance Hanne Scarlett, Lilli Scarlett and Dana Scarlett.
The Sound Law
Many boats were floating restaurants and there was a lot of drinking. The restaurant owners in the Sound towns protested against the unfair competition as the boats could serve tax-free alcohol. In addition it was known to be quite lively onboard and the Danish and Swedish governments decided in 1961 to lessen the attraction of these pleasure trips. The Sound law, limitations in the alcohol sale were introduced and in the performing of live music. The amount of alcohol and the amount of cigarettes had to be in proportion with the number of passengers. After that the customs authorities often thought that the number of passengers did not correspond to the amount of alcohol that was sold and the number of Copenhagen boats diminished considerably.
Form Monopoly to Competition in the H-H-Line
Even Adam of Bremen established that the shortest distance between Scania and Zealand is at Helsingborg and it was not strange that the most intensive traffic landed there.
The traffic on the H-H-Line in the beginning of the 50´s was run entirely by the DSB (Danish State Railways), but in 1955 there was competition. It was the Swedish company Linjebuss (LB), who with its first ferry, Betula, began its epoch on the Sound. Betula was owned by the Swedish Sugar Factories Ltd. and sailed sugar beet cargoes between Mörbylånga in Öland and Begkvara at the Småland coast. This transport was seasonally adjusted to say the least and at other times the boat could be sued at the H-H- Line as a car ferry. Primula, Carola, Betula II, Regula and Ursula followed up Betula. The LB boats became popular and the concept of ”touring” was introduced as the name for a passage with the serving of food.
The LB-ferries was for a long time considered more cosy with their high salons, who had a nice view of the Sound, in comparison to DSB´s ”basement ferries”, where you had to sit below the car deck. On the LB you glided, but on the DSB you glided. In Helsingborg the basement ferries were called ”the U-boats”. DSB did not build a boat with salons above the car deck until 1967. It was ”Najaden”, and later the sister-ferry ”Kärnan”, ”Kronborg” and ”Holger Danske”. With this the DSB had seriously entered the competition. Another company would enter the H-H-traffic, and that was the so-called Sundbusserne”, which started traffic in March 1958. They solely aimed at the passenger traffic.
Elsinore Harbour 1955 | 
Primula | 
Najaden | 
Sundbusserne |
Enormous Traffic all Over the Sound
The Sound traffic increased and the harbours in the Sound had really become lively by the end of the 1950´s.
In the 1960´s the DSB ferries Dan, Helsingør, Helsingborg, Svea, Kronborg and Kärnan sailed the Sound. The LB ferries were at that time Betula and Primula and the Sundbusserne Henrik I, Jeppe, Pendula and Pernille. In addition the route to Snekkersten was trafficked by Freia and Mols. Helsingborg-Copenhagen was trafficked by Gay Viking, Rolf Viking, Laboe, Lucullus, Stadt Kiel and Sankt Ibb.
At this time 20 ships sailed between Helsingborg and harbours on the other side of the Sound. The number of boats, lines and travellers were impressing at the end of the 50´s and the beginning of the 60´s. In the H-H-line approximately 8 millions passenger were transported in 1961. In 1962 after the introduction of the Sound law, the passenger number in the H-H-line increased to 8,5 millions, but the traffic in Copenhagen diminished, i.e. the traffic that was entirely pleasure trips.
Between Malmø and Copenhagen the train ferry Malmøhus sailed, the most elegant boat in the Sound, and the Sound company´s Absalon, Gripen and Ørnen. These three were called ”the big boats”. From 1957 the Centrum Line or, as it was called initially, the New Copenhagen Line, sailed between Malmø and Copenhagen with more boats, among them the old Kalmarsund I, which had renamed Kirsten Piil and had been used on the line Helsingborg-Copenhagen, Sundpilen and MS Alte Liebe, renamed Ørestad. That same year ”Limhamn” and ”Dragør” trafficked the line Limhamn-Dragør and the route Landskrona-Tuborg was trafficked by the Scarlett-lines. This description of the traffic around 1960 does not cover all the facts, but the question is if the 1955-60 was not the most intensive, when it comes to the number of boats on the Sound.
Snekkersten Harbour |
The Train Ferry Malmøhus | 
Absalon |
Concentration in the H-H-line
Gradually as the motoring gained more importance the ferry traffic was concentrated more and more to the north Sound, where the distance across the water was the shortest. As the great Europe roads from Gothenburg and Stockholm met in Helsingborg, it became natural to take the closest way to Denmark. When the train ferry Malmøhus was closed down in the middle of the 80´s, there were only ferries left between Limhamn and Dragør in the south Sound parallel to the hydrofoil boats between Malmø and Copenhagen.
In 1972 more than 11 millions passenger sailed between Helsingborg and Elsinore and in 1998 more than 13 millions passengers sailed the H-H-line. It was like transporting the whole Danish and Swedish population in just one year!
The following conversation between a man from Helsingborg and a man from Elsinore took place in the middle of the 70´s.
- I think that Helsingborg is the largest passenger harbour in the world.
- I see!
- Do you know which is the second largest?
- Could that be New York?
- No!
- Could it be London?
- No!
- Could it be Dover or Calais?
- No!
- I give up, which is it?
-Elsinore!
- But then Elsinore is as big as Helsingborg!
- No... We have boats for Snekkersten!
The Future
Today (2003) the H-H-Line is trafficked by three companies. The number of boats is small in comparison with the golden days around 1960, but the number of passengers is still impressive, in spite of the emergence of the Sound Bridge. In 2002 12 millions persons travelled with the ferries between Elsinore and Helsingborg and these cities are the only ones that still have boat traffic across the Sound. The large ferries Tycho Brahe, Aurora and Hamlet have a whole different capacity than the boats in the 50´s and 60´s.
But there are those, who plan for a tunnel between Helsingborg and Elsinore.
Tycho Brahe |
Integration
| | The increased communications furthered the contacts between Scania and Zealand. The metropolitan region became more and more accessible for the Swedes and southern Sweden became a popular holiday resort for many Danes. In the sixties the television also contributed to a rapprochement between the peoples. Swedish programs were seen by many Danes and vice versa. |
The Movement of Labour
The movement of labour across the Sound is very old. Since the Middle Ages people have gone where there was work and a place to settle. Even in the time of ”the blue wall”, when you had to have a passport to pass the border, the fishermen communities around the Sound coast kept in close contact. In the 19th century a great number of people emigrated from southern Sweden to the Copenhagen area.
The industrialization brought with it an extensive exchange of ideas; labour and entrepreneur spirit across the Sound and the close contacts of the occupation years was vital for many people.
After the war Denmark was marked by the stagnation, which the wartime economy inevitably brought with it. Work and shopping hungry Danes replaced the stream of refugees. The development in Denmark did not turn until the end of the 50´s. The market determined unemployment was replaced by a structurally determined demand for labour.
In the middle of the 1970´s the unemployment rate rose again, when the market conditions stagnated. Approximately 17.000 Danes chose to cross the Sound to find work and sometimes also to settle.
Denmark experienced, especially during the 80´s a number of structural changes in connection with the dismantling of the old industrial society and the welfare system began to creak in its joints. It looks like southern Sweden has to go through the same process.
It remains to be seen if the membership of the EU and the efforts to strengthen the regional integration can be the tools, which are needed to recreate the dynamics in the Sound region.
Work opportunities |
The H-H-Connection | 
Bridge Vision | 
Salt and Pepper |
Danish Crofters
The increasing ferry and car traffic in the 1960´s brought with it new opportunities to travel the neighbouring countries. The big city people in the Copenhagen area could enjoy new leisure time and holiday opportunities, not least when it became possible for Danes to buy holiday cottages in Sweden.
The second industrial wave, which took place on both sides of the Sound after the Second World War, led to an increasing urbanization. The old towns were depopulated to a great extent. In the forest villages in southern Småland and north Scania many houses were empty. These crofts (often with timbered wooden houses) became attractive for many big city people from the densely populated Zealand. Into the car, across with the ferry (or the bridge by now) and after a one-hour car ride, you are, seen through Danish eyes, in the middle of the wilderness.
The concept became so extensive that Danish ”crofters” formed a society, which had approximately 5.000 members in 2002. But even more Danes own houses today in southern Sweden. Areas like Markaryd and Tingsryd in Småland today exists in the mental map of Denmark. However, the society ”Danish Crofters” stresses that they are not working on getting the old Scanian countries back to Denmark. The society Denmark´s entry to the great forests has also contributed to keep the culture in the landscape.
Swedish Crofts |
Radio and TV
There is in fact just one communication channel before the Sound Bridge, which have been able to assert itself on both sides of the Sound: TV. And then again it started with Radio Mercur, the first commercial radio in the region. In 1958-62 it broke the monopoly of Danmarks Radio and with rock and pop music as bait transmitted from international waters in the Sound. This reinforced the flight of listeners from Danmarks Radio to Sweden´s program 3, which was well under way. By means of the new FM-radios many Copenhageners long ago had sought refuge from the many didactic programmes, which characterized DR1 and 2.
The commercial radio created quite a sensation and the state powers finally succeeded in ending the adventure. Among other things by establishing a third radio channel, which finally began transmitting the music of the new age.
The joint radio listening was now replaced by TV and the populations on both sides of the Sound often looked at each other´s programmes. There were also direct joint programmes in the so-called Nordvision. In many Sound citizens´ childhood there was at first one channel on each side, then two Swedish and one Danish.
When the Danes finally got around to the second channel the media picture had changed into an endless supply of channels in numerous languages. The dyas when Hylands Hörna, Nordisk Musikquiz and Swedanes were able to delight in prime time on both sides of the Sound, is over, but the cultural integration doesn´t have to be weakened on that account.The Sound Bridge
| | The first concrete bridge plans appeared during the industrialization of the 19th century. More proposals were to follow, but it was not until the last decades of the 20th century that the decision makers on both sides of the Sound became serious about the proposals. |
Transport Corridor and Supporting Idea for the Development of Copenhagen
The Question of a fixed connection across the Sound was already discussed after the end of the Second World War at regional and national level in Sweden and Denmark. The European economy faced a new reconstruction boom. In Copenhagen and Scania they saw a fixed Sound connection as a possibility to strengthen the economic development of the region and the as Scandinavia´s natural ”gateway” to the continent.
The Sound Bridge |
From Capital to European Metropolis
The Danish City Plan Laboratory, a society of city planners, sat down immediately after war with the politicians in Copenhagen to discuss the city´s future development of the city. The discussions ended in 1947 in the so-called ”Finger Plan”. It was an attempt to gather the expected development in well-planned frames, so they could avoid a repetition of the fast and aimless house building in Copenhagen’s bridge quarter. The future development was to be done in the form of radial infra structure lines form the city centre towards the market town ring, Køge, Roskilde, Frederikssund, Hillerød and Elsinore. Along these lines stations were to be placed like pearls on a string with houses and retail trade.
The workplaces were in Copenhagen. An extended S-train net along the whole finger plan structure had the task to transport the population between home and work. As the ownership of a car became possible for more and more, the road system was extended according to the same finger plan system. The areas between the fingers were defined as green wedges, which were reserved for agriculture and forest and recreation. In practice the extensions were limited until the middle of the 1970´s to Køge Bay and the Roskilde area, as the politicians wanted to protect the North Zealand landscape from this city development.
The Finger Plan 1947 |
The Sound City – a New Vision
The vision of a Sound city was formulated in 1959 by professor Peter Bredsdorf and his Swedish collegue Sune Lindstrøm. The vision was drawn on a napkin in one of Copenhagen´s well-known restaurants, Brønnum´s Café. (The napkin is kept in the Danish City Plan Laboratory). On the napkin you can see the fixed connections Copenhagen/Malmø and Helsingborg7Elsinore. The coast railway and the west coast railway has been linked in the north and south to a real Sound ring line, the blood circulation of the system.
Bredsdorf and Lindstrøm already then had an idea, which looked like the Finger plan, but the difference was that it reached across the Sound. Malmø/Lund and Helsingborg are not farther away from the Copenhagen centre than the towns in the market town ring. The three Scanian cities could, in each their individual way, strengthen Copenhagen as the capital. Malmø has large industries, like Kockum´s Shipyard and just 20 kilometres from Malmø is Lund with the largest university in the North. Helsingborg was and is Northwest Scania´s regional centre with extensive trade and service functions for Sweden´s contacts with Europe.
Even at government level they fixed connections were drawn up in the 50´s. The Danish and Swedish governments committed themselves, at a meeting in the Nordic Council in 1953, to work for a fixed Sound connection. A Danish-Swedish government commission presented in the following 10-15 years many proposals for connections Malmø-Copenhagen and Helsingborg-Elsinore. It was the Swedes who pressed for a decision. The then Danish communication minister, Kai Lindberg, made it clear in 1962 that the decision concerning a national connection across the Great Belt had to precede the decision of an international connection. The Danes later stuck to this decision.
The Napkin Sketch | 
Project Plan for the H-H-Conncetion | 
Project Plan for the K-M-Connection |
Ørestad – an Idea From the 60´s
The one thing that should prove to have a decisive influence on the placement of the Sound bridge Copenhagen-Malmø was the new projected district Ørestad in west Amager between the Copenhagen centre and the Kastrup airport. In 1962 Copenhagen elected a new Chief Burgomaster, Urban Hansen, who was elected on his promise to build houses. Urban Hansen became interested in the areas in western Amager and Amager Common, which the municipality and the state owned jointly.
In 1964/65 an architectural competition was held concerning a new district in the area. The winning project presupposed a Sound Bridge, subways to the centre of Copenhagen and that Copenhagen’s airport was moved to Saltholm. The proposal contained a massive house building around a number of station areas with approximately 12.500 persons in each, linked with an efficient metropolitan and suburban electric train system.
Everything according to principles, which were very similar to those, which had already been carried out in Køge Bay and Roskilde. The second price in the architectural competition went to a proposal, whose idea it was that Copenhagen should grow outwards in stages from the old medieval town to western Amager. The enclosed city Copenhagen should become an open Sound city, everything according to the vision on Bredsdorf´s and Lindstrøm´s napkin.
Urban´s Plan
Urban Hansen was known and notorious for his enterprise. Among the people he was called the new Christian IV. In west Amager his enterprise did not only went as far as the neighbourhood Remiseparken and the Urban Plan. All in all the building on Amager was quite modest until the end of the 80´s. Bad communication to and from the island made the politicians unwilling to develop Amager.
It is interesting to note that one of the two winners of the second prize in the architectural competition was Knud E. Rasmussen (nicknamed Black Knud). He became the plan director in Copenhagen and thus a man with great influence on the designing of the Ørestad, which is sprouting up in west Amager.
The Ørestad idea was already there in the 60´s. It is one of the evidence that the Sound region and is opportunities to develop Copenhagen into an economic power centre was of current interest even back then. In the favourable market conditions of the 60´s everything went along at blinding speed. The number of cars increased rapidly. The Copenhagen labour market did not only extend to the market town ring around the city, but reached far to cities like Ringsted, Næstved and Slagelse, from where people commuted every day to work in Copenhagen.
Copenhagen´s First Real Region Plan 1973
In 1967 the counties and municipalities in the Copenhagen area began to discuss a revision of the Finger Plan. They wanted partly to catch up to the rapid development, partly to relate the planning to the Sound regional perspective. The plans were put forward to the public and resulted finally in ”Region Plan 1973”.
Region Plan 1973 broke with the principle that the development of the area had to take place according to the Finger Plan structure with Copenhagen as the centre. A new transport corridor, with roads and railways, were to be placed across the fingers in a corridor from Køge, via Høse Tåstrup and Allerød to Elsinore. Where the corridor crossed its fingers centres for houses and businesses. The transport corridor was then to go on to Helsingborg, either north of Elsinore (Højstrup-Sofiero) or south of the city via the so-called ferry corridor. Region Plan 1973 also contained plans for a Sound Bridge from Malmø to Copenhagen via Saltholm, where a new airport was to replace Kastrup.
Swedish Decision on Bridge, 1973
Next to these plans the Swedish parliament (Riksdagen) passed a Sound connection for trains and cars between Helsingborg and Elsinore in 1973. The Swedish decision was never fully read in the Danish parliament (Folketinget). The Danish landslide election in 1973 came between and after that the composition of the parliament had become extremely complicated. The state’s taxation policy had become political dynamite. The result was that not only the Sound connection, but also the Great Belt connection were put in cold storage. At the same time the first oil crisis arrived with subsequent recession, unemployment and lessened traffic in roads as well as railways.
The Industry´s Lobby
Around 1980 the work to create a European home market without national obstacles had come to a halt. This was the cause of worry in the European Industry, who wanted to do better in the competition with USA and Japan. The managing director of Volvo P.G. Gyllenhammar took the initiative in 1983 to the forming of a lobby organisation, ”European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT). Members in the organisation were the top executives in by and large every large European industries, for instance Philips, Siemens, Nestlé, Unilver and Fiat.
In December 1984 ERT published the report ”Missing Links”, which contained demands of among other things a Sound bridge, a connection across the Fermen Belt and a coupling of the Scandinavian railway system with the future European high-speed system. The infrastructure had to be in place, when the single market was in place. The industry had realized that its need for storage capacity for manufactured goods as well as components, demanded costs, which constituted approximately 40% of the total investments of the industry. Therefore ERT wanted to create the conditions to introduce the Japanese ”Just in time” principles for the production. This implied that the manufacturing did not take place until after the customer had ordered. This is quite demanding when it comes to the delivery of a product and all obstacles, like ferries and border passing, make up stops.
The Industry´s Lobby Pays off
Volvo made up 10% of Sweden´s export in 1983. When the Swedish government in December 1984, decided to close down the shipyard in Uddevalla, which had 2300 employees, P.G Gyllenhammar entered the discussions. He negotiated with the Swedish government and the result was that Gyllenhammar located a Volvo factory with 1000 jobs in Uddevalla and the government promised to build a 40 kilometres motorway south of Uddevalla. This was the beginning of the Scandinavian ”link” to Europe, which is described in the ERT-report ”Missing Links”, and which in reality forced the Swedish government to work for a Sound bridge and a Femern Belt connection.
With this first idea in the bank P.G. Gyllenhammar started a Scandinavian version of the ERT in 1984. It was called the Scandinavian Link Consortium (Scan-Link) and had its head office in ”Dansk Industri´s ” (Danish Industry) building in Copenhagen. Scan-Link was established as a private limited company with an ownership circle consisting of 55 companies and banks in the North. The idea of Scan-Link was primarily to get the Danish and Swedish governments to build the Sound Bridge and the Femern Belt connection and to establish a cohesive motorway system and a railway system for high speed trains from Oslo, Gothenburg and Stockholm to Copenhagen and Hamburg.
Elsinore-Helsingborg and/or Malmø-Copenhagen
The Danish/Swedish government commission form the 1950´s continued to have meetings in the 60´s and 70´s to discuss possible solutions for the Sound. Their proposals became topical again in 1984-85, when Scan-Link was formed. The commission´s reports contained many different proposals. The proposals, which was considered the best from an economic point of view was a ”both and”-solution, i.e. a railway tunnel Helsingborg-Elsinore and a 4-lane motorway Copenhagen-Malmø. In 1985 the Swedish-Danish commission received new instructions. They were to evaluate the possibilities for a combined road and railway connection Malmø-Copenhagen and furthermore make economic and environment evaluations of the earlier proposals. At DSB (The Danish Railways) and SJ (The Swedish Railways) they wanted to work for a railway connection Malmø-Copenhagen. The position was shared be the Danish Social democrats. Therefore DSB began its own investigations of such a project.
The Great Belt Bridge Is Carried in 1986
June 12th 1986 the Danish parliament decided to build the Great Belt Bridge as a road and railway bridge. With this the road was open for a Danish stand on a Sound connection. The political negotiated settlement on the Great Belt contained compensation for worried Jutland municipalities and the mayors in Korsør and Nyborg, the old ferry harbours were to be shut down, when the bridge was finished. A motorway north of Arhus was to be built and 2500 governmental jobs were to be moved from the naval station Holmen in Copenhagen to Korsør and Frederikshavn. The latter had great significance, when the decision on the Sound connection was made in 1991.
The Sound Bridge: New Investigations 1987
In 1987 the Danish/Swedish commission published their investigations of possible Sound connections. They now recommended a combined road and railway connection Malmø-Copenhagen.The earlier proposal of a both and-solution was still there as an alternative. Especially SJ was dissatisfied with the work of the commission, as an all-railway solution had not been investigated. The commission was given the task to look solely at an all-railway solution, in comparison with the combined road-railway solution. The alternative Elsinore-Helsingborg was completely taken off the list of possibilities.
The Scan-Link Consortium was now worried that the Danish/Swedish commission would arrive at all-railway connection as the best alternative. The consortium therefore initiated their own economic consequence calculation of such a railway connection.
The Sound connection now began to meet popular resistance. A grass-root movement ”Scan-Link? No thanks” was formed in June 1987. The effect of this was that they prioritised investigations into the different alternatives´ environmental consequences.
Copenhagen´s Development Strategy 1989
1988-89 became turbulent years in the difficult decision process concerning the Sound Bridge. The political attitude to the project changed in favour of combined road and railway connection between Malmø and Copenhagen. It all started when Denmark´s economical problems was put on the political agenda by the self-appointed ”Forum for Industrial Development”, with the future Social democratic Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen as one of the promoters. Their analyses pointed at a structure problem in Danish industry and a necessary aiming at research and a knowledge intensive development of the business community.
The then Prime Minister Poul Schlüter (Conservative) did not want to leave the initiative in the question of the future development of the business community to the opposition. He arranged with the Social democratic leader to set up an ”initiative group” in the spring of 1989, which should put forward ideas and suggestions for a new strategy concerning the city-and business community development of Copenhagen. In the group were several strong Social democratic representatives like Copenhagen´s new Chief Burgomaster Jens Kramer-Mikkelsen, county mayor Per Kaalund and LO´s then vice-chairman Hans Jensen.
The initiative must be seen in the light of the fact that Copenhagen had been marked by the economic crisis in the 70´s and 80´s. In this period Copenhagen saw many bankrupt companies as the government intentionally carried out a moving out of its institutions and authorities to other parts of the country, where the state also invested in infra structure.
The Sound Bridge: New Investigations 1989
Immediately before the initiative group started its work, the Danish/Swedish government commission published their new research results in February of 1989. From an economic point of view they recommended a combined road and railway solution while an all-railway solution was considered to be the best from an environmental point of view.
The financing of the combined Sound connection was proposed to function after the same principles as the Great Belt Bridge, i.e. a bridge subjected to a duty. The price was to be determined by the ticket prices in the ferry traffic between Helsingborg and Elsinore. The train operators DSB and SJ had to pay a fixed yearly duty – no matter how many trains that trafficked the bridge.
With an all-railway connection DSB and SJ had to manage the financing an operation alone. This made SJ change its attitude and recommend a combined road and railway. Sj also had to consider the economic aspects. If Sj were forced to finance such a large investment and tie up huge sums in a railway connection across the Sound, they would be forced to refrain from transporting goods via the Swedish Baltic lines to Germany and Poland. DSB initially stuck to its support for an all-railway connection also for economic reasons. They counted on that they could make money on the transporting of Swedish railway goods through Denmark.
The Initiative Group´s Plans for Copenhagen 1989
The initiative group for the development of Copenhagen presented its ideas in 1989. The plans for a combined road and railway connection across the Sound was stressed, the Ørestad on west Amager and the subway between Copenhagen city and the airport made up the positive development process, which would make the wheels turn again.
The group´s heavy arguments for the proposals were that Copenhagen, since the beginning of the 1970´s only had been allotted approximately 10% of the government´s traffic investments in spite the fact that 85% of the most trafficked roads were in and around Copenhagen. The EU´s single market from 1992 was also used as an argument. Copenhagen were to be prepared for the competition from other big cities – not form other Danish cities but from metropoles like Stockholm, Hamburg and Berlin.
The Würtzen-Commission 1990
The suggestions and recommendations of the initiative group were backed up politically by the government Venstre (Liberal), Conservative and Radical Venstre (Liberal) in spite the fact the Radical Venstre strictly speaking, was against the combined road and railway connection.
The fact that the proposals were taken seriously was evident when the ministry of finance in January 1990 set up the so-called Würtzen-commission, who took over the planning of the Sound bridge, the subway, Ørestad and Kastrup from the ministry of traffic. The Würtzen-commission was given the task to work out a cohesive plan for traffic investments in the Copenhagen area and the financing of them. Inspired by England´s so-called ”New Towns” the commission proposed to finance a subway from Frederiksberg via the city to Ørestad and Kastrup though the selling of land in Ørestad to industrial and housing companies.
Insufficient Public Debate
The Würtzen-commission´s plans were published in the beginning of 1991 and was received by a surprised population. The work with the extensive plans had been done without the public knowing much about what was going on. The polls showed that many were negative.
December 12th 1990 Denmark had a new coalition government with Venstre and Conservatives, but without the bridge-sceptical Radical Venstre. In Sweden it looked as if the Social democrats were on their way to a defeat in the 1991 election. The possibility of a non-socialist government in Sweden with a bridge-hostile Centre Party, made the governments in Denmark and Sweden act fast. The public resistance never had time to organize before both governments in the summer of 1991 had carried the Sound Bridge. In the spring of 1992 the Danish parliament also carried the law of the establishing of Ørestaden, according to the directions of the Würtzen-commission.
The spectacular future plans for the Copenhagen area made the Danish Social democrats and DSB change their minds in 1989-90. They were now positive about a combined road and railway connection. DSB´s motives were still economic, but now they no longer considered the goods transports. The development in Amager would make Kastrup an attractive traffic junction with extensive traffic to Copenhagen city, Malmø and Roskilde. The changed attitude of the Social democrats was probably due to the political lobbyism from companies like Scan-Link, but probably also the many new jobs, which they could supply for the strong Social democratic mayors in Copenhagen.
Epilogue
The bridge decision had a peculiar epilogue in the autumn of 1993. The Danes was already then building land connections while the Swedes still discussed the environmental consequences of the bridge. The planning of the bridge had to sanctioned by the Swedish Water Court, which consisted of a judge, two engineers and two layman. In Denmark it was believed for a long time that the Water Court would stop the project. But the Water Court´s criticism of the bridge project turned out to be a part of the Swedish process and the tactics around the decided bridge building. When the Water Court said yes in the end, the bridge had already been projected.
In the government agreement between Sweden and Denmark there were clauses of price parity between the bridge toll and the ferry ticket price Helsingborg-Elsinore, and that the government was to begin negotiations with Germany of a connection across the Femern Belt.
The bridge toll is still debated and the Femern Belt is facing its final solution in 2003. The Danish and German governments are agreeing about the land connections in their respective countries, but they have not yet agreed of a financing model for the bridge itself, which will be a road and railway bridge.Natural Region
| | There are many descriptions of the organisation and development of the EU. You can read about the Commission, the Council of Ministers, the EU-parliament and the development since the Rome treaty in 1957. Until now people have not been very interested in the regional policy of the EU, although it has gained greater importance lately. |
European Regional Policy
Almost everywhere in the on border areas of Europe they try to overcome the obstacles that national borders always have created. The goal is to create an integrated business life and an integrated labour market with out removing the differences in culture and standards. These efforts created conflicts of interest between the regions on the one side and the national governments on the other. In the Sound region it is the regionally elected politicians in eastern Denmark and Scania, which are behind the attempts to create cooperation and new development possibilities across the Danish-Swedish border in the Sound.
Interreg regioner |
The Beginning of the European Cooperation, 1948
The fight for an increased regional independence actually started immediately after the Second World War, when the governments started to realize that cooperation was the best way to avoid new wars in Europe. If you could weave together the economies of the European countries, nobody would choose war as a solution to conflicts.
The new development was started with the formation of the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) in 1948. The next year the European Council was founded, a superior authority for European cooperation.
In 1951 the Coal and Steel Union was founded, which later (1957) developed into the European Community (The EU of our time). The Nordic Council and EFTA was also founded in the 1950´s. All these cooperation organisations had the same goal: A future peaceful co-existence through economical, political and cultural cooperation.
The cooperation have in fact been so successful that the national states´ authority within their own borders have been exposed to pressure from regional authorities and border areas, which want en increased independence. When you talk of the future of Europe the concept ”the Regions of Europe, must be seen in this perspective.
The Birth of the European Regional Policy, 1957
The OEEC, as well as the European Council, The Nordic Council and EFTA were so-called inter-state cooperative organs, where unanimity was demanded in the decisions. It was another matter when it came to the Coal and Steel Union, the later EU. Here the cooperation to a great extent was marked by federal ideas, which originally had been inspired by France, West Germany, Italy and the Benelux-countries. Here was a vision of the future European United States, which appears of the Rome-treaty, which has been the foundation stone in the cooperation since 1957.
Exactly because of the extensive union ideas in the Rome-treaty the six countries could not get more European states to join the cooperation. However, in 1957 they made the European Council to form a Municipal Congress, where popularly elected, regional and local, politicians could meet to discuss common problems and solutions for the economic development of the regions. The strategy of the six EU countries was simply to get ”a Trojan Horse” into the countries outside the EU, through the mobilising of ”sub-national” authorities.
In the Municipal Congress a region could discover that a neighbouring region, which lay on the other side of a national border and perhaps had the same goals and wishes for this development, did not gain a hearing for their plans or sufficient financial support form its national government. In other words: The Municipal Congress was the mutual birthplace of the European regional policy.
The Sound Council Is Formed, 1963
The forming of the Sound Council in 1963, a forerunner of the Sound Committee must be seen in the light of this. Here sat 30 regional politicians form the Copenhagen area and Scania and discussed among other things the design and placing of the a fixed Sound connection and other planning questions.
It was probably due to the Sound council that they in the 60´s and 70´s stuck to the idea of a Sound connection between Malmø and Copenhagen as a part of the Danish development plans for a ”Ørestad” in Amager and of a new large airport in Saltholm.
If the question had become a Danish and Swedish government matter, it had probably resulted in a connection between Helsingborg-Elsinore, which would have shortened the distance between Stockholm and Copenhagen and had been much cheaper to build because of the short distance in the north Sound.
The Vision of 1963 | 
Fixed Connection |
The Convention of the European Council of Regional Independence
In 1966 the Municipal Congress presented a proposal for at treaty, which contained common rules and norms for the right to a regional independence in the areas of infrastructure, the localization of housing and business, welfare policy and more. The problems in the border regions were used as an argument to force the national states to delegate parts of its decision right to the regional level. The parliamentary assembly of the European Council, which consists of politicians, which also sit in their respective national parliaments, did not pass the proposal, but agreed to start an inspection of the special problems of the border regions.
The European Border Regions Organize Themselves
The inspections of the European Council did not lead to any new initiatives. In 1971 ten European border regions therefore formed their own organization (AEBR). It consisted of the French/German border regions around the Rhine and the Dutch/German Euregio-region between Enschede (NL) and Gronau (D). The Organization had from the beginning observation status in the Municipal Congress. Later the organization played an important part when the content of the Interreg-programme of the EU´s border regional cooperation was to be worked out in 1990.
.The EU: The Number of Members Increases
The EU: The Number of Members Increases
The Oil crises and economic stagnation of the 1970´s had consequences for the beginnings of the regional consciousness. The industrial society was in crisis and that hit hard in Copenhagen and Scania. Denmark had just joined the EU (with Great Britain and Ireland in 1973). This should have implied that the Folketing (Danish parliament) accepted an increased regional cooperation across the borders of the country, but that did not happen at all. Incidentally Sweden had chosen to stay outside the EU and lead an independent economic policy more or less unaffected by the EU.
The Nordic Convention of Cooperation 1977
The Nordic Council passed a convention in 1977, which opened up the possibilities of a regional cooperation agreement in the North. It also contained an agreement of a common Nordic labour market, a Nordic passport union and cultural and educational cooperation. But the convention on the whole just upheld the already existing practice between the Nordic countries. Real regional independence and cooperation across the Sound was not in the political programme in the 1970´s.
That it looked almost the same in the rest of Europe is evident from the European Council´s work for a regional self-government. The Municipal Congress had taken the initiative in 1966 and in 1971 some European border regions had organized themselves. But the European Council did not sanction a convention until 1980, which called on all members of the European Council to accept the right to regional self-government and transfrontier regional cooperation. However, the convention did not contain any obligations to transfer sovereignty from a national to a regional level. The convention was followed up in 1985 by a charter on the basic rights of regional autonomy. The charter was passed after pressure from the European border regional organisation (AEBR) and has the same status of the charter on human rights. The treaty contains fiancial support for transfrontier cooperation between the European regions. This was, by the way, the decision, which was the basis of the EU´s Interreg-programme from 1990.
A Breakthrough for the European Regional Policy 1983-1984
1983-84 marked in many ways a breakthrough for the integrations efforts of the EU. The European industrial giants organized themselves on the initiative of the managing director of the Volvo Group. P.G. Gyllenhammar. A lobby organisation was formed (European Round Table of Industrialists” (ERT), whose goal it was to establish a real European home market and thus improve the conditions of the industry to compete against Japan and the US. The means were, apart from a harmonisation of laws and rules, extensive investments in the European road and railway system, including fixed connections across the Sound and the Femern Belt. This revived the border regional cooperation in all of Europe and fueled the ideas of the regional development of the Sound and the argumentation for a fixed connection.
In January France took over, with the then President Francois Mitterand, the chairmanship of the EU. With the West German Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl the Rome-treaty’s idea of a European home market was re-introduced. The proposal was presented at the European Council´s meeting in Fontainebleau in June 1984.
This European market without any border related obstacles was soon to be called ”The Single Market”. At this time the EU-commission introduced its new growth-philosophy, ”The European Spatial Development Perspective” (ESDP), where the regions themselves have to generate their economic growth based on their own conditions. The regions themselves must head their own development plan and the structure fund support from the EU was done additional, i.e. the EU-support was not accessible until you had reached a 50% co-financing from the regional parties. This was to ensure that the structure fund means had to be used for activities and projects that had a full regional backing.
The EU-Parliament Becomes a Platform for the Border Regions, 1989
The EU Parliament became a battlefield for the border regions´ political projects from 1989. With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the prospects that many Eastern European countries now could apply for membership the EU had a new, large task. It was about countries where you could see latent conflicts, which was suppressed by the earlier Communist central government. The European Council now helped to protect the opportunities of democracy in Eastern Europe. Efficient border regions in the EU became demonstration models and good examples. Eastern European communities could be persuaded that their cultural identity and possible solidarity with communities on the other side of a national border not necessarily had to lead to a new national state risking violent conflicts and civil war.
The Interreg-Programme Is Established 1990
The Organisation for border regions (AEBR) argued successfully for the European Parliament to distribute 21 millions ECU (now EURO) form the structure fund to so-called ”Article 10”-projects, pilot projects in selected border regions. These ”Article 10” –projects were the forerunners of the first Interreg-Programme (1990-93).
The acceptance of the national states of the regions´ great importance to the European integrations process was mirrored in the Maastricht-Treaty in 1992. Now a Region Committee was established, which obtained status as a hearing instance for certain bills from the EU-Commission.
The Sound region did not figure in the ”Article 10”-projects and in the Iterreg I (1990-93). The discussions in different European assemblies about the regions´ key role i the integrations process of Europe, contributed to the understanding of Swedish and Danish MPs´ strong interest in the Sound region 1990. This engagement led to the big decision on the Sound Bridge, the Metro in Copenhagen, the City Tunnel in Malmø, and the beginning of the decision-making process for the connection across the Femern Belt.
The Sound Region Gets Its Own EU-Programme
In 1993 the Sound Committee was formed to replace the Sound Council. One of the first tasks of the new committee was to formulate the concrete content of a EU-programme for the region, attached to the structure funds (Interreg III A). The region had an advance promise of such a programme for the period 1994-99, including 13 millions ECU. The activity areas in the Interreg II-programme was: Education of regional experts in Sound integration, the development of industry and tourism, education cooperation, environment and sustainable development, infra structure, culture and media cooperation.
Totally 59 Interreg II A programmes started in the European border regions. The present Interreg III A-programme for the Sound region for the period 2000-2006 contains: The removal of administrative obstacles, a socially functioning region and the marketing of the whole region.
The Interreg-programmes have contributed to an explosively increasing number of cooperative organs in the Sound area, which cover many aspects of soicety life: The Øresund University, The Øresund Network, Medicon Valley Academy, The Øresund Science Region, IT Øresund, the H-H-Samarbetet, Info Business Øresund, Øresund Development, Øresund Environment, Øresundstid, Pilelandet and so on. The distribution of tasks between the many Sound organisations is no well defined and some organisations will probably not survive. That was the case with Infotek Øresund, which were the attempt of the libraries to gather all card indexes in one portal. There is still a lack of initiatives to form Sound based organs in important areas like tourism and regional planning-
Oversættes |
Help From the Danish and Swedish Government
Good intentions, the will to cooperate and the Interreg Programmes does not automatically integrate the Sound area. If the Sound Area is to become realized, the people on both side of the Sound experience toe region as a whole, when it comes to studies, work and cultural life.
There are many obstacles to such a realization. Lack of information, rigid bureaucracy or differences in culture and mentality may be the reasons for such obstacles. There are also practical problems. Persons, who commute across the Sound to work of study, have to relate to tax systems, health care, the children´s schools, rules concerning company cars, workplace at home and so on. First of all this is a task for the governments to make it practically possible
The Barrier-Report 1999
The Danish and Swedish governments prepared a report in 1999, The Sound – ”a Region Becomes Reality”. The report had the following conception of the integration cooperation: ”The Sound region has unique possibilities to develop into a transfrontier, regional power centre in Northern Europe, with an international force of attraction of company establishments and investments. The development in the Sound region may, if it is handled right by all the participants, be of great value to the region and for all of Denmark and Sweden”.... ”The governments in Sweden and Denmark share the region´s enthusiasm and optimism of the future and are ready to contribute to the realizing of the vision.”
The report points to a number of proposals to speed up the Sound integration. These are initiatives in the labour market, the social area, tax politics, infra structure, business life, the building sector, environment issues, the education area and the cultural life.
Almost none of the proposals have led to practical political action. It is only the information sector; with for instance ”Øresund Direkt” and the information on Danish-Swedish tax condition, which have been developed. This is why there is dissatisfaction in the regional authorities of the Sound region, who turn against the governments´ lack of will to take on the responsibility to develop the cooperation across the Sound.
This regional dissatisfaction is not uncommon in the Europe of today. The regions´ fight for regional independence is still going on – as it has since the beginning of the 1950´s
The Barrier Report |
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