| 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. |