Ungdomshuset: What Happens in Denmark Doesn't Stay In Denmark

2007-03-04

"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark."
--Marcellus in Shakespeare's Hamlet


Ungdomshuset
Unique is a building where the footsteps of Lenin and Bjork have passed. Yet so goes the history of Ungdomshuset built in 1897 as a theater and center for the labor movement in Denmark.

Johan Olsen from Magtens Korridorer joined fellow Danish singers Anisette, Natasja and the band Ooh Sticky when they recorded the song Ungdomshuset Blir! by København musician Anne Eltard.

Automobiles Burn
After 25 years as a youth house and alternative cultural center, the eviction of squatter residents from Ungdomshuset by police sparked street rage not seen in the likes of peaceful Denmark in many a year. Eyewitness pedestrian video and camera phone shots of the rioting on YouTube captured the destruction of property by protestors and charges by police vehicles. One professional video clip by CBS News, which recently had all its video removed from YouTube, ironically was preceded by an automobile insurance commercial on its website.

Stephen Hand ponders the violence in Denmark:

As I was reading about the present Copenhagen riots my mind drifted back to the riots of the 60's---especially and ironically after the death of Martin Luther King. Whole cities were in turmoil, many parts of each in flames.