Freetown Christiania
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- Norway's capital, Oslo, was known as Christiania from 1624-1877, and Kristiania from 1877-1925.
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Christiania, also known as Freetown Christiania, but most commonly known amongst its inhabitants and people who come there as "staden", is a partially self-governing neighbourhood of about 850 residents, covering 34 hectares (85 acres) in the borough of Christianshavn in the Danish capital Copenhagen. Christiania has established semi-legal status as an independent community.
Christiania's Mission Statement: "The objective of Christiania is to create a self-governing society whereby each and every individual holds themselves responsible over the wellbeing of the entire community. Our society is to be economically self-sustaining and, as such, our aspiration is to be steadfast in our conviction that psychological and physical destitution can be averted."
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[edit] History
[edit] Beginnings
Christiania was founded in 1971, when many people from different backgrounds began to take over an area of recently abandoned military barracks together as a protest against the Danish government. At the time many people in the larger Danish cities felt betrayed by the politicians, as they believed there was a lack of affordable housing. The inhabitants of the surrounding neighbourhood Christianshavn also wanted a green, open area for their children to use, away from the increasing traffic in Copenhagen. The spirit of Christiania quickly developed into one of communism, the hippie movement and the squatter movement, in sharp contrast to the site's previous use as a place of defense.
One of the more influential participants in the founding of Christiania was Jacob Ludvigsen, who published a progressive and critical newspaper called Hovedbladet, which was intended and successfully distributed towards mostly young people. In the paper, Ludvigsen wrote an article in which he and five others went on exploration into what he termed 'The Forbidden City of the Military'. The article widely announced the proclamation of the free town, and among other things he wrote:
"Christiania is the land of the settlers. It is the so far biggest opportunity to build up a society from scratch - while nevertheless still incorporating the remaining constructions. Own electricity plant, a bath-house, a giant athletics building, where all the seekers of peace could have their grand meditation - and yogacenter. Halls where theatergroups can feel at home. Buildings for the stoners who are too paranoid and weak to participate in the race...Yes for those who feel the beating of the pioneerheart there can be no doubt as to the purpose of Christiania. It ıs the part of the city which has been kept secret to us - but no more."[citation needed]
[edit] The Community
Meditation and yoga have always been extremely popular among the Christianites, and for many years Christiania had their own internationally acclaimed theater group Solvognen, who - beyond their theater performances - also staged many happenings in Copenhagen and even throughout Sweden. Ludvigsen had always talked of the acceptance of drug-addicts who could no longer cope with regular society, and the spirit of that belief has still not diminished, even throughout many problems sprouted due to drug traffic and use (mostly of hard drugs, however, which are illegal in Christiania). These addicts head into and remain in Christiania all the time and are considered just as much a part of the Freetown as the entrepreneurs, and for this reason many Danes have seen Christiania as a successful social experiment. However, for years the legal status of the region has been in a limbo due to different Danish governments attempting to remove the Christianites. Such attempts at removal have all been unsuccessful so far.
The neighbourhood is accessible through many entrances and cars are not allowed (although some Christiania residents own a car, see below). Danish authorities have repeatedly removed the large stones blocking the main entrance claiming they need access to the area for firefighting, yet the residents respond by placing them back each time as they feel suspicious that the authorities will instead use it for police. This suspicion is backed by the fact that they have already made arrangements with the fire department and has established other entranceways/maneuvering space for firetrucks in the area.
The people in Christiania have developed their own set of rules, completely independent of the Danish government. The rules forbid stealing, guns, bulletproof vests and hard drugs. Famous for its main drag, known as Pusher Street, where hash and Skunk weed were sold openly from permanent stands until 2004, it nevertheless does have rules forbidding hard drugs, such as heroin and cocaine. The commerce is controversial, but since the rules require a consensus they cannot be removed unless everybody agrees. The region negotiated an arrangement with the Danish defence ministry (which still owns the land) in 1995. Since 1994, residents have paid taxes and fees for water, electricity, trash disposal etc. The future of the area remains in doubt, though, as Danish authorities continue to push for its removal. On Pusher Street, cameras are not allowed, and locals will wave their hands and shout "No photo!" if they see someone trying to take a picture.
The inhabitants fight the government's attempts to eliminate them with humour and persistence. For instance, when authorities in 2002 demanded that the hash trade be made less visible, the stands were covered in military camouflage nets. On January 4, 2004, the stands were finally demolished by the hash dealers a day before a large scale police operation. They knew about this operation, and decided to take the stands down themselves. The police made more than twenty arrests in the following weeks though, and a large part of the organisation behind Pusher Street was then eliminated. This did not stop the hash trade however, it merely caused the trade to relocate outside of the town and to change to being on a person-to-person basis. Before they were demolished, the National Museum of Denmark was able to get one of the more colourful stands, which now form part of an exhibit.
[edit] Problems with drug dealers
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[edit] The junk blockade
One of the biggest accomplishments in the history of Christiania was the Junk Blockade in November of 1979. The government was still very hostile but at the same time an even bigger enemy took hold of the place. As a result of the socialistic mind-set of the Christiania residents, they were sympathetic to attempts to expand one's mind, hard drugs such as heroin were considered permissible, but this had grave consequences. Out of 700 inhabitants in the Freetown, 100 were doing hard drugs and sinking off into apathy, not caring about themselves or Christiania. In one year, from 1978 to 1979, ten drug addicts had died in Christiania, four of them were resident there. The addicts all lived in a building called 'The Arc of Peace', but peace was the last thing one thought of when entering it in this period. Doors were missing, there were holes in the floors, and in most rooms there were no furniture except mattresses. It was a terribly unhealthy environment and the Christianites became increasingly aware that the situation could not continue.
An attempt was made to cooperate with the police in order to get rid of the heroin pushers, which was something many Christianites felt extremely uncomfortable about - partly due to the anarchical tradition in the Freetown, and partly because of the continuous clashes between Christiania and the police. However, despite the shared feelings of distrust of the instigating police involvement, some Christianites feeling there was no other way to fix such an imminent and threatening problem, had supplied the police with a list of suspected hard drug networks. The intention of the Christianites' decision was made very clear - for police to concentrate only on hard drugs. This did not happen, the police had ignored the Christianites' requests and made a large crackdown - but only on the hash network, leaving the heroin ring untouched.
Feeling betrayed and bitter the Christianites decided not to cooperate any further with the authorities, and instead launched what was to be known as the Junk Blockade. For 40 days the Christianites - men, women, and children - patrolled 'The Arc of Peace' and whenever they found junkies or pushers they gave them an ultimatum: either quit all activities with hard drugs or leave Christiania. In the end, the pushers were forced to leave, and sixty people entered rehabilitation.
[edit] Biker gang
Around 1984 a biker gang had arrived in Christiania and conquered a part of the hash market. Violence on the premises increased at this period and many Christianites felt unsafe and unhappy with the new residents. This resulted in sabotage acts directed towards the bikers as well as the publication of several provocative manuscripts urging the Christianites to throw out the powerful and armed bikers. This tension culminated when the police found a murdered individual who had been sliced to pieces and buried beneath the floor of a building. Christiania reacted with two colossal community meetings - one outside the building - where it was agreed that the bikers had to leave. They did, and they never returned.
[edit] 2005 shooting and murder
On April 24, 2005, a 26-year-old Christianite was killed and three injured in a violent gang shoot-out on Pusher Street. After the official closure of hash sale on Pusher Street many people moved huge amounts of hash out into Copenhagen and the provinces instead of Christiania. According to some the number of hash clubs in Copenhagen is now at least five times as high as before the police crackdown on Pusher Street, and in these clubs the sale of hash is now mixed with other drugs such as speed, cocaine, ecstasy and GHB. Furthermore many of these clubs are placed near schools. Especially in the North-Western part of the city many clubs have arrived and are controlled by quite heavy-armed gangs which have long tried to enter the hash sales on Christiania. Repeatedly they have asked the Christianite pushers to allow them on their market and repeatedly they have been turned down. On April 23, 2005, an escalation of the situation happened. The pushers of Christiania discovered that a member of the Copenhagen gangs had infiltrated their organisation by being with a female pusher - he was exposed and just barely escaped with two bullets flying by him. The next day two cars pulled up outside Christiania and 6-8 masked men with automatic weapons got out and headed for Pusher Street. When they got there they simply opened fire indiscriminately toward the crowd and shot heavy rounds everywhere killing one and injuring three Christianites. In the trial it was established that the suspects belonged to gangs from the North-Western Copenhagen and that they all had pending charges of violence, shooting, robbing and so on. Some see this tragic incident as a sign that the future strategy of the community is dubious. [1] Others see it as a result of the fatally flawed government line on Christiania which has greatly expanded the hash market in the rest of Denmark, bringing with it huge amounts of money and weapons.
[edit] 2004 TV feature
The political satirical TV show Den halve sandhed ("The half truth") featured Christiania in its March 26, 2004, episode. As a tongue-in-cheek action, a journalist started to erect a small wooden hut in one of Christiania's open areas, naively claiming he assumed everyone could settle in the freetown.
Within minutes, Christiania residents arrived and told him this was totally unacceptable. Approval by the community meeting would be needed, and for this personal acquaintances or connections were indispensable. The journalist was violently threatened to make himself scarce. Other residents, however, took the time to peacefully explain Christiania building rules. Later, journalists set up a stall attempting to sell 'non-politically correct' products such as Coca-Cola and Israeli oranges, arguing this was no worse than selling cannabis to minors. [2]
Designed by Danmarks Radio to test Christiania's tolerance towards the outside world, this feature did not amuse the residents. Nils Vest, a film director resident in Christiania, has accused the TV programme of being tendentious and biased [3], whereas others have taken the episode as a proof of faded collectivist ideals and bigotry within Christiania.
[edit] Cars
Within Christiania itself no cars are allowed. However, a total of 132 cars are owned by residents and need to be parked on the streets surrounding the Freetown. [4] After negotiating with city authorities, Christiania has agreed to establish parking areas for residents' own cars on its territory. As of 2005, parking space for only 14 cars had been established within the area. [5]
Before the city council elections of November 2001, residents in one of Christiania's sections proposed a municipal kindergarten just outside Christiania should be torn down and moved some hundred meters away, the area being turned into a parking lot. The proposal was criticised by other Christiania residents and citizens in the borough, but proponents claimed the wooden kindergarten buildings were outdated anyway and the parking space issue needed to be solved before Christiania itself would turn into an area where cars were widely parked. It has also been claimed that taxis and police vehicles add to the traffic problems. [6]
[edit] Gay house
Since the 1970s the Gay House (Bøssehuset), one of Christiania's autonomous institutions, had been a centre for gay activism, parties and theatre. The humorous and artistically high-ranking variete-style shows still have fame among Copenhagen homosexuals. The original pioneers having aged (and for some part died) during the 1980s and 1990s, the house was less used and was empty from about 2000 onwards.
In 2002 a group of young queer performers and activists, Dunst, were invited to take over the house so it could remain a centre for gay creativity. However, after 9 months they were asked to leave Christiania again.
Dunst claim they introduced a democratic management form and established open workshops for photography, art, music, dance, video etc. They also arranged three 'Save Christiania' nights, a cabaret show and three support parties in order to be able to downpay some of the Gay House's debt to Christiania. According to Dunst, however, neighbours would never readily accept them and the newcomers were accused of not understanding "the Christiania lifestyle". Dunst claim they received verbal abuse, threatening letters and were even, at one instance, threatened with a baseball bat. Some disliked Dunst's loud parties, their contemporary electro-punk style music being described as techno.
In 2004 Dunst participated in 'Christiania Distortion', an event supportive for Christiania. As they could not make use of the Gay House, Dunst's part of the event took place in a bus circling around Christiania. [7] [8]
[edit] Businesses
Christiania has become home to several capitalist ventures such as carpenters, blacksmiths, a bikeshop, as well as several cafés, restaurants, Jazz, Blues and night clubs. [9] [10]
[edit] Future of Christiania
The drug trade in Christiania has been a source of constant annoyance for many Danish politicians and the current right-wing government is taking a number of steps to ensure that Danish law is respected in Christiania. The first step in this process was a police crackdown on the drug trade. Both politicians and police have declared that the drug trade will not be allowed to return. The second (and currently ongoing) phase is the registration of all buildings in Christiania. The third step will be the demolition of a number of shacks, constructed in a nature-preserved area (the historic naval fortress of Copenhagen). These buildings had all been approved by the authorities before the new government passed the current law on Christiania. For the last 15 years the government has not allowed construction in Christiania. This is now being enforced as a zero-tolerance policy with the help of a massive police presence. This is regarded by Christiania community as a government strategy to undermine the collective self-government of Christiania. They believe the government is planning to sell out building rights to private enterprises [11], in an attempt to force the freetown to accept the paradigm of private ownership and market capitalization of private property. The 900 or so inhabitants of Christiania have staked a claim for collective rights of use to all of Christiania, but this has been ignored by the government[citation needed].
[edit] Governmental normalisation measures
In 2004, the Danish government passed a law abolishing the collective and treating its 900 members as individuals. Beginning in the summer of 2005, a series of protests have been staged by Christiania members. During the same time, Danish police have made frequent sweeps of the area.
The Christiania Café Maanefiskeren (the moonfisher) installed an outdoor countboard of police patrols on Christiania in November 2005. In the summer of 2006 this passed the 1000th patrol (about 4-6 patrols a day). These patrols normally consist of 6 to 20 police officers, often dressed in combat uniform and some times with police dogs.
This has however not affected the street prices of cannabis in- or outside of Christiania. There has been no notable increase or decrease in "regular crime" in the area.
In January 2006, the government proposed that Christiania would be turned into a residential community adding condominiums for 400 new residents. Current residents, now paying DKK 1450 (USD 250) per month, would be allowed to remain but need to begin paying normal rent for the facilities, albeit below market rent levels. Christiania has rejected this scenario, fearing the freetown would turn into a normal Copenhagen neighbourhood. In particular, the concept of privately owned dwellings would be incompatible with Christiania's collective ownership. [12]
[edit] Architectural competition
In order to present a reasonable use of area after an eventual "cleaning", the Danish government commissioned an architectural competition. Only 17 more or less doubtful proposals have been sent in, of which only eight have met the formal competition requirements. All of these proposals have been rejected by the panel of judges who, nevertheless, have been required to dispense 850.000 Danish crowns (113.000 Euro, 145.000 USD) in consolation prizes.
[edit] Christiania's own development plan
Christiania has countered the government's plans for normalisation with its own community driven planning proposal[13], which after 8 months of internal workshops and meetings gained consensus at the common meeting before being published in early 2006. Christiania's own development plan was awarded the Initiative Award of the Society for the Beautification of Copenhagen in November 2006 and the plan has received positive attention from the municipality of Copenhagen and the Agenda 21 Society for its sustainability goals and democratic process.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Web site of Christiania
- Christiania you have my Heart, Documentary 1991 (google video)
- Danish Palaces and Properties Agency about Christiania
- Loppen - Rock and blues venue in Christiania
- Danish police evict trailersite in Christiania, Copenhagen Independent Media Center, September 8, 2006.
- Postal changes enrage Christiania, The Copenhagen Post, June 9, 2005.
- Government's Christiania proposal welcomed, The Copenhagen Post, April 9, 2005.
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