VIRTUAL Barcelona

Abstract

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In Denmark the glorious past of mythical prehistory was important in the nation building in the 18th-19th Century. This process was begun in the elite in the late 18th Century and in the bourgeois in the early part of the 19th Century and disseminated through the school system from the middle of the century creating the space for several monuments in Copenhagen around the turn of the 20th Century. This presentation studies the underlying social structure of the use of the past in Danish society while focusing on the cityscape of Copenhagen. To illustrate the perspectives mentioned above I will use three monuments in Copenhagen and the myth of the Viking horned helmet and its use in industrial logos The monuments are the tumulus of the fallen seamen at the Battle of Copenhagen April 2nd 1801 (1801-1804), the Gefion fountain on Langelinie (1897-1899) and the pillar monument ”Lurblæserne” on City Hall Square (1911-1914) all mixing Nordic and Classical elements. ‘ That Viking helmets have horns is a misinterpretation of the Veksø helmets of Bronze Age date in the 19th Century, but the mistake caught on and spread to industrial logos and the tourist industry. It is argued that as the ‘Nordic’ past was idolized first in the elite, then in the bourgeois and finally in the population at large the ‘Nordic’ elements associated with power, strength and uniqueness, both real and imagined became important tools in defining what is Danish.