Industrial Heritage in Denmark

No new museums have opened, but existing museums have opened new exhibitions. In 1996 the hosiery museum in Herning inaugurated a new exhibition space, Textilforum, in a former textile mill, and before that the museum had succeeded in preserving a very modest workshop from 1919 where many of the town’s industrialists had started their businesses.

Other museums ‘adopted’ an industrial plant, such as the small hammer mill at Hellebæk (1982), Cathrinesminde Tile Works (1981-93), Hjort’s Terracotta Factory (1995) on Bornholm, or the Sandager Water Mill in Odder, and the work to produce documentation of the industrial housing and production environment was taken up by more museums.

In 1916 the Carlsberg Museum appeared on the initiative of Vagn Jacobsen, son of Carl Jacobsen. It was housed next to the villa of Carl in the old Glyptotek which was originally built for antiquities and fine arts objects. The museum exhibited among other things large portraits of the founder and his son, a reconstruction of the study of J.C. Jacobsen, the old wash-boiler where the first brew was made, several advertising prints to promote the first export attempts going back to the 1870s, as well as a painting celebrating the visit of His Majesty King Christian IX, Zsar Alexander III and the Prince of Wales and other royalty to the brewery in 1892 (Linvald 1966)

he aim was to make it possible for everybody, but especially shop stewards and lecturers, to study “the greatest cultural movement of our time” by collecting and preserving literature, reports and accounts (Schmidt 1984, 13)

Also, in 1933 the art historian Christian Elling published his dissertation Holmens Bygningshistorie (The Building History of Holmen), which, however, analysed Holmen in terms of Baroque city planning rather than as an industrial environment. On the other hand it is clear he was fascinated by the volume and scale of the warehouses and industrial buildings.

The 1918 restoration/reconstruction of Strandmollen north of Copenhagen is believed to be the first Danish example of preservation of a factory which had been projected for demolishing (Møller 1992, 49-51). The year 1918 was also the year that the first Listed Buildings Act was adopted in order to ensure protection of the old building culture. However, certain windmills and the rigging shears at Holmen (dating from 1750) were included in the first listing. A few articles were also published, addressing both new and older production buildings, for example about Carlsberg (Michaelsen 1929) and De Danske Spritfabrikker (Danish Distilleries) (Cock-Clausen 1931), echoing the Werkbund yearbooks, and the 1910 journal of the Rheinischen Vereins für Denkmalpflege und Heimatchutz (Föhl 1990).

Likewise, a Cabinet of Curiosities was opened at the Royal Palace in Copenhagen around 1650. It included among other thing a chamber of models with various representations of Architecture and mechanical works, and was probably of a more symbolic than practical value.

But models were also used in a symbolic way to illustrate the might of the king and kingdom. At the royal castle of Frederiksborg a hall of models was created in 1609-11, which contained some of the king’s most impressive ship models together with decorative paintings and carvings of illustrious ships (Holck 1939).

Most likely with a practical use in mind, a small collection of models existed at Frederiksværk. An inventory from 1804 mentions 13 models.1 Also, after the foundation of the Danish Technical University (then known as Den Polytekniske Læreanstalt) in 1829, a collection of models was established there as well, parts of which have later entered the collection at Danmarks Tekniske Museum.

A marked Danish interest in industrial heritage did not manifest itself before the 1970s, but much older initiatives do exist. Especially if we, rather than seeing the museum as a retrospective institution, define it as an institution collecting contemporary documentation, possibly for future reference, then the Kongelige Modelkammer (Royal Chamber of Models) at Holmen (the naval dockyard) is such a museum. Modelkammeret was established in 1670, presumably in connection with the development of domestic ship-building skills, as some of the models were used to guide the ship carpenters in the building process (Rasmussen 2002). Today, this collection forms part of Statens forsvarshistoriske Museum (Royal Danish Arsenal Museum) and comprises approximately 640 models of for example ships, ship ornaments, and various types of machines. This collection is supplemented by an extensive archive of drawings, dating back to the 1620s, which is stored at the Danish National Archives.