Christiania, The Freetown of Copenhagen, Denmark

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Since I’m in Sweden, I’ve been quite a few times to Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. In there, the 2nd best attraction is the Freetown Christiania. The tourism office of the city made a nice short video to present Christiania: http://youtu.be/7Z5Uvfxd8A0?hd=1. I realized that not that much folks knew about it before they come to Sweden, and even now, some people still don’t know about it so here is the few random words on Christiania…

Actually, last Saturday, I had a guided tour for about 2h in Christiania so I can extend what is said in the video. First of all, it has been created on September , 26th 1971 by the journalist  Jacob Ludvigsen who declared:

The objective of Christiania is to create a self-governing society whereby each and every individual holds themselves responsible over the well-being 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.

Today, about 800 people live in Christiania (600 adults and 200 children). There are 50 businesses (paying taxes to the government) like bars, cafés, workshops and even a restaurant with 2 Michelin-stars! One third of the people living in there work within these businesses, another third work outside the Freetown in Copenhagen and one last third work in Christiania but live outside.

At first, the flag was a white dot on a black background. Unfortunately, it has been destructed so when they had to create another flag, the inhabitants only disposed of red and yellow paints, left from the army. That’s how they came up with a red flag with three yellow dots that symbolizes the three ‘i’ of Christiania! The community celebrated its 40 years old in September 2011 (I went there and it was really great). They all know each other very well, and that’s why it’s hard to move in. Actually, when someone wants to move in Christiania, an area meeting is called and at least 100 inhabitants vote the decision depending on your integration in the cause of Christiania.

Christiania is composed of 14 different neighborhoods which forms  sub-communities. That’s probably why there is always a meeting going on about anything that need to be decided! Right now, the inhabitants have to pay a rent (6 million Dkr – 1 million €) on the lands with military houses that they occupy since 40 years if they still want to live there. Then, they also have to purchase the lands for 82 million Dkr (11 million €) which is a huge amount of money to find in a certain amount of time. That’s also why everyone is paying 1100 Dkr (150€) per month to the Christiania Community Box, in order to pay water, electricity and other monthly fees.

Another important part of the Freetown is the Green Light District, a bunch of streets where it is possible to buy soft drugs (hash, weed and already made joins) from pretty weird people. These people are actually part of a gang of bikers, most of them are kinda gangsters and that can create accidents sometimes (one innocent death from gun fires between 2 gangs in 2005). The drugs profits don’t help Christiania, only the gang. The danish police never comes in Christiania and even if they do, everything disappears in a few seconds.

A few months after the establishment of Christiania, the inhabitants created the common law that forbids weapons, riders colors, bulletproof clothing and violence (to reduce the gang activities); no hard drugs, no stolen goods, no private cars (they only use bikes), no thunder-flashes and no fireworks. Whoever doesn’t respect these 9 rules can be kicked out immediately and for ever (big posters of his face everywhere)!

Concerning the future of Christiania, the inhabitants don’t really know how to fight against the rise of the rent asked by the government. It is a really interesting topic to follow, either from a political or social point of view. For me, it’s full of nice people with different beliefs on our global world that are just waiting to talk about it. I like to hang out there as it is never boring and pretty colorful, even with the coldest weather there was on Saturday!

Further article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/28/christiania-copenhagen-squat-last-stand
Pictures from the 40th Anniversary of Christiania and Copenhagen: there.