Once Upon a Time in Christiania, 1971
An anarchistic a.k.a. social utopia.
Christiania, located in the country where king Harald Bluetooth introduced Christianity in the mid-9th century. Yes, king Bluetooth himself who connected the Viking tribes into the Kingdom of Denmark in a way our modern day ‘bluetooth’ technology connects mobile phones and computer devices, well figuratively speaking then.
Fast forward, in the early 17th century King Christian IV roled out his ambitious program to level-up Denmark and participate in the European craze of overseas trade, exploration and colonization. Between 1612 and 1623 the king set up the East India Company and initiated the construction of Christianshavn following Dutch design. Christianshavn became a combination of a harbor merchant town and a fortress with canals and solid bastions. And it indeed proved to be a worthwhile investment in defending the capital Copenhagen from the Swedes whom once again tried to invade it.
Over the centuries Christianshavn had been upgraded and updated to remain an important defense sight for Copenhagen and an area for military purposes. Only during the sixties the area got abandoned and the once glorious Christianhavn was about to slip into oblivion. After centuries of hostile wars with “neighbours” Denmark evolved into a stable and one of the world’s most successful countries. Not only because of their economic performance or the fact that they are the 12th largest country in the world (owning Greenland) but especially successful because they apparently are the “Happiest Country in the World” according to the UN.
Although, at the end of the 60ties a bunch of squatters, homeless, junkies, hippies and non-conformists felt a bit different about the state of affairs in Denmark. While Christianshavn got abandoned they found themselves a new home among one of the world’s best preserved 17th century defense constructions. In 1971, Jacob Ludvigsen, one of the founders announced and inaugurated the existence of Christiania with the following 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.”
Jacob Ludvigsen was a well-known provocateur and journalist in Denmark who liked to criticize the status-quo. In Christiania he saw the opportunity to build an ideal community without the flaws of the corrupted systems ‘out there’ driven by power and money. In his words, a place “…where all the seekers of peace could have their grand meditation – and yoga center, where theater groups can feel at home [and where] the stoners who are too paranoid and weak to participate in the race [are accepted].”
Christiania – ironically located on a military base with a rich history – and it’s philosophy seamlessly suited the desires of post-war hippies whom harnessed feelings for collectivism and anarchism. In addition of the historical and monumental buildings on the site they could build a community by their liking, with their own flag, their own anthem, own rules (no laws), their own currency and no tax! They don’t even consider themselves part of Copenhagen, Denmark or the European Union.
In 2013, while I enjoyed a long weekend in Copenhagen word got round about a totally autonomous and anarchistic town called Christiania which I never heard of at the time. It sounded too excited to not not visit, and as an eager-tourist actually interested in the story rather than the best selfie-background I started my journey.
Entering the free-town definitely sparked my imagination, it was different, colorful yet in equilibrium with nature, it was dynamic yet tranquil, it was rough yet so friendly and the authentic society undoubtedly beamed free spiritedness. And whether safe or not, the very different and daring architectural constructions designed and built by the citizens themselves were astonishing. The principle of shared possession – having one barn for example where everybody can borrow tools – is far ahead (or perhaps back to basic) in comparison to our over-consumed society. And as opposed to the reward, mark, grade, score, rank driven society most of us know, the basic principle of Christiania is the wellbeing, authenticity, creativity and self-expression of its citizens. In short, a place too-good-to-be-true, there got to be a catch!
Obviously our guide (a citizen) enthusiastically and rightfully proud gave us the bright side of this utopia. After asking the guide a series of questions about the where- and how-abouts of the freetown I learned among others that each citizen had to pay a monthly fee (he rather didn’t want to call it rent) depending on the size of the house but approximately 900 EUR. This directly raised a follow-up question about how (and if) people not having a job could afford such relatively high price (in 2013)?
The answer: Some people earn money through their “activities” whereas others still get money from the social welfare system of Denmark. At this point I started to get doubts about the ideals of this utopia, on the one hand it criticizes and rejects the systems and economics of the host country (Denmark) but on the other hand they welcome the benefits of the welfare system (a by-product of the larger systems).
The guide continued to proudly present Christiania’s only original three laws: No Weapons, No Hard Drugs, No Violence. He soon added that due to “incidents” overtime this number increased to “only” nine rules. A quick search on the internet reveals several incidents which were all but in line with utopian philosophy of Christiania. Among others a shooting and murder in 2005 related to the open cannabis trade, a grenade attack in 2009 and more recently a shooting on two police officers in 2016 and an unwelcome occupation of a violent and armed biker gang.
Anarchy and collectivism perhaps works perfect in theory and when everybody is on the same page, but unfortunately – and as often is the case – it only needs one (or a few) rotten apples to turn an utopia into a dystopia. And as a consequence, in an attempt to avoid putting the utopia at risk again – new laws, rules and regulations will be introduced. If Christiania within 30 years triples their laws (from 3 to 9) then give the community another few hundred years and their laws are probably start to pile up in a way our present day lawbooks look like.
Soon many other questions popped up in my mind about the challenges and disadvantages of starting a new “utopian” community. What if somebody gets severely ill? What if you need some serious tools or equipment? What if another community enters Christiania and claims land, possession and rights in a hostile manner? What if a huge fire breaks out? And so forth. Is Christiania’s self-sufficiency not an illusion? Or are they smartly balance in between the best of both worlds: “freedom of time, expression, rules, expectation” on the one hand and “access to health, police, firemen, infrastructure and goods” if necessary.
Breaking loose from an existing population and setting up a self-sufficient community with a bunch of people or let’s say a thousand people living in 20 acres of land is one thing – this already needs careful governing – now multiply this with millions to comprehend the complexity and challenges nations stand for. You might have wondered, why for-god’s-sake I had to include such irrelevant historical facts about Denmark, Copenhagen and Christianshavn in my introduction?
For one thing it’s because I like funny facts but my main intention was to provide a bit of sense, context and a holistic view how we have arrived over thousands of years of turbulence to where we stand now. A manifestation such as Christiania is a rare phenomenon nowadays and perhaps one of the more prominent and successful ones in this era. It seems to sustain and co-exist alongside the “regular” society for quite some time now without losing too much of its charm. But as rare and unique as it is today, the creation of Utopias like Christiania has been a phenomenon for as long as people can remember.
In fact, only in the last two centuries numerous other utopian communities have been set up, often with mythical and self-signifying names such as Hopedale Community (1842 – 1868), New Harmony (1825 – 1829), Nashoba (1825 – 1828), Oberlin Colony (1833 – 1843) , Fuit Hills (1845 – 1852), Oneida Community (1848 – 1880), Icarians (1848 – 1898), Amana Colonies (1850’s – 1932), Aurora Colony (1853 – 1883), Reunion Colony (1855 – 1869), Shalam Colony (1884 – 1901), Home (1895 – 1919), Zion (1900 – 1907), The Farm (1971 – present), Twin Oaks (1967 – present) just to name a few.
Seeing this glance of utopian communities, predominantly communities in the “New World”, it seems they have an expiry date of about 5 to 50 years or evolve and adapt into a relatively ‘regular’ cities integrated and absorbed into the grander governing schemes . And it might make you wonder (as it made me wonder) if not most towns, provinces, states, nations once were founded by a (broken-loose) group of believers in an utopia dictated by their zeitgeist which lasted until it got either conquered, corrupted, consolidated, blended, oversized or overcomplicated and dissolved into the larger societies we know today.
Time will tell where Christiania stands in 50 years and whether it can sustain their original beliefs, independence and “free-to-do-what-they-want” status when time passes, indigenous inhabitants get older and their hosting country might get more under their skin. Cause Christiania is often indeed a bit of a pain in the #$% for the Copenhagen municipality and police department for that matter. But despite this friction, the Danish people are allegedly very content and proud with the presence of their fellow (or should I say alienated) neighbours. Moreover, meanwhile it became a figurehead for Denmark’s liberal and social culture and a popular tourist attraction which is inspiring in all aspects. All’s well that ends well!
And while the emergence of the Christiania utopia was driven by nostalgic feelings at the same time an utopia evolved based on futuristic outlooks in project Venus.