Cultural Wealth – Financial Ruin
On account of the cultural riches it produced, the years 1800-1850 in Copenhagen can easily be seen as having been a harmonious and idyllic period. Thorvaldsen created his famous sculptures, Bournonville his ballets and Grundtvig and Ingemann their hymns - not to mention the artistic achievements of Hans Christian Andersen, Søren Kierkegaard, C.F. Hansen and Lundbye.
The new departures and ideas emanating from these many personalities, meanwhile, came at a time of political and economic chaos. Huge fires laid waste to large areas of Copenhagen shortly before the turn of the century. A few years later, Denmark lost her fleet, and Copenhagen fell victim to the first bomb and rocket assault against civilians in the world when the British attacked it in 1807. In 1813, a State bankruptcy was declared, and the following year Norway ceased to be part of the Danish realm. Copenhagen was – in every sense of the word – a ruined city.
The New City
New homes for the middle classes were quickly built after the destruction. The streets were widened and lined with splendid houses in the neo-classical style, so that the new city environment was light and airy, yet intimate at the same time.
90 per cent of the Danish population lived in rural areas, but it was in Copenhagen that the key figures of the Golden Age lived their everyday lives. There were then about 100,000 inhabitants in Copenhagen, and they had to be housed within the ramparts.
The Romantic Idea
The limited area represented by the city meant that the outstanding figures of the day knew each other irrespective of their fields of activity and the special subjects they represented. In addition, it was inherent to the Romantic notions of the time to think in terms of totalities: everything in the universe was related – both in materially and spiritually. So science and the arts could derive benefit from each other, and so they did.
The End of the Period
The Danish Golden Age ended with the fall of absolutism and the passing of a Constitution in 1849. During succeeding years, Copenhagen renounced its status as a fortress city, and the ramparts were levelled. New times were approaching.
See the Chronology of the period
|
