1.
Copenhagen
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Copenhagen, Danish, København, Latin, Hafnia) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark. Copenhagen has an population of 1,280,371. The Copenhagen metropolitan area has just over 2 million inhabitants, the city is situated on the eastern coast of the island of Zealand, another small portion of the city is located on Amager, and is separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the strait of Øresund. The Øresund Bridge connects the two cities by rail and road, originally a Viking fishing village founded in the 10th century, Copenhagen became the capital of Denmark in the early 15th century. Beginning in the 17th century it consolidated its position as a centre of power with its institutions, defences. After suffering from the effects of plague and fire in the 18th century and this included construction of the prestigious district of Frederiksstaden and founding of such cultural institutions as the Royal Theatre and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Later, following the Second World War, the Finger Plan fostered the development of housing, since the turn of the 21st century, Copenhagen has seen strong urban and cultural development, facilitated by investment in its institutions and infrastructure. The city is the cultural, economic and governmental centre of Denmark, Copenhagens economy has seen rapid developments in the service sector, especially through initiatives in information technology, pharmaceuticals and clean technology. Since the completion of the Øresund Bridge, Copenhagen has become integrated with the Swedish province of Scania and its largest city, Malmö. With a number of connecting the various districts, the cityscape is characterized by parks, promenades. Copenhagen is home to the University of Copenhagen, the Technical University of Denmark, the University of Copenhagen, founded in 1479, is the oldest university in Denmark. Copenhagen is home to the FC København and Brøndby football clubs, the annual Copenhagen Marathon was established in 1980. Copenhagen is one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the world, the Copenhagen Metro serves central Copenhagen while the Copenhagen S-train network connects central Copenhagen to its outlying boroughs. Serving roughly 2 million passengers a month, Copenhagen Airport, Kastrup, is the largest airport in the Nordic countries, the name of the city reflects its origin as a harbour and a place of commerce. The original designation, from which the contemporary Danish name derives, was Køpmannæhafn, meaning merchants harbour, the literal English translation would be Chapmans haven. The English name for the city was adapted from its Low German name, the abbreviations Kbh. or Kbhvn are often used in Danish for København, and kbh. for københavnsk. The chemical element hafnium is named for Copenhagen, where it was discovered, the bacterium Hafnia is also named after Copenhagen, Vagn Møller of the State Serum Institute in Copenhagen named it in 1954. Excavations in Pilestræde have also led to the discovery of a well from the late 12th century, the remains of an ancient church, with graves dating to the 11th century, have been unearthed near where Strøget meets Rådhuspladsen
2.
Danish art
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Danish art is the visual arts produced in Denmark or by Danish artists. It goes back thousands of years with significant artifacts from the 2nd millennium BC, for many early periods, it is usually considered as part of the wider Nordic art of Scandinavia. Art from what is today Denmark forms part of the art of the Nordic Bronze Age, Danish medieval painting is almost entirely known from church frescos such as those from the 16th-century artist known as the Elmelunde Master. The Reformation greatly disrupted Danish artistic traditions, and left the body of painters and sculptors without large markets. Thereafter for an extended period art in Denmark was either imported from Germany, from the late 18th century on, the situation changed radically and beginning with the Danish Golden Age, a distinct tradition of Danish art has continued to flourish until today. Due to generous art subsidies, contemporary Danish art has a big production per capita, lurs are a distinctive type of giant curving Bronze Age horn, of which 35 of the 53 known examples have been found in bogs in Denmark, very often in pairs. They are normally made of bronze, and often decorated, a possibly alien find in Denmark is the Gundestrup cauldron, a richly decorated silver vessel, thought to date to the 1st century BC. It was found in 1891 in a bog near the hamlet of Gundestrup in north-eastern Jutland. The silversmithing of the plates is very skilled, the bowl,70 cm across, was beaten from a single ingot. Now in the National Museum of Denmark, it is the largest known example of European silver work from the period, the style and workmanship suggest Thracian origin, while the imagery seems Celtic, so it may not reflect local styles. Danish sites have given their names to two of the six main styles of Viking or Norse art, Jelling style and its successor Mammen style, only one Danish ship burial is known, from Ladbyskibet. The images on the runestones at Jelling are probably the best known Danish works of the period, church wall paintings are to be found in some 600 churches across Denmark, probably representing the highest concentration of surviving church murals anywhere in the world. Most of them back to the Middle Ages. They lay hidden for centuries as after the Reformation in Denmark, of most interest to Danish art are the Gothic paintings from the 15th and 16th centuries as they were painted in a style typical of native Danish painters. Adopting the Biblia pauperum approach, they present many of the most popular stories from the Old, albrecht Dürers portrait of her father Christian II of Denmark, painted in Brussels in 1521, has not survived, though portraits of him by other foreign artists have. After a period of development its pupils were indeed to lead the creation of a distinct Danish style, leading Danish artists teaching at the Academy included Christian August Lorentzen and Jens Juel, also later Director. Among his works are the series of statues of Christ. Motifs for his works were mostly from Greek mythology, but he also created portraits of important personalities, as in his tomb monument for Pope Pius VII in St Peters Basilica
3.
Denmark
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The term Danish Realm refers to the relationship between Denmark proper, the Faroe Islands and Greenland—three countries constituting the Kingdom of Denmark. The legal nature of the Kingdom of Denmark is fundamentally one of a sovereign state. The Faroe Islands and Greenland have been part of the Crown of Denmark since 1397 when the Kalmar Union was ratified, legal matters in The Danish Realm are subject to the Danish Constitution. Beginning in 1953, state law issues within The Danish Realm has been governed by The Unity of the Realm, a less formal name for The Unity of the Realm is the Commonwealth of the Realm. In 1978, The Unity of The Realm was for the first time referred to as rigsfællesskabet. The name caught on and since the 1990s, both The Unity of The Realm and The Danish Realm itself has increasingly been referred to as simply rigsfællesskabet in daily parlance. The Danish Constitution stipulates that the foreign and security interests for all parts of the Danish Realm are the responsibility of the Danish government, the Faroes received home rule in 1948 and Greenland did so in 1979. In 2005, the Faroes received a self-government arrangement, and in 2009 Greenland received self rule, the Danish Realms unique state of internal affairs is acted out in the principle of The Unity of the Realm. This principle is derived from Article 1 of the Danish Constitution which specifies that constitutional law applies equally to all areas of the Danish Realm, the Constitutional Act specifies that sovereignty is to continue to be exclusively with the authorities of the Realm. The language of Denmark is Danish, and the Danish state authorities are based in Denmark, the Kingdom of Denmarks parliament, with its 179 members, is located in the capital, Copenhagen. Two of the members are elected in each of Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The Government ministries are located in Copenhagen, as is the highest court, in principle, the Danish Realm constitutes a unified sovereign state, with equal status between its constituent parts. Devolution differs from federalism in that the powers of the subnational authority ultimately reside in central government. The Self-Government Arrangements devolves political competence and responsibility from the Danish political authorities to the Faroese, the Faroese and Greenlandic authorities administer the tasks taken over from the state, enact legislation in these specific fields and have the economic responsibility for solving these tasks. The Danish government provides a grant to the Faroese and the Greenlandic authorities to cover the costs of these devolved areas. The 1948 Home Rule Act of the Faroe Islands sets out the terms of Faroese home rule, the Act states. the Faroe Islands shall constitute a self-governing community within the State of Denmark. It establishes the government of the Faroe Islands and the Faroese parliament. The Faroe Islands were previously administered as a Danish county, the Home Rule Act abolished the post of Amtmand and these powers were expanded in a 2005 Act, which named the Faroese home government as an equal partner with the Danish government
4.
Margrethe II of Denmark
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Margrethe II is the Queen of Denmark. She is also the authority of the Church of Denmark. Born into the House of Glücksburg, a house with origins in Northern Germany, she was the eldest child of Frederick IX of Denmark. She succeeded her father upon his death on 14 January 1972, having had become heir presumptive to her father in 1953, on her accession, Margrethe became the first female monarch of Denmark since Margaret I, ruler of the Scandinavian countries in 1375–1412 during the Kalmar Union. Having been on the Danish throne for 45 years, she is the second longest-reigning Danish monarch after her ancestor Christian IV, in 1967, she married Henri de Laborde de Monpezat, with whom she has two sons, Crown Prince Frederik and Prince Joachim. Princess Margrethe was born 16 April 1940 at Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen as the first child of Crown Prince Frederick, later King Frederick IX and Crown Princess Ingrid and her birth took place just one week after Nazi Germanys invasion of Denmark on 9 April 1940. She was baptised on 14 May in the Church of Holmen in Copenhagen, since her paternal grandfather was also the King of Iceland, she was given an Icelandic name, Þórhildur. When Margrethe was four years old, in 1944, her first sister, Princess Benedikte later married Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg and lives some of the time in Germany. Her second sister Princess Anne Marie was born in 1946, anne-Marie later married Constantine II of Greece and now lives in Greece. Margrethe and her sisters grew up in apartments at Frederick VIIIs Palace at Amalienborg in Copenhagen and she spent summer holidays with the royal family in her parents summer residence at Gråsten Palace in Southern Jutland. On 20 April 1947, King Christian X died and Margrethes father ascended the throne as King Frederick IX. At the time of her birth, only males could ascend the throne of Denmark, as she had no brothers, it was assumed that her uncle Prince Knud would one day assume the throne. The process of changing the constitution started in 1947, not long after her father ascended the throne, the popularity of Frederick and his daughters and the more prominent role of women in Danish life started the complicated process of altering the constitution. The law required that the proposal be passed by two successive Parliaments and then by a referendum, which occurred 27 March 1953, Princess Margrethe therefore became heir presumptive. On her eighteenth birthday,16 April 1958, Margrethe was given a seat in the Council of State and she subsequently chaired the meetings of the Council in the absence of the King. Margrethe was educated at the private school N. Zahles School in Copenhagen from which she graduated in 1959 and she is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. Queen Margrethe is fluent in Danish, French, English, Swedish and German, Princess Margrethe married a French diplomat, Count Henri de Laborde de Monpezat,10 June 1967, at the Church of Holmen in Copenhagen. Laborde de Monpezat received the style and title of His Royal Highness Prince Henrik of Denmark because of his new position as the spouse of the heir presumptive to the Danish throne, Margrethe gave birth to her first child 26 May 1968
5.
Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts
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The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts has provided education in the arts for more than 250 years, playing its part in the development of the art of Denmark. The Royal Danish Academy of Portraiture, Sculpture, and Architecture in Copenhagen was inaugurated on 31 March 1754 and its name was changed to the Royal Danish Academy of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture in 1771. The building boom resulting from the Great Fire of 1795 greatly profited from this initiative, in 1814 the name was changed again, this time to the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. It is still situated in its building, the Charlottenborg Palace. The School of Architecture has been situated in former naval buildings on Holmen since 1996, the academy is larger and better funded than the Jutland Art Academy and Funen Art Academy, which offer similar programs. It teaches and conducts research on the subjects of painting, sculpting, architecture, graphics, photography, the academy is under the administration of the Danish Ministry of Culture. The academy’s School of Architecture offers education in the fields of design and restoration, urban and landscape planning and industrial, graphic. The school has nine departments, four research institutes and six affiliated research centres. The undergraduate course, leading to the Bachelor of Architecture diploma, in 2011, the Wall Street Journal named Ingels the Innovator of the Year for architecture. Hansen Medal Thorvaldsen Medal Eckersberg Medal Thorvald Bindesbøll Medal N. L. Høyen Medal The School of Visual Arts C. C
6.
Joseph Beuys
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Joseph Beuys was a German Fluxus, happening, and performance artist as well as a sculptor, installation artist, graphic artist, art theorist, and pedagogue. His career was characterized by passionate and only rarely acrimonious open public debates on a wide range of subjects including political, environmental, social. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential artists of the half of the 20th century. Joseph Beuys was born in Krefeld, the son of the merchant Josef Jakob Beuys, the parents had moved from Geldern to Krefeld in 1910, and Beuys was born there on 12 May 1921. In autumn of that year the family moved to Kleve, a town in the Lower Rhine region of Germany. There, Joseph attended primary school and secondary school and his teachers considered him to have a talent for drawing, he also took piano and cello lessons. On several occasions he visited the studio of the Flemish painter, other interests of note include Nordic history and mythology and especially the natural sciences. Beuys 1936 membership in the Hitler Youth is documented, the organization comprised a majority of German children and adolescents at that time. He participated in the Nuremberg rally in September 1936, when he was 15 years old, around 1939 he worked for a circus on the side, postering and taking care of animals for about a year. He graduated from school in the spring of 1941 with his Abitur, in 1941, Beuys volunteered for the Luftwaffe. It is also during this time that he began to consider a career as an artist. In 1942, Beuys was stationed in the Crimea and was a member of various combat bomber units, from 1943 on he was deployed as rear-gunner in the Ju 87 Stuka dive-bomber, initially stationed in Königgrätz, later in the eastern Adriatic region. Drawings and sketches from that time have been preserved and already show his characteristic style, on 16 March 1944, Beuyss plane crashed on the Crimean Front close to Znamianka. They were the nomads of the Crimea, in what was no mans land between the Russian and German fronts, and favoured neither side. I had already struck up a relationship with them. ‘Du nix njemcky’ they would say, ‘du Tartar, ’ and their nomadic ways attracted me of course, although by that time their movements had been restricted. Yet, it was they who discovered me in the snow after the crash, I was still unconscious then and only came round completely after twelve days or so, and by then I was back in a German field hospital. So the memories I have of that time are images that penetrated my consciousness, the last thing I remember was that it was too late to jump, too late for the parachutes to open
7.
Biafra
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Biafra, officially the Republic of Biafra, was a secessionist state in eastern Nigeria that existed from 30 May 1967 to January 1970. It took its name from the Bight of Biafra, the Atlantic bay to its south, the inhabitants were mostly the Igbo people who led the secession due to economic, ethnic, cultural and religious tensions among the various peoples of Nigeria. Other ethnic groups that constituted the republic were the Efik, Ibibio, Annang, Ejagham, Eket, Ibeno, the secession of the Biafran region was the primary cause of the Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Biafran War. The state was formally recognised by Gabon, Haiti, Ivory Coast, other nations which did not give official recognition, but provided support and assistance to Biafra included Israel, France, Spain, Portugal, Norway, Rhodesia, South Africa and the Vatican City. Biafra also received aid from non-state actors, including Joint Church Aid, Holy Ghost Fathers of Ireland, Caritas International, MarkPress, in 1960, Nigeria became independent of the United Kingdom. As with many other new African states, the borders of the country did not reflect earlier ethnic boundaries, thus, the northern region of the country is made up of Muslim majority, while the southern population is predominantly Christian. Following independence, Nigeria was divided primarily along ethnic lines with Hausa and Fulani majority in the north, Yoruba and Igbo majority in the south-west and south-east respectively. In January 1966, a coup occurred during which 30 political leaders including Nigerias Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. It was alleged to be an Igbo coup because Nnamdi Azikiwe, the President, of Igbo extraction, in July 1966 northern officers and army units staged a counter-coup. Muslim officers named a General from an ethnic group in central Nigeria, General Yakubu Jack Gowon. The two coups deepened Nigerias ethnic tensions, in September 1966, approximately 30,000 Igbo were killed in the north, and some Northerners were killed in backlashes in eastern cities. Biafra as a territory existed long before the amalgamation and independence of Nigeria as a republic, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu in pursuit of a more agreeable arrangement for peaceful co-existence of all regions in Nigeria proposed for a confederated Nigeria. In January 1967, the leaders and senior police officials of each region met in Aburi, Ghana. After the federal and eastern governments failed to reconcile, on 26 May the Eastern region voted to secede from Nigeria, on 30 May, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the South Eastern Regions military governor, announced the Republic of Biafra, citing the Easterners killed in the post-coup violence. The large amount of oil in the region created conflict, as oil was already becoming a component of the Nigerian economy. The Eastern region was very ill-equipped for war, out-manned and out-gunned by the military of the remainder of Nigeria and their advantages included fighting in their homeland and support of most South Easterners. The FMG launched police measures to annex the Eastern Region on 6 July 1967, the FMGs initial efforts were unsuccessful, the Biafrans successfully launched their own offensive, occupying areas in the mid-Western Region in August 1967. By October 1967, the FMG had regained the land after intense fighting, in September 1968, the federal army planned what Gowon described as the final offensive
8.
Horsens
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Horsens is a Danish city in east Jutland. It is the site of the council of Horsens Municipality, the citys population is 57,517 and the municipalitys population is 87,736. The municipality is also a part of the East Jutland metropolitan area, Horsens is best known for its culture and entertainment events. Horsens New Theatre is a centre which holds over 200 events annually. It has managed to draw major names such as Bob Dylan, Madonna, Horsens lies at the end of Horsens Fjord in eastern Jutland. The city is surrounded by typical moraine landscape with low hills, Horsens is 50 km south of Aarhus and 30 km north of Vejle, and approximately 200 km from Copenhagen. It is believed the name Horsens derives from the old Danish words hors, from the 12th century the name Horsenes is known. The earliest traces of a city are remains of a burial site. In the 12th century, the kings Sweyn III and Valdemar I issued coins in the city, in the 13th century the city got its own legal code. Excavations have shown that the city was expanded around 1300, with a moat going around the city, industrialization started from the middle of the 19th century. The population rose dramatically when people from the moved to the city to work in the factories. The first Danish iron foundry outside of Copenhagen was opened as well as tobacco, the city is currently undergoing a positive development with new industry moving to Horsens, or expanding their activities already in Horsens. A lot of electronics and graphical companies are based there, Horsens also has the only Industrial Museum in Denmark. The city is home to VIA University College. In recent years, much effort has made to expand. Paul McCartney, Robbie Williams, The Rolling Stones, Dolly Parton, AC/DC, U2 and Snow Patrol have performed, hard Rock/Heavy Metal band Pretty Maids is from Horsens. One of the largest cultural events in Denmark is the annual European Medieval Festival on the last Friday and Saturday in August, the town centre of Horsens is transformed into the largest medieval market town in Northern Europe with activities and entertainment for families and children of all ages. Every March, Horsens hosts a Crime Festival, the Crime Festival - in Danish called Krimimessen - is an event for literary crime, mysteries and thrillers
