• 001 - the logo.jpg
  • 002 - Hiroshima sunset.jpg
  • 003 - Auschwitz-Birkenau ramp.jpg
  • 004 - Chernobyl contamination.jpg
  • 005 - Darvaza flaming gas crater.jpg
  • 006 - Berlin Wall madness.jpg
  • 007 - Bulgaria - monument at the bottom of Buzludzhy park hill.jpg
  • 008 - Ijen crater.jpg
  • 009 - Aralsk, Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 010 - Paris catacombs.jpg
  • 011 - Krakatoa.jpg
  • 012 - Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, Hanoi.jpg
  • 013 - Uyuni.jpg
  • 014 - DMZ Vietnam.jpg
  • 015 - Colditz Kopie.jpg
  • 016 - Glasgow Necropolis.jpg
  • 017 - Hashima ghost island.jpg
  • 018 - Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 019 - Arlington.jpg
  • 020 - Karosta prison.jpg
  • 021 - Kamikaze.jpg
  • 022 - Chacabuco ghost town.jpg
  • 023 - Eagle's Nest, Obersalzberg, Berchtesgaden.jpg
  • 024 - Kursk.jpg
  • 025 - Bran castle, Carpathia, Romania.jpg
  • 026 - Bestattungsmuseum Wien.jpg
  • 027 - Pripyat near Chernobyl.jpg
  • 028 - Sedlec ossuary, Czech Republic.jpg
  • 029 - Pyramida Lenin.jpg
  • 030 - Falklands.jpg
  • 031 - Majdanek.jpg
  • 032 - Soufriere volcano, Montserrat.jpg
  • 033 - moai on Easter Island.jpg
  • 034 - Sidoarjo.jpg
  • 035 - Hötensleben.jpg
  • 036 - Natzweiler.jpg
  • 037 - Polygon, Semipalatinsk test site, Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 038 - Srebrenica.jpg
  • 039 - Liepaja, Latvia.jpg
  • 040 - Vemork hydroelectric power plant building, Norway.jpg
  • 041 - Enola Gay.jpg
  • 042 - Pentagon 9-11 memorial.jpg
  • 043 - Robben Island prison, South Africa.jpg
  • 044 - Tollund man.jpg
  • 045 - Marienthal tunnel.jpg
  • 046 - Aso, Japan.jpg
  • 047 - Labrador battery Singapore.jpg
  • 048 - Artyom island, Absheron, Azerbaijan.jpg
  • 049 - Treblinka.jpg
  • 050 - Titan II silo.jpg
  • 051 - dosemetering doll, Chernobyl.jpg
  • 052 - Holocaust memorial, Berlin.jpg
  • 053 - Komodo dragon.jpg
  • 054 - cemeterio general, Santiago de Chile.jpg
  • 055 - Tuol Sleng, Phnom Phen, Cambodia.jpg
  • 056 - West Virginia penitentiary.jpg
  • 057 - ovens, Dachau.jpg
  • 058 - Derry, Northern Ireland.jpg
  • 059 - Bulgaria - Buzludzha - workers of all countries unite.jpg
  • 060 - Sachsenhausen.jpg
  • 061 - Tiraspol dom sovietov.jpg
  • 062 - modern-day Pompeii - Plymouth, Montserrat.jpg
  • 063 - Pico de Fogo.jpg
  • 064 - Trinity Day.jpg
  • 065 - Zwentendorf control room.jpg
  • 066 - Wolfschanze.jpg
  • 067 - Hiroshima by night.jpg
  • 068 - mass games, North Korea.jpg
  • 069 - Harrisburg.jpg
  • 070 - Nuremberg.jpg
  • 071 - Mostar.jpg
  • 072 - Tu-22, Riga aviation museum.jpg
  • 073 - Gallipoli, Lone Pine.jpg
  • 074 - Auschwitz-Birkenau - fence.jpg
  • 075 - Darvaza flaming gas crater.jpg
  • 076 - Atatürk Mausoleum, Ankara.jpg
  • 077 - Banda Aceh boats.jpg
  • 078 - AMARG.jpg
  • 079 - Chacabuco ruins.jpg
  • 080 - Bucharest.jpg
  • 081 - Bernauer Straße.jpg
  • 082 - Death Railway, Thailand.jpg
  • 083 - Mandor killing fields.jpg
  • 084 - Kozloduy.jpg
  • 085 - Jerusalem.jpg
  • 086 - Latin Bridge, Sarajevo.jpg
  • 087 - Panmunjom, DMZ, Korea.jpg
  • 088 - Ijen blue flames.jpg
  • 089 - Derry reconsilliation monument.jpg
  • 090 - Ebensee.jpg
  • 091 - Mödlareuth barbed wire.jpg
  • 092 - skull heaps in Sedlec ossuary, Czech Republic.jpg
  • 093 - Nikel.jpg
  • 094 - Fukushima-Daiichi NPP.jpg
  • 095 - Tital launch control centre.jpg
  • 096 - Dallas Dealy Plaza and Sixth Floor Museum.jpg
  • 097 - Auschwitz I.jpg
  • 098 - Stalin and Lenin, Tirana, Albania.jpg
  • 099 - Malta, Fort St Elmo.jpg
  • 100 - Peenemünde.jpg
  • 101 - Tarrafal.jpg
  • 102 - Kilmainham prison, Dublin.jpg
  • 103 - North Korea.jpg
  • 104 - Mittelbau-Dora.jpg
  • 105 - St Helena.jpg
  • 106 - Stutthof, Poland.jpg
  • 107 - Merapi destruction.jpg
  • 108 - Chueung Ek killing fields, Cambodia.jpg
  • 109 - Marienborn former GDR border.jpg
  • 110 - Mig and star, Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 111 - Nagasaki WWII tunnels.jpg
  • 112 - Hellfire Pass, Thailand.jpg
  • 113 - Kiev.jpg
  • 114 - Grutas Park, Lithuania.jpg
  • 115 - Zwentendorf reactor core.jpg
  • 116 - two occupations, Tallinn.jpg
  • 117 - Trunyan burial site.jpg
  • 118 - Ushuaia prison.jpg
  • 119 - Buchenwald.jpg
  • 120 - Marienthal with ghost.jpg
  • 121 - Murmansk harbour - with an aircraft carrier.jpg
  • 122 - Berlin Olympiastadion.JPG
  • 123 - Bastille Day, Paris.jpg
  • 124 - Spassk.jpg
  • 125 - Theresienstadt.jpg
  • 126 - B-52s.jpg
  • 127 - Bledug Kuwu.jpg
  • 128 - Friedhof der Namenlosen, Vienna.jpg
  • 129 - Auschwitz-Birkenau barracks.jpg
  • 130 - mummies, Bolivia.jpg
  • 131 - Barringer meteor crater.jpg
  • 132 - Murambi, Rwanda.jpg
  • 133 - NTS.jpg
  • 134 - Mauthausen Soviet monument.jpg
  • 135 - pullution, Kazakhstan.JPG
  • 136 - palm oil madness.jpg
  • 137 - Berlin socialist realism.jpg
  • 138 - Okawa school building ruin.jpg
  • 139 - Pawiak, Warsaw.jpg
  • 140 - flying death, military museum Dresden.JPG
  • 141 - KGB gear.JPG
  • 142 - KZ jacket.JPG
  • 143 - ex-USSR.JPG
  • 144 - Indonesia fruit bats.JPG
  • 145 - Alcatraz.JPG
  • 146 - Chernobyl Museum, Kiev, Ukraine.JPG
  • 147 - Halemaumau lava lake glow, Hawaii.JPG
  • 148 - Rosinenbomber at Tempelhof, Berlin.jpg
  • 149 - Verdun, France.JPG
  • 150 - hospital, Vukovar, Croatia.JPG
  • 151 - the original tomb of Napoleon, St Helena.JPG
  • 152 - Buchenwald, Germany.JPG
  • 153 - Bhopal.JPG
  • 154 - Groß-Rosen, Poland.jpg
  • 155 - at Monino, Russia.jpg
  • 156 - blinking Komodo.jpg
  • 157 - inside Chernobyl NPP.JPG
  • 158 - Mount St Helens, USA.JPG
  • 159 - Maly Trostenec, Minsk, Belarus.jpg
  • 160 - Vucedol skulls, Croatia.JPG
  • 161 - colourful WW1 shells.JPG
  • 162 - Zeljava airbase in Croatia.JPG
  • 163 - rusting wrecks, Chernobyl.JPG
  • 164 - San Bernadine alle Ossa, Milan, Italy.jpg
  • 165 - USS Arizona Memorial, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.JPG
  • 166 - Brest Fortress, Belarus.JPG
  • 167 - thousands of bats, Dom Rep.JPG
  • 168 - Hohenschönhausen, Berlin.JPG
  • 169 - Perm-36 gulag site.JPG
  • 170 - Jasenovac, Croatia.JPG
  • 171 - Beelitz Heilstätten.JPG
  • 172 - Kremlin, Moscow.jpg
  • 173 - old arms factory, Dubnica.JPG
  • 174 - Pervomaisc ICBM base, more  missiles, including an SS-18 Satan.jpg
  • 175 - Cellular Jail, Port Blair.jpg
  • 177 - control room, Chernobyl NPP.JPG
  • 178 - Podgorica, Montenegro, small arms and light weapons sculpture.jpg
  • 179 - Vught.jpg
  • 180 - Japanese cave East Timor.jpg
  • 181 - Ani.jpg
  • 182 - Indonesia wildfire.jpg
  • 183 - Chacabuco big sky.jpg
  • 184 - Bunker Valentin, Germany.JPG
  • 185 - Lest we Forget, Ypres.JPG
  • 186 - the logo again.jpg

Denmark

    
Denmark 1A smaller Scandinavian country between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, south of Norway and (mostly) east of Sweden – both countries that had united histories with Denmark’s at various points before the three became established as the separate states they are now. (Relations remain close, though, and their languages are to a good degree mutually intelligible.)
  
Denmark was, and partly still is, a seafaring empire playing its own part in colonialism. While their colony in India, Tranquebar, is no longer in Danish hands, the Faroe Islands and Greenland to a degree still are, though both have a large degree of autonomy these days. Yet neither have achieved the full independence that Iceland has, which was also formerly a possession of the Danish crown.
  
Today, Denmark has a largely peaceful reputation. And according to a recent poll, the Danes are the happiest people on the planet (they even have a special word for the typically Danish combination of happiness, contentedness and cosiness: “hygge”). So how can contemporary Denmark be relevant for dark tourism?
  
Well for starters its location has always been of great strategic importance, especially during the Cold War period but also earlier and still today. Going back a little further in history, Denmark was (for similar strategic reasons) occupied by Nazi Germany during WWII. This was an especially dark chapter in the country’s history and it is this that has left the largest number of dark attractions in Denmark.
  
Going back further, into prehistory even, but also covered here because of its uniqueness in the category of dead on display, is the bog body known as Tollund Man, now a museum exhibit.
  
Here’s a list of all the separate chapters for Denmark on this website (so far):
  
  
  
 
    
In addition there are yet more Cold-War-related sites, such as the Langelandsfort, a coastal fortification and bunker complex with artillery and anti-aircraft guns that was constructed in the early part of the Cold War to guard the southern tip of Langeland island in the Baltic Sea against a possible Soviet attack. Remember that Denmark was and remains an important member of NATO. After the USSR's demise the fort was decommissioned in 1993 and is now a museum, which also features some Cold-War-era fighter planes and a submarine (opening times: late March or early April to end of October from 10 a.m. to 4 or 5 p.m., admission 140 DKK). Location: at Vognsbjergvej 4b, Bagenkop, Langeland.
Google Maps locator: [54.754,10.716]
 
Yet another Cold-War-era bunker complex and fortifications can be found at Stevnsfort south of Copenhagen. This one used to guard the access to Øresund, the strait between Denmark and Sweden. This was of course of major strategic importance in the whole Baltic region. The facility was closed down only in 2000 and is now a Cold War museum, or "Koldkrigsmuseum" in Danish. Outdoors, artillery, SAMs (anti-aircraft missiles) of the types Hawk and Nike Hercules, tanks and other hardware can be seen (admission 80 DKK, open April to October 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.). But the real draw is the underground bunker complex. This can, however, be visited on a guided tour, which lasts about an hour and a half and covers nearly 2 miles (3 km) of tunnels, bunkers and underground command centres (fee: 180 DKK); places are limited so advance booking is recommended (oesm.dk/stevnsfort-cold-war-museum/). Location: near Stevns Klint nature reserve some 35 miles (50 km) south of Copenhagen, address: Korsnæbsvej 60, 4673 Rødvig.
Google maps locator:[55.2644,12.4105]
  
All along the west coast of the mainland part of Denmark (called Jutland), as well as around the northern tip at the Skagerrak, there are vestiges of the fortifications and gun positions built by the German Nazis during the occupation time in WWII. These formed part of the extended Atlantic Wall. Many are these days no more than graffitied ruins slowly sinking into the beaches’ sand, yet others are rather well preserved and are now museums and tourist attractions. The most important ones, as far as I can see, are at Hanstholm [57.1206, 8.61698], Hirtshals [57.5849, 9.9421], Skagen [57.7395, 10.6376] and Frederikshavn [57.4085, 10.5162].
  
Moreover, there’s a Sea War Museum at Tyborøn (which also has some bunkers) in north-western Jutland [56.7065, 8.2154]. And south of that at Thorsminde is a Strandingsmuseet – a kind of shipwreck museum [56.3731, 8.1187].
  
  
At some point I will have to go on a road trip to Denmark to take in all those sites. But except for my short trip to Copenhagen in August 2023, I’ve not felt so much drawn towards the country in my adult life. This is probably in part so because – other than the countries I have actually lived in – Denmark is the one state I’ve been to most often … but only during numerous sailing holidays with my family when I was between 7 and 15 years old. But I have meanwhile found out that the country’s relevance to dark tourism should not be ignored forever.
  
Travelling to all those sights, especially those on the North Sea coast, would best be done by (hire) car. Public transport is only really good enough for/in Copenhagen and its surroundings. Getting to the country is possible by road and trains from both Germany and Sweden; international flights mostly use Copenhagen’s excellent airport.
  
Since much of coastal Denmark is more for a Nordic sort of beach holiday, there are plenty of accommodation options in the places relevant to the sites noted above. The language barrier is low, thanks to most Danes speaking good English (and German). For some remarks about food & drink see under Copenhagen.
 
 
 
  • Denmark 1Denmark 1
  • Denmark 2Denmark 2
  • Denmark 3Denmark 3
  • Denmark 4Denmark 4
  • Denmark 5Denmark 5
  • Denmark 6Denmark 6
  • Denmark 7Denmark 7
  • Denmark 8Denmark 8
  • Denmark 9Denmark 9
  
  images taken by my late father, Ulrich Hohenhaus
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

© dark-tourism.com, Peter Hohenhaus 2009-2023

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