The first squat and Christianias start
2:07 pm in articles by Alan Dearling
SPEECH TO UZUPIS MAY 2014
by Britta Lillesøe, Christiania Cultural Association
Christiania is the greatest victory of the squatting movement in the world, I suppose!
The fairy tale started in the early nineteen hundred and sixties, where many old houses in Copenhagen were ordered to be condemned by the municipality of Copenhagen.
The very first big squat was in 1965 in the other side of Christianshavns Square.
It was a whole block of 17’th century houses, which were condemned – unhealthy to live in, mostly because they were worn down by the proprietor.
We called the place for Sofiegården – means The Sofie Yard after the street, Sofiegade – The Sofie Street!
We were around 100-150 people living there for 5 years. We made a lot of culture and got friends with the neighbors, mostly working class people.
The municipality of Copenhagen did’nt like, that we lived there and the minister of buildings and the lord mayor of housing ordered 300 police men to get us out of the houses. First they took two of the houses in 1969 – then the rest in 1970.
The City Hall did offer us another house for a certain period in the neighborhood.
The Sofie Yard is the mother of the squatting movement in Denmark – and therefore also the mother of Christiania, and she got a very big daughter.
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