Ungdomshuset

Ungdomshuset (literally "the Youth House") was the popular name of the building formally named Folkets Hus ("House of the People") located on Jagtvej 69 in Nørrebro, Copenhagen, which functioned as an underground scene venue for music and rendezvous point for varying autonomist and leftist groups from 1982 until 2007 when—after prolonged conflict—it was torn down, and later also for its successor, located on Dortheavej 61 in the adjacent Bispebjerg neighbourhood. Due to the ongoing conflict between the Copenhagen Municipality and the activists occupying the premises, the building on Jagtvej was the subject of intense media attention and public debate from the mid-1990s till 2008.

Police started to clear the Ungdomshuset building early on Thursday, 1 March 2007. Demolition began on 5 March 2007 and was completed two days later.

Since the eviction in March 2007, former users and supporters held weekly demonstrations for a new Ungdomshuset, the demonstrations initially starting from nearby square 'Blågårds Plads' (and later Gammel Torv) every Thursday at 5 p.m. and going to various places in Copenhagen, the starting point being later changed to Gammel Torv in downtown Copenhagen as demonstrators said they were getting closer to the politicians concerning a solution for a new Ungdomshus at an old school.

In the summer of 2007, an initiative known as G13 announced that on the October 6 they'd stage a massive public attempt to squat an old public waterworks located on Grøndalsvænge Allé 13 in northwestern Copenhagen to be used as a new Ungdomshuset. The event, which gathered several thousand, was announced as non-violent, but was met with heavy opposition from the police who arrested 436 people and threw large amounts of tear gas. Recognizing that the event, which had received heavy public attention, had been carried out with peaceful means, on October 11 Ritt Bjerregaard—the Lord Mayor of Copenhagen—invited spokesmen from Ungdomshuset to have negotiations concerning a peaceful solution to the conflict.

The new Ungdomshuset opened successfully on July 1, 2008 in North-West Copenhagen's Bispebjerg area, after more than 16 months of weekly demonstrations.

The building was completed on 12 November 1897, with the name "Folkets Hus" (The People's House). The house functioned as one of the resorts for the then-incipient labour movement of Copenhagen. Since labour organisations were unpopular in the eyes of the authorities, and reprisals were often carried out against them, the organisations had to build their own headquarters—Folkets Hus was the fourth of these to be built. The roots of several demonstrations and meetings were planted in Folkets Hus, and as a result it was strongly linked to the great demonstration against unemployment in 1918 when workers stormed the (Børsen). In 1910, The Second International held an International Women's conference at the house, during which Clara Zetkin launched the idea of an International Women's Day. Vladimir Lenin and Rosa Luxemburg visited the centre.

...
Wikipedia