"Christiania is a free-city and the ultimate hippie haven in Europe, after Amsterdam, of course. In Kristiania you can smoke dope as much as you please and the city is very beautiful with many attractions and a lot of young people… among the hippies most popular rock band Gasolin. For more info, check out www.christiania.org"
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I actually live in Denmark and just wanted to say that Christiania is really such a paradise anymore. They sold out of their belivies and what they wanted to do with the world. The are almost as bourgeuis as the rest of Denmark. 🙁
If Christiania no longer exhists (intact), I have no reason to visit Denmark. If something isn’t broken, don’t fix it!
The world needs small scale social experiments; how else can we otherwise hope to understand what is optimal,or even possible,.. God knows we haven’t found it with conventional methods.
Dr. Marc A. Deckard
In my opinion, there should be more places like Christiania, not fewer. It is a haven for people of all cultures, all socio-economic levels, all religions… all human beings, not to mention the many dogs, to commune together in a non-judgmental and peaceful way. Can there be anything more needed in the world today?! Who are those people hurting besides the wallets of the greedy developers who want to profit from it? I will say a prayer for Christiania every day, that it may not only continue to exist, but spread throughout the world.
Sharon (US citizen)
Visitor to Copenhagen twice
Culture requires preservation. Without it, we lose our identities and our values. Its a shame that some individuals believe this can be bought and replaced as wished. However, I strongly believe that with undefiable strength and determination , the people of Christiania will prevail.
I haven’t been to Christiania but have followed english news for a few years now. My interest in the city is to visit and work with/help create an english media awareness of what is going on, as well as document the historical importance of the free town. Can anyone point me to a contact who would facilitate these goals?
–Sabrina Gogol
i went to denmark from the US just for a 9 days visit but when i went to christiania it’s like i found heaven so i rented a place next to the christiania and i spent 6 wonderfull months over there so plz do whatever it takes to keep this place and god bless us all thank you
I visited Christiania in 1998. Wonderful, but ripe for attack by greed obsessed “conservatives” who wish to develop the land for profit and greed. After all, the people in Christiania are not nearly as “productive” as people who use nuclear weapons to terrorize the world. America started out much like Christiania, but now it wants to export greed and hatred throughout the world. Beware of conservatives. They propose that they only want “progress” but instead they only want to loot other people’s lands for profit. That’s their definition of “progress.” Fight them at every turn.
I was lucky enough to spend time in Copenhagen back in ’94. I met a man – Rene Pedersen – on the street in town who essentially became a guide for me, through the microcosmic Christiania. The experience was life-changing. It’s true that I fell in love that summer with Rene – but part of that was falling in love, also, with the lifestyle I got to peek into: Christiania. I found this site while trying to research the Freetown, having recently chatted with a friend of a friend who spent time in Scandinavia a few months ago. Although he was mainly in Sweden, he did visit Christiania: he said that everything there has changed. Now, I don’t think he was ever there before, but he did say that a traveling partner who had been in Copenhagen in ’95 or so also thought Christiania was completely different now. No vending areas with blocks of various colors, no little skunk baggies spread out and no stray dog problem. Did he go where I went, years ago? What’s the deal? I don’t understand politics much and so I had no response when this dude explained to me how something occurred after a big change in power, with governmental power taken away from the liberals in Parliament – as though this one-time commune has suddenly turned all kinds of commercial corporate conservative or something. I loved my Christiania experience, the “town” seemed like an idyllic place to live, for certain people of Denmark, and possibly, for certain others who could bring skills to the community. I wonder how the community is faring, despite that I am not part of it and probably don’t deserve to know what’s going on, anyway.
Do they no longer sell hash and weed in christiania?
I have just got back from a pilgrimage to visit Christiania which I had been planning for a year.
During my stay I took a collection of photos in the “free city” and they can be seen at my webpage:
https://www.community.webshots.com/user/joannahruby
It was a moving experience walking around Christiania at last, although I have to sadly update this webpage with the most recent news; two weeks before I arrived, at the beginning of June, the Danish government finally ordered the closure of all hash stalls in Pusher Street and hordes of police moved in to remove them. The age of carefree toking in sunny Christiania seems to be over.
Since then, the police have been assigned to ‘parade’ uncomfortably through the main areas on a daily basis to make sure no stalls reappear and to eradicate hash use (they’re either being unsuccessful in the latter or just very slack). Subsequently the inhabitants of Christiania have imposed a very strict ban on photography in the area of Pusher Street – on previous occasions tourists’ cameras have been confiscated and photos examined to try and identify people still selling drugs and prosecute them.
Many people say that the atmosphere in Christiania has actually improved since the police invasion, people are visiting to appreciate more than just the dope, and there was a buzz of creativity in the streets and a determination to overcome the current political opression. The amount of concerts, performances and festivals taking place and advertised for this coming summer was astounding, so there has never been a better time to join the plethora of very passionate people in Copenhagen and Denmark who are determined to fight for the preservation of Christiania. I’m sure the story is far from over.
My first time in Christiania was 5 years ago. I though it was great! It had a very relaxed laid back atmosphere. I found it to be rather reserved in comparison to Amsterdam in which pushers wander the streets and nearly harass you to buy their hard drugs – of which the Christiania ‘council’ is against – but not against herb. Christiania was always hopping and there was a great diverse crowd of people there. It was very chilled out and the closest to a modern day Utopia that you can get.
I returned last year and found that the Christiania was dead. The streets were nearly empty. Shop owners weren’t as busy. And this all lead to a dodgey feeling to the place. It was rather depressing to find out that the government wants to expell this area of freedom loving and peaceful inhabitants. I left the place so disheartened and I only hope that the powers that be realize what a disaster they have done. 🙁
Hey there everyone! Well I lived in Denmark for almost a year, between August 2004 and May 2005, as a foreign student. Christiania was like no place on Earth and I spent almost every day there, hanging out with the people, talking and smoking with them, shopping and cooking with them-everything. They were the nicest, most open people I have ever met, and it finally felt like I had found home. But unfortunately, Christiana has been officially shut down now by the Danish government. This has been a long, drawn out battle between the Christiania people and the Danish citizens who have always been jealous of the tax-free, hippie lifestyle of the Christianians (Danes pay almost 25% in various forms of real estate and sales taxes). The community was scheduled for demolition in the Spring, and I am not sure when exactly it took place, but the free society of Christiana is no more. I know that everyone is as heart-broken as I am, but maybe there will be another Christiania that will emerge from this struggle? Perhaps a bigger and better utopian society? Hopefully someone can make it happen!
I was one of the lucky ones I guess – I visited Christiania in 1975 and stayed a while. Staying there was a life changing experience for me. Then I was returning from South Vietnam. I had been a journalist then set up a little ‘agency’ to help street kids. raised some money then let the agency grow and grow until we were the main support group for street kids in South Vietnam. In 1975, after the fall of Saigon I was under house arrest in Saigon for a time then, was kicked out to Thailand, then home to England. I made my way to Christiania in search of peace and found much more – too much to write here. I stayed for a year then went to work with refugees in Bangladesh for a couple of years then, in India for a few more years. It was a fantastic time for me encouraging and motivating the birth of the great ‘peace agencies’ such as War on Want and GreenPeace. Now, a bit older, I have my memories. There should be more, very many more Christianias in this world.
Mike
jah!
christiania is still there ,just peopel is chance,they still have hash,
still have partys, still have hippeys walking the round but they
get old and make they thing more wider..forsvar..! you can´t kill us…
fuck the politi