Barnkoloni

Today there are very special camps, such as sailing camps on the old schooner "Ellen".

Barnkoloni (Children's Colony , or also: Children's Summer Camps), or Kollo for short, used to be a common summer activity for children from the big cities in Sweden .

Managed by the municipal social welfare institutions, children from poor families were given the opportunity to go to a children's leisure time during the summer holidays. Most of the costs were borne by the municipality. In the colony there were camp managers, strict rules in the dormitories, kitchen services, but also regular daily schedules for various activities, such as sports training and competitions, excursions, swimming lessons and also time for play and leisure.

Such children's colonies were widespread in Sweden at the beginning of the 20th century and could still be found in many municipalities until the mid-1970s.

Eventually, the traditional children's colonies developed more and more into an alternative for families who did not have any economic problems, as it was assumed that staying in the colony was better than the children themselves during the school holidays without supervision and employment in the city to leave.

Over time, the colonies developed into special theme camps. There are, for example, riding camps, football camps or sailing camps. So the interest in the "Kollo" was awakened again. Children and parents realized that you can make new friends in the camp and try out yourself and your interests.

Today many holiday camps call themselves “Kollo”, although, unlike in the original sense, they are open to all children and parents have to pay for the holiday themselves.

The prejudice that the “barnkoloni” was an institution for children from poor families lived on for a long time.

literature

• Andersson, Katarina, Sundhammars fd barnkoloni: Kulturhistorisk undersökning av Sundhammars fd barnkoloni: Torsby socken, Torsby-Tofta 2: 102 och 2:94, Kungälvs kommun, Uddevalla 2008 Libris
• Bergsten, Iréne, Ett minne från Långselens barnkoloni, Malung Heimatverein, 1995 Libris
• Hansen, Andreas and Jonsson, Lisa, barnkolonier i Bohuslän under 100 år, Verlag des Bohusläns Museum, 2008 Libris
• Hollari, Solveig and Holmberg, Jan, Kollo: århundradets sommarliv, Arena-Verlag, Stockholm, 1996 Libris
• Lind, Margaretha, Från arbetsstuga till barnkoloni: Föreningen Bodens Arbetsstuga och Öngårdsbergets barnkoloni i Boden, Luleå University of Technology, 1998 Libris
• Matz, Edvard, Alla de tafatta breven från kollo, Annual Book of the Swedish Tourist Association, 1993 Libris
• Münger, Ann-Charlotte, Stadens barn på lands: Stockholms sommarlovskolonier och den moderna välfärden, Linköping studies in arts and science, 2000 Libris
• Westerberg, Elisabeth, Vallen - ett sommarparadis för stadsbarn, Annual Book of the City Archives / Luleå kommun, 1999 Libris

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Barnkolonin at utgangpunkten.se ( Memento of the original from March 21, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.