Istedgade
The Istedgade ( German : "Idstedtstraße") is a 1.1 kilometer long street in the Copenhagen district of Vesterbro , which begins behind the main train station and runs to Enghave Plads and Enghaveparken .
Because of its entertainment and red light district , Istedgade is one of the most famous streets in Denmark and one of the liveliest places in the Danish capital because of its distinct nightlife . There are two sections of the route with very different characters: the north-eastern section between the main train station and Gasværksvej , including its side streets, is characterized by hotels , sex shops and prostitution . There are also many drug addicts , alcoholics and homeless people here . The south-western section, which runs from Gasværksvej to Enghave Plads , is an entertainment district with a multicultural character with its numerous shops , restaurants and cafés .
Street name
The name Istedgade goes back to the victorious battle of the Danish troops in Idstedt during the Schleswig-Holstein War from 1848 to 1851. There are also some other names. Thus Gaden ( "The Road") and street terms, often by taxi drivers are used. Luderstrassen ("the Nuttenstrasse") refers to the colorful nightlife, while Rabalderstræde (for example: "Krach" - or "Lärmstrasse") refers to the diversity of Istedgade that modern city life offers there. The term Skarpe Hjørne ("sharp corner") means the street corner to Abel Cathrinesgade at Istedgade No. 15, where drug trafficking was mainly carried out in the 1970s and 1980s .
history
Development towards a shopping street, a workers' area and an urban district
The street was officially inaugurated as Istedgade in 1859 and gradually expanded in the second half of the 19th century. Because of its central course through Vesterbro , it developed into a shopping street for thousands of working-class families from the surrounding tenements . The area was the stronghold of the Danish Social Democrats and one of the places where the Danish Communists were most strongly represented and where working class uprisings often took place.
With the construction of Copenhagen Central Station in 1911, there was a need for hotels, hostels and guesthouses , which quickly settled in the central section of the street. As in many large cities , the railway station environment created not only crime but also street prostitution , which has since moved to night clubs and other parts of Vesterbro.
Resistance under German occupation
During the Second World War, opposed to the residents of the street to the German occupiers by the DKP fabricated leaflets dropped from windows of the upper floors. In it, during the great nationwide strikes in the summer of 1944, the Germans were mocked with the text: "Rome og Paris kan I ta '- men Stalingrad og Istedgade overgiver sig aldrig". ("You can take Rome and Paris - but Stalingrad and Istedgade never vomit.") The slogan "Istedgade overgiver sig aldrig" ("Istedgade never vomits") went down in the history of Denmark and became a symbol of the street. It is still used today in all kinds of riots without referring to its historical background. When the Danish King Christian X heard of the action, he decided after the occupation to relocate part of his celebrated journey through the city for the first time to Istedgade on the occasion of his birthday.
Immigration, Pornography, and Gentrification
Despite the impoverishment of the “bridge districts” (Brokvarterer) in the 1960s and 1970s, business life was preserved because the street was renovated and immigrants were settled early on . One of the immigrants was the Danish politician Naser Khader , who moved from Syria in 1974 with his mother and siblings to live with his father at 7 Istedgade.
When the bourgeois government in Denmark was the first country in the world to approve pornography in 1969, many sex shops opened up and the street developed into a center for sex distribution. In addition, more and more drug addicts came to the neighborhood in the 1970s; the drug milieu was most evident at the level of the Mariakirken .
Over the past few years, the influx of young, higher-income residents and the targeted upgrading of the residential area through restoration work have led to the increasing gentrification of the street. The history of the street as a workers' area is in contrast to luxury apartments and modern city life.
Special buildings and facilities
- The Cooperation House ("House of Cooperation") on the corner of Reventlowsgade near the main train station houses the local TV station Kanal København .
- The Mariakirken ("Maria Church") designed by the architect Andreas Clemmensen was inaugurated in 1909 and stands out due to its neo-Gothic style. The church is best known for the Mariatjenesten ("Mariadienst") des Kirkens Korshær (" Cross Army of the Church") of the Danish national church , whose help is aimed at drug addicts and prostitutes.
- At the corner of Skydebanegade there is a five-story brick wall in Gothic style from 1887, which was supposed to protect Istedgade from wildly flying bullets from the “Royal Shooting Range ” (Den Kongelig Skydebane) .
- The men's home (Mændenes Hjem) offers shelter for the homeless.
Istedgade in the cultural world
The Danish singer and actor Peter Belli (* 1943) had a big hit in 1978 with the Danish interpretation of the song Copacabana (At the Copa) by Barry Manilow . The Danish edition of the disco classic was titled Istedgade , and the action of the lyrics takes place on this street. The refrain reads among other things: "Istedgade, i Istedgade er der altid en hel del ballade ..." (for example: "Istedgade, there is always something going on in Istedgade ..."). The song became a classic in Danish popular music .
literature
- Hanne Fabricius: Istedgade - Porten til Vesterbro . 1st edition. Forlaget Sohn, Rødovre 2013, ISBN 978-87-7122-065-0 (Danish, 312 pages).
- Claus Hagen Petersen: Politics Bog om København . 1st edition. Politics Forlag A / S, Copenhagen 2004, ISBN 87-567-6784-6 , p. 199 ff . (Danish).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Evan Bogan: Københavns gadenavne - from Kokkedal to Karlslunde and Dragør to Værløse . 1st edition. 2003, (Danish), ISBN 978-87-7466-386-7 . see also Topografisk københavnerslang. ( Memento of the original from May 13, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Hanne Fabricius: Istedgade 150 år - Porten til Vesterbro. (Danish), accessed July 2010
Web links
Coordinates: 55 ° 40 ′ 11.7 " N , 12 ° 33 ′ 20.7" E