Christiania – 1971–2021 – as seen from the inside

Christiania 50 years

Christiania’s chief archivist Ole Lykke, who has lived and worked in the Freetown since 1979, presents a slide show and speaks about Christiania’s eventful 50-year history from an insider’s point of view.

Against the backdrop of the ‘original ideals’ from the 1970s, the subjects addressed include daily life in Christiania, how the Freetown is organised internally and externally, the theatre troupe Solvognen, the trials, hash and hard drugs, PusherStreet, the biker gang wars, the police, tourists and visitors, cultural life, the physical set-up of housing and jobs in Christiania, the establishment of infrastructure, the recurring threats of closure and the eight years of negotiations in the 00s that led to Christiania’s current status as a foundation-owned and leased district operating under the same rules as the rest of Denmark.

Ole Lykke is a trained teacher specialising in Danish and History. He taught at the Danish Higher Prepartory Examination Programme (HF) for eight years before his participation in the Blockade against Hard Drugs in December 1979 marked the start of his life in Christiania. Ole Lykke has worked as a photographer, lecturer, editor of the CA newspaper Ugespejlet, been a spokesman for Christiania in the media and taken part in Christiania’s internal organisation and in negotiations with the Danish state, the City of Copenhagen and other external authorities. Since 2010 he has been head of Christiania’s Local History Archive.