The Island Paradise of Bornholm, Denmark

Welcome to Bornholm, a lovely island between Sweden and Poland in the Baltic Sea. Some surveys say the people of Denmark are the happiest in the world and those who live on Bornholm the happiest Danes. So welcome to the happiest place in the world.

Perhaps they’re happy because of the beauty of the island. Perhaps because it is like a garden of Eden with a lot of organic products and a healthy climate. Perhaps because it in their genes, which would not explain why my immigrant brother Pete is so happy here. Perhaps he’s happy because he’s an artist doing what he wants to do. The island is a haven for creative people.

The Gray Pond (Photo by Hunner)

Obviously, there are no NPS units in Denmark. I am taking a break from the road trip through our national parks to attend a conference in Sweden and a family wedding in Denmark. So this week, I offer a history of Bornholm, a smallish island, only forty miles long by ten wide.

Map of Scandinavia with the island of Bornholm just below the "B" in Baltic Sea

Bornholm rises out of the Baltic Sea as a great granite dome. At high points, you can see the southern coast of Sweden about thirty miles to the north. From many places on the island, the constantly changing blue and gray and green hued Baltic Sea is visible. About forty thousand people live on Bornholm year round; however, during the summer, tourists descend on it so that another 100,000 or more vacation here. The economy of the island rests on agriculture and tourism.

Humans first came to the island some 10,000 years ago as the Ice Age froze the Baltic Sea and people could walk to Bornholm. Maibritt, my Danish sister-in-law, while digging in her backyard garden found stone axes which dated back 7,000 years. As in the U.S., the resourcefulness and sophistication of ancient peoples is impressive. Hunters, gatherers, fishermen, farmers, all made this their home and adapted to their times, abilities, and environment.

Stone Axes similar to those found on Bornholm (From exhibit at the Danish National Museum, Copenhagen)

Small Viking warship from 1070 A.D.
(From exhibit at the Viking Ship Museum)

Sometime around the 8^th or 9^th century, Vikings arrived on the island. Before coming to Bornholm, I visited the Viking Ship Museum at Roskilde, Denmark. The museum has restored five different types of boats which they found sunk in their bay. They date the boats to around 1070 A.D. In addition to the Long Ship, a fast warship that carried up to 100 warriors, the other boats on exhibit included short haul ones that farmers might have used to take goods to market and a long haul freighter that carried twenty to twenty-five tons of cargo. Viking runes, burial mounds, and petroglyphs dot the landscape of Bornholm, and a shop in Svaneke, the Vikinghuset run by Torben Sode, sells Viking replica goods.

Christianity came late to the northland. Some crusaders came here instead of to the Holy Lands to convert the heathen tribes along the Baltic. On Bornholm, they built round churches for reverence as well as protection from raiding parties. Local legend has it that the Holy Grail was brought north by the Crusaders and resides in one of the five round churches on the island. Remote sensing has found a cavity below one of the church but as yet, church authorities have refused to allow further excavations.

A  Round Church on Bornholm (Photo by Hunner)

The interior of a Round Church (Photo by Hunner)

Strategically located in the Baltic Sea, the island is contested territory and has been since people began sailing. Its rich farms and woods provided supplies and goods for ships, and its central location guarded water travel in the region. Denmark has usually ruled it, but Sweden and the Hansa merchants from Lϋbeck also have controlled the island. The castle at Hammershus (the largest medieval fort in northern Europe) on the northwest tip of Bornholm overlooked the sea lanes through the Baltic and testify to the importance of the island.

The castle at Hammerhus on the north end of Bornholm (Photo by Hunner)

After the Vikings declined, an organization based in Lϋbeck, Germany called the Hanseatic League filled the vacuum. From the 13^th to the 16^th centuries, they dominated the Baltic Sea region as a multinational conglomeration with its own protection forces.

The Hansas established trading outposts in London, Burges, Bornholm, and elsewhere which sometimes grew into walled communities. These compounds had their own warehouses, churches, offices, residences, and weigh houses. In Tallinn, Estonia, a massive wall from the time period still surrounds the center of the city. I asked an Estonnian who the residents back then were afraid of to build such a wall, and he said: “Estonians.” Upon occasion, the Estonians revolted against the Hansa merchants and tried to storm their enclave.

The defensive city wall around Tallinn protecting the Hansa merchants (Photo by Hunner)

For much of the twentieth century, the Baltic Sea continued to be contested waters. As a gateway to eastern Russia through St. Petersburg, it is a vital link for that country. During World War II, Germany occupied Denmark including Bornholm. Resistance occurred. I talked with Bent, a fisherman who during the war helped run a chicken farm as a teenager. He told me about how they smuggled guns around the island buried under loads of fish heads which they used as chicken feed.

At war’s end, the German army refused to surrender to the Soviets, hoping instead to do so to the Americans. So the USSR bombed several cities on Bornholm in May 1945 and then moved in. The Soviets occupied Bornholm for eighteen months, and this is one of the few places that they had occupied which they left after the war.

Its strategic importance continues. During the Cold War, Denmark joined NATO, and Bornholm as the farthest east land of a member country served as a listening post into the Soviet Union. Today, resurgent Russia sends military planes routinely over the island. Other Baltic states such as Estonia and Latvia suffer similar encroachments of their airspace. While in Sweden, I heard that they have redeployed military forces on their Baltic Sea island of Gotland due to Russia’s increased posturing.

Despite its position in the center of tense geo-political webs, Bornholm has a well-deserved reputation as a haven for arts and crafts. Potters, fashion designers, and glass blowers thrive.  Here are a few examples. Eva Brandt makes pottery. Her designs incorporate nature so that tea mugs look like they are wrapped in birch bark.

Eva Brandt's pottery (Photo by Hunner)

Bente Hammer, a textile designer, silk screens patterns ranging from geometrical to Viking themes on her fabric at her studio.

Silk Screen printing of textiles at Bente Hammer's studio on Bornholm (Photo by Hunner)

And Maibritt Jönsson and Pete Hunner create beautiful glass at Baltic Sea Glass near the town of Gudhjem (God’s Home). They bought an old chicken farm from Bent (who I mentioned earlier in resisting the Nazis as a teenager} and his wife Grete and turned it into a studio and gallery. Their inspirations also come from nature—fall foliage, the tempest driven sea, and even Native American corn. These are just a few of the wonderful artists and craftspeople who live and work on Bornholm.

Above, Pete and Maibritt working at Baltic Sea Glass. Below, a glass bowl inspired by Native American corn
(Photos by Hunner)

Back to why Bornholmers are the happiest people in the world. David, the proprietor of my guest house, said even though everyone complains everywhere, the people here complain the most so they are happy. Brother Pete thinks they are happy because all the tourists say how lucky the residents of the island are living there. Sister-in-law Maibritt mentioned an “island mentality” which meant that the islanders take care of each other. Marianne, the minister at the wedding I went to, told me at the reception afterwards that all Bornholmers have a secret in their hearts: “When they have a problem, they go to the woods. When they have a problem, they go to the waterfalls. When they have a problem, they go to the sea. And then their problems aren’t so bad.” Even though there is no NPS on Bornholm, I think that sums up nicely why many of us go to parks. We get happier when we go to the parks.

The shore near Gudhjem on Bornholm (Photo by Hunner)

I am back on the road next week, visiting Virginia and North Carolina. Stay tuned as Driving by History goes to Williamsburg and more Civil War parks. 

Congratulations to the newlyweds driven away from the church by Torben in his 1920 Citroen.