They say it was the most peaceful revolution in Europe.
- that gave the Danish people control -
But the journey there isn't peaceful for everyone just now.
COPENHAGEN 1842
Orla Lehmann has been found guilty of speaking against absolutist rule.
He's the most fierce opponent of the absolute monarchy.
But right now, the future looks bleak for his visions.
In the 1800s, the fight begins for a more fair and equal society.
And now ordinary Danes want the power -
- that for centuries has been reserved for kings and nobles.
But the path from absolutism to a constitution -
- and Denmark's first rule by the people requires great sacrifices -
- both from the oppressed rural population -
- and from a totally new underclass: the workers.
Ahead waits a time where Denmark will go through brutal wars -
- that threaten to divide the country.
This is The Story of Denmark.
Of how a country became a country and a people a people.
It's the tale of a nation that experienced both dizzying greatness -
- and total decline.
Through war and love, poverty and prosperity.
Absolutism and democracy.
All that has formed the Denmark that we know today.
This is our story.
THE CONSTITUTION, THE PEOPLE, AND POWER
In parliament here, our elected officials legislate everything -
- from vehicle registrations to taxes.
But in the beginning of the 1800s, there wasn't a parliament or elections.
At that time, all power, legislative, executive, and judicial -
- belonged to the king and his advisers.
At the start of the 1800s, Denmark has ended up in a war -
- that has enormous consequences for our country.
The 1800s begin brutally for Denmark.
The English carpet bomb Copenhagen, and it's raining shells -
- and rockets.
Many escape, but those who stay behind -
- must seek refuge in places like the Round Tower.
It was incredibly violent and terrifying -
- with the sound of rockets drilled into people's heads.
It was a totally new weapon they weren't accustomed to.
The English are bombing Copenhagen -
- because they tried to get Denmark to join the war against France.
But the Danish king didn't want that. And now they've come to take our pride:
The Danish Navy.
To ordinary Copenhagen citizens, it was awful.
They were trapped behind the ramparts -
- bombarded by burning rockets they'd never seen before -
- which set fire to everything.
After three days of heavy bombardment, the English fleet sails away.
And that won't be the only thing we lose -
- because when England defeats France, the Danish king is forced -
- to surrender Norway, which has belonged to the Danish state for centuries.
This was about the state's survival. If he had refused -
- Denmark might have disappeared from the map of Europe.
But that's not all. The war has been so expensive -
- that Denmark nearly goes bankrupt.
Denmark is reduced to a tiny state. We're broke -
- and that can be felt everywhere in society.
In the country, too, where for some time the most ordinary people have lived.
The farmers.
At the start of the 1800s, the farmers comprise about 80% of the population.
But as a social class, they're still looked down on -
- as the absolute lowest class.
There's no doubt that the farmers see themselves -
- as a stigmatized social caste.
Other groups in society look down on them and speak badly of them.
People were allowed to say 'you' to farmers -
- and 'you' was something people said only to their dogs and servants.
Everyone else in society could say 'you' to a farmer -
- while a farmer always had to treat others with great deference.
But new times are on the way, because many of the farmers -
- who have leased their farms since the Middle Ages -
- have now been given permission to buy their own land and farm.
Owning their own farms makes a huge difference.
It's about freedom. They're free from the power of the landowner.
They're financially their own lords, able to work their own land.
If they're successful, they or their own children reap the rewards.
It's the start of a time where more and more farmers begin to own land.
But it isn't easy to be a new farm owner -
- when the state is bankrupt.
Many people didn't have it easy during the crisis of the 1820s.
The bailiff's coming!
Many of them were foreclosed on.
There's more valuable things on a farm than land, cows, and corn.
There's the stove and special things like duvets -
- that reflect an enormous amount of labor and are therefore very valuable.
But the farmers aren't just in financial and social difficulty
At this point, the farmers don't have any political influence, either.
But that's about to change -
- because all over Europe, absolutism is facing pressure.
Here at home, too, where all power belongs to the king -
- Christian VIII.
The legal basis for absolutism is the Royal Law of 1665 -
- which gives the king the power and obligation to be obedient to God.
A king of the absolute monarchy essentially decides everything.
He's the highest judge, the lawmaker, and the head of government.
Christian VIII, as the Danish king, is the head of a state -
- that includes Greenland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands -
- as well as the two rich duchies in the south -
- Schleswig and Holstein, which have been connected to Denmark for centuries.
But the absolutist king is worried because around the world -
- people have been rebelling against the old forms of governance.
Christian VIII feared that a revolution could break out -
- bringing upheaval, chaos, and war.
Here at home, the Danes have so far been peaceful -
- but the idea of changing the system has awakened hope in educated citizens.
First and foremost, one man, lawyer Orla Lehmann -
- is really taking the fight to the absolute monarchy.
Orla Lehmann was the first modern politician in Danish history.
He was a firebrand. He was highly gifted.
He went out and mobilized people to his cause: the fight for a constitution.
FALSTER, DENMARK JANUARY, 1841.
Lehmann is inspired by the new thoughts of liberalism -
- about basic rights for all people.
Freedom of speech and assembly. Securing the right to own property.
Independent courts. Everything ensured by a constitution.
He's particularly concerned that the people get a larger share of power.
The people need to be represented in government.
A larger portion of the people need to have political power.
We need to remember that while democracy is natural to us -
- it was something very, very new in that period.
It was difficult to even think about. It was revolutionary in itself.
Widespread support by the people is needed to overthrow absolutist rule.
Therefore, Lehmann tries to mobilize farmers all over the country.
Orla Lehmann said to the farmers that they shouldn't count on the king.
No, a system needed to be created where the people themselves had power.
Give the people a larger share of power.
Lehmann is on the razor's edge in this speech -
- because it's an extreme offense to criticize the absolutist regime.
In the speech, Lehmann tried to turn the farmers against the king.
And the speech at Falster will have consequences.
The judges have just given Orla Lehmann three months in prison -
- for spreading hate and dissatisfaction with absolutist rule -
- and he's about to be arrested now.
The city's citizens support Lehmann's new liberal thinking -
- in the hope that, with time, he'll get the power to change history.
It's not just liberals like Lehmann who dream of a new Denmark.
Some of the biggest artists of the time are meeting here in the Hill House -
- to discuss the future of the Danes and the country.
It's the house's hostess, Kamma Rahbek, who opens her home -
- inviting some of the period's biggest cultural figures -
- artists of the Golden Age, to talk here in the parlor.
Painters, composers, authors, all of whom made a mark on our history.
Even our famous fairy-tale writer, H.C. Andersen, came to this house.
The Golden Age could be seen as a blossoming of culture -
- because there were very talented artists. It also emphasized Danishness.
Attention was given to reinforcing what it meant to be Danish.
They write tribute poems and paint magnificent scenes -
- about Danish history, about the Danish peasants -
- as well as about the nature of Danes.
Listen to what Oehlenschläger writes in what will later be our national song.
"There is a lovely country with broad beeches."
But it's another figure in the group who describes -
- what Danes really are. His thoughts are still discussed today.
Priest and author Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig -
- is one of the first to suggest that it's the lowest class, the farmers -
- who are the backbone of the Danish people.
It was revolutionary. Grundtvig was one of the first to say -
- that the farmers can also be included in politics -
- and that a fair society needs to include them.
Slowly, the farmers become synonymous with real Danes.
The art of the Golden Age gives farmers respect they've never experienced before.
In the 1840s, there's enormous growth all over the world -
- and the many farmers who fought for survival during the crisis -
- can now export their corn abroad.
In the 1840s, the farmers are becoming increasingly aware -
- of their importance to society.
They're now doing well financially, and that gives them power.
They're also becoming conscious of how socially inferior they are -
- in relation to others in the state, creating tremendous discontent.
The farmers now create a strong movement -
- that demands equality with the other classes in society.
The movement is also supported by poor smallholders who don't own their land.
The smallholders see a growing gap between themselves and the farm owners.
The farm owners are prosperous and they aren't.
Their own chances for prosperity are far fewer.
There are fewer farms, the population is growing -
- and when the farmers are doing well, they give their farms to their children.
If you're born to smallholders, your chances of getting a farm -
- or marrying into a farm are far, far fewer.
The smallholders' demand is to be able to buy their own land.
So they need to change their relationship with the landowners.
The smallholders particularly want to ban the landowners' right to beat them -
- because it's undignified to be beaten.
Landowners could mistreat them -
- without consequences. It was legal.
In some places, smallholders and farmers begin to protest against the landowners.
And now Christian VIII does exactly what an absolutist king can.
Fearing riots, he gives an order -
- saying the farmers can no longer assemble.
Everything is in upheaval. Everything is in chaos.
Go home and do your work.
But the monarch's attempt to subdue the farmers' protests fails.
The new farmer's movement joins Orla Lehmann's liberal movement -
- to fight for a constitution.
When Orla Lehmann comes out, he's simply a hero.
Everyone who wants change embraces Lehmann.
He's a symbol for the fight for freedom.
In January of 1848, Christian VIII suddenly becomes ill.
He has sepsis and is now dying.
The king doesn't give Denmark a constitution -
- and now it's Crown Prince Frederick who inherits the absolutist throne -
- and all of the problems that come with it.
There's no doubt the crown prince knew his limitations.
He could appear royal and dignified -
- and play king -
- but he was also a habitual liar who undeniably drank too much -
- and he wasn't good at politics.
Christian VIII dies during the night, and the story goes -
- that Frederick, despairing at the prospect of becoming king -
- went out into the night to drink himself into a stupor.
But the harsh reality soon catches up to him.
A few months later, Orla Lehmann calls an emergency meeting in Copenhagen.
They're going to try to pressure the new king to introduce a constitution.
More than 2000 citizens turn up at the Casino Theatre to hear Lehmann speak.
Another constitution campaigner, D.G. Monrad, is also there -
- and together, they start the meeting with patriotic songs.
Denmark, lovely fields and meadows surrounded by blue waves...
The Casino meeting was filled with emotion.
It's understood that if they appeal to emotion -
- they'll get political results.
Gentlemen, time is of the essence -
- because the Danish people are now face to face with a task -
- that means life and death.
We have descriptions of an exciting meeting where -
- those who want change in government electrify the atmosphere -
- and those against are shouted down and put in their place.
This is the resolution!
While Lehmann stirs the people -
- Frederick VII receives regular reports from his police spies.
He's considering whether to use the army against the crowd -
- if a revolution breaks out.
They will not only fall, but fall without honor.
But Lehmann and his allies have an ace up their sleeve.
The king's adviser, Carl Bardenfleth, is on their side.
There's a Trojan horse in the government. Bardenfleth sympathizes with Lehmann.
During the night, it's he who talks Frederick VII down.
We're going to the king with it tomorrow!
The king has given in to the pressure and accepts that the time has come -
- to surrender the power that has belonged to his forefathers for generations.
This is where absolutism falls.
It was the prerequisite for us getting a new constitution.
When representatives from the meeting get an audience with the king -
- Frederick VII agrees to install a government -
- that will lead Denmark from absolutism to a new era:
The rule of the people.
Basically, what happens is the monarch voluntarily abdicates.
Lehmann can now begin to form the constitution -
- he's fought for for decades.
But it's D.G. Monrad who drafts the constitution -
- that will give all Danes the same fundamental rights -
- and a whole new form of government.
Eight months later, the constitution is adopted -
- by the Danish Constituent Assembly, composed of representatives -
- from the landowners, the bourgeoisie, and the farmer's movement.
"The Constitutional Assembly" by Constantin Hansen
Here it is. Denmark's very first free constitution.
When the king signs it -
- with the stroke of a pen, absolutism is abolished forever.
In black and white, for the first time, we get some of the basic rights -
- that we take for granted today.
Freedom of speech. Freedom of association.
And farmers, as citizens, get permission to assemble -
- if they're unarmed.
But the real big change is the people can now decide -
- who will be elected to Denmark's first legislative assembly, the Rigsdagen.
The constitution is fundamental to our democracy today -
- a form of government where power doesn't rest with one man -
- but rather with the people.
But you shouldn't believe the original constitution -
- gave power to all people.
No, because it was only about 15% of Danes who could vote.
It certainly didn't apply to these people:
Prostitutes, hired hands (i.e. servants) -
- criminals, fools, and the poor.
The argument behind these people not having the vote was -
- they weren't independent, but under the influence of others.
Therefore, they couldn't vote for themselves.
There was also the idea that they didn't have the knowledge, the education -
- the insight, or the brains to do what was right or sensible.
That's what the elite thought.
In the first election, only one man per household -
- can vote and be voted for.
Even if the king can still appoint the government, he must now accept -
- that the legislative work happens in the Rigsdagen.
But the constitution is far from creating freedom and prosperity in the kingdom.
There's great disagreement over who will fall under the new constitution.
Lehmann advocates a National Liberal policy -
- that suggests the constitution should apply to all Danish speakers.
Therefore, the Duchy of Schleswig, where half the people speak Danish -
- should now be a part of Denmark.
Then he created the slogan "Denmark to the Eider".
Denmark to the Eider! The river itself has become the symbol -
- of the conflicts that play out around Denmark's borders -
- in the 1800s.
On one side of the Eider, here, was the duchy of Schleswig -
- close to Denmark, with a large part of the population that was Danish-speaking.
And on the other side, over there, was the duchy of Holstein -
- that belonged to Denmark, but had a large German-speaking population.
Because Schleswig was closely tied to the Danish kingdom -
- the National Liberals demanded the border go down to the Eider.
When Orla Lehmann suggests Schleswig should be part of Denmark -
- it's both about his fear that Denmark will become too small without it -
- but also that, historically -
- Schleswig actually belongs under the Danish crown.
But half the inhabitants of Schleswig speak German -
- and feel closer to their German neighbors to the south.
They'd rather form their own state with Holstein than belong to Denmark.
So they take the drastic decision to secede.
A few days after the National Liberals took power in Denmark -
- a rebellion breaks loose in Schleswig-Holstein -
- an uproar that quickly developed into a civil war.
The Danish army is sent to Schleswig, and it develops into a war -
- that we today call the First War of Schleswig.
And after three years of violent fighting, the rebellion is put down.
It's celebrated as a just victory over the Schleswig-Holstein rebellion.
But the top politicians knew it wasn't a solution. It was a ceasefire.
After the war, the parties try to find a solution -
- but the negotiations fall apart.
The National Liberals go back to their old course and propose -
- to tie Schleswig to Denmark in a common constitution.
It's a political provocation. Today, we say they cast Denmark blindly into a war -
- we were bound to lose. But they couldn't have known that.
The Schleswig-Holsteiners get help from Prussia's new minister president -
- Otto von Bismarck.
He was brand new to the game. He was also fearless.
Strategically, he also had an interest in extending Prussia to the north.
Access to the Baltic Sea was very important to the Prussians.
Bismarck gives the Danish politicians an ultimatum: withdraw your demands -
- or go to war with Prussia and Austria.
But the Danish politicians hold fast.
They hoped to force the big powers into the conflict and get a solution -
- where Schleswig was split, to settle it once and for all.
When the ultimatum expires, it's clear that war is inevitable.
Bismarck starts the war, and on February 1, 1864 -
- Austrian and Prussian troops cross the Eider. War has broken out.
DYBBØL MILL SØNDERBORG
In 1864, Denmark goes to war again.
It's here at Dybbøl Banke that one of the war's most crucial -
- and notorious battles takes place.
In April, 35,000 Prussian soldiers attack the Danish post -
- of only 10,000 men.
At 4:00 in the morning, all hell breaks loose at Dybbøl Banke.
In only six hours, 8000 shells fall.
Then 10,000 Prussian troops storm the Danish fortifications -
- with 20,000 more men waiting as reinforcements.
By all accounts, it was terrible. It was a slaughterhouse -
- as some called it.
It made less and less military sense to defend Dybbøl.
To send soldiers out to be shot to pieces -
- and be exposed to a systematic Prussian artillery bombardment -
- it was meaningless.
It's a bloodbath, and the many wounded soldiers are brought to field hospitals.
It was very, very brutal. They could remove shrapnel -
- and they could amputate arms and legs.
Almost no one got anesthetics, so there was screaming.
It was truly terrible.
In a letter from the front lines, a nun and nurse writes:
"Today, several farms were burned.
What the enemies don't burn, they shell.
Today, those shells hit a Danish company.
A large number were killed, and the wounded came to us.
These poor men have shrapnel as big as fists in them.
The wounded come night and day."
3000 Danish soldiers are captured -
- and 1700 men are injured or killed at Dybbøl that day.
If they had hoped the duchies could be split at the start of the war -
- that hope was snuffed out.
Austria and Prussia ended up taking both Schleswig and Holstein.
Denmark was amputated very far up.
Everything was lost.
When the war ends, Denmark has lost both Schleswig and Holstein.
Our country is smaller than ever before.
The dream of a Denmark to the Eider is definitively shattered -
- and the powerful National Liberal group dissolves.
Orla Lehmann dies six years later -
- and D.G. Monrad emigrates to New Zealand.
The National Liberals took political responsibility for the defeat.
The very central importance -
- Lehmann and Monrad had for developing a new constitution -
- is overshadowed by the defeat.
Now Højre, the landowners' party, takes power.
But another party will dominate the parliament in the coming years.
The farmers' party, Venstre -
- that, with the help of the constitution, handles the interests of the farmers.
From the beginning of the 1800s, when agriculture was in a financial crisis -
- the farmers became a political force.
They go from being economic underdogs in society -
- to belonging to the richest part of the Danish population.
The farmers' constitutional rights such as freedom of speech -
- mean that their messages can be disseminated freely in the new newspapers.
The newspapers spread rapidly across Denmark.
At the end of the 1800s, a significant part of the population reads newspapers -
- and there are loads of Venstre newspapers -
- that express the opinions of the party and of the farmers.
But the constitution has also secured free enterprise for all -
- which means that people can sell their own wares.
So the 70,000 farm owners can compete with the landowners -
- by starting organizations like consumer cooperatives and dairies.
The novelty of the cooperative movement is that for the first time the farmers -
- help each other and actually profit together as a group.
Cooperative dairies spring up all over the Danish landscape.
Small factories where milk is gathered from the area's farmers -
- which become tough competition for the landowners' dairies.
The farmers' main reason for creating the cooperative dairy was financial.
It was their way to get a better price -
- for their most important product, milk.
Milk is made into the new gold.
Danish butter, which becomes a huge export, especially to England.
New technologies come that make more butter out of the same amount of milk.
The Danish cooperative movement becomes a huge success very quickly.
In eight years, 700 cooperative dairies are established -
- that a third of all farmers belong to.
Two years later, we have 1000 dairies. So it's going incredibly quickly.
But not everyone is enjoying the upturn. The population growth means -
- that poor servants and farm workers are having difficulty finding work.
There's not enough to live off the land.
That means that people look to the city to get something to live off of.
Young men and women from the country choose to move to the city -
- because the prospects in the country aren't very good.
They have hope that the city can offer better chances -
- that they can work their way up and get better conditions.
A lot of people move to the city.
Over 270,000 move to the cities, so there's an enormous urbanization.
What happens in the 1800s is -
- we go from an agricultural society to a modern industrial society.
The steam locomotive was the technology that had the most effect on people.
Railways pop up everywhere.
When you're used to walking or going by horse -
- a hulking machine like that is quite overwhelming.
The new arrivals become part of a brand new social class.
The working class, or the proletariat, as they were called then.
It must have been incredibly overwhelming for a farm worker -
- to come into a big city -
- where they suddenly encounter a bunch of new groups of people.
There were the lumpenproletariats begging on the streets.
The bourgeois ladies going around in their fine dresses.
They come into the big city, where the houses are tall -
- where things happen in another tempo. It must have been bewildering.
People from all parts of society live in the cities -
- from the city's wealthy merchants to servant girls and child workers.
On the street, they can't help meeting one another.
Many provincial cities experience the biggest population growth ever -
- and people have to huddle together in very small dwellings.
They were built poorly, so they were very humid.
A lot of diseases flourished.
The child mortality rate was 25%. 1 in 4 children died before the age of 5.
The new worker families depend on whether the man can get a job.
Everyone flocks to jobs with the city's factories and craftsmen.
There were very long workdays. The pay was low.
It was about 2 krone a day for a skilled craftsman.
That amounted to 700 krone a year. That's about 40,000 krone today.
They had to support a wife and 5, 6 kids on less than a student lives on today.
So it was very much a life at the subsistence level.
For most, there was no prospect of anything but hard labor -
- six days a week, year round, for the rest of their lives.
The dream of being the man of your own house -
- being a free worker who could create a new future -
- was for many people disappointed.
There was great misery at the end of the 1860s.
But the working class' conditions are going to change -
- because soon one person will mobilize a big movement among the workers.
It happens when Louis Pio comes on the scene.
In spring 1871, two small pamphlets entitled Socialist Sheets come out.
They're published by an anonymous worker.
There's a big stir in the newspapers over who the worker is.
Is it a worker? Because it's written in a style a worker couldn't do.
It's later discovered that it's a postal assistant and lieutenant -
- named Louis Pio who published the pamphlets -
- and who starts the socialist workers' movement in Denmark.
It's the first time the socialist ideas are expressed so directly here.
It worries the bourgeoisie to such an extent -
- that Pio is watched right from the beginning.
They're written around the time of the Paris Commune in Paris -
- where around 30,000 people died -
- in an attempt to create a new socialist society.
The pamphlets are seen as a possible Danish version of the Paris Commune.
So there's a big concern they'll start a revolution in Denmark.
But Pio isn't deterred.
He starts the country's first socialist newspaper -
- together with like-minded Harald Brix and Paul Geleff.
Louis Pio was inspired by big socialist thinkers from abroad.
What he wanted was a future socialist system.
A society where it wasn't the few who owned things -
- but the working class itself that had access to social assets.
And he was inspired by the English trade unions.
Now Pio, Brix, and Geleff start Denmark's first worker union.
Together, they quickly organize thousands of workers across the country.
The workers' movement Pio dreamed of creating -
- counted on using the strike as a weapon.
Those blacksmiths are about to organize one of the Denmark's first strikes.
A screw, as they call it. The smiths put down their tools -
- until the bosses give in to their demands for better pay.
It also means they don't earn money while they strike.
So the workers now begin to help one another during the strikes.
The city's smiths simply abandon their work on shifts.
Some do their jobs and support their comrades financially -
- while they abandon work at another forge.
Then the roles can switch when the boss gives in.
In May of 1872, Pio's activities have consequences.
A strike breaks out among the bricklayers in Copenhagen.
In the newspaper The Socialist, Pio invites all the workers to a meeting -
- to gather money for the strike.
He writes an inflammatory article entitled "Enough is enough!"
He invites all Copenhagen's workers to a meeting in Fælleden.
Copenhagen's police commissioner says: They can't do that. We have to stop it.
The justice minister decides to ban the meeting.
It's controversial because the right to assemble is a constitutional right.
The authorities aren't content just banning the public meeting.
In the name of the law, this is the police. Open up.
Put some clothes on.
The night before, to be safe, they arrest the workers' movement's leaders.
But the next day, people show up to the banned meeting anyway.
It turns into a battle between the attendees and the police.
The workers throw snus in the noses of the horses.
The police pull out their clubs.
- They throw cobblestones. - The workers get beat up.
It ends with the police disbanding the demonstration.
It's what we called today The Battle of Fælleden -
- which was the first big confrontation -
- between the workers' movement and the state in Denmark.
The Battle at Fælleden weakens the workers' movement.
Pio's worker unions are banned and Pio is sentenced to five years in prison.
While the workers' fight is beaten back -
- the farmers' party, Venstre, is becoming Denmark's largest party.
The big turning point for Venstre is getting a majority in parliament in 1873.
At that point, Venstre believes power should come from a parliamentary majority.
It's what we later call parliamentarianism.
As Denmark's largest party, Venstre now expects -
- they can take over the government. But they get a nasty disappointment.
Højre, with the landowner Estrup in charge -
- isn't going to voluntarily hand over power to the farmers' party.
J.B.S. Estrup wasn't himself a nobleman, but he was from a noble family -
- and very conservative.
He had a notion that -
- the landowners had a natural right and duty to govern the country.
It isn't because Estrup was an evil man. In no way.
He just shared the same attitude that all the Højre members had.
They saw the farmers as uncivilized people who couldn't lead a state.
They would bring about the state's downfall and ruin.
It's a view that the conservative king, Christian IX, shares -
- and when he chooses his government, he of course selects Højre.
While the battle lines are drawn in parliament -
- the workers are having a more favorable time.
Conditions for workers are extremely unhealthy!
Every single day is a fight for our daily bread!
Let's gather in the fight against capitalism!
The union movement blossoms in the first part of the 1870s.
In 1874-1875, there are 30 new trade unions each year.
Despite the workers' movement's progress, the leaders sit in solitary confinement -
- convicted of trying to overthrow society.
Even during the daily time in the yard, contact between prisoners is forbidden.
Prison time was traumatic for Pio. He was very sick.
He coughs up blood, and they suspect that he's gotten tuberculosis in prison.
After two years, they're pardoned on the king's birthday.
Possibly because they fear Pio will become a martyr if he dies.
It's a sick and exhausted Pio who comes out of prison.
Only a few months later, he's again visited by police.
He's told that the police are going to put him in prison again.
But he can avoid going to prison if he takes 10,000 krone -
- and gets as many of his comrades as possible -
- to emigrate with him to America.
Pio ends up not being able to withstand the pressure, and emigrates to the US -
- where he dies in his 50s in Chicago.
In 1881, Venstre has been parliament's largest party for almost 10 years -
- without having control of the government.
Now they want to force Højre from power by voting down the government's budget.
They want to obstruct the system so the system itself has to be changed.
But Estrup sends the parliament home before every vote.
The government can adopt provisional laws if the Rigsdagen cannot convene.
Those tough politics are approaching an abolition of democracy -
- and a half-reintroduction of absolutism.
The conflict was so intense that it also spread across society.
One afternoon in 1885 -
- the political crisis has personal consequences for Estrup.
He's just left the Rigsdagen and he's now on his way home.
Outside Estrup's home waits an angry young man, Julius Rasmussen.
He doesn't have friendly intentions with his visit. Not at all.
The young man was with Venstre and he'd become radicalized.
He thought that violence was a solution to political conflict.
- Are you Estrup? - Yes.
Did you shoot me?
It's a button on Estrup's jacket that saves his life.
And possibly a poorly functioning gun.
The young Venstre man's assassination attempt fails.
Julius Rasmussen rots in prison, where he takes his own life.
Estrup, however, now begins to really tighten his grip on the Rigsdagen.
For the next decade, Estrup sends the parliament home -
- when the finance laws are voted on.
In doing so, he deprives the country's largest party of any influence.
While the conflict is at its apex, another party arrives.
It's the workers' party, the Social Democrats -
- that in 1884 gets its first two members elected.
A sign that the workers are stronger than ever before.
The upswing at the end of the 1800s reaches all of Europe -
- where trade unions flourish.
Denmark is an especially well-organized country.
But the employers mobilize their forces -
- in an attempt to stop the many strikes.
The employers at this point say: That's enough. We won't do this anymore.
It's tyranny. The trade unions need a lesson once and for all.
The occasion comes when workers in Jutland strike yet again.
Denmark is on its way into its most massive labor struggle ever.
Carpenters in a number of Jutland cities strike and start it all.
Again, it's about pay.
Should we accept that our enemies have slowed our progress for years?
No! No! No! We won't work...
But the carpenters' employers have had enough.
They show all the carpenters the door at once.
Soon, the firings spread to other provinces.
That means that 40,000 workers are left without income -
- shut out of their workplaces.
The big lockout is a reality.
They shut the factory down.
They don't let the workers in and they don't pay anyone.
In that way, it's like a siege. Who will give up first?
It's the 40,000 and their families -
- so it's over 100,000 people who have no income -
- and who eventually have nothing to live off.
It was a big job for the trade unions -
- to keep the workers together and keep morale up -
- when they could see people had begun to starve.
A committed labor struggle develops.
From South Africa to Greenland, from Berlin to New York -
- there are solidarity events where money is raised -
- for the labor struggle happening in Denmark.
Unity is strength!
It was the biggest labor conflict there had ever been.
Its importance has never been surpassed.
It was a conflict of principle.
Finally, they agree on a compromise -
- that has big consequences for the future.
After 100 days of conflict, they finally reach an agreement.
The September Compromise.
THE SEPTEMBER COMPROMISE OF 1899.
The employers recognize the workers' right to unionize.
The workers recognize the employers' right to direct work.
And importantly:
From now on, the workers can no longer strike whenever they want.
That system means entering into collective bargaining agreements.
When they're in force, you can't strike. That placates the labor market.
That compromise is the foundation for the way in which -
- the Danish labor market functions from that day forward.
With the September Compromise, workers see the results of years of fighting.
At the end of the century -
- the farmers can also open a new chapter in their fight for power.
It's going so poorly now for the Højre party -
- that in 1901 they occupy only 13 of the parliament's 113 seats.
They grow less and less powerful. Finally, in the summer of 1901 -
- the king is persuaded to let Venstre form the government.
We don't really know how Christian IX saw the situation.
We know he was persuaded -
- and that he realized it was time to adapt.
But did he believe it was right? I don't think so.
When Christian IX finally agrees to give power to Venstre, it's expected -
- the party's undisputed leader, I.C. Christensen, will become prime minister.
He was chairman of the finance committee. He was the one who tended the shop.
But the king manages to get the last word.
It's said he was so upset about accepting a farmer's government -
- that he did everything to avoid appointing Christensen prime minister.
They weren't ready to put a farmer in the driver's seat.
But they knew a respectable professor, so they agreed to appoint him.
He could form a Venstre government, but because he was a respectable professor -
- he could also be a guarantee that it would be done properly.
His name is Deuntzer, and he becomes a transitional figure.
He was a mediator between the king's conservative position and Venstre's.
Denmark's first majority government is composed of members of a group -
- that just 100 years earlier was the lowest part of society.
The event is celebrated with a big procession through the city streets -
- ending with a party in one of Copenhagen's most famous parks.
It was a bit paradoxical that the party was held here in the King's Garden -
- because they were celebrating that the king would not decide -
- who should rule Denmark. Now power was in the people's hands.
Not all the people, however.
Neither women nor the poor have the right to vote.
But we'll open with that chapter in the next episode of The Story of Denmark.
Out with Christian! Republic!
In the 1900s, the Danes really begin to dismantle the old hierarchies.
The workers' party surges ahead. Women get the vote.
And a new welfare state takes shape.
But out in the larger world there are profound crises -
- that threaten to destroy everything.