ODENSE 1962
The world has never been closer to nuclear war than right now.
A war that could mean total extinction.
It's up.
I'm coming.
Yeah, I'm ready.
The crisis between the US and the Soviet Union is more serious than ever -
- and the whole world is preparing for a confrontation.
The Cold War is at its apex.
We're in the last half of the 1900s.
After World War II, Denmark has to take sides in a new world order.
We're stuck between two superpowers, and if nuclear war breaks out -
- Danes will find themselves in the eye of the hurricane.
It's a time when new inventions make life easier -
- when dreams become reality, and the welfare state is rolled out.
But it's also a time when it becomes clear that nothing lasts forever.
FOR SALE
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.
WELFARE AND THE COLD WAR
Denmark is a small country, so to defend ourselves effectively -
- we've signed an agreement with a number of larger nations -
- that entails coming to each other's aid -
- if one of us should one day be attacked.
But there was a time when we didn't have those agreements.
There was a time when we were completely alone.
The year is 1942. Germany has occupied Denmark -
- and the occupation power crushes any resistance.
In the first year of the occupation -
- most Danes didn't experience big changes in their daily lives.
It was only in 1942 that the resistance movement grew.
One December morning, the Germans arrest Inger Merete Nordentoft -
- an unmarried school teacher suspected of hiding resistance members.
What they don't know is that she herself is part of the resistance movement.
It's partly about the Ringen -
- and partly about providing logistical support for the resistance people.
She was a part of the radical culture movement -
- in which intellectual social democrats and communists -
- saw it as their most important duty to fight fascism's propaganda.
They advocated gender equality and democracy.
February 19, 1943, Inger Merete is sentenced to five months in prison.
And Inger Merete doesn't waste the time. In her cell, she writes the book -
- Education for Democracy -
- a book that, in time, will change the Danish school system.
She thinks that children should be educated from when they're very young -
- to think for themselves, to act according to their conscience -
- and never, ever according to orders, without having reflected on it.
She's fighting for a world with equal rights between the sexes -
- because it's still a time of the old morals -
- that affect Danes' and especially women's lives.
It's unfortunate for a young couple if the woman becomes pregnant -
- before the couple is married.
But it's worse still if they aren't to be married at all.
The young woman on the table is having what they call a feticide -
- that is, an abortion.
And in the 1940s, it's something that's done in secret -
- because it's very illegal.
Thousands of unmarried women put their lives on the line each year -
- to remove the fetus that would otherwise destroy their lives.
To become pregnant out of wedlock was so life-changing -
- that a woman who was getting an education -
- would be thrown out of her program.
And that led to -
- incalculable financial and social consequences.
The ban on abortion applies to everyone -
- as well as this young man, Jens Otto Krag.
No one knew that he would one day become the country's prime minister.
He's a quick boy from Randers -
- whose father was a middling petit bourgeois sort -
- and had a large tenement house where he rented rooms to the poor.
So Krag grew up surrounded by the lower class.
And that instilled in him a sense of social indignation.
How can we ensure that the weak members of society -
- get access to the opportunities reserved for the bourgeoisie?
We're finished.
The abortion affects Jens Otto deeply. As he writes later in life:
"Never before had I balanced so closely to the edge of the abyss."
When you read Krag's account of it, you see a young man in shock.
He had arranged something that was wrong in every sense.
But it was definitely a decision they made with eyes wide open.
The abortion doesn't weaken Krag's desire for a better society for the weakest -
- but the dream has to wait, because Denmark is at war.
And the Danes feel the war most with the lack of food.
In the Danish allotment gardens, vegetables are grown like never before.
The allotment gardens have been a part of Denmark since the 1890s.
They're spread across the whole country, and they're thought of as an oasis -
- for the poor workers in the city.
But during the war, the gardens become more essential -
- because there's rationing of many food goods.
Some Danes had family in the country -
- so they could get a goose or a pig or grains. Vegetables, especially.
And all the city dwellers who had allotment gardens -
- turned their lawns into potato fields.
Now the Danes need to replace meat with vegetables -
- and that's just the thing for Kirsten Hüttemeier -
- a nutrition teacher who takes up the challenge of rationing.
Not only does she earn her own money. She's divorced, too.
To be a woman who thrives outside of marriage -
- is something of a rarity at this point.
During the war, she cycles around to women working in factories -
- and shows them how they can get food to last longer -
- and how they can get their food to taste like before rationing.
She says you don't have to make life hard for yourself -
- when there's bouillon cubes and meat extract -
- that make the daily meal easier.
I add a little more soy sauce...
...and a little fish.
See, it's almost ready.
Even though the Danes adjust to the conditions of the war -
- discontent is growing.
In summer 1943, there's sabotage against the occupation -
- and the Danish businesses who work for them.
The Germans see sabotage everywhere and tighten control.
Oh, come on.
1940 Occupation of Denmark August 1943 Government quits
In August 1943, Germany demands the death penalty for all saboteurs -
- which gets the Danish government to quit.
And with that, the Germans can introduce a raid on another group: the Danish Jews.
The people react spontaneously by simply opening their doors -
- for their Jewish neighbors, colleagues, and friends -
- to ensure they get food and have clothes on their backs.
Also because they understand this time they're coming for the Jews -
- but the next time, it could be you or me.
Most Danish Jews are brought to safety by fishermen -
- who, for a fee, sail them to Sweden.
Over 7000 Jews escape the Germans.
From 1943 to June 1944 -
- the Soviet Union beats back the Germans in the East -
- and from the West, the Allies go by land on the French coast.
Many think that Germany will lose the war -
- and now even more Danes dare to resist.
There's a mobilization of the resistance movement -
- but also a willingness to annoy the Germans and show civil disobedience.
The willingness to resist comes from many circles -
- and covers the majority of the political spectrum.
And at Denmark's largest workplace, B&W shipyard -
- where the workers build ships for the Germans against their will -
- they do what they can to annoy the Germans.
The aim was to build so slowly -
- that the Germans never got the ships ready in time.
The sabotage spreads across the country. The Germans respond again.
In summer 1944, it affects Copenhageners in particular.
The Germans introduce a curfew, which says -
- all Copenhageners need to stay indoors between 8 PM and 5 AM.
And all windows need to be kept shut, despite it being -
- the hottest summer in recent memory.
It annoys the workers at B&W especially -
- that they can't go to their allotment gardens.
The communists at B&W were extremely well-organized.
They were considered to be trusted people -
- that could push the workers and dictate the direction of the workplace.
When the Germans introduce a curfew, the workers have had enough.
The reaction comes promptly. At 12:00 the same day -
- all the ship workers at Denmark's biggest workplace go home.
The reason is that the curfew will prevent them -
- from going to their gardens and tending their carrots.
And the protest spreads to all of Copenhagen.
Barricades are built in Vesterbro and Nørrebro -
- to prevent the occupation forces from coming into the neighborhoods.
But the Germans cut off all supplies -
- in an attempt to pressure the Copenhageners to go back to work.
Now there's no electricity, gas, or water in the whole city.
But that only makes the Copenhageners even more stubborn -
- and more determined to end the collaboration.
The people's strike is the most dramatic point in the occupation's history -
- but it's also a story about unity and community.
People cooked together in the courtyard. They fetched water from the lakes.
They made it work and helped one other and shared with one another.
But the Copenhageners don't want to stop the strike.
Not even when the Germans begin to shoot people in the streets.
And while the capital's population stands together against the occupation -
- the fight is also taken to the political arena.
Officially, the politicians are trying to cool down tempers -
- and call for Copenhageners to return to work immediately.
When that doesn't happen, who has the power?
It's the resistance movement that has the connection with the people.
The Copenhageners continue the resistance, but not without costs.
100 Danes lose their lives under the strike -
- and 600 are wounded.
It surprises the politicians how little sway they have over the people.
Can they count on these young men -
- to support the reinstatement of democracy?
Now the fight is about -
- whether Denmark will ever become free and democratic again.
After nine days of fighting, the Germans pull back -
- before the strike paralyzes the whole country.
They turn on the electricity, gas, and water, and repeal the curfew.
Most think the war will end before long -
- and even though a year will pass before the war is over -
- there are questions about who will lead Denmark -
- when the occupation forces have gone.
Will it be the people who resisted the Germans -
- or will it be the old politicians -
- who collaborated with the enemy?
COPENHAGEN 1944
In the middle of the fight, 30-year-old Krag steps onto the political scene.
By studying the war in other countries, he has an idea -
- how the Social Democrats can regain power in the government -
- and at the same time fix the economy when the war ends.
We need to avoid unemployment. And how do we do that?
By introducing an economic policy that makes sure -
- that everyone is always working.
The leaders of the Social Democrats put the untested Krag at the fore -
- in order to regain power.
And they like his ideas about creating work for everyone.
When Krag puts so much emphasis on creating full employment -
- it's based on a perception that people who go to bed well-fed -
- are more willing to go to work the next day -
- and won't think about starting revolutions.
In a time of rationing -
- people in the country have easier access to flour, meat, and butter.
But like the rest of the people, they look forward to the war ending.
Coffee's ready.
From London, this is the BBC's midday broadcast to Denmark.
Hitler is dead.
In the fall of 1945, the Germans are pushed back on all fronts.
Hitler commits suicide, and Denmark will be liberated in just a few days.
But the question is who will reach Denmark first -
- the English or the Russians.
In Berlin, the battle has reached the final stages.
The Russians knew that if they took Bornholm, they had the chance -
- to affect and maybe dictate a postwar arrangement in Denmark.
From the East, the Russians quickly gather strength at the Danish border.
The English forces hesitate for several days.
It seems like the Russians will reach Denmark first.
At this point, there's a fear in London as well -
- that it will be the Russians -
- that reach Denmark before the British.
If we're "liberated" by the East, it's not freedom we'll get -
- when the Germans fall apart. It will be communism and Stalinism.
On April 29th, the English forces begin to move -
- and arrive only a few hours before the Russians.
From London, this is the BBC broadcasting to Denmark.
At this time, Montgomery declares that -
- the German troops in Holland, Northwest Germany, and Denmark -
- have surrendered.
This is London. We repeat:
Montgomery has declared that the German troops -
- in Holland, Northwest Germany, and Denmark have surrendered.
Denmark is liberated on May 5, 1945 by the English.
While freedom descends across the land, there's nothing to celebrate on Bornholm -
- because the Russians occupy it for almost a year.
But in the rest of the country, people are happy -
- that the German soldiers are finally leaving Denmark.
Nazi pigs.
But there's also someone who's worried.
As soon as the message of liberation came -
- the fight over who would have power in Denmark started.
Jens Otto Krag is uneasy about the future.
The Social Democrats have lost their popularity -
- because the party collaborated with the Germans.
Krag was painfully aware that it would be -
- a very, very hard political fight.
And in that fight, his plan for Denmark's future -
- was the Social Democrats' key weapon.
Summer 1945 is the first where Danes can again breathe -
- as a free people, after five years of occupation.
After having sat in prison for five months during the war -
- things now look brighter for Inger Merete Nordentoft, too.
Shortly before the war ends, she's appointed headmaster here -
- at Katrinedalskolen in Vanløse.
And now her ideas about parenting that she developed in prison -
- can finally be realized.
Hi, Miss Nordentoft.
She had the idea to build up education -
- so children could learn to read, write, and count at their own pace.
Today, we know it as differentiated teaching.
It was very modern, and it was in stark opposition -
- to the authoritarian school tradition where it was the classroom -
- with everyone learning the same thing, largely by rote.
- Do you want to see him? - Yes.
He's so cute. He lost a sock.
Big things happen privately for Miss Nordentoft, too.
Even though she's not married, she fulfills her wish to be a mother -
- when she adopts one of the unwanted children born during the war.
And then she falls in love, too.
Inger Merete becomes part of Denmark's Communist Party, DKP -
- that is no longer banned.
And in the fall of 1945, she's running for election.
In the years immediately after the war, there's enthusiasm for the Soviet Union -
- not just in the DKP and the far left -
- but generally, there's great admiration for the victims of the Soviet Union.
Most Danes want to get back to life before the war -
- and they put their trust in Venstre, which can form a government.
The Social Democrats lose 18 seats in Parliament, which the DKP wins.
And Inger Merete Nordentoft gets one of those places.
But what should be a good time for her becomes the opposite -
- because she's carrying a secret that will shock much of Denmark.
1940 Denmark's occupation
On this very beautiful and atmospheric evening of May 4, 1946 -
- no one can imagine that a new war is on the way.
A Cold War -
- where gunpowder and guns are replaced by mistrust and hatred.
A war that divides the world into East and West.
The Cold War is in many ways a contest over which view of society is right -
- where they fight over getting the most influence over the world -
- and about how to create a good society during the postwar period.
The US has an advantage in the contest.
The atom bomb. A weapon so destructive -
- that no one is in doubt who the world's largest power is.
The Soviets do everything to keep pace, and it becomes the start of a race -
- that Denmark is caught in the middle of.
In 1947, all of Europe is burdened by the aftermath of the war.
There's rationing of many goods, and industry is old and worn out.
In the US, there are new machines that can be bought with dollars -
- but Denmark can't afford them.
So the US offers the Danes help through the Marshall Plan.
It's a big economic assistance program from the US to all countries in Europe -
- that would accept it and the conditions that came with it -
- which were that they should follow the American model.
- Good evening, Minister. - Good evening.
In the fall, the Social Democrats have again taken power.
And it's Krag who, as trade minister -
- must decide on the Americans' offer.
For Denmark, this was a dilemma.
One of the conditions of the Marshall assistance is -
- that Denmark will strengthen its defenses against the East.
They're aware that if they take the assistance -
- they'll be unambiguously placing themselves in one camp.
And from the American side, they give the Danes the impression -
- that if they choose to decline, it will be seen as a refusal -
- that to some extent will place them in the Eastern camp.
When you sit in the Ministry of Commerce -
- and look at the numbers, it must have been obvious to Krag -
- that we had no choice. We needed it.
The Danish economy is in need. Our only prospect is the US help.
But the politicians will go to great ends not to provoke our neighbor to the East.
Therefore, they accept the Marshall assistance on the condition -
- that they won't build up their defenses against the Soviets.
Even if we claim that we're not part of the American Bloc -
- and that we haven't turned against the Soviet Union -
- that's the reality of it -
- and from then on, Denmark has been part of the Western Bloc.
The first to benefit from the Marshall aid are the farmers.
In 1947, the first 10 Ferguson tractors arrive in Denmark.
The aid from the US is the beginning of a radical change -
- not just for agriculture, but also for Danes.
Inger Merete Nordentoft is one woman at the forefront of the new times.
She's a headmaster, a member of parliament -
- and unmarried mother to Niels, whom she adopted. Danes can accept that.
But it comes out that the headmaster is also pregnant -
- without being married.
And that sparks outrage.
Imagine if the kids thought this was reasonable.
A really bad example to follow.
It's the idea that the family is the cornerstone of society.
If women start having children out of wedlock, everything will fall apart.
The parents are so divided on whether she can continue as headmaster -
- that they vote on it.
700 vote for a dismissal, while over 1200 are against it.
Inger Merete Nordentoft isn't fired because most parents are against it.
A whole new school is built, however, 800 meters down the road -
- for all the teachers and parents who can't live with the scandalous headmaster.
It won't be the last time Inger Merete meets resistance.
Every time she speaks about pedagogy, sex education -
- or education for democracy -
- it's brought up that she was a woman who became pregnant out of wedlock.
She ends up becoming a symbol for women's right to have children -
- whether they're married or not.
1945 Denmark's liberation 1949 North Atlantic Treaty created
In 1948, the government in Czechoslovakia is overthrown -
- by a communist coup backed by the Soviet Union.
The politicians are now asking: Which country will be next?
Will the next step from the Soviet side be Finland, Sweden, or Denmark?
In 1949, Germany is split in two: an East and a West.
For fear of communism, 11 countries establish the North Atlantic Treaty -
- later NATO, whose members will come to each other's rescue.
Denmark becomes protected by the American atomic bomb.
But when the Soviets test their first atom bomb in 1949 -
- Denmark now lies on the front lines in the event of a nuclear war.
If there's a military conflict, Denmark is part of the battlefield.
It's partly on Danish territory that the battle would be fought.
But so far, most Danes aren't worried about atom bombs and war.
They're focused on the new technology that's changing life in the country.
And it's sorely needed.
It was the old days. There were three men in the field -
- but the yield couldn't give three men a proper salary.
But the new machines also make it so that -
- many milkmaids and farmhands have to look for a new job.
That's that.
During the 1950s, around 300,000 farm workers move to the cities -
- and get work at some of the factories that, with help from the Marshall Plan -
- now manufacture radios and tin cans -
- or some of the other wares that revolutionize the Danish home.
The refrigerator, which before the Marshall Plan was owned by very few -
- is now being mass-produced by workers in Danish industry.
If there's anyone who can convince Danish women -
- that they can't live without a fridge, it's Kirsten Hüttemeier.
She isn't afraid of progress.
She sees it as her foremost duty to make life easier for busy housewives.
They can now store leftovers, and they don't have to shop every day.
It gives them much greater freedom.
The fridge, in its own way, was part of the Cold War -
- because it was an American invention.
It's an American way of showing that this is the good life.
"This is what we can give you. They don't have fridges in the East."
It's clear that the refrigerator is so labor-saving -
- that every housewife wants to have one.
But not everyone can afford a refrigerator.
Definitely not the workers in the industry.
The workers in the '50s had become resigned to the situation -
- because they were promised it would get better later.
Krag, now the minister of labor, has persuaded industry workers -
- to hold back on wage demands until production has increased.
At B&W, where shipbuilding is in full swing -
- the shipyard workers haven't received more pay yet.
In some circles, they're losing patience.
In 1956, they've had enough.
100,000 stop working...
Let's go, comrades!
...in a strike that's one of the biggest in Denmark's history.
The big strikes in '56 are the largest in the country -
- since the strike in '44 during the occupation.
Now Jens Otto has a dilemma: if the workers get a wage increase -
- the industry won't create the prosperity that everyone is waiting for.
It was a matter of prioritizing the development of Danish industry -
- with an eye toward greater prosperity not now, but later.
The question is if Krag can persuade the trade union -
- to get the workers to wait a few more years for a pay increase.
Krag understands that the workers expect to have a share -
- in that prosperity.
If they feel like they're just going to deliver while others reap the benefits -
- sooner or later, they'll turn to the communists.
The workers won't wait for pay.
Now Krag and the government are intervening.
Parliament passes a law that sets the workers' wages.
Industrial growth is more important than anything else.
With the big conflict, the communists win a number of posts in the trade union.
At B&W, they feel the communists are better at confronting those in power -
- when the workers need their interests taken care of.
Krag knows very well that communism is a strong political element.
It affects Krag deeply. "We need to make sure everyone has it better."
1949 North Atlantic Treaty 1956 Invasion in Hungary
Nordentoft residence.
In November, something happens that shakes everyone in Denmark -
- Inger Merete Nordentoft in particular.
Soviet tanks drive into Hungary.
The people have ousted the communist government -
- which the Soviets won't allow, and therefore, subdue.
It was the most brutal attack against an Eastern European nation we'd ever seen.
It happened only ten years after the Russians had left Bornholm -
- so it creates a lot of anxiety.
Inger Merete Nordentoft is so shaken that she resigns from the DKP.
And she's not the only one who turns against communism.
The communists lose their power in Denmark once and for all.
But in the East, communism is stronger than ever.
While the danger of a third world war increases -
- an economic upswing finally arrives in Denmark.
In 1958, worker pay increases -
- and work hours are decreased from 48 to 45 hours per week.
For many young people, that means more opportunities and more freedom.
- Here we are. - That's it.
Historically, the young have always worked in Denmark.
At the end of the '50s, many could keep a larger part of their wages.
- Want to dance? - OK.
- Come on. - OK.
That means they can choose their own lifestyle -
- without having to ask permission from the older generations.
I'm going to cut in.
Some choose the rock and roll culture -
- with leather jackets, motorcycles, and new music.
Now Danes get three weeks' paid vacation and can afford to travel south.
The good times spread to all parts of the country.
Now they can afford more than just farm machinery.
Christian! No!
It's ours.
They truly have a feeling of freedom.
That life is more than just getting up and going to work -
- and coming home again, eating and sleeping.
They can go on vacation, they can go to the museum.
There's widespread belief in the future in both the city and the country.
Danes have gotten a national pension.
The welfare state is about to become a part of Danes' lives.
New schools show up. Recreation centers. New social systems.
Even Jens Otto Krag, who has now become foreign minister -
- can see a bright future. Danish welfare is popular.
But under that optimism is a fear for the future.
1949 North Atlantic Treaty 1961 Berlin Wall erected
Behind these doors is an underground bunker.
It was built in the event of the worst thing imaginable: nuclear war.
Authorities build underground facilities across the whole country during the '50s.
The conflict between the superpowers intensifies at the start of the '60s.
The Berlin Wall is erected.
East German authorities block West Berlin with a wall with barbed wire.
It's expanded and equipped with guard towers, guard dogs -
- mines, and guards with machine guns who shoot -
- if people from East Germany try to flee to West Germany.
The East European countries need to build walls to keep people in.
The fear of a nuclear disaster grows.
World War III is coming, this time with nuclear weapons -
- that can wipe out large swaths of humanity.
While some, in secret, take precautions in underground bunkers -
- others protest loudly against nuclear buildup.
In Denmark, the youth are leading the way.
- It's up to Pomerania. - It's terrible.
There's a chance that we're all going to be killed.
The risk of nuclear war grows every day.
In January 1962, all Danish homes receive this booklet.
It tries to convince the Danes that they can take action.
They can furnish shelters in case of a nuclear attack.
But it never happens. In 1963, tensions ease between East and West.
An international agreement puts a temporary end to the arms race.
World War III is, if not canceled, then postponed indefinitely.
Now Danes can again turn their attention to everyday things.
Kirsten Hüttemeier makes lunches with style.
Now there are experiments with the newest household appliance.
The chest freezer.
It can do so much in the Danish household.
Vegetables and jams don't need to be canned.
When you reach for it, it's easy to prepare right away -
- and almost as good as if it were fresh.
Hüttemeier experiments with the shelf life of frozen lunches.
Lunches for school children and fathers are frozen and thawed -
- in an attempt to give housewives more time for themselves in the morning.
The freezer industry also has a practical solution: frozen ready meals.
It's about cooking food, which is then frozen -
- so that the housewife can buy it and put in her own freezer at home.
Housewives want to buy it. But before they can buy it -
- more money has to be earned.
It really sets the consumer wheels in motion.
The women come into the labor market in great numbers.
But that's not all. There's a need for yet more hands.
The economy was going at full steam. There was full employment.
In 1967, Danish employers actually invite guest workers -
- preferably from Turkey, Yugoslavia, and Southern Italy -
- to work in Danish businesses -
- simply because there was a shortage of labor.
But it's not that only change.
The Danes who have delegated the responsibility -
- for the old, kindergarten children, and the sick to the welfare state -
- get a freedom they didn't have before.
Young people use the freedom to try different ways of living.
They ask questions -
- about the nuclear family, parenting, gender roles, and sexuality.
At the uprisings at the universities, students demand more say -
- over how the university will be run.
In the big cities, the youth rebel against many authorities, including the political.
Especially the US, which has gone to war against communism in Vietnam.
Which they saw as a brutal and unjust war.
It was also directed against this reverence -
- that the older generation had had for the US during the Cold War -
- because the US was Denmark's protector.
Now they saw the US engaged in a war which was brutal, dirty -
- and seen as unjust.
Though the riots and youth rebellion seem far away -
- they touch the older generations in the country.
The reaction of the older generations was in many ways mixed.
We see that many of the conventions that accompany the youth rebellion -
- are quickly taken up. People begin to address each other informally.
That's not to say that the young people's behavior was accepted.
But there was a kind of receptivity.
The working class moves from the city to the new residential neighborhoods -
- that sprout up all over the country throughout the '60s and '70s.
500,000 new houses are built during those two decades.
That amounts to more than 65 houses a day.
Throughout that period, it becomes clear that -
- the working class' dreams have been middle class.
To get their own house, garden, a little car -
- a dog, and separate bedrooms for the children.
- Wow. - Lucky it isn't raining.
Many Danes can also now afford a new car.
They can look forward to exchanging the black-and-white TV with color.
Maybe they can even afford a swimming pool like the neighbors.
There's a hope that their children can get an education -
- and climb up the social ladder.
Be university-educated. Maybe doctors or lawyers.
It's a mindset that was beyond a dream only 20 years before.
The welfare state can often sound a little -
- like someone took a drawing from the Social Democrats -
- and said: "This is how we make a good society."
In reality, the welfare state is a product of many political compromises.
At the start of the '70s, Danish society has changed a lot -
- since servants and maids moved from the country.
Most parties agree that there should be assistance for those in need -
- free abortion for women who don't wish to take a pregnancy to term -
- and study grants so that people can get an education.
Everything grew explosively. Public expenses. The tax burden.
The number of regulations. The number of rights.
Never before had everything increased so much.
Welfare costs, and there's need for a plan to be able to afford it all.
For Jens Otto Krag, that plan is the European Economic Community.
1961 Berlin Wall erected 1972 Admitted to the EEC
Krag is prime minister in 1972, and he's asked Danes to decide -
- if we should be a part of the European Economic Community -
- which he thinks is the only way forward for Denmark.
It would secure the welfare state that he had helped build up.
It was a prerequisite for it to develop.
That referendum was the crowning achievement of his life's work.
That referendum couldn't be lost.
Denmark votes yes for the EEC, which later becomes the EU -
- thereby cementing our affiliation with the West.
That meant he had actually done what he wanted.
There's now every reason to believe Danish welfare is safe for the future.
Jens Otto Krag resigns as prime minster the same day -
- and leaves Danish politics.
But a new crisis is on the way.
A crisis that threatens all of Danish society.
Since the start of the '50s, things have only progressed in Denmark.
Wages have increased. It's normal to buy a house or car, or to travel.
Unemployment has been largely nonexistent.
But in 1973, something happens that changes all of that.
A war in the Middle East sends oil prices sky high.
Suddenly, it becomes expensive to use energy, power, and machines.
The oil crisis is maybe the first time where they seriously -
- experience limitations in the consumption stream.
They couldn't drive cars like they used to.
The crisis has consequences for all of Denmark.
From 1973 to 1983, unemployment increases more than tenfold.
The queue of people who need help grows.
The welfare state is close to falling apart.
That leaves the Social Democrats with a dilemma they can't resolve.
When they try to improve unemployment -
- the deficit increases, and vice versa.
The Social Democrats can't come up with a solution -
- without destroying the collaboration with the trade unions.
So quite unusually, the government gives up in 1982 -
- and leaves the problems to its opponents to solve.
After 15 years of galloping progress, cutbacks are needed. At home, too.
A bourgeois government puts the Danes on a tough diet.
Now public spending has to be decreased.
They set limits for wage increases.
They cut back on welfare. They want to control the welfare state -
- so the institutions themselves don't decide how to develop it -
- but instead, the ministry of finance.
Wages fall, and it becomes more expensive to borrow money.
Now many Danes can no longer afford their own houses.
But the bourgeois government succeeds -
- in righting the country's catastrophic economy.
There's one problem the bourgeois government never solves.
Unemployment becomes much more massive at the end of the '80s -
- where the number of unemployed is around 300,000.
While Danes concentrate on the economic crisis -
- an old and much more dangerous conflict is again escalating.
In 1979, the Soviet Union moves into Afghanistan.
Now the Cold War flares up again.
When one builds up, the other builds up, too.
More missiles means more missiles for the other side, too.
In the underground bunkers in Denmark, they're ready for war at any time.
The arms race is extremely expensive for these Eastern countries.
The West has a technological lead that makes it so that -
- for the Eastern Bloc to catch up -
- they have to prioritize the military more and more.
It's simply breaking the economies of the Eastern Bloc.
One day something happens that no one thought possible -
- when a new president comes to power in the Soviet Union.
Mikhail Gorbachev.
Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
He's well aware of the weakening of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc.
He starts to make overtures to the US.
He and Ronald Reagan have a relatively trusting relationship with each other -
- with a view toward getting rid of some of these nuclear weapons.
November 9, 1989, 28 years after it was built -
- the Berlin Wall, which divided Europe into East and West, falls.
The Soviet Union collapses, and the threat from the East disappears.
That which no one thought possible -
- suddenly happened. And it happened peacefully.
German reunification, the fall of the Wall, the fall of the Soviet Union.
That was really the first time the Cold War stopped. In Denmark, too.
Many years of heavy threats from the East are now gone.
The underground facility under Danish soil can be shut and locked.
The Cold War is over. The world is a more peaceful place.
The future looks brighter.
A little more, anyway.