Sat 6 Oct 2007
Christiania is a self-governing community of 800 inhabitants in the heart of Copenhaguen. It was formed in 1971 when the Danish military abandoned a 84 acre military barracks on the historical fortifications of the inner city. Some local inhabitants broke through the fence and people started moving into the area at a time where playgrounds and housing was scarce. In the following years hippies, and sufis, but also bikers and gangsters and quite ordinary people moved into the area each with their own dream of freedom. A freedom that had to do with how to form a society that maximised tolerance and minimised the impact of money, real estate, pollution and politics. A space to establish a new society free from the constraints of the ordinary and conformity – governed by the qualities of personal involvement and enthusiasm rather than by quantities of money.
As the freetown was forming the Danish government proclaimed it a social experiment and let it be. The property situation in the freetown has become complementary to the saturated urban real estate market of Copenhaguen. The Danish state formally owns the land but has de facto acknowledged Christianias collective rights of use, with various degrees of acceptance or controvercy over the years.
People living in Christiania, the christianites, have chosen their own form of governance, a consensus democracy. In the absence of delegated authority it is necessary that the people who agree on a common decision are enough to actually carry it out themselves. You have to be capable to act without in-fighting between a majority and substantial minority. Tough decisions have had to be made in this form over the years, trouble with hard drugs, gangsters and varying tolerance from Danish governments and Copenhaguen authorities were abound ever since the beginning.
Due to the peculiar property situation it was from the start decided that housing could not be traded, nor capitalised. The christianites did not want to risk being gentrified out of their freetown. Whenever someone who either lived in an old barracks or who built their own little house moves out or dies, the local area decides who can move in.
Article by Ole Fabrik, from Christiania Ugespejlet num. 36
Technorati Tags: Christiania, Copenhaguen
