Everything about Bornholm totally explained
Bornholm (
Old Norse:
Burgundarholm) is a
Danish island in the
Baltic Sea located to the east of (most of) Denmark, the south of
Sweden, and the north of
Poland. The main industries on the island include
fishing, arts and crafts like glass making and pottery using locally worked
clay, and
dairy farming.
Tourism is important during the summer.
It also refers to
Bornholm Regional Municipality, the
municipality which covers the entire island. Bornholm was one of the three last Danish municipalities not belonging to a
County— the others being
Copenhagen and
Frederiksberg. On
1 January 2007, the municipality lost its shortlived (2003 until 2006) county privileges and became part of
Region Hovedstaden (for example the
Copenhagen Capital Region).
The small islands
Ertholmene are located 18 km (11 miles) to the northeast of Bornholm. They don't belong to either a municipality or a region but are administered by the
Ministry of Defence.
Strategically located in the
Baltic Sea, Bornholm has been a bone of contention usually ruled by Denmark, but also by
Lübeck and
Sweden. The castle ruin
Hammershus, on the northwestern tip of the island, is the largest fortress in northern Europe, testament to the importance of its location.
Language
Many inhabitants speak
bornholmsk, a dialect of Danish that retains three
grammatical genders, like
Icelandic and most dialects of
Norwegian, but unlike standard
Danish. Its phonology includes archaisms (unstressed [a] and internal, where other dialects have [ə] and [ð̞,ʊ / ɪ]) and innovations ([tɕ,dʝ] for [kʰ,g̊] before and after front-tongue vowels), which renders the dialect difficult to understand for most other Danes.
Due to the low prestige of the dialect, the younger generation tends to speak standard Copenhagen Danish.
Municipality
Bornholm Regional Municipality is the local authority (
Danish,
kommune) covering the entire island. It comprises the five former municipalities on the island (
Allinge-Gudhjem,
Hasle,
Nexø,
Rønne and
Aakirkeby) and the former
Bornholm County. The seat of the municipal council is the island's main town, Rønne. The first regional mayor is Bjarne Kristiansen.
Ferry services connect Rønne to
Świnoujście (
Poland),
Sassnitz (
Germany),
Køge (near Copenhagen,
Denmark) and
catamaran to
Ystad (
Sweden).
Simrishamn (
Sweden) has a ferry connection during the summer. There are also regular
catamaran services between
Nexø and the Polish ports of
Kolobrzeg,
Leba and
Ustka. There are direct train and bus connections Ystad-Copenhagen, coordinated with the catamaran. There are also air connections from the
Bornholm Airport to Copenhagen and other places.
Bornholm Regional Municipality wasn't merged with other municipalities on
January 1,
2007 as the result of the nationwide
Kommunalreformen ("The Municipal Reform" of 2007), which is quite understandable, since the island, as can be seen on maps, is quite far from the rest of
Denmark.
History
In Old Norse the island was known as
Borgundarholm, and in ancient Danish especially the island's name was
Borghand or
Borghund; these names were related to Old Norse
borg "height" and
bjarg/berg "mountain, rock", as it's an island that rises high from the sea. Other names known for the island include
Burgendaland (9th century),
Hulmo /
Holmus (
Adam of Bremen),
Burgundehulm (1145), and
Borghandæholm (14th century).
Alfred the Great uses the form
Burgenda land. Some scholars believe that the
Burgundians are named after Bornholm; the Burgundians were a
Germanic tribe which moved west when the western
Roman Empire collapsed, and occupied and named
Burgundy in
France.
Bornholm formed part of the historical
Lands of Denmark when the nation united out of a series of petty chiefdoms. It was originally administratively part of the province of
Scania and was administered by the
Scanian Law after this was codified in the 13th century. Control over the island evolved into a long-raging dispute between the
See of Lund and the
Danish crown culminating in several battles. The first fortress on the island was
Gamleborg which was replaced by
Lilleborg, built by the king in 1150. In 1149, the king accepted the transfer of three of the island's four
herreder to the archbishop. In 1250, the archbishop constructed his own fortress,
Hammershus. A campaign launched from it in 1259 conquered the remaining part of the island including Lilleborg. The island's status remained a matter of dispute for an additional 200 years.
Bornholm was pawned to
Lübeck for 50 years starting 1525. Its first militia,
Bornholms Milits was formed in 1624.
Swedish forces conquered the island in 1645, but returned the island to Denmark in the following peace settlement. After the war in 1658, Denmark ceded the island to Sweden under the
Treaty of Roskilde along with the rest of the Scanian provinces and
Trøndelag and it was occupied by Swedish forces.
A revolt broke out the same year, culminating in
Villum Clausen's shooting of the Swedish commander
Johan Printzensköld on
December 8,
1658.
(External Link
) Following the revolt, a deputation of islanders presented the island as a gift to King
Frederick III on the condition that the island would never be ceded again. This status was confirmed in the following peace settlement (1660).
A immigration of
Swedes, notably from
Småland and
Skåne, occurred during the 19th century, seeking work and better conditions. Most of these people didn't remain on the island.
Bornholm, as a part of
Denmark, was captured by Germany relatively early in the
Second World War, and served as a lookout post and listening station during the war, as it was a part of the
eastern front. The island's perfect central position in the
Baltic Sea meant that it was an important "natural fortress" between
Germany and
Sweden, effectively keeping submarines and destroyers away from Nazi occupied waters. Several concrete coastal installations were built during the war, and several coastal batteries had tremendous range. However, none of them were ever used and only a single test shot was fired during the occupation. These remnants of Nazi rule have since then fallen into disrepair and are mostly regarded today as historical curiosities. Many tourists visit the ruins each year, however, providing supplemental income to the tourist industry.
On
22 August 1943 a rocket (numbered V83, probably launched from a
Heinkel He 111) crashed on Bornholm as part of a test - the warhead was a dummy made of concrete. This was photographed or sketched by the Danish Naval Officer-in-Charge on Bornholm, Lieutenant Commander Hasager Christiansen. This was the first sign British Intelligence saw of Germany's aspirations to develop flying bombs and rockets - which were to become known as
V1 and
V2.
Bornholm was heavily bombarded by
Soviet forces in May 1945. Gerhard von Kamptz, the German superior officer in charge of the island garrison refused to surrender to Soviets, as his orders were to surrender to the Western Allies. The Germans sent several telegrams to
Copenhagen requesting that at least one British soldier should be transferred to Bornholm, so that the Germans could surrender to the western allied forces instead of the Russians. When von Kamptz failed to provide a written capitulation as demanded by the Soviet commanders, several Soviet aircraft relentlessly bombed and destroyed more than 800 civilian houses in
Rønne and
Nexø and seriously damaged roughly 3000 more during 7-8 May 1945. On May 9 Soviet troops landed on the island and after a short fight, the German garrison (about 12,000 strong ) did surrender. Soviet forces left the island on
April 5,
1946.
More recently
NATO radar installations have been placed on the island.
A Russian (Soviet) declaration after World War II stated that the placement of "foreign soldiers" (for example, NATO forces) on Bornholm would be considered a declaration of war against Russia, and that Denmark should keep troops on it at all times to protect it from foreign aggression. This caused diplomatic problems at least twice: once when an American
helicopter landed outside the city of Svaneke due to engine problems in a NATO exercise over the Baltic Sea, and once (sometime between 1999 and 2003) when the Danish government suggested shutting down
Almegårdens Kaserne, the local military facility, since "the island could quickly be protected by troops from surrounding areas and has no strategic importance after the fall of the
Iron Curtain".
Historical architecture
The island is home to 15 medieval churches, four of which are
round and display unique artwork and architecture.
The island also hosts some notable examples of 19th and early 20th century architecture, amongst others, about 300
wooden houses in
Rønne and
Nexø, donated by
Sweden after the
World War II, when the island was repairing war damages.
Famous people
The Danish painter
Oluf Høst was born in
Svaneke in 1884.
The Danish writer and painter
Gustaf Munch-Petersen moved to Bornholm in 1935 and married Lisbeth Hjorth while living on the island.
At age 8, socialist writer
Martin Andersen Nexø moved to the island, and took his last name after the city of
Nexø on its east coast.
M.P. Möller, a pipe-organ builder and manufacturer, was born on Bornholm and lived in a town a few miles south of
Allinge.
Jacob Ludvigsen born in 1947. He founded Christiania, the free state near Copenhagen 1971 and moved to Bornholm in 1972. He lives between Østermarie and Svaneke.
References in popular culture
In 2000, the book The Templars' Secret Island by theorists Henry Lincoln (famous for co-writing Holy Blood, Holy Grail) and Erling Haagensen described several observations about the island. Some of these involved claims of apparent geometry, such as that Haagensen in Bornholms Mysterium from 1992 had discovered that geometry related to the island's four round churches could be marked on a map to define a hexagonal geometry. Lincoln and Haagensen's Secret Island book claims that the Bornholm geometry is man-made, was created around the time of the emergence of the Knights Templar during the early Crusades in 1188-1250 AD, required measurement technology that wasn't known to have been used in Europe before the 17th century (but with accuracy known to Hellenistic Greece 300 BC), and that the churches' true original function may have been as medieval astronomical observatories. The conclusions in Secret Island are controversial, and have not been supported by academic historians. Critics point out that there's no record of medieval astronomical observatories in Europe, no record of the Templars ever being involved in scientific research of that nature, and in fact never any record of Templars even having a presence in Scandinavia, even in the long list of Templar accusations generated by the investigators of the Inquisition.
Other islands in the Baltic Sea
Gotland, Öland, Åland
Rügen, Usedom
Saaremaa, Hiiumaa
WolinFurther Information
Get more info on 'Bornholm'.
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