Aalborg Mølleplads

Facts

From battlefield to Social Democrats

By Morten Pedersen, Cand.mag., phd. Museumsinspektør på Nordjyllands Historiske Museum (16 stories)

In the winter of 1534, Aalborg was a battlefield. Privateer Skipper Clement had seized Aalborghus Castle in alliance with the exiled King Christian II, and the Hanseatic town of Lübeck. They were waging a civil war with the Holstein Duke Christian and the Jutland nobility. In the wake of this, the North Jutland farmers revolted and under Skipper Clement on 15 October thrashed an army of noblemen in a battle south of Aalborg. They then barricaded themselves in Aalborghus, but on 18 December mercenary soldiers hired by nobleman Johan Rantzau stormed the castle and decimated the army of farmers. The castle that stood south of the present Mølleplads (Mill Square) was destroyed and replaced by the present Aalborghus near the harbour.

Public place

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Skipper Clement and captains of industry

Story written by Morten Pedersen

Time / Periode 1534

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Many residents of Aalborg like the story of Skipper Clement. In the 21st century, Aalborg became an industrial city with factories run by newcomers from the country. In 1911, a random check among adults in the street would have revealed that only one in ten was born in Aalborg. The city has had a Social Democrat for a mayor now for almost 100 years. The oppressed farmers' revolution against the (superior) force of society has remained a popular tale. One of Aalborg's streets has been named after Skipper Clement as well as a school, a teacher-training college and the oldest Scout group in the country. A statue of this rugged determined figure stands near Hobrovej. It was erected in 1932 on the initiative of another of the city's heroes, distillery owner and captain of industry Harald Jensen.