Esplanaden

Facts

Opponent of democracy

By Jacob Bjerring-Hansen, Direktør for Bornholms Museum (12 stories)

The battle for democracy did not end with the fall of the absolute monarchy and the Constitution passed in 1848. It took more that half a century for freedom of assembly and freedom of speech, the right to join a union and not least the parliamentary ground rules to be ultimately finalised. J.B.S. Estrup, Conservative, was Prime Minister from 1875 to 1894. He was against general voting rights and democracy, and he blocked reform. So one of the most significant leaders in the history of democracy in Denmark was also the most reactionary and an outright opponent of democracy.

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Political assassination attempt

Story written by Jacob Bjerring-Hansen

Time / Periode 1885

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Estrup was hated by many Liberals and Socialists. A farm worker remembers a song being sung in the stable, Hang Estrup from the highest lamppost, into to ground with his black body and to hell with his soul". But the outcome was more than just slanderous folksongs. On 21 October, a young typographist called Julius Rasmussen went to Estrup's home at the Esplanade and when the door was opened, drew his revolver and shot at the Prime Minister. The bullet hit one of Estrup's coat buttons and miraculously he survived. Julius was sentenced to 14 years of hard labour. He committed suicide in prison on 27 November 1889. Estrup stepped down as Prime Minister in 1894, but his regime continued until the breakthrough of parlamentarism 1901. "