Istedgade, Copenhagen

Facts

Porn street and resistance struggle

By Hanne Fabricius, Cand.phil. arkæolog, ph.d.-stipendiat (13 stories)

Istedgade, a street behind Copenhagen Central Station, was formerly the main street of the working class district of Vesterbro. Istedgade was notorious for its many butcher's shops, its rough and ready pub scene, its shady characters and, from 1906, also for it's ladies of the night". The prostitutes operated from different ends of the street depending on their age. After Denmark passed an act liberalising pornography in 1969, porn shops shot up between Gasværksvej and the Central Station, turning Istedgade into Denmark's no. 1 porn street. During World War II, Istedgade was the scene of numerous confrontations with the German occupying power. A radio shop at No. 31 Istedgade was for a time the covert meeting place of the Holger Danske resistance cell. The shop was later blown up by the Germans. "

Public place

Selected entry

Istedgade will never surrender" "

Story written by Hanne Fabricius

Time / Periode 1859 2009

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The summer of 1944 was baking hot, and the month of June saw the eruption of a civic uprising against the German occupying power, with barricades and fires in the streets. In the Vesterbro district, people threw fliers from top storey windows proclaiming: You can take Rome and Paris, but Stalingrad and Istedgade will never surrender." The Germans cracked down on this resistance with curfews, gunfire and by cutting off the water, gas and electricity. Many were killed, but the people of Copenhagen were "victorious" and the call to arms "Istedgade will never surrender" became part of the language. After the war ended, King Christian X rode his white horse down Istedgade, thanking the residents for their enduring resistance during the war years. "