Skamlingsbanken

Facts

Fighting for a Danish identity

By Inge Adriansen, Museumsinspektør, Ph.D., Museum Sønderjylland (6 stories)

Skamlingsbanken is a hillside with a meeting place and memorial park in the northern part of South Jutland. The hill crest is ten kilometres south-east of Kolding. Its highest point is called Højskamling. With its 113 metres, this is also the highest point in South Jutland. Since 1843, the hills have remained covered in grass so people can meet there. In 1863, Skamlingsbanken gained a granite monument as a tribute to those who championed the Danish cause. This monument was blown up by German troops in 1864 but rebuilt when the hill wound up on the Danish side of the border. Since 1883, Højskamling has been decorated with a monument to men who fought for the Danish cause in South Jutland.

Public place

Selected entry

Bells toll for fallen heroes

Story written by Inge Adriansen

Time / Periode 1843 1945

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The first notes of Prins Jørgen's March echo over Skamlingsbanken three times a day during the summer. BBC used this melody as the calling signal for Denmark during World War II. The haunting melody is played from an open bell tower. It was opened in 1948 in the valley below Højskamling in memory of South Jutland's freedom fighters. The tower has bronze plates with the names of 83 fallen resistance fighters from the region. The decision to erect the monument was made at a party celebrating the Liberation held by the resistance movement in June 1945. It was attended by 100,000 or so participants on Skamlingsbanken. At that time, the hill was already a memorial for the fight between Denmark and Germany. The hill's older monument pays tribute to South Jutlanders' civilian battle to keep Danish as their mother tongue during German rule and influence in the 19th century.