Atlantica - 01.03.2001, Page 39

A T L A N T I C A 37
The sale of cannabis is tolerated and takes place outside
the old barracks. This offends many Danes, and the police
often carry out raids in an effort to curb the sale. “Official”
Denmark and Christiania have been fighting each other for
years, and both cobblestones and verbal abuse have been
flung when confrontations take place. There have also
been attempts to use diplomacy to solve the problems of
this area which still officially belongs to the Ministry of
Defence. In the 1970s, Christiania was labelled a social
experiment in an attempt to help the Danes accept the
alternative hippy lifestyle. But it wasn’t until 1989 that both
politicians and Christianites could agree on a so-called
normalisation process, and many Danes remain sceptical in
spite of these developments and of Christiania’s later
“semi-listed” status.
The first generation of Christianites have always been
fairly indifferent to the way the rest of the country saw
them. But not so their children: as opposed to their parents,
living in Christiania was never an active choice for them, and
they still have to go to school on the other side of the fence
which divides Christiania from the rest of Copenhagen.
Christiania’s firstborn are now adults and a third gener-
ation is already on its way. What was it like growing up, and
being part of a social experiment at the same time? Is the
notion of an alternative society of any relevance to the later
generation?
GENERATION DIFFERENCES
The differences between the two generations become obvi-
ous when their relationship with the surrounding society is
considered. Christiania’s younger generation, for example,
aren’t living there as a protest: their parents fought for
Christiania against the rest of society but the young don’t
approach life there from this ideological viewpoint. None of
them discusses society’s structure, as some of their parents
... THEIR PARENTS FOUGHT FOR CHRISTIANIA AGAINST THE REST OF SOCIETY BUT THE YOUNG
DON’T APPROACH LIFE THERE FROM THIS IDEOLOGICAL VIEWPOINT.
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