While studying my master's degree in Copenhagen, I lived in dorms in Ørestad. Looking at the map, I believe the building was located in the reclaimed part of Amager (or in the part used by peasants for grazing cattle). Loved living there, the neighbourhood was quiet yet well connected to the city centre by the metro (roughly 10 minutes), the largest shopping centre in Scandinavia was across the road, rent was inexpensive, and I was really close to nature and sea (Kalvebod Fælled and the nature reserve mentioned in the video), which I used to go to frequently. If I was to settle down in Copenhagen, this is the area where I'd be looking for a flat.
@@richardlapin1521 Yes it is relatively inexpensive, but you also have to share two bathrooms and a kitchen with three others. It was built as an experiment to bring down costs, but never has been very popular among Danish students, very much however among international students. I hope you liked it (I work for the company running Signalhuset and 60 other properties :-) )
I think it is correct to do such landbanking. In Singapore here, there are still stretches of land from the reclamation in the 70s that is simply left to fallow. People should keep sufficient empty vacant land in a city for potential projects and development. Doesn't mean you have the space, doesn't mean it has to be covered over and built.
Wow, that was cool. You know a lot of cool things about Denmark and the Scandinavian countries, and it makes sense with you being Danish. Other countries have similar stories too, and for me it's cool to learn about new things, so thank you very much!
Great video, thanks! I suspect the military goal more was about narrowing the southern entrance to the harbor, making it possible to cover it with land-based batteries.
Naval attacks on Copenhagen would come from the north. Zealand curves in a way that makes it ridiculous to attempt an attack from the south, as a fleet would be spotted before it even got sight of Copenhagen
@@kasperolesen4742 Frigates never made a up a big part of navies.. The bulk of any fleet at the time would have been made up of gunboats which can easily sail on shallow waters.
I've walked and biked through this area so many times and never knew it was reclaimed land, it would be sad to see it being developed into housing as it's nice having natural outdoor activities so close to the city.
Thank you for making this video! I have been working with maps of Copenhagen as part of my historical research and I have always wondered why Amager Fælled was reclaimed. I have always found it funny that so many Copenhageners speak of Amager Fælled as the last "natural site" in Copenhagen since many don't know it is reclaimed :D
Funfact: England reclaimed about half of Cambridgeshire from the North Sea via windmills pumping water into canals (the new Bedford canal and the old Bedford canal) these are now powered by electricity buy still needed otherise the Fens would flood.
@@xesphor1436 Yes and no. The county is landlocked but is very close to the Wash. Most of the area was originally marshland, fed by local rivers that eventually drained into the vast bay. These marshes were slowly reclaimed over time, especially as they started to silt up. The last major one to be drained was Whittlesea Mere, reclaimed in the mid-1800s.
Really interesting! I had wondered how it could have been so underdeveloped. After living for many years in the Netherlands and now living in Copenhagen, it had just not cross my mind that such a big part of Amager was reclaimed.
Parts of the area of the reclaimed land was used as a waste dump, and there still recides a waste dump area along the coast line of Kalvebod Fælled. It was too close to the water so it was not used by the military. Due to this Amager became known as the Shit Island (Lorteøen). Much of the area that now has a Highway was elevated by dumped building material and Amager Fælled even has a hill, even tho it is in the drained area.
It was used by the armed forced as a rifle range ( I qualified there myself once) and since nothing was there at the time could also be used as targer area for 60 mm mortar shells
Super interesting, although I am almost sure that the land reclamation of Falster remains the most significant land reclamation project in Denmark, although it probably depends on how you measure "one land-reclamation project"
If I were to choose a most significant land reclamation project in Denmark, I'd choose Sprogø's expansion to make way for the bridge. That connection has made both personal and corporate travel faster, thus increasing trade, which increases wealth.
I grew up on the other side of the Öresund strait and have been to Copenhagen countless times. Still had no idea that parts of Amager were reclaimed land. Kudos for creating an interesting video.
Holyshit you´re danish! I didn´t even realize to being with! Good on you fellow dane!! I have a leg up, because i grew up with english since my dad i english. You are the most english sounding dane, i have ever encounted!
Very informative video, this completely unused land in Copenhagen has always been a question mark to me. But please, how the hell do you pronounce Amager? I just watched this 7 minute video of you saying it a few times but I still have no clue. Danskt uttal är som ett mysterium inrullat i en gåta för oss svenskar
Yeah we say Ama or Amar, just put Amager into into Google translate in Danish and listen if you want a clear answer. Danish has had a tendency to contract words over the past century at least (but the written language hasn't really kept up). The word "Amager" is probably among the worst offenders. The guy in the opening segment actually says Amager in a more old-school way that sounds more like Ama'er. I recon the g would be more pronounced if you go even further back, but it would probably have been the secondary way of pronouncing g in Danish that sounds similar to the Swedish "J"
The "g" is nearly silent, meaning it's essentially "Amaer", which then becauser Armar or even Arma'ar (with a glottal stop (I think?)) in some dialects
@@surroundgatari It seems that Danish also has the troublesome ğ sound that occurs in Turkish as "yamusak ge". I also ran into the yamusak ge sound when learning Dutch for 2 holidays there, but there it is harder and clearer.
Great video, but you forgot to also mark out Christianshavn, Slotsholmen, Nyhavn, the area north of Kløvermarken (Pretty sure Kastellet is also reclaimed land) Of course those are earlier land reclamation projects, than those mentioned in the video, but they are reclaimed land nonetheless.
I went to primary school in the late 2000s/early 2010s, and I remember meeting German explosives experts out there who were still scouring the area for unexploded ordnance, just to make sure nothing was there. It's wild to me that Kalvebod Fælled wasn't there just 70 years ago, I always assumed that was there the Dutch farmers had their livestock in the 1600s lol. Thanks for the video! You also just made me realise how fucking awful the names Saltholm and Peberholm are c:
@@Calvinwiresner because during wwII The German army used this area as a shooting range for heavy artillery. German grenades are being removed by German specialist.
It's hilarious (in a sad way) how some Copenhagen city dwellers can go berserk, when people talk about building in "their untouched nature". Most of them know about as much about the land reclamation project, as they do about, what untouched nature actually looks like - i.e. nothing
I recently traveled through Denmark for about a week and did some camping while I was there(went from Copenhagen to Fredrikshavn). The first place I camped at was this exact reclaimed land. Though I never knew it was reclaimed land until I saw this video now. It was a pretty nice and calm area(despite all the flights form the airport). Anyways pretty cool to learn!
Very itnteresting. Thanks. The reason the Germans allowed this "wasteful" project to continue (wasteful in wartime anyway) was likely due to Danish "self rule", if you will, until August 1943. Had Denmark been under German military rule from the beginnig the project would have been stopped, and the unemployed Danes would have been sent to work in Germany instead.
Of course, I will continue to watch your videos when it comes to Scandinavia, regardless of whether it is about real events or an alternative world about what a united Scandinavia could have looked like, it is just as interesting to me as Swedish.
Denmark has lots of reclaimed land. I grew up in Frølunde Fed, a small city north of Korsør, opposite side of Zealand where the Great Belt connection is, but the land didn't really exist until the last 100 years or so. It never struck me as odd how many pine trees there were either - an interesting subject in itself.
I read about the land reclamation project just across the strait in Malmö recently, and it blew my mind. Several famous buildings in Malmö are on land that was reclaimed for the harbour that was built from the late 1700s and onwards because the West Scanian coast is very shallow. Anyone who has bathed in Bjärred or Lomma know why it was necessary
Yeah Malmø is like 1/4th reclaimed land almost. Back when it was still a part of Denmark and Malmøhus Slott and Gamla staden were constructed, it was literally all right by the coast. Gamla staden was all of Malmø and it was a coastal town. Even Malmø Centralstation is on reclaimed land. The area just south of Malmø and the bridge is also extremely shallow and land reclamation projects there have been considered. Øresund in general is just very shallow, the most interesting but probably overly optimistic proposed project I've seen is one where they would reclaim 3 large islands between Copenhagen and Malmø to make them more connected. Probably wont happen but it totally could, the area between Copenhagen and Malmø is only 10m deep or less.
@@Neatling sometimes I think about what Malmö would have been like if the construction of the harbour had neveer started in earnest and never became a great industrial centre
The reclaimation was to provide jobs during the German Occupation. IF you were unemployed, you would be sent to a factory in Germany to work. There was also another project in Jutland with the same motivation.
Nice video though I doubt the reclaimed land will be developed any time soon, especially considering several rare and threatened species of animals and plants have been found living in the area. Itd be tough getting past that politically, I mean just try and look at what has happened to the recent Fælledbyen proposal on Amager fælled.
I fear you are right, but I use the area regularly and it sickens me think of it filled with roads, parking lots, office buildings and crap. There is a 16 km cyclepath running around the area, half of it is just a few meters from the sea. No cars, no traffic light, no streetlights, no mopeds, no noise, nothing except birds, grass, trees, water, the sky and people cycling/walking/running.
Request 3: What if the Yuezhi and Wusun remained in the Hexi Corridor and the great migration domino effect never happened (No Hunnic migration in Central Asia and Europe)
Its fun to see Because i live where they drained and I did not No All the thinks you told me in that video And they are already begining building many houses on the drained space Its a sub and like from me
Malmö's port area is also almost exclusively made up of huge landfills (including the redeveloped Västra Hamnen waterfront district with the skyscraper Turning Torso, and the Central Station). The city center lay directly by the sea into the middle of the 1800s.
Dont you know how much land The Netherlands has reclaimed? This is nothing compared to The Netherlands. We even just drained a random island in a river which is bigger than this.
@@RedRocketthefirst I didn't know this was a size-competition, but I can give you some fun facts that will make you run around town waving your flag. The island of Amager was for many generations home to a large dutch community. In 1521 almost 200 dutch were invited to settle on Amager where they should farm the land especially vegetables. They were given special priviliged like owning their farms and special taxes and legal system. It was for many generation a relativily closed society. There are place names that can be traced back to these immigrants and first names like Dirk and Nell which are not used in the rest of Denmark are still common on Amager.
Unused is a really odd term to use about a very large, green and rich area like this. It's like calling Central Park unused. The area might be undeveloped, but it's certainly used. By wildlife, birds, grazing livestock and not least people who use it for biking, walking, running and just to enjoy. Having such a large green area so close to the center of the city adds greatly to Copenhagen's green image and livability, and I don't hope anybody will be stupid enough to develop it... although other parts of Copenhagen's green areas have suffered this fate recently, and you could fear the worst.
I think this is the first time I've heard Amager pronounced with 3 syllables. I knew that this had to be an archaic pronunciation and that it had to have existed at one point in time but I had never heard it until now.
It will be a shame if they develop the area for housing. It is really one of the last large open places near the city that provides a real area of nature. You may not think it, but there are a lot of wild animals that live in the area, one time I was riding through at night and saw a massive herd of deer that were as tall or taller than I. I think it will be inevitable that they start to develop housing there, like they have already done in Amagerfælled, which is a huge shame. I hope that the government realises the importance of these areas in the future.
Does anyone else find it funny that they call the bottom of the ocean floor (drained) a nature reserve? Kind of like cutting down a forest and then calling it a natural reserve.
I guess the area is quite close to the sea surface so it might not be worth building on the area? Who knows how long the land uplift that exists naturally, will compensate for rising sea levels? I think we need to start building communities under water so we are protected from the elements.🥵🥶
Despite the fact that yes housing has become ridiculously expensive here I really hope they don't develop around Fælled exactly due to some of those nature reserves holding a vast diversity of plants and animals. I have been to the demonstrations myself because of the constant threats to invade that beauty by companies that have attempted to building housing that will most definitely be too expensive in the first place for middle to lower class people...
Reclaiming land from the oceans is nothing new, but apparently DPRK (North Korea) seems to be left out of the picture even though they reclaimed more land from the sea than Netherland has, and they are both equally as fucking deep meaning less than 10 metres on avg.
I really cannot give higher praise to this video, you've helped me finally get a firm grasp on this topic I've been trying to for awhile. It's the use of detailed maps paired with the timeline and info, usually someone just shows a bland, static map with nothing divided inside. I'm definitely gonna check out some other stuff, keep it coming
