Dk Diplomat Magazine february

For The Modern Diplomat February Issue - 2015

School Reform Private schools

What’s

Good Danish monarchs

Event Gallery

I WANTED TO UNDERSTAND MY FAMILY ROOTS

Ambassador’s View p. 4

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Preface ContentsPage 04Ambassador’s View

Page 07Not Forgotten Hero

Page 08Blog LovingSchool Reform

Page 12Event GalleryNew year’s Open HouseAdvantage Kopenhagen

Page 15Shopping in Denmark

Page 17What’s Good Danish monarchs

Page 22What’s Good Royal Palaces

Page 26Expat TalesInterview with Diplomat

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3DK DIPLOMAT MAGAZINE

AMBASSADOR’S VIEW

Hungary is home to 12 Nobel laureates in chemistry, eco-nomics, Literature,

physics and medicine. This beautiful landlocked Country is a tourist attraction attract-ing 10.675 million tourists a year. We have had the pleasure to interview Mr. H.E. Laszlo Hellenbrandt A world business award winner, the ambassador of Hungary in Denmark.

Me: Thanks for having me Mr. H.E. Ambassador, Can you tell us what influenced you to pur-sue a diplomatic career?Ambassador: I was raised in the 80’s and studied eco-nomics and diplomacy at the university of Budapest. The reason I studied that faculty was because of the iron cur-tain barrier that were between eastern europe and western europe. Hungary was a part of the Sovjet. Back then every-thing was different so it was a national desire for me. A de-sire to help create a new differ-

ent world, a desire to opt for a profession which meant you could communicate with the outside world. Another reason was because the other half of my family is from Germany, you can tell by my last name (Hellenbrandt) I wanted to understand my family roots.

M: What was your previous posting before Copenhagen, and what did you learn from that experience?A: My first foreign assignment (1990-95) was as a Cultur-al attaché of the Hungarian embassy in Canada. It was a great and huge experience for me. Canada is one of the greatest and happiest nation of the world. Huge nature, wa-ter minerals, a single canadian can have two identities, ca-nadian and italian and so on. To my knowledge it’s a great strenght for a country.

In Canada it was a great expe-rience because there’s a large hungarian community living

in Canada. Here in Denmark it’s smaller even compared to the community in Sweden.

M: What are the most pressing el-ements of an ambassador’s job in 2014?A: The aim of diplomacy can be categorized as a triangle, one corner of the triangle is pressing national interest of your country, second is other nations, the third is creating trust between two na-tions. Most pressing interest are in the economic field.

M : Has it always been like this?A: Yes actually, it’s an old phe-nomenom, it comes up again and again. We live in a time where this assessment is strong in all ministry of foreign affairs. And there’s a neccesity in being educated in business, because one have to understand the eco-nomic possibilities, challenges or the barriers if you are meet-ing with representatives of busi-ness life in Denmark or any oth-er countries.

M: Would you say the job of an ambassador has become more hectic?A: No I would say that is’t still one of the greatest jobs you can have. One of my colleague CEO and president of a leading company in Hungary, became an ambas-sador for the first time. You have to understand wherever you put your footprint as an ambassador you have to represent Hungary. My car, my clothes and body be-longs to Hungary. So this former CEO felt being ambassador had brought a greater responsibility but the job was better than he ever imagined.

4 DK DIPLOMAT MAGAZINE

M: Tell us a bit about the work of the embassy. What services do you provide for your citizens living in DenmarkA: One of the task we provide for hungarians in Denmark and south of Sweden. South of sweden because it’s easier for a hungarian living in Malmø to come by the embassy here than in Stockholm.

We grant hungarian citizenship for those hungarians who can prove that one of their ancestors was a hungarian citizen and he or she speaks fluent hungarian. Total in the last 4 years 600.000 were granted citizenship globally. In Denmark it’s 150-200 yearly. It’s a very important part of our work here. It’s a conse-quence of the peace treaties of the first world war when Hungary lost 2/3 of it’s territory and many hun-garians found themselves residing outside Hungary. It’s 100 years old history but history lives with us. This is the program which have been pursued since 2011 by Hungary. The reunification of the nation without changing the borders of Hungary.

M: How would you characterize bi-lateral relations between your country and Denmark today?I can tell you we have already had successes since my arrival to Co-penhagen. With the help of danish associations we have intesified the relations between the danish and hungarian parlemant.

The economic relations, there are many companies manufacturing in Hungary, there’s Coloplast and a Lego factory opening in Hunga-ry. The only country to host a Lego manufacturing factory in europe besides in Billund. Grundfoss have 4 manufacturing factories in hungary and Coloplast will open it’s 3rd fac-tory next year.

Hungary is attractive, not because of the low wages, but also the regional position of Hungary, it’s in the mid-dle of europe, and we have devel-

opped infrastructures. Besides that there is political stability.

But going back to your question, the characteristics of bilateral rela-tions between Denmark and Hun-gary is, the cooperation that we both share, we are family members inside the Europe union and we are alied in Nato. We also share important traits, both Denmark and Hungary are non Euro Countries. But on the other hand our cultures in some are different. Denmark is a sea country to my best knowledge, it has the lon-gest sea coast pr. Square Kubik me-ters in Europe. Hungary is a land-locked country with no sea coast. I think both influences the mentality of the people.

M. In which way?A: A member of a sea nation em-brace the typical inviting message that is popular here and for the land-locked country you have the feeling of being entrapped.

Another difference is history, I was told when i first arrived here by a very knowledgebal hungarian dane that I had to keep in mind that in Denmark there were never a revolu-tion. We hungarians are very proud of our revolutions against the com-munists (1848-49;1956).

So my point is, these differences provides us diplomats who want to build bridges a lot to work with.

M: Which steps are you taking to strenghten those bi-lateral relations?For example my family took part in Cargo bicycle race held at Carlsberg. I try to promote our social relation between our countries. The Dan-ish Cargo bicycle championship. The first was organized during the war(1942-43) but stopped and the championship was restarted just 10-15 years ago, danes realized the need and importance of riding bicy-cles. By central european standards Budapest is one of the leading in Bike riding.

Hungary is attractive, not because of the low wages, but

also the regional position of

Hungary, it’s in the middle of

europe, and we have developped infrastructures.

Besides that there is political

stability.


M: Do you have a presence on social media as an ambassador?A: No I don’t belong to the small cir-cle of ambassador on social media in Denmark.

M: Why not?A: Because it requests decent human and technical resources. We have limited resources in our embassy. There have to be a big support team behind it. It doesn’t mean we reject the possibility for me joining but it will require more support.

M: According to you, how has social media changed communication in

diplomacy?A: Certainly it has changed, but I think traditional communication channels haven’t lost their impor-tance. Somebody told me on my arrival to Copenhagen that another danish speciality is the mentality of liking, intimacy (hygge). I was told I would be more successful if I create more intimate relations with poli-ticians. They like the intimate situ-ation more than the big functions. I have a great experience talking to the media and politicians where I could feel the bridge between us was succesfully created. Traditional communication is still important.

We have to understand not just the advantages but also the disad-vantages of using these new tools.

M: My last question is, which initia-tives do you take to make your em-bassy more greener? A: The year before the last we changed our heating system to a more modern system and we hope to get our windows changed at the embassy, and we make sure to print as less as we can.

M: Excellency thank you very much for taking your time to answer our questions, it has been an honor.

TOTAL IN THE LAST 4 YEARS 600.000 WERE GRANTED CITIZENSHIP GLOBALLY


NOT FORGOTTEN

HEROWhen the Hungarian Revolution evolved during the winter months of 1956 Povl Bang-Jensen worked as a UN official. As a part of his work he interviewed 81 Hungarian refugees after the revolution. The year after, in 1957, when the Secretary-General of the UN requested the names of the refugees Bang-Jensen declined, since he had sworn ano-nymity of the refugees. Later he burned the list containing the names of the refugees and was subsequently dismissed. Bang-Jensen became acknowledged for this act of loyalty and for his work by Hungary as well as Denmark. He died in 1959 – presumably from suicide.

Article by Astrid Cæcilie Luffe


What surprised a lot of foreigners (includ-ing me), during the lockout(red. 2013) was that private schools were affected at all. The reason for this was that most private schools receive funding from the state. Teachers at private schools which are fi-nanced in this way are state employees.

One thing that gets forgotten in all this is who exactly was affected. These plans were drafted to change how folkeskole schools worked. These are free of charge schools maintained by the town coun-cils. When we talk about school reform, we usually only mention these folkeskole schools and how it has affected them. But this has also affected the private day schools, the boarding schools and the language schools.

Terms and ConditionsHistorically, private schools have had dif-ferent working terms and conditions than teachers in folkeskoler. This makes a lot of sense in terms of boarding schools, where teachers are on-call at different times of day and have a different set of duties and tasks. It makes some sense in terms of

private day schools too, they run things differently so they perhaps need a more flexible framework.

Now, the systems are almost identical. The changes made ‘for’ the folkeskole reform have affected the private sector. Each private school in Denmark had a choice:- go with the default system (as in ‘normalised’ working hours) or negotiate a local agreement balancing the needs of the staff and management.

Local UnderstandingsSome schools tried the ‘middle way’ of not doing the default system but not sign-ing a local agreement either. This is a risky strategy for schools because teachers are able to demand in this case, via the union, that the default system be followed. If schools try to provide terms and condi-tions that are worse than the default ar-rangement (for example, not paying staff properly for going on overnight trips. Un-der the default system overnight trips are completely unaffordable), then the union can demand the ministry look into it. Across the country, a lot of union time is

SCHOOL REFORMPRIVATE SCHOOLS

Private school teachers are paid less in basic pay than teachers in folkeskoler.


being spent on making sure that teachers are not being required to work for free in order to make ends meet.

But what is increasingly happening is that teachers are accepting this practice for the good of the school, for the good of the students. Teachers are being asked, for example, to be on site between 8am and 3pm and the extra hour per working day is to be spent on planning at home. If the job actually requires more than that, too bad. Not the school’s problem. Or teachers are given a list of duties and told their working time is 42 hours per week (we aren’t paid for our weeks off, we just work longer hours in term time), and to figure it out for themselves. If they can’t, too bad. Not the school’s problem. The schools claim they have individual agree-ments with each of the staff and if the teachers can’t get everything done in the time allowed then it is on the teacher.

If these teachers are anything like me, they did not go into the job so they could keep a spreadsheet detailing the hours they ac-tually worked. They did not go into teach-

ing so they could stop halfway through a task because they’re not getting paid for it any more. They did not go into teach-ing so they could nickel and dime their school. Teachers also tend to be compli-ant with authority. They want their classes to succeed, they want their lessons to go well, they want to do the best for their stu-dents. They are not going to want to make waves and advocate for themselves.

The trouble now is that the system necessar-ily makes teachers have to choose between their work-life balance and their students’ success. If a parent is impatient with the amount of time their child’s teacher spends on preparation or other tasks, they won’t get mad at a system that is not fit for purpose. They will get mad at the teacher for putting themselves first. Meanwhile, the teachers that go the other way are at greater risk of burn out due to their higher workload. (Not that a year or two with a high workload usu-ally burns people out, you can sustain it for a little while at least. But when exactly does the workload come down after you demon-strate you can get everything done and not cost any more money?)

A higher proportion of Danish children are taught in private schools and even though the state pays the school to educate these students, if budgets can’t stretch to paying the going rate in salaries, the government are not paying enough. And this is happening on an alarming scale.


PayPrivate school teachers are paid less in basic pay than teachers in folke-skoler. This has been true for a long time. There is a pay supplement that must be negotiated every year that is intended to be used to bring the two salaries in line. For a long time, there was a minimum base for this supplement but before the lock-out this minimum was removed. It was never intended to be zero but it is perfectly permissible for schools to award nothing at all.

Before the lock-out, you could ar-gue that with the two very different terms and conditions, pay could be lower. You could say that private school teachers do not work as hard or for as long as folkeskole teachers, hence the lower pay. But after the lock-out, these terms and conditions were made exactly the same. So, now the argument is that class sizes are typically smaller in private schools, hence the lower pay. But now some private schools are filling up at the expense of class sizes in the folke-skoler. Besides, a lot of the work of the teacher does not have much to do with the size of the classes. Class size affects time spent on marking, data entry and school-home contact. It’s a matter of a few dozen hours a year. There is no way those hours are equivalent to a 2-4k pay hit per month. It is starting to be indefen-sible for private school teachers to be paid differently than those in the public sector in a lot of private schools.

What is also starting to happen is that new private schools are opening all the time because of the increased demand. Running a school is ridic-ulously expensive, especially in the early start up period because of low student:staff ratio. In the first year of operation, the pay supplement does not need to be negotiated, it is usu-ally zero. After that, it must be nego-tiated but the answer can very well be “nothing this year, our budget won’t stretch to it” and there is not

much the teachers can do other than ask for outside arbitration. Many teachers just don’t bother because they understand the pressure their school is under. On a school-to-school basis, this seems reasonable. No teacher wants to demand that they are paid more if it means that their workplace disappears.

You know when you’re too close to a problem to see it clearly? Magicians use this to their advantage. And so it seems, do politicians. The scale of this thing is what is important. It is not about individual schools or in-dividual salaries. More and more teachers in Denmark are private school teachers, and increasingly they are being told there is no mon-ey in the budget to pay them the same as folkeskole teachers. More and more private schools are having financial difficulties. Some go bust. Others chunter along, getting away with paying their teachers less than they would get in a public school because they are allowed to and be-cause no one wants to make their own school go under.

Private school teachers have the same terms and conditions, often the same class sizes, sometimes more duties and responsibilities as in the public sector. But if they ad-vocate for higher pay, they could sink their school. A higher propor-tion of Danish children are taught in private schools and even though the state pays the school to educate these students, if budgets can’t stretch to paying the going rate in salaries, the government are not paying enough. And this is happening on an alarm-ing scale. The shortfall in the state budget is made up with the salaries of the private school teachers.

Teachers tend to be risk averse peo-ple, they are not entrepreneurs for a reason. Having a market where workplaces regularly go bust and many people in your trade are un-employed makes workers much more pliable.

“I wasn’t trying to make an instruc-tion manual”

There are too many private schools, so ends can never be expected to meet. These schools ought to fail but are kept afloat by teachers playing nice and agreeing to being paid less for the same work as down the road.

As more and more teachers in Den-mark are in this sector, this means the average wage for teachers in Denmark is dropping. I doubt the resolution to this will be increased wages for the public sector, some-how, I think a case will eventually be made to normalise folkeskole sal-aries in line with the private sector some time down the line.

Was the plan to make folkeskoler chaotic and unworkable all along or is it just a happy coincidence? Was the game plan all along to reduce the spend on education by pushing chil-dren into schools with cut-price staff?

If you look at each issue in isolation, it just looks like regular incompetence and poor planning. The change over to unlimited number of lessons, the reduc-tion in preparation time, the mess with the ‘normalisation’ of hours, the inap-propriate application of the public sys-tem to the private, the poor implemen-tation of inclusion in public schools, the poor implementation of extra numera-cy and literacy, the rise of the local ‘un-derstanding’ as opposed to negotiated agreements, the drop in average teach-er pay, the rise in numbers of private schools in financial difficulty, the rise of unacknowledged overtime, the increase in teacher illness and absence… all of this in isolation is unfortunate. But as a gestalt, this is horrifying.

Can it be all down to incompetence and a failure of forward thinking? And is that better or worse than some of these terrible outcomes for students and teachers were planned all along?

- Kelly - adventuresandjapes


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SHOPPING IN DENMARK3 CONSUMER RIGHTS TIPS THAT EVERY SHOPPER SHOULD KNOWYou go into a Danish shop and pick out a nice shirt. Very pleased with the purchase you take it home, yet when you look at it again, you decide it really is not right for you and you regret spending your hard-earned money on it.

Since the shirt has not been worn, the tag is still at-tached and you have the store receipt, you decide to return the item to the store for a refund. At the store, the assistant refuses to take the item back. Is that legal?

If you do not know the correct answer to the above question, you are not alone. It seems that a recent sur-vey, shows that most consumers do not know their rights when shopping in stores or online.

Since Denmark is part of the European Union, they are covered by the EU consumer directives and have most of the standard laws in place, but Denmark also has their own set of consumer rules. Here are a few of the important ones that most shoppers should know.

1. Return Policy: Just because you buy an item in a physical shop, does not guarantee that you can return or exchange the item, if you are not happy with your purchase. There is no Danish law that guarantees you that right. Most major retailers offer this service, so people assume that it is in place in all shops. Not true, always check the store policy. You need to keep your receipt, because without a store receipt the store does not have to honor their return policy.

2. Price guarantee: In some parts of the world, if you see an item listed in the paper, ad, etc., the shop has to honor that price, even if the price was a printing er-ror. You can often find great bargains that way, but not so in Denmark. If an advertisement has an incorrect price, the store does not have to honor it. They can even have a higher price than what the ad says.

The good news is that if an item in the store has a price sticker on it that is incorrect or the item is advertised in the store at an incorrect price, the store has to hon-or that price. So if you find for example a television priced at 2000 kroner and when you get the register they say it is actually 3000 kroner, you have the right to buy it at the price listed in the store.

3. Contract cancellation: Finally, know that whenever you agree to purchase something, you are bound by that agreement, even if you do not pay for it at the same time. You do have the right to cancel that agreement within 14 days, if you have not started the service or received the item. For example, a roofer comes to your home and you agree to hire him. You have now entered a binding con-tract. If within 14 days, you decide not to use him, you can cancel the contract as long as he has not started the work or bought material relevant to your project.

There are many more laws and shopping tips that you should familiarize yourself with, before you go shop-ping in Denmark. The prices are high enough, so you want to arm yourself with as much helpful and useful information as you can. Having a successful shopping trip in Denmark, can be rewarding as long as you know your rights.

For 12 more important shopping in Denmark tips, check out shopping in Denmark(www.fyidenmark.com) which also includes a link to a list of shops in Denmark and advice on how to protect your consumer rights. Re-member that the shopping rules and laws, that you are used to shopping by, may not be the same in Denmark.

- Charlie Petersen (www.fyidenmark.com)


WHAT’S GOODDANISH MONARCHSThe Danish Monarchy can be traced back more than 1000 years. Here are four great danish kings

1. Frederik IX The King’s behaviour was cheerful and straightforward, and he possessed the gift of being able to deal with all people with natural friendliness and warmth without jeopardising the in-herent dignity of a monarch. He was helped in this through his training as an officer of the navy with its binding but informal environment, which he felt strongly related to throughout his life. Before he became King, he had ac-quired the rank of Rear-Admiral and he had had several senior commands on active service. In addition, with his great love of music the King was an able piano player and conductor.

» King of Denmark from 1947 to 1972

» Motto: “With God for Denmark” » Born: 11 March 1899 » Son of: Christian 10. and Queen

Alexandrine, born Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin

» Married: 24 May 1935 to Princess Ingrid Victoria Sofia Louise Mar-gareta, born 1910, daughter of Crown Prince Gustav Adolf, later King Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden (1882-1973) and Crown Princess Margaretha (1882-1920)

» Children: Princesses: Margrethe (II), Benedikte and Anne-Marie


2. Christian XAs the first of the House of Glücks-borg, Prince Christian was born to succeed to the throne, and everything was done to prepare him for his future task as King. In 1889, he was the first heir to the throne to pass the upper secondary examination. His subse-quent education was, however, in line with the family tradition, character-ised by the military, which impacted heavily on his personality. He always saw himself as a whole-heartedly com-mitted soldier. When Frederik VIII died in 1912, Crown Prince Christion succeeded to the throne. Thus, the two World Wars marked the beginning and the end of his long reign.

» - King of Denmark from 1912 to 1947 and of Iceland until 1944

» - Motto: “My God, my Coun-try, my Honour”

» - Born: 26 September 1870 » - Son of: Frederik VIII and

Queen Lovisa » - Married: 26 April 1898 to

Duchess Alexandrine of Mecklen-burg-Schwerin (1879-1952)

» - Children: Prince Frederik (IX) and Prince Knud


3. Frederik VIIIWhen His father became King in 1863, Crown Prince Frederik entered the State Council where he actively supported the King’s fruitless opposition to the coming into effect of the November Constitution. Apart from this, he was in general reduced to the role of a passive onlooker during his 43 years as Crown Prince because the King almost consistently kept him out of affairs of state.

Crown Prince Frederik had had a military education, but throughout life he had taken a keen interest in politics and was a declared supporter of the parliamentary system, which his father remained opposed to for so long. The provisional legislation, i.e. the adoption of provisional Finance Bills against the majority of the Folketing (Danish Parliament), was in his opinion directly dangerous for society as well as the monarchy. He sympathised openly with the efforts of the supporters of rapprochement, which eventually led to the political Change of System of 1901.

» King of Denmark from 1906 to 1912 » Motto: “The Lord is my Help” » Born: 3 June 1843 » Son of: Christian IX and Queen Louise, born Princess

of Hessen-Kassel » Married: 28 July 1869 to Princess Lovisa of Sweden

(1851-1926) » Children: Prince: Christian (10.), Carl (who was

crowned King Haakon VII of Norway in 1905), Har-ald and Gustav. Princesses: Louise, Ingeborg, Thyra and Dagmar

4. Christian IXWhen it became clear that Frederik VII would have no heir to the throne, the great powers with the Treaty of London in 1852 accepted that the throne passed to his relative, Prince Christian of Glücksborg, who belonged to a branch of the Royal House of Oldenburg. In accordance with the Act of Succession of 1853, he was officially appointed as successor to the throne. From 1831, he had lived permanently in Copenhagen where he had made a career for himself as an officer of the Royal Horse Guard.As the first representative of the House of Glücksborg, Chris-tian IX became King in November 1863 at a very difficult moment in time. The late King had not managed to sign the November Constitution, which had just been adopted. It was a special constitution for the joint affairs of Denmark and Schleswig, which in violation of the agreements concluded by the great powers would tie Schleswig more closely to Den-mark. When the new King, therefore, refused to sign this new constitution, his nationalist feelings and loyalty to Denmark were much disputed, especially by the National Liberals. Un-der this pressure, he decided to sign the November Constitu-tion. Very soon the King’s reservations proved all too justified. The result was the War of 1864 and the subsequent loss of the two duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. The first part of his reign was stongly marked by this national catastrophe.

» King of Denmark from 1863 to 1906 » Motto: “With God for Honour and Justice” » Born: 8 April 1818 » Son of: Duke Wilhelm of Schleswig-Holstein-Søn-

derborg-Glücksborg and Princess Louise Caroline of Hessen-Kassel

» Married 26 May 1842 to Princess Louise of Hes-sen-Kassel (1817-1898)

» Children: Princes: Frederik (VIII), Wilhelm (George I), and Valdemar. Princesses: Alexandra, Dagmar and Thyra

Source of article : www.kongehuset.dk

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WHAT’S GOODROYAL PALACESHere are four royal palaces to visit while in Denmark

1. AmalienborgAmalienborg is the the Royal Couple’s winter residence. The Amalienborg complex consists of four palaces, built around an octagonal court-yard, in the centre of which stands the French sculptor J.F.J. Saly’s equestrian statue of Freder-ik V, the founder of Amalienborg Palace and Frederiksstaden.

The complex was constructed by Frederik V on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the corona-tion of Christian I, the first King of the House of Oldenborg. The site for the four palaces was given to four prominent noblemen, A.G. Moltke, Chris-tian Frederik Levetzau, Joachim Brockdorf and Severin Løvenskiold, who committed themselves

to building identical palaces, designed by the court architect Nicolai Eigtved. Amalienborg became the royal residence after Christiansborg Palace burned down in the night between 26 and 27 February 1794. In the course of a few days, the King acquired both the Moltke and Schack Palaces.

The Royal Life Guard stands watch at Amalienborg and the other royal castles and palaces. The Life Guard has a change of watch ceremony at Ama-lienborg daily at noon. In addition, post replace-ment is conducted every two hours.

The Amalienborg Museum, located right in the middle of Amalienborg Palace, has a number of exhibitions that offer a unique insight into the royal Danish family.

Location: Amalienborg Palace, Christian VIIIs Palæ 1, 1257 København KOpening Hours: Tuesday-Sunday 11am-4pmPrices:

2015 Sunday-Friday SaturdayAdults 70 kr. 90 kr.Children (age 0-17 år) Free admission Free admission

Please note that on Saturdays the ticket price is higher (DKK 70) as the visit includes access to the Royal Chambers on the Beletage.


2. Fredensborg PalaceFredensborg Palace was built as a hunting seat for King Frederik IV by the architect J.C. Krieg-er. Construction began in 1719. The main build-ing was first used in 1722 and the chapel in 1726.

It was rebuilt and expanded during the reigns of King Christian VI and of King Frederik V and his Queen, Juliane Marie, by the architects N.Eigtved, L. de Thurah and C.F. Harsdorff.

After Queen Juliane Marie’s death in 1796, the palace was rarely used. It was not until the reign of King Christian IX and Queen Louise that the palace again became the setting for the Royal Family’s life for lengthy periods. “Europe’s par-ents-in-law” gathered their daughters and sons-in-law, all of whom represented many of Europe’s royal and princely houses, at Fredensborg Palace every summer. Now the Royal Couple use the palace for three months in the spring and three in the autumn.

The palace gardens cover just under 300 acres and were originally designed by J.C. Krieger. It was re-

organised by N. Jardin in the 1760s and has since been adapted frequently to the changing tastes of the times. Today, the main features of the original garden have been recreated.

Most of the sculptures in the garden are by the great Nordic neo-classical sculptor, J. Wie-dewelt. In the “Valley of the Norsemen”, there are 68 sandstone figures of Norwegian and Faroese farmers and fishermen. These figures were originally carved by the sculptor J.G. Grund. They were re-carved at the end of the 1900s from original casts.

Fredensborg Palace and church are open to the public through guided tours. There is an admis-sion fee.

Fredensborg’s vegetable garden and orangery are open to the public through paid admission to Fredensborg.

The palace garden, including the Valley of the Norsemen, is open to the public without an ad-mission fee year-round, 24 hours a day

Location: Slottet 1B, 3480 FredensborgOpening hours: July - August


3. Christiansborg PalaceChristiansborg Palace has a more than 800 year-long history as the state’s centre of pow-er, and today the palace includes several in-stitutions of central importance. The Folket-ing has at its disposal most of the rooms in the palace, but the Prime Minister, the High Court, and the Royal Reception Rooms are also located here.

The existing Christiansborg Palace is the last in a long row of buildings that have been on Slotsholmen in Copenhagen. Christian VI had the medieval Copenhagen Castle demolished immediately after his accession to the throne, and between 1735 and 1745, he built the first Christiansborg Palace, which, however, burned in 1794. The second Christiansborg Palace was completed in 1828 during the reign of Frederik VI, but it also burned in 1884. The third Chris-tiansborg Palace was built between 1907 and

1928. Frederik VIII laid the cornerstone, and Christian X inaugurated the palace.

The Royal Reception Rooms at Christiansborg Palace are located on the first floor, the so-called bel étage, in the northern part of the main wing and in the wing along Prins Jorgen’s Gaard. The rooms are used by HM The Queen for the New Year Levee, evening parties, gala banquets and ambassadorial audiences. The Royal Reception Rooms were inaugurated with a grand party on 12 January 1928, and that date is considered as the official inauguration of the palace.

The Royal Reception Rooms are richly decorated, both with artworks salvaged from the two previ-ous palaces and with decorations made by some of the best artists of that day, as well as with a fine contemporary addition in the form of Bjorn Nor-gaard’s tapestries made for HM The Queen. The Royal Reception Rooms are open to the public.

Location: Prins Jørgens Gård 1, 1218 KøbenhavnOpening hours : Tue-Sun ; 10-17Prices: Adult: 40-80 DKK (depends on which area you want to visit)Children: 25-40 DKK


3. Christiansborg PalaceRosenborg Palace was built in the period 1606-34 as Christian IV’s summerhouse ¨in the country¨ just outside the ramparts of Copenhagen. Chris-tian IV was very fond of the palace and often stayed at the castle when he resided in Copenha-gen, and it was here that he died in 1648. After his death, the palace passed to his son King Frederik III, who together with his queen, Sophie Amalie, carried out several types of modernisation. The last king who used the place as a residence was Frederik IV, and around 1720, Rosenborg was abandoned in favor of Frederiksborg Palace.

Through the 1700s, considerable art treasures were collected at Rosenborg Castle, among other things items from the estates of deceased royalty and from Christiansborg after the fire there in 1794. Soon the idea of a museum arose, and that was realised in 1833, which is The Royal Danish Collection’s official year of establishment. The castle opened to the public in 1838, and there one could get a tour through the royal family’s

history from the time of Christian IV up to the visitor’s own time. Along with the opening, there was a room set up with Frederik VI’s things, even though the king did not die until the following year. The chronological review and the furnished interiors, which even today are characteristic of Rosenborg, were introduced here for the first time in European museum history. The collec-tion continued to grow, and in the 1960s, the ini-tiative was taken to set up a section at Amalien-borg for the newer part of the Royal House. This idea was realised in 1977, and the museum has been housed in rooms at Christian VIII’s Palace since 1994. The line of division between the two sections is set at 1863 so that Rosenborg exhibits the Oldenborg kings and Amalienborg exhibits the Glücksborg monarchs.

The royal baptismal basin is of pure gold, and since 1671, all of the royal children have been christened in this basin. Originally, the child’s name and christening date were engraved on the back of the basin, but at the end of the 1700s, there was no space for more names.

Location:Opening hours : Tue-Sun ; 10-16Prices: Adult: 90 DKK Children (0-17): Free admission


1. Where are you originally from? I am from Slovenia. Together with my family I have lived in the suburb of the Slovenian capital Ljubljana.

2.How long have you lived here and how long are you planning to stay? We have arrived in July 2013 and we are staying till the end of July 2017.

3.Did you bring family with you? Yes. I am married and I have two sons (9 years old and 4.5 years old) and they are all accompanying me here in Denmark.

4. How are you finding the transition to living in a foreign country? Within the family we have faced with different chal-lenges. For me it was the easiest, being occupied with work at the embassy and having a chance to meet and socialize not only with colleagues from other embassies but also Danes and other international workers that I have met working on different projects we have orga-nized in the past year. On the other hand the elder son had the most problems adapting it, especially for being away from his social network (friends and relatives) in Slovenia. The youngest son has adapted very easily as he was very young when we have moved here and the life in Denmark is actually the only thing that he re-members. And also for accompanying spouses of the expats/diplomats there are several events and support organizations to make them feel at home here. To sum up, in general the transition went smoothly as we took moving to Denmark as a great opportunity for every-one in our family.

5. Was it easy making friends and meeting people or do you main-ly socialize with colleagues? It’s easy to make friends with other international families in Denmark that are facing the same challeng-es living in a foreign country as we do and we have meet some very good friends also within the small Slovenian community that lives here and that we find especially important for my kids, so they can speak their mother tongue with the other kids their age. On the other hand Danes have a rep-utation of being closed and not easy to make friends with, howev-er having kids makes it easier, as we meet regularly on play dates, birthday parties, etc.

6. What are the best things to do in Denmark anything to recom-mend to future diplomats? Denmark is a great country. We got to see a lot of different sights and experience the culture during our first year here. Our family en-joys visiting museums, going to the beach, fishing, going to dif-ferent playgrounds all around the city and we regularly attend nu-merous events that are going on every weekend. It’s always some-

EXPAT TALESINTERVIEW WITH A DIPLOMAT

Our family enjoys visiting museums, going to the beach, fishing, going to different playgrounds all around the city and we regularly attend numerous events that are going on every weekend.


thing to do in Denmark and what I feel most important is that most of the events and the venues where they take place are family-friendly.

7. What do you enjoy most about living here? I like the most the vibe and livelihood of the city. And everything is so easy accessible with their well-orga-nized public transport and bike lanes all around.

8. How does the cost of living compare to home? The cost of living here in Denmark comparing to Slo-venia are very high. Not only the food, but the prices of the services are extremely high. It’s hard to say how higher the costs of living here in Denmark are compar-ing with my home country, since it differs from product to product, and service to service, but on the average level we spend around 40% more money for daily costs.

9. What negatives, if any, are there to living here? Before we arrived here we had this “perfect image” of organized Danish society and how everything is better comparing to Slovenia, but at the end you see that on some areas there is still room for improvement. I would especially mention the quality of services, if I compare it to my home country. And unfortunately in some rare cases we have also experienced some hostility towards foreigners here.

10. If you could pick one piece of advice to anyone moving here, what would it be? Prepare for the Danish weather (especially for the cold wind in winter months)! The Danes say “There’s no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothing” and they are right!

11. What has been the hardest as-pect to your expat experience so far? It is the language. Although ac-cording to the public data 86% of Danes speak English as a second language and the fact that Danish is one of the hardest languages to learn because of its speaking pat-terns, not speaking and under-standing Danish has its disadvan-tages when you live here.

12. What are your top 5 tips for any-one following in your footsteps?

1. Build your network and be active – there are a lot of so-cial events in the city for ev-eryone (kids and adults).

2. Bike! - by bike everything is so easy accessible, since look-ing for a parking spot for your car can be very time consum-ing and costly.

3. Buy proper clothes for a Danish weather. Coming to a meeting by bike with your rain suit on is something completely normal here.

4. Stay open minded and do not constantly compare it to “how things are back home”.

5. Try to learn at least some ba-sic Danish; it’s one of the best ways of getting into the society.

IT’S EASY TO MAKE FRIENDS WITH OTHER INTERNATIONAL FAMILIES IN DENMARK THAT ARE FACING THE SAME CHALLENGES LIVING IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY AS WE DO

The cost of living here in Denmark comparing to Slovenia are very high. Not only the food, but the prices of the services are extremely high.


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Dk Diplomat Magazine february

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