Karsten-S.dk - Content

Since 1971 has a group of people the control over an area in the heart of København in Denmark.

If you don't know where it is located try this link.

Here is my story, how I got here and why I stay here. Christiania is this far the closest I can get of my vision about an alternative community on the base of consent to make decisions for the community .

Many of the returning questions which I had to answer through my time being here you will find in the FAQ.

You are welcome to ad your question by using the feedback form. In general I answer to the mails I receive unless it is some kind of sick spam.

To get an impression what the place looked like in the beginning the early 70ties, you can find some pictures here, the shots I have made are not digitalized yet and I don't have that many anyway.

Another gallery with Christiania impressions is behind this link. It is a nice gallery giving impressions of Christiania from 1998 until now.

And when you go on further research on search engines you can find endless list of Christiania videos and other visuals. I have listed some of the English articles in the web links section. Should you know about other articles send the link or register as user of this site and enable yourself to submit the information.

Christiania is a part of my personal studies about life and existence. Therefore I like to discuss and explain it to people who are interested. (Sociology and philosophy are major interests of me and Christiania seems to be an ideal place to study these topics)

In the articles I try to reflect about the situation as it is at the time being and comment some of the critics we are confronted with by the public and the media.

You can read how Christiania functions if you follow this link to the Christiania.org homepage.

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First time I came to Christiania was in 1974, I had heard of it from some schoolmates. Wild place for a country boy like me at that time. The visit to Copenhagen that time was only short, my friend and me had to get back to finish education. The picture of the place stayed in my mind and of course I didn't forget all the chillums and joints we smoked in this week. Copenhagen left also a very nice memory of these teenage experience.

Second time I got here was in the late summer of 1978.
I had nothing to do in Hamburg anymore so I decided to stay after I had met some other Germans who offered a place to live. It was not very difficult to make some coins for the existence her as I started in the Sunshine Bakery making the bread for the population of Christiania. I did that for a few years. In this time I learned the profession of a baker. A good experience but real hard work. I lived in that time in a collective in the outskirts of Christiania. About 1980 I happened to be so lucky to get the house I am still living in.

Some pictures of the early days. The place where i still live. But a lot of things have changed and the area developed the infrastructure so that now we have electricity, water supply and toilet in all houses. The freestyle building and constructing was stopped by the Government. But I am still dreaming about to finish my home so I get a little more space for creativity.

Spirehuset 1980

The same place 1988 -
the most of the building material is recycled

The Neigbours place,the dog I had that time and Wolfgang, who used to live there. The neighbours changed with the years and the house as well.

The dream of freedom and having somekind of business in a cooperative way is quite hard to realise, the most people do not see the responsability nessecary to run a cooperative business, as a result of this fact some of the members always have to work more, and as humans are, there will appear disagreements that make the groups split and profiles strong personalities. This fact brings constant changes to the different collectives in Christiania. Of course there are exceptions.

The Garbage Crew 1979 - it was hard work to move the oil barrels filled with rubbish but it has worked ever since that time. Now Christiania got a truck with hydraulic devices to collect the refuse of the population.

What is it that makes the live in Christiania different? In fact a question with many answers. In the first place you need to read how Christiania is organized that should give you a slight impression how things work here.
There are a lot of things everybody has to do him or herself. Basic things as getting the house or apartment heated in the winter time the life is a little more country-style, at least where I am living.
I remember that we even had to fetch the water we needed in the houses from a distant tap in containers.
This kind of infrastructural problems kind of got soluted through the years as the houses in general have water, sanitary facilities and electricity.
After all we have been occupying the place for more than thirty years. The only thing I think where we, the general population of Christiania is behind, is the self supply of basic needs as energy and food. But I believe that this will also be arranged in the near future, the development of the Free State idea continues, the point is not to step into the system trap of financing at high costs and selling the soul of Christiania for mammons sake as the government at the moment is doing

This is one of the things that makes the life different, Me taking a hot bath 1980. The bathroom is moved inside now and the hot water gets produced by a central heating system which I hope to connect to a sun-collector soon.

When I came here the place looked like a dump, but that of course changed with the years. 1988 I started to expand the house to get place for the child that my wife at that time brought with her from her former relationship.

The Spot where I am living from the satelite
As you can see on the satellite image my home lays in a certain distance from the city of Christiania. That demanded transport for everything needed.

This is my favourite transport, a Long-John. The big dog you can see on some the pictures loved it too, he used to pull me on it in a neckbreaking speed. I had to use the brakes that much , that the axle of the backwheel was burned into the frame. A lot of the material needed got transported on this bicycle. No costs no pollution. But of course we also use heavy duty engines for big jobs nowadays if it is necessary.