H.C. Andersen’s grave [P1] is one of the absolute top attractions One of the cemetery’s finest, more recent monuments was created in Assistens Kirkegård. Thousands of people visit it every year, and by the painter and sculptor Jørn Larsen [J5], who is himself buried many leave gifts and messages – everything from flowers and bath under the polished black granite block. The surface of the block is ASSISTENS KIRKEGÅRD ducks to “thanks for the great stories”. The grave has been in the care decorated with the parallel zigzag lines so characteristic of Jørn Lars- of the City of since 1938, and will of course be preserved en and also familiar from the artist’s mirror pool in the square in front for posterity. of the . Welcome to Assistens Kirkegård – probably ’s The people of Copenhagen have been burying their dead in best-known burial place. A burial place that has grown from Assistens Kirkegård for more than 250 years. But for as long humble origins as a paupers’ graveyard far outside the bus- as the surrounding walls have provided a setting for the end Assistens Kirkegård is an interesting place to spend time. tle of the city and entered the heart of Copenhagen and its of life, life itself has also unfolded here – and not just because The changing views of life and the after-life over the cen- inhabitants. Assistens Kirkegård has been called “a refuge”, the cemetery is one of the finest green spaces that we have. turies are here expressed in marble and granite. People of “a mentally cooling oasis” and “a delight for the body and In the words of the poet Klaus Høeck, one feels here that all ages, from all walks of life, of diverse origins and with soul”. There is no shortage of declarations of love for this “death is as close to reality as life”, and this sense of gravity is widely differing religious, social and cultural views have special urban space, where the crowded city with its hectic also part of the reason why it so pleasant to come here. left their mark and contributed to a cemetery that not only activity is brought to a standstill for a while. pleases the senses but also stimulates the imagination and the intellect. The memorial culture of past ages, in the form of monuments, symbols, planting and inscriptions, can be explored here side by side with the very latest expressions of our attitudes to death and burial. If you want to know which way cemetery culture is going here in Denmark, Assistens Kirkegård is a good place to start.

Unfortunately there are now almost no traces of the earliest A fine neo-classical grave for the librarianGeorg Nielsen [A14], Assistens Kirkegård is a packed introduction to Danish cultural his- burials in Assistens Kirkegård. From its consecration in created by the sculptor [A6]. Wiedewelt is also tory, but also tells of all the things that have come to us from outside: 1760 and for two or three decades thereafter, the cemetery responsible for the graves of Peter Uldall [A22] and the Bodenhoff foreign styles embodied in buildings and monuments, and people served as burial place for paupers, and they did not erect family [A25]. born under different skies. The American tenor saxophonist any monuments that could withstand the ravages of time. Ben Webster [R5] settled in Copenhagen in the 1960s and lived It was only when romantic leanings at the end of the 18th there until his death in 1973. century prompted more affluent people to choose burial in for some of the many hundreds of thousands of people who the cemetery rather than in crypts under the city’s church moved to the capital in the second half of the 19th century. floors that monuments appeared that are there to this day. The Western Cemetery (Vestre Kirkegård) opened in 1870, The concentration of the very oldest graves is greatest in and took so much of the pressure from Assistens Kirkegård, today’s section A, which was then the whole of the cemetery. that some areas could be surrendered in the years 1883-1907. But sections B-G, which were incorporated in 1802-06, also The adjacent , for example, is on old ceme- house a rich selection of older stones, many of high artistic tery land. The last surrender of land took place in 2009, when quality. Section G is also home to one of the oldest buildings about half of section G was transferred to the Copenhagen in Nørrebro – the sexton’s house by the doctor and architect Metro company for the construction of the Metro City Ring. Gifts of e.g. tobacco, nail varnish and ball-point pens have always been Jens Bang [C12], which was completed in 1807. The building laid on the grave of the author Dan Turèll [B13]. It is an increasing was temporarily moved 30 metres in 2010 to make room for There was originally a choice of three different types of burial feature of public memorial culture for the classical elements of the burial plots – stones and vegetation – to be supplemented with more Metro building works. plots in Assistens Kirkegård: the free shared graves for pau- transient objects such as plastic figures and laminated drawings. pers, the cheap standard burial plots without renewal rights, Assistens Kirkegård grew at various times during the 19th and finally family plots with renewal rights. The establish- century, partly as a result of an 1805 ban on burials inside ment of Vestre Kirkegård brought an end to pauper burials in The physicist H.C. Ørsted [E9] achieved world fame in 1820 for his The physicist and Nobel prize-winner Niels Bohr [Q6] is buried under churches and another in 1851 prohibiting burials in inner-city Assistens Kirkegård, while standard plots, where plot owners discovery of electro-magnetism. His modest gravestone is a so- one of the largest memorials in the cemetery, created by J.F. Willumsen churchyards. The last expansion took place in 1864, when the were allocated the next free burial plot in the row, and family called false grotto (here with an ivy-ringed entrance) – an immensely for Niels Bohr’s father, the physiologist Christian Bohr, who died in 1911. popular style of monument at the time, which can be seen as a refer- present sections 1 and 2 were incorporated. After that it be- plots in the first and second price brackets were still avail- Niels Bohr’s brother, the mathematician Harald Bohr, was also laid to rest ence to the cave in which Jesus was buried. came too expensive to acquire new burial land in Nørrebro, able. Cremation was legalised in Denmark in 1892, but the here, along with many other family members.

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ASSISTENS CEMETERY Assistens Kirkegård – part of the European Cemeteries Route Cemeteries European the of part – Kirkegård Assistens Jagtvej • • G2 G1 ASSISTENS X N Z G O CEMETERY 2 G3 UN 1 F10 BURIAL PLOTS OF INTEREST Y N F8 F9 A 1 Peter Faber (QR)) † 1877 A-58 E 7 Anne Marie ”madam” Mangor (QR) † 1865 E-554 F11 2 Andreas Weidenhaupt † 1805 A-88 8 Rasmus Rask (QR) † 1832 E-901 V1 3 F. D. Kuhlau † 1832 A-97 9 Hans Christian Ørsted (QR) † 1851 E-1009 Ø F6 V • 4 Adolph Gotthard Carstens † 1795 A-245 10 Christian Colbiørnsen † 1814 E-1025 F7 5 Ulricka Eleonora Timm † 1800 A-225 11 Japetus Steenstrup (QR) † 1897 E-563 N1 6 Johannes Wiedewelt (QR)) † 1802 A-232 F 7 G. W. C. Schmettau † 1823 A-240 F 1 Peter Oluf Brøndsted † 1842 F-2 Iris 8 Sophie Wilhelmine Bornemann † 1792 A-292 2 Anne Marie Madsen † 1806 F-133 F3-4 Burial place for 9 Christen Købke † 1848 A-315/16 3 Peter Adler Alberti † 1932 F-378 M2 People of the 10 Herman Vilhelm Bissen (QR)R) † 1868 A-535 4 Mathilde Elise Sophie Alberti † 1947 F-378 Street F1 S F5 M 11 Johan Samuel Augustin † 1785 A-558 5 Thomas Bugge † 1815 F-406 12 Peter Christian Abilgaard (QR)R) † 1801 A- 616 6 Johan Jacob Krohn † 1925 F-589 E9 13 Ernst Vilhelm Stibolt † 1796 A- 683 7 Marie Schrøder † 1909 F-715 Malus F2 14 Georg Nielsen † 1797 A-686 8 Osvald Julius Marstrand † 1849 F-931 T E8 E10 UM 15 Søren Gyldendal (QR) † 1802 A-693 9 Rasmus Peter Ipsen (QR) † 1860 F-1012/13

L3 16 Frederik Jensen † 1934 A-734 10 Christian Jürgensen Thomsen (QR) † 1865 F-1023/24 U UL 17 Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (QR) † 1855 A-738 11 Lauritz Melchior (QR) † 1973 F-769 18 Henriette Erichsen † 1790 A-795 U1 19 Fritz Jürgensen † 1863 A-849 1 Cecilia Christina de Schøller † 1786 G-569 E11 G 20 Marie Schiönning † 1797 A-986 2 Emil Zeuthen Svitzer † 1886 G-567/68 L L2 E7 21 (QR) † 1802 A-988 3 Michael Rosing (QR) † 1818 G-89

L1 E2 • E6 22 Peter Uldall † 1798 A-990/91 E5 R6 R5 R4 E1 23 Ole Dalsgaard † 1798 A-1001 H 1 Ellen Jørgensen † 1948 H-73 R3 24 Caspar Frederik Harsdorff † 1799 A-1019 2 Martin Andersen Nexø (QR) † 1954 H -211/12 New Russian Catholic D4 E 25 Andreas Bodenhoff † 1796 A-1026/27 3 N. Neergaard (QR) † 1936 H -117 E4 26 Morten Wærn (QR) † 1796 A-1030 E3 K6 K3 27 Edvard Storm (QR) † 1794 A-789 J 1 Johan Nicolai Madvig † 1886 J-24/25 R 28 Giuseppe Siboni (QR)R) † 1839 A-979 2 Hans Henrik Baumgarten † 1875 J -116 K2 D5 Old Russian 3 Ellen Kalkar † 1941 J-582 D B 1 Ludvig Bødtcher † 1874 B-20 4 Natasja Saad (QR) † 2007 J-21 UK D3 2 Martin Vahl † 1804 B-32 5 Jørn Larsen † 2004 J-220 • 3 Kjeld Abell † 1961 B-37 6 Jens Jørgen Thorsen (QR) † 2000 J-361 D1 D2 4 Hans Scherfig (QR) † 1979 B-164 7 Gerda Petersen † 2004 J-476

R2 5 Henry Heerup † 1993 B-179

Hans Tavsens Park 6 Viggo Stuckenberg † 1905 B-214 1 Johan Ole Emil Horneman † 1870 K-13/14 K4 K K C10 7 Thyra Schmiegelow † 1905 B-236/263 2 Søstre fra Den franske Skole (QR) † 1945 K-5-2-51/55 C7-9 B20 C6 8 Adelgunde Vogt † 1892 B-242 3 Franske soldatergrave (QR) † 1919 K-6-1-1 B12 R1 9 † 1823 B-871 4 Finn Juul (QR) † 1989 K-300 C11 C5 10 Julie Laurberg † 1925 B-1012 5 Finn Ejnar Madsen † 2004 K-625 B11 11 Emma Thomsen † 1910 B-1321 6 Cecilia Grünwald (QR) † 1951 K-Ny B10 K5 12 Anna Margrethe Schall † 1852 B-1474 russisk-51 K1 B16 B15 Nørrebrogade 13 Dan Turéll (QR) † 1993 B-333b J3 B17 B9 14 Etta Cameron † 2010 B-238 1 Julie Amalie Møller † 1907 L-151 C12 L 15 Ebbe Kløvedal Reich † 2005 B-1068 2 Petrine Sonne † 1946 L-153 Q4-6 C4 16 Thomas Koppel † 2006 B -1109 3 Rudolf Rasmussen † 1944 L-307 Q J7 17 Ib Spang Olsen † 2012 B-1008 18 Ole Ernst † 2013 B-230 M 1 Peter Elfelt † 1931 M-387 J 19 U.P. Overby (QR) † 1879 B-513 2 Fællesmonument for Gadens folk J6 B C 20 H.O.C. Zinck (QR) † 1832 B-1476 B19 1 Jakob Ejersbo † 2008 Iris-48 C3 N C 1 Johan Leonhard Fix (QR)) † 1807 C-20/21 B13 2 Marie Charlotte Eggert † 1805 C-101 1 H. C. Andersen (QR) † 1875 P-513 J5 P B6 3 C. W. Eckersberg (QR) † 1853 C-266 2 Jens August Schade † 1978 P-515 B14 B8 B18 B7 4 Johan Clemens Tode † 1806 C-521 3 Johan Frederik Vermehren † 1910 P-575 Q2 J2 B5 Q1 B4 Map signs 5 Nicolai Abildgaard † 1809 C-689 4 Louise Ravn-Hansen † 1909 P-919 C2 Q3 J1 J4 Poets / Authors / Philosophers 6 Fam. Holten: Nicolai A. Holten † 1850 C-703 5 Peter Malberg † 1965 P-1020 B3 B2 Composers / Musicians 7 samt døtrene Ane Elisabeth, † 1802 C-703 6 Sonja Ferlov Mancoba (QR) † 1984 P-994 C1 B1 Architects / Sculptors / Painters 8 Ida og † 1820 C-703 7 Kjerstine Hveysel (QR) † 1878 P-730 A18 A7 A8 A11 A14 A16 A20 Stage Artists 9 Sophie † 1835 C-703 A12 Trade / Industry 10 Ida Wilde, født Thiele † 1863 C-726 1 Karl Madsen † 1938 Q-964 A2 A6 A13 A17 A28 A21 Q H1 Scientists 11 Anne Elisabeth Schmidt † 1807 C-736 2 Emilie Sannom (QR) † 1931 Q-977 A4 A22 Monument or other point of interest 12 Jens Bang (QR) † 1808 C-556 3 Astrid Friis (QR) † 1966 Q-1070 H H3 A5 A27 Communal Monument 4 Christian Bohr † 1911 Q-1233 (QR) QR code on the grave D 1 Magdelene Thoresen † 1903 D-129 5 Harald Bohr † 1951 Q-1233 – scan and watch a film 2 Johannes Wasserfall † 1806 D-506 6 Niels Bohr (QR) † 1962 Q-1233 A3 A15 Christoph Cloëtta † 1897 A9 A24 Exit with gate 3 D-581 H2 Garden A19 A23 Flower area 4 Peter von Scholten (QR) † 1854 D-590 1 Karen Jønsson (QR) † 1942 R-59 P P2 P1 of Senses R Building 5 Alfonso Maria, Greve af Yoldi (QR) † 1852 D-I-ML-15 2 John Weiding † 1962 R-208 P3 Entrance / Exit 3 Kenneth ”Kenny” Drew † 1993 R-633 A25 • A1 A Section boundary 1 Dagmar Hansen, 4 Kay Sørensen, ”Jazz-Kay” † 1988 R-659 A10 E P7 A26 Local cemetery gift Heinemann (QR) † 1959 E-270 5 Ben Webster † 1973 R-660 Hans Christian Andersen area 2 Poul Martin Møller † 1838 E-274 6 Richard Boone † 1999 R-662 3 Cosmus Bræstrup † 1870 E-312 P4 WC • 100 m 4 Matilde Malling Hauschultz † 1929 E-325 1 John Christensen † 1940 U-108/09 P6 • • U 50 m 50 m 5 Peter Christian Skovgaard † 1875 E-509 P5 6 H. E. Freund † 1840 E-538 V 1 Michael Strunge (QR) † 1986 V-15 •