The Post-war Years
Following the war, Denmark succeeded in creating one of the world's most successful welfare states , with a comprehensive programme of cradle-to-grave benefits. Quality of life in Denmark soon ranked among the highest in the world. The final decades of the millennium saw further enormous changes in the social and physical make-up of Copenhagen. In 1971 the old military base on the eastern side of Christianshavn was taken over by squatters, who created the "Free City" of Christiania . Initial, unsuccessful attempts by the police to clear the squatters out were followed by a twelve-year trial period, after which the city was legally recognized, even to the point where "Pusherstreet" is now marked on official maps of the city. The 1980s and 1990s saw further huge changes to the city's physical fabric, as attempts were made to clean up the derelict areas of Nørrebro and Vesterbro . In Nørrebro the result was disastrous, as blocks of ramshackle but characterful buildings were torn down and replaced by concrete housing estates, until mass protests forced the city to desist. The remaining buildings in Nørrebro and most of Vesterbro were restored rather than torn down - with the result that housing in these areas increased enormously in value, in many cases forcing the original inhabitants out, with waves of Copenhagen yuppies taking the places of the districts' formerly working-class inhabitants. None of these changes, however, rivalled the latest and most spectacular addition to the Copenhagen landscape, the Oresund Bridge , a road-and-rail link opened in 2000 and connecting Copenhagen with Sweden. As well as significantly enhancing Copenhagen's connections with the rest of Scandinavia, the bridge has brought the nearby Swedish city of Malmo within thirty minutes of central Copenhagen, adding at a stroke half a million people to the city's catchment area and establishing it as a major regional hub. Recent changes in the city's physical make-up have been mirrored in arguments about its culture and character. The arrival since the 1960s of substantial numbers of immigrants - the so-called new Danes , as they have become known - continues to raise questions about the future identity of Copenhagen. Immigrants, mainly from Yugoslavia and Turkey, brought in during the boom years of the 1960s to fill the city's menial jobs became suddenly less welcome in the 1970s, as unemployment rates began to rise and the ugly face of racism raised its head. The resulting tensions continue to simmer to this day, as in recent arguments over a supermarket chain's decision to ban its Muslim women staff from wearing headscarves at work, or in the riots that erupted in Nørrebro in 1999 to protest against the extradition of a second-generation Turkish immigrant. Whether the city's ethnic communities - often faced with overweening pressure to conform to the Danish way of life - will succeed in bringing true cultural diversity to the city remains to be seen. The major barometer of national feeling in Denmark, however, has been the way in which people have seen the country's role in Europe. Despite being a founding member of the European Union in 1972, the Danish people have in recent years constantly rocked the European boat, first in a 1992 referendum, when the Danes rejected the Maastricht Treaty. A second referendum in 1993, backed by massive state propaganda, established the necessary majority, but so inflamed popular opinion in parts of Copenhagen that it led to a riot in Nørrebro during which eleven people were shot and injured. At a third referendum, in late 2000, the Danes again shocked fellow EU member states by chosing to opt out of monetary union, as right-wing politicians stirred up nationalist emotions, claiming that giving up the Danish krone was equivalent to relinquishing national sovereignty (the fact that the krone was already linked to the deutsch-mark was conveniently overlooked). How this might affect Copenhagen's position - newly enhanced by the Oresund Bridge - at the crossroads of Europe and Scandinavia, is the first major question of the new millennium.
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