A Brief History of the Danish Labour Movement

Welcome to the English version of the SFAH homepage. This English section is not merely a translation of the Danish section, but offers content especially written for the non-danish audience. Below is an introduction to the history of the Danish labour movement, and in the menu on the left, one can learn more from the diffent periods.

The aim of this text is to give a non-Danish audience a brief introduction to the history of the Danish working class and the labour movement.

The text was originally published in print as a summary for the book “Kampen for en bedre tilværelse” (“The Struggle for a Better Life”), published by SFAH in 1990. The book, written by Knud Knudsen, Hanne Caspersen and Vagn Oluf Nielsen, is the first overall account of the development of the Danish labour movement from its early beginning in the 19’th century through to 1990. The book is primarily aimed at a non-expert audience. Readers who understand Danish can order the book directly from SFAH. Please make any enquiries via e-mail to sfah@sfah.dk.

The summary is written by Gerd Callesen, and translated into English by Lena Fluger. It is reproduced here by kind permission from the author. Lars K. Christensen, who has also written a new chapter on the last period 1982-2000, has adopted the original summary for the web.

Please note that SFAH is an independent, scholarly society, and thereby not affiliated to any political organizations.

SFAH offer the information on these pages for free, but for personal use only. Please refer to the copyright-page for details.