Aabenraa or Åbenrå [a] (German: Apenrade, Southern Jutland:
Affenrå) is a town in southeastern Southern Jutland with 16,425
inhabitants (2020). The city is located in Aabenraa Municipality and
belongs to the Region of Southern Denmark. Aabenraa is first and
foremost known for having South Jutland's largest port with
significant shipping and port industry. The depth makes the harbor
Denmark's third deepest (8.5 meters) and by far the most important
in the South Jutland area.
Aabenraa is also an ancient city
with architecture from different eras. Significant buildings in
Aabenraa include St. Nicolai Church from the time of the Valdemars
and Brundlund Castle, founded by Queen Margrethe I (around the year
1400). There are also several well-preserved 19th century city
districts around the following streets: Slotsgade, Store Pottergade,
Lille Pottergade, Nygade, Nybro, Skibbrogade and Gildegade.
Early history of the city
Opnør was originally a
village by the river. The name first appears in the written sources
in King Valdemar's Land Book from 1231. The village developed in the
early Middle Ages around the episcopal castle Opnør Hus into a small
urban community with harbor, crafts and fishing. That the harbor was
the town's lifeblood is confirmed by a document from 1257. Here
Christoffer I gives the monks in Løgumkloster customs freedom if
their ships should call at "our harbor in Obenroe".
Aabenraa
belonged after the division of the inheritance in 1560 and until the
inheritance tribute in 1721 under the dukes of Gottorp.
The
city had its heyday from the 1750s until 1864, when the city's
shipping was booming with trade in the Mediterranean, China, South
America and Australia. The sailors brought home distinctive customs
and wealth from the East in particular. Aabenraa had the Danish
monarchy's largest merchant fleet after Copenhagen and Flensburg.
The city's four to six shipyards were famous for their ships. Most
famous was the clipper Cimber, who in 111 days in 1857 sailed from
Liverpool to San Francisco.
History since 1864
After the
war in 1864, Aabenraa as the rest of Southern Jutland was taken over
by Austria and Prussia and after 1866 as part of a province in
Prussia. Like Flensburg, Aabenraa did not succeed in converting the
shipyards to build steamships, and development stagnated. The town
got a navigation school and in 1901 a narrow-gauge railway
connection to Rødekro. Throughout the period, Aabenraa was the
center of North Schleswig for the national tensions between Danish
and German. In 1900, Sprogforeningen bought Schweizerhalle by
Haderslevvej and turned it into a Danish town hall under the name
Folkehjem. Here, the South Jutland politician H.P. Hanssen in
November 1918 the right of the southern Jews to national
self-determination.
In the referendum in 1920, 55% voted in
Aabenraa to belong to Germany, but as it was the result for the
entire zone 1 that was valid, Aabenraa, like the rest of Southern
Jutland, returned to Denmark. In the Reunification Garden between
Madevej and H.P. Hanssens Vej stands a monument to H.P. Hanssen,
created by the sculptor Rikard Axel Poulsen in 1945. Another memory
in the city of the Reunification in 1920 is found in front of
Folkehjem, where there are 5 boundary stones from the former Kongeå
border.
In the interwar years, Aabenraa was the center of the
German minority in North Schleswig. A new German newspaper, Der
Nordschleswiger, was published in 1946, a German private school and
a library were established in 1947 and a kindergarten in 1956.
In 1925, the harbor was expanded with a 450-meter quay and a
Sønderjyllands Højspændingsværk power plant, and this meant
increased employment for many workers in the 1930s. Today, there is
a diverse industry ranging from Marcussen's Organ Building to
Callesen's Machine Factory.
Sønderjyllandshallen was
inaugurated in 1956, where the region's major fairs, sports events
and congresses are held.
Former capital of Southern Jutland
County
In 1970, the city became the administrative center for the
County of Southern Jutland. Since 2007, the former County of
Southern Jutland has been merged with other surrounding counties
into the Region of Southern Denmark. The town is now also part of a
larger municipality, still with the name Aabenraa Municipality
together with the old municipalities: Rødekro, Lundtoft, Tinglev and
Bov. The current Aabenraa Municipality corresponds in scope almost
to the old Aabenraa County, except for the Gråsten area.