Kolding is a fjord town in South Jutland and with its 61,121
inhabitants (2020) is Denmark's 7th largest town. Kolding is the
capital of Kolding Municipality and is located in the Region of
Southern Denmark.
The city probably originated in the latter
half of the 12th century. In the Middle Ages, the city was hit by
several wars and plagues, which caused a decline in population and
trade, but since the end of the 19th century, the city has
consistently prospered and is today an enterprising trading and
business city in the Triangle area.
Due to the city's central
location in Denmark, trade and exports have always been of great
importance for the city's development, and Kolding Å was for many
years the customs border between the Kingdom and the Duchies to the
south. The trade took place first by road and ship and later also by
rail.
North of Kolding Å is Slotsbanken with the city's
landmark, the royal castle Koldinghus, which was built as the
kingdom's protection of the southern border. The royal residence at
the castle has been significant to the city as it shed light on the
city and provided work for the inhabitants. The most significant
royals were probably King Christian III and his wife Queen Dorothea
in the 16th century, King Christian IV in the early 17th century and
King Frederik IV in the early 18th century.
The landscape
itself originated and formed at the end of the last ice age, also
called the Weichsel Ice Age. During this period, the area was
completely covered by ice several times, and the ice, glaciers and
meltwater have created Kolding's landscape features with tunnel
valleys, fjords and lakes, as well as Kolding Å, which meanders
through Kolding and the surrounding area.
The center and the
oldest part of the city are located at the bottom of an east-west
valley, and the city spreads up the sides of the valley and further
out into the countryside. The development of the town has meant that
the suburbs, Vonsild, Tved, Bramdrupdam, Seest, Strandhuse and Harte
have become part of the town.
The name Kolding is first seen in writing in King Valdemar's Land
Register from 1231 and here the name Kaldyng is used. A seal on a letter
from the city government at the end of the 13th century has the
inscription "SIGILLUM SANCTI KANVTI DE KALDING" and on another seal from
1421 "S'CIWITATIS IN KAALDYNG" is written, but at the beginning of the
14th century the spelling Kolding/Colding prevails however, and Kolding
later becomes the most used form.
Various explanations have been
put forward for the meaning of the word, and place name researchers
today believe that Kolding means "the cold river". The name Kolding is
derived from the adjective kald, cold, with the addition of the suffix
ung with the meaning 'the cold river' or 'the cold water', which is
thought to allude to the stream or fjord.
Inhabitants of Kolding
are referred to as Koldingese regardless of place of birth. Sometimes
the term 'Koldinger' is used, by which is meant the inhabitants who live
in Kolding and are also born and raised in the town.
The Middle Ages
Kolding has been a royal residence since the
Middle Ages, and Jutland's only remaining royal castle, Koldinghus, is
still a landmark in the town. The town is mentioned for the first time
in King Valdemar's land register as Kaldyng, where the town is listed
under Almindherred (later Brusk Herred), and where the town is valued at
80 marks of gold, while the land around it is valued at 13 marks; In
1236 it is called Kaldingh in a deed of gift (even at the beginning of
the 15th century it is called Kalding; in 1447 the form Collinghe, later
Kolynghæ appears); but it has probably existed as a fishing ground for
some time in the past.
Its oldest privileges as a market town are
not known; In 1321 they are mentioned for the first time, when they were
confirmed by Christopher II; later they were often confirmed, thus in
1327, 1422, 1452, 1483, 1525, 1540, 26/6 1560, etc. In the Middle Ages
it was a fairly respectable city that flourished due to trade and
shipping, and its location as a border town , the castle Koldinghus and
the large court that belonged to it (many nobles had farms in Kolding,
well into recent times) probably gave it increased importance and made
it the scene of important historical events, but also often caused it
accidents.
When, after Erik Plovpenning's ascension to the
throne, a dispute broke out between him and his brother Abel, in 1242,
through the mediation of some German princes, a settlement was concluded
between them at "Eldenæs" near Kolding, where Abel must have had a
castle, but already the following year "led The king an army to Kolding
against his brother". On 22 October 1245, Abel and Christoffer Kolding
transferred to their brother Erik the part of their joint holdings on
Als that belonged to him. When the war broke out again, in 1247 the king
is said to have burned Kolding, which King Abel had as a pledge, which
is very doubtful. The following year, Abel began building Koldinghus. It
was in Kolding that Christoffer I on 24 June 1254 granted his brother
Valdemar Abel's son with Southern Jutland. Erik Klipping redeemed 1268
Koldinghus from Duke Erik and rebuilt and fortified the castle "as a
Gate and Key to the Kingdom", just as he is said to have expanded the
town and added to the southern part. After a peasant revolt had broken
out in Jutland, and the peasants at Kolding in 1313 had beaten Erik
Menved's captain Niels Olufsen Bild, the king himself went to Jutland to
chastise the rebels and imposed the so-called gold grain tax (ɔ: 1 skp.
of rye from each field) on the common people as punishment land of gold)
and forced them to build permanent castles, including "fortifying
Kolding". The following year, on 21 July, an alliance was concluded in
Kolding between the king and the ditmars. After Christoffer II's
expulsion in 1326, Kolding was among the fiefs that King Valdemar
awarded to the marshal Ludvig Albertsen (Eberstein). Valdemar Atterdag
and Count Gert's sons Henrik and Nicolaus concluded a settlement in
Kolding on 7 July 1365, and on 24 March 1411 a truce was also concluded
here between Erik of Pomerania and Duchess Elisabeth of Schleswig. In
1427, Jutte Lembæk left the town of Brendkjær south of Kolding Å to the
inhabitants of Kolding, and its lands were added to Kolding townland. On
a lord's day in Kolding on 30 April 1440, Christopher of Bavaria
bestowed Duke Adolf with Schleswig as a hereditary fief.
The town
had a monastery in the Middle Ages. It was a Gråbrødrekloster founded in
1288 with the consent of Queen Dowager Agnes as guardian of Erik Menved
and furnished with a farm and a chapel, called Dueholm, belonging to a
knight Henrik Dulmer, who himself entered the monastery as a monk.
Incidentally, not much is known about its history; In 1413 it was
contemplated in a will; In 1474 the order held a chapter here; In 1517,
the stricter rule, the observance, was introduced. In 1529, largely at
the instigation of the citizens and a nobleman Hartvig Andersen, the
monastery was abolished and the monks expelled. The buildings then seem
to have been disposed of piecemeal (one was given the washhouse of the
gray brothers in 1530, two others in 1532 each a house from the
monastery) and gradually demolished. In 1551, the king took measures so
that those who wanted to build and live in Kolding had to be given the
site on which the monastery had stood; then it had disappeared. It has
been located at the corner of Klostergade and Klosterstræde. During the
excavation of a property in Klostergade in 1900, remains of skeletons
were found and several chests made of oak planks with skeletons from the
Middle Ages, possibly originating from the monastery's cemetery.
In the Middle Ages, the city had only one of the mild foundations, a
Sankt Jørgens Hospital for lepers. It is first mentioned in 1525, but
probably dates from the earlier Middle Ages; in 1543 it was repealed and
the land transferred to the newly established hospital in Ribe. Sankt
Jørgensgård, however, was so conveniently located to Koldinghus that the
king already took the gift back two years later and in 1552 left Ribe
hospital with another estate as compensation for the 16 farms and some
plots of land in the Kolding area that had belonged to Sankt
Jørgensgården. It is not known when this (with the associated chapel)
was demolished; it has been to the west outside the city. The name was
transferred to the hospital established in 1558.
In the Middle
Ages, there was a Saint Knuds Guild (a signet is from approx. 1290;
there is a fragment of its slant, from 1393), which until 1484 had its
guild house in Laasbygade (Lusbygade), and probably also a Kalente
guild.
Christian II had a meeting here in 1522 with his uncle
Duke Frederik. During the Feud of the Counts, Christian III and Count
Christoffer of Oldenburg met here in December 1534 to come to a
settlement, which, however, did not succeed.
In 1558, Christian 3. Sct. Jørgens Hospital and the Latin School. His
wife, Queen Dorothea, built the first schoolhouse in 1566 and the Castle
Mill.
On a lord's day in Kolding in 1547, the Lübeckers had their
privileges confirmed. Undoubtedly, the ax duty ("Kronens Told", "Great
Tolden") had a special importance for the city's commercial life in the
first centuries of modern times, a duty that rested on the export of
axes to the Duchies. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the stud trade was
the country's most profitable trade, and most axes from Northern Jutland
were exported over Ribe and Kolding. After the customs roll of 1672, 1½
specie was calculated for the piece of axe; In 1691 it was increased to
2, and in 1718 and 1719 it was even set at 3 specie per PCS. How
significant the ax duty was is best seen by comparison with other
customs duties; in 1621 100 dalers were assessed for duties on rosstock
beer, 523 dalers on horses and 13,820 dalers on axes; in 1634 the
figures for the same goods were respectively 103½, 1,319 and 13,775
dalers.
Like so many other cities, Kolding suffered greatly
during the wars of the 17th century. In 1627, it was sacked and burned
by the Danish tenants [10] as they fled from the invading German
Imperial Army, which shortly afterwards occupied it and took up
headquarters here; In 1644 it was again haunted by both friends and
enemies, who destroyed many buildings, including the church and the
school; but it suffered most during the war 1657-60, when it was first
in the hands of the Swedes and then occupied by the allies, the Poles
and the Brandenburgers, who stormed Koldinghus and ravaged it and the
city far more than the enemy. A fierce plague in 1659 made the condition
even worse (plague had also haunted Kolding in 1640 and 1654).
In
Koldings Bys Bog from 1646, there are 280 houses with an estimated 2,800
inhabitants, which was a large provincial town.
In 1672 the town had 1,094, in 1769 1,396 inhabitants. In the Danish
Atlas from 1769, it is said that the town's trade was very poor, partly
because of the neighborhood with the Duchy; most trade is conducted in
Copenhagen and Norway, especially with grain and fatty products; in an
economic description of Koldinghus County from 1786 by the county
commissioner. Hans de Hofman (who has also written about Kolding in
Danske Atlas) describes the situation even more sadly: the town's
livelihood is greatly reduced, the harbor will soon be overgrown, and
the traders cannot afford to acquire the necessary mud barge; trout
fishing is also decreasing, and will probably cease altogether when the
stream grows up; many wealthy families have died and their means by
inheritance came from the city, while most of the new arrivals had no
fortune.
The city remained in shambles until well into the 19th
century. The fire of the castle in 1808, the relocation of the garrison
in 1842 (2 squadrons of the Holstein Lancer Regiment had been stationed
there) and the cessation of the stud depot in 1862 must be mentioned as
events that contributed to setting it back. but special mention must be
made of the miserable entrance to the town: "In 1832, the fjord
decreased in depth from 8 fathoms under the ship's prow to 3 fathoms,
and right inside the town it was quite shallow". It was not until the
city had gained a port in 1843 that it prospered, and the ever-improving
port conditions, together with the significant railway facilities,
played a large part in its great development in the second half of the
19th century by increasing its catchment area; the inclusion of the 8
Schleswig parishes in Nørre Tyrstrup Herred also became important in
this respect, as these regions, which previously applied to Haderslev,
were now referred to Kolding.
Due to its location, Kolding was
particularly vulnerable in the two Schleswig wars. From 28 March to 1
April 1848, the Danish headquarters were here; On 2 May it was occupied
by the enemy without resistance, who remained here until 28 May. When
the insurgents, the rebels, advanced towards Kolding on 20 April 1849,
they instead found it entrenched, and a battle developed south of the
city, which however ended with the small Danish force retreating after
the enemy had brought artillery in position, and the city was occupied.
Three days later the main Danish army under Bülow, about 20,000 men,
sought to attack the insurgents here, while Olaf Rye was to cross the
Kolding å to the west and flank them, but the last movement failed, and
although Bülow had succeeded in taking the town after a fierce battle in
front of it and in the streets itself, the Danes had to escape it again,
however, when the enemy shelled the town heavily from the banks to the
south of the town and did it greater damage than that which had been
caused by the battle in the streets themselves. The Danes' losses were
approximately 650 dead and wounded, the enemy's approximately 400. The
city was now in the hands of the insurgents, until after the Battle of
Fredericia and the armistice that followed shortly after, they had to
flee Northern Jutland. Also in 1864, the city was occupied by the enemy.
Kolding's population was increasing in the late 1800s and early
1900s: 2,865 in 1850, 3,476 in 1855, 3,978 in 1860, 5,400 in 1870, 7,141
in 1880, 9,658 in 1890, 12,516 in 1901, 13 .451 in 1906 and 14,219 in
1911.
The area north of Koldinghus with Låsbygade in the center
was until 1870 a trade hub due to the city's status as a customs
station. It later moved to the harbor area when the railway station for
land traffic was built there. The large exports attracted a large number
of other companies and workers, and the population grew rapidly, and the
area south of the river was seriously developed. The port itself became
one of the largest in the country due to the export of mainly live
cattle.
The citizens got a waterworks in 1886, and in 1898 the
electricity plant was built to supply the town's now 10,000 inhabitants.
In the same year, the town got its first private railway to the
catchment and more railways followed. The development also took place
with regard to women's rights, which meant that in 1909 the first woman
was elected as a member of the city council, and 4 years later 4 women
were elected to the city council out of 19 possible member positions.
The establishment of Kvindernes Hus in 1922, which is the first house in
Denmark where women built their own house, was also a sign of this
development.
Of factories and industrial plants, the city had
around the year 1900: Const. Hansen & Schrøders Maskinfabrik (founded
1888, 1896 transferred to a limited company, share capital DKK 75,000;
approx. 65 workers), Leneth & Søns Maskinfabrik (founded 1853), A. L.
Johansen & Søns Sawskæreri og Møbelfabrik (founded 1855), several
tobacco factories, including SW Bruun's Tobaksfabrikker (founded in
1873, 1897 transferred to a limited company, share capital DKK 200,000),
Brødrene Volkert's Dampvæveri og Klædefabrik, Slotsmøllens Fabrikker
(east of the city at Fredericiavejen, beer brewery and malting, a
limited company established in 1872, share capital DKK 300,000), the
Fællesforeningen for Danmarks Forbrugsforeninger (a joint-stock company
established in 1896, share capital DKK 150,000), Kaalunds Sæbefabrik,
Kolding Damp-, Tigl- og Kalkværker (also ran a planing and sawmill
business), Kolding Aktieteglværk (established 1900, share capital DKK
150,000), Sydjydsk Corn- and Foderstofkompagni (established 1900), a
juice station established in 1899 south of the city belonging to "De
danske Sukkerfabrikker" to supply the factory in Assens, also 1
cooperative pig slaughterhouse with export slaughterhouse, 1 cooperative
dairy, 1 mineral water factory, several dyers and tanneries, as well as
the limited company established in 1896 " Forenede sydjyske
Telefonselskaber" (share capital DKK 300,000), and the limited company
"Kolding Fjords Dampskibsselskab" established in 1894 (share capital DKK
137,000), the Danish Petroleum Company built several cisterns for direct
import. The town had 5 printing houses.
In Kolding the following
markets were held: every Tuesday with livestock, mainly for export, 1 in
January, 3 in February and 3 in March with horses, 1 in April, 1 in May,
1 in July, 1 in September and 1 in October with horses and livestock.
Torvedag was every Tuesday and Friday.
Four newspapers were
published in Kolding: "Kolding Avis", "Kolding Folkeblad", "Sydjylland"
and "Kolding Socialdemokrat".
Distribution of the population
according to means of livelihood in 1890: 747 lived from non-material
activity, 3859 from craft and industry, 2439 from trade and turnover,
219 from agriculture, 2 from horticulture, 78 from shipping, 60 from
fishing, 1,720 from various day laborers, 413 from their means , and 121
enjoyed alms. According to a census in 1906, the population was 13,451,
of which 675 supported themselves by non-material activities, 340 by
agriculture, forestry and dairy farming, 58 by fishing, 7,247 by crafts
and industry, 2,791 by trade and more, 1,062 by transport, 702 were
salespeople, 354 lived on public support and 222 on other or unspecified
business.
Throughout the interwar period, Kolding's population grew: in 1916
15,037, in 1921 17,165, in 1925 16,745, in 1930 21,959, in 1935 23,520,
in 1940 25,335 inhabitants. But at the same time there was growth in the
suburbs of Munkensdam, Seest and Sønder Vang in Hover Municipality and
Sønder Vang and Bramdrup villa quarter in Vonsild Municipality. On 1
April 1930, the city's suburbs were incorporated into the market town.
At the census in 1930, Kolding had 21,959 inhabitants, of which
1,445 supported themselves by non-material activities, 9,204 by craft
and industry, 4,261 by trade etc., 2,101 by transport, 545 by
agriculture, forestry and fishing, 1,800 by housework, 2,237 were out of
business and 366 had not stated the source of income.
WW2
In
connection with the occupation of Denmark during the Second World War, a
very large number of German soldiers were stationed in Kolding. From
1943, the German security police Gestapo had its headquarters for the
southern and southern Jutland area at Staldgården near Koldinghus. The
resistance movement in Kolding began in the autumn of 1942, but was
repeatedly unraveled by the Gestapo and had difficult conditions in the
town. At the trial after the war, three Danes who worked for the Gestapo
in Kolding were sentenced to death and executed. After the war, a
refugee camp for German refugees was established in the town, which
functioned as a transit camp for all German refugees in Denmark until
1949. Like the First World War, the Second World War also meant a
shorter period of stagnation.
The post-war period
After World
War II, Kolding continued its population growth. In 1945 there were
27,660 inhabitants, in 1950 31,017 inhabitants, in 1955 33,169
inhabitants, in 1960 35,101 inhabitants and in 1965 32,021 inhabitants.
Gradually new suburbs grew up in Seest town, Alpedalen in Vonsild
Municipality, Nyby Strandhuse in Eltang-Sønder Vilstrup Municipality,
Tved and Rebæk in Dalby Municipality as well as Langagervej and Rudevej
in Seest Municipality.
After the municipal reform in 1970
A
few years after the war, trade, exports and crafts flourished again, and
in the 1970s Kolding was a major exporter of cattle, slaughter pigs as
well as a number of producing companies and especially various
metal-related companies. More craft-related areas include construction,
brewing and textiles. Few well-preserved half-timbered houses date from
the city's first heyday, but the city's violent expansion in the 20th
century has meant that much of the older buildings have disappeared and
been replaced by modern townhouses.
In 1981, Kolding was named
City of the Year, due to the improvement of business conditions and the
establishment of new companies. Kolding's location in the Triangle area
has meant growth over the past 20 years, and in 1991 the city entered
into a collaboration (Union of the Baltic Cities) with various Baltic
cities.
On 3 November 2004, N. P. Johnsen's Fireworks Factory in
Seest near Kolding exploded. The firework accident in Seest became one
of the biggest material Danish accidents in recent times. As a result,
75 houses were totally destroyed. The municipal reform (2007) meant that
Kolding municipality now has an area of 605 km² after the incorporation
of Vamdrup, Christiansfeld and Lunderskov municipalities.
Kolding lies in a tunnel valley with cold meadows in the
south-eastern part of Jutland, where Kolding Å flows into the bottom of
Kolding Fjord. The town is part of the Triangle area and is 26 km from
Fredericia, 29 km from Vejle and 30 km from Haderslev. The distance to
larger cities is 98 km to Aarhus, 71 km to Esbjerg and 69 km to Odense.
Nature
The nature in Kolding Municipality has a varied animal and
plant life. Here there are large forest areas, coasts and beaches,
grasslands and significant river valleys. In the open country there are
natural areas such as lakes, waterholes, small lakes and bogs.
Marielundsskoven, Kolding Ådal and Slotssøen can be mentioned in the
city. Over 120 terrestrial species, such as insects, fungi, birds,
mammals and amphibians, have been registered in Kolding, including sea
eagle, kestrel, buzzard, buzzard, raccoon, otter and snog.
There
are 2 protected animal species that live in the Kolding area. It is the
birch mouse and the tree frog. Kolding has launched several nature
projects to safeguard the municipality's nature, including
biomanipulation in the Donssøerne and establishment of a fauna passage
in Seest Mølleå. A restoration of Dalby Møllebæk has been completed and
resulted in Denmark's longest serpentine stretch. Kolding Municipality
has drawn up two Natura 2000 action plans; one for Svanemosen (Natura
2000 area no. 226, Habitat area H226) and one for Lillebælt (Natura 2000
area no. 112, Habitat area H96).
The area is on the border of the moraine landscape, which was created
during the Weichsel Ice Age by marginal moraines. The distinct tunnel
valleys are formed by various marginal moraines and furthest away, to
the west of Kolding, was the main state line, which was deposited by the
Northeast Ice and is the oldest in the area. Immediately west of Kolding
lay the East Jutland ice margin line from the Young Baltic ice advance.
Even younger ice margin lines are found in the area.
The
westernmost part has been subjected to leveling landscape processes for
a much longer time, which has created the older, flat meltwater river
valleys and hill islands, which form a sharp contrast to the tunnel
valleys and steep moraine landscape to the east. These moraines have
created locally varying soil types, of which the majority of the subsoil
is sandy clay soil. Between the irregular marginal moraines, a
sand-bound moraine landscape often occurs. At the outer areas of the
moraine, there are large quantities of meltwater sand, which has been
deposited near the melting ice. Scattered over the entire area, mainly
along streams and bog areas, there is freshwater sand, which was
deposited later than the meltwater sand. In the moraine landscape, there
are also many tunnel valleys and some ridges, formed by meltwater flows
under the ice, and glacial lakes are found at Ødis south of Kolding, as
well as in the tunnel valleys west and southeast of Kolding. Pure clay
soil is mainly found south-west and south-east of Kolding, as well as
scattered deposits of humus soil along streams and bogs.
The water level in Kolding Fjord and Kolding Å is sometimes affected
by the wind. When it blows from the west over the North Sea and at the
same time blows from the east or northeast over the Baltic Sea, the
water is pressed and flows to the area from both sides at once.
Therefore, the water cannot flow freely through belts and sound, and the
water level rises. It can produce a storm surge without a storm. There
can be large fluctuations in the water level due to the wind and
weather, and on 21 February 2002 there was a water level of 1.55 m above
daily water, and the next day there was a low tide with a water level of
97 cm below daily water, which gives a difference of 2.52 m.
The
absolute record water level in Kolding Harbor was in 1872, when the
water reached 2.75 m above daily water, and the bottom record was in
1967, when the water level was 1.95 m below daily water.
The IT company A/S ScanNet, the car dealer P. Christensen a/s, the
wood impregnation company Collstrop, the textile manufacturer Georg
Jensen Damask, the coffee producer Merrild Kaffe, the drawing studio
Tegnestuen Mejeriet, the media house TV Syd
Former companies
include 4K-Beton, Bilofix, Diesella, Kolding Fyrværkerifabrik, Gram,
N.P. Johnsen's Fireworks Factory (whose container in 2004 was to blame
for the Fireworks accident in Seest) and Brewery Slotsmøllen. In
addition, the city has had the editorial office for the newspapers
Kolding Folkeblad, Jydske Tidende and Venstrebladet for Southern
Jutland,
The city's retail trade is particularly concentrated in
and around the area between Jernbanegade and Klostergade/Helligkorsgade.
There is also Kolding Storcenter with over 100 stores and Liva
Stormarked, which has two stores in the city.
On the outskirts of
the city is Hotel Koldingfjord, which is a 4-star hotel with 132 rooms.
Ordinances, privileges and councilors in the Middle Ages
The
content of the city's privileges is first mentioned in King Valdemar
III's privilege letter from 1327. It says that everyone who owns land or
housing in the city must pay tax to the king, but in return the citizens
of Kolding must be free from customs except on the Skanør market. It is
pointed out that the city is a special judicial district that was
separated from the surrounding lordship. This area is delimited by the
city limits and was called the peace. The market right was the king's
guarantee that the city had a monopoly on trade and Kolding had the
privilege of a weekly market day and the right to hold other large
markets. Violations of the turf peace resulted in large fines. In 1450,
King Christian I decided that only citizens of Kolding could buy and
sell merchant goods in Koldinghus Len and had the exclusive right to
practice crafts.
The aldermen took care of the city's governance,
and until the Reformation they had an almost unlimited right of
management of the city's common affairs, and the king supported this.
The king needed the city government to arrange for the collection of the
taxes. From the 15th century, the market towns and trade became
increasingly important. The bailiff was the king's representative in the
city, he exercised the king's rights in the city and presided over the
city council. The bailiff's position was gradually weakened to only
being the leader of the city council. The sheriff at Koldinghus took
over overall supervision of the town.
In the 16th century and the
first half of the 17th century, mayors and councils had almost unlimited
power. Mayors and councils were collectively called the magistrate. The
council chamber court arose next to the city council, probably in the
early 16th century as a special court, where the council were judges
together with the city clerk. The difference between the city council
and the council court was that the city council judged in criminal
cases, the council court in civil cases and in cases concerning "honor,
life and property".
At the end of the 16th century, "the 24 men"
are mentioned as representatives of the citizens. However, they were
elected by the councilors and not by the citizens. They acted as
witnesses and were present at the annual tax assessment. From 1619, the
new borough law mandated that six men, chosen by the citizens, should be
present at the equalization together with the previous year's kæmner.
The bailiff was responsible for the accounts and was the town clerk. He
handled public prosecutions in all money matters, i.a. against foreign
merchants who had traded illegally in the city or uplands.
Both
the royal power and the citizens gradually wanted to limit the power of
the councils, and in 1547 the sheriffs were ordered to see that the
council did not wrong the town clerk, that the rights of the crown were
not neglected, and that the town tax was paid accurately every year.
Newly elected mayors had to be approved by the king or the sheriff.
Caspar Markdanner was sheriff for Koldinghus County from 1585-1617 and
introduced the first fire ordinance. A citizen's council consisting of
16 men was established in 1729 by county magistrate Christian Carl
Gabel, and mayor Jens Riis selected the 16 men who were to ensure proper
civic representation when decisions concerning the entire city had to be
made.
The introduction of the Købstad Municipality Act in 1869 led to a
transitional period, where the mayor before 1869 was identical to the
magistrate, who was the counterpart to the Citizens' Representation.
Martin Anton Monrad had been both mayor and town clerk since 1859. The
elections to the city council now took place every three years. In 1870,
when all voters could vote for 5 new city council members, 314 votes
were cast. This corresponded to less than half of all voters having
exercised their right to vote. Martin Anton Monrad continued as mayor,
and the municipal politics of the next year were marked by, among other
things, the left-wing Christen Berg, who was a Member of Parliament and
the experienced H.H. Grau and the right-wingers, E. A. Borch and S. W.
Bruun, both elected in 1873 and A.L. Johansen, elected in 1879. The city
council was expanded in 1879 from 9 to 15 members. At the election in
1909, there were 4,060 eligible voters, and then teacher Alba
Christensen-Dalsgaard became the first female city council member in
Kolding. In 1913, the city council was expanded again to 19 members, and
in the city council elections of the same year, the Social Democrats got
8 mandates. The Left had to make do with 7, the Right got 3, while the
radical Left just crept over the line and with 201 votes got a single
mandate.
Hans Soll became the Social Democrats' first mayor in
1923 at a vote in the city council. He won the election with 9 votes
against Holger Kelstrup's 7, and 3 votes were blank. Therchild
Fischer-Nielsen was mayor 1925-30 and handled the political work
surrounding the incorporation of several surrounding parishes in
Kolding. After incorporation, there were 10,613 eligible voters. At the
city council election in 1946, the Social Democrats got 10 mandates in
the city council. The Communists, who ran for the general election for
the first time in 1945, got only 1 mandate. Liberals and the Radical
Liberals got a single mandate each and the Conservatives got 6 mandates.
The conservative Peter Beirholm became mayor for the first time in
the 1950 election, when the Retsforbundet ran for the first time and won
a mandate. He continued as mayor after a draw at the town hall on 21
March 1954 and was only replaced by member of parliament Peter Ravn in
1962. With this change, the Socialist People's Party got a member in the
city council for the first time. Peter Ravn was mayor until 1977 and
during this period the parishes Dalby, Sdr. Bjert, Sdr. Stenderup,
Vonsild, Seest, Harte-Bramdrup, Alminde and Viuf. It took effect from 1
April 1970, and at the city council election on 3 March 1970,
8,000-10,000 new voters from the former parish municipalities were to
help vote the large municipality's first 25 members into the city
council, and this influenced the result. The election gave the Social
Democrats 14 mandates, an increase of three, the Conservatives got 6,
the Liberals 4, and the Radical Liberals 1. Out of the new city
council's 25 members, there were 13 completely new, of which 8 were
appointed in one of the former surrounding municipalities. However,
after the municipal amalgamation, voter support fell. In 1970, 73.8% of
voters had voted, in March 1974 only 60% went to the polls, and it was
the lowest turnout at a city council election in Kolding ever.
The social democratic Bent Rasmussen was given the title of mayor in
1977, after Peter Ravn voluntarily retired early. The city council
election in 1981 meant that the Liberals got 4 seats, while the
Conservatives still got 3. The Progress Party got 2, the Social
Democrats got an unchanged 12, the Radical Left 1 seat, and the
Socialist People's Party continued its progress from the previous
election and got 3 seats with Gunhild Due as well as two debutantes,
teacher Villy Søvndal and pedagogue Rita Kristensen. Kristeligt
Folkeparti was represented with a mandate in the city council, namely
with former member of parliament and party chairman Jens Møller.
Per Bødker Andersen took over the title of mayor from his Social
Democratic party colleague in 1985, and in this election the Social
Democrats got an unchanged number of seats at 12, the Conservatives 4
and SF 4 seats. Jens Møller from the Christian People's Party was
re-elected, while the Radicals lost their sole mandate. Per Bødker
Andersen sits as mayor until the municipal elections on 17 November
2009, when Jørn Pedersen, Liberal, becomes Kolding Municipality's new
mayor. This happened through a constitutive agreement between the
Liberal Party, the Danish People's Party, the Conservative People's
Party and the Radical Left. In total, the four parties counted 20 out of
the city council's 31 mandates. The 31 mandates were distributed as
follows; The Social Democrats: 6 mandates, The Radical Left: 1 mandate,
The Conservative People's Party: 3 mandates, The Socialist People's
Party: 5 mandates, The Danish People's Party: 5 mandates, The Left: 11
mandates. The agreement concerned the constitution of the City Council
for Kolding Municipality in the period 1 January 2010 to 31 December
2013. At the most recent election, the municipal election 21 November
2017, 25 mandates were to be voted for. The Left felt progress once
again and became the winner of the election. They secured almost every
second vote in the municipality. Because the electoral association
Venstre was involved, they got an absolute majority in the city council
on 13 out of 25 mandates. The minor victor of the election was SF, which
was the only party other than Venstre to get one more mandate, so they
now have 2 members of the municipal council. The election meant decline
for the Danish People's Party, the Social Democracy, the Unity List and
the Conservative People's Party. DF felt a decline of 2.8%, but they
kept their 3 city council members. The decline of the Social Democrats
meant that they lost a mandate. Enhedslist retained their mandate, and
the Conservative People's Party lost their only mandate, which was held
by Knud Erik Langhoff
The mandates were distributed as follows;
(figures in brackets indicate changes in the number of mandates from the
2013 to 2017 election for the given party)
Technical facilities
Supply lines
In the 1800s, the 3 main
supply lines gas, electricity and water were municipally owned at the
time of establishment and each had its own committee to take care of the
consumers' demands and the day-to-day operations.
The first
gasworks was built on the harbor in 1861 and supplied cooking gas and
gas for lighting. To cope with the increasing demand, the plant ran in
three-shift shifts from 1899 and was replaced by a larger one on 1
October 1907.
The electricity plant from 1898 produced a deficit
in the first years, but a reduction in the KW price from 60 to 40 øre
resulted in increased consumption and caused a financial surplus and
necessitated an expansion in 1904. In 1908, the electricity plant had
approx. 500 consumers. At the beginning of the 20th century, more and
more of the city's gas lamps were replaced with electric ones, and the
increasing demand for electricity from citizens and businesses meant
that Kolding expanded the supply with another plant. Harteværket was
inaugurated on 28 July 1920 and delivered approx. 1.8 million kWh per
year. The production could then cover approx. half of the electricity
consumption in Kolding city and catchment area.
Kolding had had a
waterworks since 1886, when it was established on the initiative of the
town's doctors in the 1870s. According to the health statute from 5
January 1889, the health commission had to supervise that the city's
water was clean and harmless. Kolding Vandværk switched to electric
operation in 1913, and the water tower on Gøhlmannsvej, which was
completed in 1916, was the prerequisite for the new construction in the
northern area to be supplied with water. In 1921, the laying of pipes
for the water supply to the southern part of the city began, and Søndre
Vandtårn and Søndre Vandværk on Mosevej were completed in 1947-48.
Another water tower was built to supply the northeasternmost part of
Kolding. It was the water tower on Sjællandsvej, and this construction
was completed in 1967.
Today, the municipality's citizens are
supplied with water from 39 water works and around 900 private wells and
boreholes, and the supervision of these is carried out by Kolding
Municipality. 15 of these water works are located in Kolding. The energy
supply in Kolding Municipality is primarily provided by TRE-FOR, which
supplies electricity and district heating. In addition, a number of
households are connected to natural gas, which is supplied by DONG
Energy
8 years after the telephone was invented, Kolding
Telefonselskab was established. It happened in 1884, and on 29 May 1885
the first telephone conversations began between the approx. 100
subscribers, but that was only within the city. It wasn't until 10 years
later, when Rigstelefonen came to town, that out-of-town calls became a
reality. Kolding Telefonselskab later became part of the company
Forenede Sydjydske Telefonselskab. In 1922 it passed to Jydsk Telefon.
The sewage system was in great need of renewal around the 20th
century, and the open drains were an ever-increasing health problem. The
more well-off in the city wanted water closets, but this had to be
banned, i.a. because part of the sewers opened into two open ditches
that led directly into Slotssøen from Låsbygade. The discharge otherwise
occurred directly into the stream and/or the fjord. Only the hotels were
exempted from having WCs with septic tanks. In 1921, the city council
decided to start an overall sewerage project for the built-up part of
Kolding Municipality, following a report that the city engineer had
drawn up in October 1921.
By the end of the work in 1923, they
had reached such a point that only 1⁄4 of the city's waste water was
discharged into Slotssøen. From 1926, sewerage continued in the southern
part of the city. As the new sewage system was completed, WCs could be
installed without a septic tank.
Both day and night renovations
were leased to contractor Chr. Krogh, but in 1915 there were complaints
about the execution of the renovation, as too much was wasted during the
work. In 1917, the Streets and Roads Committee decided to take over the
renovation drive itself. The municipality bought 3 daytime waste
disposal trucks and 3 night waste disposal trucks, employed a coachman
and bought horses. In 1919, the lessees at Dyrehavegård and
Brændkjærgård offered to take over the night renovation.
Today,
there are approximately 1,000 km of sewer lines that collect rainwater
and waste water from households and companies. The treatment of this
waste water is handled by the water supply Blue Kolding and takes place
in two of the municipality's 10 treatment plants. The waste water is
pre-treated in the Kolding Pre-treatment plant at Kolding Åpark and then
pumped to the Kolding Central treatment plant in Agtrup Skov east of
Kolding, where more than 20,000 m3 of waste water is treated per day.
The remaining sludge is treated biologically in large basins planted
with roof pipes. The majority of the treated waste water is then
discharged into Lillebælt at a depth of 30 metres.
Today, private
individuals can drop off their extra waste at one of the municipality's
5 container sites. The daily cleaning is contracted out to a private
company. Combustible waste is handled by TAS I/S (Energnist) and was
founded on 1 January 2003 as a collaboration between several
municipalities. TAS owns and operates the incineration plant located at
Bronzevej 6 in Kolding, where you can also drop off waste. The plant
consists of 2 high-tech furnace lines with a total capacity of 19 tons
of waste per hour (approx. 150,000 tons of waste per year) and produces
heat corresponding to the consumption of around 19,000 households and
electricity corresponding to approx. Consumption of 10,000 households
Waste such as clinical risk waste, oil and petrol separation waste and
non-recyclable hazardous waste that is not suitable for incineration is
handled by Reception Station Syddanmark.
Collective transport
Public transport in Kolding consists of
buses, regular buses and trains. Local bus and regional bus traffic is
handled by Sydtrafik and consists of 8 local bus routes and 34 regional
routes.
Ways
Since Kolding is centrally located in Jutland,
Denmark and Northern Europe and with easy passage over the Little Belt
and thereby further connections to Funen, Zealand and the rest of
Scandinavia, there has always been traffic in the area throughout the
ages. Many large companies have seen an advantage in this location and
have established themselves in the area.
Frederik II built a
royal road, Haderslev-Kolding-Jelling, as the only one in Jutland.[54]
From the Middle Ages to the beginning of the 20th century, Nørreport
(now Låsbygade) and Sønderport (now Søndergade) were the main access
roads to the city. Havnevej (now Toldbodgade) was established in 1843 in
connection with the renovation of the harbour. The road became a main
thoroughfare to the city from the harbour, and the road continued over
the railway tracks directly into Klostergade and Helligkorsgade, which
were primarily inhabited by businesses. The name Toldbodgade was given
to the road in 1919 after the new customs building that was built at the
end of the street in 1917.
A large part of the center consists of
5 pedestrian streets and the first, Østergade, was established in 1968.
In 1935 Den Gamle Lillebæltsbro was inaugurated, which increased the
traffic in the city center and thus the traffic problems. The problems
were mainly due to the fact that the river and the railway divided the
city into a southern and northern part, and that Kolding was a hub for
the nationwide main road traffic. The traffic load was, however,
remedied by straightening the streets and the construction of Bredgade
in 1943 and Slotssøvejen in 1970. However, traffic continued to increase
over the next decades, but became significantly less when the E20
motorway was completed in 1974. The E20 motorway runs just north of the
city. Each day, approx. 50,000 cars, and here the motorway network
splits in four directions: north towards Aarhus, Norway and Sweden, east
towards Copenhagen and Sweden, south towards Aabenraa and Germany and
west towards Esbjerg and England.
From 1866, Kolding had become a station on the State Railways' East
Jutland long-distance line, and the railway ran through the town south
of Sønderbro at street level. In 1874, the railway connection to the
west to Esbjerg opened, and railway tracks were laid on the harbor
grounds. On 29 November 1911, Kolding Sydbaner was inaugurated to
benefit the business community in the city. The first private railway
was the Egtvedbanen, and it opened on May 4, 1898. In the 1930s, rail
traffic through the city became too dangerous for other road users, and
the track was raised above street level to avoid accidents. With many
departures on a weekday, the railway today has a close connection to the
junctions in Taulov and Fredericia
Harbor
Kolding Harbor is
located at the bottom of Kolding Fjord and at the eastern end of
Kolding. The harbor had been expanded and renovated from the beginning
of the 1800s after being filled with sand in the 1800s. It was completed
in 1843 and became an important prerequisite for Kolding's development
in the subsequent period. The main part of the harbor facility dates
from 1843, but the harbor has been expanded several times over the
years. During the Second World War, the Germans seized large areas at
Kolding harbour, among other things, the plan was to build a large
shipyard and create a naval base that could replace the one in Kiel. The
work was started, but stopped with the capitulation in 1945. Approx.
1000 ships per year to Kolding Harbour, which in 2007 gave a turnover of
1,276,780 tonnes. The total area of the port is 46 Ha = 460,000 m2, the
same as 46 football pitches. There is 2.5 kilometers of quay, and
approx. 15 people.
Airport
Aeronautical Company, approached
Kolding in 1918 with plans to build an airfield. At the time, you
wouldn't agree to that, but after the Second World War, an upswing in
air traffic was expected, and the idea of a local airfield was brought
back to life, but it never came to fruition. Today Koldingegnens Airport
in Vamdrup is the closest, as it is less than ½ hour's drive away, and
the much larger Billund Airport is 45 minutes away. driving away.
Construction plant
Bridges
There are a total of 12 bridges
that cross Kolding Å, of which 7 are roadways, Plovfuren, Vestre
Ringgade, Divelshul, Bredgade, Kongebrogade, Buen and Østerbrogade.
There are 2 bridges that lead over the railway, they are Buen and Jens
Holms vej. There are 6 railway bridges, one that crosses the stream, one
that crosses the secluded stretch of road between Warmingsgade and
Parcelvej and one that goes over the pedestrian street, one that carries
the railway over Vestre Ringgade, one that carries the railway over
Bredgade and one that carries the railway over Lyshøj Allé .
Sønderbro is a listed bridge over Kolding Å and is located in
Søndergade. Søndergade, which crosses the bridge, has been Kolding's
main thoroughfare since the Middle Ages and right up until 1943, and its
current structure with granite blocks was inaugurated in November 1807.
The Fiberline bridge is Scandinavia's first composite bridge and one
of the world's largest bridges made of plastic-based composite material,
and the first to cross a railway for which extra strict requirements are
imposed. The bridge is made for pedestrians and cyclists.
Since the 13th century, teaching in Kolding has taken place according to the instructions of the church, the king or the Parliament. Local economy, war, peace, social balance, cultural and religious conditions and the local business community have had a decisive influence on teaching and have given the school and the children changing conditions and opportunities over time. Kolding has educational institutions in the form of e.g. Munkensdam Gymnasium, Kolding Gymnasium, AMU Syd, University of Southern Denmark, International Business College and Hansenberg. Annually there are approx. 4000 students in the city.
In the Middle Ages, there were no direct educations, but there was
teaching in various fields of knowledge, mainly Christianity. At
Koldinghus, children of the royal family and nobles were taught by
tutors, who were usually clergymen. The town's boys were taught by the
monks of the Gråbrøderclosteret, where the teaching was based on Latin,
choral singing and Catholic rituals. The teaching took place with a view
to the boys being able to take part in the monastery's functions and
duties.
The church ordinance of 1539 followed the school laws of
the Reformation, and decided that in every market town there should be a
Latin school, a learned school for boys. The town's magistrate also had
to provide a writing school, also called the Danish school. The Danish
school was for the boys and girls who did not attend the Latin school.
A schoolhouse was built in 1566, where the Latin School was located,
just opposite the entrance to St. Nicolai Church. The goal was to
prepare boys for an education at the University of Copenhagen, as
priests in the king's new Lutheran-Evangelical state church. They had to
be able to read, write and speak Latin, as the final exam took place at
the University of Copenhagen, and here all teaching took place in Latin.
The general subjects at the Latin School were grammar, rhetoric and
dialectics, while the more specialized subjects were arithmetic,
geometry, music and astronomy. The teaching aids consisted of Luther's
Little Catechism, the Bible and other Latin authors and more tangible
things such as pearls and rice.
Student examinations were held in
Kolding for the first time with professors from the University of
Copenhagen as examiners until 1856 and again from 1886 onwards. The
Latin school was rebuilt in 1732. A final rebuilding took place in 1845,
of which the main part still stands. The Latin school closed in 1856,
but was resurrected in 1880 as the first municipal high school in
Denmark.
The creation of the Rytterskolerne under Frederik IV meant that 25
schools were established in the Koldinghus Rytterdistrikt. 6 of these
schools functioned for many years; Seest, Skanderup, Andst, Harte,
Eltang, No. Bjert and Alminde. For each school there was a schoolmaster,
and he had to teach the area's 7-14-year-olds Luther's catechism,
reading, writing and arithmetic to a moderate extent. The teacher lived
for free and was paid by the state and the farmers.
After 1750,
school education changed towards a more commercial and work-related
aspect. The new ideals and ideas of the Enlightenment gained ground
instead of the memorization of Luther's Little Catechism. In a deed of
gift dated 14 May 1772, Christian Colliin donated 9000 Riksdaler to
Kolding as a bequest. The grant was used to establish two new schools in
Kolding, a handicraft school for girls and a reading and writing school
for boys.
In 1795, Jacob Baden proposed moving the University of
Copenhagen to Kolding. However, it came to nothing. After the First
World War, Kolding was discussed as the home of the University of
Jutland, but the choice fell on Aarhus. In 1998, Kolding got its own
university, when Handelshøjskole Syd became part of the new University
of Southern Denmark under the name Campus Kolding.
The nationwide
compulsory education for 7-14 year olds was introduced in 1814, and
Kolding's first School Commission, which was established in 1813,
managed the education plan for 288 children. Kolding Citizens' School
was an offshoot of the School Commission's work and was a reality in
1815. For the first time, several classes were taught here. In the
spring of 1829, the School Commission drew up a new school plan, which
was approved by the Danish Chancellery on 3 October 1829. At that time,
the civic school had 269 children enrolled. About 100 other children
were taught at the Latin School or privately. It was especially the
children of the "formed" families.
Until the Municipal Act came
into force on 1 January 1869, the chairman of the school commission had
been responsible for the content and finances of the Civic and Free
School. Now the management of the school system was divided between the
school commission and the city council. All teachers were now employed
by the city's school system with an obligation to teach in both schools,
and the schools changed their names to Kolding bourgeois Paying School
and Kolding bourgeois Free School. There were now 404 pupils in total,
167 in the fee-paying school's seven classes and 237 distributed over
the free school's eight classes.
The new School Act, which was
initiated in 1904, worked towards better coordination of the schools'
finances, teaching and examinations. These intentions continued for the
rest of the century with 3 more primary school laws in 1937, 1958 and
1975.
The municipal school system from 1904 consists of 3 primary
schools with 1590 compulsory school pupils. In addition, there are 12
private schools with 455 pupils, of which 375 are compulsory. The
teaching structure itself was: Preschool with 1st - 2nd grades, Girls'
School with 3rd - 7th grades, Boys' School with 3rd - 7th grades and
Kolding Latin and Real School with Preparatory School, middle school,
real education department and high school department. From 1 April 1905,
tuition was free in both full-day and half-day classes. Free books and
aids were introduced in 1909, and the number of pupils was 1830 and
remained stable for the next several years. In 1911, all teaching was
full-time. Common classes for girls and boys were introduced in all
schools in 1945, and the schools' names were changed to respect this.
The last middle school classes graduated from Kolding Gymnasium in 1962,
the last real classes in 1976, and Kolding Gymnasium transferred to
Vejle County on 1 April 1973 under the name Kolding Amtsgymnasium.
The Public Schools Act of 1989 meant that the Public Schools Act of
1975 and the School Boards Act were merged into one law, which meant
that school commissions, joint teaching councils, school councils and
teachers' councils were abolished and replaced by user councils, school
boards and pedagogical councils at the individual school.
Kolding Tekniske Skole has its origins in the evening teaching of trade apprentices in Danish, arithmetic and spelling. It started in 1854 and was expanded with drawings in 1859. The school got its own premises in 1890, located on what was then Plantangade, and later several courses were added, e.g. The construction school 1904, teaching in electrical engineering 1905, machinist course 1910, the hairdressing department 1919, the laboratories 1963 and EFG 1976. In 2001 a vocational boarding school was added and in 2002 a new extension. At the same time, the school took a name change and became CEU Kolding, Center for Business and Education and since 2007 the school has been called Hansenberg and had 1925 students in 2005. Hansenberg offers a wide range of vocational training such as e.g. electrician, hairdresser, pet sitter, blacksmith, gardener and various mechanic and technician courses. Hansenberg also has a technical high school that offers HTX courses.
Kolding Design School was inaugurated in 1967 in Vesterbrogade and
offers education in advertising and textiles. The following year, in
1968, the school moved to premises in Volkerts Fabrikker on
Agtrupvej/Dalbygade. At the same time, the ceramics line was
established. At the time, the school had approximately 100 students, and
in the following decades the school was expanded with several lines. In
1993, Graphic Design and Illustration, the Department of Visual
Communication, Ceramics and parts of the Department of Uniqueness moved
to Saxovej. In 1998, the school moved into the new building at Ågade 10.
This brought together all the school's departments under one roof. At
the same time, the school changed its name to Kolding School of Design.
The school has students divided into six design fields of study:
Fashion, Textiles, Industrial Design, Communication Design, Accessories
and Design for Play (from the academic year 2017/2018). The education
consists of a three-year basic education (Bachelor) and a two-year
extension (Master).
International Business College
International Business College (IBC) is Denmark's fourth largest
business school, located on the corner of Tvedvej, Østerbrogade and
Skamlingvejen in Kolding. IBC Kolding is the old Kolding Merchant
School, but a merger between Kolding Merchant School,
Fredericia-Middelfart Handelsskole and became IBC in 2002. The
quadrangular building spreads over more than 20,000 square meters and
houses approximately 180 permanent employees and around 2,000 year-round
students on a daily basis. In 2004, Aabenraa Business College also
became part of IBC, which thus covers the whole of Southern Denmark with
mercantile education at many levels.
Historical culture
Rendebanen is an old street from the Middle
Ages, and knight tournaments were held here. It was a fighting
tournament on horseback and with lance and armour. Christian III
organized several of these joustings, and for his daughter's betrothal
party at Koldinghus in 1548, letters were sent in advance to selected
nobles. In the letters, they are asked to bring harness, helmet, horses,
etc. to the race at Rendebanen.
The city's rapidly increasing
population in the 1880s caused an upswing in culture. Various clubs and
associations arose. Several amusement establishments arose, and in 1873
the Marielund Pavilion in the Marielund Forest was inaugurated, first as
an excursion destination and later both with concerts and dances. It has
been extended several times over the years and from 1919 could
accommodate 800 seated guests. The pavilion was demolished in 1968. The
amusement establishment Alhambra was built in 1882 in the Stejlbjerg
facility and was the place where people met for meetings, dances,
parties, sports events or just Sunday outings with coffee and cake. It
was sold at foreclosure in 1955 and demolished.
In 1888, the
Association of Craftsmen and Industrialists in Kolding rebuilt their
premises in Jernbanegade and a theater was created. After a fire in
1943, a major reconstruction started, and in 1950 the new building was
inaugurated. Already the following year, the revue and variety show Sans
Souci starts, which became popular in Jutland and Funen. It was
performed for 40 seasons, and a number of famous people visited the
show, including Grethe Sønck, Dario Campeotto and Birthe Kjær.
At
Haderslevvej 105, merchant C. Knudsen had set up a zoo in 1934. The
garden covered an area of 24,000 square meters and had a pair of lions,
which were the garden's main attraction. However, it only existed for 5
years, and during a police inspection in 1938, 19 larger and approx. 300
smaller animals.
At the same time, in the late 1930s,
Dyrehavegård's meadow was turned into a city park that could be used by
citizens for a walk in the green area. The city park was initiated as an
unemployment project. Kolding Municipality built the Play Park on part
of the area formerly known as Kolding City Park. The play park was
inaugurated in 1998 and has since been a popular place to play and stay
for the city's citizens, tourists and other visitors. The establishment
of the park was carried out as an activation project for the unemployed,
and the operation of the park is today part of the municipality's
activation efforts.
Mälkepoppen came to town in 1963 and quickly
became a gathering place for young people. Here you could experience
various events such as concerts, record presentations, film nights or
just meet and talk, while consuming various non-alcoholic milk products
that were sold in the bar.
The city's only professionally producing theater is Mungo Park
Kolding, located in the former main library in the city centre. This was
converted into a theater in 2009 for an amount of one million, financed
by Flemming Skouboe. Kolding Teater is the largest theater with room for
approx. 700 seated spectators and 1500 standing. The amateur scene in
the Queen Dorothea theater is much smaller. In 2000, an Amphiscene with
space for 4,000 spectators was created at Christian IVs Vej 55. The
estate is a regional venue with space for approx. 700 people. Many
concerts are held throughout the year. The estate also contains 12
rehearsal rooms for bands.
The latest initiative on culture is
the rebuilding of the disused St. Nicolai school for the Nicolai
cultural complex. After the school closed in 1983, the old buildings
were for a time a junior high school, a music school and a day care
centre. In 2004, an agreement was concluded with Kolding Municipality
regarding the renovation of the old school buildings and the
establishment of a cultural complex that includes Nicolai Café and
Cinema, Kolding City Archives, Nicolai for Children, Nicolai Art and
Design and House and Design.
The city has a marina, which is
divided into North Harbor and South Harbor, with a total capacity of
approx. 1000 boats. The regular users of the harbors are Kolding Sailing
Club, Kolding Boat Association, Kolding Motor Boat Club and Kolding and
Surroundings Beach Hunting Association. In addition, of course, there
are many private users. In the center there are several pedestrian
streets with many cafes, shops and restaurants. In the northern part of
the city is Kolding Storcenter, which contains a number of shops,
eateries and Biocenter Kolding, which is the only cinema in Kolding. The
large center also holds various events. Over the years, the city has
hosted Grøn Rock many times, most recently in 2013.
Attractions
Koldinghus is a restored castle that today functions as a museum and
regularly holds exhibitions.
Geographical Garden is a 12-hectare
botanical garden, where the geographical relates to the fact that trees,
shrubs and herbs are planted together according to country of origin.
Kolding Minitown a model of Kolding town as it looked around 1865 in
scale 1:10 located inside the Geographical Garden.
Trapholt is a
museum located in a scenic area by Kolding Fjord.
Mungo Park Kolding
is a theater in the city centre.
Danish Nursing History Museum
located at Hotel Koldingfjord.
St. Nicolai Church, a church in the
center, built in the 13th century.
Kolding Stadsarkiv is the city and
municipality's archive, which is housed in NICOLAI.
Close by is
the Reunification and Border Museum, located in Christiansfeld, and on
Skamlingsbanken there is a memorial column, and there is a view over the
area and the Little Belt.
With 30 sports halls, 75 football fields, Kolding-Hallen, Kolding
Ketcher Center, Slotssøbadet and a large number of sports associations
and clubs, there are many sporting opportunities in Kolding.
Historical sport
Kolding Atlet Klub was established in 1896 and had
28 members. They had training rooms at Staldgården, but the club was
closed down 3 years later, and then both the rooms and training
equipment were taken over by Kolding Fodsports Klub, which had been
established on 15 October 1895. Kolding Fodsports Klub changed its name
to KIF in 1900 and began a collaboration with Kolding Cycling Club.[67]
It resulted in a big sports party at Staldgården, but here the
conditions were not so good, so Kolding Cyklelub and Cykleklubben Old
Boys, which was established in 1896, joined forces and bought a plot of
land at Kolding Vandværk in Kolding Ådal.
Kolding Cykle-Ice og
Sportsbane was born here, but it had financial problems from the start,
as the track had cost DKK 34,000 to build, and the limited company
behind it had only sold shares for DKK 17,000. Private therefore took
over the newly built pavilion Olympia. After several seasons with red
numbers, Kolding City Council bought Kolding Cyklebane in November 1900.
Kolding Cykleklub also sold its props to KIF, and in April 1902 the club
stopped being a racing and sports club.
In 1913, KIF took over
Olympia and the track, but poor track conditions meant that in 1927 the
city council decided to finance a new stadium at Olympia, and this led
to Kolding Stadion being inaugurated in 1931. In 1972, the old Olympia
was demolished at Kolding Stadium and a new stadium tribune was built.
The sport of handball was admitted to KIF in 1941, but the club
initially lacked suitable court conditions. A breakthrough for KIF's
sporting development occurred at the beginning of the 1950s, when the
KIF hall was built using voluntary labor and inaugurated in 1956 by the
then finance minister Viggo Kampmann.
Contemporary sports
The
handball club, Kolding IF Handball, has a number of Danish championships
behind it and is today a large sports organization with many members.
The men from KIF Handball are the most winning club in the history of
Danish handball.
The leading football teams are Kolding Boldklub
and Kolding Football Club, where the latter merged with Vejle Boldklub,
but the collaboration did not last.
One of the country's oldest
cycling clubs is the Kolding Bicycle Club, which was founded in 1933.
The oldest map of Kolding is from the end of the 16th century and
shows some of the main features of the town, which can still be seen in
the town centre. The most obvious features are St. Nicolai Church,
Staldgården, Kolding Å and of course Koldinghus, which still dominates
the view over Kolding. At that time, the whole town was north of the
river. In the 1860s, the royal building inspector for Jutland and Funen,
L.A. Winstrup, say in Kolding. He was probably the first architect, but
not the most significant in Kolding's history. It was Ernst Petersen who
came to influence Kolding's architecture with over 300 construction
projects, mainly done in neoclassical style.
The old town house
from 1589, which is Kolding's oldest house, and Borch's house are
characteristic examples of gabled houses from the Renaissance. Only a
handful of houses from that time have been preserved. Over the next
several years, the city's streets did not change much, and only a small
number of houses were built there. The stagnation is mainly due to wars,
plague and consumption, but from 1850 more was built. The customs border
had been moved south and consumption abolished, which meant increasing
trade and the first industries appeared. The population increased
rapidly, and several new neighborhoods were built east and west of the
city core. The neighborhoods around Konsul Graus gade and Vesterbrogade
are from the last half of the 19th century.
Trade in Kolding had
changed character, from a merchant's farm to more retail trade, which
meant that more shops appeared on the town's shopping streets. From 1880
to 1911, the city's population doubled from 7,141 to 14,219, and the
population growth made the need for housing great. This resulted in the
central part of the city being largely rebuilt, where half-timbered
houses were replaced by multi-storey brick houses, and the city was
expanded with several new quarters south of the river.
From 1850,
Kolding had a building commission, whose work consisted of supervising
the city's buildings, but it was not very effective, so in 1903 the city
engineer was also employed as a building inspector, and in the same year
the first building regulations were introduced. The building statute
specified the requirements that were described in the Building Act from
1858, where requirements are set for waste water drainage, road width,
degree of construction and quality.
The number of inhabitants
south of the river continued to increase, and around 1930 there were
approx. as many inhabitants south of the stream as north of it. During
the First World War, there was a housing shortage, which caused the
first municipal rental properties to be built, i.a. the residential area
'Usigten', which was built by architect Ernst Petersen, who became
Kolding's most significant architect. His work includes over 300
buildings, both private and public.
Ernst Petersen's neoclassical
style was so pronounced that functionalism is hardly to be found in
Kolding, but an example is Nørreport. Akseltorv 5, (the former Hotel
Kolding) was built in 1886 in Venetian Renaissance style and was
designed by Christian Fussing. Several renovations and extensions
obscured the original expression, but a renovation and rebuilding in
1999, carried out by Skanska Danmark, re-established the original facade
expression. Christ Church was built in the years 1923-24 and was
designed by Axel Georg Jørgensen and Christian Svane. The pompous church
and the facility are neoclassical and heavily inspired by Our Lady's
Church in Copenhagen.
Industrialization in Denmark attracted more
and more companies to the city, and during the boom in the 1960s,
special industrial areas were established. The same boom led to major
demolitions in the center of the city to make room for trade, business
and services. The plan was for housing to move away from the town
centre, but a floor meter study concluded that there were large land
reserves in housing that could be converted to business. However, it was
not carried out, and in 1973 it was decided to retain the housing in the
city centre, and in 1977 the city council adopted 'By-law by-law no.
00', where the objective was to maintain the existing cityscape and
preserve the housing in the city centre. There was also a demand for
completeness and harmony in the building's external appearance in
relation to other buildings, which is elaborated in 'Bymidteplan 2000',
where it is also ensured that the city's skyline respects Koldinghus.
In 1977, Kolding Municipality entered into a cooperation agreement
with a remediation company and this resulted in 600 homes in the city
center being brought up to date. On 22 March 2004, the city council
adopted an architecture policy, which is about determining general
guidelines and principles for urban architecture, including the city's
skyline, urban spaces, urban environments and the green aspect. Eg. new
buildings must be characterized by good architecture and visual
qualities that contribute to the beautification of the city. Kolding
Municipality also has a housing policy that must help to ensure a
versatile selection of attractive housing and residential areas. This
applies to all citizens, and it must be on a sustainable basis, where
the focus is on low-energy buildings and energy renovation.
Since
2007, Kolding Municipality has awarded an architecture award every year.
Kolding has laid out an area between Skamlingsvejen and Kolding Å
for the business area Design City Kolding, where the buildings must
contain sustainable elements and mix nature, Kolding Å, Kolding Fjord
and buildings together into a green whole. In addition, all buildings
must be of high architectural and structural quality.
On 30
September 2013, the city council adopted an architecture strategy, which
must follow up and strengthen the quality within urban design, building
architecture and planning. This applies both in the city and in the
countryside.
Kolding Municipality's coat of arms, logo, bi-logo and city seal have
their roots in a city seal from the 13th century, which depicts an eagle
sitting on a rock surrounded by water, as well as a flower.
Seal
The oldest known reproduction of Kolding's seal is on a letter from the
13th century, whereas the oldest use of the seal itself with the
circumscription S'CIWITATIS IN KAALDYNG, i.e. seal for the town of
Kolding, is seen used for the first time on a letter from 4 August 1421.
This seal was approved by the Ministry of the Interior on 11 June 1988,
approved and registered 12 October 1988 by the Patent and Trademark
Office. It is also approved by the National Archivist and is considered
one of Denmark's oldest and can be used by the municipality on special
occasions. The seal has for a number of years functioned as the town's
house mark, but is now used only for representative purposes. The seal
usually appears in white design on a red background.
Municipal
coat of arms and logo
Kolding Municipality's city coat of arms is
based on the heraldic elements found in the city seal from 1421. The
city coat of arms includes an eagle, a lily, a stone and waves. The
weapon usually appears in white drawing on a red background. The weapon
is also available in a round version, which e.g. can be used for manhole
covers. The bi logo only represents the wing of the eagle and can, for
example, used for decorative purposes.
In 2005, the municipality
introduced a new graphic design. The new municipal coat of arms replaces
the reproduction of a seal from 1421, which has served as the
municipality's house mark for a number of years. The combination of the
municipal coat of arms and name feature in a fixed, relative position
forms the municipality's logo.
When Kolding was named City of the
Year in 1981, a bi-logo was drawn up containing a stylized
representation of Dannebrog, Koldinghus and water. However, this bee
logo is no longer used.