Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 December 2008
Using case studies of city halls in Copenhagen, Stockholm and Oslo, this article contributes towards the creation of an iconographic reading of this building type. This article argues that the symbolic aim of the city hall was to express the burgher's pride and values, and to symbolize the local and national history. To understand the multifaceted architecture of a city hall in a capital city, one must also understand the ideas behind nation-building in Denmark, Sweden and Norway. The second part of the article analyses how European, national and local narratives were used in the city halls.
1 The Internet today provides excellent tourist reading, promoting and giving tips on ‘what to see’ – places of interest in urban areas. In researching this article, the following websites were all accessed on 27 May 2007. For Copenhagen, the story of the city hall is told, for example, at http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide-2773855-kobenhavns_radhus_copenhagen-i. In Stockholm the city's official website praises the city hall at http://www.stockholm.se/Extern/Templates/Page.aspx?id=115225. For Oslo's part we may read http://www.answers.com/topic/oslo-city-hall. These websites are also, respectively, the sources of the three quotations presented here. The English language of the quotations is not perfect, perhaps due to translation into English. The websites are quoted here verbatim.
2 Surprisingly there is relatively little modern research on twentieth-century city hall architecture. See Cunningham, C., Victorian and Edwardian Town Halls (London, 1981)Google Scholar, Welz, W. and Goeters, C.C., Rathaus Schöneberg. Stationen einer politischen Karriere (Berlin, 1995)Google Scholar. I. Sármány-Parsons, ‘Rathausbauten in Ungarn um die Jahrhundertwende’, in H. Haas and H. Stekl (eds.), Bürgerliche Selbstdarstellung. Städtebau, Architektur, Denkmäler, Bürgertum in der Habsburgermonarchie IV (Vienna, 1995). In Sweden some research has been done to analyse the town and municipal halls as materialized history, as documents giving an account of social ideals and values, mainly on building activities after 1945, see K. Arvastson and C. Hammarlund-Larsson, Offentlighetens material. Kulturanalytiska perspektiv på kommunhus (Stockholm, 2003). On earlier town halls, see Tittler, R., Architecture and Power. The Town Hall and the English Urban Community c. 1500–1640 (Oxford, 1991; repr. 2001)Google Scholar.
3 Recent research with strong overview character are Klinge, M., The Baltic Sea (Helsinki, 1997)Google Scholar; Sorensen, O. and Stråth, B. (eds.), The Cultural Construction of Norden (Oslo, 1997)Google Scholar; Nordstrom, B.J., Scandinavia since 1500 (Minneapolis, 2000)Google Scholar; and Kent, N., The Soul of the North. A Social, Architectural and Cultural History of the Nordic Countries 1700–1940 (London, 2000)Google Scholar. After World War II, especially during the early period of the Cold War, the concept of Norden was politically successful in all countries. Branches of the Pohjola-Norden Society were established in every city in the Nordic countries, including Finland. The Society's publications deal with common political problems, discussing possibilities to create a Nordic Union (like the European Union). See Pohjola-Norden, 's Nordisk samhörighet – en realitet (Stockholm, 1945)Google Scholar.
4 Karlsson, S. (ed.), Frihetens källa. Nordens betydelse för Europa (Stockholm, 1992)Google Scholar. In schools, a textbook is used, Att studera Nordens historia, Föreningen Norden (Helsingborg, 1992; also in several languages). The close co-operation of Scandinavian capital cities goes back to the end of the nineteenth century. L. Kolbe, ‘Huvudstadssamarbet i Skandinavien 1923–1946 och den nordiska myten om det folkliga självstyre’, Civilsamhällets Norden, papers presented at a seminar on Nordic co-operation in January 2004, H. Haggren, R. Hemstad and J. Marjanen (eds.) (CENS, 2005) on 23 May 2007 www.helsinki.fi/hum/nordic/civilsam.pdf.
5 The active interaction between Scandinavian architects goes back to the end of the nineteenth century. Yearly meetings of architects created a special and influential European network. Architects from different countries met at building congresses, called Nordisk Byggnadsdag, which still continue. No research has been done on this institution, with its many powerful social and cultural aspects, although many of its meetings are well documented. See the first meeting in Stockholm, Nordisk Byggnadsdag 1927: Förhandlingar och utställning (Stockholm, 1927).
6 Since the emergence of modern architecture in Scandinavian countries around 1930, there has been a growing interest in the artistic achievements of the Nordic countries, especially in Great Britain and the United States. Earlier, the Germans showed interest in the art and architecture of Nordic countries, due to many links between the Scandinavian artists and architects. Some classical contributions are Rasmussen, S.E., Nordische Baukunst. Beispiele und Gedanken zur Baukunst unserer Zeit (Berlin, 1940)Google Scholar; Paulsson, T., Scandinavian Architecture. Buildings and Society in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden from the Iron Age until Today (Bristol, 1958)Google Scholar; Zeitler, R., Skandinavische Kunst um 1900 (Leipzig, 1990)Google Scholar; Lane, B. Miller, National Romanticism and Modern Architecture in Germany and the Scandinavian Countries (Cambridge, 2000)Google Scholar.
7 Zettersten, G. Bloxham, Nordsikt perspektiv på arkitektur. Kristiskt regionalsering i nordiska stadshus 1900–1955 (Borås, 2000)Google Scholar, discusses the inter-Nordic elements in regional town hall/municipal buildings. She analysed the regionalization of international impulses and described the processes of design and construction in different Nordic towns by using the theoretical concept of ‘critical regionalization’. Although the capital cities are left out of this analysis and the time period is post-1914, Bloxham Zettersten's book gives interesting information on the planning and construction processes of town halls in all Nordic countries. Sutcliffe, A., Towards the Planned City. Germany, Britain, the United States and France 1780–1914 (Oxford, 1981), 162–5Google Scholar.
8 Hall, P., ‘The changing role of capital cities: six types of capital city’, in Taylor, J., Lengellé, J.G. and Andrew, C. (eds.), Capital Cities. International Perspectives (Ottawa, 1993), 69–70.Google Scholar
9 Hellerud, S. Veinan and Messel, J., Oslo – A Thousand-Year History (Oslo, 2000), 14–16Google Scholar, analyse the central elements of urban wealth in Oslo. These elements are the explosive growth of the city, financial ascendance as well as its geographical location in the south-east corner of the country, this situation being central in all ways. This made the city a midpoint of social and cultural activities.
10 Very little comparative research has been done on the Nordic capital cities, although many monographs on the cities have been published since the end of the nineteenth century. More recent standard works on Copenhagen and Stockholm are Wolke, L. Erikson, Stockholms historia under 750 år (Lund, 2001)Google Scholar; Rasmussen, S.E., Köpenhavn. Et bysamfunds saerpraeg og utvickling gennem tiderne (Copenhagen, 1969)Google Scholar; Nilsson, L. (ed.), Staden på vattnet. Del 1–2 (Stockholm, 2002)Google Scholar.
11 Kent, The Soul of the North, 248–53. Paulsson, Scandinavian Architecture, 132–48.
12 Rasmussen, Köpenhavn, 71–5; Nilsson (ed.), Staden på vattnet. Del 2, 52–9.
13 Oslo bys historie, Bd 3, J.E. Myhre, Hovedstaden Christiania: fra 1814–1900 (Oslo, 1990).
14 Nilsson (ed.), Staden på vattnet. Del 2, 198–206; Myhre, Hovedstaden Christiania, 285–9.
15 Kommunalförvaltningen i Norden 2000, en rapport om kommunalförvaltning i olika nordiska länder, Finlands Kommunförbund (Helsingfors, 2000); Kommunal opgavelosning 1842–1970, red. af J. Kanstrup and S. Ousager (Odense, 1990); historical contribution C.G. Hammarskjöld, Bidrag till tolkning af K. Förordningarne den 21 mars 1862 om kommunalstyrelse på landet och i stad samt om kyrkostämma med ledning af prejudikat (Stockholm, 1888).
16 The standard works of national histories underline this change. See Weibull, J., Swedish History in Outline (Stockholm, 1997)Google Scholar; Henrikson, A., Dansk historia (Stockholm, 1989)Google Scholar, and Achehougs Norges historia, A.-L. Siep, Nasjonen bygges 1830–1970, Bd 9 (Oslo, 1980); and Hegemann, G., Det moderne gjennombrddt (Oslo, 1977)Google Scholar.
17 Telesko, W. (ed.), Der Traum vom Glück. Die Kunst des Historismus in Europa (Vienna, 1996)Google Scholar, is an extensive exhibition catalogue, which collects in many articles the examples of nationalized architecture and historicism in art.
18 Ashley, P., Local and Central Government. A Comparative Study of England. France, Prussia, and the United States (London, 1906), 1–2Google Scholar, ‘in all European nations, whatever may have been the previous course of their constitutional history, the persistent and rapid growth of the functions of the state, and the constant assumption of new and onerous duties and responsibilities in the last century, have rendered some attempts at decentralization and some grants of self-government absolutely necessary, if the national administrations is to be carried on with success’. Fairlie, J.A., Essays in Municipal Administration (New York, 1908), 2–3Google Scholar, ‘This increase in urban communities and urban population has meant much more than a corresponding increase in the work and importance of municipal government. . .; it has brought about new conditions which demanded the exercise of new functions to make life in the cities even as satisfactory as life in the country.’
19 Sutcliffe, Towards the Planned City, 162–5; Rietbergen, P., Europe, a Cultural History (London, 1998), 352–5Google Scholar. A good general survey on the new middle-class groups is Kocka, J. (ed.), Bürger und Bürgerlichkeit im 19. Jahrhunder (Göttingen, 1987), 38–41Google Scholar; and Gunn, S. and Bell, R., Middle Classes. Their Rise and Sprawl (London, 2002)Google Scholar. Morton, G., Vries, B. de and Morris, R.J., Civil Society, Associations and Urban Places. Class, Nation and Culture in Nineteenth-Century Europe (Aldershot, 2006), 2–13.Google Scholar
20 In Sweden the term ‘quiet revolution’ is used by researchers of local history when indicating the importance of municipal decision making. See Kommunerna och lokalpolitiken, rapport från en konferens om modern lokapolitisk historia, ed. L. Nilsson and K. Östberg (Stockholm, 1995).
21 P. Aronsson, ‘Local politics – the invisible political culture’, in Sorensen and Stråth (eds.), The Cultural Construction of Norden, 185–7; Bloxham Zettersten, Nordisk perspektiv på arkitektur, 54–5. Commune reforms were made in Norway 1837, Denmark 1841/1867, Sweden 1862 and Finland 1865/1875. These years play also a central role in the chronology of Scandinavian national histories.
22 Stiehl, O., Das deutsche Rathaus im Mittelalter in seiner Entwicklung geschildert (Leipzig, 1905)Google Scholar.
23 Stiehl, Das deutsche Rathaus im Mittelalter, 10–11, 62–72.
24 Tittler, Architecture and Power, 8–10; Bloxham Zettersten, Nordiskt perspewktiv på arkitektur, 59–63.
25 Wickman, M., The Stockholm city hall (Stockholm, 2003), 22–3Google Scholar; Bloxham Zettersten, Nordiskt perspewktiv på arkitektur, 54–5.
26 The two main books on the city hall of Copenhagen are Haugsted, I. and Lund, H., Kobenhavs Rådshus (Copenhagen, 1996)Google Scholar; and Beckett, F., Kjobenhavns Raadhus (Copenhagen, 1908)Google Scholar.
27 Rådhuset i Oslo, 52–6, 62–78; Wickman, Stockholm city hall, 13–16. Already in 1874 the Christiania Kommunalbygning committee had a programme for the forthcoming city hall: it should house among others magistrates, city council, city administration, law court officials, city engineers and conductors, city auditors and book-keeper, chief guardians and have a library. In Stockholm the committee's main aim was to plan both law courts (including prison cells) and offices for the city council and administration.
28 Wickman, Stockholm city hall, 13–15; Östberg, R., Stockholms stadshus (Stockholm, 1929), 15–17Google Scholar; Eklund, H., Ur Stadshusets historia 1901–1923 (Stockholm, 2003), 13–24.Google Scholar
29 Haugsted and Lund, Kobenhavs Rådshus, 9–15; Beckett, Kjobenhanvs Raadhus, 206–14.
30 Wickman, Stockholm city hall, 17–23; Östberg, Stockholms stadshus, 18–20. Westman started to work with the rådhuset plan and Östberg with stadshuset.
31 Rådhuset i Oslo, 83–4; Grönvold, U., Anker, N. and Sörensen, G. (eds.), Det store löftet. Rådhuset i Oslo (Oslo, 2000)Google Scholar, was published by the City of Oslo in 2000, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the city hall. See ibid., 44–5.
32 Rådhuset i Oslo, 134–8.
33 Ibid., 88–92. Det store löftet, 45–7.
34 Funder, L., Arkitekten Martin Nyrop (Copenhagen, 1979), 7–11Google Scholar
35 Wickman, The Stockholm City Hall, 39–44. Nyrop travelled in 1881 to Berlin, Dresden, Vienna, Prague, Trieste, Venice, Greece and France. Östberg's Grand Tour in 1893 was in the USA (Chicago World Exhibition and New York); later in Europe, he visited Denmark, France, England, Spain, Italy, Greece, Russia, Ukraina and Finland (Östberg, Stockholms stadshus, 13–17).
36 Eliassen, G., Pedersen, A. and Platou, O., Arnstein Arneberg (Oslo, 1952), 13–19Google Scholar; Gronvold, U., ‘Arnebeg og Paulsson – et dobbelmonarki i norsk romantisk arkitektur!’, Byggekunst, 1 (1982), 13–18.Google Scholar
37 Östberg, R., En arkitekts anteckningar (Stockholm, 1928), 137–8Google Scholar. Östberg emphasized the importance of Nyrop's example as a ‘reformer of art’ in Denmark. He gave the tone to the modernist wave, architecture became art and an issue which touched the souls of people. Honesty of form, function, vitality and material were Nyrop's key words. Östberg called him Master.
38 The classic works on collective memory are Nora, P. (ed.), Les lieux de mémoire (Paris, 1984)Google Scholar; and Hobsbawm, E. and Ranger, T. (eds.), The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge, 1983)Google Scholar.
39 Kobenhavns Raadhuus, opfort af Martin Nyrop 1893–1905 (Copenhagen, 1908), translation in the original text.
40 These books are most valuable sources for this article. In Vienna, the new city hall was celebrated with a publication, Weiss, K., Festschrift aus Anlass der Vollendung des neuen Rathauses (Vienna, 1883)Google Scholar. The first pamphlet was Købke, P., Kjøbenhavns Raadhus. En illustreret Vejledning (Copenhagen, 1903)Google Scholar. See also Beckett, Kjobenhavns Raadhus; Roosval, J. (ed.), Stockholms stadshus vid dess invigning midsommarafton 1923 (Stockholm, 1923)Google Scholar; Just, C., Rådhuset i Oslo, Historikk (Oslo, 1950)Google Scholar. Købke was a cultural writer, Beckett and Roosval were art historians, Just was an artist and journalist.
41 P.V. Jensen-Klint, ‘Köpenahvns rådhus, opfört 1893 af arkitekt Martin Nyrop’, Nordisk Tidskrift för vetenskap, konst och industri (1903), 293–314; R. Josephson, ‘Stockholms stadshus’, Ord och Bild, Illustrerad månadskrfit, 30. årgången 1923, 337–51; Byggekunst, 9–10 (1950), Oslo Rådhus.
42 Sorensen and Stråth (eds.), The Cultural Construction of Norden, 14–16.
43 J. Strzygowski, ‘Indoarisches und Nordisch-Sachliches in Östbergs Bau’, in Roosval (ed.), Stockholms stadshus, 341–2.
44 G. Eliassen, ‘Tale till Arnstein Arneberg og Magnus Paulsson ved Oslo Arkitektforeningens festmote i Rådhuset 26. september 1950!’, Byggekunst, 9–10 (1950), 146–7.
45 Beckett, Kjobenhavns Raadhus, 222.
46 Paulsson, Scandinavian Architecture, 202–4, Rasmussen, Nordische Baukunst, 7–10; Zeitler, Skandinavische Kunst um 1900, 194–6; T. Farber, Dansk arkitektur (Copenhagen, 1977), 150–4; Miller Lane, National Romanticism and Modern Architecture, 180–1.
47 During the reign of Gustav Vasa (1523–60) the church was turned into a national institution, the crown confiscated its estates and the Protestant Reformation was introduced in several stages. At the same time the administration was organized along German lines, and power was concentrated in the hands of the king. The position of the crown was strengthened further in 1544 when a hereditary monarchy was introduced.
48 Nilsson (ed.), Staden på vattnet. Del 2, 7–11.
49 Aftenposten (13 May 1950), ‘1050 Oslo 1950’, a special number, with articles on ‘Det gamle Oslo – og det nye’.
50 Svenska Dagbladet (25 June 1923), ‘Stadhusets invigning’; Hufvudstadsbladet (17 Sep. 1905), ‘Invigningen av Köpenhams stadshus’; Aftenposten (15 May 1950), ‘Konelig invigelse av Oslos nye rådhus’; Dagens Nyheter (16 May 1950), ‘Oslo stadshuset invigt’.
51 A detailed description of the dedication party, speeches, etc., is in Roosval (ed.), Stockholms stadshus, 313–29.
52 Dagens Nyheter (21 Jun. 1923), ‘Stockholms gäster här till stadshusinvigning och kommunalkonferens’; Dagens Nyheter (17 May 1950), ‘Festlig uppvaktning av Europas huvudstäder’; Dagens Nyheter (22 May 1923), ‘To the guests of Stockholm’; Aftenposten (16 May 1950), ‘Storslagne gaver og varm hyllest tul Oslo by’.
53 Hufvudstadsbladet (17 Sep. 1905), Invigningen av Köpenhamns stadshus. The speech of Cederborg in Stockholms stadshus vid dess invigning, 5–8, and Stokke in Aftenposten (15 May 1950), ‘Hele landet har varit med på å skape Norges hovestad’.
54 Aftenposten (13 May 1950), ‘Vika og Rådhuset’. Oslo's Rådhuset, still under construction, had played an important role during the war. The building had its own occupation history: in 1940 it became a hospital for German soldiers. Later the German commando centre was located here. But it was big enough to serve also for national purposes. The most important anti-Hitlerian messages were sent from the cellars and the tower of city hall to London and Stockholm. On the day of liberation, 13 May 1945, Crown Prince Olav gave his speech in the city hall.
55 Aftenposten (15 May 1950), ‘Et monument over byens handlekraft, sa Kongen’. In Oslo two new compositions were first performed, Irgens Jensens' Vår egen by (Our own city) and Karl Andersen's Allegro festivo e canto solenne norvegése. Svenska Dagbladet (22 Jun. 1923), ‘Stadhusinvigningen i dag’, also with many parades, music performances and allegoric plays. A special Scandinavian patriotism developed during the nineteenth century, expressed by student (male voice) choirs. See L. Jonsson, Ljusets riddarvakt. 1800–talets studentsång utövad som offetlig samhällskonst (Stockholm, 1990).
56 Cunningham, Victorian and Edwardian Town Halls, 3–7; Sármány-Parsons, ‘Rathausbauten’, 100. Many model books on the architecture of public buildings were published during the late nineteenth century. In German-speaking areas – relevant to Scandinavian architects – the series Gebäude für Verwaltungszwecke (1885) Bd IX, included plans for city halls.
57 Beckett, Kjobenhavns Raadhus, 206–8; Roosvaal (ed.), Stockholms stadshus, 52; Just, Rådhuset i Oslo, 96–7.
58 Anderson, B., Imagined Communities (London, 1991), 36–46Google Scholar; Sonne, W., Representing the State. Capital City Planning in the Early Twentieth Century (Munich, 2004), 20–2Google Scholar. Political iconography was analysed at the beginning of the twentieth century. When the meanings of urban symbols were established, allocations to political systems and urban forms played an important role. Popular was a notion of two systems, the former being typical of despotic societies, the latter of liberal states.
59 Smith, A.D., ‘The origins of nations’, Ethnic and Radical Studies, 12/13 (1989), 249–56Google Scholar.
60 P. Clemens, ‘Das Stadthaus zu Stockholm und die Europäische Monumentalbauten in alter und neuer Zeit’, and M. Aubert, ‘La persistence du type des anciens Hotels de Ville de France dans L'Hotel de Ville de Stockholm’, in Roosvaal (ed.), Stockholms Stadshus; Reinle, A., Zeichensprache der Architektur. Symbolen, Darstellung und Brauch in der Baukunst des Mittelalters und der Neuzeit (Zurich, 1976), 61–8Google Scholar.
61 Just, Rådhuset i Oslo, 253–62; R. Josephson, ‘Stadshuset och stadsplanen’, in Roosvaal (ed.), Stockholms stadshus, 116–33.
62 Ringbom, S., Stone, Style and Truth. The Vogue for Natural Stone in Nordic Architecture 1880–1910 (Vammala, 1987)Google Scholar, discusses how the question of the façade material was raised in Nordic countries already during the 1840s. In the 1890s brick and natural stone were the two materials architects preferred. Josephson, ‘Stadshuset och stadsplanen’, 131.
63 While excavating the foundations of the building, it was discovered that the ancient sea floor had originally extended to this area. Later, here, on the night of 10 February 1659 the Swedes, the ‘old enemy’ of Denmark, made their main assault on Copenhagen. These historical and maritime aspects are seen in the decoration of the edifice.
64 See Aronsson, ‘Local politics – the invisible political culture’; Zettersten, Nordisk perspektiv på arkitetur, 52–4. Communal reforms were seen as an invention of the (liberal) state. This perspective focuses on the role of central government and on the inventiveness of local municipalities.
65 Reinle, Zeichensprache der Architektur, 183–7; Beckett, Kjobenhavns Raadhus, 56–67. Five bells, four small ones for quarter-strokes and one big one for striking the hours, mark the urban time. The bells rang for the first time at New Year 1900. This tradition is now televised nationwide every year. Östberg, En arkitekts anteckingar, 99–111, devoted a chapter in his book to analysing the function and aesthetics of the city hall tower. Just, Rådhuset i Oslo, 148–68. In the first building programme of the city hall of Oslo was a wish for a separate tower inspired by the medievalism of Copenhagen and Stockholm. Several drawings of the architects during 1920s show how, due to the rather narrow location, the idea of tower was reduced and two modern and high elements were linked closely to the building's body.
66 Wickman, The Stockholm City Hall, 109–12; Beckett, Kjobenhavns Raadhus, 224.
67 Beckett, Kjobenhavns Raadhus, 162–9. Nyrop had asked the keeper of the public records, Mr Adolf Ditlev Jorgensen, to make a suggestion for these texts, ‘de vigtigste haendelser i Kjobenhavs Historie’. Many sculptural details represent people and animals that were involved in building the city hall.
68 Roosval (ed.), Stockholms Stadshus, 93–6.
69 Just, Rådhuset i Oslo, 217–22. The main fresco is named Work – Administration – Festivities (by H. Sorensen). Many outstanding Norwegian artists participated and later were involved in the decoration of the city hall, like painters Henrik Sörensen and Alf Rolfsen (Main Hall/Rådhushallen), Axel Revold (Main Festive Gallery) and Johan Wilhelm Midelfart (Banqueting Hall).
70 Beckett, Kjobenhavns Raadhus, 221.
71 Ibid., 222.
72 The Danish O. Romer discovered and computed the velocity of light.
73 Freemantle, K., The Baroque Town Hall of Amsterdam (Utrecht, 1959)Google Scholar; Emeis, M.G., Der Königliche Palast am Dam (Amsterdam, 1976)Google Scholar; Reinle, Zeichensprache der Architektur, 61–8; Cunningham, Victorian and Edwardian Town Halls, 177–213. A detailed description of the town hall in Lübeck is Die Bau- und Kunstdenkmäler der Hansestadt Lübek, Band I, 2. Teil: Rathaus und öffentliche Gebäude der Stadt (Lübeck, 1974), 147–263.
74 Here is not the place to present the artistic programmes, artists and designers in the city halls. The same pattern was repeated three times; a committee was established to plan the decorative scheme. Competitions were arranged to find the best artists and designers to realize these programmes. All this was done together with the architect. In all three cities, the result was the same: city halls became the show rooms for the best local and national art and design. Either the artists were already famous or this work made them immortal at national level. There is not the space here to name all the eminent artists. The decorative scheme is presented in great detail in the books of Beckett, Roosval and Just.
75 Beckett, Kjobenhavns Raadhus, 223.
76 Lejon, K.O., St Erik Legend (Uppsala, 1994)Google Scholar; Wickman, The Stockholm City Hall, 97–9.
