I’m just back from a little break in Copenhagen (among other places), and the Nansen enthusiast in me can’t resist looking for traces of him wherever I go.
So, imagine my delight when I discovered that my hotel was just off FRIDTJOF NANSENS PLADS! Yes, the square in Østerbro, where Østbanegade, Strandboulevarden and Kastelsvej meet, was renamed in 1930 after Nansen’s death. It had previously been called Gefions Plads. With so many other streets in the area bearing Norwegian names, it seems particularly fitting that Nansen should have his own square here – all the more so because several embassies are now located around it.
Another Nansen connection appeared quite unexpectedly when I was exploring Christiansborg Palace – home to the Danish Parliament, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Supreme Court, as well as the Royal Reception Rooms, Palace Chapel and Royal Stables. Walking through one of the arches, I spotted a commemorative plaque and bust of Hans Nansen.
Hans Nansen was a Danish trader and explorer who travelled to the White Sea region of the Arctic Ocean and later became Copenhagen’s borgmester (mayor) in 1654. And you got it, he was an early ancestor of Fridtjof Nansen!
Ancher Antoni Nansen was the first of the Nansen family to settle in Norway, then under Danish rule, in the mid-18th century. His son, Hans Leierdahl Nansen, became a magistrate in the Trondheim district and later in Jæren, before representing Stavanger in the first Norwegian Storting. His son was Baldur Fridtjof Nansen, father of THE legendary Nansen.
And finally, there was one Nansen connection that I deliberately sought out. I knew that the wealthy Danish merchant and businessman Augustin Gamél had been an important private backer of Nansen’s 1888 Greenland crossing, contributing 5,000 DKK (approx. £12,000). Nansen visited Gamél in Copenhagen before the expedition at his offices in Østergade 27.
There is, sadly, no trace of Gamél’s old coffee trading business today. The building has long since been replaced by the modern Companys department store, but I went to have a look anyway. Because when you’re a Nansen enthusiast, standing outside the place where he once stood is reason enough to make the pilgrimage.
And one final thing to note, although not directly Nansen-related, is the Denmark Expedition Memorial on Langelinie. This sculpted boulder commemorates Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen, Niels Peter Høeg Hagen and Jørgen Brønlund who died on the Denmark Expedition to North-East Greenland in 1907. The expedition and its tragic ending are much less well known outside Denmark, so it was particularly nice to come across this memorial and see their names remembered in Copenhagen.
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