THE general strike and subsequent street fighting between the German occupying forces in June 1944 was the largest single confrontation between the Danish population and the occupying forces. The uprising was also a clear signal that the population listened more to the resistance movement than to the politicians who collaborated with the occupiers.

In June 1944, the people of Copenhagen — led by the working class — rebelled against the Nazi occupation of Denmark.

Denmark was occupied from April 9 1940 to May 5 1945. Successive Danish governments collaborated with the German occupying forces until October 29 1943, when the government resigned. However, the state apparatus continued to collaborate with the occupying forces.

With widespread strikes and riots in the streets of Copenhagen, the population brought the terrifying Nazi military machine in Denmark to a standstill and showed who was ultimately in charge on the streets.

The protests began on Monday June 26 1944, when 1,200 workers at the B&W shipyard downed tools.

The walkout was a protest against the state of emergency that the German occupying forces had introduced the day before.

The occupying forces imposed a curfew, forcing Copenhageners to stay indoors from 8pm to 5am.

In addition, it was forbidden to gather in groups of more than five people on public roads and squares. A ban on indoor public gatherings was also introduced.

The occupying power’s attempt to suppress the people of Copenhagen came after a widespread resurgence of armed resistance against the German occupying forces: in June, the resistance movement BOPA and several other resistance movements had carried out some of their largest and most successful sabotage operations during the war, culminating in the bombing of the “Riffelsyndikatet,” an arms factory, owned by shipping magnate AP Moller-Maersk, on June 22 1944.
The radio factory “Neutrofon” and the aircraft factory “Globus,” which made tail pipes for the German air force, and several other companies were also sabotaged.

B&W workers start protests
The occupying power’s state of emergency forced 1,200 B&W workers to go home. They agreed that if they had to go to bed early in the evening, they would leave work earlier.

Later that day — Monday June 26 — the communist faction at B&W held a meeting. They agreed to try to start a protest against the occupying forces’ curfew and encourage workers at other companies in Copenhagen to go home at noon.

In the evening, the work stoppage spread to spontaneous demonstrations. Especially in the working-class neighbourhoods of Vesterbro and Norrebro, residents lit bonfires and refused to comply with the curfew imposed by the occupying forces.

The occupying forces responded by deploying soldiers and the paramilitary Schalburg Corps, who drove around the streets shooting at random.

The Schalburg Corps was a paramilitary Danish corps established in April 1943 to support the German occupying forces. The corps carried out acts of terror against the Danish resistance movement and Danish society in retaliation for acts of resistance. 
The corps also carried out revenge killings of well-liked Danes when a German soldier or informer was killed.
A total of seven people were killed and 29 wounded by German soldiers and the Schalburg Corps on June 26.
The next day, the B&W workers again went home early.

At the same time, the strike spread to several hundred workplaces in Copenhagen — from offices and factories to ports and many other places.

The illegal communist newspaper Land & Folk wrote about the B&W workers’ walkout.

The Danish Communist Party (DKP) distributed leaflets at workplaces, calling on workers to go home at noon until the curfew was lifted.

At the same time, the social democratic section of the trade union movement tried to end the work stoppages.

The Blacksmiths‘ Union issued a circular rejecting support for the strike and condemning those who had initiated it, and the Employers’ Association distanced itself from the strike.

But the appeals from the Social Democratic section of the trade union movement and the employers had no effect:

The work stoppages and protests continued. The people of Copenhagen continued to demonstrate in the streets, building barricades and lighting bonfires.
On Thursday evening, three people were killed and 30 wounded by the occupying forces. And 75 were arrested by the Danish police.

On Friday June 30 1944, tram workers, commuter train staff, postmen and female telephone operators also downed tools. The general strike in Copenhagen was a reality.

The DKP and the resistance movement lock horns with the Social Democrats
The widespread protests caused the Social Democrats to turn against the workers who had stopped work and the rest of Copenhageners who had taken to the streets in protest against the Nazi occupation forces.

On Friday evening, former Social Democratic Prime Minister Vilhelm Buhl visited the Freedom Council.

The Freedom Council was formed on September 16 1943 by representatives of the most important illegal political organisations (the Communist Party of Denmark (DKP), “Frit Danmark,” “Dansk Samling” and the intelligence network “Ringen”) as a co-ordinating body for the resistance struggle during the occupation.

The Freedom Council was the closest thing Denmark had to an alternative government during the occupation in World War II. The aim was to co-ordinate the work of the various resistance groups against the German occupying forces. The council set up a number of subcommittees to deal with issues such as the distribution of weapons and the illegal press.

Buhl tried to persuade the Freedom Council to intervene in the protests and call on the population to end the strike and return to work. The Freedom Council refused, and as soon as Buhl had left, it issued a proclamation stating that the strikes would continue.

For the occupying power, the general strike was a disaster that threatened to spread and paralyse the entire industrial and food production in Denmark, which was a major source of supplies for Nazi Germany.

On July 1, 4,000 German soldiers surrounded Copenhagen and sealed off the capital.

The occupying forces deployed military patrols in the streets, occupied a number of important supply facilities and cut off water, gas and electricity. Copenhagen was placed under siege and cut off from the outside world.

The people of Copenhagen were forced to cook their food over open fires and fetch water from the city’s lakes.

German warplanes flew low over the city’s rooftops. German troops with artillery were moved to the Copenhagen area and surrounded the capital.

The occupying forces used radio broadcasts and posters to try to intimidate the people of Copenhagen into stopping the uprising immediately.

Collaborationist politicians and a number of civil servants entered into negotiations with the occupying forces to stop the strikes and protests.

The Social Democratic leaders of a number of trade unions, together with the leaders of a number of employers’ organisations, issued an appeal via radio, posters and loudspeaker vans to the people of Copenhagen to stop the strikes and the uprising.

But their words fell on deaf ears.

The posters were torn down and the loudspeaker trucks were met with stones: the forces that tried to co-operate with the occupying power no longer had any influence among the population.

Defying the occupiers’ terror and the calls of the collaborationist politicians
On the morning of Saturday July 1, the Freedom Council published its appeal to the people of Copenhagen to continue the strike.

The appeal, which was distributed in thousands of copies, set out four demands: The hated Schalburg Corps was to be expelled from the country. The occupying power’s state of emergency and siege of Copenhagen were to be lifted, and the supply of electricity, water and gas resumed. Finally, the occupying power was to refrain from any form of reprisals against the people’s strike.

The Copenhageners’ rebellion continued. So did the occupying power’s terror. On the first of July, 23 people were killed and 203 wounded in clashes between German soldiers and the population.

Sympathy strikes were launched in a number of towns on the island of Zealand. This put further pressure on the German commander-in-chief in Denmark, Werner Best.

On Sunday July 2 1944, the Social Democratic leadership — headed by former Social Democratic Prime Minister Vilhelm Buhl and several other collaborationist politicians, department heads, trade union leaders and the employers’ association — again issued their demand that the population resume work.

On the same day, the Freedom Council distributed leaflets calling on the population to continue the strike.

The population ignored — once again — the demands of the Social Democrats and the rest of the collaborationist politicians, trade union leaders and employers’ association to stop the strike and the uprising.

Instead, the population listened to the communists, the resistance movement and the Freedom Council, which, despite being banned, had far greater influence and legitimacy among the population.

On Monday evening, former Prime Minister Buhl and the leading conservative member of the Danish Parliament, Ole Bjorn Kraft, along with representatives of workers and employers, called on the radio — once again — for work to resume the next day, Tuesday, “to avoid the accidents that would otherwise affect the population.”

The population ignored — again — the collaborationist politicians and continued the protests.

Finally, Werner Best had to lift the siege and the state of emergency, withdraw the Schalburgkorps from the streets and refrain from any reprisals against the people’s strike.

The Freedom Council proclaimed victory and called on the people of Copenhagen to resume work on Wednesday.

In its declaration, which was distributed to the population on Monday evening and Tuesday morning, the Freedom Council stated that the general strike had “underlined the unbreakable unity of the people and confirmed our strength and solidarity” and that the strike was “only a prelude to the decisive battle that lies ahead.”