Families living in Copenhagen’s libertarian Christiana neighbourhood, an old hippie paradise tainted in recent years by drug trafficking violence, have taken out their anger at the local cannabis trade by ripping up the street used by dealers.
Young children, elderly residents and even the city’s mayor and Denmark’s justice minister were among those present as cobblestones of Christiana’s famous Pusher Street were torn up on Saturday.
Under spring sunshine, locals got to work with wheelbarrows, spades and crowbars, while police cleared away the dealers’ former market stands, where cannabis used to be sold freely.
In late August, the so-called Christianites decided to close the street, known for its hashish stalls, after the fourth murder in three years shattered the image of a free-spirited and peaceful community.
Pusher Street ‘has deteriorated into being a really not very nice place,’ Hulda Mader, a community spokeswoman said. ‘They fight each other, they fight people and they are violent.’
Young children and elderly residents were among those ripping up the cobbles on Pusher Street
Under spring sunshine, locals got to work with wheelbarrows, spades and crowbars
A toddler in wellies watches as locals rip up the street in the former hippie community – which is home to around 250 children
On Saturday, some nostalgic locals came to take away souvenir cobblestones
The graffiti-covered community in the centre of Copenhagen is home to around 1,000 residents
A pile of cobblestones is pictured at Pusher Street, in Copenhagen, Denmark, on April 6
Visiting Christiana last week, the BBC reported that there were around 20 sellers operating in the area. Police have said they clear out shops there ‘100 times a year’.
‘If you have a conflict between groups in Copenhagen, they can most likely find each other in Pusher Street where they can shoot at each other,’ Deputy Police Inspector Simon Hansen, who oversees the police operation in Christiania, told the broadcaster.
One incident last summer saw a 30-year-old man killed and others injured in a shooting linked to organised crime, with three more deadly shootings since 2020.
Now many, including the government and the city’s mayor, have declared that enough is enough.
Lord Mayor Sophie Haestorp Andersen said: ‘As a city, we cannot live with [the violence], and the local Christianites have not been able to live with it either, but had been afraid to do something radically about it.
‘I told them I would back them up. Now we have a plan and we’re taking the first step.’
On Saturday, some nostalgic locals came to take away souvenir cobblestones.
‘It’s a reminder of Christiana, what it used to be and what it isn’t any more,’ Adam Hovgaard, a 23-year-old resident of Copenhagen said.
While the shops have always reappeared after being destroyed by the police, this time the actual removal of the cobblestones is intended to prevent them being resurrected.
‘We’ll take the cobblestones and give them to people who want some. That’s just a sign that Pusher Street is changing from a pushers’ street to something else,’ Mader explained.
City Mayor of Copenhagen, Sophie Haestorp Andersen (L) and Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard arrive as the residents of Christiania jointly dig up the cobblestones at Pusher Street
Families flocked to the site on Saturday. The ‘free city’ is a major tourist attraction
Dozens of people gathered on the street to get involved with the dig, or watch the spectacle unfold
A resident of the Christiania neighbourhood pulls down a neon lamp on a building at Pusher Street
For Mader, who is in her 70s and has lived in the area since 1994, support from most of the area’s residents is essential.
Despite the ‘free city’s’ long history of resistance towards the establishment, the dismantling of the street architecture is being carried out in cooperation with the police and the City of Copenhagen.
‘Their commitment is crucial,’ Lord Mayor Andersen said. ‘It is the first time ever that they united and agreed to take a stand against the rising crime and insecurity in their neighbourhood.
‘Digging up the street and making it a construction site will inevitably make it very difficult to sell. But it’s just the beginning,’ she said.
In 1971, a group of hippies founded the ‘Free City of Christiania’ in an abandoned military barracks to create a municipality that, according to its statute, ‘belongs to everyone and to no one’ and where every decision is taken collectively.
Residents of the Christiania neighbourhood jointly dig up the cobblestones at Pusher Street
Children participate as residents of the Christiania neighbourhood dig up the cobblestones at Pusher Street
The dismantling of the street architecture is being carried out in cooperation with the police and the City of Copenhagen
In the 84-acre (34-hectare) waterside enclave, the sale and consumption of cannabis is illegal but tolerated, making it a hotspot for drug trafficking.
‘About five or 10 years ago, it was primarily locals. But right now we see that it’s mostly gangs and biker gangs that drive this drug market,’ Copenhagen police officer Simon Hansen explained.
Since Christiania, contrary to urban legend, is part of Denmark, police raids in the area have become more frequent.
‘For too long we have accepted that pushers were selling weed and drugs like strawberries and freshly picked peas in a market,’ Haestorp Andersen said.
In August, the locals blocked access to the free city for non-residents for one day ‘in the hope of freeing Christiania from the tyranny of gangs’. The neighbourhood usually sees around half a million tourists a year.
Residents of the Christiania neighbourhood pass on a cobblestone dug up at Pusher Street
Along with the wish to end drug trafficking, the community wants to capitalise on the neighbourhood’s postcard image and artistic vitality
Residents used crow bars to pull up the cobbles one by one, before moving them away from the site
The police arrested some 900 people in connection with drug trafficking in the area in 2023. No figures were given for the quantities of drugs seized.
But with this ‘new chapter’, the residents want to ‘clean up (the street) and make it nice,’ Mader said.
‘We’ll paint the buildings and rebuild them and all sorts of things.
‘We want to be associated with what we were associated with before…. art, culture and plays,’ she continued, making it ‘a nice place for people to come and chill out’.
Christiania is located on an island abundant with greenery, and filled with the sound of birds chirping.
A women’s band parades at Pusher Street, in Copenhagen, Denmark, on April 6, after residents of the Christiania neighbourhood dug up cobblestones to officially mark the closure of the street
It is home to 1,000 people, including around 250 children, with families living in the grafitti-covered barracks and wooden cottages.
Along with the wish to end drug trafficking, the community wants to capitalise on the neighbourhood’s postcard image and artistic vitality.
It also aims to start constructing housing for about 300 new residents.
Though the details of the project have not yet been decided, residents hope it will attract families with children, as a quarter of the population is currently over the age of 60.