BYENS PLAN - Dansk Center for Byhistorie

English Summary
This paper aims at analyzing how the public health movement of Copenhagen has had an
influence on town planning during the period of 1844-1865. The focus of this analysis has
been on the agitation of the public health movement for : 1. Sanitary reforms such as water
supplies and sewerage. 2. A sound housebuilding for the working class and building
regulations in general. The empirical analysis is founded on inspirational sources such as
Foucault’s discourse analysis and a thorough examination of the semantic transformation of
the idea of sanitation.
The public health movement was a loose grouping of people from different professions,
doctors, engineers, politicians and priests etc, who were bound together by the ardent interest
for the sanitary cause. In the 1840’s the movement introduced the hygienic discourse to the
Copenhagen public. The hygienic discourse favoured public sanitary measures and the state
of health for the city’s citizens to the economical interests of the landowning few. The public
health movement had, due to its agitation, a profound influence on the rising modern town
planning after the abolition of absolute monarchy in Denmark in 1848. In terms of shaping
the future development of Copenhagen the chief competitors to the hygienic discourse were
the reform skeptical attitudes of conservative and national-liberal politicians.
First of all the agitative strategy of the public health movement was using “evidence” from
the natural sciences as arguments for town planning . This strategy provided the public health
movement with convincing arguments that could persuade the politicians in the decision
making. Second of all the public health movement advanced their opinions on many levels of
society : In the public debate of the press, journals and congresses. Furthermore members of
the movement worked as local government officials and in the municipal council’s health
board and different sanitary committees. These individuals could due to their offices exert
tremendous indirect influence on public town planning. And finally, certain members of the
public health movement achieved direct influence on town planning by participating in
politics on local and national levels.
To sum up, the public health movement in Copenhagen slowly but surely altered the
conception of town planning to include taking into consideration the wellbeing of the city’s
inhabitants. And hereby the movement achieved an astounding influence on public and
private town planning initiatives in Copenhagen.
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