Den Den ny Borger- og Håndværkerforening i Skive – also often called “Den Ny” – was founded in 1882 and became the longest living of the two craftsman associations. After 140 years, “Den Ny” closed in 2022.
The background
In 1857,“Den Gamle” Borger- og Håndværkerforening was founded. Over the years, there were periods of discontent among the members. In 1874, some members chose to break away “in order to be able to gather under other conditions, which one should not feel pressured by”. Nothing more was noted about the reasons.
An invitation was issued to found a club section under Skive Industriforening and 50 people showed up. Any man and woman in Skive and the surrounding area could be admitted as a member if they could be approved by the association’s members. (However, not apprentices and maids).
Harmonien – Club Harmonien
With 75 members, the club called “Harmonien” started in rented premises in Nørregade 3. The club rooms were open from 9 to 23 and there were newspapers, games and books. Lottery games, balls, masked balls, children’s balls, Christmas tree parties and lectures etc. were organized.
After a year, the affiliation with the Industrial Association was dissolved and the association was subsequently called “Klubben “Harmonien”” – but they continued with the same activities.
In January 1881, the club’s premises burned down, and at a subsequent general meeting there was a mood to build their own. They asked the “old” Civic and Craftsmen’s Association if they wanted to join, but to no avail.
A limited company was set up to handle the construction, and the share subscription showed that there was great interest. A plot was purchased in Frederiksgade 8 with the neighbors Morsø Jernstøberi in no. 10 and doctor Ring in no. 6.
Master bricklayer L. Jørgensen designed the house as an extension in Frederiksgade 8, partly with the host’s premises: restaurant and hotel rooms and partly with the association’s own premises, including a reading room and a side building containing an assembly and theater hall. Behind the building was a small garden with a bowling alley and several gazebos.
It had been a great wish to have a theater stage, so far the theater performances had been played on temporary stages on the first floor of Gæstgivergården.
and finally, in 1882, the new Citizens’ and Craftsmen’s Association in Skive with its own house
6. in September 1881, the laws for the new Civic and Craftsmen’s Association were adopted, whose board was to consist of 8 members, 5 elected by the association and 3 by the shareholders. The first chairman was the furrier William Thimm, who had also been chairman of “Harmonien”. Harmonien chose to fully join “Den Ny”.
The inauguration and foundation party was held on Jan. 1, 1882 with the participation of 250 specially invited ladies and gentlemen at a party with many speeches and cheers.
Club life
They met after the day’s work in “Værket” and talked together, read newspapers, played cards or billiards, smoked long pipes, drank coffee, beer or stronger stuff. The members had permanent tobacco drawers that were rented out at the annual general meeting. They discussed municipal and political matters and wanted freedom of discussion, so the gendarmes of Estrup were not allowed to become members of the association. There was also an extensive library to immerse yourself in.
Parties and scholarships etc.
Traditions developed for regular events: New Year’s Eve party, masked ball/carnival, bazaar with diletant, summer excursions, summer concerts, children’s ball, Christmas tree parties and informative lectures.
The events were crowded, and often a good profit could be made that could be used for a good cause.
For many years, the association’s profit-making activities have resulted in scholarships for young people in Skiveegnen to develop their talent in crafts, sports or other activities. Last awarded in March 2022.
Theater performances
As early as March 25, 1882, there was a performance in the new hall. The board had set up a committee to ensure that one of the most famous acting companies of the time – the brothers Theodor and Fr. Müller – came and played 4 different performances in 4 evenings. Normally, they played “at the door” – that is, they rented the theater hall and paid for heat and light and hoped for a full house so they could get some admission revenue. For the first performances, however, the board had to pay a fixed amount.
Politics
It was common for the various associations to put up lists for municipal elections. In 1885, Den ny Borger- og Håndværkerforening nominated candidates for the city council. A trial election was held among the association’s members, and the winning list was published in the newspaper with an invitation to vote for the nominated candidates.
It became customary for “The New” to run together with the Industrial Association and the Trade Association, while the old Civic and Craftsmen’s Association joined forces with temperance organizations on a different list.
Almost all of “Den Ny”‘s candidates were Right-wing men, but the association emphasized that it was “Den Ny” that had drawn up the list and not the Right-wing voters’ association.
“Den Ny” stayed out of party politics, but did not distance itself from the parties, for example, religious and political meetings could be held in the hall, and it would be free to use the hall for the last election meeting before a general election.
This started a tradition of election meetings in “Den Ny” that continued until the 1960s.
Professional and economic interests
“Den Ny” saw itself as an association that, in addition to the social aspects, also looked after the members’ professional and financial interests.
Like other craftsmen’s associations, they worked for a support association for traveling journeymen. The result was “Understøttelsesforeningen for rejsende Haandverksssvende”, which set up journeymen’s homes and a kind of employment agency.
The association became a member of the Centralforeningen for de jyske Håndværkerforeninger and was thus represented by Fællesrepræsentationen for dansk Håndværk og Industri. Through this membership, they could get free travel to the great Industrial Exhibition in 1888, and through a savings association they could send members to the great World Exhibition in Paris in 1900. The Joint Representation also supported the Danish Technological Institute.
The association worked for better infrastructure, first by expanding the railway network and later for better road connections to Herning. They held craft and industrial exhibitions in the theater hall and supported the establishment of a local branch of Dansk Arbejde in 1908.
Over the years, there were fewer and fewer tasks of a professional and advisory nature. In 1913, the masters organized themselves into the Skive Employers’ Association, and the more interdisciplinary tasks such as were taken over by the Skive Business Council in 1941. The apprenticeship exams were handed over to the professional organizations, so in 1945 it was decided to withdraw from the Joint Representation.
Expansions
In 1904, a major renovation and expansion project began. The association bought Frederiksgade 8 from the shareholders. Next, the front building was expanded and in 1906 an extension was added to the theater hall. The rear part of the garden was sold to a consortium that wanted to build Sallinggade. The 25th anniversary party on January 1, 1907 also celebrated the rebuilding.
In 1918, “Den Ny” bought Frederiksgade 10 (with hardware store and Kosmorama). The theater hall was now expanded and the stage was made more spacious. Central heating was installed and the function rooms, the small hall and the restaurant rooms were expanded and decorated. From 1929, there was public access to the Theater Café, which was designed in modern style by architect H. Toft Hansen.
The Craftsman Foundation in Sallinggade
In 1928, “Den Ny” decided to raise money to build a foundation. In 1934, construction began on a 3-storey building (the top floor was the manzard) in the northernmost part of the garden facing Sallinggade, where there were 3 apartments on each floor. According to the charter, the apartments were intended for members / former members or widows of members of “the new”, men > 55 years and women > 50 years with an unblemished name and reputation, and who had been a taxpayer in Skive Købstad for at least 10 years.
The building was inaugurated in 1935.
Guild room, naval room, nave room
In the early 1930s, a room was set up in the Craftsmen’s Association as a meeting room for the city’s master craftsman associations. The hall was a fine example of good craftsmanship. In connection with remodeling and renovation in the 1990s, the guild room was demolished. In 2001, it was moved to Kulturcenter Limfjord.
1942 the nave room was created in “The New”
in 1947, the Marine Association for Skive and the surrounding area set up a naval room.
Cosmorama building and several extensions
in 1938, the general meeting decided to demolish Frederiksgade 10 – from the 1850s – and build a modern functionalist building designed by H. Toft-Hansen. The new building housed 4 shops, apartments and a new and modern Kosmorama with 350 cinema seats.
In 1941, the possibility of advantageous loans from the Danish Employers’ Association led to the construction of a new foyer along the west side of the theater hall.
Unfortunately, the Wehrmacht took Frederiksgade 8 to house German refugees from New Year 1944.
Status in 1957 – association with cultural and social purposes
The chairman described the situation as follows: “…. There is very little left of the professional. But our association still has a unifying character in the city’s social life and association life – in its cultural life, I dare say, when I refer to our work to keep the theater alive and to our lecture activities”
“Den Ny” was first and foremost an association with cultural and social purposes, and it ran “the city’s largest meeting house”. In the years after the war, membership reached around 1500 – about one in 10 Skibonites.
Deficit
At the end of the fifties, the association ran large deficits for several years in a row, and it was mainly theater performances that were the cause. As a result, the association gave up organizing theatre itself, and for a few years, only various theatre companies tried their hand.
In 1968, theater enthusiasts led by teacher Per Haugaard Jensen formed Skive og Omegns Teaterkreds, and regular theater performances in Skive Theater began again.
Frederiksgade 8 and 10 sold
There were problems running the restaurant and getting it leased out, and attendance at the revenue-generating balls began to dwindle. In 1977, it was decided to sell both buildings in Frederiksgade. No. 8 with restaurant and theater hall with inventory was sold to Skive Municipality for DKK 850,000 – about half of the property valuation. The municipality handed over the operation of Frederiksgade 8 to an independent institution “Skive Teater og Forsamlingsbygning”.
Frederiksgade 10 was sold to one of the tenants – hardware store owner Jens Saustrup – for 1.5 min. kr. All that remained was the foundation in Sallinggade, which was renovated for 2.2 min. kr. in 1989, including the establishment of private bathrooms in the apartments.
From 1982, the association rented a basement room in Teatercafeen as a permanent meeting room – called “Kælderhalsen”. The association continued to hold on to some of the activities such as birthday parties and Christmas lotteries – the Christmas parties for children had to be held shortly before the 100th birthday.
Termination of the association in 2022
In 2022, the association’s general meeting noted that membership was down to around 100 and the average age was high.
The chairman noted that time was running out for an association of this type. The board resigned and there were no candidates for a new board. At an extraordinary general meeting, no board members could be found and the association decided to aim for closure.
The closure was decided at another extraordinary general meeting on May 5, 2022
Chairmen :
- 1881 Tinsmith William Thimm
- 1886 Watchmaker N. C Melgaard
- 1891 Rope butcher P. A. Petersen
- 1903 Tinsmith William Thimm
- 1912 Goldsmith Søren Melgaard
- 1943 Director Jacob Laursen
- 1969 Wholesaler C. G. A. Nielsen
- 1971 Master painter Johan Nielsen
- 1974 Dance teacher Preben Lykke
- 1975 Master painter Johan Nielsen
- 1977 Printer Harry Frederiksen
- 1983 Letterpress printer Hans H. Laursen
- 1997 Bookkeeper Inga Andersen
- 2006 Home economics teacher Birthe M. Andersen
- 2012 to 2022 Torben Manthai
Honorary members:
- Cinema director Emil Andersen
- Head teacher Per Haugaard Jensen
- Director Cort Larsen
Sources :
- Den ny Borger-og håndværkerforeningen i Skive 1882 – 2007, by Niels Mortensen
- Skive Folkeblad, April – May 2022