The

National Museum of Denmark The National Museum of Denmark (Nationalmuseet) in Copenhagen is Denmark's largest museum of cultural history, comprising the histories of Danish and foreign cultures, alike. The museum's main building is located a short distance from Strøge ...

's new

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical History (derived ) is the systematic study and th ...

, Brede Works, lies in the countryside just north of

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establishe ...

's largest, protected industrial plants. At the museum of Industrial culture, the visitors can be guided around by its own virtual person between old machines, hear how Denmark became an industrial society and even try to work at an

assembly line An assembly line is a manufacturing process (often called a ''progressive assembly'') in which parts (usually interchangeable parts) are added as the semi-finished assembly moves from workstation to workstation where the parts are added in sequ ...

. The

exhibition An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibiti ...

s show the industrial development which has changed the everyday lives of the Danes over the past few centuries. Along the millstream Mølleåen there have been

watermill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the productio ...

s since the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

. Over time they have helped to process copper,

grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit ( caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legu ...

, gunpowder etc. From 1832 until it was closed down in 1956 textiles were produced at Brede Works. The historic industrial plant Brede Works gives an impression of a tightly knit factory community with production buildings, workers' and master-craftsmen's homes, the factory-owner's country home, an 'eating house', a day-nursery for the children, a plant nursery and park. Today the buildings house the museum and the National Museum of Denmark's Conservation Department.

History

Early history

Brede Watermill is already mentioned as a grain mill in the 14th century. Ot was converted into a gunpowder mill in 1628,

The copper mill

Henrik Ehm, the owner of

Hammermøllen Hammermøllen was a set of water mills at Hellebæk Hellebæk is a town located on the coast five kilometres northwest of Helsingør, North Zealand, some 40 kilometres north of Copenhagen, Denmark. It has merged with the neighbouring community ...

Helsingør Helsingør ( , ; sv, Helsingör), classically known in English as Elsinore ( ), is a city in eastern Denmark. Helsingør Municipality had a population of 62,686 on 1 January 2018. Helsingør and Helsingborg in Sweden together form the northe ...

, acquired Brede Works from Henrik Rosenmeyer's heirs in 1668. He also acquired Fuflevad Watermill, Stenhuggergården. He converted it into a copper mill.

Ludvig Manthey Johan Georg Ludvig Manthey (3 June 1769 - 18 January 1842) was a Danish pharmacist. He owned the Lion Pharmacy in Copenhagen from 1791 to 1805, managed Ørholm and Brede Works from 1805 to 1811 and served as director of the Royal Copenhagen Porc ...

, who had until then owned the Lion Pharmacy in Copenhagen, served as manager of Brede Works and Ørholm from 1805 to 1811.

Brede Textile Factory

Johan Carl Modeweg established a textile factory in Copenhagen in 1809, after he had accidentally become the owner of a couple of weaves. The number of weaves had ten years later grown to 16. He had by 1832 run out of space at his old address and therefore decided to move his operations out to the hydropower at Brede Works. He bought the complex in a partnership with other investors but became its sole owner in 1835. Brede Klædefabrik

Modeweg passed's son J.E. Modeweg (1813-1869) became a partner in the company in 1849 and became its sole owner following his father's death in 1849. His widow continued the operations for a few years after his death but sold it in 1872 to Carl Albeck (1830-1905) and William Salomonsen (1842-1900). Albeck sold his share of the company to Salomonsen in 1879. Edmund Daverkosen (1854-1918) became a partner in 1887 while Carl C. Jensen (1853-1922) became an ''associés''. 300 workers worked at the factory by 1888. The company was in 1895 converted into a limited company (''

aktieselskab ''Aktieselskab'' (; abbr.: A/S, or a/s, Unicode ; literally meaning: "stock company") is the Danish name for a stock-based corporation. An ''aktieselskab'' may be either publicly traded or private. Liability The shareholders of an ''aktieselska ...

'')) with Daverkosen and Jensen as managing directors. The factory closed in 1956.

Later history

The buildings were taken over by the

in the 1960s.

Museum exhibitions

The exhibition '' Industrial Society'' tells the daily history of the ordinary Dane towards the modern society and the importance of the industrial products for everyday life by using things from the time, sound, light and movie clips. At the ''Factory'' you can experience the greatest female job of the 1800s which was the cloth mill with big machines and

Dyeing Dyeing is the application of dyes or pigments on textile materials such as fibers, yarns, and fabrics with the goal of achieving color with desired color fastness. Dyeing is normally done in a special solution containing dyes and particu ...

. In the exhibition ''The Machinery'' the visitors can work together along two assembly lines, which can produce

ball bearing A ball bearing is a type of rolling-element bearing that uses balls to maintain the separation between the bearing races. The purpose of a ball bearing is to reduce rotational friction and support radial and axial loads. It achieves this ...

s to the world market. The exhibition ''Industrial beginnings'' show the story of the factories and the small communities along the millstream, Mølleåen. Brede Works produced

gunpowder Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate ( saltpeter) ...

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish ...

and textiles. Around 1900 the textile factory had grown to a small community with homes, a crèche, school, shop and dining house. The last exhibitions ''Dressed in Time'' show the history of fashion from top to toe. Almost 200 garments show how the Danes have looked on everyday and festive occasions from the 1700s to the present day. A Virtual Experience at the Museum Maskine close up Brede Værk (2)

Each visitor is given an ActiveTicket, which tell the story of working life at the cloth mill, the growth of industrial society and the

welfare state A welfare state is a form of government in which the state (or a well-established network of social institutions) protects and promotes the economic and social well-being of its citizens, based upon the principles of equal opportunity, equitab ...

through new technology. The visitor can choose a virtual guide who will appear among the machines and tell about the working day.

References

External links

Official website of Brede WorksOfficial website of the National Museum of Denmark
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brede Works Museums in Copenhagen History museums in Denmark Industry museums Industrial buildings in Copenhagen Listed industrial buildings in Copenhagen Danish companies established in 1810