Hippies in Denmark May Be Evicted

AP, Thursday 11 December 2003 4:01 AM

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP)—The residents of Copenhagen's famed hippie enclave can be evicted because the Danish state gave them the right to borrow the land—not rent it—in 1989, government lawyers said in a legal review released Wednesday.

In 1971, hippies moved into a derelict 18th century navy fort and proclaimed their freewheeling society on 84 acres of state-owned land behind Copenhagen's old ramparts. They dubbed it Christiania and turned it into a flower-power community with psychedelic-painted buildings, where people advocated nudity, free marijuana, no government, no cars and no cops.

In 1987, Christiania was recognized as a social experiment and two years later the then-government allowed the residents to use the land.

Since the Liberal-Conservative government took office in 2001, it has promised to end the open sale of hashish at Christiania, clear the former navy barracks-turned-community and erect upscale housing complexes on what it called an attractive real estate.

Christiania has been borrowing the area from the state, they have not been renting it, said Karsten Hagel-Soerensen, representing the government's law firm.

The 1989 agreement can be terminated because they are not renting the land, Hagel-Soerensen concluded in a 23-page legal report. A one-year (eviction) notice is considered an acceptable notice, he added.

There was no immediate reaction from the government or Christianites, as the 1,000 residents are known. In the past two years, they have staged several demonstrations to protest the government's plan.

The legal report will be included in the government's official outline for Christiania's future, which is expected to be presented next year.