Kulturudvalget 2013-14
KUU Alm.del Bilag 162
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.l'ii ]r'.iA {
\ir,rrhor,isittheDanish
island
ofAerø,
prettymuch
everythingcan
seem
stuckin
a
1950stime-warp.
This
is
less
true ofthe main
tovrn,
Marstal,where unsympa-
thetic
modern
developments
have
intruded into
the
tight-
knit
web
ofnarrow
streets and
left
it
with
a
rather
moth-eaten
feel.
Thatthis
is
notthecasein therival
tovm
ofAerøskøbing
has
agreatdeal
to
dowith
the
sculptor
GunnarHammerich
(1893-1977),who
during
his
long
residence here
managed
to
inculcate in
the local
people
an
appreciation
of the need
to
conserve
their
heritage. The
result
is
arguably
the
best-pre-
served,
most attractive
small
town
in
Denmark.
centuries the
town
was
eclipsed
byMarstal,
which
quickly
grewto
three times the
size
ofAerøskøbing
as
abusycentre
for long-distance
trading.
The
place
that Hammerich fell
in love
with
in
1913 was
consequentlyin
a
state
of
arrested
development,
where the
population
was
in
decline and
verylittle
had happened
architecturally for
a
century
or
so.
Hammerich,
meanwhile, had decided
that
commerce
was
not for him,
and that
he
must
be an
artist,
above
ail
a
sculptor. A substantial
inheritance from
his
father,
which
market, meant
that
he
was able
to study
at
the
Danish Royal Academy
of
Arts, from which
he
graduated
in
1916.
Further visits to
Aerøskøbing
had
confirmed
his
love
of the place, and
that
same
year
he
bought
a
small
half-timbered
house
in
the
centre of tor,m
as a
holiday home, adding
even
smaller ad-
joining
properties
in
I9l9
and
192I.
By
this time
he
had begun the
almost
obsessive
collect-
ing
of
folk
artefacts
from
Aerø and the
neighbouring
is-
lands
of the
southern Danish archipelago,
as
well
as
from
Schleswig,
the Danish-speaking
southern part
ofthe ]utland
peninsula.
Lost
to Germany in
the
war of
1864
but
partially
recovered
in
the
negotiations
after
World
War I
-
in
which
Denmark
had
remained neutral
-
Schleswig
stirred Ham-
merich's
nationalist inclinations,
the more
so
because"
through
hisbrother
(a
diplomatwho
took part
in the
nego-
tiations),
he
was able
to
garner
a
number
of commissions
for monuments
and
memorial
stones
there.
he
invested cannily on
the
Copenhagen stock
i::1
Hammerichwas
not
at
all
alocalbyorigin,
havingbeen
born
the
son
ofa prosperous Copenhagen
engineer.
How-
ever,
his
motherwas
a
doctor's
daughterfrom
Svendborg,
the
main
port
of
departure
for
ferries to Aerø, which
may
bewhyhebegan adultlife
as
an
apprenticein
a
merchant's
warehouse
there.
In
Svendborg
he
met
a
teacher at
the
technical school who
not only fired him with
enthusiasm
for old buildings but
also suggested
that
he
should take
a
look
at
Aerøskøbing, which
he
did
in
1913.
Although
it
received its
charter
in
1398,
Aerøskøbing's
heyday had been
the
17th
and
l Sth
centuries, which
is
the
period
ofthe majority ofits
surviving
buildings.
The
pros-
perity that resulted
from fishing
and
trading
generated an
extremely
pleasing
variety
of
houses,
very
few
of them
grand
but
together
close-lining
the
cobbled
streets
to cre-
ate
a
perfect
piece
oftownscape. In
the
late
18th
and 19th
:
t''
,
t -.i-
i-
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In
the
1920s
Hammerich took
an
extended sabbatical
to travel
around
Europe and beyond. The
final
leg
found
him in
Brazil, where
n
L927
he made
porlrait
busts
of
an
Amazonian chieftain
and his son.
When
he
returned
to
Denmark
he
brought with him
a
brilliantly
coloured
par-
rot, which
accompanied
him
everywhere perched on
his
shoulder; when
it
died
he
had
it
stuffed and displayed
on
the
wall
of the
Aerøskøbing
holiday
house. The next
year,
following
the death
ofhis doting but disapproving
mother,
he
married
his
long-standing
German
girlfriend
Emma
fochims.
They never had
children, but this
appeared
not
to
matter,
as
Hammerich
was
highly
sociable, and
a
constant
stream of Copenhagen
friends found their
way to Aerø.
He
commemorated their
visits by
making
ceramic mugs
bear-
ing the relevant name and
date,
which
were then hung
from
the
ceiling
beams
ofhis living room.
The collecting resumed. The
1930s
were
a
particularly
fruitfirl
period
for this,
since the
prolonged
economic
cri-
sis
made
local
people eager
to
sell. Even the
two larger
rooms
ofhis
holidayhousewere quite
small,
andhis acqui-
sitions
were
increasingly shoehorned in
with
a
view
to
achieving
maximum
capacity
rather than artistic
ef[ect.
By
the
time
ofhis
death the house
contained
some 3,500
ob-
jects
and around
2,000
Dutch
tiles
-
some
of
the
latter
ac-
quired
in
South Jutland, the others
from
Aerø
houses
to
which
they had
been
brought
back by sailors.
As each
pur-
chase
arrived it
was
carefully catalogued
in Hammerich's
,
elegant
hand,
with
an
accompanying watercolour
illustra-
tion,
a
note
ofwhat
he
had
paid,
and the circumstances.
By
the
time
he
and his
wife decided
to become
fi.rll-time
residents of
Aerøskøbing
in
1943
it
was clear that the
little
house
at 22
Gyden
was an
impossibility for
occupation,
so
theybought
in
additionwhat
is
probablythe
largesthouse
in
town.
Hammerich
became
ever
more
a
lynchpin
oflocal soci-
ety,
settingup
the
town's first cinema,
where
he
sat at
the
door
selling tickets and
smoking
his
trademark
cigar. The
collec-
tion continuedtobe
shorm
tohis
guests,
andwas
availableto
anyone
elsewho expressedinterest.
In
196Thepresentedboth
building
and
contents
to the to'wn,
alongwith
the plaster
ma-
quettes
for
manyofhis
own sculptures.
Small-town
residents
can be
slow to
accept
high-profile incomers into their
ranks,
but
over the course
ofsix
decades
the
charismatic
sculptor
from
distant Copenhagen made
himselfAerøskøbing's
best-
known
and mayåe
best-valued citizen. Æl
the
while
he
was
imperceptibly
educating them
into
a
greater
awareness
ofthe
town's
special
architectural
quaLities
-
in the early
1960s,
for
instance, when the picturesque
gas
street lamps were due
to
be
replacedbyintrusive
new
ones, he
persuaded the
council
that
abettersolutionwouldbe
to
convertthe
old
ones
to elec-
tricity. If
aesthetically
aware
tourists now
make
a
beeline
for
Aerøskøbing rather than Marstal,
it
is
perhaps
because
the
onehad
a
Hammerich andthe
otherdid
notr
Hammerichs
Hus, 22 Gyden,
5970
Aerøskøbing,
Denmark,
For
opening times,
ing00
45 62
52
29 50,
or
visit arremus.dk
vlpvE l,^bRLll
c€
INTEF-{
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