Apparently there's no other place in the world that has been ravaged and destroyed by war as many times as the southern part of Sweden called Scania (that's where I live). Scania used to be Eastern Denmark for centuries. For over 500 years, Swedes and Danes fought over Scania and almost every part has seen bloody battle, villages burned, civilians murdered. Both Swedes and Danes used the "scorched earth" strategy, burning and killing so the other part wouldn't find supplies or men for their army. Todays pictures shows part of a staty of a man called Magnus Stenbock. In 1710 he won the last battle of Helsingborg and threw the Danes out for good with much cruelty to the Danish soldiers and the Scanian people. There's been a lot of controversy regarding this statue, many are still today offended by this monument of the Butcher from Ringstorp as he's called.
I'm a history buff, did you notice?
Very interesting - doesn't really look like a statue in the pictures, but I can imagine it is. We've had similar controversy over here as well where we've had spectator stands named after people whose names now offend our indigenous people. Some people want to keep the names to remind them of the people they were named after and others want the names changed because they offend the indigenous people. I think people power usually wins in the end.
ReplyDeleteA lot of people want to get rid of the statue, I assume they are descendants of the Danish Scanians. The city politicians voted for not getting rid of the statue, I assume they are descendants of the Swedes that occupied Scania back then, haha! Many Scanians are Scanians first and Swedes second. Personally I don't see why we should honor the destroyer of the city with a statue. He didn't come to liberate the Scanians, he came to occupy the city and crush Denmark.
ReplyDeleteMy vote goes for melting it down and tossing it into the harbour!
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