DANISH SEAMEN'S HOMES
For more than a hundred years, Denmark has had sailors' homes in many parts of the country. Today, the last three are effectively hotels, as the industry has changed. Sailors now have their own bunk and food on board ship.
Hotel Bethel Seamen's Home
In the centre of Copenhagen along the canal in the beautiful Nyhavn is Hotel Bethel. The beautiful sailboats, sidewalk restaurants and historic houses create the unique and cosy atmosphere of Nyhavn.
Kompas Hotel Aalborg
Centrally located and newly renovated, Kompas Hotel Aalborg is an attractive and popular hotel in Aalborg. All profits go to social welfare work in maritime Denmark.
Hotel Frederikshavn Sømandshjemmet
Hotel Frederikshavn is a cosy hotel rich in tradition. Centrally located close to the harbour, with a homely atmosphere and high-level customer service, the hotel caters to a wide target group.
The history of the Danish Seamen's Mission goes back several years further than the organisation Indenlandsk Sømandsmission, which celebrated its 100th anniversary on Thursday 28 April 2005.
Missionary work with reading rooms and sailors' homes has been going on in Denmark for well over 100 years. In both places, fishermen and sailors could come and read newspapers, call home to their families, have a cup of coffee and talk to people who had time to listen. It began in the years following the adoption of the Danish Constitution in 1849. In the 1870s, the pastor Daniel C. Prior (Holmen's Church) and his wife were involved in the work among seafarers, and in 1876 they came into contact with the married couple Ninna and Andreas Wollesen, who had been involved in missionary work among seafarers in New York for some years. The couple were sent by an American organisation to continue similar work in Copenhagen.
In 1879, Wollesen and Prior established a sailor's parlour in Holbergsgade, and two years later the Bethel ship was inaugurated. It was moored at the end of Nyhavn and housed a church hall with room for 300 people. There was also a kitchen, reading and writing room on board. For the next 25 years until 1906, the ship was the pioneer ship of the Seamen's Mission in Copenhagen.
As early as 1904, the board bought the property in Nyhavn 22, where the Bethel seamen's home was established.
The idea of establishing reading rooms and homes for seamen had spread to other port cities in Denmark and the desire to have a common organisation led to the formation of Indenlandsk Sømandsmission in 1905. When it was founded on 28 April, the organisation had four seafarers' homes, five seamen's rooms and the ship Bethel.
Over the years, the work evolved so that at one point there were 43 seamen's homes around Danish harbours. In total, at its peak, the organisation comprised around 75 reading rooms and seamen's homes. In more than 100 years, the conditions for shipping and fishing have changed along with the rest of society, and this has led to the closure of seamen's homes. Today, Sømandsmissionen has seamen's homes in three cities in Denmark: Copenhagen, Aalborg and Frederikshavn.