This article investigates the relationships that resulted from large-scale travelling between different ideological systems, the experiences of everyday consumption in which they were part, and the development of German tourism to Denmark in the 1930s. To do so, it first outlines the international context for the transformation of European tourism and its organisations in the 1930s before placing the influx of German visitors to Denmark into this context. The article then investigates the scale of German travel to Denmark during that decade before considering the nature of the institutions that made it possible. Moreover, it reflects upon the social make-up of travellers, who made their way to Denmark and discusses the ways the Danish press as well as state-related institutions saw German tourists in ideological as well as non-ideological terms, reflecting how ideology and economics were intertwined as actors in the 1930s sought to make sense of the emerging mass consumerist society. Neither, the article argues, were ideological concerns central for most of the actors facilitating trips to Denmark nor were their visits overwhelmingly framed ideologically in the Danish press.
See in more detail: In ideological transit: German tourism to Denmark in the 1930s (Taylor & Francis Online).
Frederik Forrai Ørskov is a PhD student at the Centre for Nordic Studies at the University of Helsinki. His latest publications include ‘From Nordic Romanticism to Nordic Modernity: Danish Tourist Brochures in Nazi Germany, 1929–39’ in Journal for Contemporary History and ‘Screening The Social Face of Denmark to the Nazis: Social policy as subdued resistance during the German occupation of Denmark’ in Scandinavian Journal of History.