Between two World Wars 1920-40

Paul Fischer's Copenhagen streetscene from the mid 1920's is an evocative painting. The impressive main building of the General Directorate of Posts and Telegraphs in the background symbolizes the postal service as the largest communications enterprise in the country.

In 1927, the State Telegraph was subsumed into the Post Office which then became known as the Post & Telegraph Service, P&T. the new means of communication the telephone and the radio, became increasingly important parts of daily life.   

A number of small tableaux and authentic film clips from Danish documentaries and features draw a portrait of Danish everyday life with different means of communication during the interwar period.   

War and Marshall Aid 1940-60

You will hardly find anything more typical Danish than the scenery from Vrå depicted by Svend Engelund in 1947. Even in the countryside telephone poles are making an impressive mark on the landscape.  

The Second World War caused a delay in the modernization and automation of telephony, but Marshall Aid and the post-war economic boom soon made and impact on communications, too.

The design of the new era is illustrated by the living room tableaux in the exhibition. The public telephones on display include a typical representative of the post-war era - and it works! Film clips and stamps from the period also draw a picture of Denmark of that time. 

Welfare and Experiments 1960-80

Rasmus Nellemann's telephone pole from 1960 is almost like a farewell to the past: Progress was rapid now, masts were removed and society's new nervous system, the telephone wires were buried under the ground. 

The Cold War, the race to the moon, the arms race, and rebellion against authoritarian systems set the agenda. Satellites and teenage rebels made their entry. The teenagers were given tape recorders as confirmation presents - if they bothered getting confirmed. Their parents bought coloured television sets for the living room. Welfare and experiments were reflected in furniture and gadgets in our living rooms. The storage shelves and containers in the exhibition are featuring examples of all the things that have been phased out in the name of progress.

The last post-Nimbus, which became obsolete in 1976, makes a fine centre of attention in the exhibition hall. On display is even the last analogue telephone exchange through which all telephone boxes in the hall are connected with each other.  

Liberalization and Privatization 1980-98

The last decades of the 20th century are known as the Information society. The Wall is gone, the Cold War is overn, and free market forces have commenced their campaign against venerable old phenomena such as the State's monopoly of the means of communication. 

Government services have been transformed into state-owned companies, then into limited companies. Employees have been replaced - or required to dress differently. "Corporate Image" and "Corporate Identity" have become Danish concepts, as it appears from the many tableaux in the museum. We have placed our epitaph to the civil servant, the telephonist, the linesman, and the director general, and others in the lockers.

Roelof de Roo has painted the telephone box in the middle of the deserted dormitory town a night in June 1996. An offer for interhuman contact. Dial the world on the telephone with or without wire - or on the internet!