HOLGER DANSKE ROSE IN THE BACK ROOM OF STJERNE RADIO

By Peter Birkelund

 

At Istedgade 31, during the occupation, stood a small wooden building. Over time, it had housed various businesses, but from 1941 it became a radio shop. It was here, behind the flashy façade of Stjerne Radio, that a small group of resistance-minded men began provoking the occupying forces in 1942. This would evolve into the illegal sabotage organization Holger Danske – the largest of its kind.

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Rebuilt in 2015, Stjerne Radio now houses a museum dedicated to the Danish resistance.

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It started peacefully enough. On 1 September 1942, 35-year-old Carl Munck took over Stjerne Radio, which sold radios, gramophones, and records. The following month, he hired his friend and fellow soldier from the Royal Life Guards, Josef Søndergaard, as manager. Søndergaard had fought in Finland in 1939–40 as a volunteer in the Danish Finland Corps during the Winter War against the Soviet Union. Together with Carl’s younger brothers, Ove and Børge – who had also served in the Life Guards – they were members of the Association of Danish Finland Volunteers. The Munck brothers had not been to Finland themselves but sympathized deeply with the Finnish struggle against the communist Soviet Union.

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Thus, it was four strongly defence-minded men who, in the autumn of 1942, established their base in the radio shop.

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The development of the war and the situation under Danish occupation were recurring topics of discussion in the shop. There was a clear anti-German sentiment, and debates ran high in the back room as they considered how best to irritate or harm the German forces. But without money, contacts, or weapons, it was not easy.

 

Their activism was, at first, channelled into acts of provocation. They began by broadcasting the BBC’s Danish midday transmission from London through the loudspeaker above the shop entrance, drawing curious crowds in front of the store. Another favourite pastime was playing It’s a Long Way to Tipperary when German patrols passed by, forcing them to march in step with the tune.

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Their pro-British window displays included large maps of the war fronts and, in the summer of 1943, toy planes with British and American insignia flying over Sicily, where the Allies had landed in July.

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The Danish police and German authorities were both aware of the provocations. Yet none of it was technically illegal: listening to English broadcasts wasn’t banned, nor was playing English music, and war maps were routinely printed in legal newspapers. But there was no doubt these were deliberate provocations—and they had to be stopped.

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Since the Gestapo didn’t receive independent police powers until after 29 August 1943, it was up to the Danish police to respond. Officers from the Svendsgade station were repeatedly dispatched to Stjerne Radio to ask Munck and Søndergaard to tone things down. Eventually, the police banned outdoor BBC broadcasts. In response, they redirected the speaker toward the courtyard—until that too was banned. Afterward, the shop was locked during broadcasts and guests invited inside.

Stjerne Radio’s activities also provoked Danish Nazis and SS men, who on several occasions attempted to smash the shop’s windows. This led to the formation of a night guard to protect the store.

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Despite warnings from police, German complaints, and Nazi attacks, the men at Stjerne Radio continued. But their activism soon crossed into illegality when they began producing underground newspapers.

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DE FRIE DANSKE

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In November 1942, the people at Stjerne Radio established contact with the publishers of the underground newspaper De Frie Danske. The Munck brothers and Josef Søndergaard then set up an illegal duplicator press in the back room of the shop. Some materials were delivered to them—stencils, paper, ink—but they had to acquire a manual duplicator and typewriter themselves. In December 1942, they were able to distribute the first issue produced at Stjerne Radio.

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De Frie Danske had started a year earlier as Denmark’s first nationwide, non-communist resistance newspaper. Written and distributed by a bourgeois group in Copenhagen, it quickly reached readers across the country. The printing press at Stjerne Radio was one of several in the capital helping to print the paper each month, contributing to a total circulation of over 10,000 copies.

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With the expansion of the newspaper work came the need for more trusted people. The group grew to include others from the Life Guards and the Association of Finnish Volunteers. The provocative street-facing activities and the secret newspaper production in the back room went hand in hand. From a security perspective, this was deeply unwise, as the production and distribution of illegal newspapers were high-priority targets for both Danish and German authorities. Yet the back-room printing press was never discovered.

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The shop at Istedgade became a magnet for activist-minded individuals. Some came to help with newspaper production, and debates often ran hot in the back room: Should they stop at newspapers, or do more?

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There was a growing desire to establish a sabotage group—to take direct action by destroying companies aiding the Germans.

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THE SABOTAGE GROUP

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The sabotage group that began to take shape had a somewhat different core than the newspaper group. While Carl Munck had led the newspaper efforts, Josef Søndergaard—now using the alias “Tom”—became the leader of the sabotage work. Carl Munck and labourer Max Bæklund, both involved in newspaper distribution, joined the sabotage group, while Ove and Børge Munck participated only occasionally.

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New members included influential figures in the coming sabotage activities: representative Poul Moesgaard (“Ewald”), leather merchant Mogens Jarset (“Bob”), and Jørgen Haagen Schmith (“Citronen”), who would later gain fame for his partnership with “Flammen,” Bent Faurschou Hviid, in the fight against Danish informers and collaborators.

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At one point, more than 20 individuals were actively involved in the sabotage group, along with a similar number of supporters who served as hosts, drivers, or couriers.

Some had served in Finland, most had completed military service, and many had some familiarity with weapons—but none had any experience with explosives. That knowledge came from an unexpected source: the communist sabotage group Bopa. Without revealing their political affiliation, Bopa sent one of their experienced saboteurs, Knud Børge Jensen (“Spræng-Smith”), to train the Stjerne Radio group, supply explosives, and assist with early sabotage actions. Bopa’s real aim was to recruit the group—but this was never mentioned. Given the group’s anti-communist sympathies, such an alliance would have been unwelcome.

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This was not a youthful resistance group like the Churchill Club. These were mature men—mostly over 30—with jobs, families, and responsibilities. They knew what they were getting into.

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The group had no name until early August 1943, when they decided to call themselves Holger Danske. The name was agreed upon not at Stjerne Radio, but at an apartment in Overgaden neden Vandet 51B in Christianshavn, where a commemorative plaque marks the spot today.

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SABOTAGE

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The group’s first sabotage attempt was on 7 May 1943 at the Standard Electric factory in Nørrebro, which produced transmitters for German aircraft and submarines. Disguised as policemen, they overpowered the guards and planted two bombs containing 5 kg of TNT each. But the operation failed—the bombs didn’t detonate, likely due to faulty fuses.

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A week later, they took part in a larger Bopa operation in Tåstrup on 15 May. While Bopa sabotaged three armament-related factories, Søndergaard’s group—under Spræng-Smith’s direction—was tasked with blowing up a railway embankment. They planted the explosives, but the charges caught fire instead of detonating, and no damage was done.

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But their apprenticeship was now over. Over the next three months, they carried out some 25 sabotage operations and several weapons raids.

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One of the most remarkable acts was their sabotage of Dagmarhus, the German headquarters where Reich Plenipotentiary Werner Best had his office. They lacked the resources for a major attack, but wanted to make a mark. They planned to target the building’s canteen with explosives in beer crates but settled for a more achievable action: blowing up the telephone distribution panel in the basement.

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On 30 July, in the middle of the afternoon, Max Bæklund and Mogens Jarset (“Bob”) posed as workers, passed the guards, and placed the explosives. The bomb didn’t go off at first—they had to sneak back in and replace the fuse. Two minutes later, the explosion was heard. The physical damage was minor, but the political impact was major. Werner Best was furious. Denmark’s Minister of Justice and the Foreign Ministry’s director were summoned to receive sharp threats.

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“TOM” IN PRISON

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Søndergaard was not involved in the Dagmarhus sabotage. He had been arrested three days earlier, on 27 July 1943, at his home on Amager. The police found nothing suspicious in his apartment, nor at Stjerne Radio or at Carl Munck’s home.

His arrest stemmed from a betrayal by a group member who had committed a violent robbery against a Nazi-affiliated tobacconist. Wounded in a shootout with the police, the man tried to pass himself off as a freedom fighter, claiming he had acted on orders and citing sabotage missions with “Tom” to support his story.

Søndergaard was imprisoned in Vestre Fængsel, but not for long. The group had a standing agreement to attempt rescue if one of them was captured. In smuggled letters, Søndergaard reminded them of this. On 5 August, “Bob” and “Ewald” showed up at the prison posing as detectives and, using fake badges, succeeded in getting him released. The escape wasn’t discovered until later that evening.

The incident led to tightened security at the prison—but the group had their leader back.

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THE MASTERSTROKE – FORUM

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The group’s best-known sabotage took place on 24 August 1943 at the Forum exhibition hall, which the Germans had seized to house 1,500 troops. Using a beer crate full of explosives, the group blew up part of the building. Søndergaard was seriously injured during the operation—he failed to exit the building before the blast.

The sabotage coincided with the so-called August Rebellion, marked by strikes, curfews, protests, and unrest across Denmark. Though Copenhagen was largely spared, Holger Danske’s attack on Forum was its contribution to the growing rebellion.

On 29 August, the Germans declared martial law, and sabotage or weapons possession now carried the death penalty. Resistance work had suddenly become even more dangerous.

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Several Holger Danske members were now wanted by the Gestapo. In September 1943, most fled to Sweden. A few remained behind and continued the work under the name Holger Danske II.

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By Christmas and New Year 1943, many original members had returned to Copenhagen. Life in Sweden had felt stagnant—they wanted back in the fight. Once again, Stjerne Radio—now run by Ove Munck—became their base. From there, five operations were carried out in January and February 1944 before they fled to Sweden again, this time for the rest of the war.

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Some, like “Citronen,” began working permanently with Holger Danske II. He became the regular partner of “Flammen” in the campaign against informers and collaborators.

Søndergaard’s original Holger Danske group ceased to exist in February 1944. Stjerne Radio lost its role as a resistance base—but the fight continued.

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AFTERMATH

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By the time of liberation, Holger Danske had grown into a major underground organization. On 5 May 1945, it could muster 400–450 fighters.

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In its two-year lifespan, the group carried out at least 430 operations: over 150 acts of sabotage, at least 170 liquidations or attempted liquidations, and more than 110 weapons raids.

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Though the group began with sabotage, the fight against collaborators gained greater importance as the war went on. Holger Danske became the most active liquidation unit. However, since this part of the resistance only began in late 1943, the Stjerne Radio group was not involved in it.

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Holger Danske lost more than 60 members—either executed, killed in action, or dead in German camps. Others were imprisoned or deported, and many returned physically and mentally scarred.

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THE BOMBINGS OF STJERNE RADIO

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By early 1944, illegal activity at Stjerne Radio had ended. But the provocations it had launched left a legacy. On 13 May 1944 at 11 p.m., Stjerne Radio was bombed by the Danish-German Peter Group as part of the Schalburgtage wave of retaliatory attacks. That same night, Illum, Magasin du Nord, and Daells Varehus were also bombed.

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The shop was bombed again on 28 October 1944, but was rebuilt and continued in the Munck family’s ownership as a radio and later record shop until its sale and closure in 1966. A kiosk then operated on the site until the building was demolished in 1996.

 

A wall was erected to fill the gap on Istedgade. It stood for nearly 20 years.

Now, that wall is gone—and an exhibition building is being erected, featuring a full-scale replica of Stjerne Radio’s 1943 façade. The new Stjerne Radio opened on 29 August 2015 and today houses exhibitions on the occupation and the resistance.