Workers Museum (Arbejdermuseet), Copenhagen

A historic house of the labour movement

The Workers Museum is housed in Copenhagen’s former Workers’ Assembly Hall, completed in 1879 as the first purpose-built meeting place for Denmark’s labour movement. Behind its sober brick façade lies a richly decorated interior, where trade unions once gathered to debate, organise and celebrate. The grand banquet hall, with painted murals, banners and balconies, still radiates the pride of the craftsmen and labourers who funded and used the building. Over the years, this hall has hosted everything from rowdy political meetings to theatre performances and festive parties. It is also closely tied to major figures in Danish social democracy, including Thorvald Stauning, the working-class boy who became Denmark’s longest-serving prime minister. Today the building is listed, preserving the architecture and atmosphere of a formative era in the country’s democratic life.

Everyday life in cramped rooms and backyard streets

At the heart of the museum are detailed recreations of working-class homes and streets from different periods. You can step into a narrow attic flat from around 1900, where a whole family squeezed into a couple of dim rooms under the roof. Further on, a 1950s apartment shows how consumer goods, radios and better furniture slowly transformed daily life as incomes rose after the Second World War. Shops, a pawn broker and street scenes reveal what could be bought on a tight budget and what had to be sold when money ran out. Textiles, toys and kitchen utensils are carefully chosen to reflect what families actually used, from enamel pots to hand-embroidered cushions. Moving through these rooms, you trace the shift from poverty and rationing to the emerging comfort of the welfare state.

Factories, unions and the making of modern Denmark

Beyond the domestic interiors, the museum explores how industrial work reshaped Copenhagen. Exhibitions on factory life immerse you in the noise and pace of bottling halls, shipyards and breweries, where long hours and repetitive tasks were balanced by camaraderie and collective organisation. Tools, machinery and photographs chart the transition from manual labour to more mechanised production. Another strand follows the growth of trade unions, co-operatives and political parties that campaigned for shorter working days, safer conditions and social security. Posters, banners and leaflets tell the story of strikes, demonstrations and negotiations that gradually established rights many now take for granted. The narrative links these struggles to the creation of Denmark’s modern welfare system, connecting individual lives with national change.

Children’s history through play and imagination

The Children’s Workers’ Museum is a self-contained world designed for younger visitors but engaging for adults as well. Here, children can take a job at a 1930s-style grocery shop, sort bottles at a miniature brewery or type letters in a union office. Everything is hands-on, encouraging them to learn by doing rather than just looking. Period costumes, a recreated dance school and a small flat invite roleplay and storytelling about what it meant to grow up in a working-class family generations ago. Simple tasks, like weighing goods or delivering messages, highlight how responsibility and work entered children’s lives early. This playful space turns social history into something tangible and memorable.

Café culture steeped in time

Downstairs, Café & Øl-Halle 1892 offers a sensory extension of the exhibitions. This listed basement restaurant has been restored to its late 19th-century appearance, with dark wood, tiled floors and snug booths. Traditional Danish dishes and classic drinks echo what workers might have ordered after a meeting or a long shift. Sitting here, you can almost imagine the smoke-filled conversations about politics, union affairs or everyday worries that once filled the room. The café underlines how social life, not just work and struggle, forms part of the labour movement’s history.

A museum of memory in the city’s centre

Located in the Indre By district, the museum is woven into Copenhagen’s urban fabric rather than standing apart from it. Its exhibitions blend objects, architecture, soundscapes and personal stories to illuminate how ordinary people shaped the city and the country. Rather than focusing on elites, it invites you to see history from the perspective of maids, dockers, typists and their children. As you leave, the red flags, narrow staircases and factory sirens linger in the mind. The Workers Museum functions as both a historical archive and a living reminder of collective action, solidarity and the everyday routines that underpin big political changes.