Workers Museum (Arbejdermuseet), Copenhagen

A historic house of the labour movement

The Workers Museum occupies the former Workers’ Assembly Hall, an imposing red-brick building raised in 1879 as a gathering place for Copenhagen’s labour movement. Behind its solid façade lies a dense web of meeting rooms, corridors and offices that once hosted fiery speeches, trade union congresses and the steady organisation of everyday democracy. Central to the complex is the grand Banquet Hall, its high ceiling, painted decoration and guild banners celebrating the skills and pride of the city’s many crafts. Standing here, you are in the room where thousands of workers learned to participate in civic life and collective decision making. Elsewhere in the building, Thorvald Stauning’s office has been preserved, evoking the era when a boy from a working-class background could rise to become Denmark’s longest-serving prime minister. The museum uses these authentic interiors to anchor big themes – rights, representation and solidarity – in very tangible spaces.

Everyday life in backyards and cramped flats

One of the most evocative parts of the museum is its reconstruction of early 20th-century working-class housing. You step into the Sørensen family’s modest two-room flat from 1915, where parents and eight children once shared beds, table and wardrobe. Simple furniture, worn textiles and sparse belongings speak volumes about crowded living conditions, while the steep staircases and outdoor latrines in the backyard show how basic sanitation and domestic work shaped daily routines. Out in the laundry-hung yard, the smell of soap and the imagined clatter of buckets hint at the invisible labour that kept these homes going. Exhibits on industrial work trace the shift from craft traditions to factory production, showing how urbanisation transformed both the city’s skyline and the rhythm of ordinary lives.

From rationing to consumer society

Moving forward in time, the 1950s installations illuminate the decade when Denmark emerged from war and austerity into a fledgling consumer society. A period coffee bar serves chicory-based coffee substitutes and classic chocolate biscuit cake, echoing the taste of post-war years when improvisation was still part of the menu. Radios, kitchen gadgets and adverts reveal how new goods changed aspirations, while displays on trade union representatives explore how collective agreements shaped wages, hours and job security. Special exhibitions delve into themes such as activism, environmental campaigns and social movements, connecting the museum’s historic core to debates that continue to shape contemporary Denmark. The result is an impression of the welfare state not as a finished product, but as something constantly negotiated from shop floor to parliament.

Children’s playful journey into the 1930s

The Children’s Workers Museum offers a hands-on time travel experience aimed at younger visitors but engaging for adults too. Here children can try working in a grocer’s shop, sorting bottles at a brewery or typing in a union office, discovering that in the 1930s many youngsters contributed to the family income. Dressing up in sailor suits, joining a make-believe dance school or visiting a recreated 1930s flat turns history into a series of small, vivid dramas. Storytelling about a working-class boy called Thorvald, who eventually became prime minister, weaves a narrative of opportunity and persistence. Through play, the space invites reflection on how childhood, education and work have changed across generations.

Smørrebrød, beer and thoughtful souvenirs

In the vaulted basement, Café & Ølhalle ‘1892’ is a living exhibit in its own right: the only listed basement restaurant in Copenhagen. Dark wood panelling, simple tables and period fixtures create an atmosphere that feels both convivial and slightly timeworn. The menu focuses on traditional Danish open sandwiches, often prepared with organic and locally sourced ingredients, alongside classic beers that would have been familiar to earlier regulars. Nearby, the museum shop specialises in toys, textiles, books and design pieces that echo working-class culture and Danish social history. Practical information panels and bilingual texts throughout the building make the complex stories accessible, while the intimate scale of rooms and courtyards keeps the experience grounded and human rather than monumental.