Draft:Danish Welfare Museum

Danish Welfare Museum

Danmarks Forsorgsmuseum
Viebæltegård, the former poorhouse complex
Location	Grubbemøllevej 13, Svendborg, Denmark
Coordinates	55°03′44″N 10°36′13″E / 55.0623°N 10.6035°E / 55.0623; 10.6035
Type	Social history museum
Website	forsorgsmuseet.dk/english/

Danish Welfare Museum (Danish: Danmarks Forsorgsmuseum) is a social history museum in Svendborg, Denmark. It is housed in Viebæltegård, the former Svendborg Købstads Fattig- og Arbejdsanstalt, a poorhouse and workhouse that opened in 1872 and operated until 1974.^[1] The museum is part of Museum Sydfyn, a state-recognised cultural history museum working with local history, maritime history, social care history, and archaeology on South Funen.^[2] Its exhibitions cover Danish poor relief, workhouses, welfare homes, out-of-home care for children, homelessness, and daily life in institutions of social care.^[3][4]

History

Viebæltegård was built for the poor relief authority in Svendborg. Svendborg Historie states that the city council presented the new poorhouse in December 1872 and names architect Jens Juel Eckersberg as its designer.^[5] The poorhouse stood outside the older town, on former market grounds.^[5] Realdania gives the building area as 2,500 square metres and describes the complex as built in 1872 as Svendborg Fattig- og Arbejdsanstalt.^[6]

The institution separated residents according to the nineteenth-century distinction between "deserving" and "undeserving" poor people. Lex describes a Danish poorhouse as a relief and work institution where poor people received food and shelter in exchange for labour, and notes that admission could entail loss of voting rights, property rights, guardianship over children, and the right to marry.^[7] The museum gives the same rights losses for Svendborg and states that all admitted people were subject to compulsory labour.^[1]

The 1933 Law on Public Care replaced the 1891 Poor Law. Danmarkshistorien records that the term fattiggård was abolished through the social reform, with work institutions continuing under another name.^[8] Svendborg Historie writes that the Svendborg institution became an "Arbejdsanstalt med tilhørende Forsørgelsesafdeling og Sygeafdeling" and from 1935 used the name Viebæltegård.^[5] In 1961 it became a welfare home, and residence was formally voluntary during the last period before closure in 1974.^[1][5]

After closure, the buildings were threatened with demolition. Svendborg Museum took over Viebæltegård on 1 April 1974, and the former institution was kept for museum use.^[5][1] The museum states that since the late 1990s it has researched and presented Danish welfare history. Realdania dates the museum exhibitions in the complex from 2002.^[1][6]

Buildings

Viebæltegård is at Grubbemøllevej 13 in central Svendborg, about a ten-minute walk from the train and bus station.^[9] The Danish listed buildings register lists the case as active, with four buildings and protected surroundings.^[10] The protected area covers the former workhouse complex and garden; the register records listing in 1981.^[10]

The complex has three wings around a closed yard, with a wall and chapel forming the fourth side.^[10] The southern wing contained the relief section, the northern wing housed the workhouse, and the eastern range included administrative and residential functions.^[10] The register describes older ground plans, doors, windows, staircases, washrooms, cells, and parts of the warden's apartment.^[10] Several yards are divided by high walls and wire fences, a layout connected to the separation of residents by sex and institutional category.^[10]

A renovation in 2009 made most visitor areas accessible with lifts, ramps, toilets, automatic doors, new surfacing, lighting, and a new ticket area. Realdania reported a project budget close to 10 million kroner and listed Realdania, Svendborg Municipality, and several funds among the donors.^[11] The museum's visitor information says wheelchair access covers most rooms on the ground floor and first floor; the top floor lacks a lift because of preservation limits in the building.^[9]

Exhibitions and collections

The museum uses former sleeping rooms, workrooms, courtyards, washing areas, cells, and the garden as exhibition spaces. Its English-language visitor page says many rooms remain as they were when the poorhouse closed in 1974.^[3]

The permanent exhibition Placed in Care addresses Danish children placed outside their homes from 1890 to the present. The museum states that the exhibition has two sections, one for youth and adults and one for children aged 8-12, using interviews, archival material, and personal objects.^[4] The museum also presents individual histories from the poorhouse, including residents admitted across long periods and staff members who worked at Viebæltegård.^[1]

The museum shop includes mats woven in the mat workshop by volunteers, a reference to the historic work tasks carried out at the institution.^[9] Svendborg Historie lists former work tasks such as mat weaving, spinning, sack repair, stone breaking, brush making, and coffin making.^[5]

Research and public work

The museum describes its mission as preserving cultural heritage and creating social history with and for people formerly placed in care or living in socially vulnerable positions.^[12] It uses oral history, archives, exhibitions, education, and public programmes to connect the history of poor relief and institutional care with present-day social policy debates.^[12][13]

The museum has taken part in historical investigations and research projects on Danish welfare history. Its completed project list includes Anbragt i historien (2012-2015), a project on children and adults placed in children's homes, psychiatric hospitals, institutions for people with disabilities, workhouses, welfare homes, and related institutions.^[13] It also lists Velfærdshistorier fra kanten (2015-2018), carried out with the Centre for Welfare State Research at the University of Southern Denmark, and the 2020-2022 historical investigation of special care institutions commissioned by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Senior Citizens.^[13]

The University of Southern Denmark page for the 2022 investigation names Danmarks Forsorgsmuseum, then part of Svendborg Museum, as publisher, and lists Klaus Petersen, Mette Seidelin, Sarah Smed, Poul Duedahl, and Annemarie Borregaard as authors.^[14] From January 2026, Museum Sydfyn with Danmarks Forsorgsmuseum holds a national responsibility for social care within poor relief and child and youth care from 1849 onward.^[15]

See also

• Poorhouse
• Workhouse
• Social history
• Welfare state

References

External links

• Official website

Category:Museums in Denmark Category:Svendborg Municipality