Steffen Bernhardt Jensen (13 April 1910 – 11 June 1978) was a Danish

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

, author, politician and Mayor of Aarhus from 1958 to 1971 for the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

. He was politically active from an early age and later worked as a journalist for several local left-leaning newspapers. During his tenure as mayor, he became known for his opposition to car traffic and he stopped several infrastructure projects that would have required large-scale demolitions of the historic inner city.

Political career

Jensen started his political career early on and served on the board of Denmark's Socialdemocratic Youth from 1927 to 1932. During the same period he was active in antimilitaristic work and between 1929 and 1935 he was on the board of the national association of the organization ''Aldrig Mere Krig'' (Never more war). He remained opposed to militarism after the Danish

changed course on the issue and he remained committed to it throughout his life. He graduated from ''N. J. Fjordsgades Skole'' in 1927 and then started as an intern on the local newspaper ''Aarhus Venstreblad'', associated with the Danish Social Liberal Party. He later became a journalist on the Social Democratic newspaper Demokraten where he covered a number of different topics. He first ran for Aarhus city council in 1941 as the 11th candidate on the social democratic list. Due to the occupation during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

the election was postponed to 1943 when he was finally elected. In 1946, he was elected chairman and spokesperson of the social democratic group. He became a councilman for the 4th department of the magistrate, the department for schools and culture management, from 1 October 1950 and became mayor from 1 October 1958. Jensen had great respect for the urban environment in Aarhus and was an ardent opponent of car traffic. He became famous for moving around the city on a bicycle after he abolished the mayor's car. He stopped plans to build roads through the historic city center, which would have demolished large parts of it. Instead, he worked actively to preserve historical buildings and neighborhoods. In the 1960s, Jensen worked to merge Aarhus Municipality with a number of smaller surrounding municipalities and it was successfully concluded in 1970. In 1971, he retired as mayor due to health problems and was replaced by

Orla Hyllested Orla Schartau Hyllested (4 August 1912 – 6 September 2000) was a Danish union representative, politician and mayor of Aarhus. Hyllested grew up in Aarhus in a working-class family and was a trained mason. Through his work he became involved in u ...

Author

Beyond his work as a journalist, Jensen was also known as a writer in other areas. During his youth, he published poems in the magazine ''Vild Hvede'', although he later focused his efforts on local historical subjects. He wrote several works about local history including: * ''Fra det glade Århus'', 1963 * ''Som Århus morede sig'', 1966 * ''Da Århus var Hollywood'', 1969 * ''Marselisborgskovene'', 1974 (with his brother Peder Jensen) * ''Bernhardt Jensen beretter om Århus'' (posthumously published 1979)

Honors

In 1978, Jensen was awarded an honorary degree at

Aarhus University Aarhus University ( da, Aarhus Universitet, abbreviated AU) is a public research university with its main campus located in Aarhus, Denmark. It is the second largest and second oldest university in Denmark. The university is part of the Coimbra Gr ...

for his work in local history although he died the same year before he could officially receive it. The neighborhood

Aarhus Docklands Aarhus Docklands (Danish: Aarhus Ø) is a new neighbourhood and construction site in Aarhus, Denmark. Construction of Aarhus Docklands began in 2008 and most buildings and constructions have been finished as of 2018. The project will convert the f ...

under development through the 2010s has a street named after Bernhard Jensen; the main street Bernhard Jensens Boulevard. The local edition of

Jyllandsposten ''Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten'' (; English: ''The Morning Newspaper "The Jutland Post"''), commonly shortened to ''Jyllands-Posten'' or ''JP'', is a Danish daily broadsheet newspaper. It is based in Aarhus C, Jutland, and with a weekday circula ...

recognized Jensen as "''alle tiders aarhusianer''" (All time Aarhusian), leading to a bipartisan committee collecting funds for a statue to be created by artist Jan Balling. The proposal was submitted to Aarhus City Council on 15 April 2009 and on 13 April 2010, on Jensen's 100th birthday, the statue "''Manden med cyklen''" (Man with bike) was unveiled on Åboulevarden where it overlooks the

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

and Immervad towards the Latin Quarter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jensen, Bernhardt 1910 births 1978 deaths Mayors of places in Denmark Politicians from Aarhus Burials at Nordre Cemetery Social Democrats (Denmark) politicians

Political career

Author

Honors

See also

References