Vestre Prison (, Western Prison) is the main

jail A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where people are imprisoned under the authority of the state, usually as punishment for various cr ...

of the Danish capital,

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

. Erected in 1895, it is Denmark's largest prison with a total capacity of 530 inmates. It primarily houses pretrial detainees, not convicted felons.

History

Vestre Fængsel opened in 1895. The building was designed by city architect

Ludvig Fenger Ludvig Peter Fenger (7 July 1833 – 9 March 1905) was a Danish architect. He was a proponent of the Historicist style, and from 1886 to 1904 he held the title of City Architect in Copenhagen. Among his works are several churches, the Centr ...

. During much of the German

occupation of Denmark At the outset of World War II in September 1939, Denmark declared itself Neutral countries in World War II, neutral, but that neutrality did not prevent Nazi Germany from Military occupation, occupying the country soon after the outbreak of ...

, Vestre Fængsel was operated by

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

police.

Cultural references

* Vestre Prison is used as location in the films ''

De røde enge ''The Red Meadows'' () is a 1945 Denmark, Danish war drama directed by Bodil Ipsen and Lau Lauritzen Jr. based on resistance fighter Ole Valdemar Juul's 1945 novel of the same name. The film, starring Poul Reichhardt and Lisbeth Movin, is a suspen ...

'' (1945), '' Mosekongen'' (1950), '' I kongens klær'' (1954), '' Den forsvundne fuldmægtig'' (1971), '' Mig og Mafiaen'' (1973), '' Olsen-banden går amok'' (1973), '' Krummerne 3 - Fars gode idé'' (1994), '' Anklaget'' (2005) and '' Winnie og Karina går til filmen'' (2009). * Vestre Prison is used as a location at 1:20:23 in the 1974 ''

Olsen-banden The ''Olsen Gang'' (, ) is a Denmark, Danish comedy film series created by Danish director Erik Balling and special effects expert Henning Bahs about the eponymous fictional criminal gang. The gang's leader is the criminal genius and habitual o ...

'' film '' The Last Exploits of the Olsen Gang''. * ''Vestre Fængsel'' is the title of a 1996 adaption by Finn &

Jacob Jacob, later known as Israel, is a Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions. He first appears in the Torah, where he is described in the Book of Genesis as a son of Isaac and Rebecca. Accordingly, alongside his older fraternal twin brother E ...

of a John Phillips song. * In his 2015 breakthrough single ''Tyveri'', Danish singer Hasan Shah sings "Hvis jeg havner i Vestre Fængsel..." (English: If I end up in Vestre Fængsel..."). * French author Louis-Ferdinand Céline spent more than one year at Vestre starting in 1946 and tell of his ordeal in book 1 of '' Féerie pour une autre fois ''.

References

External links

Official website of the Copenhagen jails
Prisons in Denmark Kongens Enghave Ludvig Fenger buildings Government buildings completed in 1895 {{Prison-stub