Abstract
Once upon a time – more precisely in 1805 – the great Danish national poet Hans Christian Andersen was born in the town of Odense. Two hundred years later, the whole country was turning upside down to celebrate the birthday of the world famous fairy tale writer. Preparations for the celebrations started years before the actual birthday, and a daring theatre director, Lars Seeberg, was appointed head of the newly founded Hans Christian Andersen 2005 Foundation. Seeberg was not impressed by the last great celebration of Andersen in 1955. In the midst of the Cold War, Denmark used the fairy tale writer to launch itself as a peaceful, harmonious picture book country, epitomized in the involuntarily camp movie, Hans Christian Andersen, produced three years earlier in 1952, starring blue-eyed, clean-shaven, gay actor Danny Kaye portraying Andersen as a very innocent country boy singing his praises to ‘Wonderful Copenhagen’. This famous theme song of the movie, which earned no less than five Oscar nominations, later became the standard slogan to market the capital city of Denmark. The name of the official tourist board is to this day ‘Wonderful Copenhagen’. Andersen is thus part of a billion dollar business, selling Denmark to tourists from all over the world.
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