Malmö
IPA: /málmø:/ is the third largest city in
Sweden, situated in the southernmost province of
Skåne. It has 272,634 inhabitants (about 605,000 in the metro area). Malmö was one of the earliest and most
industrialized towns of
Scandinavia, but has in recent decades been struggling with the adaption to
post-industrialism.
With its old buildings and many parks it appears appealing to outsiders, and is also a popular place to shop due to its many different shops and stores. During the last few years a university college
(Malmö Högskola) has been established and the city is now focussing extensively on education, arts and culture.
The administrative entity for most of the city Malmö is the Malmö Municipality, referred to as
Malmö Stad, or
City of Malmö in English.
|
Malmö in 1580 in a German map book. The citadel Malmöhus is to the far left. The church tower is that of the Saint Petri Church |
Malmö is held to have been founded in what was then
Denmark, in the year
1275 as a fortified
quay or ferry berth of the
Archbishop of
Lund, some 20 kilometers north-east. It was, for centuries, Denmark's second biggest city. Its original name was
Malmhaug (with alternating spellings), which means "Sandpile".
In the 15th century, Malmö became one of Denmark's largest and most frequented cities, reaching a population of approximately 5,000 inhabitants. It became the most important city around
The Sound, with the German
Hanseatic League frequenting it as a place of merhancy, notable for its flourishing
herring fishing. During that time, the city arms were granted in
1437 by King
Eric of Pomerania. It was based on Eric's own arms, of Pomerania: an
argent with a
griffin gules. It gave the griffin's head to Malmö, eventually this became extended to the entire province
Scania (
Skåne).
In
1434 Malmö's growth gave reason to the construction of a new
citadel at the beach south of the town. This fortress, known today as
Malmöhus, did not get its current appearance until the mid-16th century. Several other fortifications were constructed, making Malmö Sweden's most fortified city, but only
Malmöhus remains.
The 16th century saw
Lutheran teaching being spread, and Malmö was one of the first cities in Scandinavia to fully convert by 1527-1529.
In the 17th century, Malmö and the
Scanian region (
Skåneland) came into Swedish possession. This finally happened in the
treaty of Roskilde, signed
1658. Fighting was not over however. In June 1677, 14,000 Danish troops laid siege to Malmö for a month, but were unable to conquer it.
By the dawn of the 18th century, Malmö had some 2,300 inhabitants. However, due to the wars of
Charles XII and plague epidemics, the population was decimated to 1,504 by 1728. The situation were only marginally improved until more than 50 years later, when the modern harbour was constructed by the late 18th century. The city began expanding, and in the year 1800 had 38,054 inhabitants
[Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1911), article Malmö.]Malmö would greatly benefit from the Swedish southern main line railway, constructed 1850-1870. It gave a significant boost to the industry. In 1840, the
Kockums shipyard was founded. The industry came to dominate Malmö for 150 years to come.
In 1870, Malmö overtook
Norrköping to become Sweden's third most populated city. By 1900, Malmö had strengthened this position with its 60,000 inhabitant.
|
A now closed down Kockums building: the old foundry and machine workshop |
Malmö continued to expand through the first half of the 20th century. The population had swiftly increased to 100,000 by 1915 and to 200,000 by 1952. Kockums shipyard was Malmö's largest employer, and one of the largest shipyards in the world. By 1971, Malmö reached 265,000 inhabitants, but this was the peak which would stand for more than 30 years. Not long after, Sweden experienced a
recession that struck especially hard on the industrial sector. In addition, many middle class families moved into one-family houses in surrounding municipalities such as
Vellinge Municipality and
Lomma Municipality. By 1985, Malmö had lost 35,000 inhabitants and was down to 229,000. However, the toughest difficulties were yet to emerge: Between 1990-1995, Malmö lost some 27,000 jobs and the finances were seriously strained. However, thanks to several government funded projects, Malmö in 1995 slowly started to emerge into its current modern shape.
* References:
Nordisk familjebok article Malmö
[ Runeberg, NF, History, start];
Nationalencyklopedin article Malmö;
Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1911).
Malmö is located at 13°00' east and 55°35' north. Its location in southernmost Sweden makes it closer to the Italian city of
Milan than to the northernmost Swedish town
Kiruna, giving the city a compratively more continental feel (and warmer climate).
Malmö is part of the transnational
Oresund Region and since 2000 the
Oresund Bridge crosses the
Oresund strait to
Copenhagen. The bridge was inaugurated July 1, 2000, and measures 8 kilometres (the whole link totalling 16km), with pylons reaching 204.5 metres vertically. Except the
Helsingborg-
Helsingør ferry links further north, most ferry connections have been discontinued.
Transportation
Commuter trains pass the bridge every 20 minutes connecting Malmö, Copenhagen, and the
Copenhagen Metro (inaugurated on Oct 19, 2002). Also some of the
X2000 and
Intercity trains to
Stockholm,
Gothenburg, and
Kalmar pass the bridge. All these trains stop at
Copenhagen Airport.
Transportations are also excellent to Germany. A night line by ferry to
Berlin has been in traffic since
1909.
In March of 2005, digging began on a new railroad connection called
Citytunneln (The City Tunnel). The tunnel will run from under Malmö Central Station to Hyllievång (Hyllie Meadow), where it will emerge to connect with the Oresund Bridge, effectively changing Malmö Central from being a terminus to being a transit station.
Beside the Copenhagen Airport to which the Oresund Bridge offers swift connection, Malmö has a minor airport of its own, the
Malmö-Sturup Airport, today chiefly used for
low-cost carriers,
charter flight routes, and domestic Swedish destinations.
The
motorway system has been incorporated with the Oresund Bridge; the
European route E6 goes over the bridge and then follows the Swedish west coast from Malmö–
Helsingborg to the Norwegian town
Kirkenes at
Barents Sea. The European route to
Jönköping–
Stockholm (
E4) starts at Helsingborg. Main roads in direction of
Växjö–
Kalmar,
Kristianstad–
Karlskrona,
Ystad, and
Trelleborg start as
freeways.
Climate
The shores of Skåne, where Malmö is situated, have a
temperate climate and is according to
Köppen climate classification part of the
Maritime Temperate climates. This means that the average temperature is above 10 °C (50 °F) in the warmest months, and the coldest month average is above âˆ'3 °C.
Climate Table | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
|---|
| Mean daily maximum temperature (°C) | 2 | 2 | 5 | 10 | 16 | 20 | 21 | 21 | 17 | 12 | 7 | 4 | 11.4 |
|---|
| Mean daily minimum temperature (°C) | -3 | -3 | -1 | 2 | 7 | 11 | 13 | 12 | 10 | 7 | 3 | -1 | 4.8 |
|---|
| Mean total rainfall (mm) | 49 | 30 | 40 | 38 | 41 | 52 | 61 | 58 | 59 | 57 | 61 | 58 | 603 |
|---|
| Mean number of rain days | 17 | 13 | 14 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 14 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 17 | 16 | 169 |
|---|
| Source: World Weather Information Service |
|
The municipality's location in Skåne, southernmost Sweden |
Malmö Municipality is an administrative unit defined by geographical borders, consisting of the
City of Malmö [In all official contexts, the town Malmö calls itself "Malmö stad" (or City of Malmö), as does a small number of other Swedish municipalities, and especially the other two metropolitans of Sweden: Stockholm and Gothenburg. However, the term city has administratively been discontinued in Sweden.]and its immediate surroundings.
Malmö urban area,
Malmö tätort with 250,000 inhabitants, consists of the urban part of the municipality together with the small town of
Arlöv in the municipality of
Burlöv. Both municipalities also include smaller
urban areas and rural areas, such as the suburbs of
Oxie and
Ã…karp.
Malmö tätort is to be distinguished from
Malmö stad (The city of Malmö) that is an official name of Malmö municipality, althouth this terminology appears counterintuitive to many locals. Malmö is the fourth most densely populated municipality in Sweden with 1,744 inhabitants/km² (compared to Stockholm's 4,107 inhabitants/km² and Göteborg's 1,076 inhabitants/km²).
Government
|
The city hall. In the background the spire of Saint Petri Church. |
The municipal
legislative body of the City of Malmö is the 61-member
City Council, elected by proportional representation for a four-year term. The council appoints the city's main governing bodies, the 11-member executive committee and the 8 governing
commissioners. The executive committee and the commissioners are headed by the
Mayor.
The Mayor of the City of Malmö has since
1995 been
Ilmar Reepalu, of the
Social Democratic Party.
* External link:
Malmo City Council, from the municipal website.
After, 1971, when Malmö had 265,000 inhabitants, the population had dropped to 229,000 by 1985.
[Nationalencyklopedin, article Malmö]. It then began to rise again, and had passed the previous record by the January 1, 2003, census, when it had 265,481 inhabitants.
["Malmö stad folkmängd" -- City of Malmö website] The population is estimated to continue increasing to 281,000 inhabitants by 2010.
[ Befolkningsprognos City of Malmö website]70,590 or 26 % of the municipal population were born abroad
as of 2006. The largest immigration waves comes from:# Former
Yugoslavia (9,160)#
Iraq (6,153) #
Denmark (5,815) #
Poland (5,508)#
Bosnia-Herzegovina (5,451)
As of 2005, Malmö was the third municipality in Sweden in order of its population being foreign born.
[1: Haparanda Municipality (40%), 2: Botkyrka Municipality (33%) 3: Malmö Municipality (25%), 4:Södertälje Municipality (25%), 5: Huddinge Municipality (22%) MALMÖBOR MED UTLÄNDSK BAKGRUND 1 jan 2005. All figures as of 2005.]The economy of Malmö was traditionally based on shipbuilding (
Kockums) and construction related industries, such as concrete factories. The region's leading university, along with its associated hi-tech and pharmaceutical industries, is located in
Lund about 16km to the north-east. As a result, Malmö had a troubled economic situation following the mid-1970s. Between 1990-1995, 27,000 jobs were lost, and the budget deficit was more than billion
Swedish crowns. In 1995, Malmö had Sweden's largest unemployment rate.
[City of Malmö website, [1] (in Swedish)]However, during the last few years there has been a revival. Contributing factors have been the economic integration brought about by the
Oresund Bridge, the university college (
Malmö Högskola) founded in
1998, and the effects of integration into the
European Union.
Malmö still has comparatively high unemployment figures, particularly among the ethnically and socially diverse areas in the eastern and southern parts (See
Malmö's suburbs). In 2004, the rate of wage-earners was 63%, while in
Stockholm 74% and
Gothenburg 71%.
[City of Malmö website [2], in turned based on material from Statistics Sweden]As of 2005, the largest companies were:#
Skanska -- house construction: 3,025 employees#
ISS Facility Service AB -- hospital service, cleaning, etc: 1,725 employees#
Sydkraft -- electricity: 1,025 employees#
Sydsvenskan -- newspaper: 1,025 employees#
PÃ¥gen -- bakery: 975 employees
(Source: Municipal website
["Malmös största företag" -- City of Malmö website]])
Malmö has the country's eighth largest school of higher education with the
university college Malmö Högskola established in
1998. It has 1,300 employees and 21,000 students (as of
2003).
In addition, the venerable
Lund University (established in
1668) has some education located to Malmö:
*Malmö Art Academy (
Konsthögskolan i Malmö)
*Malmö Academy of Music (
Musikhögskolan i Malmö)
*Malmö Theatre Academy (
Teaterhögskolan i Malmö)
*The Faculty of Medicine, which is located in both Malmö and
Lund.
The
UN World Maritime University is also located in Malmö.
In the early 20th century, Malmö's cultural life was noted through
proletariat writers such as
Harry Martinson. A striking depiction of Malmö was made by
Bo Widerberg in his dark
Kvarteret Korpen (
Raven's End) (1963), largely shot to the shaggy Korpen working-class discrict in Malmö. The movie was nominated for an
Academy Award as Best Foreign Language Movie in 1965.
The cultural life did not offer much.
William S. Burroughs briefly visited Malmö in the 1950s, describing it as dull to the extreme, and offering no leisure at all, not find any open bar or cinema
[William S. Burroughs, The Naked Lunch, 1965]. To be fair, the
Malmö Opera and Music Theatre was opened in 1944, but the cultural boost was not initiated until in the 1990s.
The
Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art, founded in 1988 by the Swedish art collector and financier Fredrik Roos and housed in a former power station which was built in 1900, is one of the foremost centers for
contemporary art in Europe.
Architecture
The oldest part of Malmö were built between 1300-1600, during its first major period of expansion. From this time are still the street structure in the city's central parts, and some older houses.
After the recession in the ensuing centuries, the next expansion peroid in the midth 19th century led to the modern stone- and brick city. Around 1945, the government initiated the so called
Million Programme, that intended to offer afforable apartments in the outskirts of major Swedish cities. But this period also saw the reconstruction of the city's center.
Recent years have seen a more bold architecture.
Västra Hamnen (The Western Harbour) used to be the location for heavy industry, but in 2001 was rebuilt, becoming the arguably most exclusive neighbourhood in Malmö, with exclusive unique houses in a district known as
Bo01. Adjacent towers the
Turning Torso, a spectacular twisting skyscraper, 190 metres (623 feet) tall.
Image:St Petri church in Malmö.jpg|Saint Petri Church, central Malmö, 13th centuryImage:House by Lilla Torg, Malmö, Sweden.jpg|House, central Malmö, 16th centuryImage:Apartment complex in Rosengård, Malmö.jpg|Apartment complex in the district RosengårdImage:Turning Torso och Bo01 2.jpg|Turning Torso and Bo01, 2001*References: Tykesson (1996)
[Arkitekterna som formade Malmö, Tyke Tykesson (1996), ISBN 9172031131], Web site
Malmö Arkitekturhistoria [ Arkitekturhistoria, a brief compilation made by Malmö Public Library website. Accessed 19/05 -06. Has a substantial reference section. ]Other sights
The beach
Ribersborg in the western harbour, is a man-made shallow beach, stretching along Malmö's coast line. It is the site of
Ribersborgs Kallbadhus, an
open air bath opened in the 1890s, where people go swimming all year round.
The long boardwalk at the beach has become a new favourite summer hang-out for the people of Malmö and is a popular place for bathing.
Events
In August each year a festival,
Malmöfestivalen, fills the streets of Malmö with different kinds of cuisines and events.
Malmö was also the host of the
Eurovision Song Contest 1992, after Sweden won it the previous year.
Media
Sydsvenska Dagbladet is since 2000 Malmö's only daily newspaper, and also one of its larger employers (see section
#Economy). It has an average circulation of 130,000. Apart from Sydsvenskan, Malmö has little media companies located within. There is only regional Scanian TV and radio broadcasts; these do however serve most of Scania, and are also attained on the other side of the Sound.
Sports
The most popular
football (soccer) team in Malmö is
Malmö FF, in the top-level
Allsvenskan. They had their period of glamour in the
1970s and
1980s, when they won the league several times. In
1979, they advanced to the finals of the European Cup, now the
UEFA Champions League. Then followed some meager years, until they in 2004 won the Allsvenskan the next time.
The second most notable team is
Malmö Redhawks, in
ice hockey. They were the creation of a millionaire and quickly rose to the highest rank in the
1990s.
As of 2006, Malmö has
town twinning treaties or treaties of cooperation signed with 11 cities. Of these, cooperation is closest with Newcastle, Tallinn, Chieti and Vaasa. All cities:#
Tallinn, Estonia -- twin towns since 1989. #
Szczecin , Poland -- twins towns since 1990.#
Stralsund, Germany -- twin towns since 1991.#
Florence, Italy -- twin towns since 1989.#
Vaasa, Finland -- twin towns since 1940.#
Varna, Bulgaria -- twin towns since 1987.#
Tangshan, China -- twin towns since 1987.#
Port Adelaide, Australia -- twin towns since 1988.#
Kaliningrad, Russia -- cooperation treaty (signed ?)#
Province of Chieti, Italy -- cooperation treaty signed in 2001.#
Newcastle, U.K. -- cooperation treaty signed in 2003.
*(Source: Municipal website
[Malmö stads vänortssamarbete"])
*
Ports of the Baltic Sea*
List of people connected to Malmö*
Facts & Figures about Malmö, 2005 -- in English. From the municipal webpage,
PDF format.
*
2006 demographical statistics -- in Swedish. From the municipal webpage
The science-fiction themed coffee table book
Spacewreck contains an account of a derelict spacecraft called the
Malmo which is rediscovered after several centuries adrift.
*
Malmö - Official site
*
Malmöfestivalen*
The City Tunnel (English)*
article Malmö from
Nordisk familjebok (1912)
*
Gallery 1 &
Gallery 2- Photos
*
Satellite image from Google Maps
