Experience 1864

Welcome to the History Centre Dybbøl Banke. Here you step right into the history of Denmark during the war on the Dybbøl Banke between the Danes and the Prussians in 1864. Read here what you can experience, among other things.

Films about 1864

We show three films about the war at Dybbøl Banke in 1864.

Dommedag for Danmark (Doomsday for Denmark) depicts the whole of Denmark’s fatal war. Why did the 1864 war come? Who participated? How did the war go? Why did the Prussians take so long to defeat the Danish position at the Dybbøl Banke? What was the outcome of the war?

Angrebet på Als (The attack on Als) depicts the Danish volunteer soldier Erik Skram, who without combat experience is thrown directly into some of the war’s toughest battles on the island Als on 29 June 1864. Here he witnesses the most heinous bloodshed and is himself severely wounded behind the Prussian lines. A fate he shares with thousands of other ordinary Danish soldiers who can not at all withstand the much larger and more professional Prussian army.

Stormdagen (Assault Day) brings you very close to the day, where the Prussians at 4 o’clock in the morning put everything into crushing the Danish defence and occupying Dybbøl after ten weeks of siege. The battle of 18 April is one of the bloodiest in Danish history and the last major battle on Danish soil. About 2,800 people were mutilated or lost their lives.

3D animation - Dybbøl Sønderborgs bombardement

Stillbillede fra optagelse - Bombardement

The bombardment

Danish soldiers crawl together in the trench and wait for the Prussians to storm. Heavy cannon grenades rained down over the trenches. Some distance away, the Prussians are ready, just as tense and scared as the young Danes. Both sides are now only waiting for the crucial command: Vorwärts!

Take cover for the grenades

Feel the weight of the large cannons and go exploring in the two dark gunpowder magazines of heavy concrete. Take cover in the huge blockhouse, which was the redoubt’s shelter, because it was believed to be bomb-proof.

In the History Centre’s authentic reconstruction, you can for the first time since 1864 walk around in a Danish redoubt system.

Discover the soldiers’ daily routines

Lie down on the straw bed in the soldiers’ barracks or write a letter with pen and ink. Operate the forge’s bellows and try to telegraph from the post office.

Behind the redoubt, Danish reserve forces lived in 1864 in a large barracks camp. At the History Centre, we have built a camp, which we call the Soldiers’ town. Here you become part of the daily life during the 1864 war.

Black powder riflemen

Several times a year volunteers from the association Jyske Landsoldater appear at the History Centre. Every year on 18 April we are also visited by a similar association from Germany, which of course is dressed as Prussian soldiers from 1864. Today, however, they meet in peace at the Dybbøl Banke!

The extraordinary landscape at Dybbøl

Consider a hike on the former battlefield with the remains of the redoubt’s blown up gunpowder magazines, memorial stones and tombs. Download the app “On the trail of 1864” (in Danish) and discover the old photographs of the destroyed Danish redoubts on your trip across the battlefield.

Other places of war in the Sønderborg Municipality you can experience with the app “Route 1864” (in Danish).

The History Centre Dybbøl Banke is located in the middle of one of Denmark’s most beautiful landscapes created by the ice age with an impressive view of the Baltic Sea, Als and Sundeved.

A leaflet can be found at the History Centre or can be downloaded from the Danish Nature Agency’s website.