The island is known assolskinsøen ("sunshine island") because of its weather andklippeøen ("rock island") because of its geology, which consists ofgranite, except along the southern coast. The heat from the summer is stored in the rock formations and the weather is quite warm until October. As a result of the climate, a local variety of thecommon fig, known as Bornholm's Diamond (Bornholms Diamant) (Ficus carica 'Bornholm'), can grow locally on the island. The island's topography consists of dramatic rock formations in the north (unlike the rest of Denmark, which is mostly gentle rolling hills) sloping down towards pine and deciduous forests (greatly affected by storms in the 1950s), farmland in the middle and sandy beaches in the south.[1]
The island is home to many of Denmark'sround churches. Occupying an area of 584.59 square kilometres (225.71 sq mi),[2] the island had a total population of 38,966 as of January 2025[update].
InOld Norse the island was known asBurgundaholmr, and inancient Danish especially the island's name wasBorghand orBorghund; these names were related to Old Norseborg 'height' andbjarg/berg 'mountain, rock' because it is an island that rises high from the sea.[3] Other names known for the island includeBurgendaland (9th century),Hulmo /Holmus (Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum),Burgundehulm (1145), andBorghandæholm (14th century).[4] The Old English translation of Orosius uses the formBurgenda land.[5] There are scholars who believe that theBurgundians are named after Bornholm. The Burgundians were aGermanic people who were settled in theRhone region by the Romans, and who the region ofBurgundy inFrance is named after.[6]
Bornholm was pawned toLübeck byFrederick I of Denmark for 50 years starting in 1525, in payment for its support in his acquisition of the Danish throne.[7] Its first militia,Bornholms Milits, was formed in 1624. Swedish forces conquered the island during theTorstenson War in 1645, but returned the island to Denmark in thefollowing peace settlement. After the war in 1658, Denmark ceded the island to Sweden under theTreaty of Roskilde along with the rest of theSkåneland,Bohuslän andTrøndelag, and it was occupied by Swedish forces.A revolt broke out the same year, culminating in Villum Clausen's shooting of the Swedish commanderJohan Printzensköld on 8 December 1658.[8] After the revolt, the inhabitants handed back their island to the Danish kings.
On 22 August 1942 aV-1 flying bomb crashed on Bornholm during a test – the warhead was a dummy made of concrete. The wreckage was photographed and sketched by the Danish Naval Officer-in-Charge on Bornholm, Lieutenant Commander Hasager Christiansen. When reported to British Intelligence, it was one of the first signs of Germany's aspirations to develop flying bombs and rockets, which were to become known as V-1. The Bornholm rocket turned out to be fromPeenemünde.[10][better source needed]
The Soviet bombing of the two main towns on 7-8 May 1945 prepared thelanding of Soviet troops at Bornholm. Danish radio was not allowed to broadcast the news because it was thought it would spoil the liberation festivities in Denmark.[11] 8 May 1945 was theVictory in Europe Day. On 9 May, Soviet troops landed at Bornholm, and after a short fight, the German garrison (about 12,000 strong[12]) surrendered.[13] Soviet forces would leave the island on 5 April 1946.[14]
Later research found that the Soviet bombing of Bornholm resulted in approximately three thousand Danish civilians inRønne becoming homeless, while damaging a majority of the houses inNexø, fully destroying roughly one-tenth. Ten Danes were killed and thirty-five wounded, considered a low number, because many civilians were evacuated to shelters on the outskirts of the respective towns before the worst raids hit. It was not until 5 April 1946, that Soviet troops finally left Bornholm. After the war, Bornholm received aid from Sweden to rebuild Rønne and Nexø.[15][16][17]
After the evacuation of their forces from Bornholm, the Soviets took the position that the stationing of foreign troops on Bornholm would be considered a declaration of war against the Soviet Union, and that Denmark should keep troops on it at all times to protect it from such foreign aggression. This policy remained in force afterNATO was formed, with Denmark as a founding member. The Soviets accepted the stationing there of Danish troops, which were part of NATO but viewed as militarily inferior elements of the alliance, but they strongly objected to the presence of other NATO troops on Bornholm, US troops in particular.[18]
On 5 March 1953, the day ofStalin's death, Polish pilotFranciszek Jarecki defected from the Eastern Bloc and landed aMiG-15 fighter on the island. He was later granted asylum and rewarded for providing Western intelligence with the then-newest Soviet jet fighter.[19]
In 2017, Denmark'sDefence Intelligence Service decided to build a listening tower nearØstermarie, almost 90 meters high, to intercept radio communications across the Baltic Sea and in parts of Russia.[20]
Result of referendum 29 May 2001 on merger of municipalities with the county 1 January 2003
Municipality
Yes
No
Votes
Percent
Votes
Percent
Allinge-Gudhjem
3,590
74
1,287
26
Hasle
2,886
70
1,219
30
Nexø
3,218
59
2,252
41
Rønne
7,754
85
1,366
15
Aakirkeby
3,131
74
1,118
26
Total:27821
20,579
74
7,242
26
Ferry routes to and from BornholmBornholm andChristiansø hundreds and 5 municipalities (1970–2002) in green colour and 21 municipalities before 1 April 1970Parishes inChurch of Denmark numberedUnofficialflag of Bornholm (the tourist flag)Unofficial flag of Bornholm. TheDannebrog is clearly visible with the green cross inserted in the white cross.Old coat of arms of Bornholm.[21]
Bornholm Regional Municipality is the local authority (Danish,kommune) covering the entire island. Its formal name is Bornholm Municipality. It is given the right in the law establishing it to be called Bornholm Regional Municipality. (For explanation read on). It is theresult of a merger of the five former (1 April 1970 until 2002) municipalities on the island (Allinge-Gudhjem,Hasle,Nexø,Rønne andAakirkeby) and the formerBornholm County. Bornholm Regional Municipality was also a county in its own right during its first four years from 1 January 2003 until 31 December 2006. From 1 January 2007 all counties were abolished, and Bornholm became part of theCapital Region of Denmark whose main responsibility is the health service. In thebill (Danishforslag) (Bill of Law on merger of the municipalities of Bornholm) presented 30 January 2002 by the Minister of Interior and Health toFolketinget, it says in §1 that (1st sentence) "The 1st of January 2003 Bornholm Municipality is established by a merger of (names of municipalities mentioned, and county's name mentioned), and (2nd sentence) Bornholm Municipality is called Bornholm Regional Municipality".
The island had 21 municipalities until March 1970, of which 6 were market towns and 15 parishes. In addition to supervising parish municipalities, which was the responsibility of the counties inall of Denmark, the market town municipalities of Bornholm were supervised by Bornholm County as well and not by the Interior Ministry as was the case in the rest of Denmark. The seat of the municipal council is the island's main town, Rønne. The voters decided to merge the county with the municipalities in a referendum 29 May 2001, effective from 1 January 2003. The question on theballot was, "Do you want the six municipal entities of Bornholm to be joined to form one municipal entity as of 1 January 2003?" 73.9% voted in favour. The lowest percentage for the merger was inNexø municipality (966 more people voting "Yes" than "No"), whose mayor, Annelise Molin, a Social Democrat, spoke out against the merger. It was required that each municipality had more "Yes" votes than "No" votes. Otherwise the merger would have to be abandoned altogether. The six municipal entities had up to 122 councillors (of which county clls were 18, from 1998 15), reduced to 89 in the municipalities from the 1990s, in the 1970s and the new regional municipality would have 27 councillors from the start 1 January 2003. They were reduced to 23 from 1 January 2018 (election November 2017). From 1 January 2003 until 31 December 2006 the 27 cllrs were called Regional Council (DanishRegionsråd), from 1 January 2007 changed to Municipal Board (DanishKommunalbestyrelse) as is the usual term in almost all Danish municipalities. This was to avoid confusion with the Regional Council in Region Hovedstaden, and in the other regions
The merger was approved in a law by theFolketing 19 (and signature bythe head of state 25) March 2002, transferring the tasks of the abolished county and old municipalities to the new Bornholm Regional Municipality. The first regional mayor in the first three years from 2003 until 2005 was Thomas Thors (born 28 July 1949), a physician and member of theSocial Democrats and previously the last mayor of Rønne Municipality for five years from 1998 until 2002. He became a mayor again in 2021. Bjarne Kristiansen, who was the last mayor ofHasle2+1⁄2 years from the summer of 2000 until 2002, representing the local Borgerlisten political party, served as mayor for four years from 1 January 2006 until 2009. From 1 January 2007, Bornholm became a part of theCapital Region of Denmark. From 1 January 2010 until 31 December 2020 the mayor was Winni Grosbøll, a high school teacher and a member of theSocial Democrats (Socialdemokratiet)political party. The deputy mayor Morten Riis was mayor for a short interlude from 1 January until 4 January 2021. He is from theRed-Green Alliance. Thomas Thors, who was elected again in 2017, became mayor again from 4 January 2021. After the2021 Danish local elections Jacob Trøst became mayor from January 2022. He is from theConservative party. This was after an agreement (aftale om konstituering) between the Red-Green Alliance, amongst whom Morten Riis will be deputy mayor, and theDanish People's Party with the Conservatives.
Bornholm's municipal council today consists of 23 members, elected every four years. In the first four local elections in the newly created municipality there were 27 members elected to the municipal council. The 2002 local election only took place on Bornholm. From the election in 2017 the number of councillors elected was reduced to 23 members, serving theirterm of office from 1 January 2018 until 31 December 2021.
Ferry services connect Rønne toŚwinoujście (Poland),Sassnitz (Germany),Køge, 45 kilometres (28 miles) by road (34 kilometres or 21 miles as the crow flies) south of Copenhagen,Denmark; the destination to Køge replaced the nighttime route directly to and from Copenhagen (for both cargo and passengers) from 1 October 2004; andcatamaran services toYstad (Sweden).Simrishamn (Sweden) has a ferry connection during the summer. There are also regularcatamaran services betweenNexø and the Polish ports ofKołobrzeg,Łeba andUstka. There are direct bus connections Ystad-Copenhagen, coordinated with the catamaran. There are also flights fromBornholm Airport to Copenhagen and other locations.
Because of its remote location Bornholm Regional Municipality has its own traffic company,BAT, and is its own employment region, and also performs other tasks normally carried out by the regions in the rest of Denmark. In some respects the municipality forms a region of its own.
Bornholm Regional Municipality was not merged with other municipalities on 1 January 2007 in the nationwideMunicipal Reform of 2007.
The larger towns on the island are located on the coast and have harbours. There is however one exception, centrally placedAakirkeby, which was also the name of the municipality from 1970 until 2002, but it included the harbour of Boderne, 5 kilometres (3.1 miles) to the south. The largest town isRønne; it is the seat, in the southwest on the westernmost point of the island. The other main towns (clockwise around the island) areHasle,Sandvig, Allinge,Gudhjem,Svaneke andNexø. Monday morning 22 September 2014 it was documented byFolkeregistret in the municipality that the number of people living in the municipality that day were 39,922, the lowest number in over 100 years.[22]
The town of Rønne after the merger of the island's administrative entities 1 January 2003 reached a low point of 13,568 inhabitants 1 January 2014. 15,957 people in 1965 (date unknown;number not registerbased) lived in the two parishes that would become Rønne municipality from 1 April 1970. In the table, numbers for Rønne are for the parish of Rønne, Rønne Sogn, alone. The year is unknown but sometime between 2000 and 2005. It does not include Knudsker Sogn, which was also part of Rønne Municipality. Other localities (with approximate populations, not updated) includeAarsballe (86),Arnager (151),Olsker (67),Rutsker (64),Rø (181),Stenseby (?) andVang (92). In 2010 and 2018 10,297 and 9,111 respectively lived in rural districts, and 88 and 71 had no fixed address. A rural district is defined by Statistics Denmark as a settlement with less than 200 inhabitants.
On 22 September 2014 population numbers showed fewer than 40,000 inhabitants on the island for the first time in over 100 years. TheFolkeregister in the municipality could document 39,922 inhabitants in the municipality on that date.[22]
Most inhabitants are members of theLutheranChurch of Denmark (Folkekirken). Various Christian denominations have become established on the island, most during the 19th century.
Examples of roads that have (very) steepclimbs and descents are: (inland)Simblegårdsvej inKlemensker, which begins by the village innKlemens Kro, andSlamrebjergvej just outsideNexø extending northward from the main road fromRønne. Along the coast there are several steep roads, which is also the case in some parts ofDenmark as a whole, for instance in and aroundVejle.[28]
The island hosts examples of 19th- and early-20th-century architecture, and about 300 wooden houses inRønne andNexø, donated bySweden afterWorld War II, when the island was repairing damage caused by the war.The island is home to 15medieval churches, four of which areround churches with unique artwork and architecture.[29] The ancient site ofRispebjerg has remains of sun temples from theNeolithic and earthworks from theIron Age.[30]
Because of the dilapidated state of their buildings, all secondary educational facilities in Rønne, including adult evening classes, are being transferred to new facilities at Campus Bornholm in 2018.[33] Campus Bornholm is a merger formed in June 2010 consisting ofBornholms Erhvervsskole (youth and adults), Bornholm High School (youth) andVUC Bornholm (adults), then occupying separate addresses. Learning institutions not part of this formalised collaboration will also be housed at Minervavej in Rønne. The building costs were over 300 million DKK (US$46.9 million (29 June 2018)). TheA.P. Møller Foundation contributed a sum of 56 million DKK (US$8.76 million (29 June 2018)) to the project.[34]
Among Bornholm's chief industrial activities are dairy farming and arts and crafts industries such asglass production and pottery using locally worked clay.[citation needed]Jensen-Group, an industrial washing and folding machine company, was founded on the island and has a factory in Rønne. It is headquartered inBelgium.[citation needed]
Bornholm is also home to a large internationally funded demonstration project to test the viability of novel energy market mechanisms to regulate energy networks with a high prevalence of renewables (such as wind turbines and photovoltaics). 50% of the EcoGrid project is EU-funded, with the remainder coming mainly from large corporations.[35]
Bornholm has anoceanic climate relatively similar to southern Sweden and mainland Denmark, whose summer highs and winter lows are heavily moderated by its maritime and isolated position. Though intense heat is rare, the climate is sunny during summer and rainfall is generally sparse for a climate of this type. The winter of 2010 – 2011 was exceptionally extreme with snow depth reaching at least 146cm (58inches) andsnowdrifts of sixmeters (20 feet), the highest in Northern Europe. Military assistance was needed to clear roadways. TheDMI estimated the weight of snow to be 100milliontons.
Bornholm's geography as an island and moderate climate makes Bornholm an ideal location for sailing and other water-based sports. Bornholm has also become an internationally recognised venue for 'match racing', a sailing sport where two identical yachts are raced in one-on-one events on the water. TheDanish Open event was held in Bornholm in September 2010 at the port town of Rønne on the western coast of Bornholm. The five-day Danish Open is a key event in theWorld Match Racing Tour calendar which is one of only 3 events awarded 'special event' status by theInternational Sailing Federation. The Tour is the world's leading professional 'match racing' series and features a nine-event calendar which crosses three continents during the series. Points accrued during the Danish Open contribute directly to the World Match Racing Tour championship with the winner of the season finale at the Monsoon Cup in Malaysia claiming the ultimate match racing title ISAF World Match Racing Champion.
Aerial view of BornholmEnlargeable, detailed map of Bornholm
Russian writerNikolay Karamzin in his 1794 short story "The Island of Bornholm" ("Ostrov Borngolm") depicts formidable rocks and green meadows of the island. This story about forbidden love is considered one of the first Russiangothic tales.
A considerable part of the Second World War spy thrillerHornet Flight byKen Follett takes place on Bornholm, depicting the island under German occupation.
Megaheavy by Danish filmmakerFenar Ahmad is set on Bornholm in the 1980s. It won the Grand Prix at the 2010 Odense Film Festival.
The 2006 filmTempelriddernes Skat (The Lost Treasure of the Knights Templar) takes place on Bornholm.
Bornholm has an appearance in aRoblox game titled Dynamic Ship Simulator 3, made by CaptainMarcin and his dev team, Badyacht.
The 1933 work,Folkeliv og Indstiftelser paa Bornholm, describes the culture and history of the island.[39]
In thewebcomicStand Still, Stay Silent byMinna Sundberg, Bornholm is the last remaining inhabited area of Denmark after the world is ravaged by a pandemic, and the southernmost area known to still be inhabited by humans.[40]
Mathias Bidstrup (1852 inRønne – 1929) architect of many buildings on Bornholm, schools, churches (includingGudhjem Church), train stations and the post office inRønne
Hans Henny Jahnn (1894–1959), German playwright, novelist, and organ-builder, lived inRutsker from 1934 to 1950.
Gertrud Vasegaard (1913 inRønne – 2007), a ceramist remembered for herstoneware, in 1933 she moved to Bornholm whence her family originated and opened a studio inGudhjem.[43]
Arne Ranslet (1931–2018) sculptor and ceramist, moved to Bornholm in 1955
