Nordic Exhibition of 1888 - Nordic Brotherhood

Nordic Brotherhood

The life source in Scandinavia has been drawn from the same well since the dawn of days, one of the more originators wrote dreamingly some years before the exhibition. The kinfolks of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden are thus distinguishable from the others, and yet inevitable entangled. The poetic claim was not utterly out of reason, at least not seen from the second half of the 1800. The centuries that could be looked back upon then, were in many ways defined by regional Nordic unity or at least highly intermingled developing patterns.

One of the step stones towards the realization of the expo was therefore to call upon the neighbours and invite them to party. This would make it possible to get a survey of the standpoint of the Nordic countries in the areas of industry, agriculture, and art. And it would also be a reminder to the crowds of modern age of their common heritage.

From a strategic position the talk of brotherhood was a further avocation of the subject of industrial art. A Nordic home marked -secured by trade walls- would ensure a nice stable growth of the many small and middle sized factory units in the region.

However, at this point in the chain of reasoning the originator was oddly silent. The reason to this was most probably that talk of Nordic unity could cause implications to the Danish foreign policies. The policy towards Europe’s strongest power was in short to ensure that absolutely no steps were taken that could be comprehended ‘negative.’ Talk of a protected Scandinavian marked that would exclude Germany, but include Finland (satellite of Russia) did not fit into that line of policy.

The motives to arrange an exhibition where a good many – Surely not all of them where outspoken right away.