Sweden and Denmark. Travel Notes

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Engels wrote these notes during his trip to Sweden and Denmark in July 1867. In a letter of June 26, 1867 he informed Marx that he and his wife Lydia (Lizzy) Burns intended to undertake this trip via Hamburg and Schleswig. Engels’ notes on hotel bills, ship tickets and other travel documents allow us to trace the route and the length of stay in various places. From July 7 to 9, Engels and his wife were in Göteborg, from July 11 to 13 in Stockholm, on July 14 in Malmö, from July 15 to 18 in Copenhagen, and on July 20 they were already in Flensburg, Germany. They returned to Manchester early in August 1867.

Engels’ notes, written on three separate sheets of paper, have been preserved. Appended to them is a larger sheet with the plan of a fortress (apparently Karlsborg mentioned in the text) drawn by Engels. At the end of the first paragraph Engels drew a man’s head.

6 July, 9 a.m., Hero on the Humber, 11 a.m. at sea, fresh westerly breeze, 12 km per hour, wind rising, heavy sea after midday, wind veering more and more to the North, in the evening

HALF A GALE, heavy rolling of the long ship, Captain Soulsby falls and breaks a rib, an English passenger badly hurts his face in similar circumstances, the MAINSAIL breaks loose from the lower block. 7 July, impossible to set foot on deck, heavy rolling until, towards evening, the wind at last abates and we can go on deck, with the Holmen light-house in view. Sea subsides more and more, but choppy.

8 July, 7 a.m. Vingan, then entrance to the Götaälv skerries, roches moutonnées everywhere, the effect of the ice visible at 1,000 paces. Soon the river gets narrower, with green valleys between the granite rocks, then a few trees too, finally the approaches to Göteborg, lovely and strange because of the squat spaciousness of the broad houses.

Göteborg proper, a modern city amid old-Swedish surroundings; all stone inside, all wood outside. Dutch canals with Dutch stench in the streets. The Swedes look far more German than English; foreign Finnish element among them. By and large, the women’s complexions are poor; coarse, but not repulsive features; men more attractive, but also more reminiscent of the inland German philistine. People in their forties all look like Baden philistines.

English is tolerated. German predominates. The commercial and literary dependence on Germany very apparent. Railway stations, public buildings, private houses, villas, everything in the German style, with minor variations for climatic reasons. Of England, only the parks and their tidiness, and a church in the English neoGothic style. One can speak German in every shop,- even in hotel English speakers are requested to speak German if possible. Pinks and hawthorn in full bloom, everything as on 8 May. Beautiful kinds of elms along with ashes predominate in the foliage. Green as an English spring. Interspersed everywhere with bare granite moutonnées.

The way of life quite Continental, not English at all despite the drinking of false port and cherry brandy. The style of the hotels—rooms, breakfast, cuisine—everything Continental. Similarly the mixing of classes in public houses. Aperitifs (Appetitsup) and Hors d’oeuvres (smörbrödsborden) (25 öre).

People’s stature: medium height and stocky, 5’6” (Rhenish). Soldiers of horse artillery (värfvade) taller. Both officers and men rather militia-like, reminiscent of the Swiss. The Hull sailors look more like Holsteiners, Lower Saxons, Frisians, Angles and Danes than like Swedes. The Swedes here lack a manly expression of the face, mostly flabby bloated features, except for some seamen with Frisian physiognomy and sinewy build. The soldiers look like Westphalians, the officers too, NEITHER PRIVATE NOR OFFICIOUS.

As always, one can’t help thinking how much is done everywhere on the Continent for the health and recreation of the populus as compared with aristocratic England.

Comic effect produced by the 2 English SWELL LADIES, stared at by all the Swedish women.

Voyage to Stockholm. Lay-out of the steamer: back cabin for sleeping, front cabin for taking meals. Substantial fare. Salad with cream. Sweets. People further inland showing more character in their features, the men more handsome, stronger and taller, the women PLAIN BUT HOMELY AND NOT UNPLEASANT, also tall and sturdily built. Their character increasingly reminds one of Black Forest people, Swiss and Tyroleans (Steub’s Tyrolean Goths?). Country squires. The language too sounds very much like High German without gutturals.

Country at Götaälv lovely, but subdued, up to Trollhättan. Four waterfalls straight above one another. Mountains not over 600 to 800 feet high, but impressive. Then Lake Väner with Kinnekullen, flat and monotonous. Vättern likewise. Karlsborg’s fortifications not badly laid out, long lines, polygonal, but isn’t the mountain behind dominant now? The lakes beautiful but all alike. Endless forests of fir trees, damaged at that. None of the stately heavy firs of Switzerland.

SCOTCH FIR.

Motalaälv valley again partly cultivated, beautiful in places where trees—elms and birches—line the canal.

The skerry-dotted sea gets more and more beautiful towards Stockholm. Change in formation—limestone here and there and greater weathering, hence more gentle slopes and Alpine meadows rising direct from the sea. Marble quarries on two islands. The skerries become higher and more beautiful the closer one gets to Stockholm. Lovely scenery along Lake Malar; forests, fields and villas alternating.

Stockholm’s Norrbro [North Bridge] reminiscent of the Pont des Bergues in Geneva. Mosebacken splendid. Fine view from observatory too. Steam sloops to the Djurgarden [zoo]. The latter most beautiful as a park. Many restaurants and cafés. French style with small tables à la carte, no table-d’hôte. Stockholmers’ custom of eating in restaurants. Brännvinsbordet [snack with brandy] everywhere. Paiestko-öl [beer] better than in Germany. Exceedingly sweet drinks and food (karger). Swedish beer not worse, but either too sweet or too sour. Wines—Bordeaux hyper-hermitagé, petit bourgogne with an addition of South French wine—main drink at table. Otherwise, the standard cuisine more German than French.

Stockholm has more the air of a capital city, foreign languages less coulant, but German spoken in every shop. Men’s fashions, decidedly English in Göteborg, predominantly French here. Hypocrisy concerning brännvinsbordet when ladies around; childish entertainments: merry-go-rounds, puppet shows, tight-rope walkers and bad music. Boat parties still the best “mekanismen”. And yet serious or hypocritical Lutheran character of the people, which tolerates no Tivoli-type public entertainments on a large scale.

Soldiers, even Guards, SLOVENLY in the militia manner, officers ditto. No LIFE IN THEM. Not very tall either, no match to the men of the 69th. Eclectic uniform and old-fashioned leathers. Sentries chat. Beards. The Malmö hussars—as heavy as troopers of the line—are the most handsome of the men.

The trains—dear me. Three times ringing, once whistling.

5 minutes=15 à 20. Simple but good buffets, everything costs 1 riksdaler. Landscape picturesque, but after the first two hours monotonous and ultimately boring through perpetual repetition. The abundance of lakes readily explained by the effect of the ice. The valleys are mostly former seabed or peat moors.

Smart trick this sending the people to Malmö to bring a series of diplomatic negotiations to an end.

Copenhagen. Really more like a hovedstaden [capital] in size and life-style than Stockholm, but still small and modest. Decided preponderance of Germans, even on the streets. Cheerful children, all kinds of entertainments, above all for children. At least a hundred merry-go-rounds. The adults infantile too; ballet, circus, etc.; even the children’s cruelty, which takes the greatest satisfaction in tormenting children. Tivoli of the most characteristic kind.

Lovely trees everywhere in Copenhagen. Impressive entrance to the port. Old warships—very picturesque. The atmosphere of a peasant capital city that exploits 1.5 million peasants unmistakable everywhere.