Werkstatt 167
THE HISTORY OF THE ENGINE WORKSHOP
Werkstatt was once an engine workshop for the proud shipyard Burmeister & Wain and houses more than 100 years of maritime history. It was one of the great assembly yards of the shipyard and symbolizes an important era in Denmark's industrial history. In Werkstatt, the shipyard workers assembled the engines which powered the almost 1,000 ships Burmeister & Wain built during its existence.
Burmeister & Wain
Denmark’s biggest employer in the 19th century
The history of B&W starts in 1846 as a machine workshop called Baumgarten & Burmeister in Christianshavn. They produced engines and began the production of steam-driven iron ships changing its name to Burmeister & Wain. In 1872, they expanded with shipyards on the nearby artificial island Refshaleøen. These buildings house more than 100 years of maritime industrial history and became a place that launched more than a thousand ships. Up until the 1930’s, B&W kept expanding and became the largest employer in Denmark with more than 8.000 employees.
Burmeister & Wain played a pivotal role for the labour movement and in manifesting the role of the workplace as a politically active body. While many workers were prevented from organizing during this period, the workers at Burmeister & Wain had already from 1900 established a well-functioning cooperation between the workers and the management. This allowed workers to join into unions in a peaceful manner. In 1996, the days of the shipyard came to an end when Burmeister & Wain filed for bankruptcy after a long period of financial problems. In the aftermath, Refshaleøen became a forgotten and neglected corner of Copenhagen that mostly appealed to klondike enthusiasts and grumpy seagulls. However this has changed in the recent years where visionary entrepreneurs have opened up the island which is now rich in culture, urban adventure and community but has kept much of the feel of its maritime and historical past. Refshaleøen definitely would not have had these characteristics without Burmeister & Wain.
The evolution of Refshaleøen
From the closure of the workshops until Reffens takeover of the big red building in 2018, the old engine workshop served as a warehouse for a car wrecker. The surrounding area is still dominated by run down workshops and warehouses as a testament to the rise and fall of Burmeister & Wain. Street art is expressed everywhere, which give small clues about the creative environments that today rule the area.
Werkstatt is like several other of the shipyard buildings, categorized as a building worthy of preservation. With great respect for the workshop's past, we have given the interior of this fabulous building a make-over while retaining the raw industrial look and original details intact. The traces from the past are many and if these walls could talk, who knows what stories they would tell. Our location has the pulse of Reffen - it is a place entirely on its own, full of history and interesting details.
Werkstatt today
The colourful space is full of unique details. The six columns inside Werkstatt are decorated by four local artists that have each put their unique stamp on the 7,5-meter-high columns. Almost all facades and fronts bring a touch of something colourful with graffiti walls and paste ups. We love the paste ups by PRWND and graffiti wall by Stine Hvid. Outside Werkstatt is our adored and decayed Soviet aeroplane bought on Den Blå Avis in 2020. It used to spray fertiliser over the endless crop fields in the former Soviet Union. Its final destination is now on the top of a rusty container at Reffen where it now rests in all its glory and greets us all.
The colourful space is full of unique details. The six columns inside Werkstatt are decorated by four local artists that have each put their unique stamp on the 7,5-meter-high columns. Almost all facades and fronts bring a touch of something colourful with graffiti walls and paste ups. We love the paste ups by PRWND and graffiti wall by Stine Hvid. Outside Werkstatt is our adored and decayed Soviet aeroplane bought on Den Blå Avis in 2020. It used to spray fertiliser over the endless crop fields in the former Soviet Union. Its final destination is now on the top of a rusty container at Reffen where it now rests in all its glory and greets us all.
