The City Park
The park was originally laid out in the 17th century as a kitchen garden for the parsonage opposite, Storegade 1. The park then had three fish ponds that were to supply the priest’s household with carp and trout. The ponds were connected by streams and bridges. In the middle of the 19th century, the then priest Jørgen Stephensen converted the kitchen garden into an English-inspired park, which was later leased to Broager Municipality.
In the 1940s, Storegade in Broager was sewered, and the surplus soil from this was used to fill the two northernmost ponds in the park. In the 1980s, the park was renovated with new plantings, rearrangement of paths, and cleaning of the remaining park pond, so the park got its current expression. The pavilion was built in 1988. In those years, there were monthly park entertainments every summer. Now it is still the church that owns the park, but it is maintained by Sønderborg Municipality. Now go to the bust of I P Nielsen.
Bust of I P Nielsen
The Zealand native I P Nielsen came to Southern Jutland in connection with the reunification, because Prime Minister TH. Stauning wanted a strong Social Democrat in the “new” region.
He was immediately elected to the Folketing, where he had a seat until 1943. He settled in “The Hut” on Dynt Beach. Together with Crown Princess Ingrid, he established holiday homes for children on the Jutland west coast and on Funen. From 1917 to 1924, he headed an organization that during this period arranged recreation stays for about 34,000 German children.
They got a 3 – 6 month stay in Denmark or Sweden. This earned I P Nielsen the nickname “The Children’s Father” Throughout his life, he was an avid debater, editor, and writer, who wrote more than 500 articles.
He remained on Dynt Beach until his death in 1952. “The Hut” is still there, and is still owned by the family.
Vestergade 39 – The German Kindergarden
The house here on Vestergade is the oldest house in town. It has a long and varied history, which starts with a couple of farmers in the 18th century getting a royal concession to build an inn, brewery, and horse stables on the plot. Later, the business was taken over by other families, before the inn was taken over by the Clausen family. It must have been a good business to run an inn with horse accommodation right by the church. It got even better when the church’s own stables at the current bus station went up in smoke during the great Broager fire in 1880.
During the 1864 war, many of the siege troops were quartered on Broagerland. At that time, it was reported that Kettenkrug, as it was then called, housed a mess for both privates and officers. Here, the many journalists and cartoonists who were to cover the upcoming Battle of Dybbøl met. In 1909, Egernsund Church was inaugurated, so the turnover in the inn fell significantly. Later followed the downturn as a result of World War I. The Clausen family then chose in the early 1920s to sell the entire Vestergade 39 to the German school association, which set up a school on the site. It was expanded in several rounds.
In May 1945, it was closed by the resistance movement, which set up a kind of barracks, which later was used for housing for many German refugees. The last ones left Broager in 1947. In the early 1950s, the school was returned to the German school association, which ran a school until 1973 and a kindergarten until 2019 at the address.
