ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on Scandinavian cultural fronts, anti-fascist organisations created by socialist intellectuals in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. It highlights how the international context influenced the mobilisation of Scandinavian intellectuals into cultural fronts as well as the operation of the fronts themselves. Inter-Scandinavian cooperation will be evidenced, but it is worth noting how each front had its unique development regardless of the relatively similar economic and political conditions in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The term intellectuals are understood as a social group consisting of individuals with higher or academic education as well as creative practitioners of art, literature, theatre and film. Cultural fronts were supposed to represent a broad gathering of intellectuals, exceeding the original core group of devoted activists. In Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, medieval barbarism and superstition had launched an attack against science and culture; Nazism and fascism had for the time being triumphed on the cultural battlefield, benefiting enemies of the people and culture.