Harald Bergstedt
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Harald Bergstedt (Harald Alfred Petersen; 10 August 1877 in Køge – 19 September 1965 in Copenhagen) was a Danish writer, novelist, playwright and a poet.
Author of the genre and satire verses (collections: Song of the province / Sange fra provinsen, 1913—1921; Wide Wings, 1919; Songs for all the Winds, 1927).
His social novel Alexandersen (1918) became a satire on a bourgeois culture.
His novel Factory of the Saints (1919, Russian translation 1924) became a prototype for Yakov Protazanov's 1930 film St. Jorgen's Day — a satire on the church and its ministers' hypocrisy.[1]
Before the Second World War, he was a social democrat and was an immensely popular poet. Several still popular Danish children's songs have lyrics by Bergstedt ("Hør den lille stær", "Solen er så rød, mor",[2] "Jeg ved en lærkerede"). In 1942-1945 during the German occupation of Denmark, he worked for a Nazi newspaper in Denmark, "Fædrelandet", and in 1946 was sentenced two years in prison for "cooperation with the Nazis".[3] For this reason his songs was banned from being played on Danmarks Radio until 1963.[4]
In 1948, he published a verse collection named Songs in the Jail with his thoughts on his life and works.
