News
On Monday the 9th of May 126 Norwegians – all of them members of the Guild in Oslo – visited Aalborg, Duus’ Wine cellar, Jens Bangs Stenhus and the board of the Guild.
The occasion was the celebration of the 20th anniversary for the sanctioning of the Norwegian branch of the Guild in Oslo by the original Christian The Fourth’s Guild in Aalborg. That was the result of several years of close cooperating between the Guild here in Aalborg and a group of citizens from Oslo.
Still, only the C4 Guild in Aalborg can initiate new members, and therefore every spring the Guild from Oslo brings to Aalborg new members to be initiated here by the Aalborg Guild, and every fall the Aalborg Guild travels to Oslo to initiate new members there. Thus – on Monday the 9th - 18 Norwegians were initiated here.
Acting on an invitation from the Oslo Guild chief bencher Niels Voss Hansen, vice chief bencher Kaj Hanberg and the Guilds secretary Henrik Jensen on Sunday the 8th went by boat from Frederikshavn to Oslo, where the Oslo Guild with vice chief bencher Trygve Sødring met them at the boat, and then the 3 Danes accompanied the 126 Norwegians back to Denmark (Frederikshavn) by night-boat.
At 10.30 a.m. on Monday 9th the initiation took place – and as usual with many happy Norwegians present and with lots of Norwegian songs and music (there are several musicians among the members of the Oslo Guild).
After the initiation the members of the board of the two Guilds and their ladies walked to the new restaurant “Fusion” on the waterfront, where lunch was served. To celebrate the 20th anniversary the board of Christian The Fourth’s Guild had this year invited the Norwegian consul in Aalborg, Jens Chr. Schmidt, to lunch, and on the waterfront the Cannon Guild of Aalborg saluted the Norwegian-Danish party.
Foto: Jens Morten
Christian The Fourth´s Guild participated in the arrangements in connection with AirFranceKLM´s opening of a new daily route between Aalborg and Amsterdam.
The route will be flown with a Fokker 70 plane with seats for 7o passengers, and it was just such a plane that landed in Aalborg Airport at noon Sunday 27th of March.
On board were representatives for the merged airlines, agents and travel organizers as well as travel journalists.
During the stay VisitAalborg had arranged a visit to Lindholm Høje and the Utzon Center, guided tours in Aalborg, initiations of 40-50 of the guests in Christian The Fourth's Guild and a dinner on the former Dutch training ship, now restaurant ship, “Prinses Juliana” in Aalborg Harbour.
Aalborg Airport has great expectations of the new route out of Aalborg. The blue Fokker planes will make two daily tours seven days a week between Aalborg and Amsterdam, from where there are connecting flights to all over the world.
Foto: Jens Morten
Many new members in the old Guild.
558 persons from 17 different countries. That’s the number of new members initiated by Christian The Fourth´s Guild in 2010. This was announced by Chief Bencher Niels Voss Hansen at the Guild´s traditional, annual Guild Meeting on Wednesday 23rd of February in Aalborg.
The new members come from countries like Ukraine and Bosnia-Herzegovina, but also many Norwegians and of course many Danes are among the newly admitted members.
On the 7th of June the Oslo branch visited the Guild, and the same day the new dress uniforms were presented in the old City Hall. In connection with the 4th of July festivities USA´s ambassador Laurie S. Fulton, CEO Ditlev Engel from Vestas and the youth speaker Marianne Lubanski were taken up as new members.
October 19th the Guild travelled to Oslo where an initiation was performed in Oslo Military Society.
2010 also presented a rare anniversary when Karen Wøhlk - a long-time member of the Guild - celebrated her 100 years birthday. A delegation from the Guild visited her on her big day and presented her with a bottle of Guild bitter to the tune of a trumpet solo.
The Chief Bencher told the assembly that the Guild in the last year - due to the financial crisis - had lost some of its sponsors and the economy was furthermore negatively affected by an increase in the rent and by a renewal of the Guild´s website.
The Guild Meeting in Duus´ Wine Cellar in Jens Bangs Stonehouse was attended by 200 members and following the Chief Benchers statement a number of prizes and economical “pats on the shoulder” were distributed.
Kathrine Størup Thomsen and Helge W. Larsen from the 4th of May College got such a pat on the shoulder. The prize for “Soldier of the Year” went to sergeant Kim Næsager Dalum from the Medical Company of the 1. Logistic Battalion - mainly because he as instructor and leader is “extremely committed and motivating”.
The 2010 Fanfare Prize went to the chief coach for Aalborg Boldklub´s men´s hand-ball team, Peter Bredsgaard-Larsen, who led the team to victory in the Danish National Championship in 2010 and made Aalborg known world-wide through his job as assistant coach for the Danish National Team at the World Hand-Ball Games.
The Prize of Honour was donated to the author Ib Skovfoged Laursen who among other things are known and highly praised for his books based on local historical themes.
The board has decided that from 2011 we will as far as possible send all our mail as e-post. The reason for this is the steadily increasing prices of both printing and mailing this newsletter and other correspondence. To ensure the change will be a success we need the support of our members in Denmark as well as abroad.
When we introduced the lifelong membership the purpose was that the yield from our capital should be used for charitable purposes through donations from Christian The Fourth’s Guild’s Foundation. But the yield from the capital has – due mainly to the global financial crisis – diminished considerably during the last few years. If this trend continues, without us taking countermeasures, our ability to donate money to deserving charitable organisations and persons will decrease. That is why we will try to cut down our mailing expenses by using e-post and publish the newsletter on our website. You can sign up for electronic reception of the newsletter and other mail from the Guild on this link: http://www.chr4laug.dk/update Here you must print membership number, name and e-mail address. You can see your membership number on newsletter 2011. Signing up for electronic reception of the newsletter will ensure a faster, better and more economical information. If you still want to receive the newsletter by ordinary mail you are kindly requested to inform us by writing to Christian Den Fjerdes Laug, P.O.box 1644, DK, 9100 Aalborg. With this initiative and the members help the board hopes to maintain the present level of donations to charitable purposes – and possible increase both the size and number of donations.
The board of Christian The Fourth's Guild
On Monday the 7th of June 2010 the members of the board wore the new outfit officially for the first time.
In 1988 the board-members of the C4-Guild got their first dress-uniform to indicate who they were and where they came from. Those first uniforms were sponsored by Sparekassen Nordjylland – a local bank which is now called SPAR NORD. Since then our dress-uniform has been a dark blue blazer with a golden C4-crest on the breast-pocket, tie with the C4-logo and grey trousers.
Our new dress-uniform consists of a plum coloured blazer with a golden C4-crest on the breast-pocket, black tie with a golden C4-logo and black trousers.
On Monday the 7th of June 2010 the members of the board wore this new outfit officially for the first time. With the Guild-troubadours in front of the procession they marched from Jens Bang´s Stonehouse to the Guilds ceremonial tree at the old town hall, where speeches were given by chief-bencher Niels Voss Hansen, followed by 1. vice-mayor Helle Frederiksen and the managing director of SPAR NORD, Henrik Schou. The latter two representing the sponsors: The City Council of Aalborg, SPAR NORD and “Kejserens Klæder” (The Emperors Clothes, the local tailorshop, which has delivered the new dress-uniforms).
The Guild-troubadour Per Iversen played a tune on the lure (the old Viking wind-instrument) and everybody toasted in the beverage most preferred by the Guild – beer.
The ceremony – at which 7 members of the Guild’s Norwegian branch in Oslo were present – was followed by an initiation in Duus’ Wine Cellar.
Photo: Jens Morten