Profile of Kaj Munk on Famous Like Me

Kaj Harald Leininger Munk (mostly referred to as Kaj Munk) (January 13, 1898 - January 4, 1944) was a Danish playwright and Lutheran pastor, known for his cultural engagement and his martyrdom during Word War II.

He was born Kaj Harald Leininger Petersen at Lolland, Denmark. He was raised by a family called Munk after the death of his parents. From 1924 he was the vicar of Vedersø in Western Jutland.

The dramas of Munk were mostly performed and made public during the 1930s but in fact many of them are written in the 1920s and much of his work is a contribution to the "philosophy-on-life-debate" (religion - marxism - darwinism) which marked much of Danish cultural life during this period. Very often he used a historical background of his plays - among his ideals were Shakespeare and Goethe.

In his dramas Munk often shows his fascination of "strong characters" and integrated people who fight whole-hearted for an ideal (whether this is good or bad). In his play En Idealist the "hero" is for instance King Herod whose fight for keeping power is the motive behind all of his acts until he is at last defeated by showing kindness to the Jesus child in a weak moment. I Brændingen is a camouflated portrait of Munk's antagonist, the anti-religious Georg Brandes whose atheist attitude also impressed him.

After a period of Nazi admiration, Munk turned into a strong opponent during the German occupation of Denmark 1940-1945 (although he continually opposed the idea of democracy as such, preferring the idea of a "Nordic dictator" who should unite the Nordic countries and keep them neutral during periods of international crisis). His plays Han sidder ved Smeltediglen ("He sits by the melting pot") and Niels Ebbesen were direct attacks on Nazism. He was arrested and subsequently assassinated by the Gestapo on January 4, 1944 at Hørbylunde near Silkeborg.

The reputation of Munk is one of the most paradoxial of modern Danish literature. During most of his life he was known as a right-wing anti-democrat, however he passed into history as the anti-nazi martyr par excellence. He was extremely engaged in is own time but usually wrote historical plays. He is often called a renewer of Danish drama but in fact he tried to revive both romantic and traditional naturalist theatre. He is called a classic but today his plays are not performed very often. He was a deeply religious person but just as much a man of this world. First of all his engaged personality has been the centre of interest.

His plays, many of which have been performed at the Royal Theatre, Copenhagen, and elsewhere, include:

• Pilatus (1917. Published 1937),
• Ordet (1925),
• Kaerlighed (1926),
• En Idealist (1928),
• I Brændingen (1929),
• Kardinalen og Kongen (1929),
• Cant (1931),
• De Udvalgte (1933),
• Sejren (1936),
• Han sidder ved Smeltediglen (1938),
• Egelykke (1940),
• Niels Ebbesen (1942),
• Før Cannae (1943).

The play Ordet (tr. The Word) was filmed in black and white by Carl Theodor Dreyer.

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