Haderslev, a town near the east coast of Denmark, is where the Danish army fought the last war on its own soil. It was in 1940, when Germany invaded the country.
Today – in a scenario that was unthinkable in post-war Europe until recently – Danish sovereignty is once again under threat. This time from Copenhagen's greatest ally, the United States.
And once again, Haderslev is the place where new Danish soldiers are preparing for an unpredictable future.
The Danish government has decided to extend compulsory military service from four to 11 months in 2025, and to make it gender-neutral. Namely, the right that women had previously had to refuse service has been abolished.
The threat from Russia, which all Nordic countries are accustomed to living with, has increased further after the major invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and increased hybrid attacks.
But US President Donald Trump's refusal to rule out the possibility of using force to take over the semi-autonomous Danish island of Greenland, as well as the Trump administration's general disinterest in NATO, led Copenhagen to change its stance and end the lull that has prevailed in recent decades.
Danes face reality
"If we can't trust the Americans and the Russians are winning right now, then we're in a whole new world," Peter Vigo Jakobsen of the Danish Royal Defence College tells DW. "That's been the government's official message since February last year, and that's the environment these young people are coming into."
The first group of recruits to undergo training under the new system reported to the barracks in Haderslev this Monday morning.
"This is definitely a big day when it comes to the defense of Denmark. It allows us to have more combat power and to activate it faster," Colonel Kenneth Strom, head of the recruitment program at the Danish Defense Command, tells DW.
Fighting for a place in the units
Although military service is mandatory, all 120 members of the group are volunteers. Although it has extended the military service, Denmark still has the option to reject people who volunteer to serve.
One of those accepted is 19-year-old Leora Olsen. She has a big smile on her face now that she has learned basic commands.
“I’m happy to be here,” she says. She welcomes the fact that the training duration has been extended. “I think it provides more opportunities to learn more and gain more experience.”
Olsen explains that she is interested in joining the military police, but adds that she has not thought much about the security environment that Denmark now faces – which has changed.
On the other hand, 23-year-old Sebastian Hedegaard says he has considered the risks of military service, given that he has always wanted to join the army. "I'm definitely thinking about it," he says as he unpacks his things next to his bunk bed.
“Obviously going to war is a possible part of it… Maybe it won’t happen – but maybe it will,” says Hedegard.
When asked if he believes that possibility is closer today than it was a year ago, he answers with a clear, "Yes." But he does not cite Russia or the US as a challenge, but "the entire world – simply the situation we find ourselves in."
Tobias Roed Jensen of the Defence Command says that by 2033, Denmark is expected to have almost 2.000 additional people who have undergone military training annually thanks to the new system. In 2024, before the change in the conscription system, around 4.600 people completed their four-month service annually. This number will increase to 6.500 conscripts annually with the longer duration of military service, which will significantly strengthen the current composition of more than 20.000 active members of the Defence Forces.
Growth of forces stationed in Greenland
After Trump's threats, it is likely that some of those forces will be deployed to Greenland. Before the US president toned down his rhetoric in Davos, Denmark increased its military presence on the island - and even tightened its command, which military analyst Jakobsen considers difficult to accept, but understandable.
“It’s incredible that the Danish prime minister has to go on television and say that Denmark will not rule out the use of force, because neither does the US. In a way,” says Jakobsen, “Denmark was forced to deploy its forces in Greenland with orders to shoot in the event of a US attack.”
At the barracks in Haderslev, regiment commander Kore Jakobsen admits that this situation will also have to be part of the training of new recruits.
"The young people we are receiving now are constantly on social media, constantly following the media and knowing what is happening in the world. We need to address that issue and tell them what is actually happening and what we are going to use them for in that context," says Jakobsen.
"I know some of them are quite eager to find out what the Danish military is going to do and what the government is going to do about it."
Trump is throwing insult after insult
And just as the Greenland crisis had subsided, Trump stoked the flames again. He angered all NATO allies, but hit Denmark particularly hard. He said that countries that were engaged alongside the US in Afghanistan were staying "a little further from the front lines."
Denmark lost more soldiers per capita in that war than any other country, with the exception of the US. According to the Danish Armed Forces, 44 Danish soldiers died in Afghanistan while serving in NATO-led missions.
In response to Trump's statements, citizens placed 44 flags with the names of fallen soldiers in front of the US Embassy in Copenhagen on January 27th.
Embassy security removed the flags that same evening. New flags were later installed in a silent parade attended by thousands of veterans.
Among the participants was 83-year-old retired air force general Christian Hvitt. He said he had never participated in a protest before. Trump's insult deeply affected him, as he personally participated in sending and seeing off Danish soldiers who went to Afghanistan, many of whom never returned alive.
"It's a stab in the back," he told DW, referring to Trump's statement. "We've been there since day one."
General Hvit hopes that young people entering military service today will not have to go to war with anyone – especially not with Denmark's traditionally closest ally.
"I know that (the Americans) stand with us," he says. "I hope, of course, that one man, or two or three, cannot disrupt it forever. One day we will be very closely united again. That is what I hope for. And I am sure that will happen."
But many of Hvit's fellow citizens don't feel that way today. A new survey by Danish public broadcaster DR shows that less than a fifth of Danes still consider the US to be their ally.
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