Between Denmark and Detroit: Ford Motor Company A/S and the transformation af Fordism

In 1919 the first Ford assembly plant on mainland Europe was established in Copenhagen, Denmark. From there, Ford model T’s were successfully exported to most of North-Eastern Europe.

The Danish Ford company was a successful investment, and continued production through the recession of the 1930’s, the German occupation 1940-45 and the Cold War and economic boom of the 1950’s. But in 1966 it finally had to give way to Fords larger operations elsewhere in Europe.

This book tells the fascinating story about how a small country became a bridgehead for Fordism into Europe. The technology employed in Copenhagen was the same as in Fords American assembly plants. But the social and political context was quite different. Ford had to make concessions to organised labour, to local traditions and to changing market conditions.

The story of Ford Motor Company A/S is also the story about how Fordism was transformed, as it was relocated across the Atlantic.