On May 24, 1909, Brother Russell arrived in Copenhagen. About a hundred people heard him speak on the subject “The Covenants.” In the evening another audience of 600 listened intently to his talk “The Overthrow of Satan’s Empire.” Two years later his public discourse “The Judgment of the Great White Throne” was heard by 800 people.

Brother Russell’s next visit was in August 1912. For the first time, but not the last, the brothers rented the auditorium of the Odd Fellows Hall, which had 1,600 seats. But so many people came that last-minute arrangements had to be made for an extra meeting in a smaller hall of that same building. So the talk “Beyond the Grave” was given simultaneously in both places. Because both halls were packed out, several hundred disappointed individuals had to be turned away.

House-to-house preaching went forward with greater zeal. Louis Carlsson, from Copenhagen, relates concerning the year 1913: “The entire year was a year of tract distribution. Every Sunday morning at nine o’clock, John Reinseth would be standing on a street corner to give out territory to the friends who came out in service. We did not ring doorbells but put a tract in the letter slot in the door. I remember an instance in the Vesterbro section of Copenhagen. The front door of one flat had frosted glass; I could see the outline of a man inside. I put in a tract on the subject ‘Babylon’; it was picked up and shoved out again. So I inserted another tract, ‘What Do the Scriptures Say About Hell?’ I saw the man pick it up and look at it​—and to my surprise, this one he kept!”

More people were gathered in, and new congregations were formed, so that by the spring of 1914, smaller congregations had been established in 12 towns, in addition to the Copenhagen Congregation.

World War Erupts

In the summer of 1914, Joseph F. Rutherford was back in Europe representing Brother Russell. A few days before the first world war began, he was traveling from Germany on his way to Britain. However, his love for the Danish brothers, whom he had already visited in 1910 and 1913, prompted him to make a detour to Copenhagen to attend the first two days of a convention that was to be held August 1-4. In his brief farewell speech that Sunday afternoon, Brother Rutherford encouraged the brothers to humble themselves under the mighty hand of God and have complete confidence in Him under all conditions in those troublesome times.

But now Brother Rutherford himself began to feel uneasy over the nearness of the war. It was necessary for him to get to England, but all regular boat connections from Esbjerg in Denmark to the British ports had already been cut off, and nobody knew what the next day would bring. He set sail on a fishing cutter to England​—straight through the waters where, two years later, one of the greatest naval battles of World War I was fought, the Battle of Jutland.

Meanwhile, the convention continued back in Copenhagen. On the last day of the convention, the out-of-town delegates were encouraged to return to their homes immediately that night rather than wait till morning, for it was feared that train service and other public transportation would be stopped. No one could yet see how extensive the war would become. Denmark remained neutral, however, and no important limitations were put on the preaching work.

The “Photo-Drama of Creation”

The “Photo-Drama of Creation,” a motion picture and slide presentation, arrived in Denmark that autumn. The first showing was held in the Odd Fellows Hall in Copenhagen, and during 1915 it was shown over practically all the provinces, always in the best halls, which were filled to capacity for all showings. Dagmar Larsen from Ålborg, who later married Louis Carlsson from Copenhagen, recalled: “We got busy passing out invitations. We would get a stack of 500 at a time and use all our spare time on this work. My sister Johanne and I were asked to help with the showings as ‘deaconesses.’ We wore black dresses with white collars and a head covering of black velvet. . . . There were three showings a day and crowds beyond compare. The whole city was upside down because color film was a new invention​—and the showing was free! The guests received cards on which they could write their names and addresses if they wanted more information, and two colporteurs remained in town for a while to care for those interested persons.”

Difficult Years

Brother Russell’s death in 1916 ushered in a difficult time, especially for the Copenhagen Congregation. Some sisters began teaching false ideas, even influencing some of the elders. During a meeting in 1917 at Ole Suhrs Gade, a sister suddenly stood up and said: ‘Come, now we are leaving!’ Sixteen members followed her out, about 25 percent of those in attendance​—and they were never seen again. But their exit was a relief. The meetings could continue in peace.

Some of those individuals who fell away joined Paul S. L. Johnson, who left the truth in the United States about that time. They tried to lure others away through slander and through pamphlets they mailed. Like gangrene the apostasy spread to other congregations. It became a time for faithful endurance and resoluteness.

World War Followed by Renewed Activity

The July 1919 issue of the Danish Watch Tower announced that the long-awaited Finished Mystery (Volume VII of Studies in the Scriptures) would now be published in Dano-Norwegian. The brothers expected a great preaching campaign to start. To instruct the brothers on how to visit people, a colporteur course had already been conducted in Copenhagen. This was also the first time that noncolporteurs were encouraged to witness from door to door with books.

In Copenhagen the talk was to be given at the Odd Fellows Hall. An hour before the talk was scheduled to begin, people had already gathered outside the hall, and when the doors were flung open, it was filled in just a matter of minutes! Many with cheerful faces lost their smiles when they had to be turned away. The audience, though, was most attentive, and after the meeting about 300 copies of the Millions booklet were distributed.

One of those who was turned away because of the crowd at Brother Macmillan’s “Millions” talk in Copenhagen was a young and ardent social democrat, a tobacco worker named Angelo Hansen. Although disappointed at not having heard the lecture, his interest in Bible truth had been aroused. A couple of months later, while unemployed, he went to check in at his labor union office. He met an unemployed colleague who, surprisingly, was a Bible Student. Alas for the church! Soon Angelo Hansen also became a Bible Student.

Rutherford’s Visit in 1922

In 1922, Brother Rutherford again attended a convention in Copenhagen. This time he gave the “Millions” talk in the Odd Fellows Hall​—the same place where Brother Macmillan had given it a year and a half before.

What impression did the talk make? The daily newspaper Politiken wrote on its front page: “Judge Rutherford had success last night in the Concert Hall. Long before he began his talk, every single seat in the large hall was occupied, and new listeners came in droves. Several hundred were turned away. There was no more room.”

Among those baptized at this convention was a young man, Christian Rømer, who had come in contact with the Bible Students on his home island, Bornholm. Before World War I, his father had received a gift subscription to The Watch Tower, and one day in 1919, Christian, then 20 years old, found a copy. “What happened to me that day was so great an experience that words fail to express it,” he relates. “This was the truth I knew had to be in the Bible, and now I got it, now I had it.”

During the convention in Copenhagen, he attended a meeting for colporteurs. Here he met Kristian Dal​—and his life course was set. He began serving as a colporteur in Bornholm, June 1922.

Increase in Copenhagen

In the winter of 1921/22, Angelo Hansen was, as usual, witnessing to the unemployed townspeople waiting outside their union check-in place. As he was holding the Millions booklet above his head and shouting “Millions now living will never die!” a young truth-seeking man came up to him. He was Christian Bangsholt. He read the booklet through in one night and began attending the meetings at Ole Suhrs Gade. What he heard there was so different from what he had previously heard from the Salvation Army, the Pentecostals, the Methodists, and all the other groups where he had looked for the truth in vain. He simply could not keep this news to himself.

A number of friends with whom he talked also began coming to meetings. Among them were Herløv and Betty Larsen. Herløv and Christian were boyhood friends and had spent much time playing their musical instruments together. Now they shared the melody of Bible truth with each other.

That same spring another young man, Hans Christian Johnsen, became interested in the Bible Students. An atheist, outrightly antireligious, he was absorbed in socialistic ideas. A poster with an invitation to the “Millions” talk caught his attention. On his way to the auditorium, he bought a newspaper so he would have something to read in case the talk was boring. He did use his newspaper​—as writing paper, but his hands could not jot down the scriptures fast enough! Since the talk was logical and understandable, his atheism gave way to faith in God. That one talk became several, and in September his wife joined him. It was clear to both of them that the message of the Kingdom should be preached from house to house.

One day in 1925, Hans Christian was asked to call on a young man by the name of Einer Benggaard, who had read some of the Society’s books. Once contacted, Einer quickly grew in faith and joined in the witnessing work too.

That is how, in the 1920’s, a small nucleus of young, zealous publishers was formed​—brothers and sisters who left their mark on the work. And much of the increase in Copenhagen down to this day can be traced back to the activities of those few loyal ones.