Between 1942 and 1945, the German army transformed Løkken into a small defensive stronghold, designated as the “Infantry Strongpoint Løkken.”
Construction of the “Løkken Nord” position, located in Furreby, began in January 1943. In total, 36 concrete bunkers were built, 20 of which were reinforced with roofs and walls two meters thick. By the spring of 1943, the battery had a crew of 123 men.

Assigned to the German Navy, the battery was intended to counter a possible Allied landing at Løkken, which was considered a vulnerable point due to its land connections to the interior. For this reason, armed positions were established both north and south of the town in the autumn of 1942 and the early months of 1943.

Near Furreby, coastal erosion has compromised the stability of the German coastal battery. Since 1945, the coastline has retreated by about 90 meters, causing numerous bunkers to slide from the 20-meter-high slope down to the beach, where they are still visible today.

Even today, the remnants of the war are clearly visible along the coast: concrete signs of a distant past that continues to influence not only collective memory but also the landscape itself. The environment here appears as a constant interweaving of natural and artificial elements: the beach sand changes shape with the passing of visitors in an ephemeral way, while the bunkers remain motionless, like permanent scars of history.

The citizens of Løkken do not experience these structures merely as military ruins, but as elements now integrated into the territory. Walking among the dunes and the sea, the memory of the war coexists with everyday life: some bring children to play among the bunkers, some observe them as silent monuments, and others enter the water waiting for waves or to view them from a different perspective than from the beach.

While on the one hand these structures are an integral part of the memory and daily life of the citizens of Løkken, on the other they also represent a lasting imprint on the ecosystem. After more than sixty years, their presence continues to shape the territory, altering the habitats and rhythms of the local flora and fauna. This is not an isolated case: on many other coasts and natural landscapes around the world, the remains of past wars or other human works show how human intervention can leave persistent traces, sometimes incompatible with the surrounding natural life.

Walking between the dunes and the sea, the bunkers thus become ambivalent symbols: witnesses to a history that is not forgotten, but also a silent warning of how deeply humans can impact the natural world. In this intertwining of memory, culture, and nature, the landscape tells as much about us as it does about the land itself.

This video, created from archival footage, retraces the life cycle of these structures, from the extraction of materials for their construction to their destruction, alternating images of the bunkers with scenes of everyday life from the same historical period. All footage comes from Danmark på Film, whose support made the full realization of this project and the complete expression of my vision possible.