Memorial Stone for Gendarme Aksel S. Hansen
Aksel Sigurd Hansen – the First Casualty at the New Border
When Southern Jutland (Sønderjylland) was reunited with Denmark in 1920, the Border Gendarmerie was moved from the Kongeå border to the new Danish-German frontier. Its task was to guard the border and maintain order in a region undergoing major change. However, the first years were marked by unrest, and only a few months after the Reunification the corps suffered its first loss in the line of duty.
Gendarme Aksel Sigurd Hansen was shot on 20 September 1920 while on patrol near Kruså. Born in Svendborg in 1895, he had served in the Border Gendarmerie since 1919. During a night patrol he heard sounds in the forest west of the customs station at Kruså. As he shone his lantern into the trees, shots were fired at him, and he was struck in the lung. Despite being rushed to the Deaconess Hospital in Flensburg, his life could not be saved.
Photo: Bov Lokalarkiv
Gendarmes at the border with Kruså. The gendarme in the middle is Aksel S. Hansen. Photo: Bov Lokalarkiv
A Border Region Marked by Tension
The Reunification was not only a celebration; it also created a new and uncertain border situation. Numerous illegal crossings took place, and both Danish and German authorities worked to enforce the new border regime. The killing of Aksel Sigurd Hansen became an early symbol of the risks faced by border gendarmes during this transitional period.
The perpetrator, a Polish border crosser named Kowalski, initially fled into Germany but was quickly arrested through cooperation between Danish police and German detectives. He was later extradited to Denmark and sentenced by the Supreme Court to twelve years of penal servitude.
The Memorial Stone at Kruså
In September 1924, a memorial stone was dedicated in a formal ceremony near the place where Gendarme Aksel Sigurd Hansen lost his life in the line of duty in 1920. Representatives of the authorities, the Border Gendarmerie and the local community attended the ceremony, and the monument was formally entrusted to the Border Gendarmerie Association.
The site had already been marked shortly after the incident. The forest where the shooting took place belonged to the Krusågård estate, whose owner granted permission for a memorial to be erected there. Hansen’s colleagues collected a stone from the Smedeby gravel pit and erected it at the site during Whitsun in 1921. The costs of transport and carving the inscription were covered through donations from fellow gendarmes.
The memory of Aksel Sigurd Hansen remained strong among his colleagues. In the Border Gendarmerie Association’s magazine, Grænseværnet, he was described as “the first victim at the new border”, a man who was “faithful to the end” and who “carried out his duty to the utmost”. These words reflect the significance of his death for the Border Gendarmerie in the years following the Reunification.
The ceremony for the unveiling of the memorial stone in 1924. Photo: Bov Lokalarkiv
Memorial Stone for Gendarme Aksel S. Hansen
The Memorial Today
The memorial stone still stands on Flensborgvej in Kruså near the border crossing. Although the surroundings have changed since the 1920s, it continues to commemorate the young gendarme who lost his life in the line of duty and the challenges that characterized the border region in the years following the Reunification.