Minute Millionaires

During World War I, fortunes flowed across the border into neutral Denmark. Copenhagen's streets filled with speculators who sold spoiled food to the Germans and gambled their way to dizzying profits on the stock exchange - the so-called goulash barons and stock-market barons.

The money was spent on beachfront villas, sports cars, jewels and champagne. The loose lifestyle provoked the bourgeoisie and pressured the government to think about a more equal distribution of wealth. When the war ended, the bubble burst - yet the extravagant life continued into the roaring 1920s, until the money finally ran out. Some speculators ended by their own hand, others behind prison walls or in exile.

The lecture follows the central figures of war speculation, seeks out their haunts, unravels their networks and uncovers their shady affairs - and paints a portrait of a city marked by morphine syringes, revolver dramas and gambling dens.