Kaj Munk (M / Denmark, 1898-1944), playwright

Kaj Munk (1898-1944) was a Danish playwright. Born Kaj Harald Leininger Petersen on the island of Lolland, as an orphan he was raised and adopted by some distant relatives (the Munks). He was educated at the Nykøping Cathedral School and at the University of Copenhagen, where he took a degree in theology in 1924. In the same year he was ordained as a Lutheran minister and began his life-long career as a pastor. Since 1917, Munk began writing plays for the stage. He was politically and culturally attracted by figures of superheroes and dictators, who triumph over all obstacles, and challenge even the authority of God. During the 1930s however he openly criticized the regimes of Mussolini and Hitler, denouncing in particular the Nazi persecution of the Jews. A fervent nationalist, he became one of the most prominent opponents of Nazis after German occupied Denmark in 1940. On January 4, 1944, Munk was taken from his home by the Gestapo and shot at Hørbylunde, on the road to Silkeborg.