During the first months of 1868, a bill was introduced into the Danish Folketing concerning the establishing of a harbour at Esbjerg, which, seen from eastern Denmark at that time, was a desolate, grim, far-flung corner of the country.

This bill was keenly debated in the Folketing, and subsequently in the Landsting. It was eventually passed, the harbour was built and the country's now fifth-largest city with 82.000 inhabitants was founded - from nothing, via a pioneer spirit and wild-west conditions to greatness, seen from a cultural as well as a business and educational point of view.