I think, people deal with grief in very different ways. Some go looking for answers, others stay home and cry. Personally, I really try to stay open minded and not judge other people based on their reaction. I think, in most respects, May Jeong's article is a great piece of journalism and it must take a lot of strength to do that in honour of a friend who was also a journalist.
GUILTY Denmark - Kim Wall, 30, Copenhagen, 10 Aug 2017
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I think, people deal with grief in very different ways. Some go looking for answers, others stay home and cry. Personally, I really try to stay open minded and not judge other people based on their reaction. I think, in most respects, May Jeong's article is a great piece of journalism and it must take a lot of strength to do that in honour of a friend who was also a journalist.
chinacat67
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Agree 100%. I found it a lovely piece, well done and with clear approval of family. The point of the article is to be able to mourn Kim and to understand for herself the why, I felt.
Also to refute the judgy folks who tsk tsked about her agreeing to go on submarine and what she was wearing. That clearly galled the friend (as well it should have) and she wanted people to understand Kim's thinking and how the whole thing came to pass.
I think it is insightful to many aspects and have only praise for her friend for doing. But I am also American so maybe it's a cultural thing too? I honestly didn't find it even remotely offensive or too soon or too much and was startled to see the comments here (though I understand the point).
Just another viewpoint on the article 🤷[emoji6]
Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
I know that 'shame' is considered taboo these days, but I think it still serves a vital purpose in defining the absolute boundaries/limits of what is tolerable behaviour.
I think if Peter Madsen had felt shame about his sadistic impulses, he wouldn't have killed Kim Wall. That's the purpose of shame, to provide you with feedback about your behaviour, to let you know that you're crossing a major boundary.
Even if he doesn't feel that shame, we should feel it towards his actions, be offended and disgusted by them and refuse to allow him to come up with excuses for them. I think that's what she was inviting him to do when she wrote asking him 'what happened', as though it was an accident.
As I said, either she's naive, or she's not feeling the shame of what he did. Neither are his friends, apparently, they just say 'he's mad' as an excuse for him.
I also think it's one thing to privately process your grief, and another to publish a story about it. No one needs to be informed about a personal search for answers, that's not journalism, it's a personal essay. And you can choose what to put in and what to leave out. And your choice about what to leave out can include asking yourself "was this thing I did dishonourable, improper, ridiculous? Was this man's response to my letter also shameful? Well, maybe I won't publish that, because I feel shame and likely my readers will too"
Instead, the decision is to call this scenario 'news' and 'edgy' and publish it.
Truman Capote's In Cold Blood is, I think, the brilliant model for this kind of essay. But Capote waited until after the murderers had been executed to publish it, he didn't publish so much as a magazine article before then.
I would say she has nothing to be ashamed about. There are some shocking details in the article, but it's well written, well researched, she talked to the family, and she gives us a great tribute to Kim Wall.
Logical_Inference
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So when a person does a good piece of journalism it does not matter that it affect some people in a probably not intended way?
I mean, we are here a few people who got indignant and concerned about it being publish, especially with the strange timing.
That does not matter? Its a great piece of journalism, so as long as people only look at the work that is done and not at the message it is sending out, then everything is fine? No need to think about the readers feelings, because its a great piece of work.....?
I dont think its just a matter of cultural differences, because I know americans who would never applaus this.
Somehow I see it as a matter of the times we are in. Its more "normal" today to accept what would have been classified as wrongdoing 20 years ago.
I am not sure that I like that, but we cant do anything about it anyway.
What we CAN do is expressing our opinion about it, and I think it would be a good idea to try to understand that we are a few here, that got indignant and concerned about that piece, no matter how good a job that author did.
Another thing is to remember that Peter Madsen is danish. Denmark is a very very small country. He was one of us...until he did what he did. Now we just want to turn our back to him. Not hearing from him anymore. Let him be locked up for the rest of his life without saying anything, because we dont want to hear it. We dont want that kind of people here.
Its actually not very often that we have a man who is out of range for rehabilitation, but PM is a lost case. He will never be able to function normally in our society again. Even in prison he had to go to isolation, because of the other prisoners that gladly had cut his throat if they got a chance.
Just trying to explain.
I mean, we are here a few people who got indignant and concerned about it being publish, especially with the strange timing.
That does not matter? Its a great piece of journalism, so as long as people only look at the work that is done and not at the message it is sending out, then everything is fine? No need to think about the readers feelings, because its a great piece of work.....?
I dont think its just a matter of cultural differences, because I know americans who would never applaus this.
Somehow I see it as a matter of the times we are in. Its more "normal" today to accept what would have been classified as wrongdoing 20 years ago.
I am not sure that I like that, but we cant do anything about it anyway.
What we CAN do is expressing our opinion about it, and I think it would be a good idea to try to understand that we are a few here, that got indignant and concerned about that piece, no matter how good a job that author did.
Another thing is to remember that Peter Madsen is danish. Denmark is a very very small country. He was one of us...until he did what he did. Now we just want to turn our back to him. Not hearing from him anymore. Let him be locked up for the rest of his life without saying anything, because we dont want to hear it. We dont want that kind of people here.
Its actually not very often that we have a man who is out of range for rehabilitation, but PM is a lost case. He will never be able to function normally in our society again. Even in prison he had to go to isolation, because of the other prisoners that gladly had cut his throat if they got a chance.
Just trying to explain.
SATA
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Very good post. I wish she had not published what he responded to her, he has no right to a voice other than at the trial.
I did pull myself together and read the whole article. Personally I did not like it. I could not see a clear purpose for it, not at this time.
As a side-note, why did she have to write that Kim Wall could be terrible without elaborating? Now readers are wondering why KW could be terrible.
I especially did not like the part about writing to PM - in an almost apologetic tone. That was bizarre.
Please, Mr. torturer and killer, tell me why you did it....
BTW, In Cold Blood destroyed Truman Capote. He got very close to one of the killers, Perry Smith and was very invested in the case, the trial and the executions of the killers.
His involvement dragged out for years. He could not write much after the book.
It is brilliant though.
SATA
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I would like to express myself more clearly, because I feel strongly about this: PM jumped at the opportunity to talk about that he thinks about KW every day and that he can "feel her spirit". (YUK!)
In other words, he is putting it out there that he has some ownership over her and her last moments.
He is media savvy, I think he knows what he is doing, and he is rubbing it in our faces, enjoying every minute of it.
Why would this reporter hand him a chance to speak to the public on a silver platter?
In my view it is overstepping some very serious boundaries.
In other words, he is putting it out there that he has some ownership over her and her last moments.
He is media savvy, I think he knows what he is doing, and he is rubbing it in our faces, enjoying every minute of it.
Why would this reporter hand him a chance to speak to the public on a silver platter?
In my view it is overstepping some very serious boundaries.
RSBM
That is very interesting, I will follow up on that. It was a groundbreaking piece, but perhaps set journalism off on a direction that is leading into dangerous waters.
BTW, my commentary is mild. Here are Janet Malcolm's very harsh words from her bestseller "The Journalist and the Murderer"
I never got around to reading it, I will definitely do it now!
ZaZara
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RSBM & BBM
This is very disturbing.
The author does not seem to have any interest in the Danish legal system, or any system.
She writes
Really??? Who would have thought that leading investigators do not want to speak to the press? This is so naive it beggars belief.
And asking PM 'what happened' while he is in investigative detention and anything he will do or say can be held against him....
:gaah:
You must be far out and away to think that anything may come of this, and then not only write but send the letter as well TWICE is dazzling and publish this plus the answer .... words fail. It is beyond therapy, a grief counsellor might advise you to write letters but not send them, the aim would be to clarify your thoughts and find an outlet for your emotions.
But apparently, anything goes under the guise of journalism.
The letters she opened were written with the same hands that tortured and murdered her friend.
This would bother me greatly. I would not want to touch anything that came from PM. I know that everybody is different. But this is not healthy.
I suppose, on reflection, that as with Websleuths, the fact that the publication was American means that it is not subject to sub judice laws such as would probably apply in Denmark. But certainly it is not surprising that police investigators would say nothing, and you'd expect friends to be circumspect.
The contact with PM was a creepy business.
I can't quite bring myself to read that article again to check whether I feel any differently following all this discussion!
The contact with PM was a creepy business.
I can't quite bring myself to read that article again to check whether I feel any differently following all this discussion!
There's a really good in depth article written by a Swiss journalist. It has some surprising new angles on the case that may bring us closer to understanding why. Google-translate it. German to English is better than Danish to English. I was especially interested in the connection to a possible investor in Spain, and the question of what he wanted to pay money for.
https://nzzas.nzz.ch/gesellschaft/t...-auf-der-wirklich-nautilus-geschah-ld.1359748
https://nzzas.nzz.ch/gesellschaft/t...-auf-der-wirklich-nautilus-geschah-ld.1359748
Logical_Inference
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It seems to be behind a paywall :-(
SATA
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I am also curious about this - but I cannot access the article.
ZaZara
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Working on it. Will post translation.
I found I could access it without paying but you do have to subscribe.
Thanks, ZaZara. I found some paragraphs resolutely stayed in German, and mine is only fair.
ZaZara
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THE MADSEN CASE - HE BUILT A SUBMARINE, THEN MURDERED A WOMAN. HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN?
NZZ am Sonntag
https://nzzas.nzz.ch/gesellschaft/t...-auf-der-wirklich-nautilus-geschah-ld.1359748
There are two women whom Peter Madsen invited to his submarine around August 10,2017. One is called Kim Wall and she never returned from the Nautilus. The other sits in a café in Copenhagen and drinks cappuccino. Deirdre King, 39 years old, was a co-worker, friend and lover of the man who is said to have dismembered the Swedish journalist and disposed of her in the sea.
She scrolls through the inbox of her smartphone as if she still couldn't believe it all. Two days before Madsen and Wall set sail on August 8th, she received a message from him at 3:13 pm. King reads: "Let's say Friday, could we pick you up, shop and go on the submarine? Best in the morning, so we have all day." She says,"Okay, deal." Madsen suggests to go shopping first. She answers, "Okay, it's going to be divine." He says, "I'm looking forward to a good day with you, Ditte."
On this February morning, half a year later, these messages have gotten a new meaning. The indictment against Peter Madsen has been filed. It is 2.5 A4 pages long and includes all the features of a Scandinavian thriller: violence against women, sexual sadism, desecration of a corpse. But this case is more disturbing than any fiction. It is also about rockets and so-called snuff films in which people are killed in front of running cameras.
On 8 March, Denmark's most famous criminal case will be brought to justice. Peter Langkjær Madsen is accused of deliberate murder and desecration of a corpse. He allegedly carried out sexual acts against Kim Wall under particularly serious circumstances and brought knives, screwdrivers or a saw on board.
Fourteen cuts or stab wounds were found in the outer genitals and in the vagina. Death occurred through strangulation or a throat cut. The corpse was cut into pieces and weighted down with metal to prevent the body parts from appearing in the sea.
It is the deconstruction of the ideal world outside these windows: Brick facades, sailboats, beautiful people in good jackets. Denmark has low crime rates. In the World Happiness Report, the country is reliably ranked first. It is regarded as a synonym for happiness that finds its equivalent in the term hygge.
The wooden tables in this restaurant are hygge, the candles on it, the spicy Chai-Lattes. Here, Peter Madsen often met with King at the Café Oven Vande, although the Hipster district of Christianshavn doesn't suit him at all: He, the inventor in military overalls, who enjoys this wild girl, she is soon to be seen on Facebook as an artist, soon on a galloping horse.
She's called "Deedee", blonde and petite. She looks like an angel, the "Ditte" of former times, carefree and a little bit blown away by the wind. A "Handywoman" who worked on the Nautilus, side by side with Peter Madsen, who was known far beyond the national borders as a rocket builder.
She is currently working for "Smokers Machines", a company that wants to make joints healthier by using cigarette buttons. This may sound unconventional, but it is not unusual in Copenhagen. A few miles away, the free city of Christiania begins, an adventure playground for neo-hippies, artists and utopians such as U-boat farmer Madsen, who was a guru of this scene.
Deirdre met him 14 years ago, she was in a small dinghy on the sea, he was in his first submarine Freya. From the very beginning they were soul mates. Deirdre says, "I thought we'd be friends for the rest of our lives and maybe get married one day."
That explains why she long defended Madsen, describing him as a mixture of nerd and genius, to whom the women lay at his feet. After his arrest, she said to the Danish "Ekstra Bladet": "I don't think he could hurt a woman." When she broke her arms, he came by every day to brush her hair. Even the New York Times printed Deirdres' accident theory: "In the Nautilus, you can injure yourself in many places."
She's not so sure now. Too overwhelming is the evidence. Starting with the lies: First Madsen claims to have dropped Kim Wall off at the harbour that same evening. The Nautilus had sunk because of a defect. In the second version he talks about an accident, the hatch cover would have fallen on Wall's head. He had thrown the dead body overboard in a "suicidal psychosis" and sunk the submarine.
When Wall's perforated torso and later her head were found without serious injury, Madsen changed his version for the third time: Kim Wall died of carbon monoxide poisoning. Finally, he admits to having cut up her corpse and scattered it in Køge Bay.
"How could this happen?" asks Deirdre, who loved Madsen and still does,"in a strange way. In the first few weeks, she drank away the presumption of having been targeted by a plan. In the meantime, the shock phase has been overcome, she appears calm and speaks in clear thoughts. Also about the fact that they are pursuing images of these hands, hands that she touched and then sawed a woman to pieces. "He admitted that. Does he carry within him a devil that no one knew, not even himself? Who else can you trust?"
These are questions she asks on behalf of Denmark. The whole country is wrestling with explanations. Everyone knew the troll face of the 47-year-old. He was considered a cool dog who had built three submarines without having studied. He was documented in books and films, as Rocket Madsen, who pursued the mad dream of shooting himself into the sky in a homemade rocket. He, Peter Madsen, the Danish do-it-yourself astronaut, in a league of space superpowers like Russia or the USA.
BBM
More to come...
NZZ am Sonntag
https://nzzas.nzz.ch/gesellschaft/t...-auf-der-wirklich-nautilus-geschah-ld.1359748
There are two women whom Peter Madsen invited to his submarine around August 10,2017. One is called Kim Wall and she never returned from the Nautilus. The other sits in a café in Copenhagen and drinks cappuccino. Deirdre King, 39 years old, was a co-worker, friend and lover of the man who is said to have dismembered the Swedish journalist and disposed of her in the sea.
She scrolls through the inbox of her smartphone as if she still couldn't believe it all. Two days before Madsen and Wall set sail on August 8th, she received a message from him at 3:13 pm. King reads: "Let's say Friday, could we pick you up, shop and go on the submarine? Best in the morning, so we have all day." She says,"Okay, deal." Madsen suggests to go shopping first. She answers, "Okay, it's going to be divine." He says, "I'm looking forward to a good day with you, Ditte."
On this February morning, half a year later, these messages have gotten a new meaning. The indictment against Peter Madsen has been filed. It is 2.5 A4 pages long and includes all the features of a Scandinavian thriller: violence against women, sexual sadism, desecration of a corpse. But this case is more disturbing than any fiction. It is also about rockets and so-called snuff films in which people are killed in front of running cameras.
On 8 March, Denmark's most famous criminal case will be brought to justice. Peter Langkjær Madsen is accused of deliberate murder and desecration of a corpse. He allegedly carried out sexual acts against Kim Wall under particularly serious circumstances and brought knives, screwdrivers or a saw on board.
Fourteen cuts or stab wounds were found in the outer genitals and in the vagina. Death occurred through strangulation or a throat cut. The corpse was cut into pieces and weighted down with metal to prevent the body parts from appearing in the sea.
It is the deconstruction of the ideal world outside these windows: Brick facades, sailboats, beautiful people in good jackets. Denmark has low crime rates. In the World Happiness Report, the country is reliably ranked first. It is regarded as a synonym for happiness that finds its equivalent in the term hygge.
The wooden tables in this restaurant are hygge, the candles on it, the spicy Chai-Lattes. Here, Peter Madsen often met with King at the Café Oven Vande, although the Hipster district of Christianshavn doesn't suit him at all: He, the inventor in military overalls, who enjoys this wild girl, she is soon to be seen on Facebook as an artist, soon on a galloping horse.
She's called "Deedee", blonde and petite. She looks like an angel, the "Ditte" of former times, carefree and a little bit blown away by the wind. A "Handywoman" who worked on the Nautilus, side by side with Peter Madsen, who was known far beyond the national borders as a rocket builder.
She is currently working for "Smokers Machines", a company that wants to make joints healthier by using cigarette buttons. This may sound unconventional, but it is not unusual in Copenhagen. A few miles away, the free city of Christiania begins, an adventure playground for neo-hippies, artists and utopians such as U-boat farmer Madsen, who was a guru of this scene.
Deirdre met him 14 years ago, she was in a small dinghy on the sea, he was in his first submarine Freya. From the very beginning they were soul mates. Deirdre says, "I thought we'd be friends for the rest of our lives and maybe get married one day."
That explains why she long defended Madsen, describing him as a mixture of nerd and genius, to whom the women lay at his feet. After his arrest, she said to the Danish "Ekstra Bladet": "I don't think he could hurt a woman." When she broke her arms, he came by every day to brush her hair. Even the New York Times printed Deirdres' accident theory: "In the Nautilus, you can injure yourself in many places."
She's not so sure now. Too overwhelming is the evidence. Starting with the lies: First Madsen claims to have dropped Kim Wall off at the harbour that same evening. The Nautilus had sunk because of a defect. In the second version he talks about an accident, the hatch cover would have fallen on Wall's head. He had thrown the dead body overboard in a "suicidal psychosis" and sunk the submarine.
When Wall's perforated torso and later her head were found without serious injury, Madsen changed his version for the third time: Kim Wall died of carbon monoxide poisoning. Finally, he admits to having cut up her corpse and scattered it in Køge Bay.
"How could this happen?" asks Deirdre, who loved Madsen and still does,"in a strange way. In the first few weeks, she drank away the presumption of having been targeted by a plan. In the meantime, the shock phase has been overcome, she appears calm and speaks in clear thoughts. Also about the fact that they are pursuing images of these hands, hands that she touched and then sawed a woman to pieces. "He admitted that. Does he carry within him a devil that no one knew, not even himself? Who else can you trust?"
These are questions she asks on behalf of Denmark. The whole country is wrestling with explanations. Everyone knew the troll face of the 47-year-old. He was considered a cool dog who had built three submarines without having studied. He was documented in books and films, as Rocket Madsen, who pursued the mad dream of shooting himself into the sky in a homemade rocket. He, Peter Madsen, the Danish do-it-yourself astronaut, in a league of space superpowers like Russia or the USA.
BBM
More to come...
Legally Bland
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This is what I got re. Spain (just don't ask me what a 'sex submarine' is, I don't know and I'm not sure I want to):
_____________
It is the time when this research seems even more broken, even more incredible: Yes, Madsen had been in Barcelona and returned from there on 14 July, about a month before the act. Deirdre knows that exactly because she met him when he returned to the Hotel Bella Sky. And he called several times excitedly from Barcelona, ​​told of businessmen who had paid him a business ticket and for 2.5 million euros had commissioned a submarine. A sex submarine. Of course it might as well have been something else. He did not say a word about the launch of the rocket.
https://nzzas.nzz.ch/gesellschaft/t...-auf-der-wirklich-nautilus-geschah-ld.1359748
ETA: For context, Deidre is PM's long-time (sort of) girlfriend.
_____________
It is the time when this research seems even more broken, even more incredible: Yes, Madsen had been in Barcelona and returned from there on 14 July, about a month before the act. Deirdre knows that exactly because she met him when he returned to the Hotel Bella Sky. And he called several times excitedly from Barcelona, ​​told of businessmen who had paid him a business ticket and for 2.5 million euros had commissioned a submarine. A sex submarine. Of course it might as well have been something else. He did not say a word about the launch of the rocket.
https://nzzas.nzz.ch/gesellschaft/t...-auf-der-wirklich-nautilus-geschah-ld.1359748
ETA: For context, Deidre is PM's long-time (sort of) girlfriend.
ZaZara
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THE MADSEN CASE, CONTINUED
As a Heroes story it would have been planned, on August 26th and 27th it should have gone into the next chapter. Two weeks after Madsen left the port with this talented journalist who, at the age of 30, had a life full of stories ahead of her.
Officially, Madsen's plan was to test a missile. But the Copenhagen Suborbitals of all people had a permit for the same weekend. "Who's first to launch?" was the question amateurs fought over. "Who flies further?" Rocket Madsen Space Lab against Copenhagen Suborbitals, Alpha against Nexø II.
It was more than a race: A showdown between egos who once worked for the same dream. "A war," says Deirdre,"and presumably part of the reason why Peter gave out." Apart from sex, he never had a valve, never smoked or drank alcohol. "Peter hates nothing more than losing control."
You must have seen "amateurs in space" to understand these statements. The film documents the drama in the Rocket Club, which Peter Madsen founded in 2008 with the former Nasa man Kristian von Bengtson and left in 2014. Six years in which Madsen transforms himself from a sympathetic enthusiast into a sociopath who works obsessively on a vision and does not notice how he destroys it.
In the beginning, it is strange only when he speaks in English like John F. Kennedy about the mission of the moon. Then there's these tantrums. Once he freaks out because the volunteers don't provide the tools in the right place. "I want to do something to shock these people," he yells, "something radical, something painful."
The accusations against co-founders of Bengtson are also absurd. Madsen accuses the family father of spending too little time on weekends. The whole thing explodes in circular emails in which Madsen criticizes the "rule" of Bengtsons. He's become my boss and enjoys it," he writes," whereupon colleagues call him paranoid or evil. Madsen must subordinate himself or leave the Suborbitals. He chooses the latter.
All this happened on Refshaleøen. The peninsula lies in the port area of Copenhagen and was an industrial zone until artists converted the abandoned halls into studios and workshops. The area of the former shipyard is empty this morning, as if the biting wind had swept away everything. The hall, which looks like a barrel halved in length, also appears abandoned. It's all pretty rusty and hammered.
Here was the Rocket Madsen Space Lab, Refshalevej 185, and diagonally opposite, less than a hundred meters away, an approximately three times as large complex shines in fresh green, behind bars with barbed wire. This is where the Copenhagen Suborbitals is located, Refshalevej 183 A.
Deirdre tells how this constant confrontation stressed Madsen. The "separation" was also about property. Madsen has lost many tools and money, he complained to "Deedee": "I let them become part of something that they would never have been part of. If people think the works of Da Vinci are beautiful, they don't ask who mixed the paint."
Of course, one would like to carry these arguments to the Copenhagen Suborbitals: "We are happy to provide information about our mission," Mads Wilson replies,"but if the interview is in any way related to Peter Madsen, we are not interested.
It is not the first time Madsen has been catapulted out of a community. Raket-Madsen ", the biography of Thomas Djursing, reads like the story of a man who is less and less able to integrate into society and who explores borders on all fronts, boundaries of reason, legality, technology - and sexuality.
If you had to paraphrase Madsen's childhood with one word, it would be a loss of control. Son of a servant's daughter and a host, four half-brothers, overtaxed mother, 36 years older father, imbued with jealousy, crude and embittered. At the age of six, Madsen has to choose whether he wants to grow up with his mother or father. He remains with the father, who used to say:"In America you can shoot an unfaithful wife. It would be nice to live there."
As a boy, Madsen dreams of diving into the silence like Jacques Cousteau. Or to shoot yourself out of your everyday life with a homemade rocket. He's an outsider at school. Four times people move, half-brothers, flats or colleagues drift between Madsen's fingers like the water of Öresund. The only constants are his dreams. And the father who moves to an old-age housing estate when Madsen is 17 and dies a year later.
As a teenager, the lanky nerd experiments with nitric acid, while others exchange the first kisses. He never cared about rules. In his first club, the Danish Amateur Rocket Club (DARK), he almost fainted when he burst an ammonia balloon and breathed in the poisonous vapours. When a rocket explodes, Madsen is thrown out of the club. Later on, he describes the anger at the rejection as the strongest driving force of his life. "It was a central moment, the plutonium I need for my reactor."
In front of Madsen's workshop, a man now stretches his head in all directions as if he were doing something forbidden. Fibrous fur, white beard, only the cap is missing so that he can pass through as captain. It is Claes Levin, a retired naval engineer who should have steered the dinghy for live transmission during the planned test of Madsen Space Lab. It could have been the last adventure of a sea bear. Last year, he sponsored a navigation system for Madsen. That's how he became part of the Alpha mission. But it was totally chaotic," Levin says, "the dinghy was not seaworthy and everything was miserably organized.
Nevertheless, Levin would have agreed to it. He is one of many who were fascinated by the inventor's aura. In 2008, at the baptism of the Nautilus, Madsen is celebrated like a rock star. The submarine is a reference to Jules Verne, whose captain Nemo explores the depths of the ocean in total freedom. Madsen also sees his creation as an "underwater extension" of his own body. In the documentary film "My Private Submarine" he says: "At night I dream of swimming freely under water."
It's the time when the late bloomer turns into a regular at Kinky Salon's sex parties. He lives in a polyamorous marriage and has so many lovers that Deirdre King calls him a "women's junkie". She is able to deal with it because she is a free spirit herself and recognizes a man in Madsen who can never get involved with a single woman. Instead he plunges into the fetish world, where he likes Sadomasochism, the game of power and submission.
People from the Kinky scene are also present at the launch of the submarine, camera teams and artists. The Nautilus is flooded to the sound of an orchestra, it is a spectacle, the pier full of people. And right in the middle of it: Madsen. "She floats!" he yells, almost hoarse with happiness.
The camera moves to his second submarine Kraka. Madsen's eyes are getting wet. He stammers: "Last Saturday she was the queen, now she is only the little sister. I can't stop thinking about what it's like for a submarine to suddenly become second in command."
BBM
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As a Heroes story it would have been planned, on August 26th and 27th it should have gone into the next chapter. Two weeks after Madsen left the port with this talented journalist who, at the age of 30, had a life full of stories ahead of her.
Officially, Madsen's plan was to test a missile. But the Copenhagen Suborbitals of all people had a permit for the same weekend. "Who's first to launch?" was the question amateurs fought over. "Who flies further?" Rocket Madsen Space Lab against Copenhagen Suborbitals, Alpha against Nexø II.
It was more than a race: A showdown between egos who once worked for the same dream. "A war," says Deirdre,"and presumably part of the reason why Peter gave out." Apart from sex, he never had a valve, never smoked or drank alcohol. "Peter hates nothing more than losing control."
You must have seen "amateurs in space" to understand these statements. The film documents the drama in the Rocket Club, which Peter Madsen founded in 2008 with the former Nasa man Kristian von Bengtson and left in 2014. Six years in which Madsen transforms himself from a sympathetic enthusiast into a sociopath who works obsessively on a vision and does not notice how he destroys it.
In the beginning, it is strange only when he speaks in English like John F. Kennedy about the mission of the moon. Then there's these tantrums. Once he freaks out because the volunteers don't provide the tools in the right place. "I want to do something to shock these people," he yells, "something radical, something painful."
The accusations against co-founders of Bengtson are also absurd. Madsen accuses the family father of spending too little time on weekends. The whole thing explodes in circular emails in which Madsen criticizes the "rule" of Bengtsons. He's become my boss and enjoys it," he writes," whereupon colleagues call him paranoid or evil. Madsen must subordinate himself or leave the Suborbitals. He chooses the latter.
All this happened on Refshaleøen. The peninsula lies in the port area of Copenhagen and was an industrial zone until artists converted the abandoned halls into studios and workshops. The area of the former shipyard is empty this morning, as if the biting wind had swept away everything. The hall, which looks like a barrel halved in length, also appears abandoned. It's all pretty rusty and hammered.
Here was the Rocket Madsen Space Lab, Refshalevej 185, and diagonally opposite, less than a hundred meters away, an approximately three times as large complex shines in fresh green, behind bars with barbed wire. This is where the Copenhagen Suborbitals is located, Refshalevej 183 A.
Deirdre tells how this constant confrontation stressed Madsen. The "separation" was also about property. Madsen has lost many tools and money, he complained to "Deedee": "I let them become part of something that they would never have been part of. If people think the works of Da Vinci are beautiful, they don't ask who mixed the paint."
Of course, one would like to carry these arguments to the Copenhagen Suborbitals: "We are happy to provide information about our mission," Mads Wilson replies,"but if the interview is in any way related to Peter Madsen, we are not interested.
It is not the first time Madsen has been catapulted out of a community. Raket-Madsen ", the biography of Thomas Djursing, reads like the story of a man who is less and less able to integrate into society and who explores borders on all fronts, boundaries of reason, legality, technology - and sexuality.
If you had to paraphrase Madsen's childhood with one word, it would be a loss of control. Son of a servant's daughter and a host, four half-brothers, overtaxed mother, 36 years older father, imbued with jealousy, crude and embittered. At the age of six, Madsen has to choose whether he wants to grow up with his mother or father. He remains with the father, who used to say:"In America you can shoot an unfaithful wife. It would be nice to live there."
As a boy, Madsen dreams of diving into the silence like Jacques Cousteau. Or to shoot yourself out of your everyday life with a homemade rocket. He's an outsider at school. Four times people move, half-brothers, flats or colleagues drift between Madsen's fingers like the water of Öresund. The only constants are his dreams. And the father who moves to an old-age housing estate when Madsen is 17 and dies a year later.
As a teenager, the lanky nerd experiments with nitric acid, while others exchange the first kisses. He never cared about rules. In his first club, the Danish Amateur Rocket Club (DARK), he almost fainted when he burst an ammonia balloon and breathed in the poisonous vapours. When a rocket explodes, Madsen is thrown out of the club. Later on, he describes the anger at the rejection as the strongest driving force of his life. "It was a central moment, the plutonium I need for my reactor."
In front of Madsen's workshop, a man now stretches his head in all directions as if he were doing something forbidden. Fibrous fur, white beard, only the cap is missing so that he can pass through as captain. It is Claes Levin, a retired naval engineer who should have steered the dinghy for live transmission during the planned test of Madsen Space Lab. It could have been the last adventure of a sea bear. Last year, he sponsored a navigation system for Madsen. That's how he became part of the Alpha mission. But it was totally chaotic," Levin says, "the dinghy was not seaworthy and everything was miserably organized.
Nevertheless, Levin would have agreed to it. He is one of many who were fascinated by the inventor's aura. In 2008, at the baptism of the Nautilus, Madsen is celebrated like a rock star. The submarine is a reference to Jules Verne, whose captain Nemo explores the depths of the ocean in total freedom. Madsen also sees his creation as an "underwater extension" of his own body. In the documentary film "My Private Submarine" he says: "At night I dream of swimming freely under water."
It's the time when the late bloomer turns into a regular at Kinky Salon's sex parties. He lives in a polyamorous marriage and has so many lovers that Deirdre King calls him a "women's junkie". She is able to deal with it because she is a free spirit herself and recognizes a man in Madsen who can never get involved with a single woman. Instead he plunges into the fetish world, where he likes Sadomasochism, the game of power and submission.
People from the Kinky scene are also present at the launch of the submarine, camera teams and artists. The Nautilus is flooded to the sound of an orchestra, it is a spectacle, the pier full of people. And right in the middle of it: Madsen. "She floats!" he yells, almost hoarse with happiness.
The camera moves to his second submarine Kraka. Madsen's eyes are getting wet. He stammers: "Last Saturday she was the queen, now she is only the little sister. I can't stop thinking about what it's like for a submarine to suddenly become second in command."
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More to come ....
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