Kaj Harald Leininger Munk (commonly called Kaj Munk) (January 13, 1898 - January 4, 1944) was a Danish playwright and Lutheran pastor, known for his cultural engagement and his martyrdom during World War II.
He was born Kaj Harald Leininger Petersen at Lolland, Denmark, and raised by a family called Munk after the death of his parents. From 1924 he was the vicar of Vedersø in Western Jutland.
The dramas of Munk were mostly performed and made public during the 1930s but although many were written in the 1920s. Much of his work is a contribution to the "philosophy-on-life-debate" (religion - marxism - darwinism) which marked much of Danish cultural life during this period. Very often he used a historical background for his plays - among his influences were Shakespeare and Goethe.
In his dramas Munk often displays a fascination for "strong characters" and integrated people who fight whole-heartedly for their ideals (whether good or bad). In his play En Idealist, for example, the "hero" is King Herod whose fight to maintain power is the motive behind all of his acts until he is at last defeated by a show of kindness to the Christ child in a weak moment.
I Brændingen is a camouflaged portrait of Munk's antagonist, the anti-religious Georg Brandes whose atheist attitude also impressed him.
After a period of Nazi admiration, Munk became a strong opponent during the German Occupation of Denmark (1940-1945) (although he continually opposed the idea of democracy as such, preferring the idea of a "Nordic dictator" who should unite the Nordic countries and keep them neutral during periods of international crisis). His plays Han sidder ved Smeltediglen ("He sits by the melting pot") and Niels Ebbesen were direct attacks on Nazism.
In 1938 the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published on its front page an open letter to Benito Mussolini written by Kaj Munk criticising the persecutions against Jews. He was arrested and subsequently assassinated by the Gestapo on January 4, 1944 at Hørbylunde, near Silkeborg.
The reputation of Munk is one of the most paradoxical in modern Danish literature. During most of his life he was known as a right-wing anti-democrat, yet he passed into history as the anti-nazi martyr. He was extremely engaged in his own time but usually wrote historical plays. He is often called a renewer of Danish drama but, in fact, he tried to revive both romantic and traditional naturalist theatre. He is called a classicist but today his plays are not performed very often. He was a deeply religious person but just as much a man of this world. His engaging personality has been an enduring centre of interest.
His plays, many of which have been performed at the Royal Theatre, Copenhagen, and elsewhere, include:
- Pilatus (1917. Published 1937),
- Ordet (tr. The Word) (1925),
- Kaerlighed (1926),
- En Idealist (1928),
- I Brændingen (1929),
- Kardinalen og Kongen (1929),
- Cant (1931),
- De Udvalgte (1933),
- Sejren (1936),
- Han sidder ved Smeltediglen (1938),
- Egelykke (1940),
- Niels Ebbesen (1942),
- Før Cannae (1943).
The play Ordet was filmed in black and white by Carl Theodor Dreyer.