The Nightmen of Copenhagen
What dishonourable meant
Not a figure of speech and not a prejudice you could argue with. Uærlig was a status. It followed from the work — latrines, dead animals, the scaffold — and it followed you into everything else: who would marry your children, who would drink beside you, which guilds would take you. A parallel society formed as a result, with its own rules and a vocabulary of its own, because the ordinary one was closed.
At the scaffold
The natmænd assisted the executioner and dismembered the bodies afterwards. Copenhagen had a permanent scaffold on Nytorv from 1627 to 1761 and a public execution ground by Amagerport from 1806 to 1857, so this was regular municipal work rather than an occasional horror. Struensee and Enevold Brandt were executed on 28 April 1772, their right hands severed before beheading and their bodies drawn and quartered; someone had to do the rest of that, and it was these men. See the executions page and the Nytorv page.
The walk
There is a 75-minute walk about them, and it runs in Danish only. It meets by the statue of Absalon on Højbro Plads and it is by the same operator as the English ghost walk. If you do not read Danish, this is one of the subjects where the deeper material is simply not available to you — the English-language picture is honest about that. The walk itself is on the nightman's tour page.
Frequently asked questions
What was a natmand?
A nightman: the men who emptied latrines, removed dead animals and assisted the executioner. They were also called rakkere, skøjere and kæltringe.
Why were they treated as outcasts?
They were legally counted uærlige, dishonourable, because the work involved filth and carrion. It barred them from marrying into respectable families.
Is there a tour about them?
Yes, a 75-minute walk meeting at the Absalon statue on Højbro Plads, in Danish only. See the nightman's tour.