WHO IS PETER MADSEN?
Eccentric, self-styled ‘inventrepreneur’ Peter Madsen was something of a celebrity in Denmark. Propelled to fame by his DIY submarine, he was an object of frequent
media coverage.
Born in 1971, his fascination with ocean and space exploration started when he was six years old. After his parents’ divorce, he lived with his father, said to be both authoritarian and violent, but who shared and fostered Madsen’s interests. Madsen was proudly self-taught, having abandoned his
university study of engineering.
The 17-metre submarine UC3 Nautilus on which Kim Wall died was a crowd-funded
enterprise: Madsen claimed it was the world’s biggest privately built submarine. At the time of the ill-fated interview with Kim, he was also pursuing space exploration with the aim of launching a manned rocket.
Tellingly, the Rocket Madsen Space Laboratory was a sole enterprise after he fell out with his former rocket-making
partners in 2014.
His personal life was also beset by conflict. His brother described Madsen as ‘his own greatest enemy’ and his wife divorced him
in 2018. He also had a dispute with the volunteers who maintained the Nautilus, and made the chilling remark, ‘You may think that a curse is lying on Nautilus.
That curse is me.’
As the first anniversary of Kim’s disappearance approached, we knew the media would once again force us to experience that night in August last year. We didn’t want to do that. So we hold a run on the anniversary day, to honour Kim and her life. An entrance fee will go to the Kim Wall Memorial Fund [set up to provide grants to female journalists whose work embodies the spirit of Kim’s reporting]. We imagine there will be about 100 runners on this Friday evening in the beach meadows near our home and Kim’s stone heart. Kim’s friend, Mia Dahlgren Winther, comes up with the idea of a global event called Run for Kim.
And, indeed, a global event it becomes. Kim’s friends get involved and arrange races in Beijing, in the Philippines, in New York, in San Francisco and many other locations. In all, there are 15 places in 12 different countries that have a Run for Kim.
We’re thankful that a day which could have been so utterly dreadful ended up being the opposite – one full of love and community. Kim has such strength that even a year after her death, she can unite people across the entire globe.
Three hundred and sixty five days. Three hundred and sixty five nights. It’s been a year since Kim boarded that submarine; 12 months full of horror during which we’ve been forced to accept that Kim will never come home to us again. We can accept this, but never understand it.
We’ll continue to keep Kim’s memory alive. A wise person once said that as long as your name is spoken, you’re still alive. Kim will continue to live and be a symbol of good journalism, curiosity and the art of storytelling. The story will take other shapes, but Kim will still be the main character.
For us, Kim will always be in our thoughts. We live in our memories of her, and they will be kept alive for a long, long time.
This is an exclusive extract from A Silenced Voice: The Life of Journalist Kim Wall by Ingrid and Joachim Wall, which will be published by Amazon Crossing on 7 July, price €24.99. rememberingkimwall.com