About IDA
The Story of IDA: From Rivalry to Record-High Membership Figures
With over 158,000 members, IDA is not just a trade union for engineers, but for all highly educated STEM professionals in Denmark.
But it was not a given that IDA would become a success, and the story of IDA is also the story of a radically changed labour market and a desire and will to build bridges between professions.
The first years: Feuding engineering associations
The Danish Society of Engineers, IDA, was formed in 1995, when Dansk Ingeniørforening, DIF, and Ingeniør-Sammenslutningen, I-S, merged. DIF was the association for civil engineers with a 5-year master's degree, while I-S represented constructors and engineers with a shorter degree.
The joint history of the two associations started in the early 1900s, and in the first decades it was characterised by rivalry.
The civil engineers had a monopoly on a number of professional areas, were paid more and had a feeling of being professionally superior. Many in DIF therefore did not want a closer collaboration, whereas I-S had more to gain by joining DIF and breaking the civil engineers' monopolies.
But from the 1950s, the demand for engineers increased, and employers began to ask fewer questions about where the engineers were educated, so long as they could perform the tasks. Therefore, the two engineering associations also began to draw closer to each other with the formation of a joint unemployment insurance fund and the foundation of the Danish Engineers' Continuing Education in 1975.
This was followed by two merger attempts, first in 1976 and then in 1987, without it being possible to obtain the majority needed to make the merger a reality.
In 1995, however, the time was ripe to join forces, although many were skeptical about whether the collaboration could last. When the merger became a reality, the headline in the newspaper Ingeniøren was; "Yes to merger", but just below it was written "The fiasco is lurking just around the corner".
New professional groups are admitted, and the number of members explodes
However, the fiasco did not occur. In 1998, the Engineering Building at Kalvebod Brygge in Copenhagen was put into use, and the two associations were now physically together under one roof for the first time. At the same time, membership grew, and since the merger in 1995 it has increased from 55,000 to over 158,000 members, while new professional groups have become part of the community. This applies to both science-educated and IT professionals. At the same time, there has been a large influx of international members who have come to Denmark to work or have been educated in Denmark and have subsequently stayed.
The goal in the future is that IDA must continue to grow, and that the strength in numbers must be utilised to ensure members' rights, better working lives and influence on a wide range of significant issues such as the development of artificial intelligence and the green transition.
Resources: Dive into IDA's history
If you want to learn more about IDA's history, there is a large archive that you can explore.
The story of IDA: Technological knowledge and networks in unison
Historians Henrik Harnow and Peter Fransen talk about the first 25 years of IDA's history in the book Technological knowledge and network in association.
In the e-book, you can read how it succeeded in building a bridge between rival engineering associations, and why it was not a compliment when the then Minister of Technology and the Environment in the Municipality of Copenhagen, Morten Kabell, in 2016 called Ingeniørhuset "the best place to sit along Kalvebod Brygge".
Read previous editions of Ingeniøren: Large archive from the years 1822-2006
You can now browse through 400,000 pages of technological and social history, which have been collected in all significant engineering publications in the years 1822-2006 and which together constitute the Engineers' History of Denmark.
Explore the archive (in Danish)
IDA's presidents through the ages
Get an insight into who has been at the helm of the engineering societies from 1892 to 1995 and of the IDA from 1995 to the present day.
You can read a brief biography of each chairperson and what technological breakthroughs occurred while they held the chair.
See all presidents in IDA's history (in Danish)
An astronaut, a manufacturing genius and a Nobel Prize winner: all IDA's honorary members
IDA's members make a difference every day, but there are some who leave their mark on technology and the world around them to such an extent that they deserve a special tribute.
Here you can see all those who have been named honorary members or with an honorary plaque over the years and read more about what they have achieved.
See all honorary members through time (in Danish)