Ethnic group
Ethnic group
Germans in Denmark
Danske tyskere
Danische Deutsche
Hjemmetyskere
![Denmark](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9c/Flag_of_Denmark.svg/20px-Flag_of_Denmark.svg.png) |
|
15,000-20,000
|
|
North Schleswig
,
Copenhagen
,
Bornholm
, throughout
Denmark
|
|
Low Saxon
,
Danish
(
South Jutlandic
)
|
|
Christianity
(
Roman Catholicism
,
Protestantism
),
Judaism
,
Irreligious
|
|
Other
Germans
,
Danes
,
Frisians
,
Dutch people
,
Norwegians
,
Faroese people
|
Flag of the Germans of North Schleswig
Approximately 15,000 people in
Denmark
belong to an
autochthonous
ethnic German
minority traditionally referred to as
hjemmetyskere
, meaning "Home Germans" in
Danish
, and as
Nordschleswiger
in
German
.
[1]
They are
Danish citizens
and most self-identify as
ethnic Germans
. They generally speak
Low Saxon
and
South Jutlandic
Danish
as their
home languages
.
Unrelatedly to the North Schleswig Germans, there are also a substantial number of
citizens of Germany
who live in Denmark under the aegis of the
Schengen Area
and have no connection to the historical German inhabitants of the Duchy of Schleswig.
History
[
edit
]
Results of the plebiscite
In 1920, in the aftermath of
World War I
, two
Schleswig Plebiscites
were held in the northernmost part of the Prussian
Province of Schleswig-Holstein
(the northern half of the former
Duchy of Schleswig
). The plebiscites were held in two zones that were defined by Denmark
[2]
according to the ideas of the Danish historian Hans Victor Clausen. The northern Zone I was delineated according to Clausen's estimation of where the local rural population identified itself as Danish, a survey published in 1891.
[3]
Clausen travelled extensively on both sides of the eventual border, in an attempt determine which communities that would vote for a return to Danish rule, and concluded that this was the case north of the
Skelbækken
creek, where most rural communities were both Danish-speaking and pro-Danish, while the communities south of this line were overwhelmingly pro-German (though some of these communities were also primarily Danish-speaking). Near Tønder, he deviated from this system, and included the German-majority towns of
Tønder
and
Højer
into the northern sector for economic purposes, and to achieve a line following a
dyke
, consequently this line followed the dyke south of Højer.
North Schleswig and other German territories lost in both World Wars are shown in black, present-day Germany is marked dark grey on this 1914 map.
The northern Zone I voted
en bloc
, i.e. as a unit with the majority deciding, and the result was 75% for Denmark and 25% for Germany, consequently resulting in a German minority north of the new border. In the southern Zone II, each parish/town voted for its own future allegiance, and all districts in Zone II showed German majorities. The eventual border was delineated virtually identical with the border between Zones I and II.
In the northern Zone (Zone I), 25% of the population, i.e. around 40,000 people voted to remain part of Germany, the German North Schleswigers having their centres in the towns of
Tønder
,
Aabenraa
, and
Sønderborg
, but also in a rural district between Tønder and Flensburg near the new border, most notably in
Tinglev
. Smaller German minorities existed in
Haderslev
and
Christiansfeld
(both towns with Danish majorities). Sønderborg and Aabenraa were strongly dominated by both nationalities (c. 55% Germans and 45% Danes). In Sønderborg, the German majority was partially due to a local military garrison, and the German element in this town decreased sharply in the 1920s, after the German garrison had been withdrawn and replaced with a Danish one. Tønder had a vast German majority (c. 80%) but was included in the northern Zone for geographical and economic reasons, and because of the small population of this (and the other) North Schleswig towns.
Between 1920?1939, the North Schleswig Germans elected Johannes Schmidt-Vodder as their representative in the Danish
Parliament
with c. 13?15% of the North Schleswig votes,
[4]
indicating that the share of North Schleswigers that identified as Germans had decreased when compared with the 1920 referendum.
Since 1945, the North Schleswig Germans have been presented by
Bund Deutscher Nordschleswiger
, a cultural organisation, and continued to elect a member of Parliament until the 1950s.
The North Schleswig Germans are currently represented in the municipal councils of Aabenraa, Tønder, and Sønderborg. Bund Deutscher Nordschleswiger estimates the current number of North Schleswig Germans to be around 15,000,
[5]
i.e. around 6% of the North Schleswig population of c. 250,000. This is a far smaller group than the 50,000 Danes who live in
Southern Schleswig
, where, for instance,
Flensborg Avis
, a newspaper in Danish, is printed every day.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Thaler, Peter (2022). "A Glass Half Full or Half Empty? The Post-war Treatment of the German Minority in Denmark".
Collective Identities and Post-War Violence in Europe, 1944?48: Reshaping the Nation
. Springer International Publishing. pp. 253?274.
ISBN
978-3-030-78386-0
.
- Thaler, Peter, ed.
Like Snow in the Sun? The German Minority in Denmark in Historical Perspective
. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter, 2022.
ISBN
978-3-11-068194-9
.
External links
[
edit
]
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