About SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN 1864-1920

My special comments today will deal with the situation around the reunification of Southern Jutland with the rest of Denmark in 1920, a hundred years ago.  Denmark was at war with Germany in 1864 - and lost.  So it had to renounce the provinces of Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg to Germany ( Prussia at the time ).  It was at the time about 10 % of Denmark.  What we know today is that it wouldn't have gone so badly for the Danes, if the then Danish national-liberal government had been more flexible and realistic.

The peace conference after the Prussian-Austrian-Danish war in 1864 took place in London under British chairmanship. Queen Victoria took herself an active interest in the conference and called her prime minister, Lord Palmerston. She asked him:  Please, explain to me how things are in Schleswig-Holstein?  He replied: There are only 3 people in this country who know about it. One has died. The second one has gone mad. And I am the third one - and I have forgotten it!
The Queen probably showed her interested, because her husband, Albert, who had died three years earlier, was German.  And also because her daughter, also called Victoria, was married to the Prussian king, later the German emperor.

On the conference itself the Danish government was very determined to demand that at least Schleswig/Slesvig remained Danish.  The German side did not accept it. They wanted the new common border to be much more to the north. The end result was that Germany got its way. And the South of Jutland - where a very large majority of the population spoke Danish and felt as Danes, had to be German until 1920 - for 56 years. 
We now know from German archives that it would probably have been possible to find agreement on a border, which would leave most Danish speaking people in Denmark - in other words have a border as it was decided in 1920.    But if, if, if  -  this is called contrafactual history. It did not happen. But it is interesting and important. Because it shows very clearly that flexibility and realism are very useful attitudes to have, when you are part of negotiations and you have your back against the wall. 

The then Danish prime minister, Mr. D.G.Monrad, was of course one of the key players with the inflexibility and subsequent result.  After the peace agreement he became so depressed that he emigrated to New Zealand to be a farmer there in a village called Danewerk on the North Island.  It only lasted five years.  Then he returned to Denmark and got his original job back - the post a bishop.

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