Like Snow in the Sun? The German Minority in Denmark in Historical Perspective

246 Pages·2022·73.62 MB·English

by  Peter Thaler (editor)

Like Snow in the Sun?

Like Snow
in the Sun?
The German Minority in Denmark
in Historical Perspective
Peter Thaler (ed.)
ISBN 978-3-11-068194-9
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-068212-0
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-068224-3
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021950132
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Cover image: kinpouge05 / iStock / Getty Images Plus
Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck
www.degruyter.com
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations and Tables VII
List of Contributors IX
Bilingual Glossary of Place Names in North Schleswig/South Jutland XI
Peter Thaler
Preface XIII
Peter Thaler
1 Analyzing Schleswig
An Introduction 1
Hans Schultz Hansen
2 A Community Takes Shape
Germans in North Schleswig between the 1840s and 1914 11
Ryan J. Gesme
3 To Remain a Schleswiger
The Construction of Communal Identities in the Era of the Great
War 47
Henrik Becker-Christensen
4 Not a State of Their Own
The German Minority 1920–1939 67
Anika Seemann
5 On War, Loyalty, and Reconciliation
The German Minority during the Second World War and the Postwar
Legal Reckoning 91
Frank Lubowitz
6 Reconstruction—Consolidation—Equality
The Organized Minority in the Postwar Decades 115
VI TableofContents
Michael Byram
7 Learning to Belong
School, Language, and Identity in North Schleswig in the
1980s 133
Jørgen Kühl
8 Minority in Transition
The German Community in Denmark
1995–2020 155
Ruairidh Tarvet
9 Between Openness and Authenticity
The Current State of Linguistic Identity in the German Minority of
North Schleswig 175
Peter Thaler
10 Like Snow in the Sun?
A Conclusion 195
Bibliography 211
Index 221
List of Illustrations and Tables
Illustrations
0.1 DanishMapofSchleswigwith1920Border[CreatedbyHectorBoeckin1943]
1.1 DenmarkandDuchiesin1863[Ward,Prothero,andLeathes,TheCambridgeModern
HistoryAtlas(NewYork,N.Y.:TheMacmillanCompany,1912)]
2.1 TheConstitutionoftheProvisionalGovernmentofSchleswig-Holsteinin1848[Painting
byHansOldefrom1898]
2.2 GermanCaricaturebySemmiHertzagainstSchleswig’sDivisionin1848
2.3 FriedrichVIIIofAugustenburg
2.4 OfficialEmblemofPrussianCountyAdministrationinSønderborg
2.5 PostcardCelebratingtheEmperorandhisAugustenburgWifeaswellasRegionalSym-
bolsin1890
2.6 ArtNouveauTapestrybySkærbækWeavery
2.7 KnivsbergMonumentwithStatueofBismarck
3.1 GermanPlebiscitePoster1920–For1000YearsWeHaveBeenSchleswigers
3.2 PlebisciteResults1920
3.3 EmergencyMoneywithTiedjeLine[Tinglev1920]
4.1 PortraitJohannesSchmidt-Wodder[PaintingbyA.PaulWeberfrom1936]
4.2 1932SchleswigPartyElectionPosterinFavorofEconomicAttachmenttoGermany
5.1 TemporaryVolunteersinTønderin1943
5.2 FaarhusCamp1945
6.1 KnivsbergTowerafterBombingin1945
6.2 HaderslevDeclarationof11November1943withPhotoofFriedrichPrahlinGermanMu-
seumforNorthSchleswig[2006]
6.3 ProvisionalGermanSchoolingintheAabenraaTheaterHotelin1947
6.4 PosterofSchleswigPartyfor1951ElectionsfortheUpperHouse
6.5 QueenMargretheVisitingtheGermanMinorityin1986
7.1 TheMinorityEducationSystemin1983[MichaelByram,MinorityEducationandEthnic
Survival(Clevedon,England,1986),22.]
7.2 GermanSchoolTingleff1983
7.3 GermanSchoolTingleff2020
8.1 HansHeinrichHansenatDybbøl1995
8.2 EnrollmentinGermanMinoritySchoolssince1945
8.3 2015CalendarCoverbyGermanYouthAssociation(JungeSpitzen)inSupportofBilin-
gualSigns
9.1 GermanInscriptionfrom1600sinHaderslevCathedral
9.2 BilingualLogoofGermanSportsClubinSouthernDenmark
10.1 KingChristianXCrossingtheFormerBorderin1920
10.2 DanishSchoolCapandGermanSchoolConeinGermanMinoritySchools
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110682120-001
VIII ListofIllustrationsandTables
Tables
8.1 ElectionsResultsSchleswigParty1997-2017
8.2 GermanMinoritySchoolsinNorthSchleswig1995-2019
10.1 VotesforSchleswigPartyinParliamentaryElections1920-1971
IllustrationswereprovidedbytheDanishNationalArchives,theArchivesoftheGermanMi-
norityinSønderborg,andtheGermanSchoolTinglev.
List of Contributors
HenrikBecker-ChristensenstudiedhistoryatAarhusUniversity.Between1976and
1998heworkedasaresearcherattheDanishInstituteforBorderRegionStudies
in Aabenraa, serving as its chairman from 1992 to 1998. From 1998 to 2017 he
served as Denmark’s consul general in Flensburg. He is also adjunct professor
at the University of Southern Denmark. Henrik Becker-Christensen has published
numerous booksand articlesaboutthe Danish-Germanborderland, among them
a habilitation thesisabout the German minority between1920 and 1932.
Michael Byram is professor emeritus at Durham University (UK) and senior re-
searcher at Sofia University, Bulgaria. He studied Modern and Medieval Lan-
guages at King’s College, Cambridge, including a Ph.D. in Danish literature.
HewasadvisertotheCouncilofEurope’sLanguagePolicyDivisionandcooper-
ated on the Council’s ReferenceFrameworkof Competencesfor Democratic Cul-
ture. His monographs include Minority Education and Ethnic Survival (Claren-
don: Multilingual Matters, 1986) and Teaching and Assessing Intercultural
Communicative Competence: Revisited (Clarendon: Multilingual Matters, 2021).
RyanJ.GesmeisadoctoralcandidateinmodernEuropeanhistoryattheUniversity
ofTennessee-Knoxville,specializinginthehistoryofGermany,Scandinavia,andna-
tionalism.HereceivedaB.A.inhistoryandScandinavianstudiesfromtheUniver-
sityofWisconsin-Madisonin2015.HisdissertationexaminestheGermanandDan-
ish-speaking communities in Schleswig-Holstein in the period before and after
WorldWarI.Hisresearchinvestigatestheconstructionofcommunalidentityduring
periodsofintensenationalisticrhetoric,mobilizationfortotalwar,andtheintroduc-
tionofWilsonianideasofself-determinationviathe 1920Schleswig plebiscite.
JørgenKühlholdsaPh.D.inhistoryfromAarhusUniversity.Afterservingasdi-
rectoroftheDanishInstituteofBorderRegionStudiesinAabenraa(1999-2004),
hebecamefoundingprincipaloftheDanishminority’sA. P.MøllerHigh School
inSchleswigandadjunctprofessorofminoritystudiesattheUniversityofFlens-
burg.HehaspublishednumerousstudiesonthehistoryofminoritiesinSchles-
wigand other parts of the world.
Frank Lubowitz studied history at the University of Kiel. After serving as a re-
search associate at his alma mater, he became director of the Archives and
the Historical Research Department of the German minority in Denmark in Aa-
benraa. In this capacity, he has published widely about the history of the Ger-
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110682120-002
X ListofContributors
man-Danishborderlands,withaspecialfocusontheGermanminorityinnorth-
ern Schleswig.
HansSchultzHansenisheadofresearchattheDanishNationalArchivesaswell
asadjunctprofessorattheUniversityofSouthernDenmark.His2005habilitation
thesisHjemmetyskhedeniNordslesvig1840-1867analyzedtheGermanmovement
inNorthSchleswigbetween1840and1867.HeexaminedNorthSchleswig’sGer-
manpopulationduringthePrussianperiodin“Forkejserogrige:Dennyehjem-
metyskhed 1871-1914,” in Grænselandshistorie gennem 40 år, ed. Lars N. Hen-
ningsen (Flensburg, 2003), 165-232. He also contributed the synthesis of the
period 1830-1918 to the German-language Geschichte Schleswig-Holsteins
(1996/2003) as well to the Danish-language Sønderjyllands historie (2009).
AnikaSeemannisaseniorresearchfellowinScandinavianlawandlegalhistory
attheMaxPlanckInstituteforSocialLawandSocialPolicyinMunich.Sheholds
aPh.D.inhistoryfromtheUniversityofCambridge,aswellaslawdegreesfrom
King’s College London, Humboldt University Berlin, and the University of Cam-
bridge.Herresearchinterestslieattheintersectionoflaw,politics,andnation-
hoodinWesternEuropeduringthetwentiethcentury,withaparticularfocuson
the Scandinavian region. Her article entitled “Citizen Outcasts: The Penalty of
’LossofCivilRights’duringtheNorwegianTreasonTrials,1945-1953”hasrecent-
ly been published in the Scandinavian Journal of History.
RuairidhTarvetholdsaPh.D.inScandinavian studiesattheUniversityofEdin-
burgh,Scotland,wherehecontinuestoteach.Hisresearchfocusesonlanguage
and identity in Northern Europe and examines the interplay between regional,
national, and transnational identities in minority communities. His most com-
prehensiveanalysisofSchleswigianconditionsisthemonographRe-imagining
Sleswig: Language and Identity in the German-Danish Borderlands (Odense:
University Press of Southern Denmark, 2020).
PeterThalerisassociateprofessorofhistoryattheUniversityofSouthernDenmark.
HeholdsaPh.D.inhistoryandaPh.D.inScandinavianstudiesfromtheUniversity
ofMinnesotaaswellasadoctorateoflawfromtheUniversityofVienna.Hiscentral
publicationsonnationalandethnicidentitiesincludeOfMindandMatter:TheDu-
alityofNationalIdentityintheGerman-DanishBorderlands(WestLafayette:Purdue
UniversityPress,2009),TheAmbivalenceofIdentity:TheAustrianExperienceofNa-
tion-Buildingina ModernSociety(WestLafayette: PurdueUniversityPress, 2001),
andNorwegianMinds—AmericanDreams:EthnicActivismamongNorwegian-Amer-
ican Intellectuals (NewarkandLondon:UniversityofDelawarePress,1998).