Second Schleswig War - Aftermath

Aftermath

In the Prussian forces' first clash of arms since reorganization, their effectiveness proved clear, something the Austrians ignored, to their cost 18 months later in the Austro-Prussian War, and contributed to a perception in the German states that Prussia was the only state that could defend the other German states against external aggression. (See Unification of Germany.) Prussia and Austria took over the respective administration of Schleswig and Holstein under the Gastein Convention of 14 August 1865. About 200,000 Danes came under German rule.

The Peace of Prague in 1866 confirmed Denmark's cession of the two duchies but promised a plebiscite to decide whether north Schleswig wished to return to Danish rule. This provision was unilaterally set aside by a resolution of Prussia and Austria in 1878.

The Second Schleswig War shocked Denmark out of any idea of using war as a political tool. Danish forces were not involved in war outside their frontiers until the 1999 NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It became clear that against the might of Germany, Denmark could not assert her survival with her own arms; this played a crucial role in the "adjustment policy" and later "Cooperation policy" during the Nazi-German occupation in World War II.

Since Sweden (and Norway) refused to come to Denmark's rescue, although the Swedish king promised troops, this put an end to any dreams of political Scandinavism. As a consequence, the pan-Scandinavian movement after this year focused on literature and language, rather than politics.

There is little doubt that the defeat was a traumatising event for Denmark, which lost much population and rich parts of the country; but some of the most "ethnically Danish" parts of this "lost land" were returned to Denmark by the Treaty of Versailles.

From a Danish perspective, perhaps the most grievous consequence of the defeat was that thousands of Danes living in the ceded lands were conscripted into the German army in World War I and suffered huge casualties on the Western Front. This is still (but waning in time as the children of the conscripted men are dying out) a cause of resentment among many families in the southern parts of Jutland and the direct reason why a German offer of a joint centenary years anniversary in 1966 was rejected.