Southern Schleswig - History

History

The Schleswig lands north of the Eider river and the Bay of Kiel had been a fief of the Danish Crown since the Early Middle Ages. The southern Holstein region belonged to Francia and later to the Holy Roman Empire, it was however held as an Imperial fief by the Danish kings since the 1460 Treaty of Ribe. Both Schleswig and Holstein were therefore administered from Copenhagen, even after the Empire's dissolution, when the Danish kings as dukes of Holstein became monarchs of the German Confederation in 1815.

The Schleswig-Holstein Question at first culminated in the course of the Revolutions of 1848, when from 1848 to 1851 revolting German-speaking National liberals backed by Prussia fought for the separation of Schleswig and Holstein from Denmark in the First Schleswig War. Though the status quo was restored, the conflict lingered on and on 1 February 1864 the German Confederation, i.e. Prussian and Austrian troops crossed the Eider sparking off the Second Schleswig War, after which Denmark had to cede Schleswig and Holstein according to the Treaty of Vienna. After the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, victorious Prussia took control over all Schleswig and Holstein but was obliged by the Peace of Prague to hold a referendum in predominantly Danish-speaking Northern Schleswig, which it never did.

Not until the German defeat in World War I the Schleswig Plebiscites were decreed by the Treaty of Versailles, after which the present-day German-Danish border was drawn taking effect on 15 June 1920, dividing Schleswig in a southern and northern part and leaving a considerable Danish and German minority on both sides.