“The Schleswig-Holstein question is so complicated, only three men in Europe have ever understood it. One was Prince Albert, who is dead. The second was a German professor who became mad. I am the third and I have forgotten all about it.”
Lord Palmerston (1784-1865)
The Schleswig-Holstein Question was the name given to
the whole complex of diplomatic and other issues arising in the 19th century out
of the relations of the two duchies, Schleswig and Holstein, to the Danish crown
and to the German Confederation. Schleswig was a part of Denmark in the Viking
Age, and became a Danish duchy in the 12th century. Denmark repeatedly tried to
integrate the Duchy of Schleswig into the Danish kingdom. In March 27, 1848
Frederick VII of Denmark announced to the people of Schleswig the promulgation
of a liberal constitution under which the duchy, while preserving its local
autonomy, would become an integral part of Denmark. This led to an open uprising
by Schleswig-Holstein's large German majority in support of independence from
Denmark and of close association with the German Confederation. The military
intervention of the Kingdom of Prussia helped the rising: the Prussian army
drove Denmark's troops from Schleswig and Holstein in the First Schleswig War of
1848-1851. The second attempt to integrate the Duchy of Schleswig into the
Danish kingdom due to the signing of the November Constitution by King Christian
IX of Denmark was seen as a violation of the London Protocol, leading to the
Second Schleswig War of 1864.
The central question was whether the duchy of Schleswig was or was not an
integral part of the dominions of the Danish crown, with which it had been
associated in the Danish monarchy for centuries or whether Schleswig should,
together with Holstein, become a part of the German Confederation. Schleswig
itself was a fief of Denmark, as the duchy of Holstein was a German fief and
therefore part of the German Confederation with the Danish king as duke. This
involved the question, raised by the death of the last common male heir to both
Denmark and the two duchies, as to the proper succession in the duchies, and the
constitutional questions arising out of the relations of the duchies to the
Danish crown, to each other, and of Holstein to the German Confederation.
Much of the history of Schleswig-Holstein has a bearing on this question: see
history of Schleswig-Holstein for details. Following the defeat of Germany in
World War I, Northern Schleswig finally was unified with Denmark after two
plebiscites organised by the Allied powers. A small minority of ethnic Germans
still lives in Northern Schleswig.
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