 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "German minority in Denmark" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(August 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
  | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 15,000-20,000 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| North Schleswig,Copenhagen,Bornholm, throughoutDenmark[citation needed] | |
| Languages | |
| GermanLow Saxon,Danish (South Jutlandic)[citation needed] | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity (Roman Catholicism,Protestantism),Judaism,Irreligious[citation needed] | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| OtherGermans,Danes,Frisians,Dutch people,Norwegians,Faroese people |
Approximately 15,000 people inDenmark belong to anautochthonousethnic German minority traditionally referred to ashjemmetyskere, meaning "Home Germans" inDanish, and asNordschleswiger inGerman.[1] They areDanish citizens and most self-identify asethnic Germans. They generally speakLow Saxon andSouth JutlandicDanish as theirhome languages.
Unrelatedly to the North Schleswig Germans, there are also a substantial number ofcitizens of Germany who live in Denmark under the aegis of theSchengen Area and have no connection to the historical German inhabitants of the Duchy of Schleswig.
In 1920, in the aftermath ofWorld War I, twoSchleswig Plebiscites were held in the northernmost part of the PrussianProvince of Schleswig-Holstein (the northern half of the formerDuchy of Schleswig). The plebiscites were held in two zones that were defined by Denmark[2] according to the ideas of the Danish historian Hans Victor Clausen. The northern Zone I was delineated according to Clausen's estimation of where the local rural population identified itself as Danish, a survey published in 1891.[3] Clausen travelled extensively on both sides of the eventual border, in an attempt determine which communities that would vote for a return to Danish rule, and concluded that this was the case north of theSkelbækken creek, where most rural communities were both Danish-speaking and pro-Danish, while the communities south of this line were overwhelmingly pro-German (though some of these communities were also primarily Danish-speaking). Near Tønder, he deviated from this system, and included the German-majority towns ofTønder andHøjer into the northern sector for economic purposes, and to achieve a line following adyke, consequently this line followed the dyke south of Højer.
The northern Zone I voteden bloc, i.e. as a unit with the majority deciding, and the result was 75% for Denmark and 25% for Germany, consequently resulting in a German minority north of the new border. In the southern Zone II, each parish/town voted for its own future allegiance, and all districts in Zone II showed German majorities. The eventual border was delineated virtually identically with the border between Zones I and II.[citation needed]
In the northern Zone (Zone I), 25% of the population, i.e. around 40,000 people voted to remain part of Germany, the German North Schleswigers having their centres in the towns ofTønder,Aabenraa, andSønderborg, but also in a rural district between Tønder and Flensburg near the new border, most notably inTinglev. Smaller German minorities existed inHaderslev andChristiansfeld (both towns with Danish majorities). Sønderborg and Aabenraa were strongly dominated by both nationalities (c. 55% Germans and 45% Danes). In Sønderborg, the German majority was partially due to a local military garrison, and the German element in this town decreased sharply in the 1920s, after the German garrison had been withdrawn and replaced with a Danish one. Tønder had a vast German majority (c. 80%) but was included in the northern Zone for geographical and economic reasons, and because of the small population of this (and the other) North Schleswig towns.
Between 1920–1939, the North Schleswig Germans electedJohannes Schmidt-Wodder [da;de] their representative in the DanishParliament with c. 13–15% of the North Schleswig votes,[4] indicating that the share of North Schleswigers that identified as Germans had decreased when compared with the 1920 referendum.
Since 1945, the North Schleswig Germans have been presented byBund Deutscher Nordschleswiger [da], a cultural organisation, and continued to elect a member of Parliament until the 1950s.[citation needed]
The North Schleswig Germans are currently represented in the municipal councils of Aabenraa, Tønder, and Sønderborg. Bund Deutscher Nordschleswiger estimates the current number of North Schleswig Germans to be around 15,000,[5] i.e. around 6% of the North Schleswig population of c. 250,000. This is a far smaller group than the 50,000 Danes who live inSouthern Schleswig, where, for instance,Flensborg Avis, a newspaper in Danish, is printed every day.
Schleswig Party is a political party that represents the German minority interests in Denmark.
