From State to Private Nationalism – Denmark as External National Homeland after 1864
National border disputes are often studied as a dynamic relationship between a national minority, a nationalizing state and the external national homeland to which the minority is nationally affiliated. This "nexus triad" was first introduced by the sociologist Rogers Brubaker in 1996, and it is still considered elementary in the understanding of how and to what extend a homeland can preserve the bonds with a national minority in another country. In the paper, I will examine how Denmark’s role as external national homeland to the Danish minority in Schleswig changed after the defeat in the war against Prussia and Austria in 1864.
In the war in 1864 the Danish conglomerate state lost the duchies of Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg and became a minor European state in the shadow of a rising Germany. Especially the loss of Schleswig was a hard blow, because the majority of the population in the northern parts identified themselves as Danish and hoped to be united with Denmark. Since the 1830s national movements had maintained the national ties between Denmark and the Danish-minded people in Schleswig, but the defeat in 1864 changed those ties in a dramatic way.
In the 1850s, the Danish state had actively tried to discourage the spread of the German language and culture in Schleswig by replacing local civil servants with Danes and implementing laws aimed at strengthening the Danish language in schools, churches and public administration. This development had been exposed to international criticism and in German-minded parts of Schleswig it was highly unpopular and immediately after 1864 the new Prussian rulers began to roll back these reforms and made it clear, that it would not accept the Danish state interfering in domestic politics in Schleswig.
Without the ability to interfere legally in Schleswig, and in fear of a German repression, the Danish state had – at least officially – outplayed its role in supporting the Danish minority in Schleswig. Instead, it was replaced by private organizations based upon the support and commitment of its members, and in the first years after the war, several nationalistic organizations working across the border were established in Denmark.
These organizations mainly supported the Danish minority in Schleswig through charity campaigns for families that stayed “faithful to the Danish king and country” and through donations for cultural institutions such as book collections and private schools. But also publications of literature underlining the historical connections between Denmark and Schleswig, election support for Danish-minded candidates and the establishment of Danish newspapers were tasks undertaken by private organizations. Due to the tense national situation in Schleswig, the support from Denmark had to be handled very discreetly, which is perhaps also the reason why most of the organizations are almost forgotten today.
From a Danish perspective the development from state to private nationalism was not only seen in a negative light. Some thought that the language reforms implemented by the Danish state in the 1850’s had proven to be a failed attempt to force a Danish identity down upon the population in Schleswig. Instead they hoped to maintain and strengthen the national ties with the Danish minority through popular support for the private national organizations and their tasks.
The paper I will present seeks to elaborate on the changes presented above and to shed new light on an overlooked national movement in Denmark that was crucial in recreating a shared national identity with the Danish minority in Schleswig. In other words, this case shows how trans-border nationalism was practiced in Denmark after the devastating defeat in 1864, which had left the country in search of a new national self-perception.
Name: Klaus Tolstrup Petersen
Title: PhD student
Affiliation: Aarhus University / Dansk Centralbibliotek for Sydslesvig
Email address: ktp@dcbib.dk