Denmark 1914-1918 Denmark 1920-1939






Denmark, 1918-1920



In 1864, Denmark had ceded SCHLESWIG, HOLSTEIN and LAUENBURG to Austria respectively to Prussia. The cession contained a paragraph, that in the northern parts of Schleswig (Dan. Slesvig) a plebiscite was to be held, permitting the population to decide if they wanted their land to be part of Denmark or Prussia/Germany.
When World War I was over, this plebiscite, long ignored by the German authorities, finally was held; the northern part of the area, around TØNDER, HADERSLEV, ÅBENRA and SØNDERBORG (the so-called ZONE 1), opted for Denmark. The Danish minority in the area remaining with Germany got a statute protecting it's rights in the constitution of Schleswig-Holstein.


On the Left : Stamps issued for the Schleswig plebiscite area. The stamp overprinted "1 ZONE" was for the northern stretch of the plebiscite area,
which had voted for integration into Denmark. Note the Danish currency (Oere)
On the Right : Stamps issued by Denmark on the occasion of the return of northern Sønderjylland to Denmark.


EXTERNAL
FILES 		Neutrality, Regulations and Political Conflicts, in : History of Denmark, from Dan. Ministry of Foreign Affairs
DOCUMENTS Historical Population Statistics : Denmark, from Population Statistics at Univ. Utrecht
World Statesmen : Denmark, by Ben Cahoon
Sources on Danish History 1864-1919, from Skræp, in Danish
REFERENCE Knud J.V. Jespersen, A History of Denmark, Basingstoke : Palgrave MacMillan 2004, KMLA Lib.Sign. 948.9 J58h
Article : Denmark, in : New International Year Book 1919 pp.195-198, 1920 pp.183-185 [G]


This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2000, last revised on March 3rd 2007

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