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Akademisk kvarter #21 / Academic Quarter #21
Sønderjysk genforening / The Reunification of Southern Jutland 1920/2020
Guest editors Rune Delfs, Aalborg Universitet
Mirjam Gebauer, Aalborg Universitet
Jørgen Kühl, Europa-Universität Flensburg
When in the beginning of September 2019, Queen Margrethe II visited 
Flensburg in Southern Schleswig as kick-off of the festivities of the 
centennial for the drawing of the border and the reunification of 
Southern Jutland and Denmark, she gave a speech in German. In the 
speech, she warmly advocated for intercultural cooperation between Danes 
and Germans:
Jahrzehnt für Jahrzehnt sind wir Dänen und Deutsche – und die 
Minderheiten beiderseits der Grenze – einander nähergekommen. Es gibt 
eine wichtige grenzüberschreitende Zusammenarbeit – sowohl zwischen 
Institutionen als auch zwischen Menschen. Das müssen wir schätzen und 
entwickeln. (Kongehuset 2019)

The Queen’s appearance differed significantly from King Christian X’s 
highly symbolic crossing of the Danish-German border at Kongeåen in 
1920. At the time, the King resembled a lord of victory lord aloft on a 
white horse, the same way as Napoleon in 1807 was riding through the 
Brandenburg Tor. While the drawing of the border originally was a result 
of war conflicts, namely the Schleswig War II which in 1864 ended with 
Denmark’s defeat and territorial losses, and later World War I. In our 
days, however, the border became a project of peace and the symbol of 
good neighbourhood across Danish-German national borders. Danmark’s 
reunification with the Southern Jutland parts of the country, a result 
of the treaty of Versailles after World War I, took place on July 9 1920 
after a referendum in February the same year. This referendum would 
determine the geopolitical shape of Denmark which has lasted until our 
days. Referenda on territorial areas after the implosion of the German 
empire and the end of World War I were in no way a specific 
Danish-German event. People also voted on Vestpreussen, Posen (both 
whether the areas should belong to Poland), Eupen and Malmedy, on the 
relation to Belgium and Elsass-Lothringen on the relation to France (The 
Treaty of Versailles 1919, chapt. III).
Southern Jutland was reunificated with the rest of Denmark, nevertheless 
Flensburg and Southern Schleswig remained German. At the same time, the 
new location of the border resulted in the situation that many 
German-minded North from the border lost the connection to their 
homeland. On both sides of the new border emerged minorities who felt 
that they belonged to the country on the other side of the border. Thus, 
the reunification of Southern Jutland with Denmark did not appear to 
everyone involved as a success. This was also pointed out by the former 
Danish prime minister Niels Neergaard in a speech at Dybbøl Skanser on 
July 11, 1920: Men i genforeningsglæden må vi også tænke på dem, der 
blev tilbage, der kæmpede så trofast og udholdende som nogen, og det kan 
jeg sige på regeringens, ja, jeg tør sige på hele det danske folks 
vegne: De skal ikke blive glemt! (Gerlow 1920, 28)  The new border only 
existed for 20 years, when it was removed by Hitler’s Wehrmacht who 
occupied Denmark in 1940. World War II represented a big caesura of the 
Danish-German relation and created a new situation in the border area, 
but also in the whole of Denmark. The Danish conceived of the Germans, 
now more than ever, as a real threat, an occupying power and old enemy 
images were revived and fixated. After the war, many years should go by 
to change this image of the Germans and the mental climate of the 
borderland was affected by prejudices and stereotypes. Generally, the 
populations were very skeptical towards their neighbours who identified 
with another nation than themselves.
After Denmark’s liberation, the border of 1920 was reinstated, but there 
were voices in Denmark who advocated to move it more to the South. The 
fact that the border was not moved after all, even though Germany had 
lost another war, contributed to the fact that Denmark and the Federal 
Republic of Germany (FRG) in 1955, in the declarations of Copenhagen and 
Bonn, were able of officially acknowledging the minorities North and 
South of the border and to securing their right of practicing their 
respective culture. This mutual protection by both the Danish and German 
government could strengthen the Danish-German relations, not only in the 
borderland, but also on a national level.
The reunification can be regarded as an important momentum in the 
Danish-German relationship, not only from a geopolitical perspective, 
but also from a cultural one. This relationship which was developed 
through the course of many centuries can be traced in numerous works of 
art, music and literature. Intellectuals always moved across the 
borders; Georg Brandes introduced Friedrich Nietzsche to the Danish 
public (Brandes 1901), Søren Kierkegaard travelled to Berlin, where he 
studied by Friedrich Wilhelm Schelling (Kierkegaard & Staubrand 2012), 
Bertolt Brecht lived several years near Svendborg (Hecht, et al. 1984). 
In recent years, the painter Emil Nolde – who lived for most of his life 
in the border area – became the topic of much debate after it became 
increasingly clear that he, in opposition to the image he had been 
giving his surroundings, was a fanatic Nazi and anti-Semite during the 
period of the Third Reich. Another famous German-Danish example is the 
cross-border writer Siegfried Lenz who in his novel The German Lesson 
(1968), among others, portrays a character with clear similarities with 
Nolde, depicting his old image before the recent revelations (Bak, et 
al. 2009; Schlosser 2011). The cultural transfer can also be traced on a 
concrete level in the borderland where a number of lingual phenomena 
have emerged, e.g. Sydslesvigdansk, which is a sort of dialect and 
variation of the Danish language (standard Danish) characterised by a 
number of variations from the German language. There are variations in 
vocabulary, phonetics and grammar (Christophersen 1996). In addition, 
there can be observed other dialects and lingual creations which can be 
traced back to the cultural and lingual meeting between Denmark and 
Germany. Specifically for Flensburg and its surroundings the so called 
Petuh can be mentioned. It is a mixt language of the regionally spoken 
languages German, Low German, standard Danish and South-jutlandish. The 
last received its name after the year card (”partout-billet”) for 
salon-ferries, which sailed on the fjord of Flensburg between Denmark 
and Germany (Christiansen 2003).
By meeting across cultures and experiencing the differences of the 
respective other and discovering cultural common denominators, 
relations, solidarity and social cohesion can be strengthened. For this 
reason, several concrete projects in the region take departure in the 
cultural meeting between Denmark and Germany. Through several years, 
cultural meetings based on music have enjoyed the interest of the 
population in the borderland; for instance common church services in 
Danish and German and evenings with bilingual common singing. The 
cultural and musical landscape of the borderland even reached 
Christiansborg, where the former minister for culture, Bertel Haarder, 
in 2016 expressed thoughts about a fusion of the slesvig-holstensk 
symphonic orchestra (Schleswig-Holsteinisches Sinfonieorchester) with 
the symphonic orchestra of Southern Jutland – though with thoughts on 
saving in the back of the head (Heltoft & Benner 2016).
Another bridge across the border was built within the media: The big 
German broadcasting houses ZDF and ARD have among others discovered the 
interest of Germans for and their fascination of the crime genre Nordic 
Noir and Danish film culture. Since, there has been made several 
cooperation appointments regarding the crime genre and entertainment 
series. In addition, film productions, in these years, also receive 
economic from a bilateral cooperation appointment between FFHSH 
(Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein) and DFI (Dansk Filminstitut) 
with the aim of deepen the relations between North German and Danish 
film producers (SH-Landtag 2018).
On a more general level, there are also economic relations and 
cooperations, which were establish over time. The new border from 1920 
resulted among others in a flourishing border trade (”grænsehandel”) 
where after the war Germans buyed butter and dairy products in Denmark 
and Danes today buy sweets, soda and beer in large amounts.
In this issue of Akademisk kvarter the centenary of the reunification is 
used as an occasion for an interdisciplinary view on the historical 
event itself and the discourses which revolved around it. We invite for 
studies of the borderland as well as studies on Danish-German cultural 
exchange more generally. Contributions from the established border 
studies, history, museology, Europe studies, literary studies and 
philologies within the field of Danish-German cultural transfer, film 
and media studies and other disciplines are invited. Contributions by 
MSC scholars are welcome. Departing by the Southern Jutland 
reunification, the following topics can be included:
•	The Danish-German referendum, e.g. in the context of other referenda 
in Europe
•	Cultural exchange / cultural interactions before and after 1920
•	Danis-German relations and the reunification in literature, art and film
•	The minorities reflections on their own past
•	The notion of minority, the intercultural meeting in the borderland 
and border culture
•	Cooperations across the border aiming at strengthening culture and 
community across the border •	Economic relations between Denmark and 
Germany which were established or deepened after 1920

Timetable The first step is to submit a brief abstract in English or 
Danish of about 150 words to be mailed to Liza Pank ((pank /at/ cgs.aau.dk)) no 
later than January 15, 2019. The editors will then review the abstracts 
and notify the authors of their decisions soon after. Accepted articles 
– using the Chicago System Style Sheet 
(www.akademiskkvarter.hum.aau.dk/pdf/AK_word_template.docx) – should be 
e-mailed to Liza Pank ((pank /at/ cgs.aau.dk)) no later than March 15, 2019. 
Articles will then be reviewed anonymously in a double, blind peer 
review process. The articles should be around 15,000- 25,000 keystrokes 
(3,000-3,500 words), and they can be written in English or in the 
Danish. Assuming that the articles are accepted by the peer reviewers 
and the editors, they should be revised, and the final version sent in 
by June 15, 2020. The issue is projected to be published in August 2020. 
Academic Quarter is authorized by the Danish bibliometrical system, and 
the journal is subsidized by Danish Council for Independent Research 
Culture and Communication.

Submission of abstract
January 15th 2019
Submission of article (review)
March 15th 2020
Final article
June 15th 2020
Publication
August 2020




References
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Bak, Aase and Gitte Ørskou (ed.). 2009. Emil Nolde og Danmark / Emil 
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Http://www.documentarchiv.de/wr/vv03.html#AnlageVIII



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