Denmark and
Germany are full members of
NATO and of the
European Union. The border between the countries, which lies in the
Schleswig region, has changed several times through history, the present border was determined by
referendums in 1920. The
Danish-German border area has been named as a positive example for other border regions. Substantial minority populations live on both sides of the border, and cross-border cooperation activities are frequently initiated.
History
Second Schleswig War

The Second Schleswig War was the second military conflict as a result of the
Schleswig-Holstein Question. It began on 1 February 1864, when Prussian forces crossed the border into Schleswig.
Denmark fought
Prussia and
Austria. Like the
First Schleswig War (1848–51), it was fought for control of the duchies because of succession disputes concerning the duchies of Holstein and Lauenburg when the Danish king died without an heir acceptable to the
German Confederation. Decisive controversy arose due to the passing of the
November Constitution
The history of Schleswig-Holstein consists of the corpus of facts since the pre-history times until the modern establishing of the Schleswig-Holstein state.
Early history
The Jutland Peninsula is a peninsula in Northern Europe with modern-day ...
, which brought the Duchy of Schleswig closer to the kingdom of Denmark in violation of the
London Protocol, after the German Confederation had rejected the previous state constitution (''Helstatsforfatning'').
The war ended on 30 October 1864, when the
Treaty of Vienna caused Denmark's cession of the Duchies of Schleswig, Holstein, and
Saxe-Lauenburg to
Prussia and
Austria. The war resulted in a German victory.
End of World War I
Denmark, despite having remained neutral all throughout
World War I, still ended up involved in the negotiations following the defeat of Germany, due to US President
Woodrow Wilson's
Fourteen Points listing the different people of Europe's right to self-determination amongst its principles, and the substantial Danish minority living in the
Southern Jutland/Northern Schleswig area. Eventually, it was decided that the question of national affiliation for the people living in the area would be settled through a democratic election.
In accordance with negotiations, the Southern Jutland/Northern Schleswig area was split into three different zones. After an agreement between the Danish government, who declared they had no real interest in the third, southernmost zone, and the British prime-minister
Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party (United Kingdom), Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for lea ...
, who wanted to give Germany some minor concessions in the peace treaty, it was decided that no election was to take place there, while elections were to take place in the two other zones.
The elections could not be arranged until the
Treaty of Versailles became effective in January 1920, but following that it was decided that elections were to take place in the first, northernmost zone on 10 February, and the second, middle zone on 14 March. In the outcome of the first zone election, about 75 percent of the votes favored a reunification with Denmark, while in the second zone about 80 percent of the votes were in favor of staying affiliated with Germany. Further negotiations between the Danish and the German governments settled on Denmark getting the area of
Tønder, despite it formally being a part of the second zone, while the
Flensborg area was to remain on German hands. On 15 June the Southern Jutland area was formally returned to Danish control.
World War II
Operation Weserübung was the code name for
Germany's assault on
Denmark and
Norway during the
Second World War and the opening operation of the
Norwegian Campaign. The name comes from the
German for Operation Weser-Exercise, the
Weser being a German river.
In the early morning of 9 April 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway, ostensibly as a preventive maneuver against a planned, and openly discussed,
Franco
Franco may refer to:
Name
* Franco (name)
* Francisco Franco (1892–1975), Spanish general and dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975
* Franco Luambo (1938–1989), Congolese musician, the "Grand Maître"
Prefix
* Franco, a prefix used when ...
-
British occupation of both these countries. After the invasions, envoys of the Germans informed the governments of Denmark and Norway that the ''
Wehrmacht'' had come to protect the countries'
neutrality
Neutral or neutrality may refer to:
Mathematics and natural science Biology
* Neutral organisms, in ecology, those that obey the unified neutral theory of biodiversity
Chemistry and physics
* Neutralization (chemistry), a chemical reaction ...
against Franco-British aggression. Significant differences in
geography, location and
climate between the two countries, however, made the actual military operations very dissimilar.
Strategically, Denmark's importance to Germany was as a staging area for operations in Norway, and of course as a border nation to Germany which would have to be controlled in some way. Given Denmark's position in relation to the
Baltic Sea the country was also important for the control of naval and shipping access to major German and Soviet harbours.
Small and relatively flat, the country was ideal territory for German army operations, and Denmark's small army had little hope. Nevertheless, in the early morning hours, a few Danish troops engaged the German army, suffering losses of 16 dead and 20 wounded. The Germans lost an unknown number of casualties, with 12
armoured cars and several motorcycles and cars destroyed. Four German tanks were damaged. One German bomber was also damaged. Two German soldiers were temporarily captured by the Danes during the brief fighting.
[Gert Laursen]
The German occupation of Denmark
At 04:00 on 9 April 1940, the German ambassador to Denmark,
Renthe-Fink, called the Danish Foreign Minister
Munch and requested a meeting with him. When the two men met 20 minutes later, Renthe-Fink declared that German troops were at that moment moving in to occupy Denmark to protect the country from Franco-British attack. The German ambassador demanded that Danish resistance cease immediately and contact be made between Danish authorities and the German armed forces. If the demands were not met, the Luftwaffe would bomb the capital, Copenhagen.

As the German demands were communicated, the first German advances had already been made, with forces landing by ferry in
Gedser at 04:15 and moving north. German Fallschirmjäger units had made unopposed landings and taken two airfields at Aalborg, the
Storstrøm Bridge as well as the fortress of
Masnedø.
At 04:20 local time, 1,000 German infantrymen landed in Copenhagen harbour from the minelayer , quickly capturing the Danish garrison at
the Citadel without encountering resistance. From the harbour, the Germans moved towards
Amalienborg Palace to capture the Danish royal family. By the time the invasion forces arrived at the king's residence, the
King's Royal Guard had been alerted and other reinforcements were on their way to the palace. The first German attack on Amalienborg was repulsed, giving
Christian X and his ministers time to confer with the Danish Army chief
General Prior. As the discussions were ongoing, several formations of Heinkel He 111 and
Dornier Do 17 bombers roared over the city dropping the
OPROP!
OPROP! ( in correct 1940-Danish; ) was a German airborne propaganda leaflet dropped over several Danish cities at the German invasion of Denmark on 9 April 1940. The leaflets were signed by the head of Operation Weserübung Süd, General Leonh ...
leaflets. Faced with the explicit threat of the
Luftwaffe bombing the civilian population of Copenhagen, and only General Prior in favour of continuing to fight, King Christian X and the entire Danish government capitulated at 08:34 in exchange for retaining political independence in domestic matters.
At 05:45, two squadrons of German Bf 110s attacked
Værløse
Værløse () is a town in Furesø Municipality in the northwestern outskirts of Copenhagen, Denmark. As of 1 January 2022, it has a population of 13,069. Situated on the west side of the Hillerød Motorway, between Farum Lake to the north and S ...
airfield on
Zealand and wiped out the Danish Army Air Service by
strafing. Despite Danish
anti-aircraft
Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...
fire, the German fighters destroyed 11 Danish aircraft and seriously damaged another 14.
The invasion of Denmark lasted less than six hours and was the shortest military campaign conducted by the Germans during the war. The rapid Danish capitulation resulted in the uniquely lenient
Occupation of Denmark, particularly until the summer of 1943, and in postponing the arrest and
deportation of Danish
Jews until nearly all of them were
warned and on their way to refuge in Sweden. In the end, 477 Danish Jews were deported, and 70 of them lost their lives, out of a pre-war total of Jews and half-Jews at a little over 8,000.
Contemporary
Both
Germany and Denmark are members of the European Union and NATO. Denmark has an embassy in
Berlin, as well as a consulate general in
Flensburg
Flensburg (; Danish, Low Saxon: ''Flensborg''; North Frisian: ''Flansborj''; South Jutlandic: ''Flensborre'') is an independent town (''kreisfreie Stadt'') in the north of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Flensburg is the centre of the ...
and one in
Hamburg. Germany maintains an embassy in Copenhagen as well as a network of honorary consulates around Denmark. The
Bonn-Copenhagen declarations of 1955 establishes mutual recognition of the minorities on both side of the border, assures full civil rights and the right to establish schools teaching in the minority language. Additionally, the Danish Ministry of Education (Undervisningsministeret) cooperated with the Bundes state of Baden-Württemberg's ministry of education, Kultusministerium, to develop and carry out an exchange programme between gymnasium students in both countries. The official name of the programme is "Deutsch-Dänisches grenzenübergreifendes Schüleraustauschprogramm für die Entwicklung und den Beibehalt, essentieller kultureller Verständigung und prägenden Erfahrungen". The first exchange was officially carried out in April 2016 in the city of Mosbach, Baden-Württemberg. The second official exchange took place in Odense, Denmark, in May, followed by a third, but not final, successful visit in August 2016. Even though the programme is officially over, plans have been made for a comeback before the end of 2016.
Border control
In the context of the
European migrant crisis, Denmark has been maintaining temporary
border control
Border control refers to measures taken by governments to monitor and regulate the movement of people, animals, and goods across land, air, and maritime borders. While border control is typically associated with international borders, it a ...
on the Danish-German border since 4 January 2016, which has been repeatedly extended. As of April 2019, slightly more than 10 million people have been stopped, of which 7599 have been turned away. As of October 2018, 801 weapons have been confiscated and 5479 charges of, among other things, human trafficking and drug smuggling, have been brought. The police have been releasin
weekly tallies of individuals checked, individuals denied entry and individuals charged with human trafficking.
Resident diplomatic missions
* Denmark has an embassy in
Berlin and consulates-general in
Flensburg
Flensburg (; Danish, Low Saxon: ''Flensborg''; North Frisian: ''Flansborj''; South Jutlandic: ''Flensborre'') is an independent town (''kreisfreie Stadt'') in the north of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Flensburg is the centre of the ...
,
Hamburg and
Munich.
* Germany has an embassy in
Copenhagen.
File:Nordic embassies Berlin (July 2008) 1.jpg, Embassy of Denmark in Berlin
File:Entrance of Portland Towers.jpg, Embassy of Germany in Copenhagen
See also
*
Operation Dunhammer
Operation Dunhammer (Danish for ''Operation Typha'') was an internal investigation conducted by the Danish Defence Intelligence Service (, FE) which concluded the agency cooperated with the American National Security Agency to wiretap senior pol ...
*
German Parliamentary Committee investigation of the NSA spying scandal
References
External links
Danish general consulate in Flensburg (in Danish and German only) Danish general consulate in Hamburg (in Danish and German only)Danish general consulate in Munich (in Danish and German only)*
ttp://www.kopenhagen.diplo.de/Vertretung/kopenhagen/de/Startseite.html German embassy in Copenhagen (in Danish and German only)Bonn-Copenhagen Declarations
{{DEFAULTSORT:Denmark-Germany relations
Germany
Bilateral relations of Germany