DENMARK AND GERMANY

Denmark has always had a tricky relationship with Germany. Or, more precisely, with the various German-speaking states. Since although Denmark has been a country in its own right for more than 1000 years, Germany has only existed since the second half of the nineteenth century.

In the Middle Ages, German was the lingua franca of the Baltic, encouraged by trade and the dominance of the (Lübeck-based) Hanseatic League. Under one weak Danish king, the country was effectively mortgaged to the Counts of Holstein. The Oldenburg family later became kings of Denmark, and German was the court language in both Denmark/Norway and Sweden. Senior advisers were often ethnic Germans. The King of Denmark also came to hold the Duchies of Schleswig-Holstein in personam, and often spent more of his time in the duchies than in his kingdom.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, nation states became ever more important and powerful, and there was less and less room for an independent duchy. The so-called "Schleswig-Holstein" question was complicated, but essentially boiled down to whether the duchies should be part of Germany or part of Denmark. Bismark eventually decided the issue by force; and the Danes' catastrophic defeat by Prussia in 1864, and the consequent loss of the duchies, created huge anti-German resentment.

The defeat, and Denmark's subsequent absence from European realpolitik for the next 70 years (including the First World War), are widely held to be the makings of the country. It turned inward, and underwent a quiet revolution in both economic development and social cohesion. However, antagonism towards Germany did not die, and increased after the Nazis' occupation of the country for most of the Second World War.

That antagonism remains today. Germany is Denmark's biggest export market, and Denmark is highly dependant on German tourists, who flock to its windy west coast or sail across the Baltic to the southern islands. Yet the German mark/euro is not appreciated. German is taught in most secondary schools as a second foreign language after English, and knowledge of German is often a requirement for Danish jobs; but Danes don't like speaking it. The Danish minority in Schleswig-Holstein retains a disproportionate affection in national affairs. Most importantly, Denmark has a little-known EU opt-out which allows it to ban the sale of summer houses to other EU (read German) citizens.

The background to all of this musing was a very good film on television this evening called Flammen og Citronen (the Flame and the Lemon), the codenames for two members of the Danish resistance movement during the Second World War. Denmark's role under the Nazis has always been a bit of a taboo subject. After capitulating within hours in 1940, the country was "occupied" for the rest of the war (it was never "conquered"). Various parts of the population were undoubtedly sympathetic to the Nazis; and although there was a resistance movement, it was not particularly effective. Most people seem to have accepted the realities, and got on quietly with their lives.

Given anti-German tendencies, this makes Danes uncomfortable; why was there not more resistance? As such, the whole Second World War era is, in contrast to (say) the U.K., pretty well absent from Danish life. A good comparison is with Vichy France, another country that was occupied by, and got along with, the Nazi regime.

As with Vichy, it has taken Danes a long time to explore through culture a difficult part of their past. Flammen og Citronen is a welcome step forward.

Walter Blotscher