1814

This year will have a lot of anniversaries for Denmark, not least the psychological one of 1864 (see a later post). But today is a special one for a small minority of people; 200 years ago today, Denmark emancipated its Jews.

Legal emancipation didn't necessarily mean practical emancipation; Jews probably still suffered hassles of one kind or another, some petty, some not so petty. Nevertheless, it marked a major step forward for a people for whom official discrimination was a fact of life in many European countries.

Walter Blotscher