The German Question, Part Forty-Six

"German Unification" Part One/B "Wars With Denmark"

I will be covering Otto von Bismarck's rise next, but first I want to finish the "Wars With Denmark." This will require in this article that I skip ahead to the time when Bismarck had already become the Minister President of Prussia. Further, as I noted in the first part of this section, the history of this whole conflict over Schleswig and Holstein is extremely complex, but the "devil is in the details," and try though I might, it is difficult to keep this simple.*

The question of Danish succession still lingered as the childless King Frederick VII grew older. The Danes believed that Schleswig was governed by Danish law and, therefore, Danish succession. The German view remained that any heir had to be male and passed on by the male line, not the female line. Holstein was not really in contention on this matter, as it was a member of the German Confederation, although it was a possession of Denmark (see further below). A complicated set of actions eventually conferred the future crown of Denmark AND Schleswig upon Christian of Glücksburg (who would become King Christian IX), but he was not a direct male heir, as he was related from the female line, and initially he had not been an heir to the throne of any country or province. King Frederick VII, whose childlessness had brought the whole matter to such a fever pitch, approved Christian as his heir. From the point of view of the Danes, the matter was settled.

Not long after the "First Schleswig War" ended, Frederick VII "granted" (decreed is a better word) a constitution that really did little to change his overall power. Later, the Danish assembly (or parliament) passed their own version of a constitution, also covering the Danish provinces outside of Denmark. This was rejected by Prussia and Austria on technicalities, and later also by the entire German Confederation, as the aim of the Germans was to continue to pry the provinces, especially Schleswig, away from any kind of Danish rule. The Danes had the opposite aim; that is, to tie Schleswig, and for some Danish nationalists, even Holstein, more closely to Denmark. There were numerous claims and counter claims during the years, but there was an agreement in London among several of Europe's powers, that Holstein and Lauenburg would have a new line of succession when King Frederick passed on, and not that of Frederick's heir. However, the two provinces would remain as Danish possessions. Schleswig, on the other hand, would be bound by the Danish succession law, but the Danes could not tie the province closer to Denmark than was Holstein.

In 1863, Frederick VII died, bringing Christian to the throne, as King Christian IX. A new Danish constitution awaited the new monarch's signature. The problem was, the constitution stipulated that parliament would govern both Denmark AND Schleswig. While Schleswig would still have its own provincial legislative body, this all amounted to an annexation of Schleswig to Denamrk. This violated the agreement between the various European powers made in London a number of years prior. This king signed on the dotted line. Frederick of Augustenburg ("Augustenborg" in Danish) was to become "Duke Of Holstein." Years earlier, when the contentious issue of Danish succession was being debated, he claimed Schleswig also, but later renounced that claim for a financial settlement. Now, here came Frederick again, claiming title to Schleswig.** In late 1863, the German Confederation, supported by Prussian Minister-President Bismarck, sent troops into Holstein to hold the province until matters were resolved (remember, Holstein was a member of the German Confederation, but a possession of the Danish crown). Bismarck got Austria to agree to resolve the Schleswig issue jointly with Prussia. Bismarck demanded that Denmark rescind its annexation, but that was rejected. Prussian and Austrian troops marched into Schleswig in early 1864. Bismarck's ultimate goal was annexation of the provinces to Prussia, as they were adjacent to Prussia, but Austria would not have participated in the war knowing that fact.

With German public sentiment strongly in favor of Schleswig and Holstein becoming independent of Denmark as a combined entity, Bismarck held the upper hand with fellow German power, Austria, whose leaders were concerned about Prussia's ever escalating power in German affairs, to the detriment of Austria. Overall German public opinion made it impossible for Austria to oppose the "public" Prussian position of independence for the provinces.

The two German powers defeated Denmark, with their forces actually entering Denmark itself. The war ("The Second Schleswig War") was over by August 1864, with a treaty signed in Vienna in October. Denmark renounced claim to the provinces, and it ceded control of the provinces, plus even more territory, to the administration of Austria and Prussia. Denmark lost approximately one million subjects, with as many as two hundred thousand being Danes. With Schleswig and Holstein detached from Denmark, German unification took another step forward. (A Word History is below the notes)

* I think back to my American History class in college, where the instructor (then in the process of earning his doctorate), when he came to the Civil War, was asked why he didn't get into the details of the war. He said it was all too complex, but that he could simplify it in three words, "The South lost." Of course in college, there was a separate class for those interested in just the Civil War.

** Frederick was pro-German, although he had been born in Copenhagen, Denmark. His pro-German position "might" have been taken because the Germans were more than willing to support his claim on Schleswig, an issue very sensitive to Denmark and to the Danish monarchy. Let's see, first he took a payoff to renounce his initial claim from prior years, now he's back renouncing his former "renouncement." You don't think Frederick was after anything or everything he could lay his hands on do you? Na, I can't believe that.

WORD HISTORY:
Throne-This goes back to Indo European "dher," and an alteration "dhrono," which had the notion of "support." The idea of support gave Greek "thronos," meaning "a seat, chair," which seems to have also developed the meaning "elevated seat, seat of honor;" thus, "throne." Latin borrowed the term from Greek as "thronus," which then passed to Latin-based Old French as "trone," and then in the 1200s, English borrowed the word as "throne." Just a note, German also borrowed the word from Old French and modern German has "Thron" (it is masculine; so, "der Thron").