Schleswig-Holstein German or Danish: Difference between revisions

With the integration of Schleswig-Holstein into the Prussian state, the question of nationality was raised again and became the reason of much dispute. The language of the educated was German. Since the Reformation an education was a German one. The language of the people is "niedersächsisch" (low German). In the Frisian districts of Schleswig approx. 28,000 speak Frisian, in the north of Schleswig, except in the cities, people speak Plattdänisch (a form of Danish dialect). Here for approx. 110,000 Danish is the language in church and school. (see Staatshandbuch für die Herzogthümer Schleswig-Holstein).In 1832 the Danes ordered Danish to be the judicial and administrative language where it was spoken in churches and taught in schools. In Sønderjylland (Nordschleswig) Danish news papers and libraries and an institution of higher learning (Rödding) were established. In 1840 Danish was the official language. By 1848 the border between the Danish and German languages became that of today’s political border between the countries. In 1867 the “language border" between the German and Danish ran roughly north of Viöl to Joldelund and Oeversee, but the political border lay further north.