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Living Next Door to Germany: Denmark and the German Problem

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 October 2006

KARL CHRISTIAN LAMMERS
KARL CHRISTIAN LAMMERS*
Affiliation:
Det Humanistiske Fakultet, Københavns Universitet, Njalsgade 80, 2300 København S, Denmark.
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Abstract

This article analyses Danish relations with the two German states. After 1949 Denmark found itself in a special position as the only West European country that was neighbour to both Germanys, having a land border with the Federal Republic and a sea border and important communications links with the German Democratic Republic. But Denmark recognised only the Federal Republic as the legitimate representative of Germany. Germany had historically constituted a serious problem for Denmark, and even in the after-war period Danish relations with its big neighbour were beset with problems. After 1955, when the minority question was settled and Denmark and the FRG were both members of NATO, relations with West Germany improved. Relations with the GDR were much more troubled because Denmark was to an extent forced to bow to West German interests, but could not ignore the existence of the East German neighbour state.

Type
Research Article
Information
Contemporary European History , Volume 15 , Special Issue 4: The Nordic Countries and the German Question after 1945 , November 2006 , pp. 453 - 472
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2006

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References

1 The term is attributed to Werner Best, the German Reichsbevollmächtigter in Denmark, quoted in Herbert, Ulrich, Best. Biographische Studien über Radikalismus, Weltanschauung und Vernunft 1903–1989 (Bonn: Verlag J.H.W. Dietz Nachfolger, 1996), 329Google Scholar.

2 The most recent account of the German occupation is Christensen, Claus B., Lund, Joachim, Sørensen, Jacob and Olesen, Niels Wium, Danmark besat. Krig og hverdag 1940–45 (Copenhagen: Høst & Søn, 2005)Google Scholar; see also Kirchhoff, Hans, Samarbejde og modstand under besættelsen. En politisk historie (Odense: Odense Universitetsforlag, 2001)Google Scholar.

3 Cf. my recent study ‘Hvad skal vi gøre ved tyskerne bagefter?’ Det dansk-tyske forhold efter 1945 (Copenhagen: Schønberg, 2005), 64 ff.

4 Danmark under den kolde krig. Den sikkerhedspolitiske situation 1945–1991 (Copenhagen: Dansk Institut for internationale studier, 2005), vol. 1, 127–8; Lammers, ‘Hvad skal vi gøre ved tyskerne bagefter?’, 81 ff.

5 Cf. Graml, Hermann, Die Alliierten und die Teilung Deutschlands. Konflikte und Entscheidungen 1941–1948 (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1985), 105 ffGoogle Scholar.

6 For a historical overview see Fink, Troels, Deutschland als Problem Dänemarks. Die geschichtlichen Voraussetzungen der dänischen Aussenpolitik (Flensburg: Christian Wolff Verlag, 1968)Google Scholar.

7 Møller, J. Christmas, Det tyske Problem (Copenhagen: Nyt nordisk forlag Arnold Busk, 1945), 10, 18Google Scholar. All translations are by the author.

8 Cf. Lammers, ‘Hvad skal vi gøre ved tyskerne bagefter?’, 64 ff. The Danish–German relationship after the end of the German occupation, and the Danish peace proposals, had received surprisingly little attention from historians prior to the publication of my study in 2005. It was touched upon briefly by Fink, Deutschland, and later by Petersen, Nikolaj, Denmark and New Germany (Aarhus: Department of Political Science, 1994)Google Scholar. See also Lammers, Karl Christian, ‘Danmark og Tysklandsspørgsmålet. Hovedlinier i dansk Tysklandspolitik fra 1945 til ca. 1973’, in Dethlefsen, H. and Lundbak, H., eds., Fra mellemkrigstid til efterkrigstid (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanums Forlag, 1998)Google Scholar; idem, ‘Denmark's Relations with Germany since 1945’, in Branner, H. and Kelstrup, M., eds., Denmark's Policy towards Europe after 1945 (Odense: Odense Universitetsforlag, 2000)Google Scholar. For a more general treatment see Frandsen, Steen Bo, Dänemark – der kleine Nachbar im Norden. Aspekte der deutsch- dänischen Beziehungen im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1994)Google Scholar. Danish relations with the GDR are analysed in Lammers, Karl Christian, ‘Nachbarschaft und Nicht-Anerkennung. Probleme der Beziehungen zwischen Dänemark und der DDR (1949–1973)’, in Pfeil, Ulrich, ed., Die DDR und der Westen. Transnationale Beziehungen 1949–1989 (Berlin: Ch. Links Verlag, 2001)Google Scholar, and from the East German viewpoint by Friis, Thomas Wegener, Den nye nabo. DDR's forhold til Danmark 1949–1960 (Copenhagen: SFAH, 2001)Google Scholar. See also Friis, Thomas Wegener and Linderoth, Andreas, eds., DDR & Norden. Østtysk-nordiske relationer 1949–1989 (Odense: Syddansk Universitetsforlag, 2005)Google Scholar.

9 Olesen, Thorsten Borring, ‘The Dilemmas of Interdependence: Danish Foreign Policy 1945–1972’, Journal of European Integration History, 7, 2 (2001), 37–63, 38Google Scholar.

10 Memorandum indeholdende Den kgl. Danske Regerings Synspunkter med Hensyn til Tysklands fremtidige Ordning, Udenrigsministeriet, Rigsarkivet Copenhagen (RA) RA UM. 6.G.120.c; extracts in Heurlin, Bertel, Dansk udenrigspolitik efter 1945. Kilder til belysning af Danmarks udenrigspolitiske mål 1945–1970 (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1971), 38–49Google Scholar. The following analysis is based mainly on the archives of the Danish Ministry of Foreign affairs in Copenhagen (Rigsarkivet, hereafter RA UM), but I have also drawn on the archives of the Auswärtiges Amt and the GDR Ministerium für Auswärtige Angelegenheiten, both now housed in the Politisches Archiv, Auswärtiges Amt, Berlin.

11 See the Memorandum.

12 Ibid.

13 Ibid.; see also Lammers, ‘Hvad skal vi gore ved tyskerne bagefter?’, 69.

14 Thus the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gustav Rasmussen, at a meeting of the parliamentary committee for foreign affairs (Udenrigspolitisk Nævn i Folketinget) on 14 May 1947, RA UM, 3.E.92.

15 Quoted from Julius Bomholts Arkiv Esbjerg (F.III.c.1.B – courtesy of Thorsten B. Olesen), Danish quoted in Olesen, T. B. and Villaume, P., I blokopdelingens tegn 1945–1972. Dansk udenrigspolitiks historie (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2005), vol. 5, 56Google Scholar.

16 Cf. Klessmann, Christoph, Die doppelte Staatsgründung. Deutsche Geschichte 1945–1955 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1982), 177 ffGoogle Scholar.

17 Olesen andVillaume, I blokopdelingens tegn, 91–2; Danmark under den kolde krig, vol. 1, 132 ff.

18 Lammers, ‘Hvad skal vi gøre ved tyskerne bagefter?’, 176 ff.

19 Ibid., 96 ff.

20 On Danish–East German relations see Lammers, ‘Nachbarschaft und Nicht-Anerkennung’; Friis, Den nye nabo.

21 Notits P.J. I, 3.1. 1951, RA UM 141.D-1.a.; see also Lammers, ‘Hvad skal vi gore ved tyskerne bagefter?’, 171 ff.

22 See Havredhed, Henrik, Tyske flygtninge I Danmark 1945–1949 (Odense: Odense Universitetsforlag, 1987)Google Scholar; Klatt, Martin, Flygtningene og Sydslesvigs danske bevægelse 1945–1955 (Flensborg: Det danske bibliotek, 2001)Google Scholar.

23 On the minority question see Johan Peter Noack, Det danske mindretal I Sydslesvig 1948–1955 (Aabenraa: Institut for grænseregionsforskning, 1997).

24 Meeting of the Commission for North Schleswig (Sønderjysk Udvalg), 6.1. 1954, RA UM. 7.y.41a.

25 Comment recorded by the German ambassador Wilhelm Nöldeke, 14.2.1951, AA Berlin: Politisches Archiv, B 11, 235; Rigsdagstidende 1950/51, Folketinget cols. 1364 ff.

26 Speech at NATO meeting on 22 Oct. 1955, in Fink, Troels, Forhandlingerne mellem Danmark og Tyskland I 1955 om de slesvigske mindretal (Copenhagen: Selskabet til Udgivelse af Kilder til Dansk Historie, 2001), 80Google Scholar.

27 Reproduced in Fink, Forhandlingerne, 205–6; cf. Noack, Det danske mindretal i Sydslesvig, 438 ff.

28 Ibid., 544; Lammers, ‘Hvad skal vi gøre ved tyskerne bagefter?’, 117 ff.

29 Villaume, Poul, ‘Mulig fjende – nødvendig allieret? Vesttysklands rolle i udformningen af dansk forsvars- og sikkerhedspolitik 1950–1961’, in Due-Nielsen, Carsten, ed., Danmark, Norden og NATO 1948–1962 (Copenhagen: Jurist- og Økonomforbundets Forlag, 1991), 162–3Google Scholar; idem, Allieret med forbehold. Danmark, NATO og den kolde krig: en studie i dansk sikkerhedspolitik 1949–1961 (Copenhagen: Eirene, 1995), 221–3Google Scholar; Danmark under den kolde krig, vol. 1, 161–2; Lammers, ‘Hvad skal vi gøre ved tyskerne bagefter?’, 119 ff.

30 Udenrigsministeriet, Dansk sikkerhedspolitik (Copenhagen: Udenrigsministeriet,1968), vol. I, 57 ff.

31 Rigsdagstidende 1951/52, Folketinget, cols. 64–5; Cf. Danmark under den kolde krig, vol. 1, 161 ff.

32 Cf. Olesen and Villaume, I blokopdelingens tegn, 323 ff.

33 Quoted in Villaume, ‘Mulig fjende’, 157.

34 Cf. Lammers, ‘Hvad skal vi gøre ved tyskerne bagefter?’, 92 ff.

35 As shown by an opinion poll in Ugens Gallup, 7 (1955).

36 Cf. Olesen and Villaume, I blokopdelingens tegn, 329 ff.

37 Scepticism was apparent in Gallup opinion polls on the subject of West Germany in the early 1950s: Ugens Gallup, 2 (1950): fear of a strong Germany is quite outspoken. Opinions began to change in the mid-1950s.

38 Quoted in Lammers, ‘Hvad skal vi gore ved tyskerne bagefter?’, 135.

39 Ibid., 89 ff.

40 Friedrich Buch, Bericht über die Lage in Dänemark, 1963, AA Politisches Archiv Berlin, B 26, 241.

41 Leading article ‘Oprør i Sovjettyskland’, Berlingske Tidende, 18 June 1953.

42 Gray, William Glenn, Germany's Cold War. The Global Campaign to Isolate East Germany, 1949–1969 (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2003)Google Scholar. Gray does not deal explicitly with Denmark.

43 Lammers, ‘Hvad skal vi gøre ved tyskerne bagefter?’, 197 ff.

44 Kilian, Werner, Die Hallstein-Doktrin. Der diplomatische Kreig zwischen der Bundesrepublik und der DDR 1955–1973 (Berlin: Dunker & Humblot, 2001)Google Scholar; Gray, Germany's Cold War, 81 ff.

45 Cf. Olesen and Villaume, I blokopdelingens tegn, 323 ff.

46 Lammers, ‘Nachbarschaft und Nicht-Anerkennung’, 174 ff.

47 Notat Ikke-anerkendelse af ‘den tyske demokratiske republik’, 23.1.1956, RA UM 141.D.1a.

48 AA Ministerium für Auswärtige Angelegenheiten MfAA, Berlin, A 13227, 1959.

49 This is more thoroughly analysed in Lammers, ‘Hvad skal vi gøre ved tyskerne bagefter?’, 174 ff.

50 Figures ibid., note 374, 307.

51 Cf. Ibid., 190 ff.

52 ‘Forholdet mellem Danmark og Østtyskland’, 18.3. 1960, RA UM. 141.D.1b; cf. Lammers, ‘Hvad skal vi gøre ved tyskerne bagefter?’, 194 ff.

53 ‘Forholdet’.

54 Potthoff, Heinrich, Im Schatten der Mauer. Deutschlandpolitik 1961 bis 1990 (Berlin: Propyläen, 1999)Google Scholar; Eibl, Franz, Politik der Bewegung. Gerhard Schröder als Aussenminister 1961–1966 (Munich: Oldenbourg Verlag, 2001)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

55 The Foreign Ministry forbade the flying of the East German national flag and playing of its national anthem: RA UM Cf. Lammers, Karl Christian, ‘Da DBU var på nippet til at anerkende DDR’, in Petersen, Klaus and Sørensen, Nils Arne, eds., Den kolde krig på hjemmefronten (Odense: Odense Universitetsforlag, 2004), 183 ffGoogle Scholar.

56 Lammers, ‘Hvad skal vi gøre ved tyskerne bagefter?’, 210 ff.

57 This is obvious from the sheer volume of relevant files in the Ministry's archives: RA UM 141.D.1.a-b.

58 Adolph Rastén, ‘Det vesttyske reb om dansk politik’, Politiken, 31 May 1966; Kristeligt Dagblad 1966, quoted in Lammers, ‘Hvad skal vi gøre ved tyskerne bagefter?’, 218.

59 Notits, 15.2. 1962, RA UM 141.D.1b.5.

60 Thus Per Hækkerup, the Foreign Minister, in January 1966: RA UM 5.D.29.a.

61 Jens Otto Krag in Aktuelt, 17 June 1969; Hækkerup, speaking in the Folketing on 30 Oct. 1969, Folketingstidende 1969/70, col. 795. Cf. Lammers, ‘Hvad skal vi gøre ved tyskerne bagefter?’, 221 ff.

62 Folketingstidende 1971/72, col. 6818.

63 P.J. I Udkast til brug for statsministeren i Dialog 64, March 1964, RA UM 5.D.29.a; Krag, 18.6.1967, ibid.

64 Poul Hartling, ‘Danmark og Tyskland’, unpublished speech made on 25 March 1971, Ibid..

65 Potthoff, Im Schatten der Mauer, 104 ff.

66 There is no record of internal Danish deliberations with regard to the German question when the Danish government and the Folketing decided to fully recognise the GDR in 1973. The problem, and Danish relations with both German states, are analysed in Lammers, ‘Hvad skal vi gøre ved tyskerne bagefter?’, 237 ff.