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1 CHAPTER ONE Identity in the Borderlands A Conceptual Introduction For many centuries, the duchy of Sleswig constituted a vital link between the German and the Scandinavian world.1 Extending 9,000 square kilometers between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, it dominated the southern portion of Jutland. Whereas the base of this large peninsula merges naturally into the north German plains, its tip points toward the coastlands of western Sweden and southern Norway. Today, the duchy of Sleswig is but a historical memory. Its territory has been divided between the modern nation-states of Denmark and Germany, and even its name has widely disappeared from official use. The southern half forms a component of the German federal state of Schleswig-Holstein, but there are only a few legal and administrative matters in which the specific character of the Sleswig region comes to bear.2 The northern half of the former duchy has reassumed the early designation of Sønderjylland, which is generally translated into English as South Jutland. The Danish national movement considered this designation, which emphasizes the connection with Jutland’s north, more Danish-sounding than a name derived from the now German-speaking city of Schleswig. At first glance, it may seem ironic that the name Sleswig has been kept alive most visibly by the national minorities left behind on both sides of the border . Whereas the German inhabitants of Flensburg and Husum see themselves predominantly as inhabitants of Schleswig-Holstein, the members of the German minority north of the border describe themselves unambiguously as North Sleswigers. And whereas the Danes of South Jutland at most connect the term Sleswig with their own region in a historical context, the Danish-minded population of the southern part of the old duchy has proudly embraced it.3 Upon closer inspection, this seeming paradox becomes less puzzling. After all, it is in these minorities that the old Sleswig identity has survived. By emphasizing that they are not outsiders in a nation-state called Denmark or Germany, but Sleswigers in the historically bicultural Sleswigian realm, these minorities 2 ◆ CHApTEr ONE claim their place as equal and perhaps even more traditional components of regional society. Of Mind and Matter analyzes national identity along the German-Danish border. It highlights the composite and changeable nature of this identity and explores what has motivated local inhabitants to define themselves as Germans or Danes. The analysis focuses especially on national self-identification, because it was self-identification rather than palpable differences in color, creed, or lifestyle that guided the nationalization process. At the same time, this personal decisionmaking did not occur in a political and cultural vacuum. Not even the respective national minorities, among whom the transitional and flexible aspects of Sleswig identity surface most clearly, remained untouched by the tension between subjective and objective markers of nationhood. Unlike a number of significant new studies of European borderlands, the current investigation primarily applies a macrohistoric approach. This choice seemed most fruitful for a subject matter characterized by a dearth of up-to-date English literature. The macrohistoric angle more readily reveals the historical framework within which the process of nationalization took place; if successful, it might inspire microstudies in its wake. In order not to lose sight of the individual experience, however, one chapter focuses exclusively on intellectual life stories. A further chapter puts Sleswig into a comparative context by drawing on related developments in other Central European settings. This comparative angle highlights underlying structures and thus creates a natural transition from empirical analysis to theoretical categorization and interpretation. Finally, I would like to address the use of geographic names in this study. Their politicized nature has complicated the choice of appropriate designations. Outside Sleswig, the study generally introduces bilingual locations with both names and proceeds with the period’s prevalent designation. In so composite a setting as Sleswig, this approach proved elusive; therefore, the names of towns and municipalities are rendered in their current official form. This division could not be upheld in regard to an overarching term such as Sleswig. The Danish designation Sønderjylland not only lacks an unambiguous and generally understood English equivalent, but has undergone a change of meaning as well. Whereas it referred to the entire territory in early medieval time and in the language of nineteenth-century Danish nationalism, it has now been restricted to the northern , Danish section. The term Schleswig, in turn, which is commonly used in English today, corresponds directly to current German usage...

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