Jørgen Kühl*
Sustainable Peace and Cooperation in Borderlands: The Danish–German Bonn–Copenhagen Declarations 1955–2005
I. Introduction In , the Kingdom of Denmark and the Federal Republic of Germany celebrated the th anniversary of the so-called Bonn–Copenhagen Declarations on the status and rights of the national minorities in the Danish–German border region. The declara- tions were made public on March by the Federal German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, notifying the rights of the Danish community holding German citizenship in the state of Schleswig-Holstein (the Bonn Declaration), and by the Danish Prime Minister Hans Christian Hansen, notifying the rights of the German community hold- ing Danish passports in the southern part of Jutland (the Copenhagen Declaration).1 Germany did not notify the status of the German community in Denmark or vice versa. The th anniversary of the declarations was celebrated at the official state level, by regional and local actors, and by the minorities concerned. Denmark and Germany issued identical postal stamps celebrating the anniversary.2 Numerous popular events and conferences took place. In the summer of , some young people from minorities and majorities from all over Europe met in the border region at a summer course called ‘Cultures in Dialogue’, focusing on the minority declarations and their European significance.3 A special anniversary exhibition was produced by the Danish
* Director & Head of Department, Department of Border Region Studies, University of Southern Denmark (presently on leave). The declarations are documented in an English translation in Jørgen Kühl and Marc Weller (eds.), Minority Policy in Action: The Bonn–Copenhagen Declarations in a European Context – (Department of Border Region Studies/University of Southern Denmark, Aabenraa, Flensburg, ). See
European Yearbook of Minority Issues Vol 5, 2005/6, ISBN 978 90 04 16146 7, 117-140. © 2007 Koninklijke Brill NV. Printed in the Netherlands. Jørgen Kühl museum in Sønderborg and travelled to several destinations in Germany and Denmark.4 Scholarly books and articles were produced in Danish, German and English.5 Both the Danish and German ministries of foreign affairs designed special websites on the Internet devoted to the anniversary.6 On March , the Danish and German heads of government met at a summit in the historic Sønderborg Castle to celebrate the anniversary together with invited guests, including representatives of both minorities concerned.7 In May , the Schleswig-Holstein parliament (the Landtag) invited the deputy speaker of the Danish parliament as the first non-member of the parliament to address the members of the Landtag on the declarations.8 Several other events took place in both countries during , including meetings, innumerable lectures and a popular festival.9 Thus, the Bonn–Copenhagen Declarations triggered significant interest not only in Denmark and Germany but also abroad. For instance, several foreign ambassadors and representatives from embassies attended the conference held in the Danish parlia- ment in Copenhagen. The declarations have often been described as the symbol of the Danish–German minority model because they, at least retrospectively, demarcate the decisive event in the resolution of the majority–minority conflict found in the Danish– German border region.10 This was not the general view back in , when the minori- ties were still sceptical and even somewhat dissatisfied with the immediate outcome of the implementation process of the declarations. Consequently, the significance of the declarations only became evident when viewed in a long-term perspective. Actually, the positive interpretation and the narrative of the Bonn–Copenhagen Declarations
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