ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how Danish museums in the borderlands communicate conflicts of the past, when Danes were attacked by Germans on both military and cultural battlegrounds. It shows how stories of foreign harassment have the potential of being transformed and used in a context of xenophobia. The cultural reference Nordic countries' was first introduced by French intellectuals, with Montesquieu in the lead. The Danish regions bordering on Germany the villages, churchyards and elsewhere in the landscape of Snderjylland have thousands of memorial monuments. In 1898 the Danish Museum of Art and Design in Copenhagen purchased tapestries that were reviewed in Danish periodicals in this field. The Danish press reacted with outrage, as it was seen as being against the nation's interests to support such Germanization activities in South Jutland. The Napoleonic Wars around 1800 led to extensive acts of violence and abuse against a number of small German states, where occupation, destruction and plundering were rampant.
