ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the Schleswig minority issue, which characterises the present-day region, and offers an introduction to the historical background of the issue. It demonstrates that how the Schleswig question eventually was solved after the Second World War, and it points out a number of key-elements in reaching minority regulations and building a sustainable peace in the Danish-German borderlands. The chapter discusses whether the Schleswig Experience can be perceived as a European model-case. Germany and the state of Schleswig-Holstein institutionalised the contact to the German kin-minority in Denmark as well. After the First World War, two plebiscites were held in the Northern and Central part of Schleswig in February and March 1920. In 1983, Denmark also established a Liaison Office for the German minority attached to the prime minister's office in Copenhagen. The state legislature of Schleswig-Holstein has appointed a special committee for issues of the German minority in Denmark where funding and education issues are addressed.
