ABSTRACT
The movement for German unity and freedom became increasingly involved with the Schleswig-Holstein question. In the Middle Ages the Danish kings set about building a large empire. At times they ruled England and parts of northern Germany and other Baltic countries. The Danish kings who came from Oldenburg were at first surrounded by German nobles, soldiers, officials and clergy. The Reformation helped the spread of High German, which was used in Danish churches and schools by German Lutheran clergy and supplanted Low German, previously predominant among the people. The Frisian tongue was especially hard hit because there was no Frisian version of the Bible, and so church services were held in German. History had welded them together and given them, along with an almost national consciousness, the feeling that they formed a bridge between Germany and Denmark. The Danish conservatives wanted to keep all territories together under the Danish crown, but were prepared to grant the Germans certain special rights.
