Introduction: Between Plebiscites, Difficult History, and Minority Rights

The present book is firmly rooted in the socio-historical context of the Danish–German border region: the historical tensions and conflict between the two nation states, culminating in the post-World War I plebiscites ¹ which established the present border, and life in the ensuing decades, among others, characterized by the presence of a Danish minority in Germany and a German minority in Denmark. The legacy of the above-mentioned prolonged conflict—marked by national antagonism, mutual recriminations, and revisionist initiatives and postulates—has been largely overcome through the bilateral initiatives of the two national governments (with the initial steps taken after World War II, in a favorable geopolitical context, as both sides belonged to the strategic alliance of Western countries); the implementation of complex mechanisms protecting the rights of national minorities on both sides of the border, resulting in the elimination of irredentist aspirations; and the subsequent top-down and bottom-up initiatives contributing to Danish–German reconciliation, symbolized—among other things—by the creation of a cross-border region, Sønderjylland-Schleswig, and the increased cross-border mobility that accompanies it.