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Second War of Schleswig |
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The factual accuracy of this article is disputed. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page. (March 2008) |
| Second Schleswig War | |||||||||
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| Part of the wars of German unification | |||||||||
 The Battle of Dybbøl by Jørgen Valentin Sonne, 1871 |
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 German Confederation |
 Denmark |
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| Commanders | |||||||||
| Friedrich Graf von Wrangel | Christian Julius De Meza replaced by George Daniel Gerlach on February 29 |
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| Strength | |||||||||
| At the outbreak of war: 61,000 158 guns Later reinforcements: 20,000 64 guns[1] |
38,000 100+ guns[2] |
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| 1,700+ killed, wounded, or captured | 1,570+ killed, 700+ wounded, 3,550+ captured | ||||||||
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The Second Schleswig War (Danish: 2. Slesvigske Krig; German: Zweiter Schleswig-Holsteinischer Krieg) was the second military conflict due to the Schleswig-Holstein Question. The war began on February 1, 1864 when Prussian forces crossed the border into Schleswig. The war ended on October 30, 1864 with the Treaty of Vienna (1864) causing Denmark's cession of the Duchies of Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg to Prussian and Austrian administration, respectively.
Other names by which the war is known include the Danish-Prussian War, the German-Danish War (German: Deutsch-Dänischer Krieg), the Prusso-Danish War, the War of 1864, and the Schleswig-Holstein War of Succession.
The war took place in 1864 between Denmark on the one side and Prussia and Austria on the other side. Like the First Schleswig War (1848–51), it was fought for control of the duchies because of succession disputes concerning the duchies of Holstein and Lauenburg when the Danish king died without an heir acceptable to the German Confederation. Decisive controversy arose due to the passing of the November Constitution, which integrated the Duchy of Schleswig into the Danish kingdom in violation of the London Protocol.
Reasons for the war were the ethnic controversy in Schleswig and the co-existence of conflicting political systems within the Danish unitary state.
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The secessionist movement from Denmark of the large German majority in Holstein and Southern Schleswig was suppressed in the First Schleswig War (1848–51), but the movement continued throughout the 1850s and 1860s, as Denmark attempted to integrate the Duchy of Schleswig into the Danish kingdom and proponents of the German unification expressed the wish to include the two Danish-ruled duchies Holstein and Schleswig in a 'Greater Germany'. Holstein was a part of the German Confederation and before 1806 a German fief and completely German, whereas Schleswig was a Danish fief and linguistically mixed between German, Danish, and North Frisian. Originally Schleswig was homeland of the Angles and Jutes, when, in the Viking Age, Denmark tried to increase its influence, which was finally rejected by the Holy Roman Empire after several wars with Denmark. However, the northern and middle parts of Schleswig (up to the Eckernförde Bay) originally spoke Danish. But in modern times the language in the southern half shifted gradually to German. In parts of the west coast of Schleswig the population spoke one of the North Frisian dialects. Holstein stayed completely German.
German culture dominated in the clergy and nobility, while Danish had a lower social status. For centuries, when the rule of the king was absolute, these conditions had created few tensions. When ideas of democracy spread and national currents emerged ca. 1820, identification was mixed between Danish and German.
To that was added a grievance about tolls charged by Denmark on shipping passing through the Danish Straits to pass between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. To avoid that expense, Prussia planned the Kiel Canal, which could not be built as long as Denmark ruled Holstein.
Much of the dispute focused on the future successor of King Frederick VII of Denmark. In general terms, the Germans of Holstein and Schleswig supported the House of Augustenburg, a cadet branch of the Danish royal family, but the average Dane considered them too German and preferred the rival Glücksburg branch and Prince Christian of Glücksburg as the new sovereign. Prince Christian had served on the Danish side in the First Schleswig War in 1848-1851. At the time the king of Denmark was also duke of the duchies of Holstein and Schleswig. In 1848 Denmark had received its first free constitution and at the same time (and partly as a consequence) had fought a civil war with the Germans of Schleswig-Holstein in which Prussia had intervened.
Part of the peace treaty stipulated that the duchy of Schleswig should not be treated any differently than the duchy of Holstein in its relations with the Kingdom of Denmark. But during the revisions of the 1848 constitution in the late 1850s and early 1860s Holstein refused to acknowledge the revision, bringing a crisis in which the parliament in Copenhagen ratified the revision but Holstein did not. That was a clear breach of the 1851 peace treaty and delivered Prussia and the German union with a casus belli against Denmark.
The adoption of the Constitution of Denmark in 1849 complicated matters further as many Danes wished for the new democratic constitution to apply for all Danes, including in the Danes in Schleswig. The constitutions of Holstein and Schleswig were dominated by the Estates system, giving more power to the most affluent members of society, with the result that both Schleswig and Holstein were politically dominated by a predominantly German class of landowners. Thus more systems of government co-existed within the same state: democracy in Denmark, and absolutism in Schleswig and Holstein.
The three units were governed by one cabinet, consisting of liberal ministers of Denmark who urged for economical and social reforms, and conservative ministers of the Holstein nobility who opposed political reform. This caused a deadlock for practical lawmaking. Moreover, Danish opponents of this so-called Unitary State (Helstaten) feared that Holstein's presence in the government and, at the same time, membership of the German Confederation would lead to increased German interference with Schleswig, or even into purely Danish affairs.
In Copenhagen, the Palace and most of the administration supported a strict adherence to the status quo. Same applied to foreign powers such as Great Britain, France and Russia, who would not accept a weakened Denmark in favour of Germany, nor that Prussia acquired Holstein with the important naval harbour of Kiel or controlled the entrance to the Baltic.
In 1858 the German Confederation deposed the 'union constitution' of the Danish monarchy, concerning Holstein and Lauenburg which were members of the Confederation. The two duchies were henceforth without any constitution, whereas the 'union constitution' would still apply to Schleswig and Denmark proper.
As the heirless King Frederick VII grew older, Denmark's successive National-Liberal cabinets became increasingly focused on maintaining control of Schleswig following the king's future death.
The king died in 1863 at a particularly critical time; the work on the November Constitution for the joint affairs of Denmark and Schleswig had just been completed with the draft awaiting his signature.
The newly appointed King Christian IX felt compelled to sign the draft constitution on November 18, 1863, although expressing grave concerns in the process.
This action caused an outrage among the duchies' German population and a resolution was passed by the German Confederation at the initiative of the Prussian Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck. This resolution called for the occupation of Holstein by Confederate forces. The Danish government abandoned Holstein and pulled the Danish Army back to the border between Schleswig and Holstein. Most of it fortified itself behind the Danevirke. This order to retreat without combat caused adverse comment among some Danish private soldiers,[1] but the military circumstances made it wise to shorten the frontier needed to be defended. Also, as the administrations of Holstein and Lauenburg were members of the German Confederation, not pulling back might have caused a severe political crisis and perhaps war.
There were so-called "flank positions" (near Æbeltoft (North), the fortified city of Fredericia (center), and Dybbøl in the south) designed to support the strategy of defending the peninsula of Jutland along the North-South axis using naval supremacy at sea to move the army North-South and hence trap the invading army in futile marches between these flank positions, denying the (assumed superior) invader the chance of forcing the defending army to a decisive battle, and giving the defending army the opportunity to swiftly mass and counter-attack weak enemy positions, besieging forces, or divided forces by shifting weight by sea transport. The political dimension of this strategy was to draw out the war and hence give time and opportunity for the "great powers" to intervene diplomatically and (it was assumed) such an intervention would always be to the advantage of (neutral) Denmark.
This strategy had been highly successful in the previous "3 years war" (1848-1851).
Unrealistic expectations of the potency of the Danish army and incompetence at the political level had overruled the command of the army's wishes to defend Jutland according to the above plan and had instead favoured a frontal defense of Jutland on or near the historical defense (and legendary border) line at the Danevirke (near the city of Schleswig in the south).
Hence resources had been put into the Danevirke line and not into the flank positions, which stayed more battlefield fortifications than modern fortifications capable of withstanding a modern bombardment.
The problem with the Danevirke line was that perhaps the Danevirke line was relatively strong against a frontal assault, but the entire position could be easily encircled to the west as well as to the east (though with more difficulties). And hence a defense along the Dannevirke line was, correctly, anticipated by the Danish high command to be a trap, in which the Danish army would be surrounded and forced to give battle at hopeless odds.
When the Prusso-German army approached the "Danevirke line", the estuaries and marshes which had been planned to support the flanks of the Danevirke were frozen solid in a hard winter and the command of the Danish army disobeyed orders and ordered a full, orderly retreat back north to "the old Dybbøl" and its ill-prepared flank position. There is little doubt that the command of the army did not believe that they could successfully repulse a well-prepared German siege and consequent assault on the Dybbøl position, but instead assumed that the political level would come to sense and let the army be evacuated by sea and then fight the war on the principles of the North-South axis strategy.
But the political level did not appreciate the gravity of the situation, insisting on maintaining military presence in Schleswig and at the same time refused more modest German demands of peace. Hence the army was ordered to defend the Dybbøl position "to the last man", and consequently the siege of Dybbøl began.
The only railways in 1864 in Denmark north of the Kongeå were a railway on Sjælland from Copenhagen to Korsør, and a railway in north Jutland from Århus to the northwest. Any reinforcements for the Danevirke from Copenhagen would have gone by rail to Korsør and thence by ship to Flensburg, taking 2 or 3 days, if not hindered by storm or sea-ice. There was a good railway system in the duchies, but not further north than Flensburg and Husum.
Schleswig town, Flensburg, Sønderborg, and Dybbøl were all connected by a road paved with crushed rock and this was the route the army took. The same road continued from Flensburg to Fredericia and Århus and this was the route later taken by the Prussian army when it invaded Jutland.
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This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (July 2008) |
For further political events, see History of Schleswig-Holstein.
All the inland waters (Eider River, Treene, Schlei, and the marshes east of Husum and around the Rheider Au) that the Danes were relying on as defence to guard the flanks of the Dannevirke, were frozen hard and could be crossed easily.
At the start of the war, the Danish army consisted of about 38,000 men in 4 divisions. The 8th Brigade consisted of the 9th and 20th Regiments (approximately 1600 soldiers each), which consisted mainly of soldiers from the middle and west and north of Jutland. About 36000 men defended the Dannevirke, a job which it was said would have needed 50000 men to do properly. The 1st Regiment had been changed freom a battalion to a regiment in 1 December 1863. [3]
The Prussian army had 37 battalions, 29 squadrons, and 110 guns, amounting to approximately 38,400 men. The Austrian army had 20 battalions, 10 squadrons, and 48 guns consisting of approximately 23,000 men. During the war the Prussian army was further strengthened with 64 guns and 20,000 men. The supreme commander for the Prussian-Austrian army was Field Marshal Friedrich Graf von Wrangel.
When the Danish army returned to Copenhagen after this war, they received no cheering or other public acclaim, unlike on their victorious return to Copenhagen after the First Schleswig War.
In late 1863 King Frederick VII of Denmark died leaving no sons as he was about to sign a controversial new draft constitution for Denmark and the duchies. The resulting dispute over the succession added to the controversy, and precipitated war between Denmark and an alliance of German states when Christian IX became king and signed the draft constitution.
Denmark pulled its army back to the border between Schleswig and Holstein (Holstein was part of the German Confederation). Most of it fortified itself behind the Danevirke. German troops soon occupied Holstein, which was a German federal state.
The Danish army had smaller guns and an older type of rifle. The Prussian army used the Dreyse needle-gun, a breech-loading rifle that could be loaded while the user was lying down. Since the Danes had to load their older muzzle-loading rifles while standing, they were better targets for the Prussians.
On 5 February 1864, after four days of skirmishing in front of the Danevirke, the Danish army, fearing being outflanked by enemy marching over hard-frozen inland waters, abandoned the Danevirke and retreated to the Dybbøl fort and Als island. Germans pursued the retreat through a blizzard. On 18 April the Prussian army stormed and took Dybbøl in heavy fighting, and on 29 July took Als. This was in effect the end of the war, despite a skirmish on 3 July at Lundby south of Ålborg, and the Danish navy stopping two Prussian naval attempts to break Denmark's naval blockade of the area. The Prussian army advanced far into Denmark proper. On 30 October Denmark signed away Schleswig, Holstein, and Lauenburg except for a few small remnants.
In the Prussian forces' first clash of arms since reorganization, their effectiveness proved clear, something the Austrians ignored, to their cost 18 months later in the Austro-Prussian War. Prussia and Austria took over the respective administration of Schleswig and Holstein under the Gastein Convention of August 14, 1865. Cirka 200.0000 danes came under under German rule [5].
The subsequent Peace of Prague, in 1866, confirmed Denmark's cession of the two duchies but promised a plebiscite to decide whether north Schleswig wished to return to Danish rule. This provision was unilaterally set aside by a resolution of Prussia and Austria in 1878.
The Second Schleswig War shocked Denmark out of any idea of using war as a political tool. Danish forces were not involved in war outside their frontiers, until the 1999 NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It became clear that against the might of Germany, Denmark could not assert its survival with own arms; this played a crucial role in the "adjustment policy" and later "Cooperation policy" during the Nazi-German occupation in World War II.
Since Sweden (and Norway) refused to come to Denmark's rescue although the Swedish king promised troops, this put an end to any dreams of political Scandinavism. As a consequence, the pan-Scandinavian movement after this year focused on literature and language, rather than politics.
There is little doubt that the defeat was a traumatising event for Denmark, which lost approximately a quarter of its population and some of the richest parts of the country; but some of the most "ethnically Danish" parts of this "lost land" were returned to Denmark by the Treaty of Versailles.
From a Danish perspective, perhaps the most grievous consequence of the defeat was that thousands of Danes living in the ceded lands were conscripted into the German army in World War I and suffered huge casualties on the Western Front. This is still (though waning in time as the children of the conscripted men are dying out) a cause of resentment among many families in the southern parts of Jutland and the direct reason why a German offer of a joint 100 years anniversary in 1966 was rejected.
In Germany the Battle of Dybbøl and the Second War of Schleswig have largely vanished out of the consciousness of the German public.citation needed
Danish author Herman Bang wrote about the war and its effects on the island of Als in his novel Tine, published in 1889. The book has been translated into many languages, including English, and is considered to be an example of an impressionist novel.
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