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South Jutland (Denmark)

Sønderjylland (Danish), Nordschleswig (German)

Chris Kretowicz, 18 May 2001

History of Slesvig (Schleswig)
Use of the Flag
Coat of Arms
Bund deutscher Nordshleswiger party
Proposal of a North Slesvig Flag

See also:

History of Slesvig (Schleswig)

The Counts of Holstein got the Principat of Schleswig in 1386 from the Danish kings. The King of Denmark got both titles in personal union with Denmark after the last Count of Holstein died in 1460. Since this time, Denmark tried to complete the unification, but officially this territories remained in the Holy Roman Empire of German Nations. At the time of the French revolution, Germans started to fight against the making Danish of these territories. In 1848 a German government was constituted, supported by troops of the "Deutschen Bund", but Great Britain and Russia demanded to left S.-H. to Denmark. The troops left again this territories. In 1864, Prussian and Austrian troops conquered S.-H. . The dispute about its future caused the war between Prussia and Austria in 1866. S.-H. became a Prussian province. Northern Schleswig had to be given to Denmark in 1920 (caused by WW I), while southern Schleswig remains to Germany. Both parts of Schleswig have minorities of the other people with special rights. For example: The Danish minority in Germany has a guaranteed seat in Schleswig-Holstein parliament (Südschleswiger Wählerverband). Official HP of Schleswig-Holstein: www.schleswig-holstein.de

The Dannebrog is again in use by the Danish minority. While I was living in Flensburg in 1993, I saw it on several places, like Danish schools or churches. I didn´t see another flag like it was reported here in past.
J. Patrick Fischer, 31 July 2001

I don´t think they have a guaranteed seat, but because SSW is considered a national minority party, the general 5% treshold is waived, which has led to the party continuously having at least one member of the Landtag since 1947.
Ole Andersen, 31 July 2001

Use of the flag

Nordschleswig refers to the German minority in Denmark (Sønderjylland). The German-Danish border was set by the 1920 Plebiscite, resulting in a German population of about 20,000 in Denmark (6-8% of total population of Sønderjylland). The capital is Apenrade. It is part of the Euro-Region Sønderjylland/Schleswig and enjoys broad cultural autonomy. Most of the time the German minority flies national colours of Germany on festive occasions, but, like the case with people just across the border, they too have distinctive flags of their own - as seen often at sporting events. That flag reflects the colors of their arms or emblem (or is it "logo"?).
Chris Kretowicz, 18 May 2001

Coat of Arms

located by Chris Kretowicz, 18 May 2001

Bund deutscher Nordschleswiger

located by Chris Kretowicz, 18 May 2001

The best source of information about everything North Schleswig is:http://www.nordschleswig.dk/links/ The political party of German population, which accomplished the most in fight for minority rights and cultural autonomy, Bund deutscher Nordshleswiger, used to fly white and blue flag with two lions in the
canton.
The other party. which dominates local politics now, Schleswiger Partei - SP - uses as its symbols salt and pepper shakers and it doesn't seems to be appropriated to be put on a flag.
Chris Kretowicz, 18 May 2001

BdN is not a party, but more of an umbrella organisation, encompassing schools, scouts, and other activities vital to keeping a minority culture alive, including a party.
Ole Andersen, 18 May 2001

Proposal of a North Slesvig Flag

image by Tomislav Todorović, 19 Nov 2023
image by Tomislav Todorović, 19 Nov 2023

South Jutland (Danish: Sønderjylland) is the Danish alternate name for North Schleswig, but may also be applied to the whole historic region of Schleswig, as it is completely situated upon the Jutland peninsula. Bearing this in mind, a regional flag was created in 2019 by Peder Kristiansen, a parish priest from Øsby, Denmark. The inspiration for its creation was also drawn from two then-awaited anniversaries: the centenary of the 1920 referendum, which created the present Danish-German border and the 65th anniversary of the Bonn-Copenhagen Declarations of 29 March 1955, which secured cultural rights for the national minorities on both sides of the border; to commemorate the latter, Peder Kristiansen proposed 29 March as the official flag day for the new flag.
The flag design combines elements related to both Denmark and Germany,as well as to the region: voided blue Nordic Cross on a gold field recalls the flag of Denmark, while the shades of blue and gold are borrowed from the flags of Schleswig-Holstein and Germany, respectively; these colours are also the heraldic colours of Schleswig. Regarding the ratio, the intermediate value of 2:3 was chosen between the 28:37 of the flag of Denmark and 3:5 of the flags of Germany and Schleswig-Holstein, but is defined as 14:21, so that the widths of blue portions of the cross and the void between them be 1 and 2, respectively. The plain cross flag is the basic design, but the variant with the two lions of Schleswig in the canton is also envisioned, although its use is still not confirmed by any photos except by Anton Pihl.
Sources: WIKIMEDIA
Anton Pihl´s blog
Anton Pihl´s blog
Der Nordschleswiger website
Tomislav Todorović, 19 Nov 2023

It ís a very clever aspect of this intermediate design of this flag designer was truely inspired! The overall specs can be therefore restated as (5+1+2+1+5):(5+1+2+1+12) = 14:21 = 2:3.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 21 Nov 2023