[a] Denmark fought troops of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Austrian Empire representing the German Confederation. Second Schleswig War - Historic Musings Contents Schleswig was never part of Germany until after the Second Schleswig War in 1864. Supported by the German soldiers and by loyal Holsteiners, Frederick VIII, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein took control of the government of Holstein. Both monuments were buried in a gravel pit. The Prussian army had 37 battalions, 29 squadrons and 110 guns, approximately 38,400 men. A Danish military report dated 11 February 1864 describes incidents near Knigshgel/Kongshj and Vedelspang as follows: On 3 February the Regiment's 1st Battalion occupied the Brigade's forward post line while its 2 Battalion stood as a reserve in Bustrup. The army had to march from the Danevirke to Flensburg, which took about 1418 hours. Any reinforcements for the Danevirke from Copenhagen would have gone by rail to Korsr and thence by ship to Flensburg, taking two or three days, if not hindered by storm or sea-ice. Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg before the war. (Schleswig, Schleswig-Holstein is at the east end of the Danevirke and is 20mi from Flensburg as the crow flies. Outbreak of war The war erupted as a result of the dispute between Prussia and Austria over the administration of Schleswig-Holstein, which the two of them had conquered from Denmark and agreed to jointly occupy at the end of the Second Schleswig War in 1864. As a consequence, the pan-Scandinavian movement after this year focused on literature and language, rather than politics. Many men were missing at the roll call, and it was thought that the many Schleswig men among the soldiers would desert the march on the way and go home; but most of them came in that morning or the next morning. [3] The Prussian armies continued into Denmark proper but withdrew in June; on August 26 representatives of Denmark and Prussia met at Malm, Sweden, and signed a seven-month truce. On 28 November, the German Diet removed the Danish delegate for the duchies of Holstein and Lauenburg pending resolution of the succession issue and the naming of a new delegate from a government recognized by the Diet. [26], The battlefield itself was returned to Denmark in consequence of internationally administered plebiscites following the Treaty of Versailles. The Battle of Dybbl (Danish: Slaget ved Dybbl; German: Erstrmung der Dppeler Schanzen) was the key battle of the Second Schleswig War, fought between Denmark and Prussia. During the battle around 3,600 Danes and 1,200 Prussians were either killed, wounded or missing. [a] Denmark fought troops of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Austrian Empire . Schleswig city, Flensburg, Snderborg, and Dybbl were all connected by a road paved with crushed rock, this being the route the army took. Danish soldiers appear in period uniforms. The protagonist of the movie The Salvation is a veteran of the Second Schleswig War, who emigrates to America. How does history play out if the Kingdom of Denmark joins the union and the Austro-Prussian war does not happen the following year? After the Crimean War, Russia was now a revisionist power out to challenge the European status quo, and any developments likely to change the European power structure were now welcome in St. Fighting began on Feb 1, 1864 and the Austro-Prussian forces quickly overran Holstein but the offensive slowed in Schleswig which had a mixed population but mostly Danish. The Prussian army had 37 battalions, 29 squadrons and 110 guns, approximately 38,400 men. A ceremony of national commemoration is held at Dybbl on 18 April each year. An invasion of Denmark itself had not been part of the original programme of the allies. Danish Military History - Article about the war of 1864. The Second Schleswig War also sometimes known as the Dano-Prussian War or Prusso-Danish War was the second military conflict over the Schleswig-Holstein Question of the nineteenth century. The other members of the German Confederation did not agree, and it was even discussed to declare war on the two great powers. [citation needed] The 2nd and 22nd Regiments lost the most. He urged upon Austria the necessity for a strong policy, so as to settle once and for all not only the question of the duchies but the wider question of the German Confederation; and Austria reluctantly consented to press the war. The peace treaty that had ended the war in 1851 stipulated that the duchy of Schleswig should be treated the same as the duchy of Holstein regarding its relations with the Kingdom of Denmark. 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. [10] Palmerston's speech was in short a bluff. The second war grew out of the first. 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, and contributed to a perception in the German states that Prussia was the only state that could defend the other German states against external aggression. They sent a company to drive away the enemy from Vedelspang, but could not press further on than to towards the north part of the exercise ground. Danish author Herman Bang wrote about the war and its effects on the island of Als in his novel Tine, published in 1889. [13] Danish forces withdrew to the island of Als;[12] the Prussians used the fortifications as a staging point to attack the island in late June the next month. However, the northern and middle parts of Schleswig (up to the Eckernfrde Bay) originally spoke Danish. 25 June: The conference in London broke up without having arrived at any conclusion. [22] Officers were, over the years, further honoured with burial markers at different locations in the fortifications, with exception of Prussian Private Carl Klinke, who was made into a national hero. The three units were governed by one cabinet, comprising liberal Danish ministers, who urged economic and social reforms, and conservative ministers, who opposed political reform. Hence resources had been put into the Danevirke line and not into the flank positions, which stayed akin to battlefield fortifications rather than modern fortifications capable of withstanding a modern bombardment. After Germany's defeat in 1918, the Danish government asked the Allied Powers and the Versailles Conference of 1919 to include a plebiscite in the disputed Schleswig region based on Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points as part of the Allied Powers' peace settlement with Germany, and this request was granted by the Allies. The problem with the Danevirke line was that perhaps it was relatively strong against a frontal assault but leaned on bodies of water or marshes at both ends. 25 April 1864: The Danish army commanded by General, 25 April 1864 - 25 June 1864: A conference in London about the political issues involved. The war began on 1 February 1864, when Prussian and Austrian forces crossed the border into the Danish fief Schleswig. Thus, to suggest that the region did no longer fully belong to Denmark was seen as a great provocation to the Danes' ancestral claim to Schleswig. [6] The Danish frontier had retreated about 250km as measured from the furthest corner of the Duchy of Lauenburg to the new frontier on the Konge river. Great Britain and France had sought to assert their influence over Russias treatment of Poland in the wake of the January Insurrection, but in November the British rejected Napoleon IIIs proposal for a congress to settle the outstanding problems of Europe. The war also shocked Denmark out of any idea of using war as a political tool. this is an alternate history idea inspired by a comment from S I L V A which is about the Danes winning the second Schleswig war. The Stockfleth Company's main position, coming from Vedelspang, had advanced to Kongshi, and Kastede the same distance behind the Danevirke rampart in front of Bustrup. Located on the Jutland Peninsula in northern Europe, the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein had been ruled separately by Danish kings since the 15th century but had been united at various points in their history (notably from 1386 to 1460). it was really interesting to think of a scenario for this sop. The war started after the passing of the November Constitution of 1863, which tied Duchy of Schleswig more closely to the Danish kingdom, which was viewed by the German side as a violation of the London Protocol. On 24 December 1863, Saxon and Hanoverian troops marched into Holstein on behalf of the Confederation (as part as the federal execution, Bundesexekution, against Holstein). Second Schleswig War - Wikiwand The fighting took place in severe winter conditions with frozen rivers and coastal seashore ice. Much of the dispute focused on the heir of King Frederick VII of Denmark. A Danish military report dated 11 February 1864 describes incidents near Knigshgel/Kongshj and Vedelspang as follows: On the 3 February the Regiment's 1st Battalion occupied the Brigade's forward post line while its 2 Battalion stood as a reserve in Bustrup. The railway from the south to Flensburg was never properly used during this evacuation and the Danish army only evacuated what men and horses could carry or pull by road, leaving behind much artillery, most importantly heavy artillery. Denmark never again ruled the Dannevirke. This withdrawal to Als and Dybbl has gone down in Danish history as one of the worst that Danish soldiers have been exposed to. [8] Tsar Alexander II saw the possibility of a stronger Prussia as a way of weakening France. First Schleswig War - Wikipedia In the Battle for Knigshgel (Danish Kongshj) near Selk on 3 February 1864, Austrian forces commanded by General Gondrecourt pushed the Danes back to the Dannevirke. Denmark never again ruled the Dannevirke. British PM Palmerston wanted to intervene supported by . The same applied to foreign powers such as Great Britain, France and Russia, who would not accept a weakened Denmark in favour of Germany, nor a Prussia that had acquired Holstein with the important naval harbour of Kiel or controlled the entrance to the Baltic. When the Prusso-German army approached the "Danevirke line", the estuaries and marshes that had been planned to support the flanks 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 Dybbl" and its ill-prepared flank position. The decision to not settle for the occupation of the German Duchy of Holstein, but to invade Schleswig, was taken by the Prussian and Austrian governments alone. #1. Likewise, the war proved to be a diplomatic setback for the British government, whose attempts to mediate the conflict and deter Prussia were rebuffed.[24]. The objectives of the Danish and German liberals were therefore incompatible, which in 1848 ultimately led to war. French Wikipedia. Category:Battles of the Second Schleswig War - Wikipedia Hence resources had been put into the Danevirke line and not into the flank positions, which stayed akin to battlefield fortifications rather than modern fortifications capable of withstanding a modern bombardment. [10] Palmerston's speech led to exaggerated hopes in Denmark of British intervention should the Schleswig-Holstein question come to war. Petersburg. [24], The Dybbl Mill, which had been destroyed during the 1849 battle on the site, rebuilt, and then destroyed again in 1864, was again rebuilt by its owners who had strong Danish sympathies. The column of men and horses and vehicles seemed endless. Danish Navy History - Account of Danish naval operations during the war of 1864. The march was burdened with artillery guns and supply carts and had to be as slow as its slowest component. [1] Prussia had just entered the war and had sent almost 12,000 troops to Schleswig-Holstein. question is generally called, by historians at least, the Second Schleswig War, in acknowledgment of the fact that Germany and Denmark had fought over the same territory in 1848, during the First Schleswig War (known in Danish as the "Three Years' War" -Trearskrigen). 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 demise. The Danes were commanded by Colonel Max Mller. Duchies in the Danish realm Schleswig and Holstein have at different times belonged in part or completely to either Denmark or Germany, or have been virtually independent of both nations. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. 29 June: The Danish garrison from Dybbl had taken refuge on the island of Als. 4 April: Danes repelled a Prussian attack on Dybbl. Some men in sight of Flensburg and thankful for coming rest were ordered to stop or go back to man checkpoints. Denmark was also forced to surrender the enclaves in western Schleswig that were legally part of Denmark proper and not part of Schleswig, but was allowed to keep the island of r (which had been administered as part of Schleswig), the town of Ribe and its surrounding land, and eight parishes from Tyrstrup Herred south of Kolding. The hope was that, just like the first time around, they would be able to delay the Germans until some Greater Power or other would pressure their opponents to desist. Second Schleswig War | Military Wiki | Fandom Only no Greater Power bit. The 1st Regiment had been changed from a battalion to a regiment on 1 December 1863. The continual mistrust between Washington and London posed constraints on British foreign policy and limited London's options during the Second Schleswig War. 30 June 1864: The Prince's Life Regiment was the last unit of the Danish army to leave Schleswig and Holstein. 0:00 / 1:31 The Second Schleswig War Every Day Version 1.02 13,221 views Jan 28, 2018 In the year 1864 war breaks out between Denmark and the German Confereation which selects the Kingdom of. The Second Schleswig War and the Revival of the Ancient Wall . The Prussians crossed the frozen Schlei at Arnis on 6 February 1864, defeating the Danes there: map. Prussians from beside Dybbl bombarded Snderborg. Much of the dispute focused on the heir of King Frederick VII of Denmark. Omissions? The war drew attention to the nascent Red Cross movement and drew volunteers to the movement.[26]. German culture was dominant among the clergy and nobility, while Danish had a lower social status. Second Schleswig War - Wikidata Prussia and Austria induced the confederation, on November 21, 1863, to refuse observance of the Treaty of London unless Denmark made good on a December 1851 edict to reinstate regional assemblies in the duchies.