From Conflict to Resolution
The beginning of Danish-German reconciliation
The feelings in Denmark after the German occupation were still strong. The participation of industrial groups from Denmark at conferences at Caux continued in 1951, where they also met many German trade unionists and business men. These informal contacts between Danes and Germans helped to build new relationships.
This was evident at a meeting in Caux. A Danish shop-steward, who had spent several years in concentration camp in Germany, expressed how the spirit he found in Caux had helped him to be free of his deep hatred for Germans. A German business man then got up and said, that he as a German wanted to ask the Danes forgiveness for what the occupation had done to people in Denmark.
During the war he had been a Colonel in the German General Staff and actually helped plan the invasion of Denmark and Norway. When a group of shop-stewards from Copenhagen, who had been to Caux, during the next year arranged a meeting in Copenhagen the German Colonel asked to take part. To more than 5000 people gathered in Copenhagen he said: "I do not ask you to forget what we Germans have done to you, but to forgive". This was reported in the major Danish newspapers.
In 1951the Danish Foreign Minister Ole Bjørn Kraft also came to Caux, where he met German politicians and members of the Federal German government. During the occupation Kraft had been shot by a Nazi agent, but survived. His meeting with the German politicians was a reconciling experience.
The Danish minority issue in Schleswig
At this time a conflict began to evolve around the situation of the Danish minority in Schleswig-Holstein. Schleswig an old Danish dukedom, and borderland between Denmark and Germany with a large German population in its southern part, had been an area of conflict betwen Denmark and Germany for hundreds of years.
In the last century this led to two wars between Denmark and Prussia, and after the Danish defeat in 1864 Schleswig was incorporated into Prussia. The northern part of Schleswig had a mainly Danish speaking population, and in 1920, after the 1st World War, there was a referendum about national adherence. The result was that the northern half of Schleswig was returned to Denmark.
A German minority remained in Denmark and a Danish minority in Germany. The German minority in Denmark, of which many under the occupation had co-operated with the occupation force, formed in 1945 a new organisation, which in November of the same year declared its loyalty to Denmark. After the liberation of Denmark the government of Schleswig-Holstein in a declaration in 1949 assured the Danish population of ordinary democratic rights and civil liberties. In this so-called Kiel declaration, it is also stated that adherence to the Danish national community and Danish culture should be free.
After a change of government in Kiel in 1950, there occurred in spite of the Kiel declaration various instances of discrimination against the Danish minority. This had an unhappy effect on popular and political opinion in Denmark.
The Bonn-Copenhagen declarations on minority rights
In 1955 a new election law in Germany resulted - although not intended - in the Danish minority loosing their seats in the Schleswig-Holstein Parliament in Kiel, and a strong animosity arose in Denmark towards Germany. In an attempt to appease the Chief Minister in Kiel reconfirmed the intentions of the Kiel Declaration, but at the same time also suggested a minority treaty with Denmark, which was immediately rejected by the Danish Foreign Minister.
This was also at the time when Germany applied for NATO membership, and there was a growing demand in Denmark to veto this. In this situation the initiative moved from Kiel to Bonn. The German Chancellor Adenauer invited the Danish Prime Minister H.C.Hansen for a discussion in Bonn about the situation.
This led to a historic agreement on minority rights: The Bonn-Copenhagen declarations of March 1955, in which the Danish and German Governments in two separate, but identical declarations, gave the same cultural, educational and political rights to the two minorities.
An essential factor for Adenauer's initiative was probably a changed attitude in Germany after the last world-war. A new leadership grew up in Germany, more open to co-operation with her neighbours. There was also a deep wish to break with the aggressive nationalism of the past.
The first Danish-German contacts were made in Caux
In 1962 (April 24th,) the Danish national paper Jyllandsposten carried a feature article by the editor Karl Christiansen. He had tried to trace how Danish-German contacts began. "The first Danish-German contact that finally led to the Bonn-Copenhagen Declarations about the minorities in South-Jutland was made in the Moral Re-Armament centre in Caux". Thus begins the article telling about what developed from a meeting in Caux in 1948 between a German politician and a journalist from Copenhagen. In the following years their relationship led to many contacts between Danes and Germans.
Lorenz Rerup, former professor of history and Danish Consul General in Flensburg tells in his book about the border issue, Grænsen, that as an outcome of these contacts, a round-table conference was initiated in Bonn in 1954 with a frank discussion between Danish and German participants, and a draft for a possible agreement about the minorities was prepared. Rerup also notes that this draft "had a previous history that goes as far back as to a meeting in the Moral Re-Armament centre in Caux in 1948", and says that this draft was presented to the Danish Foreign Minister and other Danish politicians, who found it acceptable.
But the question remained: Which country should take the initiative. Meanwhile the tensions in Denmark was rising. A meeting in Hamburg between the German Federal Minister Heinrich Hellwege and the Danish political leader, Ole Bjørn Kraft, in March 1955, played a part in solving this issue.
Informal political contacts also had a part
At the height of the crisis some of us met with Ole Bjørn Kraft at a dinner party in the home of the Copenhagen shipowner, Christian Harhoff. As head of the Conservative party, Kraft was now a leader of the opposition, and he spoke with great concern about this situation. He had just attended an international MRA conference, and had seen evidence of reconciliation between leaders of France, Morocco and Tunisia, which he believed had been a helping factor in a recent agreement between these countries.
"A turning point" Kraft told, "seemed to be the inspiration some of the leaders had got when, in quiet, seeking to find God's way". A journalist present said: "Why not try it in this situation with Germany". After some hesitation there was a time of quiet round the table. It turned out that several had been thinking of the German Cabinet Minister Hellwege, and that a contact between him and Kraft could be of help. Just one phone call that evening and a meeting between Kraft and Hellwege was arranged.
Before leaving, Kraft informed the Danish Foreign Minister about this initiative and got his support. Kraft and Hellwege met in Hamburg and had a comprehensive discussion. Kraft told how deep the feelings were in Denmark. but also expressed that Denmark did not want a formal minority treaty, because there was a fear that such a treaty would give Germany rights in Denmark. "What we want", said Kraft, "is a new understanding; assurances that discrimination will cease. Perhaps simultaneous and independent declarations could be made on both sides". After talking about all the issues involved, the two men had a time of quiet, seeking inspiration from God for steps towards a solution, and Hellwege said: "We Germans, who have wronged Denmark deeply, must take the initiative". Hellwege conveyed this conviction to Adenauer in Bonn. Hellwege told later that he was convinced that this had played a part in Adenauer taking the initiative to invite the Danish Prime Minister to Bonn.
The Bonn declarations were a turning point, concludes Rerup, because both declarations in the preamble expressed the wish that they might contribute "to further a peaceful life between the populations on both side of the Danish-German border, and thereby also further the development of friendly connections between the Danish Kingdom and the German Federal Republic."
Working together for mutual understanding in the world
Minister Hellwege took part in another large meeting, arranged by MRA in Copenhagen in May 1955. He was the first German Cabinet Minister to speak in Denmark after the occupation. Ole Bjørn Kraft introduced Hellwege to the 5000 people gathered in the hall as one of the German Cabinet Ministers who had taken a personal initiative to help make the Danish-German negotiations possible. Hellwege expressed what a moving experience it was for him as a former member of the German occupation force to be speaking here. Referring to the recent Danish-German agreement he said: "Hate has given way for reconciliation. Former enemies are now working together to create mutual understanding in the world."
This is not the end of the story. It is still continuing today. The events I have described in this book, showed me that the individual can actually have a part in shaping the state of his or her surroundings, and possibly even history. What Colonel H.A.V. Hansen once told holds good: life is never boring and it is often exciting when you seek and follow the conviction which comes from listening to your innermost thoughts.
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