Kiel declaration

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The "Declaration of the State Government of Schleswig-Holstein on the position of the Danish minority" (so-called Kiel Declaration ) was made on September 26, 1949 by the Schleswig-Holstein State Government under the then SPD Prime Minister Bruno Diekmann (1897-1982).

It was preceded by lengthy negotiations between the state government and representatives of the Danish minority in the Schleswig region ( southern Schleswig ), which had grown significantly after the end of the Second World War , and was chaired by a representative of the British military government . In Denmark as well as in circles of the Danish minority, calls for a revision of the German-Danish border established in 1920 arose after 1945 , as well as the desire to remove the large number of German refugees from the eastern regions and political and cultural participation rights.

The key point of the Kiel declaration, which the Schleswig-Holstein state parliament approved with only two votes against from the CDU , is the principle of confession : “Confession to Danish nationality and culture is free. It may not be disputed or checked ex officio ”. This principle of confession was incorporated into the Schleswig-Holstein state statute (constitution) of December 13, 1949.

It is declared that the rights and freedoms of all citizens, which were shortly previously laid down in the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany of May 23, 1949, also apply to members of the Danish minority. In addition, the free use of the Danish language is guaranteed, the establishment of their own schools and kindergartens by the minority, their participation in the committees at the level of the municipalities, districts and the country, access to public services, the maintenance of religious, cultural and professional contacts to neighboring Denmark as well as some other cultural rights.

A "mutual agreement committee" was set up to settle disputes, which was supposed to consist of three representatives each from the Danish minority and three representatives from the state of Schleswig-Holstein.

Finally, the Kiel Declaration states “The principles set out here also apply mutatis mutandis to the Frisian population in Schleswig-Holstein”.

In the preamble, the state government expressed the specific "expectation that the Danish government will grant and guarantee the same rights and freedoms to the German minority in Denmark". At the urging of the representatives of the German minority in North Schleswig, a corresponding “declaration by the Danish Prime Minister Hans Hedtoft to representatives of the main board of the Federation of German North Schleswig in Copenhagen” took place on October 27, 1949 (so-called Copenhagen note).

The disputed minority issues in the Schleswig border region could only be finally settled with the 1955 Bonn-Copenhagen Minority Declarations. In Schleswig-Holstein there were protracted disputes, particularly because of the parliamentary representation of the Danish minority in the state parliament (exemption from the threshold clause) and the state subsidies for the minority schools.

literature

  • Eberhard Jäckel : The Schleswig question since 1945. Documents on the legal status of minorities on both sides of the German-Danish border , Metzner, Frankfurt am Main 1959 (Documents / Research Center for International Law and Foreign Public Law of the University of Hamburg; Institute for International Law at the University of Kiel ; Institute for International Law at the University of Göttingen, Volume 29).
  • Reimer Hansen et al. a .: Minorities in the German-Danish border area , State Center for Political Education Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel 1993 (Contemporary Issues, Volume 69), ISBN 3-88312-043-X , esp. p. 228 ff.
  • Martin Höffken: The "Kiel Declaration" of September 26, 1949 and the "Bonn-Copenhagen Declaration" of March 29, 1955 in the mirror of German and Danish newspapers. Government declarations on the legal position of the Danish minority in Schleswig-Holstein in public discussion , Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1994 (Kieler Werkstücke, Series A, Volume 13), ISBN 3-631-48148-9 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Law and Ordinance Gazette Schleswig-Holstein, Jg. 1949, p. 183ff.