Troels Fink

Troels Fink

Troels Marstrand Trier Fink (born April 18, 1912 in Aabenraa ; † October 26, 1999 ibid) was a Danish historian and diplomat.

Life and activity

Fink was a son of the architect Jep Fink and his wife Esther.

After attending school, which he graduated from high school in 1930, Fink studied history at the University of Copenhagen . In 1941 he received his doctorate from the University of Aarhus for Dr. phil.

At the end of the 1930s, Fink came into the sights of the police forces of National Socialist Germany, who classified him as an important target because of his involvement in the "Jens Dons" case: In the spring of 1940, the Reich Security Main Office in Berlin put him on the special wanted list GB , a directory of People who were considered particularly dangerous or important by the Nazi surveillance apparatus, which is why they should be located and arrested by special SS commandos following the occupation forces in the event of a successful invasion and occupation of the British Isles by the Wehrmacht.

In 1942 Fink got a position as a lecturer at Aarhus University . In 1946 he was promoted to assistant professor in order to finally teach as a full professor at this university from 1950 to 1959. From 1949 to 1958 he was also head of the School of Journalism in Aarhus. He also worked on the examination board at the Department of History at the University of Odense, where he also gave lectures.

On April 26, 1945, shortly before the end of the Second World War, Fink's house in Aarhus was blown up by the Secret State Police, where he barely escaped with his life. This was in retaliation for the destruction of the Gestapo headquarters in Jutland - which was located in the Aarhus University building - by a British bombing raid carried out on the basis of information broadcast by university staff to London.

From 1946 to 1959 Fink acted as an advisor to the Danish Foreign Ministry on issues relating to the German-Danish relationship, especially with regard to the coexistence of the population of both countries in the respective border regions, especially in southern Schleswig. In this context, he dealt with the coexistence of the southern Danish and northern German provinces, as well as Danish minority populations in areas belonging to the Federal Republic and German minority populations in areas belonging to Denmark. In this capacity, Fink was instrumental in the creation of the Bonn-Copenhagen Declaration on the two ethnic groups of March 29, 1955.

In 1959 Fink was sent to Flensburg as the royal Danish consul general . He remained in this post until 1976.

Fink then served for three years, from 1976 to 1979, as director of the Institut for Graenseregionsforskning Abenra (Institute for Research on Frontier Regions in Aabenraa) , which was founded on April 1, 1976 .

For his scientific work and for his services to his homeland and to the German-Danish understanding, Fink u. a. honored with the following awards: The Great Cross of Merit of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (1969), Culture Prize of the City of Kiel (1971), the University Medal of the Christiana Albertina in Kiel (April 18, 1982) and an honorary doctorate from the University of Odense (19. September 1986). He was also a member of the Royal Danish Society for History (1952) and a Knight of the Dannebrog Order.

His commitment to Sønderjyske Danish society.

Fink was buried in the Mariebjerg cemetery in Gentofte.

Fonts

• The Enclosure-Movement in the Duchy of Schleswig , 19431.
• Udskiftningen i Sønderjylland indtil 1770 , 1941.
• Short History of Schleswig , 1943.
• Rids af Sonderjyllands Historie , 1946.
• Sonderjylland siden Genforeningen i 1920 , 1955.
• Schleswig since 1920 , 1955.
• History of the Schleswig border region , København 1958.
• Problems of Danish Neutrality 1905-09 , 1959.
• Spillet om dansk neutralitet , 1959.
• Ustabil balance , 1961.
• Danish Foreign Policy 1894-1905 , 1961.
• Da Sønderjylland blev delt , 3 vols., 1978–1979.
• Estruptidens politiske historie , 2 vol., Odense Universitetsforlag, Odense 1986.
• Båndene bandt: forbindelsen over Kongeåen 1864-1914 , Institut for grænseregionsforskning, Åbenrå 1999.
• Forhandlingerne mellem Denmark and Tyskland in 1955 om de Slesvigske Mindretal , Selskabet for Udgivelse af Kilder til Dansk Historie, København 2001.

literature

Entries in reference works :

• Who's who in Germany , 1972, p. 356.

Fink honoring commemorative publications :

• Helge Larsen / Roar Skovmand: Festskrift til Troels Fink , Universitetsforlag, 1982.

Essays:

• Henrik Becker-Christensen: historian - diplomat - initiator. On the 100th birthday of Troels Fink . In: Grenzfriedenshefte, Vol. 59, 2012, Issue 2, pp. 113–116 ( online ).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Entry on Fink in the special wanted list GB (reproduced on the website of the Imperial War Museum in London)
2. ↑ Hans Peter Johannsen: Seven Schleswig Decades. Books, Encounters, Letters , 1978, p. 100, speak of a "Gestapo bomb attack" on Fink's house.