 thumb|175px|areas of historic settlements thumb|flensborghus thumb|danevirke museum nÃ¦r schleswig/slesvig thumb|duborg-skolen in flensburg/flensborg thumb|danish after school club in eckernfÃ¶rde/egernfÃ¸rde the danish ethnic minority in southern schleswig, germany, has existed by this name since 1920, when the schleswig plebiscite split german-ruled schleswig into two parts: northern schleswig, with a danish majority and a german minority was united with denmark, while southern schleswig remained a part of germany and had a german majority and danish and frisian minority populations. one of the most common names they use to describe themselves is danske sydslesvigere (danish south schleswigians). denmark has continued to support the minority financially. danish schools and organizations have been run in flensburg since 1920, and since 1926 throughout the greater region. before the adoption of the democratic weimar constitution it was not allowed to teach in another language than german in school (apart from religious education lessons). membership in the danish minority has been fluid since 1920, as objective criteria such as language to distinguish a german schleswigian from a danish are not taken into account. german law prohibits government registration of persons due to their ethnic origins, besides, membership in germany's ethnic minorities is based on self-identification as is generally the universal case with ethnicity. also, the 1955 copenhagen-bonn declarations explicitly state that an individual's membership of the german minority in denmark or the danish minority in germany may not be a matter of scrutiny from the respective governments. also many schleswigians on both sides of the border are of mixed extraction. while after the 1920-plebiscite between 6,000 and 20,000 danes found themselves in southern schleswig mindretal 1920 - 1955, the danish minority 1920 â 1955 (danish), institut for historie, kultur og samfundsbeskrivelse / universitet syddanmarkjÃ¼rgen kÃ¼hl: die dÃ¤nische minderheit in preuÃen und im deutschen reich 1864-1914, i:hans henning hahn og peter kunze (udg.): nationale minderheiten und staatlichen minderheitenpolitk in deutschland im 19. jahrhundert, berlin 1999, side 131. and even more than 12,000 people had voted for denmark in 1920, only about 3,000 were organised in the association by the end of the world war ii. a
Ethnic_groups_in_Germany Ethnic_minorities Flensburg German_people_of_Danish_descent History_of_Denmark Schleswig-Holstein