#first schleswig war

[illustratus]

Danish Soldiers Return to Copenhagen, 1849 by Otto Bache

[i12bent]

Eiler Rasmussen Eilersen (March 1, 1827 - 1912) was a Danish painter who studied at the Royal Academy in the late 1840s and early 1850s, with a stint in the First Schleswig War in between. He went on to be a very popular, but somewhat conservative landscape painter.

Above: St. Canute's Church in Odense, no year - oil on canvas (Pirvately owned)

[goodoldtimesesthetique]

First Schleswig War (1848 - 1852) in art.

[pattern-53-enfield]

“Okay Google, find me a source on First and Second Schleswig War reenacting groups in the United States”

[beardless-thundergod]

General Frederik Adolf Schleppegrell ved Isted 25 juli 1850

by Otto Bache (1896) 

25 July 1850: Battle of Isted, First Schleswig War. 26 800 Germans were defeated by 37 000 Danish soldiers(including Swedish and Norwegian volunteers). The largest battle ever fought on Nordic soil.

[forever-revered-forever-feared]

First Schleswig War

The First Schleswig War was military conflict between The Kingdom of Denmark and German nationalists from Holstein with their allies The Kingdom of Prussia. From 1848-1851 the two nations and rebel forces dueled over the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. 

The conflict began on the death of Christian VIII of Denmark in 1848. Being that his only legitimate son Fredrick the VII was unable to produce heirs the central Danish government passed legislation delegating the throne to a female relative of Christian VIII.This act was seen as illegal to many of the citizens of Schleswig-Holstein as they recognized only the House of Oldenburg as their ducal family, and they did not recognize the incoming House of Scheswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg as the legitimate successors. 

Nationalist feelings of the day in Denmark where that the Duchy of Schlewig should remain part of Denmark as the region contained large numbers of ethnic Danes. However the predominantly German population of Holstein believed that the two Duchies where interlinked and could not be separated.  On March 21 1848 demonstrations took place in Copenhagen in which citizens demanded a liberal constitution for Denmark. In Kiel the political center of Holstein, German nationalists fighting for the unification of Schlewig-Holstein claimed not to know what was going on in Copenhagen, and thus declared a provisional government. The declaration was seen as an act of rebellion to the Danish Government.  

Holstein nationalists began arming themselves by storming local Danish forts. Prussia a continental power of the time and the leading German state recognized the legitimacy of the Holstein rebellion and mobilized to support the rebel forces and counter the Danish efforts to split the Duchies apart. Hostilities continued for 3 consecutive years.

The London Protocol of 1851 established peace. The terms of this peace where that both Duchies enter a personal union with the King of Denmark and their succession laws be altered to recognize King Fredrick the VII’s infertility and thus recognize the need for a change in royal House's. 

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Schleswig_War

http://navalhistory.dk/English/History/1848_1864/TheWars1848_50.htm

http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1850/07/21.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_VIII_of_Denmark

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_VIII_of_Denmark

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_VIII_of_Denmark

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_IX_of_Denmark

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Gl%C3%BCcksburg

[doktorphil]

Otto Bache: Soldaternes hjemkomst til København, 1849 (Danish Soldiers return to Copenhagen, 1849), 1894