Traditional Christmas Message...

Last year my this fine gentleman got in a Traditional Christmas Rant on September 12th. This year I intend to prove him a rank amateur.

Any minute now. Plastic Santas. Bunting. "Seasonal" goods. You can feel it.

They're "gearing up".

Have you bought all your presents yet? Better hurry.

This year, mine will all be wrapped in brown paper and hairy string.

Can you still get hairy string? Will someone please hold onto my sanity until January?

Alsace-Lorraine

Alsace-Lorraine.
See what I did there?


[If you are as gripped by the Schleswig-Holstein question as I and all my readers (I'm afraid Lord Luvaduck's Mrs Trellis has been sojourning in Baluchistan and has been replaced by an animatronic doppelganger), drop me a comment and I'll make sure that the whole boiling is placed somewhere where you can reach it. In doing so you agree that you are part and parcel of the whole copyright infringement, and that you started it.]

The Schleswig- Holstein Question: Part 3

The Napoleonic Wars had awakened German national feeling, and the political bonds that had historically existed between Schleswig and Holstein suggested that the two regions should form a single country within a united Germany. A countermovement developed among the Danish population in northern, or North, Schleswig and from 1838 in Denmark itself, where the Liberals insisted that Schleswig had belonged to Denmark for centuries and that the frontier between Germany and Denmark must be the Eider River (which had historically marked the border between Schleswig and Holstein). The Danish nationalists thus aspired to incorporate Schlweswig into Denmark, in the process detaching it from Holstein. German nationalists conversely sought to confirm Schleswig's association with Holstein, in the process detaching the former from Denmark. These differences led in March 1848 to an open uprising by Schleswig-Holstein's German majority in support of independence from Denmark and close association with the German Confederation. The rising was helped by the military intervention of Prussia, whose army drove Denmark's troops from Schleswig-Holstein. This war between Denmark and Prussia lasted three years (1848 -50) and only ended when the Great Powers pressured Prussia into accepting the London Convention of 1852. Under the terms of this peace agreement, the German Confederation returned Schleswig-Holstein to Denmark. In an agreement with Prussia under the London Protocol of 1852, the Danish government in return undertook not to tie Schleswig more closely to Denmark than to its sister duchy of Holstein.

Down Memory Lane, with Clement Ader

nicked from here

He said it flew. Who are we to argue?

The Schleswig Holstein question. Part 2

In the 12th century Schleswig became a dukedom, and it remained a fief associated (but not without dispute) with Denmark until 1864. Holstein developed somewhat more independently; it was ruled for centuries as a duchy by the kings of Denmark, but, at the same time, remained a fief of the Holy Roman Empire. After 1815 Holstein was incorporated in the newly formed German Federation.

During the 1840s, issues relating to the rights of Schleswig's and Holstein's respective German- and Danish-speaking minorities, to the succession rights of the Danish royal family, and to Denmark's interests in the two duchies resulted in the duchies' becoming a bone of contention between Denmark and Prussia and then among Denmark, Prussia, and Austria. At this time the population of Schleswig was Danish in its northern portion, German in the south, and mixed in the northern towns and centre. The population of Holstein was almost entirely German.

The Schleswig- Holstein Question: Part 1

History.
Schleswig lies directly north of Holstein. Both Schleswig and Holstein have at times been subject to the claims and counterclaims of Denmark, Sweden, the Holy Roman Empire, Prussia, and Austria. The region has had Danish minorities in predominantly German areas and German minorities surrounded by Danes, and consequently its history has been one of border and sovereignty disputes and, more recently, accommodations. A prolonged controversy between Denmark and Prussia over Schleswig-Holstein in the 19th century became known as the Schleswig-Holstein question. The historical region of Schleswig-Holstein was long a part of Denmark, and the northernmost portion of Schleswig in fact still belongs to Denmark.

More soon!

Photos

Some photos of our recent trip to Ireland on Flickr - see right panel.
They don't blow up too well: I think I got a bit over-enthusiastic with the resizing tool.

Hallo world!

Om

goingthroughafallowpatchwithnospaceinmyheadforanynewmat
erialIhopeI'llhavetimetoputupsomeIrelandpicturesverysoo
ngoodbyefornow.

Post for Broomhilda

Picture lifted without permission from
this site. You crossed a continent just to supply a crappy joke? Thanks!