4^^ ANNUAL iREPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1915. 



agreed to submit final decision on the question of nationality to pop- 

 ular vote. The provisions of the clause dealing with the referendum, 

 however, were not carried out, and on January 12, 1867, Schleswig 

 was definitely annexed by Prussia.^ 



Incorporation of the Danish Province was followed by systematic 

 attempts to Germanize the population- through the agency of 

 churches and schools. In addition, a number of colonization soci- 

 eties, such as the "Ansiedelungs Verein fiir das westliche Nord- 

 schleswig," founded at Kodding in 1891,^ and the " Deutsche Verein 

 fiir das nordliche Schleswig," were formed to introduce German 

 ownership of land in Danish districts. The final years of the nine- 

 teenth century in particular constituted a period of strained feeling 

 between Danes and Germans, owing to unsettled conditions brought 

 about by duality of language and tradition. 



At present the problem of Schleswig is considered settled by the 

 German Government. A treaty signed on January 11, 1907, between 

 the cabinets of Berlin and Copenhagen defined the status of the 

 inhabitants of the annexed duchy. The problem of the " Heimat- 

 lose," or citizens without a. country,* was solved by recognition 

 of the right of choice of nationality on their part. The German 

 Government considered this measure as satisfying the aspirations 

 of its subjects of Danish birth. Nevertheless, the acquiescence of 

 Danes living in Germany to any solution other than the adoption 

 of linguistic boundaries as frontiers between Denmark and Ger- 

 many remains doubtful. The standpoint of speech gives evidence 

 of the thoroughly Danish character of northern Schleswig. The 

 southern part of this Province, together with the whole of Holstein, 

 is undoubtedly German. 



6. THE ITALO-GERMAN BOUNDARY. 



The southern boundary of Germanic speech abuts against Italian 

 from Switzerland ^ to the Carinthian Hills. Along this contact zone 

 a notable intrusion of the Romanic tongue within the Austrian 

 political line is observable in the Tyrol. This foreign area lacks 

 homogeneity, however, for it is Italian proper in western Tyrol and 

 Ladin in its eastern extension. 



lA later treaty signed by Austria and Prussia at Vienna on Oct. 11, 1878, suppressed 

 the referendum clause, which had never been viewed with favor by the German Gov- 

 ernment. 



- M. R. Waultrin, Le rapprochement dano-allemand et la question du Schleswig. Auu. 

 Sci. polit., May 1.5 and .Tuly 15. 1903. 



3 L. Gasselin, La Question du Schleswig-Holstein, Rousseau, Paris, 1909. 



* L. Gasselin, loc. cit., p. 206. 



^ Blocher u. Garraux, Die deut. Ortsnamenformen in Westschweiz. Deut. Erde, 5, 1906, 

 p. 170. 



