Why did Denmark gain land after WW1 despite being neutral? (Short Animated Documentary)

Denmark didn't get involved in World War One. Despite this, after Germany's defeat, Denmark was given northern Schleswig. So why? Why did a nation that did nothing get free land from a defeated foe?

A special thanks to all of these Patrons below, without whom the show wouldn't be possible:

Dave Brondsema
Michael Kram
Hasmuffin
Franco La Bruna
Ethan
Seth
Don Bonnigan
abdelrahman Sayeh
Azlow the Lion
Ian Whitcomb
Spencer W
John
Matthew Literovich
JakeBak0905
Ryan Schindeler
Southside Mitch
Ray Charles Barkley
Jane Sumpter
Philip Yip
Andy McGehee
Shauna K
Balancewheel
Sean D.
imperialgerman
Shion
Piotr Wojnowski
sharpie660
Samantha O'Leary
DocOzz13 .
Tom Ebert
Aaron Conaway
Ariel David Moya Sequeira
Joooooshhhhhh
Joshua Rackstraw
Shakira Graham
Phoenix Fats
Joshua Schneider
Christopher Godfrey
Andrea Dekrout
S. Marisol Asselta
Steven Gibson
Mario Peshev
Travis Mount
Windischgraetz
Erik Hare
ConspiracyPizza
Tony Belmonte
Porkmeister
Baste
Barry
Jack Nelson
Phillip Gathright
Vance Christiaanse
Josh J
Alex Teplyakov
Arthur Hosey Jr.
Ron Johnson
Nicholas Menghini
Dr. Schtnizel
Emily Sissell
Jamie van Brewen
Jack Wicks
Andreas Mosand
Paul Munro
BeninPrince51
Andrew F
Dana Spurgeon
Roman Kynčl
Thomas McGraw
Sethars
Zhao Liu
MGS2600
Contdoko12
Shawn Morse
Colonel Oneill
Allen Rines
zockotron
Zach Rust
D. Mahlik
Michael Galloway
Nick Macarius
Wesley Helgeson
Matthew Toles
Chris Winther
Liam Gilleece
Angel Aguiñaga
Tim Lane
Katie Flinn
Bradley Backoff
Andrew Patane
John Garcia
Tactical_Jackal
Historian22B.C
Chase Labiste
Carl Blanton
Sahni
HelloAgain
Tiffany Twisted
Bernice
Ivaer
Mickey Landen
Snowdon
Vilena5
Clayton Schuman
Brian George
Tim Stone
Matthew Maguire
Michael Myers
Matt Reed
Victor Gomez
Keith A. Layton
Harley Raptopoulos
Leena Al-Souki
Dullis
William Adderholdt
Anthony McCann
Chris Weisel
Wilhelm Screamer
KNSTRKTVST
Matthew O'Connor
Imperial Pony
Ciege Engine
blaZzinG_FurY
Theodosius the Elder
Bodo Nuber
JAY ALAN EDELMAN
Robert Woodward
Geoffrey Sparrow
Toshnika
ARandomPaperClip
TH
Magdalena Reinberg-Leibel
Juan Castillo
Bartosz Zasada
Justin Short
Aaron Larrow
Curt Helmerich
Steve Bonds
george tyler
Joseph Reinsch
Ahmed Roshdi
C. C. C.
Steven Mastronardo
Alex Slepak
Andrew Niedbala
BattleGoat Studios
Fabrizio Zagonel
Greyceful
Perry Gagne
Random Insanity
Jason Gould
Łukasz Burchard
Raymond He
ThePalestRose
Thomas McGill
Joseph Hutchins
David van Reyk
No way
Dexter_McAaron
Bren Ehnebuske
bas mensink
Tim Stumbaugh
Ken Warner
Ryan Marinelli
Liquid Chief
B Dryad
Abhijeeth
Warren Rudkin
Oliver Jenner
Christian Vasquez Leon
Ned Burke
Tim Sweeney
Bernardo Cavalcanti
Stefan Møller
Daniel Orrego Melis
Ali Sadighian
Jonny Minogue
Hexapuma
Blue Cardinal
Joel Cromwell
Ian Smith
Vegard Tønnessen
Adam Rabung
Yared Cristiano
luvrhino
Ryan Lowe
Nathan Ngumi
Clay Carroll
Yosef Waysman
James
Alen
Burt Clothier
Daniel D.
Colm Byrne
Romney Manassa
Andrey Listochkin
Sterling Archer
Gordon Wilson
Mars Project
kevinh
Tino
Melissa Prober
Peter Marino
Benjamin Bowring
Emily D
Rob Rollins
anon
Joker 54
Joseph Kerckhoff
Robin!
Alexander Liu
Ryan Krug
Zach Weakland
Richard Wolfe
James R DeVries
Mark Ploegstra
Alex G.
Brian Giordano
Ryan Haber
David Spellmeyer
Yuichiro Kakutani
SketerK
Kevin Phoenix
Aiden Chappell
Justin Pratt
SirAlpaka
nullptr
Robert Brockway
Juan Benet
Michael Dierker
Wolf
Manny F
Eric Askins
Azul Bravestrong
LambOfLeg
Ball State
Jeffrey Schneider
Pat Stahl
Matthew Bakke
Michael Wagner
Thomas Wang
Mik Scheper
William Clark
Zachary Oertel
Anthony Uk
Phil and Lisa Toland
John Orr
Charles Doolittle
John Gross-Whitaker
mohd
Tristan Kreller
Emily Glover-Wilson
Mirza Ahmed
Franklin Sousa
Joshua A Bishop
George Caponera
Dustin Koellhoffer
Mr. Awesome
Roko Lisica
Peter A Titov
Danny Anstess
Casey Frye
Shoenin
Nathan Snyder
Kinfe85
Miky Hidalgo Morriss
I'm Not In The Description
Rita Cragwall
Seth Reeves
Dr. Sarno
Dr. Howard Dr. Fine Dr. Howard
Peter Konieczny
FRANK A COBBINA
Ellen Teapot
Dan Reiher
Now Seibert
Tyler Jenkins
Mark Littlehale
Douglas MacLean
אורי פרקש
Will Sullivan
Heytun
Gregory Priebe
Sophie Winter
Igor Stavchanskiy
Colm Boyle
Jesse Plung
Chasen Le Hara
Lech Duraj
Isabel Harrison
Riley davidson
Andrew Sever
Sean Long
Serius_Loyola
LAMAR DANIEL-KELLY
Chach
JT96
Adrian Marine
Tailsdoll
Käs
Donald Weaver
Lindorien
Paul McGee
Abdallah Al-Ammari
João Santos
Daniel O'Reilly
Stefano Deiana
Deadlock
Markus Lindström
Gezza The Random Reviewer
Michael Corson
Erik Carlsson
Olaf
Kasi
M Scho
Schwarzer Hai
Tarsirrus
Laura Jeal
Ben L
Rhys Little
James
Graham Law
Farquhar Ramshackle
Jackarice26
Harrison Tatem-Wyatt
Twinny Hill
Gina Service
Roberticus1992
zemnmez
DarkLycan
KingKyumber
James Ling
Phil Johnston
Tom Pollard
George Gremo

[georgetaylor]

Countries refusing land that is pretty much given to them by force isn't something we see very often in history

[Bonderoev]

As a side-note; Denmark was offered southern Schleswig again by the allies after WW2, but it was decided that the referendum from 1920 would remain valid.

[genericyoutubeaccount]

“The Schleswig-Holstein question is so complicated, only three men in Europe have ever understood it. One was Prince Albert, who is dead. The second was a German professor who became mad. I am the third and I have forgotten all about it.” - Lord Palmerston

[catfishblues]

I know it can seem a bit like Denmark got the land out of the blue, but it’s important to note that the Danish minority in Germany indirectly “fought” for it. 30.000 danes were conscripted to the German army. If they refused, they would have to flee to Denmark, effectively giving their land up to German settlers, thus making it more and more unlikely that the annexed territory would ever return to Denmark. The conscripted Danes would therefore often choose to fight, so their ancestral home wouldn’t be lost.

My family was one such family. My great grandmother lost five of her six brothers in a year and a half, they were used like cannon fodder. Southern Jutland was returned to Denmark, but imagine what trauma like this can do to a people. Out of the 30.000 conscripted Danes, 7.000 were killed in action, and many more were mentally and physically wounded. Losing a generation of men like this affects the region in ways to this day.

[cedrarion]

Denmark refusing to annex more territory despite being pressured to has got to be the most mature diplomatic action taken by any nation at Versailles

[eisbergsyndrom]

> stays neutral during the whole war
> walks into peace conference
> asks for northern Schleswig
> is offered the whole peninsula
> refuses to expand further
> leaves

[sovietunion]

the paper board at 1:39 with denmarks proposed borders encircling berlin was the funniest joke to ever come out of this channel for me

[TheMANffs]

I'am a dane living in that region and my grandmother lost 1 uncle and his son fighting for germany. Her own father survived the war and its a good story.
Before going to france to fight for the germans his mother sew a Dannebrog(the danish flag) in the chest side of his jacket. When he was hiding in a shell hole on the front, he would only peek his head up to see if there was germans or french around. When the french made a big attack and the germans fell back, he surrende to the french and when he was taking back to be a prisoner. He revealed to a officer his Flag under his jacket, He was put in a danish prisoner camp and sailed to england where he spent the rest of the war.
Many danish men were forced to fight for the germans and many never came back.

[AmericaeDominaturOmnibus]

I love how Denmark asked for a certain amount of land, and Britain just says, "TAKE. MORE. "

[knw]

Fun fact: In the London-conference during the Second Schleswig War, Bismarck offered Denmark to cede land to almost the same point where the border is today

[rasbl]

I live in the South of Denmark, and the first thing that came to my mind was that a boarder further South, would be a bit annoying, especially when I have to go across to shop cheap beer 🤣

[davidmargarita]

Fun fact: Northern Schleswig was the only German territory in Europe taken by the treaty of Versailles that Germany wouldn’t re-annex during WW2

[nbewarwe]

Denmark: "Hey, can I have Schleswig back now that you've beaten Germany?"
France: "HOW DARE YOU!!"
Denmark: "B-but it's our ancestral lands?"
France: "I know, you should be ASKING FOR MORE!"

[milanmach]

Denmark was not the only one not wanting a piece of Germany/Austria. Edvard Beneš negotiating on behalf of Czechoslovakia didn't want parts of Sudetenland because of the Germans living there threating the 'Czechness' of the country down the road, so similar to the Danish reasoning. That was even the reason to have the Slovaks in the state in the first place, to have more non-Germans. But he didn't have enough support at home to resist the French pressure to take those lands.

Of course twenty years later, Sudetenland was overwhelmingly skewing towards the Nazis, so Beneš (now president of Czechoslovakia) wanted to give a part (cca 8000 km2) to Hitler provided many more Germans were moved from Bohemia to Germany as well (accomplishing what he wanted in Versailles). This was secretly communicated to the French via Czech minister Nečas (the so-called Nečas mission/Fifth Plan) two weeks before the Munich Agreement. This was high treason on the part of Beneš since border issues were the domain of the parliament, not the president. Which is why he vehemently denied any of this until his death. We only know about it firsthand because of surviving Beneš's handwritten orders to Nečas that the minister didn't destroy afterwards. It also caused a huge rift in the French government, because several ministers wanted to publish the plan so as not to look like France was abandoning its allies (France and Czechoslovakia had a long-lasting military cooperation, unlike Britain that had no formal allegiance to Czechoslovakia). President Daladier however acquiesced to Beneš's wish of keeping it a secret.

Unfortunately, when the Allies conveyed it to Hitler, he smelled weakness and pressed for even territory, which led to the Munich Agreement or as we Czechs call it, the Munich Betrayal. But the fact we were also betrayed by our own president is hardly known.

[dylanjulian]

1:47 "make sure Germany could never wage war on such a scale ever again"

Well that didn't work out very well now did it

[rhodesiansneverdie]

"The Danish government refused to annex these lands" caught me off guard

[Johnysimus]

I am sincerely surprised there isn't a british comedy sketch starring probably Stenen Fry or Rowan Atkinson where Danish representatives ask for a piece of land and English and French representative decline, because they want to give them more.
Seriously, this is absolutely classic material.

[AnaIvanovicever]

Lord Palmerston once said: "Only three people have ever really understood the Schleswig-Holstein business – the Prince Consort, who is dead – a German professor, who has gone mad, – and James Bisonette."

[RenneVangr]

England and France: "Take more!"
Denmark: "No thank you."
England and France: "Take moar, you idiot!"
Denmark: "Okay, we will let the people decide with a referendum."
England and France: **heavy sighing**

[nbewarwe]

"King Frederick was childless and did the only thing that childless kings aren't supposed to do: He died"

I know it's been said a billion times in every comment section, but this channel's educational black comedy is always on point.