Location: The Danish culture is located in the country of Denmark. Denmark is a part of the European countries, and is located just north of Germany. Denmark is a series of islands and a peninsula. The border between Denmark and Germany is about 42 miles in length.
Religion: The Danish have had the freedom to choose the religion of their choice since the mid-1800. The majority of the Danish have chosen the religious practice of Evangelical Lutheran Church. This is the religion that has been supported by the state as well as the monarchy. Although Lutheran is the most widely practiced religion there, other religions such as Catholicism and Judaism are also practiced.
Education: A minimum of nine years of schooling is required in the Danish culture. Usually the children attending school are between the ages of seven and sixteen. The choice of a tenth year is given to the child, but is not held mandatory. Upon completion of the nine or ten years of school, the child is given three options. The child is able to attend vocational training in their field of interest, they may become an apprentice for a business, or the child may attend a high school where they will begin their training or their prep for college.
College is offered to the child for free, but in order to attend the college the child must pass an entrance examination, which is considered difficult and must be studied for. In fact all of the schooling that is available for the Danish people is free, and is paid for by the public. The Danish also offer schooling for the adults. This education takes place at a Folk High School, which is also free of charge. The adult (anyone over the age of eighteen) is able to take courses concentrating on Danish government, history and literature. In ways this is similar to that of college, because the adult lives and studies at the school, but upon completion of the courses no diplomas or certificates are given to the student.
Language: The official language of the Danish culture is Danish. This is quite similar to that of German, Norwegian, and Icelandic, which was developed during the time of the Vikings (which Danish sailors were apart of). Many of the Danish people have the capability to speak Danish, English and German. Most of those that are not fluent in these languages do have the capability to understand English and German when it is spoken to them.
Economy: Although agriculture uses about two-thirds of the land that is apart of Denmark, it employs a small ratio of people. Up until the late 1800’s wheat was considered the major crop for the Danish. When the prices of wheat began to fall in the late 1800’s and into the early 1900’s the Danish farmers began to concentrate their agriculture more on livestock than in grain production. These were hogs, cattle, milk, eggs, and chickens.
Today in Denmark the average farms are about one hundred acres in size and are apart of cooperation. This means that the equipment that is used on the farm and slaughterhouses used for meat production are shared between farmers. The livestock that is raised on the farms are hogs, dairy cattle and beef cattle. The cattle that are raised by the Danish are noted for their high milk production and the hogs are noted for their decreased amount of body fat.
One of the highest employing venues is the industry that provides a service. These jobs would include banking, transportation, hospitals, hotels, schools and government. These types of jobs employ roughly two-thirds of the Danish public.
History: Interesting highlights of the Danish culture are that some of the Danish sailors participated in the actions of the Vikings in about the year 800. This reign of terror that the Vikings instilled on Europe lasted roughly three hundred years. During this time they were able to defeat England and Danish kings would rule that country for about twenty-nine years.
One of the most noted monarchy members is Queen Margaret. She began her rule in Denmark in 1375 and during this time was married to King Haakon VI ruler of Norway. When King Haakon died in 1380, Queen Margaret was declared the ruler of both Norway and Denmark. Only eight years later, she would be elected the ruler of Sweden also. She was able to unite these three countries into the Union of Kalmar. These countries would continue to be ruled together until Sweden left the union in 1523.
It was in 1848 that King Frederik VII was forced to accept a democratic constitution. In this democratic constitution, the highest form of government would no longer be that of the monarchy, but by people that were elected into a two-house parliament. The monarchy would remain as a part of Danish culture after this; it would just have a different function than being the only rule in the government.
Denmark also played and important role during World War II. With Germany to it’s immediate south, the Danish people formed a secret group known as the Freedom Council that would help hide and free Jews from the German army and to form a resistance movement against the Germans. Because of the compassion and loyalty that the Danes felt for the Jewish community, many Danes were shot, tortured and sent to German prisons.
Though this page has been carefully researched, the author does not claim expertise on Danish culture.
Please send questions, comments, and corrections to emuseum@mnsu.edu and include the URL of this page.
If you are Danish, your feedback is much appreciated.
References:
Academic American Encyclopedia (D) 1997 Danbury, Grolier Inc.
Britannica Micropaedia volume 4 1992 Chicago Encyclopedia, Britannica Inc.
Hinz, Martin. Enchantment of the World: Denmark 1994 Chicago, Children’s Press
World Book Encyclopedia 1995 Chicago, World Book Inc.
World Mark Encyclopedia of the Nations:Europe 8th edition 1995 Detroit, Gale Research Inc.
By Anastacia Wolff