Linguistic oddities and political leftovers

History has left some oddities around Europe that sometimes require some understanding of what went on in past centuries and why.

Head off to Germany's northernmost state, Schleswig-Holstein, some time for an example.

As anyone who follows German politics will know, virtually anyone who has an election anywhere in the country has a coalition government. There is proportional representation, and as parties rarely get 50% of the vote, power has to be shared.

So back to Schleswig-Holstein. In the state elections in 2012 came the usual vote with no clear winner and the need to form a coalition. This time the German Social Democrat Party (SDP) wanted to form a ruling coalition with the German Green Party (die Grünen), but still did not have a clear majority. So they also enlisted the support of the SSW - the Südschleswigsche Wählerverband.

This is the party representing the Danish speaking minority in the state. A Danish speaking minority? The state borders Denmark, and back in the 1860s when Bismarck and the King of Prussia were looking to build a united Germany, a short war was fought to acquire Schleswig-Holstein. A side product of this was the acquisition of a Danish speaking minority who now have Danish-speaking schools, councils, businesses, you name it.

German speaking leftovers also can be found in some odd parts of Europe (see my piece elsewhere about what became of the Sudeten Germans). One of the often forgotten countries when you talk of German speakers is Italy, that is apart from during the skiing season when an Italian with a very German sounding name wins an event. They invariably come from the South Tyrol, which was taken from Austria at the end of the First World War and awarded to Italy. I cannot say if I have ever heard of a movement to return it - relationships between the two countries are very good, so where maybe is the need?

Talking of Austria though, when the late Jörg Haider was governor of the Austrian state of  Kärtnen (Carinthia) he was notably hostile to the Slovenian minority being able to use their own language in schools and the public arena, or have place names in two separate languages, and even since his death in 2008 the issues have not shown much sign of progress.

Linguistic issues still do spring up from time to time where borders and linguistic minorities do not coincide. Even given the progress in bringing populations together for the common economic good, the leftovers of battles fought and wars won over a century ago do still occasionally raise their heads in ways that are potentially quite ugly. Maybe Schleswig-Holstein can show a way forward that is both positive and progressive.