Fælles kultur - forskellige nationaliteter: De borgerlige eliters skabelse af en national identitet i Danmark og Norge 1807-30

Nationalism and concepts connected to it was like most other modem political and social concepts a product of the societal changes that occurred between the mid-1700s and mid 1800s. Here new words were created and old ones given new meanings. Against this background it may seem paradoxical that the national developments of the first three decades of the 19th Century have not yet been addressed by Danish historians and social scientist. This paradox becomes even more evident in the light of the historical context. First of all, the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars and the subsequent Restoration Period (1792-1830) are normally in the international historiography seen as a crucial formative period of nationalism. Secondly, the Danish State suffered its largest territorial and demographic loss in its history with 'the loss of Norway' in 1814.

The separation of Denmark and Norway in itself constitutes a terra incognita in Danish historiography. For more than four centuries the two countries were united in a political union which has played a decisive role for Danish and Norwegian history in general and for the development of national identity in particular. There existed an affinity which meant that Danish intellectuals and burghers at the end of the 18th Century cultivated a common Norse history as a part of their Danish identity. On the other hand the Norwegian elite were characterized by having a Danish education and by being a part of Danish culture, speaking and writing in Danish.

This constitutes the background for my dissertation. The hypothesis is that the period 1807-1830 was a formative stage in the development of a national identity in both Denmark and Norway, and that many of the building-blocks for these two countries' nation-building were created in an interaction between the closely related elites North and South of Skagerrak. This hypothesis has been comprehensively tested against a Danish-Norwegian source material by applying a series of theoretical tools and definitions taken from the field of nationalism studies and by conducting both synchronous as well as diachronic conceptual analysis on key national concepts. This has specifically been done by examining five key areas in relation to national identity and nationalism. These are: I) Society; 2) The Fatherland, Denmark and Norway; 3) Perceptions of the nation, the Danes and Norwegians; 4) Culture, history and national symbols, and 5) Relationships with other nations and national counter-identities. After a thorough investigation the following picture has emerged.

The national development in the period 1807-1830 should be viewed from a dual perspective. The war with Great Britain (1807-1814) and the separation of Denmark and Norway in 1814 caused widespread political and economic upheaval and forced the burghers and intelligentsia in both countries to look at the stale and society in a new way. This was not a specific Danish-Norwegian phenomenon, but a general European one. The continent had been plunged into political chaos following the French Revolution. The new national ideas, created in France and Germany, were adopted by the elite amongst the Danish and Norwegian burghers. Thus the development of a national identity in Denmark and Norway should be seen as a part of a general European reaction to the turmoil of the era. The political, economic and philosophical developments promoted ideas of a national identity amongst the intelligentsia and burghers in both countries based on concepts of a national character, a common national origin, a national history, a national language and a national culture. In the Danish case there were widespread examples of a 'political archeology' and a cultural nationalism that served as an inspiration for the Norwegians.

The contemporary conceptions of the nation and national identity were primarily connected to 'objective' concepts such as language, history and culture. However, these definitions were combined with a 'subjective' demand for an identification with the nation and specific national sentiments that in the Norwegian case partly was held up against Denmark and Sweden as national counter-concepts. The ' subjective' elements to the national identity meant that it was not enough to be born in the country and speak its language, but one also had to act in a certain way and subscribe to certain values. However, the upheaval of 1814 and the following period of political struggle meant that there were opposing views within the Norwegian elite on how to act and to which values one should subscribe. The burghers were split into two opposite camps: the patriots / the 'Danishminded' (these two categories often, but not always, coincided) and the 'Swedish-minded', who tried to 'denationalize' one another by proclaiming that their opponents were betraying the nation in either a political or a cultural sense.

The 'subjective' elements of the national identity are also seen in the smooth transition between the two nationalities, where a father could be Danish and his son Norwegian and where people quite literary chose their nationality. Prior to 1814 elements within the Danish elite played down the differences between Danish and Norwegian nationality as a part of the construction of a Danish-Nordic identity, this was contrasted to a German counter-concept. However, some Norwegian national-patriots believed that the close cultural community between Denmark and Norway constituted a threat to a separate and 'authentic' Norwegian identity. This led them lo the cultivation of all that was seen as inherently Norwegian. This state of affairs should be interpreted in the light of the very different positions that the two countries had with the Danish composite state prior to 1814 where Denmark (i.e. Copenhagen) served as the center and Norway constituted a part of the periphery. This made the Norwegian elite create a complex double concept of the fatherland, distinguishing between the fatherland as the state and the 'natural' fatherland (i.e. the homeland). The Danes apparently did not have the same need to make this distinction since their homeland and the state bore the same name: Denmark. However, an analysis of the Danish burghers' use of the concepts shows that they already prior to 1814 and especially after the separation from Norway associated the fatherland primarily with their homeland.

Prior to 1814 one sees a clear national-patriotism in both countries. However, the Treaty of Kiel was the turning-point for the general development of a national identity in both countries. ln Norway, the creation of a nation-state meant that the different concepts of the fatherland merged into one. The separation from Norway and the general Norwegian challenge to the common Dano-Norwegian culture and language in the wake of 1814 strengthened a Danish national identity at the expense of state patriotism, which no longer could be associated with a common Nordic heritage. Some intellectuals turned away from the widespread Nordic cult, associated with a common Dano-Norwegian Golden Age in Viking times, and towards a separate Danish Golden Age in the Middle Ages that was associated with a national rebirth. The same patten can be found in Norway where the elite from 1814 and onwards began to associate the "new" Norway with the "old" Norway and a perceived Golden Age prior to the union with Denmark. This growth of cultural nationalism was also reflected in the collection of folklore in wake of the separation.

The elite in the young Norwegian nation-state displayed a strong need for national recognition and acceptance by other states. This resulted in an extensive construction of national symbols. However, as is often the case in newly independent nations, the country's elite was divided on how to do it. The 'Danish-minded' Norwegians tried to create the 'reborn' Norway in the image of the former Danish-Norwegian state and the common Danish-Norwegian culture whereas the 'Swedish-minded' tried to create a national culture in contrast to the former state, seeking their inspiration in a 'truly' and 'independent' Norwegian past. The most striking example of this was the priest, Nicolai Wergeland, who fought against what he termed 'Danomania', but the trend was widespread. ln this way a part of the Norwegian elite tried to separate Norwegian history, culture and language from the common Dano-Norwegian culture. Danish intellectuals actively fought against this development, but often only succeeded in alienating the Norwegians further. The clashes between Danish and Norwegian cultural nationalists over the name of the language, the relationship between the nations and the Norwegian cultural independence was not only fought in the present, but also in the past through 'political archaeology' where both sides tried to claim the common Nordic past as their own. ln this way, Danish and Norwegian national identity developed in interaction. ln the Danish academics' hunt for national 'authenticity', one sees especially a clear link to the romantic, cultural nationalism in Germany which constituted both a source of inspiration and a threat, since the German scholars perceived the Danes to be a Germanic subcategory.

The development in the Danish-Norwegian relationship should also be seen in a political and economic perspective with the loss of trade, the settlement of debt between the two states, a reduced contact and different forms of government driving the two countries apart. Frederick 6th did all he could to make the Danes 'forget' Norway since the loss of the kingdom of Norway not only was a personal trauma but also through its constitution and liberal form of government posed a potential political threat to absolutism in Denmark. Conversely, the opposition in Norway used the Danish absolute monarchy and the former union with Denmark as a bogey in their promotion of liberal ideals, in their fight against King Charles John's authoritarian tendencies and the perceived Swedish plans for an amalgamation of Norway into Sweden.

ln a similar vein, one sees the importance of the ambivalent Danish relationship to the Germans both within and outside of the state in the Danish nation-formation. The period 1807-1830 saw an aggressive state-building project, a federal state-building project and a nation-building within the Danish composite state. The first was relatively quickly abandoned in the wake of the defeat in 1814, while the second in the name of slate-patriotism enjoyed some progress in both Denmark and Holstein. However, after 1814 the strong Danish animosity towards the British and the Swedes slowly receded leaving the Germans as lhe primary enemy in the eyes of Danish nationalists. This development was further strengthened by the awakening of German national ism in the period and the clashes between Danish and German cultural nationalists.

The feeling of a looming threat to the nation from the south coincided with a growing interest amongst Danish academics for Schleswig in the wake of the 'loss of Norway'. In this way, the multinational Danish duchy slowly became a battleground between Danish, German and a traditional regional identity. This development promoted the idea of Holstein as a 'foreign' German element with the state. These national ideas were already publicly expressed by in 1830 with some elements arguing for the incorporation of Schleswig into the Kingdom of Denmark by referring to strong historical, cultural and linguistic ties between them. The regional and nationally mixed culture of Schleswig had not been a problem in 1807, but by 1830 it had been made into one by the cultural nationalists. On the whole, the separation of Denmark and Norway in 1814 resulted in the burghers and the intelligentsia in both countries turning inwards to create a national identity in the modem sense of the concept, which to an increasing degree was separated from the former common culture. In Norway, some Norwegians used the Danes as counter-identity in their construction of a Norwegian national identity, while the intellectuals in Copenhagen turned their attention to the west having 'discovered' Jutland in their nation-building.

This leads to the question of whether or not nationalism existed in Denmark and Norway in the period 1807-1830; and if so when did ii start? The answer depends on from which paradigm within the field of nationalism studies the definition of national ism is applied: the 'strict' modernist definition that consists in the nationalist demand for a nation state or the ' weaker' ethno-symbolist definition that refers to an ideological movement that strives for unity, identity and autonomy in the name of a potential nation. If we turn to Norway, we will find a clear and unequivocal demand for a nation state in 1814 and thereby a case of nationalism in a modernist sense. However, prior to the separation that year there were no strong ideological movement that demanded full national independence and secession from Denmark, but we do find individual cases of nationalism amongst Norwegians. If one instead applies the ethno-symbolist definition the result changes, since nationalism in this sense is to be found with in the Society for the Welfare of Norway (1809-1810). If we look at Denmark there was no nationalist movement in the modernist sense of the term prior to 1830. However, the idea of a nation state as an ideal was created in that period. Thus the years 1807-1830 paved the way for the subsequent political and national movements in Denmark. Furthermore, in the ethno-symbolic sense of nationalism, we can already talk of Danish nationalism prior to 1830, since key Danish intellectuals formed cultural societies that preached national unity, autonomy and identity as an ideology which they tried to pass on to the 'people' (Hrochs phase B).

In the light of the above summary it can be concluded that the dissertation's hypothesis stands. Period 1807-1830 was a formative stage in the development of a national identity in both Denmark and Norway where many of the building-blocks for the two countries' nation-building were created in an interaction between the closely related elites North and South of Skagerrak.