Protection of the Frisian ethnic group in Schleswig after 1945

The German state of Schleswig-Holstein, located on the Danish border, is known for its active protection of national minorities. Within this region, the Frisian ethnic group, which lacks its kin-state, has developed differently from the Danish minority as the dominant of minority in Schleswig. This paper re-examines the model of national minority protection by focusing on the political development of the Frisian ethnic group, whereas previous studies have analysed primarily through linguistic and cultural perspectives. Although Frisian politicians played a major role in the South Schleswig Voters’ Association, a political party for the Danish minority established after WWII, the protection and the legal recognition of the Frisian ethnic group was not explicitly stated until the 1990 amendment to the Constitution of the State of Schleswig-Holstein and the 2004 Frisian Law. It lagged significantly behind the model of Danish minority protection. The results reveal that the Frisian ethnic group without a kin-state was politically marginalised compared to the Danish minority. Until the 1990s, when the trend toward national minority protection at the European level emerged, the absence of a kin-state and internal conflicts within the Frisian ethnic group significantly influenced their political development.