A local Dansk Folkeparti politician in southern Denmark has called upon Hinrich Jürgensen, the chair of Bund Deutscher Nordschleswiger – a non-governmental organisation for the German minority living in the area – to resign after sharing a Facebook post that compared DF to the Nazis.
The post, which was originally published on the ‘Nej tak til nazisme’ Facebook group on February 6, asks whether DF remembered to thank Hermann Göring, a prominent Nazi in Adolf Hitler’s inner-circle for most of World War II, for inspiring its election campaign.
Göring’s recipe for success
In 1946 during the Nuremberg Trials, shortly before Göring took his own life, the former head of the German air force observed: “The only thing you have to do is to tell the population they are under attack and mock the pacifists for not being patriotic enough and endangering the country. This works well enough in all countries.”
The Facebook post republished the quote, directly asking DF: “We know exactly how DF wants to run its election campaign: it’s all about foreigners who are to blame for everything. And if you don’t agree, then you must hate Denmark.”
Consequential not critical, argues HQ
Jürgensen has since withdrawn the post and apologised for the “inappropriate” comparison, and BDN considers the matter closed, reports Jydske Vestkysten.
However, Ejler Schütt, a local politician at Aabenraa Municipality in southern Denmark, has called for his resignation, concluding the post was “indescribably disgusting”, adding that “the genie has been let out of the bottle, and the air has been plagued”.
However, DF central office has not endorsed the demand, although Peter Kofod, its spokesperson for legal affairs, has said it is understandable.
“After all, the president of the minority is not a Mr Nobody,” he told Berlingske.
An exemplary example
There are an estimated 15,000 Germans living in Denmark left over from the referendum vote in 1919 to return North Schleswig to Denmark after it fell into German hands in 1864. As well as BDN, the community has its own newspaper, Der Nordschleswiger.
Barely a week ago, the culture minister, Mette Bock, nominated the peaceful co-existence on the Danish-German border for UNESCO recognition, claiming the “peaceful coexistence between minority and majority groups on both sides of the border – despite a history of wars and conflicts – was an exemplary example” to the world.
