I don't see why the local Danish democratic government has to change in such a situation. IIRC some of the other German states had voting systems significantly more liberal than Prussia's weighted three tier system and the country functioned fine. Denmark's population is too small an addition to upset the apple cart. Prussia will still overwhelmingly dominate.I could see this event creating a lot of animosities for the Danish Royalty among the common people, seeing as Christian IX didn't even try to hide that retaining his German duchies was more important than the independence of his own Kingdom. Having Denmark being absorbed by the German federation would effectively kill off the fledgeling Danish democracy(instituted in 1848), and have it become part of the much bigger political game in Central Europe.
So I could see the population of Denmark become divided into monarchist and republican factions, as the dethroning of King would be the inevitable result of establishing a democratic Danish republic.
Any form of rebellion and overthrow of government through violent means would be doomed to fail in the time up until WW1, when the Prussian military could be called upon to defeat anyone objecting the treason of Christian IX, but maybe we would see underground movements and militias form, political movements with a militant wing(Sinn Fein like).
I think in this alternate scenario a lot of parallels could be made to Northern Ireland, with the seperationists and unionists clashing(many would still be loyal to the King and the German population of the duchies would also want to stay part of Germany).
So baring any major butterflies, and assuming WW1 happens as in OTL, I think anti-German and anti-royal sentiment would be at a highpoint right after the war(postwar fatigue), perhaps sparking a more radical pendant to the Easter Crisis of 1920 creating an independent Danish state and booting the royalty.
Or maybe this could come about during the Versailles negotiations somehow.
WW1 would certainly be butterflied away by a change of such magnitude.
Last edited: