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In 1665 the Gottorps founded the University of Kiel. Kiel wasn't a bad choice, it was well placed, of course it was still a very small and undevelop town, but the Gottorps didn't really have a choice, Flesburg and Altona belonged to the Oldenburg mainline, Schleswig (town) was under co-domination, Sönderburg/Sønderborg belonged to the Sönderburg line. But there was two other choice Tönder and Aabenraa was both under the Gottorp, they had somewhat the same size as Kiel. Tönder was a little to badly placed, but Aabenraa wasn't much worse placed. Of course in OTL Kiel ended up as the centrum of Holstein and to lesser extent Schleswig thanks to the intelligensia which Kiel university created. So what if Aabenraa end up the university town, it will gain a great increase thanks to the students and staff (Kiel doubled in size). Of course it will likely not changing the Danish conquest of Aabenraa in the Great Northen War, but the King will likely let Aabenraa continue become Schleswig-Holstein University, while the Gottorps restricted to their own possesions in Holstein, and likely try to create a new university in Kiel (and fail*) and be forced to hire student from outside their domain.

Linguistic I expwect this will strengthen the Low German enclave in Aabenraa, of course with the university placed in the middle of Danish area, I expect the Gottorps also to take Danish student, it will likely adopt the local dialect as education language strengthen the linguistic position of Sønderjysk/Plattdänisch/South Jutish, which is quite distinct from standard Danish (having only one gender). The distinctness of South Jutish resulted in many speakers chosing to studie in Low German which they was bilingual in rather than standard Danish which they had trouble understand, here we see the creation of South Jutish speaking intelligensia rather than letting it become the language of the uneducated. Ironic we get both a stronger Schleswigian/South Jutish identity, while at the same time likely see a greater spread of Danish. At the same time we get a greater toleration for variations in the Danish language.



*Kiel University was slowly collapsing in the periode, thanks to the fact that the Oldenburg forbad the hiring of students as priests (which was the universities major output) in the Oldenburg or co-domination area, limiting the student to few job (ensuring they sought education other places).
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