OK, I think I'll try wanking my home town.
22 July 1227. The red sun sinks sluggishly under the horizon, ending a long northern summer day. On the battlefield below, the parched grass is bathed in crimson light. The dead and dying lie scattered where king Valdemar won his great victory. Adolf von Schauenburg lies on a plain pallet in a tent in the Danish camp, feverish and wracked with pain. At the head of the bed stands King Valdemar, his chaplain and his personal physician. The learned man from Montpellier casts down his eyes. "But for a miracle, your Majesty..." he admits his helplessness. Having received the extreme unction at the hands of an ultimately merciful enemy, the count of Holstein dies shortly after midnight. He will be remembered in Denmark as a brave and honourable foe.
Valdemar's victory at Bornhöved cemented the Danish claim on the entire Jutland peninsula dowwn to the Elbe river. Shortly afterwards, Emperor frederick II, distracted with Sicilian affairs and barely intereted in his northernmost realms, grants the counties of Schleswig and Holstein in their entirety to the kings of Denmark in perpetuity as an inalienable part of their realm.
30 August 1626. Near Dannenberg. Under the grey sky of an approaching summer thunderstorm, a squadron of cuirassiers of the imperial army cross the Elbe. One carries over his saddlebow the body of General Tilly, alive yet. Despite the fervent prayers of his military chaplaion and the uncountable masses said in Vienna, though, the count would die before two days were out. From Jameln, where his troops met the relief army of Christian IV of Denmark, the beaten remnants of the emperor's forces stream south, pursued by Danish and Braunschweig cavalry. The Catholic reconquest of Northern Germany has failed.
In the coming years, cities and territories as far south as the Rhineland and the Palatinate would welcome Christian VI, the 'Lion of the North' as their liberator. Denmark, supported by France, would from now on play a significant role in German affairs.
11 October 1813. Copenhagen. With a brief stroke of the pen, King Frederik VI put his signature under the document that represented the greatest gamble of his reign. "Let us hope, for all our sakes, that the wind do not change." he mutterd to his personal secretary. "I do not believe we can withstand another such storm coming over us". Then he turned to the assembled generals awaiting the momentous order they had so lonmg urged their sovereign to give. "Gentlemen, as of today, we are at war with France."
Denmark, long France's most trusted ally, turned its back on Napoleon on the even of the battle of Leipzig, precipitating the dissolution of French control over northern Germany. This development strengthened the king's hand at the Congress of Vienna which eventually confirmed his control, without any feudal obligation or differences in heritage structures, of the territories of Schleswig, Holstein, and Mecklenburg as well as his sovereignty over Norway.
4 November 1866, Paris. From up close, the vaunted giant did not look anywhere near as terrifying. Otto von Bismarck seemed a broken man, grey-faced and dejected even months after the terribly swift defeat of his forces. Thus had the battle over supremacy in Germany come to an end. Heinrich Count Sieveking, ambassador for Christian IX of Denmark, felt a mometary twinge of pity for the man who had been his country's nemesis for the past 15 years. A heavy burden had been lifted off the shoulders of his fatherland with this treaty. Prussia would never again be in a position to threaten its borders.
The end of the confused war of 1865/66, in which Prussia and Austria battled for hegemony among the German states, was marked by the battles of Sadowa and Grevenbroich. THe year of Prussian occupation of Mecklenburg, Holstein and Schleswig and the desultory fighting in Jutland, where a broken Danish army was held behind the Danevirke by a Prussian Corps under Manteuffel, was ended. Austria and France, twin victors, reordered the map of Central Europe in the Treaty of Clichy-sous-Bois, and Denmark was to have its security, and substantial reparations from the Prussian ironworks and coalpits. No territory would accrue to the kingdom, but that did not unduly disturb its government. Much more important was an end to the nationalist politics that its strongarm neighbour had used to threaten its southern border.
"...that you can clearly see that the American trade alone, not to mention the EAstern busioness and the advantages to the growth of industry from this scheme,. more than outweigh any gains to be had from simple taxation." The speaker looked up eagerly. Had he managed to convince the cabinet of his plan to create a freeport zone larger than any had been? Would the kiong forgo the customs duties that the loss of Hamburg's traditional privileges entitled him to? It would represent a vast investment of resources, but he was certain it would be worth it. And the king was reputed to like big projects. Please God...
The muted voices ceased and the Cabinet rose and stepped away from the table as Christian IX focused on the distinguished representative of his realm's greatest municipality. "Herr Mönckeberg" he said in his clear, slightly overprecise German. "You have convinced me. What is more, you have convinced my ministers. We will try this"
The development of the famous 'Hamburg Model' combining a large freeport zone with masonry quays and railheads throughout the port was almost an accident of history, a compromise negotiated by the municipality in the course of implementing the new Danish constitution that abrogated its old duty-free status. Within a generation, it was copied throughout the world.
21 June 1905. The sun played on the garish assemblage of colours of awnings and marquees as the aging king Christian IX stepped on the podium. Throughout the day, bands had played and the people celebrated the opening of the Lubeck Canal joining the North Sea and Baltic. In days fraught with tension, Denmark saw the need for a way to quickly transfer its navies from one sea to the other without fear of interference. Thus had been born and realised one of the most ambitious engineering projects in history. To rousing cheers, his Majesty boarded the royal yacht to lead the procession of gaily beribboned craft from Travemünde to its destination in Hamburg.He was an old man, with little time left on earth, he reckoned, but he had done much for his country, and he would be remembered fondly. Of that he was sure.
Today, the municipality of Greater Hamburg (Großhamburg / Store Hamburg) is Scandinavia's largest city by a fair margin. With almost 2.4 million inhabitants, it dwarfs Copenhagen (450,000) and Stockholm (400,000). Its position on the estuary of the Elbe river, the important role of both the Lubeck canal and the inland waterways the river accessed, and the city's own highly developed industry have made it Europe's largest port by any measure. It is the world's third largest container port (only Singapore and San Diego handle larger numbers), its fifth largest oil terminal and its largest grain and coffee transit point. Its airport serves as a traffic hub for Northeastern Europe, its bridges over the Elbe providing the most important rail and road freight link between Denmark and Germany. While Copenhagen is the kingdom's political centre and Kiel its intellectual heart, Hamburg is where its financial and industrial might becomes most palpable. It is today accounted one of the wealthiest areas in Europe and second only to London as a banking and stock market centre.