Slesvig: From Danish Duchy to Prussian Province - 1615 - 1872

The Duchy of Slesvig was bounded by the River Eider in the south and Kongeåen (The King’s River) in the north. Rendsburg, on the Eider was a border town even in the days of Charlemagne.

The Duchies of Slesvig and Holsten (Schleswig and Holstein in German) were associated with the Danish Crown from the late middle ages when, in 1460, Christian I, King of Denmark, was elected Duke of Slesvig and Holstein. Slesvig was always more Danish and Holstein more German, but neither Duchy was ever part of the Danish Kingdom, and for a long time the Danish Kings shared the territory with the Dukes of Holstein-Gottorp.

The Birth Certificate of the Danish Post

24th December 1624

Hamburg was the main departure point for mail from Scandinavia to the rest of Europe, and later the world, and when King Christian IV established the Royal mail service in 1624, Hamburg and København were the destination or starting point for the mails, and until the introduction of steamships almost all mail to and from the Danish capital, to and from elsewhere in Scandinavia, to Jutland and Holstein and to the wider world beyond Scandinavia, travelled through Slesvig. The Danish post office ran the postal services in Slesvig, Holstein and Lauenburg until 1864, and when stamps were introduced in the Duchies between 1851 and 1853, Danish cancellers were issued to many towns throughout the region.

At its greatest extent the Duchy of Slesvig included the North Sea (Frisian) Islands, the islands of Fehmarn, Helgoland and Ærø, the city of Ribe, and part of Rendsburg, straddling the River Eider.

This exhibit aims to show mail within, through, to and from the Duchy of Slesvig, from private carriage to public service, over a period of more than 350 years from the early years of the 17th century to 1872 when Prussia incorporated the area as the province of Schleswig-Holstein.

Latest update: 6.4.2006