and Austrian troops crossed the Eider, sparking off the Second Schleswig War, after which Denmark had to cede Schleswig and Holstein according to the Treaty of Vienna. After the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, victorious Prussia took control over all Schleswig and Holstein but was obliged by the Peace of Prague to hold a referendum in predominantly Danish-speaking Northern Schleswig, which it never did. After the German defeat in World War I, the Schleswig Plebiscites were decreed by the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, in which the present-day German-Danish border was drawn. The border took effect on 15 June 1920, dividing Schleswig into a southern and northern part and leaving a considerable Danish and German minority on both sides. Modern day Southern Schleswig is part of the German state () of Schleswig-Holstein, thus its denotation as . It does not, however, form an administrative entity, but instead consists of the districts () of Schleswig-Flensburg, Nordfriesland, the urban district () of Flensburg and the northern part of Rendsburg-Eckernförde (former district of Eckernförde plus the historic Hohner Harde). Besides Standard German, Low Saxon dialects (Schleswigsch) are spoken, as well as Danish (Standard Danish or South Schleswig Danish) and its South Jutlandic variant, plus North Frisian in the west. Danish and North Frisian are official minority languages. Many of the inhabitants who speak only German and not Danish do not consider the region any different from the rest of Schleswig-Holstein. This notion is disputed by those defining themselves as Danes, South Schleswigans or Schleswigans, particularly historians and people organised in the institutions of the Danish minority of Southern Schleswig, such as the South Schleswig Voter Federation, a political party representing the Danish and North Frisian minorities in the Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein and exempted from the 5% electoral threshold. Many of the last names found in the region are very often of Scandinavian or Danish form, with the -sen endings like Petersen. The major cities of Southern Schleswig are Flensburg, the city of Schleswig, Eckernförde and Husum. See also Danish Royal Enclaves Southern Schleswig Danish Bibliography Lars Henningsen: Sydslesvigs danske historie, Flensborg 2013. Lars Henningsen: Zwischen Grenzkonflikt und Grenzfrieden, Flensburg 2011 (as pdf document) Karen Margrethe Pedersen: Dansk sprog i Sydslesvig: det danske sprogs status inden for det danske mindretal i Sydslesvig, Institut for grænseregionsforskning Aabenraa 2000 References Regions of Schleswig-Holstein Danish-speaking countries and territories Duchy of Schleswig Former states and territories of Denmark