Michael Embree

This book is a comprehensive and masterful account of this small sorry affair where Austria and Germany ganged up to beat up little Denmark. The 150th anniversary of the war and the upcoming sumptuous "1864" Danish TV series (with the Borgen cast) that is to be broadcast in Denmark and at least the United Kingdom are great.reasons to pick up this book and learn about this little known conflict. A further reason is the current turmoil between Russia and Ukraine. The situation with a major power beating up a weaker neighbor who had the temerity to roar too much is true for both cases.

In hindsight it is clear that the Danes played with fire and were badly burned. The Congress of Vienna had awarded the Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein with a large German population to Denmark for the loss of Norway (which was bagged by Sweden). As with Austria's trade of Northern Italy for Belgium, this was a bad transaction in an age of nationalism. Perhaps the Danes might have held on to their German subjects if they had not bluntly pointed the German powers at the problem. The Danish politicians were both brash and cowardly - inviting retaliation. The Danish King also happened to die in the most inopportune moment in the midst of the crisis which froze the Danes in a "deer in the headlights" situation that the mastermind of Bismarck gladly exploited sending in a German and Austrian steamroller that flattened the brave but overwhelmed Danish defenders. How Bismarck got the Austrian to spill their blood for a war that mainly benefited the Prussians is another masterful evil side aspect of this affair. While the Austrians had already lost all chance at hegemony or even equality with Prussia in Germany, the duty to defend Germany required them to join forces with the Prussians. Two years later, in 1866, the Austrians were in turn beaten by their former comrades-in-arms.

Mike Embree (full disclosure: I know the author) has written a splendid account of this small war that gives a full survey of both the political and military situation of the war whereas the emphasis is on the military engagements with highly detailed listings of the participating forces. More detail is provided in the huge appendix of nearly one hundred pages. If one wants to find a fault in this book, it is the author's strict neutrality among the different protagonists.Viewers of the pro-Danish TV series will be in for a shock for this umpire-like cool assessment. Highly recommended.… (mehr)