Danish National Identity

Denmark has a long history as a sovereign state, normally assumed to date back to the tenth century AD . Since the seventeenth century, however, the country has continuously lost power, influence and territory to its neighbours, first to an emerging Sweden, and then in the nineteenth century to the united Germany led by Prussia. Yet, although Danes share many cultural traits with Sweden and northern Germany they have spent much energy on distancing themselves from these two neighbours. Since the end of the nineteenth century, Denmark and the Danes have oriented themselves towards the English-speaking countries, first the United Kingdom and, since World War II, the United States. The peculiar combination of a long, uninterrupted existence as a sovereign state and the many military defeats has resulted in a national culture and identity that combines self-confidence with apparent humility. These same traditions have had a strong influence on behaviour in the workplace and Danish management traditions, at home and abroad. Behind this apparent humility, however, lurks a feeling of superiority on behalf of the small nation and its own, ‘Danish’, culture, only thinly disguised as an inferiority complex. This combination often manifests itself in ironic forms of discourse and a relaxed informality which, if challenged, may suddenly change into aggressive self-assertion and almost authoritarian attitudes.