“Never Again a Ninth of April” From Neutrality to NATO
Today, April 9th, is a solemn day in Denmark; marking the date of its 1940 Nazi Occupation, a date that has since become a rallying cry against Fascism.
“NEVER AGAIN A NINTH OF APRIL”
Denmark had been Neutral since it was defeated by Austria-Prussia in 1864. Denmark entered the 20th century, clinging to a policy of strict neutrality. The loss of the 1864 war had scarred it. It stayed neutral throughout World War I.1
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Today, April 9th, is a solemn day in Denmark, marking the date of its 1940 Nazi Occupation, a date that has become a rallying cry.
Denmark tried to remain neutral in World War II. That neutrality, however, proved no shield against Fascist aggression. Nazi Germany invaded Denmark in 1940, occupying it for five years. Quickly overrun by overwhelming German military superiority, the government initially refused the small brave army’s request to take up defensive positions; instead, seeing that this would at best only delay the inevitable, they agreed to cooperative occupation to protect the civilian population.
The Danish Government was then forcibly disbanded by the Nazis, however, when it refused to impose the death penalty as punishment for acts of sabotage carried out by the Danish resistance movement.
As the Nazis carried out harsh reprisals, arrests and summary executions against Danes, the resistance smuggled 7,220 out of 7,800 Danish Jews, plus over 600 of their non-Jewish spouses, into neutral Sweden.2 This is regarded as one of the largest actions of collective resistance to fascist aggression in occupied countries during WWII. As a result, over 99% of Danish Jews survived the Holocaust.3
The lesson of World War II was not lost on Danish leaders: neutrality had failed to guarantee Denmark’s security. With the war over, a new threat emerged; Stalin’s Soviet Union.
As the post-war settlement was clearly creating a bipolar world of two superpowers, Denmark considered if it could act as a neutral bridge between the East and West - however, after the Communist coup in Czechoslovakia, Denmark decisively abandoned its non-alignment.
Danish Political parties rallied around the slogan “Never Again A Ninth of April” - The date of the German Occupation.
In 1949, the Danish Parliament voted to join the newly formed North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. Denmark – for the first time in its history – entered a military alliance, becoming one of the founding members of NATO4 and cementing its allyship with America.
“The goal, the preservation of peace, is also Denmark’s, in deep accord with the ardent desire and old tradition of the Danish people.”
Gustav Rasmussen, Danish Foreign Minister at the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty 1949
Joining a military alliance marked something of a dramatic foreign policy shift for Denmark; one made in deep consultation with Washington. Danish leaders recognised that the Allied strategy of preservation of peace through collective defence was in “deep accord with the ardent desire and old tradition of the Danish people” as Foreign Minister Gustav Rasmussen said when signing the North Atlantic Treaty in 1949.
In joining NATO, Denmark firmly aligned itself with the United States and Western democracies against the Soviet-led Eastern Bloc. Culturally and politically, Denmark was a small nation, but geo-strategically it was a bridge between the Baltic and the Arctic and the key holder to Greenland and the Faroe Islands – making it a strategic giant for the Western Allies.
This geographic reality meant Denmark’s membership greatly extended NATO’s reach. It opened the Baltic Sea route and secured a vital link between North America and Europe via the Arctic.
One of the conditions laid down by Denmark, Iceland, and Norway to agree to join NATO was that they would host no military bases on their territory. This was to stress the defensive nature of the alliance and avoid overtly antagonising Russia while still participating in, and hosting, NATO military exercises.
Denmark made one notable exception: Greenland.
When mainland Denmark was occupied from 1940, diplomat Henrik de Kauffmann stayed in Washington as the ambassador for ‘Free Denmark' in exile, and in 1941 reached a controversial agreement5 with Roosevelt allowing America to defend Greenland, and continuing this Danes eventually accepted the permanent peacetime stationing of their allied American forces on its territory.6
This culminated in the joint defence agreement signed on 27th April 1951. Implementing this agreement was not without controversy. There would be concerns in Denmark over the lack of transparency of US actions, especially regarding nuclear weapons when Denmark was a ‘nuclear free’ zone. The relocation of the Inuit village of Uummannaq also created political tension in Denmark.
The Agreement was amended to continue when Greenland ceased to be a colony, and in 2004 when it became more autonomous.7
Throughout the Cold War, Denmark proved to be a loyal, if independently principled, ally. Its old sense of neutrality sometimes surfaced as a cautious voice in NATO councils – Danish governments would periodically call for more nuclear arms control or add reservations to NATO communiqués. NATO has called Denmark “one of the Alliance’s most reliable and active members” in the post Cold-War period.
This reliability and steadfast support was often demonstrated in quiet ways - not in aggressive military manoeuvres but, for example, by hosting critical US early-warning radar systems on Danish territory and by making exceptions to accommodate NATO operations.
Nowhere was this more apparent than in Greenland.
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Footnotes
Christiansen, N. F. (2017). Domestic politics and neutrality (Denmark). In U. Daniel, P. Gatrell, O. Janz, H. Jones, J. Keene, A. Kramer, & B. Nasson (Eds.), 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War. Freie Universität Berlin. https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/domestic-politics-and-neutrality-denmark/
National Museum of Denmark. (n.d.). German occupation (1940-1945). Retrieved April 1, 2025, from https://en.natmus.dk/historical-knowledge/denmark/german-occupation-1940-1945/
Goldberger, Leo, ed. (1987). The Rescue of the Danish Jews: Moral Courage Under Stress. New York University Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-3010-2.
NATO. (n.d.). Denmark and NATO - 1949. NATO. Retrieved April 1, 2025, from https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/declassified_162357.htm
Lidegaard, B. (2003). Defiant diplomacy: Henrik Kauffmann, Denmark, and the United States in World War and the Cold War, 1939-1958. Peter Lang.
NATO. (n.d.). Denmark and NATO - 1949. NATO. Retrieved April 1, 2025, from https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/declassified_162357.htm
United States Department of State. (1951). Agreement between the United States of America and the Kingdom of Denmark concerning the defense of Greenland (TIAS 2900). US Government Printing Office. https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/04-806-Denmark-Defense.done_.pdf