Interesting discussion
Originally Posted by
gilpin
That's incorrect. Wikipedia (non-German version) states: "Flensburg had been founded at the latest by 1200 at the innermost end of the Flensburg Fjord by Danish settlers."
The fact that Danish settlers founded Flensburg does not result in the consequence that Flensburg belonged politically to the Kingdom Danmark, does it? Flensburg became part of the said Herzogtum and the King of Danmark ruled over it in his capacity of Duke. This was quite normal in the German empire (and all over Europe) of those days that foreign powers ruled over smaller territories under the feud of another ruler. In fact the King of Danmark in his capacity as the Duke of Schleswig had a superior, the German emperor.
Originally Posted by
gilpin
Neither Texas nor California are under any suspect to be Latin American at all - neither languagewise, nor geographical nor historical. and such statement is just as incorrect as your previous one regarding Finland. Actually the new example cited shows just how absurd your prior claim was!
So Texas or California are part of Latin America? I happily agree to that, but better do not let President Bush know. I am not confident that he will agree.
Originally Posted by
gilpin
The only reason I mentioned Denmark in the first place was to inform readers of this board that, despite Denmark and Germany both being EU members of long standing, there has been actual border control between them in the not too distant past and you may in fact be stopped when entering Denmark from Germany by automobile.
Back to the original topic and thanks for the good discussion: Border controls and EU membership are two totally different animals. The EU membership makes customs disappear but not the border controls. The border controls between Danmark and Germany only disappeared in 2001 after the members of the Nordic Passport Union (by the way:
Nordic, not Scandinavian) were accepted as parties to the Schengen agreement.