Editing Schleswig-Holstein (section)

===Plebiscite in 1920===
[[File:Abstimmung-schleswig-1920.png|thumb|right|275px|Results of the 1920 plebiscites in North and Central Schleswig]]
{{main|1920 Schleswig plebiscites}}
Following the defeat of Germany in [[World War I]], the Allied powers arranged [[Schleswig Plebiscites|a plebiscite in northern and central Schleswig]]. The plebiscite was conducted under the auspices of an international commission which designated two voting zones to cover the northern and south-central parts of Schleswig. Steps were taken to also create a third zone covering a southern area, but zone III was cancelled again and never voted, as the Danish government asked the commission not to expand the plebiscite to this area.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}

In zone I covering Northern Schleswig (10 February 1920), 75% voted for [[Political union|reunification]] with Denmark and 25% voted for Germany. In zone II covering central Schleswig (14 March 1920), the results were reversed; 80% voted for Germany and just 20% for Denmark. Only minor areas on the island of [[Föhr]] showed a Danish majority, and the rest of the Danish vote was primarily in the town of Flensburg.<ref>Schwedler, Frank: Historischer Atlas Schleswig-Holstein 1867 bis 1945, Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster</ref> On 15 June 1920, Northern Schleswig officially returned to Danish rule. The Danish/German border was the only one of the borders imposed on Germany by the [[Treaty of Versailles]] after World War I that was never challenged by [[Adolf Hitler]].

In 1937, the Nazis passed the so-called [[Greater Hamburg Act]] ({{lang|de|Groß-Hamburg-Gesetz}}), where the nearby Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg was expanded, to encompass towns that had formerly belonged to the Prussian [[province of Schleswig-Holstein]]. To compensate Prussia for these losses (and partly because Hitler had a personal dislike for [[Lübeck]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/citybreaks/5428909/Lubeck-The-town-that-said-no-to-Hitler.html |title=Lübeck: The town that said no to Hitler |first=Simon |last=Heffer |date=2 June 2009 |newspaper=telegraph.co.uk |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090605161538/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/citybreaks/5428909/Lubeck-The-town-that-said-no-to-Hitler.html |access-date=28 June 2010 |archive-date=5 June 2009 }}</ref>), the 711-year-long independence of the Hansestadt Lübeck came to an end, and almost all its territory was incorporated into Schleswig-Holstein, along with the [[Free State of Oldenburg|Oldenburg]] exclave centred on [[Eutin]] (for historical reasons known as {{lang|de|[[Principality of Lübeck|Landesteil Lübeck]]}}).