Since we moved to Sønderborg a year ago I have been fascinated by the history of this region and in particular how destiny has changed the lords of these lands back and forth between dukes, kings and kaisers. The most spectacular change is probably Denmark’s defeat in the Second Schleswig War and more the Battle of Dybbol in 1864.
In 2014 it will be 150 years since the battle took place and there will be renewed attention to this war. One very interesting idea in telling the story of what caused the war and how the different parties progressed is the recently started 1864live.dk created by three historians; Peter Yding Brunbech, Steffen Lind Christensen and Lene Elmegaard Bladt. 1864live publishes small snippets of text on a blog, Twitter and Facebook as they happened 150 years ago like this:
8. sep. 1862: Times i London: Dansk prinsesse vil glemme sit folk! http://t.co/6AkuuDn0
— 1864live (@1864live) September 8, 2012
We asked the people who created the site a couple of questions about the site.
Where did you get the idea for the project?
We got inspiration from many different social platform communication projects, but the most important one is probably the project RealtimeWWII that is live tweeting from the second world war.
What technology do you use to manage the 3 platforms?
We tried a couple of different systems but decided on a wordpress-blog because it was the easiest to update on blog twitter and Facebook automatically. It’s working ok, but of course it would be better to create separate content for each platform. That would however take too much time.
What sources do you use?
We are all historians and use a range of different sources. Amongst others some good general works on Danish foreign policy and German policy in the period. But also contemporary newspapers such as “Fædrelandet” and “Illustreret Tidende”. And some of the older very thorough works on the subject like Neergaard’s “Danmark under junigrundloven”
Do you have any plans or thoughts about translations?
It would be great to be able to do it in German and/or English but we simply dont have the resources
Are you collaborating with any institutions?
We are not collaborating with anyone at the moment but have a very open mind as to the possibilities. We just have not gotten around to it yet.
Which aspects of the conflict do you find the most interesting yourself?
Perhaps because I am an historian my chief interest is the very complex political background to the whole conflict, and how it is very difficult to understand the conflict properly if you do not understand the different views in those days on such concepts as nation, state and democracy.
Do you get any funding?
No, we don’t but we wouldn’t say no to some either 🙂
– Very interesting idea. I hope they can keep up the steam over the next two years and I am looking forward to following the war – from a distance.
