Portal:Denmark

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Denmark is the smallest and southernmost of the Nordic countries. Unified in the 10th century, it is also the oldest. Located north of its only land neighbour, Germany, south-west of Sweden, and south of Norway, it is located in northern Europe. From a cultural point of view, Denmark belongs to the family of Scandinavian countries although it is not located on the Scandinavian Peninsula. The national capital is Copenhagen.

Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea. The country consists of a large peninsula, Jutland, which borders Schleswig-Holstein; many islands, most notably Zealand, Funen, Vendsyssel-Thy, Lolland, and Bornholm; and hundreds of minor islands often referred to as the Danish Archipelago. Denmark has historically controlled the approach to the Baltic Sea, and those waters are also known as the Danish straits.

Denmark has been a constitutional monarchy since 1849 and is a parliamentary democracy. It became a member of the European Economic Community (now the European Union) in 1973. The Kingdom of Denmark also encompasses two off-shore territories, Greenland and the Faroe Islands, both of which enjoy wide-ranging home rule. The Danish monarchy is the oldest existing monarchy in Europe, and the national flag is the oldest state flag in continuous use.

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Piet Hein (December 16, 1905 - April 17, 1996) was a scientist, mathematician, inventor, author, and poet, often writing under the Old Norse pseudonym "Kumbel" meaning "tombstone". His short poems, gruks (or grooks), first started to appear in the daily newspaper Politiken shortly after the Nazi Occupation in April 1940 under the signature Kumbel Kumbell.

Piet Hein popularized the use of the superellipse in architecture, urban planning, and furniture making, and he invented the super-egg or superellipsoid based on the superellipse.

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Fort Christian is a former Danish colonial fort located in Charlotte Amalie, the main city on the island of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands (formerly the Danish West Indies). It is named after king Christian V.

Image credit: : Mali.

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The Royal Danish Navy is the sea-based branch of The Danish Defence force. The RDN is mainly responsible for the maritime defence and sovereignty of danish, greenlandic and faroese territorial waters. Other tasks includes surveillance, search and rescue, icebreaking, oil spill recovery and prevention as well as contributions to international tasks and forces.

During the period 1509-1814 when Denmark was in union with Norway, the Danish Navy was part of the Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy. Today the Danish navy is very modern and most of the large ships were commissioned in the post-Cold War era. The Danish navy has some relatively large ships in the fleet, despite the smallness of the country, primarily due to its strategic maritime location as the NATO member controlling access to the Baltic.

Danish Navy ships carry the prefix KDM which stands for Kongelige Danske Marine (English: Royal Danish Navy).

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Rønne is the largest town on the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. It has a population of 13,924 (1 January 2010). Once a municipality in its own right, it is now the administrative centre of the Bornholm municipality.

Owing to its natural harbour and its strategic position in the Baltic Sea, Rønne has an interesting history coming under German and Swedish influence during its development as a herring fishing port. Today, with its quaint cobbled streets, half-timbered houses and interesting museums, it attracts visitors mainly from Denmark, Germany, Sweden and Poland.

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