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Sønderborg County. The entire province became part of South Jutland County in 1970.

Sønderborg County (Danish: Sønderborg Amt) is a former province in Denmark, located on the island of Als and the easternmost part of Southern Jutland. Sønderborg County was established in 1920 following the reunification of Denmark and South Jutland following the Schleswig Plebiscites. It was dissolved in 1970 when it merged with three other counties to form South Jutland County. Sønderborg County corresponded geographically to the former Prussian Kreis Sonderburg.

After Denmark surrendered control over Schleswig to Prussia and the Austrian Empire in 1864, the Schleswig island of Ærø was transferred from Augustenborg County to Svendborg County and the island remained Danish. The rest of Augustenborg County was merged with Sønderborg and became Kreis Sonderburg. Sønderborg County and Aabenraa County merged in 1932, forming Aabenraa-Sønderborg County.

1970 administrative reform[link]

Aabenraa-Sønderborg County was dissolved in the 1970 administrative reform and the former county became six new municipalities belonging to South Jutland County:

• Augustenborg
• Broager
• Nordborg
• Sundeved
• Sydals
• Sønderborg

[edit] List of former hundreds (herreder)

• Als Nørre Herred
• Als Sønder Herred
• Nybøl Herred

See also[link]

• Sønderborg

This article incorporates material from the corresponding article on the Danish Wikipedia, accessed 30 April 2007.

Sønderborg
Harbour of Sønderborg
Sønderborg Location in Denmark
Coordinates: 54°54′50″N 9°47′32″E / 54.91382°N 9.79225°E / 54.91382; 9.79225Coordinates: 54°54′50″N 9°47′32″E / 54.91382°N 9.79225°E / 54.91382; 9.79225
Country	Denmark
Region	Southern Denmark
Municipality	Sønderborg
Government
• Mayor	Aase Nygaard, elected Nov. 2009
Area(in Sønderborg Municipality)
• Total	496.57 km2 (191.73 sq mi)
Population (2012)
• Total	27,304
Time zone	Central Europe Time (UTC+1)

Sønderborg (German: Sonderburg) is a Danish town of Region of Southern Denmark. It is the main town and the administrative seat of Sønderborg Municipality. The town has a population of 27,304 (1 January 2012) ^[1], in a municipality of 76,793.

Overview[link]

The town of Sønderborg is home to Sønderborg Castle (Sønderborg Slot), the Royal Danish Army's Sergeant School and Sandbjerg Estate (Sandbjerg Gods, Sundeved) near Sønderborg. Sønderborg castle is in the centre of the town, and houses a museum focusing on the history and culture of the area. The museum is open all year. Sandbjerg Estate, which had belonged for many years to the Dukes of Sønderborg, and then to the Reventlow family, was donated to Aarhus University in 1954. In addition Sønderborg has a castle-like barracks built by the German military in 1906, placed centrally by Als Fjord, opposite Alsion (see picture below). Today the barracks is the home the Danish army NCO school.

The old part of Sønderborg is on the island of Als, but some of its western suburbs have spread onto the mainland of Jutland into what had been the interior of the fort of Dybbøl.

Geography[link]

The town of Sønderborg lies on both sides of Alssund; the narrow strait between these two sides is called Als Strait (Alssund). Two road bridges connect the city across the strait: the 682-meter Als Strait Bridge (Alssundbro), built in 1978-1981; and the 331-meter King Christian X's Bridge (Kong Christian Xs Bro), built in 1925-1930.

History[link]

Prior to the Second Schleswig War of 1864, Sønderborg was situated in the Duchy of Schleswig, a Danish fief, so its history is properly included in the contentious history of Schleswig-Holstein. In the 1920 Schleswig Plebiscite that returned Northern Schleswig to Denmark, 43.8% of the city of Sønderborg's inhabitants voted for the cession to Denmark and 56.2% voted for remaining part of Germany.^[2]

Economy[link]

The airline Cimber Sterling has its headquarters in Sønderborg.^[3]

Education[link]

Both University of Southern Denmark and University College South (Danish: University College Syd) have a branch in Sønderborg.

Notable natives[link]

• Anders Hansen, golfer
• Sune Rose Wagner, songwriter and vocalist
• Lars Christiansen, handball player

Photogallery[link]

• 

  King Christian X of Denmark's Bridge

• 

  Sønderborg Castle and HDMY Dannebrog (A540)

• 

  Sønderborg Castle, south-side

• 

  Havbogade by the harbour

• 

  Alsion, Sønderborg

• 

  The Tilting-at-the-Ring. Hans Pauli Olsen

Videos[link]

Some students from Germany did a small Video of the city & Beach http://vimeo.com/40149260

References[link]

External links[link]

Media related to Sønderborg at Wikimedia Commons

Yup'ik shaman exorcising evil spirits from a sick boy. Nushagak, Alaska, 1890s.^[1]

"Medicine man" or "medicine woman" are English terms used to describe traditional healers and spiritual leaders among Native American and other indigenous or aboriginal peoples. Anthropologists tend to prefer the term "shaman," a specific term for a spiritual mediator from the Tungusic peoples of Siberia.^[2]

The medicine man and woman in North America[link]

Role in native society[link]

The primary function of these "medicine elders" (who are not always male) is to secure the help of the spirit world, including the Great Spirit (Wakan Tanka in the language of the Lakota Sioux), for the benefit of the entire community.

Sometimes the help sought may be for the sake of healing disease, sometimes it may be for the sake of healing the psyche, sometimes the goal is to promote harmony between human groups or between humans & nature. So the term "medicine man/woman" is not entirely inappropriate, but it greatly oversimplifies and also skews the depiction of the people whose role in society complements that of the chief. These people are not the Native American equivalent of the Chinese "barefoot doctors", herbalists, nor of the emergency medical technicians who ride rescue vehicles.

To be recognized as the one who performs this function of bridging between the natural world and the spiritual world for the benefit of the community, an individual must be validated in his role by that community. Medicine men and women study through a medicine society or from a single teacher.

Cultural context[link]

An Ojibwa medicine man preparing an herbal remedy.

The term "medicine people" is commonly used in Native American communities, for example, when Arwen Nuttall (Cherokee) of the National Museum of the American Indian writes, "The knowledge possessed by medicine people is privileged, and it often remains in particular families."^[3]

Native Americans tend to be quite reluctant to discuss issues about medicine or medicine people with non-Indians. In some cultures, the people will not even discuss these matters with Indians from other tribes. In most tribes medicine elders are not expected to advertise or introduce themselves as such. As Nuttall writes, "An inquiry to a Native person about religious beliefs or ceremonies is often viewed with suspicion.^[3] One example of this was the Apache medicine cord or Izze-kloth, whose purpose and use by Apache medicine elders was a mystery to nineteenth century ethnologists because "the Apache look upon these cords as so sacred that strangers are not allowed to see them, much less handle them or talk about them."^[4]

The 1954 version of Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language, reflects the poorly grounded perceptions of the people whose use of the term effectively defined it for the people of that time: "a man supposed to have supernatural powers of curing disease and controlling spirits." In effect, such definitions were not explanations of what these "medicine people" were to their own communities, but instead reported on the consensus of socially and psychologically remote observers when they tried to categorize these individuals.^{[citation needed]} The term "medicine man/woman," like the term "shaman", has been criticized by Native Americans, as well as other specialists in the fields of religion and anthropology.

The term "medicine man/woman" was also frequently used by Europeans to refer to African traditional healers, also known as "witch doctors" or "fetish men/women".

See also[link]

References[link]

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