Denmark Map

• Denmark's armed forces are known as the Danish Defence (Danish: Forsvaret). During peacetime, the Ministry of Defence in Denmark employs around 33,000 in total. The main military branches employ almost 27,000: 15,460 in the Royal Danish Army, 5,300 in the Royal Danish Navy and 6,050 in the Royal Danish Air Force (all including conscripts).

• The Danish Emergency Management Agency (Danish: Beredskabsstyrelsen) employs 2,000 (including conscripts), and about 4,000 are in non-branch-specific services like the Danish Defence Command, the Danish Defence Research Establishment and the Danish Defence Intelligence Service. Furthermore around 55,000 serve as volunteers in the Danish Home Guard (Danish: Hjemmeværnet).

• The Danish Defence has around 1,400 staff in international missions, not including standing contributions to NATO SNMCMG1. The three largest contributions are in Afghanistan (ISAF), Kosovo (KFOR) and Lebanon (UNIFIL). Between 2003 and 2007, there were approximately 450 Danish soldiers in Iraq.

• The Protestant Reformation came to Scandinavia in the 1520s. On Easter Sunday 1525, Hans Tausen, a monk in the Order of St John's Hospitalers, proclaimed aloud the need for Martin Luther's reforms in the Catholic Church. His sermon was the beginning of a ten year struggle which would change Denmark forever. Tausen was hustled off to a monastery in Viborg in northern Jutland where he would be isolated and away from Copenhagen and the court. Tausen simply preached through the window of his locked chamber. At first curious Danes came to hear the strange new ideas that Tausen was preaching. Within weeks Tausen was freed by his loyal followers, and then a Franciscan abbey church was broken open so Viborgers could hear God's word under a roof. Luther's ideas were accepted so rapidly that the local bishop and other churchmen in Viborg were unable to cope. In many churches the mass was celebrated alongside Lutheran sermons, and then Tausen's version of Luther's teachings began to spread to other parts of Jutland. Within a year Tausen was the personal chaplain of King Frederick I. Frederick tried to balance the old and new ideas insisting that they coexist; it lasted only as long as the king did.

• A mob stormed Our Lady Church in Copenhagen in 1531 tearing down statues, destroying side altars, artwork and relics that had accumulated through its long history. Similar events happened through the country, although for the most part the change was peaceful. The majority of common people saw the reduced influence and wealth of the church as a liberating thing, but their new found influence did not last long.

• At the death of Frederick I in 1533, two claimants to the throne – one backed by Protestant Lübeck and the other by Catholic nobles – caused a civil war known as the Count's Feud (Danish: Grevens Fejde) (1534–1536). The massacre of Skipper Clement's peasant army at Aalborg in December 1534 brought an end to the war and left the pro-Lutheran party firmly in charge. Denmark became officially Lutheran in 1536. Denmark's Catholic bishops were arrested and imprisoned. Abbeys, nunneries, monasteries and other church properties were confiscated by local nobility and the crown. Monks, nuns and clergy lost their livelihood. The bishops who agreed to marry and not stir up trouble were given former church lands as personal estates.

• Catholic influence remained longest in Viborg and the nearby area, where change permeated slowly, although the reformation originally began there.

• The cuisine of Denmark, like that in the other Nordic countries as well as that of Northern Germany, consists mainly of meat and fish. This stems from the country's agricultural past, as well as its geography and climate of long, cold winters.

• Danish food includes a variety of open rugbrød (Rye-bread) sandwiches or smørrebrød traditionally served for the mid-day meal or frokost (lunch). An ordinary frokost consists just of 2 to 6 pieces of simple smørrebrød prepared during breakfast and packed in a lunch box. A luxury frokost usually starts with fish such as pickled herring, smoked eel or hot fried plaice. Then come meat sandwiches such as cold roast beef with remoulade and fried onions, roast pork and crackling with red cabbage, hot veal medallions, Danish meat balls (frikadeller) or liver paté with bacon and mushrooms.

• Some typically Danish items are Sol over Gudhjem, literally "sun over God's home" (Gudhjem is a town on Bornholm where a lot of herring is landed and smoked), consisting of smoked herring, chives and with raw egg yolk (the "sun") on top; or Dyrlægens natmad, 'vet's late-night bite', with liver paté, saltmeat (corned veal), sliced onions and jellied consommé. Finally cheese is served with crackers, radishes, or grapes. Lager beer accompanied by small glasses of snaps or aquavit are the preferred drinks for a Danish frokost. An other Danish meal is Danish Pastry. It is not made other places than Denmark. In Danish it is called 'Wienerbrød'.

• The large hot meal of the day is called middag and is usually served in the evening. It normally consists of meat (pork, beef, lamb or fish) with gravy and a source of starch (non-sugar carbohydrates) such as boiled potatoes, rice or pasta, sometimes supplemented by salad and/or cabbage. This may be followed by a dessert such as ice cream, mousse or rødgrød. The meal may be preceded by soup or hot porridge.

• Popular meat dishes include pork steak with crispy skin, frikadeller (fried pork and veal meatballs), fried meat patties made from minced beef, beef tenderloin, "million-beef" (minced beef in gravy), karbonader/krebinetter (breaded and fried minced meat, typically pork), all kinds of roast etc. Popular combined meat and starch dishes include Spaghetti alla Bolognese, hash etc.

• Fish is traditionally more widely eaten on the west coast of Jutland, where fishing is a major industry. Smoked fish dishes (herring, mackerel, eel) from local smoking houses or røgerier, especially on the island of Bornholm, are increasingly popular.

• In recent years, Copenhagen restaurants like Noma, Geranium and MR has played an important role in re-inventing the Danish and Nordic cuisine, making Copenhagen a centre of gourmet dining with a Nordic twist.

• Denmark shares a border of 68 kilometres with Germany to the south and is otherwise surrounded by 7,314 kilometres of tidal shoreline (including small bays and inlets). It occupies 43,094 square kilometres. Since 2000 Denmark has been connected by the Øresund Bridge to southern Sweden.

• Denmark's northernmost point is Skagens point (the north beach of the Skaw) at 57° 45' 7" northern latitude; the southernmost is Gedser point (the southern tip of Falster) at 54° 33' 35" northern latitude; the westernmost point is Blåvandshuk at 8° 4' 22" eastern longitude; and the easternmost point is Østerskær at 15° 11' 55" eastern longitude. This is in the archipelago Ertholmene 18 kilometres northeast of Bornholm. The distance from east to west is 452 kilometres , from north to south 368 kilometres (229 mi).

• Denmark consists of the peninsula of Jutland (Jylland) and 443 named islands (1,419 islands above 100 m² in total). Of these, 72 are inhabited, with the largest being Zealand (Sjælland) and Funen (Fyn). The island of Bornholm is located east of the rest of the country, in the Baltic Sea. Many of the larger islands are connected by bridges; the Øresund Bridge connects Zealand with Sweden; the Great Belt Bridge connects Funen with Zealand; and the Little Belt Bridge connects Jutland with Funen. Ferries or small aircraft connect to the smaller islands. Main cities are the capital Copenhagen on Zealand; Århus, Aalborg and Esbjerg in Jutland; and Odense on Funen.

• Phytogeographically, Denmark (including Greenland and the Faroe Islands) belongs to the Boreal Kingdom and is shared between the Arctic, Atlantic European and Central European provinces of the Circumboreal Region. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the territory of Denmark can be subdivided into two ecoregions: the Atlantic mixed forests and Baltic mixed forests. The Faroe Islands are covered by the Faroe Islands boreal grasslands, while Greenland hosts the ecoregions of Kalaallit Nunaat high arctic tundra and Kalaallit Nunaat low arctic tundra.

• Denmark has long been a center of cultural innovation. Copenhagen and its multiple outlying islands have a wide range of folk traditions. The Royal Danish Orchestra is among the world's oldest orchestras. Carl Nielsen, with his six imposing symphonies, was the first Danish composer to gain international recognition, while an extensive recording industry has produced pop stars and a host of performers from a multitude of genres. Internationally only a few artists have gained significant success. Lars Ulrich from Metallica is from Denmark, along with Raveonettes, D-A-D, Volbeat, Mercyful Fate, Medina, King Diamond, Goodiepal, Whigfield, Michael Learns to Rock, Alphabeat, Infernal,Oh Land, the 1990s pop band Aqua and the alternative rock bands Kashmir and Mew. In recent years, the best selling Danish artist abroad has been Rune RK with the number 1 iTunes hit Calabria