Tønder

Map of the future municipality

Tønder (German: Tondern) is a municipality (Danish, kommune) in South Jutland County on the Jutland peninsula in south Denmark. The municipality covers an area of 185 km², and has a total population of 12,462 (2005). Its mayor is Hans L. Hansen, a member of the Venstre (Liberal Party) political party.

The main town and the site of its municipal council is the town of Tønder.

Neighboring municipalities are Tinglev to the east, Løgumkloster and Bredebro to the north, and Højer to the west. To the south is Germany.

The municipality was created in 1970 as the result of a kommunalreform ("Municipality Reform") that merged a number of existing parishes:

By January 1, 2007 Tønder municipality will, as the result of Kommunalreformen ("The Municipality Reform" of 2007), be merged with existing Bredebro, Højer, Løgumkloster, Nørre-Rangstrup, and Skærbæk municipalities to form the new Tønder municipality. This will create a municipality with an area of 1,352 km² and a total population of 42,645 (2005). The new municipality will belong to the new Region Syddanmark ("South Denmark Region").

From 1864 it was part of Prussia, and as such part of the North German Confederation, and from 1871 onwards, part of the German Empire. In the 1920 Schleswig Plebiscite that brought Northern Schleswig to Denmark, 76.5 % of Tønder's inhabitants voted for remaining part of Germany and 23.5 % voted for the cession to Denmark. [1]