Why was Denmark important to Hitler?

Answer 1

The German invasion of Norway was a dramatically daring military operation. The decision to embark on the venture was made by Adolf Hitler as Chief of State and also (since December 1938) as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the German Reich. He arrived at it over a period of six months during which the proposal was debated at length in the highest echelons of the German Armed Forces. Hitler's own attitude shifted during that time from lukewarmness verging on indifference to determination. Since the war the decision has been both praised and condemned; here it is presented as an example of decision-making in a developing situation. [1] Even though the occupation of Norway and Denmark had no significant effect on the outcome of the war, it established a milestone in the history of warfare by demonstrating the effective reach of modern military forces. Although lacking the resources to capitalize on it, the Germans had made a move of potential value to them in the development of a global strategy. It confronted the United States as well as Great Britain with a strategic threat. It brought Germany, theoretically at least, into a position to strike outward from the mainland of Europe toward Iceland, Greenland, and possibly the North American continent.

Answer 2

0} Denmark wasn't really that important and was mainly invaded as a part of the invasion of Norway. The Germans needed the air fields in Northern Jutland as a stepping stone.

1} Denmark was - and to a lessor extent still is - an agricultural country. At the top Denmark supplied more than 10% of Nazi Germany's food supply. This was a simple necessity for Denmark as the war closed the access to the traditional British export market.

2} As other countries with an (indirect) Atlantic coast Denmark became an part of the Atlantic wall when WWII turned turned from Offense to Defense for the Germans.

3} Due to the short distance from the Danish border to Germany's second largest city, Hamburg, and due to Denmark's position as the bottleneck of the Baltic sea, it was important to Germany during both WWI and WWII that Denmark's neutrality was trustworthy, meaning that it would repel any British attempts to launch an attack on Germany via Danish territory. During WWI the Danish neutrality was backed by a mobilised military, but in the 30's Denmark as many other European countries disarmed, and thus gave Germany an excuse to 'take over the defense' of the Danish territory during WWII. This was exactly Germany's official pretext for the 1940-invasion.