DANMARK	DENMARK
Region Syddanmark	Region South Denmark

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Aabenraa or Åbenrå (German: Apenrade) is located at the head of the Aabenraa Fjord, an arm of the Little Belt, in Denmark, 61 km north of the town of Schleswig. With the administrative reform of 1970, Aabenraa ceased being an independent municipality but instead became the cetre of a 'kommune', which included the neighbouring municipalities of Løft, Ensted and parts of Rise. In 2007 this community was merged with the communities of Rødekro, Lundtoft, Bov and Tinglev. The Aabenraaa Kommune has a population of about 59,800 (2012).

Aabenraa started growing in the early Middle Ages around Opnřr Hus, the bishop's castle, and received status as a merchant town in 1240. During the Middle Ages the town was known for its fishing industry and for its production of hops. Between 1560 and 1721 the town was under the rule of the Dukes of Holstein-Gottorp. The town's glory days were during the period of the 1750s to the 1860s, when ship traffic was at a high growth rate with trade to the Mediterranean Sea, China, South America, and Australia. It possessed a good harbour, which afforded shelter for a large carrying trade, Aabenraa having the Danish monarchy's third-largest trade fleet, after Copenhagen and Flensborg. The city had a number of well-known shipbuilding yards, which were known for their fine ships. The most famous of these was the clipper Cimber, which in 1857 sailed from Liverpool to San Francisco in just 106 days. Fishing and various small factories also provided occupations for the population. From 1864 as a result of the Second War of Schleswig 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, 55.1% of Aabenraa's inhabitants voted for remaining part of Germany and 44.9% voted for the cession to Denmark.

After the 1948 Danish spelling reform, which abolished the digraph 'Aa' in favor of 'Å', there was fervent resistance in Aabenraa. The town feared, among other things, to lose its status as first in international alphabetical listings. A later revision of the spelling rules allowed for retaining the Aa spelling as an option. While the municipality of Aabenraa and most local citizen use the Aa spelling, Åbenrå remains the option recommended by the Danish Language Board.

[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aabenraa, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aabenraa_Kommune, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aabenraa]