Schleswig-Holstein Question

Proper noun

 * 1)  The question of which state(s) possessed, or should possess, control over (which parts of) Schleswig-Holstein.

Usage notes

 * Lytton Strachey, calling "the dreadful Schleswig-Holstein question the most complex in the whole diplomatic history of Europe", wrote that the British statesman Henry John Temple (Lord Palmerston) had once remarked that "Only three people  have ever really understood the Schleswig-Holstein business—the Prince Consort, who is dead—a German professor, who has gone mad—and I, who have forgotten all about it."