German-Polish relations after World War I
At one time, Gaius Julius Caesar (Gaius Suetonius Tranquill ascribes this statement to him) said that no victory can bring as much as one defeat can take away. This statement is very suitable for characterizing the situation in which Germany found itself after the defeat in the First World War and the conclusion of the Treaty of Versailles.
The Paris Peace Conference began on January 19, 1919, the day 50 years earlier the German Reich was proclaimed in the same Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles where Otto von Bismarck proclaimed the unity of Germany. It was signed on a no less symbolic date.
- writes historian Oleg Plenkov.
It should be noted that among the countries that profited from Versailles, Poland was the most insatiable and warlike. In connection with the events of the present, when the Poles began to threaten Germany with political isolation in order to force them to intervene more actively in the events related to the conflict in Ukraine, I would like to recall stories relations between these countries that developed immediately after the First World War.
The problem of the Polish (Danzig) corridor
In his famous address to Congress on January 8, 1918, US President Woodrow Wilson, in paragraph 13 of his "universal peace program", stated the need to create an independent Polish state, which should be provided with "free and reliable access to the sea." A practical solution to this issue was referred to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 [2].
As a result, it was decided to make Danzig a "free city" and allocate a passage for Poland from East Prussia and Pomerania.
The American historian Kurt Follick wrote the following about this:
This statement may seem strange, in the sense that now Gdansk (Danzig) is a Polish city, but at that time the situation was different - according to the 1910 census, 170 thousand people lived in Danzig, of which 96% were Germans, and 3% Poles (Kashubians who speak a dialect of Polish). These statistics clearly indicated the national identity of the city, but the Entente, despite the declared right to self-determination, ignored these data. Moreover, the victorious powers made an "original" decision - to return the Polish soldiers who fought voluntarily in France through Danzig, which caused understandable anxiety in the city [1].
Only after the protests of the German government did the powers decide to send the heavy weapons of the Polish units through Stettin, and to equip the Polish soldiers only with personal weapons [1].
The decision on the status of Danzig as a "free city" was made at the end of July 1919. Power in the city was to be exercised by the senate, appointed by the People's Assembly, Danzig had its own currency (guilders), its own postage stamps, even its own anthem, beginning with the words "Do you know the city on the amber coast?"
Poland received the right to use waterways and harbors. In addition, she established the right to own institutions in the city: a post office, a school, a railway directorate and barracks with an arms depot on the Westreplatte peninsula, where a company of Polish soldiers (182 people) was located.
Despite these provisions, Warsaw did not leave the thought of acquiring Danzig in the future. To exert economic pressure on Danzig, the Poles in the territory that had ceded to them began building their own port of Gdynia in the fishing village of Gdingen. This port was supposed to compete with Danzig [1].
The German press of Danzig often wrote about the aggressiveness of Poland, which sought to capture the "free city". A real explosion among the German population was caused by the decision of the League of Nations of February 14, 1924 to transfer to Poland the Westerplatz peninsula, located on the territory of the “free city”. The controversial issue of Westerplatz was repeatedly discussed in the League of Nations.
Upper Silesia problem
As stated above, the goal of the Entente (primarily the United States) was to create a "strong Poland" capable of resisting both Germany and Soviet Russia. It was for this purpose that Poland received after the referendums during 1920-1921. territories acquired by Prussia during the historical partitions of Poland in the XNUMXth century.
In addition, Germany lost part of East Prussia and the province of Posen, from which the so-called Polish (Danzig) corridor was formed. German East Prussia was thus "cut" by the territory of Poland. Under Polish jurisdiction were areas where more than 2 million Germans lived [4].
The very complex issue of Upper Silesia, where the border was not recognized by the Germans during the period of the Weimar Republic, was also connected with the German-Polish contradictions. Immediately after the war, the region of Upper Silesia was declared disputable, and a plebiscite commission was set up here. Until March 20, 1921, Upper Silesia was generally declared an independent territory, even Upper Silesian postage stamps were issued. The French occupation authorities were the masters of the situation and in fact supported the excessive Polish demands for the transfer of this area to Poland [1].
One of the centers of Silesia, Katowice was the same German industrial city as Essen and Dortmund. In 1922, this city passed to Poland and underwent intensive colonization. Tens of thousands of Germans were forced to emigrate. Since Katowice was located in the eastern part of Upper Silesia, it became Polish, despite the fact that 85% of its population were Germans. After the partition, 75% of coal mining and 90% of metal smelting passed into Polish hands [1]. It is no coincidence that the then German Chancellor Josef Wirth rightly called Poland nothing more than a "predatory state" [5].
The Poles sought to socialize the German-owned mines. For a vote cast for Poland during a plebiscite, they gave a cow. On March 20, 1921, 707 thousand people (56,6%) voted for Germany at the plebiscite, 178 thousand (40,4%) voted for Poland. When the results of the vote became known, on May 3, 1921, Poland launched a military offensive against Upper Silesia, which was almost entirely occupied [1]. In Germany, in response to these events, increased recruitment into volunteer corps began.
Fierce fighting broke out between the German volunteer corps and the Polish units, who were helped by Piłsudski's troops, culminating in the Battle of Annaberg in May 1921 between the German volunteer corps and the local Silesian self-defense on the one hand and the superior forces of the regular Polish army on the other . The battle ended with the complete defeat of the Poles [6].
The defense of Annaberg by German self-defense units was especially famous in Germany. The territory on which Annaberg was located eventually remained part of Germany, and this monastery became a symbol of nationalism. After the National Socialists came to power, a monument was erected here at the burial place of 50 Germans who died during the defense. The history of the defense of Annaberg eventually turned into a real Nazi epic [1]. In 1945, the Poles blew up the German monument and built a monument to Polish volunteers in its place.
The issue of Upper Silesia was finally resolved as follows: after the end of hostilities, those districts in which Poland received 56% of the votes went to Poland, despite the fact that in these districts the absolute majority of the population was German, the remaining districts with 71% of the votes for Germany went to Germany [1].
Much later, on October 24, 1938, German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop, at a meeting with Polish Ambassador Julian Lipsky, proposed to resolve the Polish-German problems by (generally fair) joining Danzig to Germany and building an "exterritorial highway and railway through the Polish Pomerania". This proposal was repeatedly repeated, but was not accepted by the Poles [1]. This was one of the reasons for the attack of the Third Reich on Poland on September 1, 1939.
Poland is a US outpost in Eastern Europe
(as a conclusion)
As the historian-Germanist Oleg Plenkov rightly notes,
Of the 27 million people in Poland, 1/3 turned out to be minorities, the Poles were obliged to sign an agreement guaranteeing the rights of minorities, but in reality they did not observe anything and treated a third of the country's population as outcasts.
For example, in 1918, according to the Polish authorities, 150 thousand inhabitants lived in Poznan, of which 42% were Germans. Just three years later, the German population had dropped to 6%. In 1919, the Polish authorities approved a law that prohibited Germans in Poznań from purchasing property, and those Germans who had recently acquired it had to sell it at a price below the market price. Complaints to the court and the League of Nations remained unanswered.
Poland relied on the support of the Entente camps, and first of all the United States, which were interested in a strong Poland and "turned a blind eye" to the violation of signed treaties by the Poles. Moreover, this support was not only political, but also economic: President W. Wilson, in his speech of January 8, 1918, called for Poland to be freed from all economic barriers in order to take a position when it could benefit from equality of conditions trade.
It is worth noting that the "special relationship" between Poland and the United States persists to this day, modern Poland plays a fairly significant role in European politics, being the main outpost of the United States in Eastern Europe and actively promoting American interests.
As for Germany, despite the fact that Germany is often called the leader in Eastern Europe, this "leadership" is mostly ephemeral - having a strong economy, Germany nevertheless does not have much political weight. This is due, among other things, to the fact that after the Second World War, Germany abandoned its claims to political leadership: as already noted in the material “Nuremberg trials and denazification in Germany - myths and reality”, the rejection of claims to a leading political role in Europe became one of the conditions for Germany's integration into the Western world.
Использованная литература:
[1]. Plenkov O. Yu. Catastrophe of 1933. German History and the Rise of the Nazis to Power. – M.: Veche, 2021.
[2]. Pozdnyakova I. I. The problem of the Polish corridor at the Paris Peace Conference // Slavic world: commonality and diversity / ed. E. S. Uzeneva, O. V. Khavanova. M., 2020. S. 121–125.
[3]. Fuller D. World War II 1939–1945. - M., 1956.
[4]. Kosmach V. A. “Humiliation at Versailles”: the results of the First World War for Germany / V. A. Kosmach // Pskov Military Historical Bulletin. - 2015. - No. 1. - P. 155–167.
[5]. Nolte E. European Civil War (1917–1945). National Socialism and Bolshevism: translated from German. – M.: Logos, 2003.
[6]. Akunov V.V. Freikorps: German Volunteer Detachments in 1918–1923. / V. V. Akunov. – M.: Lights, 2004.
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