142-551: (Redirected from German-Polish ) German Polish or Polish German may refer to: German–Polish relations German minority in Poland Polish minority in Germany Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title German Polish . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change
284-653: A Free Socialist Republic was proclaimed at the Berlin Palace . The proclamation was issued by Karl Liebknecht , co-leader with Rosa Luxemburg of the communist Spartakusbund ( Spartacus League ), a group of a few hundred supporters of the Russian Revolution that had allied itself with the USPD in 1917. On the same day, in a move that was contrary to the constitution because only the Kaiser could appoint
426-685: A sovereign state around Poznań and Gniezno in an area later called Greater Poland . Mieszko's territory included Masovia beyond the Vistula river, Silesia and in 962/63 he first met with the Saxon forces of Margrave Gero , ruler of the Marca Geronis between the Saale and Bóbr rivers established in 937 by King Otto I of Germany . During the fight with Germanic duchies Mieszko I in 963 recognized Otto I as Emperor In return for tribute to
568-594: A " Working Committee of German Associations " was founded with representatives of many groups considered "fit for good society". In 1919 the Weimar National Assembly established a parliamentary committee to inquire into the events that had led to the "outbreak, prolongation and loss of the First World War". Its results were of questionable value due to a lack of cooperation from the civil service and military and to increasing interference from
710-471: A "war guilt lie". In line with national conservative and bourgeois right-wing parties, they accused the governing parties of having contributed to Germany's humiliation by signing the treaty and of denying it the right to self-determination. The young republic was exposed from the beginning to attacks from both the extreme right and extreme left. The Left accused the Social Democrats of betraying
852-630: A Polish uprising. Germany also carried out expulsions of Poles , and since the late 19th century, the Lebensraum concept was proliferated in Germany, and it also pertained to annexed ancient Polish territories. Between 1870 and 1914, some 3.5 million Poles have emigrated to Germany, including 1.2 million in internal migration from Polish territories under German rule, 1.2 million from the Russian Partition of Poland and 1.1 million from
994-631: A chancellor, Prince Max of Baden, at Ebert's request, transferred his powers as chancellor to him. In view of the mass support for more radical reforms among the workers' councils, a coalition government called the Council of the People's Deputies ( Rat der Volksbeauftragten ) was established, consisting of three MSPD and three USPD members. Led by Ebert for the MSPD and Hugo Haase for the USPD, it governed Germany from November 1918 to January 1919. Although
1136-579: A coalition government; Hitler's far-right Nazi Party held two out of ten cabinet seats. Von Papen, as Vice-Chancellor and Hindenburg's confidant, was to serve as the éminence grise who would keep Hitler under control; these intentions severely underestimated Hitler's political abilities. By the end of March 1933, the Reichstag Fire Decree and the Enabling Act of 1933 were used in the perceived state of emergency to effectively grant
1278-834: A dozen people. Several Polish uprisings broke out, with the largest one being the Greater Poland uprising of 1848 . The antagonism between the Polish and German populations dates from the Revolutions of 1848 , triggered both by the Poles' desire to regain their independence and the Germans' desire to incorporate the Prussian Partition of Poland into a planned German Reich. Prussian leader and founder of modern Germany, Otto von Bismarck , in regards to Poles, wrote: Hit
1420-477: A general strike. The putsch quickly failed due in large part to the refusal of the ministerial bureaucracy to obey Kapp's orders. The Reichswehr, however, proved itself to be unreliable. It adopted a wait-and-see attitude under General von Seeckt, the head of the Troop Office , who said that "Reichswehr do not fire on Reichswehr". Some among the working class did not limit themselves to passive resistance to
1562-545: A later date (Article 233). In the short term it was required to pay the equivalent of 20 billion gold marks in installments through April 1921 (Article 235). The most contentious article of the treaty, the so-called War Guilt Clause , did not use the word "guilt". It stated that Germany accepted full responsibility for all the loss and damage from a war that was imposed on the Allies by the aggression of Germany and its allies ( Article 231 ). The implications of Article 231 and
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#17327653267901704-437: A parliamentary system. The rebellion caused great fear among supporters of the monarchy and in the middle classes because of the soviet-style aspirations of the councils. To centrist and conservative citizens, the country looked to be on the verge of a communist revolution. By 7 November, the revolution had reached Munich , resulting in the flight of King Ludwig III of Bavaria . The MSPD decided to make use of their support at
1846-645: A peacetime army. Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles , the new army, the Reichswehr , was limited to 100,000 men and the Reichsmarine (navy), to 15,000. The treaty prohibited an air force, submarines, large warships and armoured vehicles. The official formation of the Reichswehr took place on 1 January 1921, after the limitations had been met. The soldiers of the Reichswehr took their oath to
1988-682: A result it was the leadership of the Reichswehr with its largely anti-democratic civil service personnel that, along with the Foreign Office, determined the portrayal of the war in the Weimar Republic. All in all, there was little objective and critical questioning of the causes of the war or of Germany's responsibility for it in academia, politics or the media during the Weimar period. The official view of history continued to follow
2130-560: A reunified Germany would accept the Oder–Neisse line as the final border between Poland and Germany. In the 1990s, Germany opposed Poland joining NATO , according to archived German Foreign Ministry files released in 2022. Germany, pursuing a pro-Russian policy, tried to discourage Poland from joining NATO during confidential discussions, and tried to convince other member countries against Poland's NATO membership. Poland eventually joined NATO in 1999. Poland, Germany and France are part of
2272-648: A reunified Germany would not accept the Oder–Neisse line , and implied that the Federal Republic might wish to restore the frontier of 1937, by force if necessary. After the statement caused a major international backlash that threatened to halt German reunification, Kohl retracted his comments after knuckling under international rebuke, and assured both the United States and the Soviet Union that
2414-545: A speech delivered by Adolf Hitler at a Nazi Party rally in Munich on 24 February 1929. A few weeks later, the term Weimarer Republik was first used again by Hitler in a newspaper article. Only during the 1930s did the term become mainstream, both within and outside Germany. According to historian Richard J. Evans : The continued use of the term 'German Empire', Deutsches Reich , by the Weimar Republic ... conjured up an image among educated Germans that resonated far beyond
2556-742: Is commemorated by a historic pageant held every four years known as the Landshut Wedding . In the 16th century, after the Counter-Reformation was launched and the Thirty Years War broke out in the German lands, Poland became a Roman Catholic stronghold. In 1683, the Polish army commanded by Polish king John III Sobieski helped to relieve the siege of Vienna and along with the Holy Roman Empire, ended
2698-676: Is so called because the Weimar National Assembly that adopted its constitution met in Weimar from 6 February to 11 August 1919, but the name only became mainstream after 1933. Even though the National Assembly chose to retain the old name Deutsches Reich (Art. 1 of the Constitution), hardly anyone used it during the Weimar period, and no single name for the new state gained widespread acceptance. To
2840-795: The Polenaktion . On August 23, 1939, the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was signed by Germany and the Soviet Union , which included the Secret Protocol, which divided Central and Eastern Europe , including Poland, between the two invaders. In the following days, there were several German provocations at the Polish-German border, and on August 25–26, 1939 the German Abwehr attacked a Polish train station near
2982-650: The 1848 German revolutions was named as the national flag in the Weimar Constitution . It was abolished after the entry into force of the Enabling Act of 1933, when the Nazi Party gained total power, in favour of two co-official national flags: the old black-white-red imperial tricolour and the flag of the Nazi Party . From 1935, the Nazi flag with the symbol offset became the sole national flag of
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#17327653267903124-943: The Allies of World War II , including the Norwegian campaign , the Battle of France , the Battle of Britain , the North African campaign , Operation Jubilee , the Italian campaign (including the victorious Battle of Monte Cassino ), Operation Overlord , the Vistula–Oder Offensive and the Western Allied invasion of Germany , liberating parts of Belgium , France , Italy and the Netherlands from German occupation. The Polish resistance movement , including
3266-602: The Austrian Partition of Poland, including 500,000 Poles migrating to work in the industrialized Ruhr region in western Germany and forming a vibrant Polish community known as the Ruhrpolen . The Ruhrpolen were also subjected to anti-Polish and Germanisation policies. Bernhard von Bülow , who served as Chancellor of Germany from 1900 to 1909, called the Polish victory over the Teutonic Knights at
3408-615: The Battle of Grunwald in 1410 the Germans' most portentous national disaster . Around 1900, the Polish national movement was organized in the Narodowa Demokracja . The geopolitical ideology of this movement was the Piast Concept , which viewed the German-Polish borderlands as the cradle of the Polish state. Its founder and principal ideologue Roman Dmowski even claimed the industrialized Prussian east as
3550-641: The Black Reichswehr , a secret reserve networked within the Reichswehr and organised as labour battalions ( Arbeitskommandos ) to circumvent the Treaty of Versailles' 100,000 man limit on the German army. The Black Reichswehr was never involved in direct military action and was dissolved in 1923 after a group of its members attempted to overthrow the government in the Küstrin Putsch . The Reichswehr also developed far-reaching cooperation with
3692-662: The Eastern Front . Polish military units were also formed in Russia ( Polish Armed Forces in the East ) and France ( Blue Army ), enemies of Germany. Germany ran special prisoner-of-war camps for captured ethnic Poles from the Russian Army, with the aim of subjecting them to propaganda and conscripting them into a planned German-controlled Polish army to fight against Russia. Faced with the mass reluctance and distrust from
3834-799: The European Single Market . Both countries are also members of the OECD , OSCE , the Council of Europe , the Council of the Baltic Sea States , HELCOM and the World Trade Organization . The once poor relationship between Poland and Germany has now become a strategic partnership. In the 10th century, the West Slavic Polan tribes under the Piast prince Mieszko I about 960 were able to establish
3976-655: The German–Polish declaration of non-aggression . A trade agreement followed. Two conferences addressed the matter of the school history-books used in Poland and in Germany: In the late 1930s, before the German-Soviet invasion of Poland , which started World War II , discrimination and persecution of the Polish minority in Germany, including the indigenous Poles in the territories that remained within Germany in
4118-667: The Home Army and the Polish Underground State , was the largest underground resistance movement in all of German-occupied Europe . Poland did not establish a collaborationist government under German occupation, and pre-war Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Bartel was even murdered by the Germans for refusing to form one. Several Polish uprisings against Germany broke out, including the Zamość uprising , Iwieniec Uprising , Operation Ostra Brama , Lwów uprising and
4260-455: The Kiel mutiny on 3 November. Sailors, soldiers and workers began electing workers' and soldiers' councils ( Arbeiter- und Soldatenräte ) modelled after the soviets of the 1917 Russian Revolution . The revolution spread throughout Germany, and participants seized military and civil power in individual cities. The power takeovers were achieved everywhere without loss of life. At the time,
4402-457: The League of Nations , which marked its reintegration into the international community. Nevertheless, especially on the political right, there remained strong and widespread resentment against the treaty and those who had signed and supported it. The Great Depression of October 1929 severely impacted Germany's tenuous progress; high unemployment and subsequent social and political unrest led to
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4544-651: The Lebensraum policy. Following the Oath crisis , in July 1917, the Germans arrested Józef Piłsudski and his close associate Kazimierz Sosnkowski and then imprisoned them in Magdeburg . Near the end of the war, the Germans offered to release them in exchange for Piłsudski's declaration of loyalty to Germany, but Piłsudski declined. Nevertheless, Piłsudski and Sosnkowski were eventually released on November 8, 1918, after
4686-419: The Northern March . In 984 Mieszko's son Bolesław I the Brave was married to a daughter of Margrave Rikdag of Meissen . However, in the same year the Polish ruler, instigated by Duke Boleslaus II of Bohemia , interfered in the conflict between minor King Otto III of Germany and the deposed Bavarian duke Henry the Wrangler . He timely switched sides, when he realized that Otto's mother Theophanu would gain
4828-415: The Reichswehr from the control of the Reichstag . Under Seeckt the Reichswehr developed into what many historians consider a "state within the state". During the 1920 Kapp Putsch , Seeckt refused to deploy the Reichswehr against the Freikorps involved in the putsch but immediately afterwards had the Ruhr Red Army brutally suppressed during the Ruhr uprising . In 1921 the Reichswehr organized
4970-429: The Silesian Uprisings and the Greater Poland uprising in the German Province of Posen , which became part of the Second Polish Republic under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. In the four years following the First World War, the situation of most German civilians remained dire. The post-war economic crisis was a result of lost pre-war industrial exports, the loss of imported raw materials and foodstuffs due to
5112-440: The Soviet Union , no official diplomatic steps were made to settle the issue of wartime reparations, and no formal diplomatic note was ever presented to the East German government informing it of Poland's intentions to renounce its reparation rights. Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic , officially known as the German Reich , was a historical period of Germany from 9 November 1918 to 23 March 1933, during which it
5254-462: The Spartacus League and the left wing of the USPD. In January, the Spartacus League, in what was known as the Spartacist uprising , took advantage of a large strike in Berlin and attempted to establish a communist government. The uprising was put down by paramilitary Freikorps units consisting of volunteer soldiers. Following bloody street fights, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were summarily killed after their arrests on 15 January. With
5396-408: The Teutonic Order . After the failure of converting the Old Prussians to Christianity , the Order fell into a series of conflicts with the Polish state. The Teutonic Knights invaded the Polish coastal region of Gdańsk Pomerania with the country's main port city of Gdańsk , and therefore took the control of the nearly entire southeastern Baltic Sea coast. The Teutonic Knights continued to occupy
5538-408: The Treaty of Warsaw . The Warschauer Kniefall gesture by Chancellor and future Nobel Peace Prize laureate Willy Brandt, which took place at the Monument to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Heroes in 1970, was regarded as a major step in the process of reconciliation between the two countries. From 1972 to 1980, Poland and East Germany enjoyed visa-free travel. Due to large anti-communist protests and
5680-404: The Treaty of Zgorzelec , which officially confirmed and recognized the Polish-East German border. However, while the Poles were still insisting 20 years after the end of the war that the 1945 Potsdam Agreement had created favorable and just borders encompassing the entire historical territory of Poland, the GDR saw the loss of the old German East as a reparation for the Nazi crimes against
5822-446: The Warsaw Uprising . During the latter, SS chief Heinrich Himmler anticipated a total destruction of Warsaw, the capital of the former Polish nation , which has supposedly blocked the Germans' road to the east for 700 years . Following the Polish loss in the uprising, Germany carried out the planned destruction of Warsaw in late 1944, and in October 1944, Himmler stated in regards to Warsaw: The city must completely disappear from
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5964-582: The Weimar Constitution . The commander-in-chief was the Reich president , while the Reich minister of the armed forces exercised command authority. Military right of command ( Kommandogewalt ) was in the hands of the OHL. The resulting dualism between civilian power and military command was to become a heavy burden on the Republic. Whereas Reichswehr Minister Otto Gessler was content with limited political and administrative duties during his tenure (1920–1928), Colonel General Hans von Seeckt , Chief of Army Command from 1920 to 1926, succeeded in largely removing
6106-480: The Weimar Triangle which was created in 1991 to strengthen cooperation between the three countries. In the 1990s, some reparations from World War II were continued to be repaid to Poland and that money was distributed through the Foundation for Polish-German Reconciliation , a foundation supported by both governments. The Polish-German border is 467 km long. On 1 September 2022, Poland's government headed by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki presented to
6248-462: The massacre of Lwów professors , Ponary massacre and Czarny Las massacre . Polish Jews were among the primary victims of the German-perpetrated Holocaust , and rescuing and helping Jews by Poles were both punishable by death, not only for the rescuers, but also for their entire families. In all of German-occupied Europe , such extreme measures were only imposed in Poland. During the war, Poles fought against Germany on various war fronts as one of
6390-434: The pre-war eastern territories of Germany , which it had previously lost, either in the Partitions of Poland or earlier. From 1945–1950, a series of flights and expulsions occurred, in which up to 11 million ethnic Germans were forced to leave their homes in Poland and resettle in post-war West and East Germany . It was the largest forced displacement of a population in history. The Cold War saw good relations between
6532-448: The "autochthonous" population, from Poland, especially to West Germany. Eventually, the Polish had to realize that their assimilation policy towards the German minority - the German citizens and the so-called "autochthons" who insisted on their German ethnicity - had failed. The relations between West Germany and Poland improved through Willy Brandt 's Ostpolitik. West Germany recognized the Oder-Neisse line as Poland's western border in
6674-424: The 1930s. The Weimar Republic had a semi-presidential system . At the end of the First World War (1914–1918), Germany was exhausted and sued for peace in desperate circumstances. Awareness of imminent defeat sparked a revolution , the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II , formal surrender to the Allies , and the proclamation of the Weimar Republic on 9 November 1918. In its initial years, grave problems beset
6816-415: The GDR. The GDR was very cautious not to cause Polish anger but anything that went beyond the reunification of separated spouses, minor children with their parents was rejected by the Polish authorities. Family reunions were handled more liberally by the Polish from 1956 on but the more generous exit policy for Germans from Poland was flanked by massive attempts by the Polish and GDR authorities to influence
6958-505: The German officer class. A rift developed between the MSPD and USPD after Ebert called upon the OHL for troops to put down a mutiny by a leftist military unit on 23/24 December 1918 in which members of the Volksmarinedivision (People's Navy Division) captured the city's garrison commander Otto Wels of the MSPD and occupied the Reich Chancellery where the Council of the People's Deputies had its offices. The ensuing street fighting left 11 Volksmarinedivision members and 56 members of
7100-445: The German-Polish border as permanent nor even Poland's independence itself. Already in 1922, Chief of the German Army Hans von Seeckt stated: Poland's existence is intolerable and incompatible with the essential conditions of Germany's life. Poland must go and will go - as a result of her internal weakness and of action by Russia - with our aid. A German–Polish customs war began in 1925, but in 1934 Nazi Germany and Poland signed
7242-440: The Germans to stay in Poland or move to the GDR. In 1959/60, as was the case several times in the 1950s, family reunifications were declared complete by the Polish and in the 1960s family reunions were handled restrictively by the Polish. The European policy of détente at the beginning of the 1970s, and in particular the signing of the Warsaw Treaty ushered in the next phase of family reunions and departures of Germans, preferably
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#17327653267907384-469: The Kaiser that Germany needed to pursue an armistice and that the majority parties in the Reichstag, not the OHL, had to take responsibility for it. Although in retreat, the German armies were still on French and Belgian territory when the war ended on 11 November. Ludendorf and Paul von Hindenburg then began proclaiming that it was the defeatism of the civilian population – especially the socialists – that had made defeat inevitable. The stab-in-the-back myth
7526-417: The Kapp Putsch. Especially in the Ruhr , where dissatisfaction with the lack of nationalisation of key industries was particularly high, councils were formed that sought to seize local power. In the Ruhr uprising , civil war-like fighting broke when the Ruhr Red Army , made up of some 50,000 armed workers, mostly adherents of the KPD and USPD, used the disruption caused by the general strike to take control of
7668-399: The Kiel barracks. The sailors and soldiers welcomed him, and he was able to defuse the situation. On 9 November 1918, the German Republic was proclaimed by MSPD member Philipp Scheidemann at the Reichstag building in Berlin, angering Friedrich Ebert , the leader of the MSPD, who thought that the question of monarchy or republic should be answered by a national assembly. Two hours later,
7810-745: The Left and supporters of the former empire led to political violence and extremism . The young republic found itself in a nearly constant economic and political crisis until 1924. The Treaty of Versailles ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allied powers and set the conditions for peace. It was signed 28 June 1919 and can be divided into four main categories: territorial issues, disarmament, reparations and assignment of guilt. Territorially, Germany had to renounce sovereignty over its colonies and in Europe lost 65,000 sq km (25,000 sq mi) or about 13% of its former territory – including 48% of its iron and 10% of its coal resources – along with 7 million people, or 12% of its population. The Saarland
7952-403: The March 1920 Kapp Putsch , Freikorps units under General von Lüttwitz occupied the government quarter in Berlin. In an attempt to reverse the revolution and install an autocratic government, the former Prussian civil servant Wolfgang Kapp appointed himself Reich chancellor and Lüttwitz Reichswehr minister and commander-in-chief of the Reichswehr. The legal government fled Berlin and called for
8094-426: The National Assembly convened in the city of Weimar , giving the future Republic its unofficial name. The Weimar Constitution created a parliamentary republic with the Reichstag elected by proportional representation . During the debates in Weimar, fighting continued sporadically across Germany. On 7 April 1919 the Bavarian Soviet Republic was declared in Munich but quickly put down by Freikorps and remnants of
8236-429: The National Assembly voted to approve the treaty on 23 June. It was signed in Paris five days later. Explaining the rise of extreme nationalist movements in Germany shortly after the war, British historian Ian Kershaw pointed to the "national disgrace" that was "felt throughout Germany at the humiliating terms imposed by the victorious Allies and reflected in the Versailles Treaty...with its confiscation of territory on
8378-414: The Poles so hard that they despair of their life; I have full sympathy with their condition, but if we want to survive, we can only exterminate them; the wolf, too, cannot help having been created by God as he is, but people shoot him for it if they can. In 1863, Prussian troops pacified a protest of the Polish population in the village of Bredynki , killing more than a dozen people, fearing the outbreak of
8520-431: The Polish Greater Poland uprising of 1918–19 and Silesian Uprisings against Germany broke out in the disputed regions of Greater Poland and Upper Silesia . Eventually, Poland regained the majority of the lands lost to Prussia in the Partitions of Poland , and parts of the territories lost even earlier, including the industrialized part of Upper Silesia in 1922. Germany remained hostile to Poland and refused to regard
8662-411: The Polish POWs, the plan failed and was abandoned. The 1914 Septemberprogramm authorized by German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg proposed the creation of a Central European Economic Union, comprising a number of European countries, including Germany and Poland, in which, as the Chancellor secretly stressed, there was to be a semblance of equality among the member states, but in fact it
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#17327653267908804-428: The Polish hopes. Throughout the German lands a network of organizations devoted to supporting the Poles appeared, and over 70 German doctors went to Poland to provide relief to Polish insurgents. The restoration of independent Poland was advocated at the Hambach Festival of 1832 with Poles in attendance. In 1832, Prussian soldiers committed massacres of interned Polish insurgents in Fiszewo and Elbląg , killing over
8946-441: The Polish nation . The FRG of the time did not yet accept the Oder-Neisse boundary. During the early Cold War, Poland– West Germany relations were generally strained. War, flight, and expulsion from west-shifted Poland had torn apart a great many of families who pressured the German authorities to support their relatives for leaving Poland. During 1950-55, difficult negotiations for family reunions were conducted between Poland and
9088-418: The Polish nation, including the King, should either be enslaved or exterminated, either in its entirety, or in its majority. After Poland challenged his works at the Council of Constance , his views were condemned by Pope Martin V in 1424. He is considered the first writer to formulate the argument in justification of genocide of another nation. During the Thirteen Years' War (1454–1466) , Poland regained
9230-415: The Polish-Slovak border, but it was repelled by the Polish Army (see Jabłonków incident ). On August 28, 1939, a German saboteur carried out a train station bombing in Tarnów in southern Poland, killing 20 people and wounding 35 others. On August 31, 1939, Germany staged the Gleiwitz incident , a false flag attack which was to serve as a casus belli to justify the invasion of Poland , which started
9372-405: The Republic, such as hyperinflation and political extremism , including political murders and two attempted seizures of power by contending paramilitaries ; internationally, it suffered isolation, reduced diplomatic standing and contentious relationships with the great powers. By 1924, a great deal of monetary and political stability was restored, and the republic enjoyed relative prosperity for
9514-410: The Rhineland and 50 kilometres (31 miles) east of the river demolished. Germany was prohibited from having an air force, tanks, poison gas, heavy artillery, submarines or dreadnoughts . A large number of its ships and all of its air-related armaments were to be surrendered. Germany had to compensate the Allied Powers for the losses and damages of the war, with the exact amount left to be determined at
9656-571: The Soviet Red Army , leading among other things to the secret training of German military pilots in clear violation of the Treaty of Versailles. With Seeckt's fall in 1926, the Reichswehr made a change in course for which Colonel (later General) Kurt von Schleicher was primarily responsible. The goal was to arouse broad social support for rearmament and to militarize society itself for the purpose of future warfare. Under Paul von Hindenburg's Reich presidency, Reichswehr leadership gained increasing political influence and eventually helped determine
9798-404: The Third Reich, and after World War II, both the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic readopted the black-red-gold flag. The coat of arms was initially based on the Reichsadler ("imperial eagle") introduced by the Paulskirche Constitution of 1849, and announced in November 1919. In 1928, a new design by Karl-Tobias Schwab was adopted as national coat of arms, which
9940-438: The Workers' and Soldiers' Council of Greater Berlin called for a National Congress of Councils ( Reichsrätekongress ) which took place from 16 to 21 December 1918. Against the opposition of the more radical members who demanded a socialist republic, Ebert, backed by the large MSPD majority at the Congress, was able to schedule the election for a provisional National Assembly that would act as an interim parliament and be given
10082-424: The abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II was announced, marking the end of Imperial Germany and the beginning of the Weimar Republic. The armistice that ended the fighting was signed on 11 November. Germany lost the war because its allies were facing defeat and its economic resources were running out, while by late summer 1918 fresh American troops were arriving in France at the rate of 10,000 per day. Support among
10224-464: The affirmation of Ebert, those responsible were not tried before a court-martial, leading to lenient sentences, which made Ebert unpopular among radical leftists. The National Assembly election , in which women were allowed to vote for the first time, took place on 19 January 1919. The MSPD won the largest share of the votes at 37.9%, with the USPD fifth at 7.6%. To avoid the ongoing fights in Berlin,
10366-425: The areas with Germans. Germanisation policies were pursued by Prussia and, since 1871, Germany. The Polish November Uprising in the Russian Partition of Poland of 1830–31 triggered enthusiasm for the Polish cause among German liberals, mocked by conservatives as Polish gushing ( Polenschwärmerei [ de ] ). These German liberals however felt that their political ideals for Germany corresponded to
10508-718: The argument issued by the OHL in 1914 that Germany had been threatened by invasion and encirclement. Revising the conditions of the Versailles Treaty became the main goal of German foreign policy. The consensus opposing the "war guilt clause" did much to promote agitation against foreign countries and the Weimar Constitution. Both the DNVP and, in particular, the NSDAP questioned the entire post-war order and propagated
10650-719: The auspices of the Holy See . A major German–Polish War was fought between 1003 and 1018. In 1109, Poland defeated the invading German forces at Głogów . Throughout the Middle Ages , the Germans expanded eastwards from modern western and central Germany into the less populated regions, east of Elbe and Saale rivers, which were inhabited by Baltic , Finnic and Slavic peoples, including Poles . The area of German settlement roughly stretched from Slovenia to Estonia , and southwards into Transylvania . The phenomenon, known as "Ostsiedlung" ("east settlement", "settlement in
10792-632: The bedrock of the Polish nation to regain independence. During World War I , Germany invaded and occupied vast areas of the Russian Partition of Poland, and in August 1914, the German Army carried out the destruction of Kalisz , one of Poland's oldest historical cities. During the war, the Polish Legions led by Józef Piłsudski initially fought on the side of Austria-Hungary and Germany against Russia, in hope of defeating at least one of
10934-562: The biggest located in Auschwitz . During the war, Poland suffered circa 6 million casualties and it also suffered huge material losses because Germany sought to commit genocide against its Polish , Jewish and Roma populations. As a result of World War II and the decision of the Big Three , Poland lost the eastern half of its territory, which was annexed by the Soviet Union , and as compensation for this loss, it received most of
11076-712: The centuries-long Polish–Teutonic Wars , as a result of which the State of the Teutonic Order became a part and fief of the Kingdom of Poland, later transformed with the consent of the Polish King into the secular Duchy of Prussia . Prussia retained a certain level of autonomy under Polish rule. Later, the Kingdom of Prussia rose and eventually became one of the three partitioners of Poland in 1772–1795. Following
11218-470: The collapse of Chancellor Hermann Müller's grand coalition and the beginning of the presidential cabinets . From March 1930 onwards, President Paul von Hindenburg used emergency powers to back Chancellors Heinrich Brüning , Franz von Papen and General Kurt von Schleicher . The Great Depression, exacerbated by Brüning's policy of deflation , led to a surge in unemployment . On 30 January 1933, Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor to head
11360-728: The communist states of People's Republic of Poland and the German Democratic Republic . Polish- West German relations, on the other hand, were strained, although they improved after Chancellor Willy Brandt launched the Ostpolitik . In 1990, Germany reunified and it confirmed the Polish-German border on the Oder-Neisse line in a treaty . Both states are now NATO and the European Union allies and partners, having an open border and being members of
11502-476: The composition of the Reich governments. As a result, the Reichswehr contributed significantly to the development of an authoritarian presidential system during the final phase of the Weimar Republic. After Adolf Hitler announced the "regaining of military sovereignty" (reintroduction of conscription etc.) in 1935, two years after his rise to power , the Reichswehr was absorbed into the new Wehrmacht . It
11644-498: The continental blockade, the loss of Germany's overseas colonies and the worsening debt balances that had been exacerbated by Germany's heavy reliance on bonds to pay for the war. The economic losses can be attributed in part to the extension of the Allied blockade of Germany until the Treaty of Versailles was signed on 28 June 1919. It is estimated that between 100,000 and 250,000 German civilians died of disease or starvation between
11786-837: The crime, now known as the Katyn massacre , to the world. The Germans allowed the International Red Cross and Polish Red Cross to the site, and formed the International Katyn Commission to investigate the massacre. At the Tehran Conference which was held in 1943, Stalin demanded that the post-war territory of Germany and Poland be redrawn further west as a buffer between the Soviet Union and Germany . Nazi Germany killed nearly 6 million Polish citizens, including Polish academics, doctors, lawyers, nobles, priests and others. Poland
11928-699: The east bank near Cologne , Mainz and Koblenz . In addition, the Rhineland and an area stretching 50 kilometers east of the Rhine was to be demilitarized. France had demanded the occupation both to protect itself from a renewed German attack and as collateral for German reparations. The occupation was to last 5 years in the British zone, 10 in the American and 15 years in the French and Belgian zones, until 1934, but
12070-506: The east") followed the territorial expansion of the Holy Roman Empire and the Teutonic Order . At various times, Germans were also encouraged by Polish rulers of the Piast dynasty to settle in Poland. Ethnic conflicts erupted between the newly arrived settlers and local populations. In the 13th century, Poland was suffering from the attacks of Pagan tribes . In response, Konrad I of Masovia hired an army of unemployed crusaders -
12212-489: The eastern border and even more so its 'guilt clause'." Adolf Hitler repeatedly blamed the Republic and its democracy for accepting the oppressive terms of the treaty. Article 231 of the Versailles Treaty was widely perceived not only as a legal legitimisation of reparations but also as a moral condemnation of Germany, and it triggered a storm of indignation among the German public. The hostility towards it came from across
12354-472: The emergence of the Solidarity movement in Poland, East Germany unilaterally terminated the visa-free travel agreement and closed the border. After the fall of communism , Poland and the reunited Germany have had a somewhat positive, but occasionally strained relationship due to sensitive political issues. In March 1990, German chancellor Helmut Kohl caused a diplomatic firestorm when he suggested that
12496-877: The end of World War II, there were over 1.7 million Polish displaced persons in Allied-occupied Germany , including 700,000 in the Soviet occupation zone , 540,000 in the British occupation zone , 400,000 in the American occupation zone and 68,000 in the French occupation zone . During the Cold War , East Germany shared the fate of Poland, which fell into the Soviet sphere of influence , and both countries had Soviet-installed communist regimes, and therefore enjoyed good relations. In 1950, both countries signed
12638-417: The end of the war and the signing of the treaty. Many German civilians expected life to return to pre-war normality after it was lifted, but the severe food shortages continued. In 1922, for example, meat consumption had not increased since the war years. At 22 kilograms per person per year, it was less than half of the 52 kilograms consumed in 1913. German citizens felt the food shortages more deeply than during
12780-480: The enormous fall in the Papiermark 's value. After four years of war and famine, many German workers were disenchanted with the capitalist system and hoped for a new era under socialism or communism. Socialists dominated the new revolutionary government in Berlin, and numerous short-lived council republics were set up in cities across Germany. Even after they were suppressed, ideological conflicts between
12922-536: The former Russian Partition and did not include the more north-eastern German-occupied areas of the Russian Partition, which were instead administered by the Germans as the Ober Ost . Moreover, Germany still planned the annexation of the so-called " Polish Border Strip " and expulsion of up to 3 million of its Polish inhabitants (including Polish Jews) to make room for German colonization in accordance with
13064-544: The government, which wanted to prevent a German admission of guilt before the world public. The committee met until 1932. During the course of World War I, war reporting was the responsibility of the German General Staff and after 1918 of the Potsdam Reich Archives founded by General Hans von Seeckt , which dedicated itself to the task of "disproving" German war guilt and war crimes. As
13206-421: The grassroots level and put themselves at the front of the movement. They joined the calls for Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicate, and when he refused, Chancellor Maximilian of Baden made a public announcement that the Kaiser and Crown Prince Wilhelm had already done so. Gustav Noske (MSPD) was sent to Kiel to prevent any further unrest and took on the task of controlling the mutinous sailors and their supporters in
13348-673: The growing expansion of the Ottoman Empire into Europe. In the second half of the 18th century, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was partitioned three times between Prussia , Russia and the Austria . The partitions took place in 1772 , 1793 and 1795 . During the Napoleonic Wars , the Poles fought alongside France against Prussia, including in the victorious Greater Poland uprising of 1806 , and
13490-667: The idea of the translatio imperii , the Emperor would continue the tradition of the Roman and Carolingian Empire as guardian of the Catholic Church superior to all secular and ecclesiastical rulers. Mieszko sought to improve the relations with Otto I: he appeared as amicus imperatoris at the Imperial Diet of Quedlinburg in 973 and in 978 secondly married Oda , the daughter of Dietrich of Haldensleben , margrave of
13632-465: The ideals of the labour movement because of their alliance with the old elites; the Right held the supporters of the Republic responsible for Germany's defeat in the First World War, denigrating them as "November criminals" and insinuating that the German army, which was still fighting on enemy soil when the war ended, had been stabbed in the back by them and the revolution (the stab-in-the-back myth ). In
13774-558: The institutional structures Bismarck created: the successor to the Roman Empire ; the vision of God's Empire here on earth; the universality of its claim to suzerainty ; and a more prosaic but no less powerful sense, the concept of a German state that would include all German speakers in Central Europe ;– 'one People, one Reich, one Leader', as the Nazi slogan was to put it. The black-red-gold tricolour of
13916-617: The interbellum, intensified. Germany carried out mass arrests, expulsions, deportations to concentration camps and assassinations of local Polish leaders, activists and prominent individuals. There were numerous cases of attacks on Polish property, schools, printing houses, many Polish organizations were seized, Polish press and culture centers were closed down, Polish church services were banned. Germany carried out extensive anti-Polish propaganda , and increased censorship and confiscations of Polish press and publications. In October 1938 Germany expelled about 17,000 Polish Jews to Poland in
14058-407: The last foreign troops evacuated the Rhineland on 30 June 1930. The treaty's disarmament provisions were intended to make the future German army incapable of offensive action. It was limited to no more than 100,000 men with only 4,000 officers and no general staff; the navy could have at most 15,000 men and 1,500 officers. The Rhineland was to be demilitarized and occupied and all fortifications in
14200-512: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=German_Polish&oldid=932843366 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages German%E2%80%93Polish relations The bilateral relations between Poland and Germany have been marked by an extensive and complicated history. Currently,
14342-525: The mid-1920s, most Germans referred to their government informally as the Deutsche Republik , but for many, especially on the right, the word " Republik " was a painful reminder of a government structure that they believed had been imposed by foreign statesmen and of the expulsion of Emperor Wilhelm II in the wake of a massive national humiliation. The first recorded mention of the term Republik von Weimar (Republic of Weimar) came during
14484-511: The new Chancellor broad power to act outside parliamentary control. Hitler promptly used these powers to thwart constitutional governance and suspend civil liberties, which brought about the swift collapse of democracy at the federal and state level, and the creation of a one-party dictatorship under his leadership. Until the end of World War II in Europe in 1945, the Nazis governed Germany under
14626-596: The new government was confirmed by the Berlin Workers' and Soldiers' Council, it was opposed by the Spartacus League. On 11 November 1918, an armistice was signed at Compiègne by German representatives. It effectively ended military operations between the Allies and Germany. It amounted to a German capitulation, without any concessions by the Allies; the naval blockade was to continue until complete peace terms were agreed on. The Executive Council of
14768-494: The newly crowned Emperor, Otto I recognized Mieszko I as amicus imperatoris ("Friend of the Emperor") and stated that he is dux Poloniae ("Duke of Poland"). As he could not prevail against Gero, Mieszko I resorted to consolidate his realm: he strengthened the relations with the Bohemian duke Boleslaus I by marrying his daughter Dobrawa and converted to Christianity in 966. The next year however, he once again entangled with
14910-565: The next five years; this period, sometimes known as the Golden Twenties , was characterised by significant cultural flourishing, social progress, and gradual improvement in foreign relations. Under the Locarno Treaties of 1925, Germany moved toward normalising relations with its neighbours, recognising most territorial changes under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles and committing never to go to war. The following year, it joined
15052-532: The next morning, without a declaration of war . In September 1939 Nazi Germany invaded Poland and partitioned the country together with the Soviet Union , and then occupied its western half. The western and northern portions of this territory were directly annexed to Germany, while in the remainder, the General Government was formed. Nazi Germany's Directive No. 1306 stated that Polishness equals subhumanity . Poles, Jews and gypsies are on
15194-399: The officer corps, while Groener pledged that the military would be loyal to the government and that it would help it in its fight against left-wing revolutionaries. The agreement marked the acceptance of the new government by the military, but the new Reichswehr armed forces, limited by the Treaty of Versailles to 100,000 army soldiers and 15,000 sailors, remained fully under the control of
15336-608: The outbreak of the German Revolution of 1918–1919 . Three days later, Germany signed the Armistice of 11 November 1918 with the Allies , and Piłsudski proclaimed the independence of Poland. That day, during his speech in Warsaw , he declared that the Polish nation did not want revenge against the Germans for past wrongdoings. After Poland regained independence in 1918, it sought to regain its former western regions, and
15478-567: The partitioning powers and restoring independent Poland at least in the former Russian Partition. Moreover, just before the outbreak of the war, some 40,000 Poles served in the Imperial German Army , and during the war the number of such conscripts rose to 850,000. Conscripted Poles were often sent to the Western Front and were killed in battles there, as Germany feared potential desertions by Poles fighting on Polish soil on
15620-580: The partitions various anti-Polish policies were pursued, including the Kulturkampf , Germanization and expulsions of Poles . That period was also marked by several Polish uprisings against Prussian rule, including the Greater Poland uprising of 1848 during the European Revolutions of 1848 . After World War I , in 1918, Poland regained independence and its place on the map. Under the Treaty of Versailles , Poland regained most of
15762-678: The political spectrum, from the far right to the moderate governing parties to the KPD. After the treaty came into force, the Foreign Office continued the state's control of the debate over war guilt. The War Guilt Department financed and directed the Centre for the Study of the Causes of the War , which was to provide "scientific" support for the "campaign of innocence" abroad. For war-innocence propaganda at home,
15904-478: The population had begun to crumble in 1916, and by mid-1918 many Germans wanted an end to the war. Increasing numbers of them began to associate with the political left, such as the Social Democratic Party and the more radical Independent Social Democratic Party , which demanded an end to the war. When it became obvious to the generals that defeat was at hand, General Erich Ludendorff convinced
16046-496: The pretense that all the extraordinary measures and laws they implemented were constitutional; notably, there was never an attempt to replace or substantially amend the Weimar constitution . Nevertheless, Hitler's seizure of power ( Machtergreifung ) had effectively ended the republic, replacing its constitutional framework with Führerprinzip , the principle that "the Führer's word is above all written law". The Weimar Republic
16188-518: The public a three volume report detailing war damages caused by the German occupation of Poland between 1939 and 1945. The report, which covered both human and material loses, placed the value of wartime damages caused by the German occupation at $ 1.3 trillion. The report also addressed the issue of post-war reparations stating that apart from the 1953 non-binding resolution made by the then communist government led by Bolesław Bierut under pressure from
16330-510: The racist and repressive Polish decrees , which regulated the working and living conditions of Polish slave workers. Polish slave workers were obliged to wear "P" badges and were subjected to strict segregation policies, with certain activities, such as sexual intercourse with German people, being punishable by deportation to concentration camps or death. Germany also extensively looted Poland of its cultural and industrial possession and vandalized its heritage. The Catholic Church in Poland
16472-542: The region despite papal verdicts. They remained powerful until 1410, when a combined Polish-Lithuanian army was able to win a decisive victory over the Teutonic Order at Grunwald. As a result, Poland emerged as a major power in Central Europe . Already in the 15th century, German theologian and writer John of Falkenberg proposed and advocated the genocide of Poles. After the Battle of Grunwald, he suggested that
16614-546: The regular army dead. The USPD leaders were angered by what they believed was treachery by the MSPD, which in their view had joined with the anti-communist military to suppress the revolution. As a result, the USPD left the Council of the People's Deputies after only seven weeks. On 30 December, the split deepened when the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) was formed out of a number of radical left-wing groups, including
16756-617: The regular army. The fall of the Munich Soviet Republic to these units, many of which were on the extreme right, resulted in the growth of far-right, antisemitic movements and organisations in Bavaria , including Organisation Consul , the Nazi Party , and societies of exiled Russian monarchists. Revolutionary sentiment also arose in the eastern states where interethnic discontent between Germans and minority Poles led to
16898-688: The relations between the two countries are friendly, with the two being allies within NATO and the European Union . From the 10th century onward, the Piast -ruled Kingdom of Poland established under Duke Mieszko I had close and chequered relations with the Holy Roman Empire . However, these relations were overshadowed in the Late Middle Ages both by the push eastwards of the Margraviate of Brandenburg into Polish territory and
17040-423: The right of the spectrum, the politically engaged rejected the new democratic model and were appalled to see the honour of the traditional word Reich associated with it. The Catholic Centre Party favoured the term Deutscher Volksstaat (German People's State), while on the moderate left, Chancellor Friedrich Ebert 's Social Democratic Party of Germany preferred Deutsche Republik (German Republic). By
17182-539: The same inferior level, and the Polish population was subjected to extensive genocidal policies , including large massacres, mass expulsions , roundups , arrests, incarceration, kidnapping of Polish children , kidnapping of Polish girls and women for sexual slavery , pacification actions , extermination of mentally ill people and deportations to forced labour and concentration camps, some of which were established in occupied Polish territory (including Auschwitz , Soldau , Majdanek ). The Intelligenzaktion , which
17324-699: The short-lived Polish Duchy of Warsaw was a part of a larger French-led alliance with the German states of the Confederation of the Rhine , however, following the War of the Sixth Coalition the Duchy of Warsaw was dissolved, and partially re-annexed by Prussia. Under Prussian rule in areas where the Polish population lived alongside Germans a virtual apartheid existed, with bans on the Polish language and religious discrimination, besides attempts to colonize
17466-598: The socialist movement, which represented mostly labourers, was split among two major left-wing parties: the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD), which called for immediate peace negotiations and favoured a soviet-style command economy, and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), also known as the Majority Social Democratic Party of Germany (MSPD), which had supported the war and favoured
17608-541: The surface of the earth and serve only as a transport station for the Wehrmacht. No stone can remain standing. Every building must be razed to its foundation. Following Operation Barbarossa , the Germans and German-held Polish forced laborers discovered the mass graves of over 4,000 Polish officers and intelligentsia who were murdered in the Katyn Forest by the Soviet Union in 1940. In April 1943, Germany exposed
17750-417: The task of writing a democratic constitution for a parliamentary government. To ensure that the fledgling government maintained control over the country, Ebert and General Wilhelm Groener , Ludendorff's successor as leader of the Supreme Army Command (OHL), concluded the secret Ebert–Groener pact on 10 November. Over the telephone, Ebert promised that he would allow sole command of the troops to remain with
17892-406: The territorial losses especially angered the Germans. The treaty was reviled as a dictated rather than a negotiated peace. Philipp Scheidemann , then minister president of Germany, said to the Weimar National Assembly on 12 May 1919, "What hand should not wither that puts this fetter on itself and on us?" He resigned rather than accept the terms, but after the Allies threatened to resume hostilities,
18034-463: The territories lost to Prussia in the Partitions of Poland and parts of territories lost even earlier, while Gdańsk ( Danzig ) became a free city in customs union with Poland. It was seen as a great injustice in the Weimar Republic , in part leading to the Nazi takeover of power in 1933. On 1 September 1939, Poland was invaded by Germany , thus initiating World War II . The Third Reich established concentration camps in German-occupied Poland,
18176-640: The territories previously annexed by the Teutonic Knights, and the remainder of the State of the Teutonic Order also became a part of the Kingdom of Poland as a fief . Poland and Bavaria enjoyed good relations since the late Middle Ages, and several Bavarian dukes and electors married Polish princesses , including George marrying Hedwig Jagiellon (daughter of King Casimir IV Jagiellon ), Maximilian II Emanuel marrying Theresa Kunegunda Sobieska (daughter of King John III Sobieski ), and Maximilian III Joseph marrying Maria Anna Sophia (daughter of King Augustus III of Poland ). The wedding of George and Hedwig
18318-464: The troops of the Saxon renegade Wichmann the Younger , fighting over the island of Wolin on the Baltic coast. He also had to defend the Polish border on the lower Oder river against the forces of Margrave Odo I of Lusatia at the 972 Battle of Cedynia . Meanwhile, Poland had to face the claims to universal power raised by Otto I when he had conquered the Kingdom of Italy and was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope John XII in 962. According to
18460-438: The upper hand and in turn sparked a long-term conflict with the Bohemian dukes over Silesia and Lesser Poland. Mieszko backed the German forces several times against the revolting Lutici ( Veleti ) tribes (though to no avail) and until his death in 992 remained a loyal supporter of the Emperor. Nevertheless, Mieszko precautionally had the Dagome iudex document drawn up, whereby he put his realm called Civitas Schinesghe under
18602-852: The war because the reality contrasted so starkly with their expectations. Immediate post-war industrial production fell to the levels of the 1880s, or 57 percent of its value in 1913. The 1919 per capita GDP was only 73 percent of the comparable 1913 figure. Controlled demobilisation kept unemployment initially at around one million. By January 1922, the unemployment rate had sunk to just 0.9%, but inflation caused most workers' real wages to be significantly lower than they were in 1913. The hyperinflation that peaked in late 1923 had its worst effects on government workers, whose wages did not keep pace with private sector workers, and on middle class Germans who had invested in war bonds or who relied on savings, investments or pensions for their living. What had once been substantial savings became essentially worthless due to
18744-417: The world, the final Allied offensive began in August 1918, and the position of Germany and the Central Powers deteriorated, leading them to sue for peace. After initial offers were rejected by the Allied Powers, the hunger and privation of the war years came together with the awareness of an impending military defeat to help spark the German Revolution . On 9 November 1918, a republic was proclaimed , and
18886-448: Was brutally persecuted . Countless prisons and forced labour camps and several major prisoner-of-war camps were established and operated by Germany in occupied Poland, also for Allied POWs of various nationalities. In 1941 Adolf Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa , attacking the Soviet Union, after which Germany also occupied the eastern half of Poland, in which it continued the extermination of Poles, with prime examples including
19028-458: Was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclaimed itself, as the German Republic . The period's informal name is derived from the city of Weimar , which hosted the constituent assembly that established its government. In English, the republic was usually simply called "Germany", with "Weimar Republic" (a term introduced by Adolf Hitler in 1929) not commonly used until
19170-434: Was ceded to the Allied powers, and Danzig went to the League of Nations as the Free City of Danzig . The Polish Corridor left East Prussia physically separated from the rest of Germany. Under the terms of both the Armistice of 1918 and of the Treaty of Versailles, French, British, Belgian and American troops occupied the Rhineland , the area of Germany on the west bank of the Rhine river , together with bridgeheads on
19312-595: Was launched instantly during the invasion of Poland, was the first genocidal campaign carried out by Nazi Germany. It targeted the Polish intelligentsia and Poles engaged in various activities, who were considered capable of organising or leading a Polish resistance movement , which was formed and was active throughout the war regardless. The campaign was then continued from 1940 as the AB-Aktion . Over 2.8 million Poles, including women and children, were deported to slave labour, and Poles accounted for 60% of all foreign slave workers in Germany. In March 1940, Germany issued
19454-430: Was put under the control of the League of Nations for 15 years, and the output of the area's coal mines went to France. Alsace–Lorraine , which Prussia had annexed following the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, once again became French. The northern part of Schleswig-Holstein went to Denmark following a plebiscite. In the east, a significant amount of territory was lost to a restored Poland . The Memel Territory
19596-437: Was spread by the Right throughout the 1920s and ensured that many monarchists and conservatives would refuse to support the government of what they called the "November criminals". The destabilising effect of the stab-in-the-back myth on the Weimar democracy was an important factor in the rise of National Socialism . On 29 October 1918, a rebellion broke out among sailors at Wilhelmshaven ; similar unrest then spread to become
19738-449: Was subjected to the largest amount of destruction among all German-occupied countries during World War II. Following the defeat of Germany in 1945, anti-German sentiment was widespread among the oppressed Poles, a sentiment which was triggered by the policy which the Germans implemented during their occupation of Poland, this sentiment was reflected in the expulsion of Germans from the territories which were assigned to Poland . After
19880-449: Was the unified armed forces of the Nazi regime. Germany and the Central Powers fought the Allies of WWI between 28 July 1914 and 11 November 1918. The war ended with 20 million military and civilian deaths, including 2,037,000 German soldiers and from 424,000 to 763,000 civilians, many of them from disease and starvation as a result of the Allied blockade of Germany . After four years of war on multiple fronts in Europe and around
20022-418: Was to be under German leadership to stabilize Germany's economic predominance in Central Europe , with co-author Kurt Riezler admitting that the union would be a veiled form of German domination in Europe (see also: Mitteleuropa ). Per the Act of 5th November , Germany and Austria-Hungary proclaimed the Regency Kingdom of Poland , a German-controlled puppet state . It was formed in the western part of
20164-407: Was used until being replaced by the Nazi Reichsadler in 1935, and readopted by the Federal Republic of Germany in 1950. Following Germany's defeat in World War I, several million soldiers of the Imperial German Army either simply dispersed on their own or were formally demobilized. The provisional civilian government and the Supreme Army Command (OHL) planned to transfer the remaining units to
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