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45-669: Before 2 November 1939, the Reichsgau was called Reichsgau West Prussia . Though the name resembled that of the pre-1920 Prussian province of West Prussia , the territory was not identical. Unlike the former Prussian province, the Reichsgau included the Bromberg ( Bydgoszcz ) region in the south and lacked the Deutsch-Krone ( Wałcz ) region in the west. The province's capital was Danzig ( Gdańsk ), and its population without

90-559: A "shameful situation" was proclaimed, and Nazi authorities expected the Selbstschutz to remedy it through "direct action". In August 1943 around 500 Jews from a camp in the Pomeranian Voivodeship were sent to Auschwitz, out of which 434 were immediately killed upon arrival It is estimated that, by war's end, up to 60,000 people had been murdered in the region, and up to 170,000 expelled. though other estimates place

135-554: A 6-year term, which elected from its midst a head of this self-administration, the Landesdirektor (with a 6 to 12-year term), and a provincial government ( German : Provinzialausschuss , lit.   ' provincial committee ' ) as well as part of the superordinated overall Prussian royal administration, supervising - on a provincial range - the self-governing municipalities and counties as well as each governorate ( German : Regierungsbezirk , mere supervising bodies of

180-644: A country that was constituted of several principalities and dominated by one of them, the Kingdom of Prussia after it had ultimately defeated its Austrian rival. Its territory covered some 60 percent of the territory that was to become the German Reich . The German Confederation was established at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 and the Kingdom of Prussia was a member until the dissolution in 1866 following

225-717: A militia force made up of Poles of German ethnicity. The local Selbstschutz, under the command of Ludolf von Alvensleben , numbered 17,667 and before their disbandment in October 1939 had killed 4,247 people. Commander of the Selbstschutz Ludolf von Alvensleben told his men on 16 October 1939: You are now the master race here. Nothing was yet built up through softness and weakness... That’s why I expect, just as our Führer Adolf Hitler expects from you, that you are disciplined, but stand together hard as Krupp steel. Don’t be soft, be merciless, and clear out everything that

270-761: A part of their Gleichschaltung policy. In 1938, German Posen-West Prussia was dissolved and its former West Prussian territory was attached to the German Pomeranian Gau . Also in 1938, the Polish Pomeranian Voivodship was expanded southward to comprise the Bydgoszcz region. The resulting enlarged Pomeranian voivodeship was called Greater Pomeranian Voivodship ( Wielkopomorskie ). When Nazi Germany invaded Poland in September 1939 , this Greater Pomeranian voivodship

315-558: A province ( Provinz ) comprising several counties ( Kreise ) . The western remains of German West Prussia were merged to the German remains of the former Province of Posen and made a new province, Posen-West Prussia . After the Nazis came to power in Germany , they reformed the administrative system by transforming the former German provinces and states into their Gau system in 1935 as

360-733: Is a summary of the changes in the Prussian provinces between 1919 and 1945: Prussia did not survive the defeat and the division of Germany following the end of World War II in 1945 and was formally abolished in February 1947 by Control Council Law No. 46 . Several of its provinces attained statehood or became a part of other post-war states in East Germany and West Germany. Hans Albert Hohnfeldt Hans Albert Hohnfeldt (22 May 1897, in Neufahrwasser, Danzig – 31 July 1948)

405-536: Is not German and could hinder us in the work of construction. Jews did not figure prominently among the victims in West Prussia, as the area's Jewish population was small and most had fled before the Germans arrived. However, in places where they were present, they were expelled and murdered in what was classified as "other measures" which simply meant murder. In areas where Jewish families or individuals remained,

450-550: The Austro-Prussian War . The Prussian state was initially subdivided into ten provinces. The Prussian government appointed the heads of each province known as Oberpräsident (i.e. High Commissioner). The Oberpräsident represented the Prussian government in the province, and was busy with implementing and supervising central prerogatives of the Prussian government. The provinces of Prussia were further subdivided into government districts ( Regierungsbezirke ), subject to

495-562: The Franco-Prussian War and the incorporation of the southern states of Bavaria , Baden and Württemberg into the confederation, the German Empire was proclaimed in 1871. From 1875 the provinces were bodies combining regional home rule through representatives delegated from each rural and urban district ( German : Landkreis and Stadtkreis ), forming the provincial diet ( German : Provinziallandtag ) with

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540-695: The Province of Prussia was created by the merger of East Prussia and West Prussia , lasting until 1878 when they were again separated. Congruent with the Kingdom of Prussia proper (i.e. former Ducal and Royal Prussia ), its territory, like the province of Posen, was not part of the German Confederation. In 1850 the Province of Hohenzollern in Southern Germany , was created from the annexed principalities of Hohenzollern-Hechingen and Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen . In 1866, following

585-580: The SS with the rank of SS- Standartenführer and was named Gau SS- Führer for Danzig. However, on 20 June 1928, Hohnfeldt abruptly resigned as Gauleiter and Gau SS leader in Danzig, and also as SA- Gauführer East, ostensibly due to illness. In reality, this was one of a number of changes Hitler made in the Gauleiter ranks, replacing those he felt were too socialistic in outlook, or whom he considered lacked

630-469: The Treaty of Versailles . The bulk of it inhabited by Polish majority became part of the newly established Second Republic of Poland and was administered as Pomeranian Voivodship ( Polish Corridor ). The eastern remains of German West Prussia were attached to the Province of East Prussia as Regierungsbezirk West Prussia - a Regierungsbezirk ("government region") being a German administrative subunit of

675-532: The 1938 reform, while the Bromberg (Bydogoszcz) region stayed with Reichsgau West Prussia and was not attached to Reichsgau Posen, the later "Warthegau" . The designation Reichsgau instead of just Gau indicates that the province primarily consisted of annexed territory. A Gauleiter of a Reichsgau was also titled Reichsstatthalter . Other Reichsgau e were e.g. Reichsgau Wartheland and Reichsgau Sudetenland . The Free City of Danzig comprised

720-574: The Austro-Prussian War, Prussia annexed several German States that had been allied with Austria and, together with previously occupied Danish territory, organized them into three new provinces: The outcome of the Austro-Prussian War put an end to the aspirations of a grand unified state consisting of all German-speaking states. Instead the North German Confederation was created under Prussian leadership. Following

765-800: The Danzig Gau organization, and in September he was promoted to head of the Civil Service Department there. In April 1933 he became the first Chairman of the Danzig Civil Servants’ League (Danziger Beamtenbund ). Again elected to the Danzig Volkstag in May 1933, he would continue to serve there until it was dissolved in September 1939. He next became the leader of the NSDAP parliamentary group on 20 June 1933, and also

810-551: The Free City of Danzig. Following the establishment of the new Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia on 8 October, Forster was named Gauleiter and Reichsstatthalter of the expanded territory on 26 October. The Reichsgau was very heterogenous, like the territory, which comprised territory of the pre-war Danzig (completely), of Germany (West Prussia Government Region) and of Poland (roughly the Pomeranian Voivodeship),

855-595: The German Empire was dissolved and replaced by the Weimar Republic . The following were the existing Prussian provinces: After the fall of the German Empire the Kingdom of Prussia was reconstituted with a republican government as the Free State of Prussia . The Free State promoted the democratisation of the provinces, the provincial parliaments (Provinziallandtage) were elected in direct elections by

900-594: The German citizenship. As to Christian Danzigers and Christian Poles of Polish ethnicity the acceptance as citizens was mostly denied, but under certain circumstances granted. Nazi German policy aimed at extermination of Jewish and Polish population. Mass-murder sites in the region include: Nazi policy to exterminate the Polish and Jewish populations was conducted in several phases; the first stage occurred in September 1939. The main Nazi responsible for genocide conducted in

945-699: The High Commissioner. As to self-rule each province also had a provincial diet ( Provinziallandtag in German), the members of which were elected in indirect election by county councillors and city councillors of the constituent rural counties and independent cities. Western Provinces: In 1822 the Rhine Province was created from the merger of the Lower Rhine and Jülich-Cleves-Berg provinces. Eastern Provinces ( East Elbia ): In 1829

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990-1084: The League of Nations mandate of the Memel Territory (formerly in East Prussia), Poland (eastern Upper Silesia , formerly in Silesia), and the Saar Territory (formerly in the Rhineland). Following the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, the Law on the Reconstruction of the Reich was enacted on 30 January 1934. This formally de-federalized the German Reich and created a centralized state. Prussia and its provinces formally continued to exist, but

1035-679: The Main Office for Civil Servants ( Hauptamt für Beamte ). He also served as Director of the Danzig Civil Servants’ Association ( Danziger Beamten-Verband ) but in March 1936 he was given a leave of absence and discharged on 30 June 1936. Leaving the Munich Reichsleitung post in 1937, Hohnfeldt returned to Danzig as Senator for Social Welfare in the city's administration. He served until 2 September 1939 when

1080-769: The Nazi Party but it was soon banned in the aftermath of the Beer Hall Putsch . He then became the first Danzig branch chairman of the antisemitic and Völkisch German Social Party , and in January 1924 became a member of the Danzig Volkstag (parliament). After the ban on the Nazi Party was lifted, Hohnfeldt rejoined it on 8 October 1925 and founded the Ortsgruppe (Local Group) Danzig, becoming its first Ortsgruppenleiter . On 11 March 1926, he

1125-426: The Nazi Party's Gau Danzig which had been established in March 1926. The Gauleiters of Gau Danzig were: Hans Albert Hohnfeldt (March 1926 - June 1928) Walter Maass , Acting (August 1928 - March 1929) Erich Koch , Acting (March 1929 - September 1930) Arthur Greiser , Acting (October 1930), and Albert Forster (from 15 October 1930) On 1 September 1939 at the start of the war, Germany immediately annexed

1170-531: The Nazi governor, Albert Forster , was later sentenced to death and executed for crimes against humanity . The German population (including wartime settlers, Nazis, and military officials) either fled or was expelled in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement . Provinces of Prussia The Provinces of Prussia ( German : Provinzen Preußens ) were the main administrative divisions of Prussia from 1815 to 1946. Prussia's province system

1215-466: The Pomeranian Voivodeship was Gauleiter Albert Forster , who was involved in the mass murder and ethnic cleansing of Jews and ethnic Poles and enlisted to his program, often under threat of violence, Polish citizens—descendants of Germanic settlers—whom the Nazis saw as Germans. Forster declared that Poles must be eradicated: "We must exterminate this nation, starting from the cradle." The Reichsgau

1260-444: The Prussian government). For this purpose, the respective Prussian minister of interior affairs appointed a High Commissioner ( German : Oberpräsident ) to each province, who fulfilled his task with the help of a Prussian government-appointed provincial council ( German : Provinzialrat ). In 1881 the final province of the Kingdom of Prussia was established when Berlin was separated from Brandenburg. In 1918 following World War I

1305-546: The basis for many federal states of Germany , and the states of Brandenburg , Lower Saxony , and Schleswig-Holstein are direct successors of provinces. Following the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 and the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the various German states gained nominal sovereignty. However, the reunification process that culminated in the creation of the German Empire in 1871, produced

1350-488: The city was (in 1939) 1,487,452. The province's area was 26,056 km, 21,237 km of which was annexed Danzig and Pomeranian territory. During the Reichsgau' s short existence, Poles and Jews in that area were subjected by Nazi Germany to extermination as "subhumans". The Prussian province West Prussia created from Polish territory annexed by Prussia in Partitions of Poland was dissolved in 1920, following

1395-475: The figure at around 35,000. Forster himself reported that, by February 1940, 87,000 people had been "evacuated" from the region. Danzig-West Prussia was divided into three government regions ( Regierungsbezirk ), with the name-giving capital cities of Bromberg , Danzig and Marienwerder . In 1939 the Free City of Danzig was annexed to Germany. After a brief transitional period, its territory became part of

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1440-863: The most powerful politician throughout the war, until the area was overrun by the Soviet forces in March 1945. The Wehrmacht established there the Wehrkreis XX, based at Danzig, under the command of The Polish resistance movement was active in the region, both in the pre-war Polish and German-controlled parts of the region, with activities including secret Polish schooling , printing and distribution of Polish underground press , sabotage actions, espionage of German activity, smuggling data on German persecution of Poles and Jews and on German V-weapons to Western Europe and facilitating escapes of endangered Polish resistance members and Polish, British, French and Russian prisoners of war who fled from German POW camps via

1485-499: The necessary attributes to be effective administrators. He was succeeded in an acting capacity by Walter Maass , the newly appointed Deputy Gauleiter . Hohnfeldt briefly continued in his role as Acting Gauleiter in East Prussia until 20 August 1928 when he was removed there as well. After a brief interregnum, he was succeeded by Erich Koch on 1 October. In July 1931, Hohnfeldt became a specialist for civil service issues in

1530-510: The population amounted to 2,179,000 altogether, with 1,494,000 Polish citizens of mostly Polish ethnicity, 408,000 Danzig citizens of mostly German ethnicity and 277,000 German citizens of mostly German ethnicity. The German occupiers considered the Danzig and Polish citizenships as naught, due to the de facto abolition of these two states. Christian Danzigers and Christian Poles of German ethnicity were granted German citizenship, Jewish Danzigers, and Jewish Poles of which ethnicity so ever were denied

1575-501: The port cities to neutral Sweden . In 1943, local Poles managed to save some kidnapped Polish children from the Zamość region, by buying them from the Germans during transport through the region. The Gestapo cracked down on the Polish resistance several times, with the Poles either killed or sent to prisons of concentration camps. In March 1945, the region was reclaimed by Poland , and

1620-508: The restored Regierungsbezirk Danzig in the Reichsgau Danzig-Westpreussen (the restored Prussian Province of West Prussia ) and was divided into nine districts (Kreise): Regierungsbezirk Danzig Governing Presidents/Regierungspräsidenten: The NSDAP gauleiter of Danzig, Albert Forster, became leader of Civil Administration in Danzig in 1939, as well as Gauleiter and Reichsstatthalter of the Reichsgau. He remained

1665-531: The state Landtag and provincial parliaments were abolished and governance was placed under the direct control of a Reichsstatthalter (Reich Governor). In addition, the Law on the Abolition of the Reichsrat of 14 February 1934 removed the right of the state and its provinces to participate in the Reich legislative process. They previously had controlled 26 of the 66 Reichsrat seats. The following

1710-653: The voters, unlike before when elected county councillors chose from their midst members for the provincial parliaments. Prussia had to cede virtually all territory belonging to the provinces of Posen and West Prussia to the newly created state of Poland and the League of Nations mandate of the Free City of Danzig . Smaller areas had been ceded to Belgium ( East Cantons , formerly in the Rhineland), Czechoslovakia ( Hlučín Region , formerly in Silesia), Denmark ( Northern Schleswig , formerly in Schleswig-Holstein),

1755-818: Was a member of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) who served as Gauleiter in the Free City of Danzig and acting Gauleiter of Gau East Prussia . He also held other Party and government posts in the Free City of Danzig. After attending high school in Danzig and then in Neustadt in West Prussia , Hohnfeldt graduated in 1915 and became a war volunteer. He served during World War I in the West Prussian Foot Artillery Regiment 17, and

1800-468: Was appointed Gauleiter of the Free City of Danzig, the first holder of this position. Wilhelm von Wnuck served as his deputy. On 17 March 1927, after the resignation of Bruno Gustav Scherwitz as Gauleiter of East Prussia , Hohnfeldt was named Acting Gauleiter for that neighboring region as well. In September 1927 he became, in addition, SA - Gauführer East (commanding all SA units in East Prussia, West Prussia and Danzig). Simultaneously, he joined

1845-658: Was discharged in 1918 with the rank of Vizefeldwebel of the reserves, having earned the Iron Cross second class. Around 1919–1920, he served in the Freikorps with the Marinebrigade Ehrhardt . From 1919 - 1921 he studied law and economics at the University of Berlin . In November 1922 he entered the civil service of the Free City of Danzig as a tax administration officer. In 1923 Hohnfeldt joined

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1890-425: Was elected to the Senate of the Free City of Danzig . After the Reich League for Civil Servants ( Reichsbund der Deutschen Beamten ) was founded in October 1933, he became its regional head for Danzig. In July 1934 he was assigned to the central Party leadership ( Reichsleitung ) of the NSDAP in the Brown House in Munich . There, on 1 September 1934, he became the head of the Propaganda and Organization Department in

1935-406: Was first made the German military district "West Prussia", and by a decree of Adolf Hitler on 8 October merged with the Free City of Danzig and the East Prussian Regierungsbezirk West Prussia , to form the Reichsgau West Prussia. The western remains remained outside and continued to be administered by the German Pomeranian Gau as Regierungsbezirk Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia according to

1980-591: Was introduced in the Stein-Hardenberg Reforms in 1815, and were mostly organized from duchies and historical regions . Provinces were divided into several Regierungsbezirke , sub-divided into Kreise (districts), and then into Gemeinden (townships) at the lowest level. Provinces constituted the highest level of administration in the Kingdom of Prussia and Free State of Prussia until 1933, when Nazi Germany established de facto direct rule over provincial politics, and were formally abolished in 1946 following World War II . The Prussian provinces became

2025-418: Was the site of the Stutthof concentration camp and its sub camps where over 85,000 people were executed or died of illness, starvation or mistreatment. Of the 52,000 Jews who were sent to the camp only around 3,000 would survive. During the Winter of 1939/40 between 12,000 and 16,000 people were murdered at Piaśnica by Einsatzkommando 16, units of the 36th Regiment of SS, and members of the Selbstschutz ,

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