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129-458: Zempelburg was part of Greater Poland until 1772. From 1772 to 1807, it belonged to Prussia. From 1807 to 1815, it was part of the Duchy of Warsaw. The city was recaptured by Prussia and became part of West Prussia from 1815 to 1920. In 2016, it had a total population of 15,907 with an urban population of 9,258 and rural population of 6,649. The city is located in the historical Krajna forest on

258-788: A Polish fief , which it remained until the First Partition of Poland . East Prussia around Königsberg , on the other hand, remained with the State of the Teutonic Knights , who were reduced to vassals of the Polish kings. Their territory was secularised to become the Lutheran Duchy of Prussia according to the 1525 Treaty of Kraków and the Prussian Homage . The duchy was later ruled in personal union with

387-409: A free and secure access to the sea, and whose political and economic independence and territorial integrity should be guaranteed by international covenant. The following arguments were behind the creation of the corridor: The ethnic situation was one of the reasons for returning the area to the restored Poland. The majority of the population in the area was Polish. As the Polish commission report to

516-806: A high bank of the Sępólna River . It is located 63 km northwest of Bydgoszcz (Bromberg). The town formed part of the Kalisz Voivodeship of the Greater Poland Province of the Polish Crown from 1314 to 1793. The town received Magdeburg rights in 1360 from King Casimir the Great of Poland . The Catholic church, mentioned as early as 1360, suggests that it was located in the Sępólna River valley. According to legend,

645-491: A lamentable condition." Frederick invited German immigrants to redevelop the province. Many German officials also regarded the Poles with contempt. According to the Polish historian Jerzy Surdykowski, Frederick the Great introduced 300,000 German colonists. According to Christopher Clark , 54 percent of the annexed area and 75 percent of the urban population were German-speaking Protestants. Further Polish areas were annexed in

774-402: A letter to his brother Henry , Frederick wrote about the province that "it is a very good and advantageous acquisition, both from a financial and a political point of view. In order to excite less jealousy I tell everyone that on my travels I have seen just sand, pine trees, heath land and Jews. Despite that there is a lot of work to be done; there is no order, and no planning and the towns are in

903-482: A list of terms that would allegedly ensure peace in regard to Poland. Danzig was to return to Germany and there was to be a plebiscite in the Polish Corridor; Poles who had been born or had settled there since 1919 would have no vote, while all Germans born but not living there would. An exchange of minority populations between the two countries was proposed. If Poland accepted these terms, Germany would agree to

1032-502: A mile or so of Marienwerder , which is certain to vote German. I know of no similar frontier created by any treaty." The German Ministry for Transport established the Seedienst Ostpreußen ('Sea Service East Prussia') in 1922 to provide a ferry connection to East Prussia , now a German exclave, so that it would be less dependent on transit through Polish territory. Connections by train were also possible by sealing

1161-625: A military alliance, and spoke of his desire to have Poland, Yugoslavia, Hungary and Romania sign the Anti-Comintern Pact so "all our energies can be directed against the Western democracies". In a secret speech before a group of 200 German journalists on 10 November 1938, Hitler complained that his peace propaganda stressing that his foreign policy was based upon the peaceful revision of the Treaty of Versailles had been too successful with

1290-605: A referendum due to the provisions of the Versailles Treaty in 1920 to establish the Polish Corridor . It was incorporated into the new Pomeranian Voivodeship . The German-speaking residents of Zempelburg became the ethnic minority of German Poles . Zempelburg received the Polish name Sępólno Krajeńskie. At that time, the town was the district seat of the Sępoleński Powiats. In 1920, the eastern part of

1419-514: A satellite state and with Poland's rejection of the Anti-Comintern Pact, and his desire either to isolate or to gain support against the Soviet Union . German newspapers in Danzig and Nazi Germany played an important role in inciting nationalist sentiment: headlines buzzed about how Poland was misusing its economic rights in Danzig and German Danzigers were increasingly subjugated to the will of

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1548-466: A second colonization aimed at Germanization after 1832. The Prussians passed laws aiming at Germanization of the provinces of Posen and West Prussia in the late 19th century. The Prussian Settlement Commission established a further 154,000 colonists, including locals, in the provinces of Posen and West Prussia before World War I. Military personnel were included in the population census. A number of German civil servants and merchants were introduced to

1677-628: A strategical bombing force capable of bombing British cities. On 17 January 1939, Hitler approved of the famous Z Plan that called for a gigantic fleet to take on the Royal Navy and on 27 January 1939 he ordered that henceforward the Kriegsmarine was to have first priority for defence spending. The situation regarding the Free City and the Polish Corridor created a number of headaches for German and Polish customs. The Germans requested

1806-405: A wide, flat plain, with adjacent escarpments sometimes exceeding 60 meters in height above the river valley. This area includes the fertile Chełmno Land ( German : Kulmerland ), with historic cities such as Chełmno ( German : Kulm ), Toruń ( German : Thorn ), and Grudziądz ( German : Graudenz ). The Chełmno Land stretched eastward to the border with East Prussia, partially bound on

1935-465: Is also true that some of the central authorities tacitly tolerated local initiatives against the German population." While there were demonstrations and protests and occasional violence against Germans, they were at a local level, and officials were quick to point out that they were a backlash against former discrimination against Poles. There were other demonstrations when Germans showed disloyalty during

2064-423: Is impossible to believe the present settlement (borders) can have any chance of being permanent. ... It can confidently be asserted that not even the most attractive economic advantages would induce any German to vote Polish. If the frontier is unsatisfactory now, it will be far more so when it has to be drawn on this side (of the river) with no natural line to follow, cutting off Germany from the river bank and within

2193-666: Is obtaining Lebensraum for Germany, isolating Poles from their Allies in the West and afterwards attacking Poland, thus avoiding the repeat of the Czech situation, where the Western powers became involved. A revised and less favorable proposal came in the form of an ultimatum delivered by the Nazis in late August, after the orders had already been given to attack Poland on September 1, 1939. Nevertheless, at midnight on August 29, von Ribbentrop handed British Ambassador Sir Nevile Henderson

2322-581: Is settled, that is the end of Germany's territorial claims in Europe". Almost immediately following the agreement, however, Hitler reneged on it. The Nazis increased their requests for the incorporation of the Free City of Danzig into Germany, citing the "protection" of the German majority as a motive. In November 1938, Danzig's district administrator, Albert Forster , reported to the League of Nations that Hitler had told him Polish frontiers would be guaranteed if

2451-611: The Allied Supreme Council noted on 12 March 1919: "Finally the fact must be recognized that 600,000 Poles in West Prussia would under any alternative plan remain under German rule". Also, as David Hunter Miller from president Woodrow Wilson 's group of experts and academics (known as The Inquiry ) noted in his diary from the Paris Peace Conference : "If Poland does not thus secure access to

2580-623: The Bank Ludowy ("People's Bank") in 1910. Until 1919, Zempelburg belonged to the district of Flatow in the administrative district of Marienwerder in the province of West Prussia of the German Reich. The city had 3818 inhabitants in 1910, of which 637 were Poles. In terms of religion, in 1905 there were 57.0% Protestants, 32.7% Catholics and 10.3% Jews. After the First World War, Zempelburg had to be ceded to Poland without

2709-588: The Central Powers had forced the Imperial Russian troops out of Congress Poland and Galicia , as manifested in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on 3 March 1918. Following the military defeat of Austria-Hungary , an independent Polish republic was declared in western Galicia on 3 November 1918, the same day Austria signed the armistice . The collapse of Imperial Germany 's Western Front , and

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2838-573: The Chełmno Land , forming altogether around 36% of the population of the province as a whole. There were also sizeable minorities of Mennonites and Jews settling in the region. The landscape of West Prussia consisted of the lower reaches of the Vistula River ( German : Weichsel , Polish : Wisła ) near its mouth on the Baltic Sea , and neighboring lands to the west and east. In

2967-543: The First Partition of Poland in 1772 it was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia and named West Prussia , and became a constituent part of the new German Empire in 1871. Thus the Polish Corridor was not an entirely new creation: the territory assigned to Poland had been an integral part of Poland prior to 1772, but with a large degree of autonomy. Perhaps the earliest census data on the ethnic and national structure of West Prussia (including areas which later made up

3096-668: The German occupation , Poles were subject to persecutions, mass arrests, Germanisation , expulsions and massacres. Numerous Poles were imprisoned in a concentration camp in Radzim and in a prison established by the Selbstschutz in Sępólno, and later murdered on site or deported to other Nazi concentration camps. Mass arrests of Poles were carried out from September 1939, and the first executions of Polish inhabitants were carried out by

3225-653: The Hel Peninsula , and 69 km without it. The primarily German-speaking seaport of Danzig (Gdańsk), controlling the estuary of the main Polish waterway, the Vistula river, became the Free City of Danzig and was placed under the protection of the League of Nations without a plebiscite. After the dock workers of Danzig harbour went on strike during the Polish–Soviet War , refusing to unload ammunition,

3354-812: The Locarno Treaties of 1925 with a similar declaration with respect to its eastern borders. Institutions in Weimar Germany supported and encouraged German minority organizations in Poland, in part radicalized by the Polish policy towards them, in filing close to 10,000 complaints about violations of minority rights to the League of Nations . Poland in 1931 declared her commitment to peace, but pointed out that any attempt to revise its borders would mean war. Additionally, in conversation with U.S. President Herbert Hoover , Polish delegate Filipowicz noted that any continued provocations by Germany could tempt

3483-536: The Partitions , and handed over to German nobility . The same applied to Catholic monasteries. Later, the German Empire bought up land in an attempt to prevent the restoration of a Polish majority in Polish inhabited areas in its eastern provinces. Christian Raitz von Frentz notes that measures aimed at reversing past Germanization included the liquidation of farms settled by the German government during

3612-802: The Polish-Ukrainian War expanded the Polish republic's territory to include Volhynia and parts of eastern Galicia, while at the same time the German Province of Posen (where even according to the German made 1910 census 61.5% of the population was Polish) was severed by the Greater Poland uprising , which succeeded in attaching most of the province's territory to Poland by January 1919. This led Weimar's Otto Landsberg and Rudolf Breitscheid to call for an armed force to secure Germany's remaining eastern territories (some of which contained significant Polish minorities, primarily on

3741-532: The Polish–Soviet War as the Red Army announced the return to the pre-war borders of 1914. Despite popular pressure and occasional local actions, perhaps as many as 80% of Germans emigrated more or less voluntarily. Helmut Lippelt writes that Germany used the existence of the German minority in Poland for political ends and as part of its revisionist demands, which resulted in Polish countermeasures. Polish Prime Minister Władysław Sikorski stated in 1923 that

3870-574: The Pomeranian Corridor , Danzig Corridor or Gdańsk Corridor , was a territory located in the region of Pomerelia ( Pomeranian Voivodeship , Eastern Pomerania ), which provided the Second Polish Republic with access to the Baltic Sea , thus dividing the bulk of Weimar Germany from the province of East Prussia . At its narrowest point, the Polish territory was just 30 km wide. The Free City of Danzig (now

3999-457: The Region of West Prussia district. West Prussia's provincial capital alternated between Marienwerder (present-day Kwidzyn, Poland ) and Danzig (Gdańsk, Poland) during its existence. West Prussia was notable for its ethnic and religious diversity due to immigration and cultural changes, with the population becoming mixed over the centuries. Since the early Middle Ages the bulk of the region

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4128-603: The Second Partition of Poland in 1793, now including the cities of Danzig ( Gdańsk ) and Thorn ( Toruń ). After the defeat of Prussia by the Napoleonic French Empire at the 1806 Battle of Jena-Auerstedt followed by the Treaties of Tilsit , West Prussia lost its southern territory in the vicinity of Thorn and Kulm (Chełmno) to the short-lived Duchy of Warsaw ; it also lost Danzig, which

4257-548: The Treaty of Versailles in 1919, most of pre-war West Prussia's territory (62%) and population (57%, the majority of whom were Polish) was granted to the Second Polish Republic or the Free City of Danzig (8% of territory, 19% of population), while parts in the west (18% of territory, 9% of population) and east (12% of territory, 15% of population) of the former province remained in Weimar Germany . The western remainder formed Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia in 1922, while

4386-589: The Tuchola Forest , were located in this part of the province. Further north near the sea is the Kashubian Lake District , where the highest point of the former province, Wieżyca ( German : Turmberg ), reaches 329 meters above sea level. The headwaters of Pomeranian rivers such as the Słupia ( German : Stolpe ) and Łeba ( German : Leba ) are located in these uplands. In the north

4515-634: The University of Birmingham , claims that the actions of Polish state officials after the corridor's establishment followed "a course of assimilation and oppression". As a result, a large number of Germans left Poland after 1918: according to Wolff, 800,000 Germans had left Poland by 1923, according to Gotthold Rhode, 575,000 left the former province of Posen and the corridor after the war, according to Herrmann Rauschning , 800,000 Germans had left between 1918 and 1926, contemporary author Alfons Krysinski estimated 800,000 plus 100,000 from East Upper Silesia,

4644-519: The University of Manchester and known for both his "legendary hatred of Germany" and Germanophobia as well as his anti-Polish attitude directed against what he defined as the "aggressive, antisemitic and warmongerily imperialist" part of Poland, wrote in a newspaper article in 1933: The whole of Poland's transport system ran towards the mouth of the Vistula. ... 90% of Polish exports came from her western provinces.  ... Cutting through of

4773-528: The fishplates unbolted. 25 persons, including 12 women and 2 children, were killed, some 30 others were injured. According to Polish historian Andrzej Chwalba, during the rule of the Kingdom of Prussia and the German Empire various means were used to increase the amount of land owned by Germans at the expense of the Polish population. In Prussia, the Polish nobility had its estates confiscated after

4902-617: The 1772 First Partition of Poland the Prussian king Frederick the Great took the occasion to annex most of Royal Prussia. The addition gave Prussia a land connection between the Province of Pomerania and East Prussia , cutting off the Polish access to the Baltic Sea and rendering East Prussia more readily defensible in the event of war with the Russian Empire . The annexed voivodeships of Pomerania (i.e. Pomerelia ) excluding

5031-492: The 1920s. Internationally the term was used in English as early as March 1919 and whatever its origins it became a widespread term in English. The equivalent German term is Polnischer Korridor . Polish names include korytarz polski ('Polish corridor') and korytarz gdański ('Gdańsk corridor'); however, reference to the region as a corridor came to be regarded as offensive by interwar Polish diplomats. Among

5160-600: The 19th century, Jews were obliged to give 30 Tympf , nine veal roasts, six beef roasts, six pounds of tallow , and one pound of gunpowder to the Catholic parish every year on Corpus Christi and Easter . In 1871, the town became part of the German Empire . Zempelburg formed part of the Flatow district of the province of West Prussia . It was a center for the textile and shoemaking industries. Despite Germanisation policies, Poles established various organisations, including

5289-547: The American historian Gerhard Weinberg noted was "... a formal gesture of political and diplomatic obeisance to Berlin, separating them from any other past or prospective international ties, and having nothing to do with the Soviet Union at all". In late 1938–early 1939, Hitler had decided upon war with Britain and France, and having Poland sign the Anti-Comintern Pact was intended to protect Germany's eastern border while

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5418-472: The Baltic Sea. In either case a people is asked to entrust large interests to the League of Nations . In the case of Poland they are vital interests; in the case of Germany, aside from Prussian sentiment , they are quite secondary". In the end, The Inquiry's recommendations were only partially implemented: most of West Prussia was given to Poland, but Danzig became a Free City . During World War I ,

5547-663: The British delegation at the Versailles conference , known for his anti-Polish and anti-German attitude – wrote in the Manchester Guardian on November 7, 1933: "The Poles are the Nation of the Vistula, and their settlements extend from the sources of the river to its estuary. ... It is only fair that the claim of the river-basin should prevail against that of the seaboard." The Poles held

5676-470: The British offer of an international guarantee, which would include the Soviet Union. A Polish plenipotentiary , with full powers, was to arrive in Berlin and accept these terms by noon the next day. The British Cabinet viewed the terms as "reasonable," except the demand for a Polish plenipotentiary, which was seen as similar to Czechoslovak President Emil Hácha accepting Hitler's terms in mid-March 1939. It

5805-583: The Catholic Church and the kingdom's Polish subjects by granting amnesty to imprisoned Polish bishops and by re-establishing Polish instruction in schools in districts having Polish majorities. With rise of nationalism , the Hohenzollern-ruled territory increasingly became a target of aggressive Germanisation efforts , German settlement, anti-Catholic campaigns ( Kulturkampf ), as well as disfranchisement and expropriations of Poles, and

5934-537: The City of Danzig, Malbork (German: Marienburg ) and Chełmno (German: Kulm ) excluding the City of Thorn (Polish: Toruń ) were incorporated into the Province of West Prussia the following year, along with the formerly East Prussian Marienwerder Kreis . Ermland (Polish: Warmia ) became part of East Prussia while the annexed parts of Greater Poland and Kuyavia formed a separate Netze District located to

6063-676: The Corridor has meant a minor amputation for Germany; its closing up would mean strangulation for Poland." By 1938, 77.7% of Polish exports left either through Gdańsk (31.6%) or the newly built port of Gdynia (46.1%) David Hunter Miller , in his diary from the Paris Peace Conference , noted that the problem of Polish access to the sea was very difficult because leaving the entirety of Pomerelia under German control meant cutting off millions of Poles from their commercial outlet and leaving several hundred thousand Poles under German rule, while granting such access meant cutting off East Prussia from

6192-447: The Danzig question was inextricably tied to the problems in the Polish Corridor and any settlement regarding Danzig would be one step towards the eventual loss of Poland's access to the sea. Hitler's credibility outside Germany was very low after the occupation of Czechoslovakia , though some British and French politicians approved of a peaceful revision of the corridor's borders. In 1939, Nazi Germany made another attempt to renegotiate

6321-542: The French ambassador in Berlin in a dispatch to the Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet wrote on 30 April 1939 that Hitler sought: "...a mortgage on Polish foreign policy, while itself retaining complete liberty of action allowing the conclusion of political agreements with other countries. In these circumstances, the new settlement proposed by Germany, which would link the questions of Danzig and of

6450-517: The German claims and partially Polish nationalism , urging to exclude the German element. In turn, anti-Polish prejudice fueled German policy. In the period leading up to the East Prussian plebiscite in July 1920, the Polish authorities tried to prevent traffic through the Corridor, interrupting postal, telegraphic and telephone communication. On March 10, 1920, the British representative on

6579-440: The German people, and he called for a new propaganda campaign intended to stoke a bellicose mood in Germany. Notably, the enemies Hitler had in mind in his speech was not Poland, but rather France and Britain. Following negotiations with Hitler on the Munich Agreement, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain reported that, "He told me privately, and last night he repeated publicly, that after this Sudeten German question

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6708-530: The German state, with their fate being slavery and extermination, the latter in particular during Intelligenzaktion Pommern , as well as in the Stutthof concentration camp . Later in the war, many West Prussian Germans fled westward as the Red Army advanced on the Eastern Front . All of the areas occupied by Nazis were restored to Poland according to the post-war Potsdam Agreement in 1945, along with further neighbouring areas of former Nazi Germany and areas that had been part of Germany before. The vast majority of

6837-412: The Germans at the turn of September and October 1939. Mass executions of Poles in Sępólno were carried out in various places, for example on the railway tracks connecting Sępólno and Kamień Krajeński (in October 1939), at the primary school and at the shooting range (in November 1939), local Poles were also murdered in Radzim, Karolewo , Rudzki Most . Local Jews were also murdered in Radzim. In early 1945,

6966-418: The Germans who left were actually settlers without roots in the area - Namier remarked in 1933 "a question must be raised how many of those Germans had originally been planted artificially in that country by the Prussian Government." The above-mentioned Richard Blanke, in his book Orphans of Versailles , gives several reasons for the exodus of the German population: Blanke says that official encouragement by

7095-420: The Great ( King in/of Prussia from 1740 to 1786) settled around 300,000 colonists in the eastern provinces of Prussia and aimed at a removal of the Polish nobility , which he treated with contempt. Frederick also described Poles as "slovenly Polish trash" and compared them to the Iroquois . On the other hand, he encouraged administrators and teachers who could speak both German and Polish . Prussia pursued

7224-416: The Great) looked askance upon many of his new citizens. In a letter from 1735, he calls them "dirty" and "vile apes". He had nothing but contempt for the szlachta , the numerous Polish nobility, and wrote that Poland had "the worst government in Europe with the exception of Ottoman Empire ". He considered West Prussia less civilized than Colonial Canada and compared the Poles to the Iroquois . In

7353-453: The Imperial Margraviate of Brandenburg from 1618. The Hohenzollern rulers of Brandenburg-Prussia were able to remove the Polish suzerainty by the 1657 Treaty of Wehlau , taking advantage of the Russo-Swedish Deluge , shortly thereafter transforming their possessions into a kingdom. This development turned out to be fatal to the Polish monarchy, as the two parts of the rising Kingdom of Prussia were separated by Polish land. Subsequently,

7482-418: The Marienwerder Plebiscite Commission, H. D. Beaumont, wrote of numerous continuing difficulties being made by Polish officials and added "as a result, the ill-will between Polish and German nationalities and the irritation due to Polish intolerance towards the German inhabitants in the Corridor (now under their rule), far worse than any former German intolerance of the Poles, are growing to such an extent that it

7611-409: The Nazis were able to achieve their immediate goals without provoking armed conflict: firstly, in March 1938 Nazi Germany annexed Austria , and in the late September the Sudetenland after the Munich Agreement ; Poland also made an advance against Czechoslovakia and annexed Trans-Olza (1 October 1938). Germany tried to get Poland to join the Anti-Comintern Pact . Poland refused, as the alliance

7740-415: The Poles were "reasonable like the Czechs." German State Secretary Ernst von Weizsäcker reaffirmed this alleged guarantee in December 1938. In the winter of 1938–1939, Germany placed increasing pressure on Poland and Hungary to sign the Anti-Comintern Pact. Initially, the main concern of German diplomacy was not Danzig or the Polish Corridor, but rather having Poland sign the Anti-Comintern Pact, which as

7869-443: The Polish Government decided to build an ammunition depot at Westerplatte , and a seaport at Gdynia in the territory of the Corridor, connected to the Upper Silesian industrial centers by the newly constructed Polish Coal Trunk Line railways. The German author Christian Raitz von Frentz writes that after First World War ended, the Polish government tried to reverse the systematic Germanization from former decades. Frederick

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7998-399: The Polish cities of Gdańsk , Sopot and the surrounding areas), situated to the east of the corridor, was a semi-independent German speaking city-state forming part of neither Germany nor Poland, though united with the latter through an imposed union covering customs, mail, foreign policy, railways as well as defence. After Poland lost Western Pomerania to Germany in the late 13th century,

8127-431: The Polish side to invade, in order to settle the issue once and for all. The Nazi Party , led by Adolf Hitler , took power in Germany in 1933. Hitler at first ostentatiously pursued a policy of rapprochement with Poland, culminating in the ten-year Polish-German Non-Aggression Pact of 1934. In the years that followed, Germany placed an emphasis on rearmament , as did Poland and other European powers. Despite this,

8256-408: The Polish state played a secondary role in the German exodus. Christian Raitz von Frentz notes "that many of the repressive measures were taken by local and regional Polish authorities in defiance of Acts of Parliament and government decrees, which more often than not conformed with the minorities treaty, the Geneva Convention and their interpretation by the League council  – though it

8385-466: The Polish state. At the same time, Hitler also offered Poland additional territory as an enticement, such as the possible annexation of Lithuania , the Memel Territory , Soviet Ukraine and parts of the Czech lands . However, Polish leaders continued to fear for the loss of their independence and a fate like that of Czechoslovakia, which had yielded the Sudetenland to Germany in October 1938, only to be invaded by Germany in March 1939. Some felt that

8514-399: The Teutonic Knights were ordered by the Pope to return Pomerelia and other lands back to Poland, but did not comply. These events resulted in a series of Polish–Teutonic Wars throughout the 14th and 15th centuries. Under the Teutonic rule, an influx of western, mainly German-speaking farmers, traders and craftsmen was encouraged. Subsequent rebellions organized by the local population against

8643-421: The Teutonic state, initially by the Lizard Union and later by the Prussian Confederation , both pledging allegiance to the Polish king, caused the Thirteen Years' War which ultimately led to the Second Peace of Thorn , when most of the region and was reclaimed by Poland and henceforth formed Royal Prussia , consisting of the originally Polish Pomerelia and Chełmno Land , expanded by the addition of parts of

8772-418: The Wehrmacht turned west. In November 1938, Hitler ordered his Foreign Minister Ribbentrop to convert the Anti-Comintern Pact, which had been signed with the Empire of Japan in 1936 and joined by Fascist Italy in 1937 into an anti-British military alliance. Starting in October 1938, the main focus on German military planning was for a war against Britain with Hitler ordering the Luftwaffe to start building

8901-424: The area of Eastern Pomerania with the strategically important port of Gdańsk remained a narrow strip of land giving Poland access to the Baltic Sea and was also sometimes referred to as a corridor. According to German historian Hartmut Boockmann the term corridor was first used by Polish politicians, while Polish historian Grzegorz Lukomski writes that the word was coined by German nationalist propaganda of

9030-433: The area). The province of West Prussia as a whole had between 36% and 43% ethnic Poles in 1910, depending on the source (the lower number is based directly on German 1910 census figures, while the higher number is based on calculations according to which a large part of those people counted as Catholic Germans in the official census in fact identified as Poles). The Poles did not want the Polish population to remain under

9159-427: The area, which influenced the population status. According to Richard Blanke, 421,029 Germans lived in the area in 1910, making up 42.5% of the population. Blanke has been criticized by Christian Raitz von Frentz, who has classified his book as part of a series on the subject that has an anti-Polish bias; additionally Polish professor A. Cienciala has described Blanke's views as sympathetic to Germany. In addition to

9288-496: The aristocracy and urban burghers initially highly Germanised as a result of earlier Teutonic policies, but gradually Polonized in the later years, while the peasantry continued as predominantly Kashubian- and Polish-speaking. A small area in the west of Pomerelia, the Lauenburg and Bütow Land , was granted to the rulers of Pomerania as a Polish fief before it was reintegrated with Poland in 1637, and later again transformed into

9417-419: The carriages ( Korridorzug ), i.e. passengers were not forced to apply for an official Polish visa in their passport; however, the rigorous inspections by the Polish authorities before and after the sealing were strongly feared by the passengers. In May 1925, a train passing through the corridor on its way to East Prussia crashed, because the spikes had been removed from the tracks for a short distance and

9546-700: The castle manor was lost when the river and nearby Dziechowo Lake flooded. Sępólno was founded as a private town . It initially belonged to the Pakoski family. Later, it was owned by the Ostroróg , Goślubski, Zebrzydowski, Smoszewski, Brez and Potulicki families until 1821. During the Thirteen Years' War between Poland and the Teutonic Knights the area was captured by the Knights and the town

9675-563: The construction of an extra-territorial Reichsautobahn freeway (to complete the Reichsautobahn Berlin-Königsberg ) and railway through the Polish Corridor, effectively annexing Polish territory and connecting East Prussia to Danzig and Germany proper, while cutting off Poland from the sea and its main trade route. If Poland agreed, in return they would extend the non-aggression pact for 25 years. This seemed to conflict with Hitler's plans to turn Poland into

9804-480: The contemporary German statistics say 592,000 Germans had left by 1921, other Polish scholars say that up to a million Germans left. Polish author Władysław Kulski says that a number of them were civil servants with no roots in the province and around 378,000, and this is to a lesser degree is confirmed by some German sources such as Hermann Rauschning. Lewis Bernstein Namier raised the question as to whether many of

9933-583: The control of the German state, which had in the past treated the Polish population and other minorities as second-class citizens and had pursued Germanization . As Professor Lewis Bernstein Namier (1888–1960) – born to Jewish parents in Lublin Governorate ( Russian Empire , former Congress Poland ) and later a British citizen, a former member of the British Intelligence Bureau throughout World War I and

10062-593: The corridor ( Puck and Wejherowo on the Baltic Sea coast; Kartuzy and Kościerzyna between the Province of Pomerania and Free City of Danzig ): During the First World War , both sides made bids for Polish support, and in turn Polish leaders were active in soliciting support from both sides. Roman Dmowski , a former deputy in the Russian State Duma and the leader of the Endecja movement

10191-450: The corridor) is from 1819. Karl Andree , in Polen: in geographischer, geschichtlicher und culturhistorischer Hinsicht (Leipzig 1831), gives the total population of West Prussia as 700,000 – including 50% Poles (350,000), 47% Germans (330,000) and 3% Jews (20,000). Data from the 19th century and early 20th century show the following ethnic changes in four main counties of

10320-412: The de-Germanization of these territories had to be ended by vigorous and quick liquidation of property and eviction of German " Optanten " (Germans who refused to accept Polish citizenship and per the Versailles Treaty were to leave Poland) so that German nationalists would realize that their view of the temporary state of Polish western border was wrong. To Lippelt this was partially a reaction to

10449-620: The duchy until 1294. Before Pomerelia regained independence in 1227, their dukes were vassals of Poland and Denmark . Since 1308–1309, following succession wars between Poland and Brandenburg , Pomerelia was subjugated by the Monastic state of the Teutonic Knights in Prussia . In 1466, with the second Peace of Thorn , Pomerelia became part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as a part of autonomous Royal Prussia . After

10578-505: The earliest estimations on ethnic or national structure of West Prussia are from 1819. At that time West Prussia had 630,077 inhabitants, including 327,300 Poles (52%), 290,000 Germans (46%) and 12,700 Jews (2%). Karl Andree , " Polen: in geographischer, geschichtlicher und culturhistorischer Hinsicht " (Leipzig 1831), gives the total population of West Prussia as 700,000 – including 50% Poles (350,000), 47% Germans (330,000) and 3% Jews (20,000). The population more than doubled during

10707-576: The eastern remainder became part of Regierungsbezirk West Prussia within East Prussia . The 1920 East Prussian plebiscite was also held in the eastern part of West Prussia, which was known as the Marienwerder Plebiscite Area, and included partially or fully, the districts of Marienwerder , Stuhm , Rosenberg and Marienburg . The residents of this region voted by a majority of 92.4% to remain with Germany. In 1939,

10836-530: The former Prussian partition territories). The call was answered by the minister of defence Gustav Noske , who decreed support for raising and deploying volunteer Grenzschutz  [ de ] forces to secure East Prussia, Silesia and the Netze District . On 18 January, the Paris peace conference opened, resulting in the draft of the Treaty of Versailles 28 June 1919. Articles 27 and 28 of

10965-466: The former Ducal Prussia and those territories gained during the partitions of Poland. This included both predominantly Polish- or Kashubian-speaking areas (former Greater Poland and Pomerelia within West Prussia and the Grand Duchy of Posen ) and German-speaking areas ( Malbork Land within West Prussia and most of East Prussia ). A failed attempt to include these lands in the German Empire (1848–49)

11094-516: The former Flatow district with the towns of Kamień Krajeński , Więcbork and Sępólno was reintegrated with the restored Polish Republic after the Treaty of Versailles . The town became the seat of Sępólno County . Sępólno was invaded by Nazi Germany on September 1, 1939, the first day of World War II , and was later annexed and made the seat of Zempelburg district within the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia . During

11223-647: The formerly Old Prussian territories of Pomesania , Pogesania and Warmia . The region had initially a degree of autonomy with an own local legislature, the Prussian Estates , and maintaining its own laws, customs and rights, but was ultimately re-absorbed directly into the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland , following the Union of Lublin in 1569 . The locally spoken language differed among social classes, with

11352-403: The future republic's territory had to be defined. Giving Poland access to the sea was one of the guarantees proposed by United States President Woodrow Wilson in his Fourteen Points of January 1918. The thirteenth of Wilson's points was: An independent Polish state should be erected which should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, which should be assured

11481-616: The harshest critics of the term corridor was Polish Foreign Minister Józef Beck , who in his May 5, 1939 speech in the Sejm (Polish parliament) said: "I am insisting that the term Pomeranian Voivodeship should be used. The word corridor is an artificial idea, as this land has been Polish for centuries, with a small percentage of German settlers". Poles commonly referred to the region as Pomorze Gdańskie ('Gdańsk Pomerania', Pomerelia ") or simply Pomorze (' Pomerania '), or as województwo pomorskie (' Pomeranian Voivodeship '), which

11610-403: The inhabitants of the new Polish state (numbering 25,000,000) if this outlet had to be guaranteed across the territory of an alien and probably hostile Power. The United Kingdom eventually accepted this argument. The suppression of the Polish Corridor would have abolished the economic ability of Poland to resist dependence on Germany. As Lewis Bernstein Namier , Professor of Modern History at

11739-678: The middle of the 19th century the most numerous ethnic group in West Prussia as a whole, remaining as such until the dissolution of the province in 1920, though their distribution was uneven: their majority was concentrated in Danzig, the western lands of the province, along the Vistula river, and in the Pomesanian and Pogesanian portion of the province located east of the Vistula, with a small admixture of Poles (Gedanians and Powiślans). Meanwhile, Poles (Kociewians, Borowians and Chełminians) as well as Kashubians continued to predominate in parts of Pomerelian territories west of Vistula and in parts of

11868-421: The military personnel included in the population census, a number of German civil-servants and merchants were introduced to the area, which influenced the population mix, according to Andrzej Chwalba . By 1921 the proportion of Germans had dropped to 18.8% (175,771). Over the next decade, the German population decreased by another 70,000 to a share of 9.6%. German political scientist Stefan Wolff , Professor at

11997-592: The newly established kingdom entered into an alliance with Austria and Russia, invading Polish territories. Even though some German authors viewed the establishment of West Prussia as a historic reunification of the lands of the Teutonic State , officially, the Prussian government shunned from justifying the annexation by such argument. The reason was that the Teutonic Order still called for reestablishment of their rule over East- and West Prussia. In

12126-408: The next seven decades, reaching 1,433,681 inhabitants (including 1,976 foreigners) in 1890. According to the German census of 1910, in areas that became Polish after 1918, 42% of the populace were Germans (including German military, officials and colonists ), while the Polish census of 1921 found 19% of Germans in the same territory. Contemporary sources in late 19th and early 20th centuries gave

12255-608: The nominal leadership of Austrian Empire , as a replacement for the dissolved Holy Roman Empire . Its boundaries largely followed those of its predecessor, the Holy Roman Empire, defining the territory of Germany for much of the 19th century. Except for the Lauenburg and Bütow Land and the former Starostwo of Draheim , the Prussian lands which had been outside the Empire remained outside the Confederation, namely

12384-489: The number of Kashubians between 80,000–200,000. Note: Prussian provinces were subdivided into districts called Kreise (singular Kreis , abbreviated Kr. ). Cities would have their own Stadtkreis (urban district) and the surrounding rural area would be named for the city, but referred to as a Landkreis (rural district). Polish Corridor The Polish Corridor ( German : Polnischer Korridor ; Polish : korytarz polski ), also known as

12513-617: The passage across the Corridor with counterbalancing questions of a political nature, would only serve to aggravate this mortgage and practically subordinate Poland to the Axis and the Anti-Comintern Bloc. Warsaw refused this in order to retain its independence." Hitler used the issue of the status city as pretext for attacking Poland, while explaining during a high-level meeting of German military officials in May 1939 that his real goal

12642-443: The population of West Prussia was put at 1,703,474, of whom around 64 percent listed their first language as German, 28 percent Polish and 7 percent Kashubian. According to Polish authors the real share of Poles and Kashubians was 43% (rather than 35.5% as in official figures), but many of them were counted as Catholic Germans by Prussian census clerks. In 1910, ethnic Poles were between 36% and 43% of West Prussia's populace. After

12771-585: The pretext of helping the King Władysław I Łokietek to quell a rebellion, with subsequent Teutonic atrocities against the Polish population, such as the Slaughter of Gdańsk . The possession of Danzig and Pomerelia by the Teutonic Order was questioned consistently by the Polish kings Władysław I and Casimir the Great in legal suits in the papal court in 1320 and 1333. Both times, as well as in 1339,

12900-515: The region was invaded, then included in the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia within Nazi Germany during World War II and settled with 130,000 German colonists, while between 120,000 and 170,000 Poles and Jews were removed by the Germans through expulsion , massacres, enslavement or killed in extermination camps . As in all other areas, Poles and Jews were classified as " Untermenschen " by

13029-485: The remaining German population of the region that had not fled was subsequently expelled westward. Many German civilians were deported to labor camps like Vorkuta in the Soviet Union , where a large number of them perished or were later reported missing. In 1949, the refugees established the non-profit Landsmannschaft Westpreußen to represent West Prussians in the Federal Republic of Germany . ] Perhaps

13158-547: The rest of Germany. The Inquiry recommended that both the Corridor and Danzig should have been ceded directly to Poland. It is believed that the lesser of these evils is preferable, and that the Corridor and Danzig should [both] be ceded to Poland, as shown on map 6. East Prussia, though territorially cut off from the rest of Germany, could easily be assured railroad transit across the Polish corridor (a simple matter as compared with assuring port facilities to Poland), and has, in addition, excellent communication via Königsberg and

13287-505: The sea, 600,000 Poles in West Prussia will remain under German rule and 20,000,000 Poles in Poland proper will probably have but a hampered and precarious commercial outlet". The Prussian census of 1910 showed that there were 528,000 Poles (including West Slavic Kashubians , who had supported the Polish national lists in German elections ) in the region, compared with 385,000 Germans (including troops and officials stationed in

13416-467: The so-called corridor runs must be cleansed of larger German holdings". The coastal region "must be settled with a nationally conscious Polish population. ... Estates belonging to Germans must be taxed more heavily to encourage them voluntarily to turn over land for settlement. Border counties ... particularly a strip of land ten kilometers wide, must be settled with Poles. German estates that lie here must be reduced without concern for their economic value or

13545-401: The south by the path of the river Drwęca ( German : Drewenz ), which formed part of the province's southeastern border with Congress Poland and the Russian Empire . The region of Pomerelia or Gdańsk Pomerania , historically Polish and never inhabited by Old Prussians , was forcibly occupied by the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights in 1308, following an invasion of Poland under

13674-450: The south. The Partition Sejm ratified the cession on 30 September 1773, complemented by renouncement by the Polish king of his royal title in regard to Prussia. Thereafter, Frederick finally started to style himself "King of Prussia" rather than "King in Prussia." Both abovementioned exempted cities were ultimately captured by the Kingdom of Prussia upon the Second Partition of Poland in 1793 . The Polish administrative and legal code

13803-454: The status of Danzig; Poland was to retain a permanent right to use the seaport if the route through the Polish Corridor was to be constructed. However, the Polish administration distrusted Hitler and saw the plan as a threat to Polish sovereignty, practically subordinating Poland to the Axis and the Anti-Comintern Bloc while reducing the country to a state of near-servitude as its entire trade would be dependent on Germany. Robert Coulondre ,

13932-689: The subsequent withdrawal of her remaining occupation forces after the Armistice of Compiègne on 11 November allowed the republic led by Roman Dmowski and Józef Piłsudski to seize control over the former Congress Polish areas . Also in November, the revolution in Germany forced Kaiser Wilhelm II 's abdication and gave way to the establishment of the Weimar Republic . Starting in December,

14061-522: The town was captured by the Soviets , who plundered the town, sexual abused residents, deported Germans to Siberia , and fought the Polish underground resistance movement . Afterwards the town was restored to Poland. Landmarks of Sępólno Krajeńskie include a Protestant church in the market built in 1857. West Prussia The Province of West Prussia ( German : Provinz Westpreußen ; Kashubian : Zôpadné Prësë ; Polish : Prusy Zachodnie )

14190-493: The town. In the year 1783 the town had altogether 183 houses, most of them having thatched roofs . There was an influx of Jews , who, however, gradually emigrated westwards in the 19th century. Sępólno was part of the short-lived Polish Duchy of Warsaw in 1807–1815 during the Napoleonic Wars , and afterwards it was re-annexed by Prussia. The Evangelical church was built in 1857-1858 and has since been demolished. In

14319-492: The treaty ruled on the territorial shape of the corridor, while articles 89 to 93 ruled on transit, citizenship and property issues. Per the terms of the Versailles treaty, which was put into effect on 20 January 1920, the corridor was established as Poland's access to the Baltic Sea from 70% of the dissolved province of West Prussia , consisting of a small part of Pomerania with around 140 km of coastline including

14448-527: The view that without direct access to the Baltic Sea , Poland's economic independence would be illusory. Around 60.5% of Polish import trade and 55.1% of exports went through the area. The report of the Polish Commission presented to the Allied Supreme Council said: 1,600,000 Germans in East Prussia can be adequately protected by securing for them freedom of trade across the corridor, whereas it would be impossible to give an adequate outlet to

14577-441: The views of their owners". Prominent politicians and members of the German minority were the first to be included on the land reform list and to have their property expropriated. The creation of the corridor aroused great resentment in Germany, and all interwar governments of the Weimar Republic refused to recognize the eastern borders agreed at Versailles, and refused to follow Germany's acknowledgment of its western borders in

14706-441: The war under the 1908 law. In 1925 the Polish government enacted a land reform program with the aim of expropriating landowners. While only 39% of the agricultural land in the Corridor was owned by Germans, the first annual list of properties to be reformed included 10,800 hectares from 32 German landowners and 950 hectares from seven Poles. The voivode of Pomorze, Wiktor Lamot, stressed that "the part of Pomorze through which

14835-589: The west, the province shared a border with easternmost Brandenburg , and comprised those lands between the provinces of Posen and Pomerania . This region of the province was characterized by the Baltic Uplands , with southward flowing rivers joining the Noteć ( German : Netze ). The Brda ( German : Brahe ) drains much of this area, joining the Vistula after passing through Bydgoszcz ( German : Bromberg ). Numerous large expanses of woodland, including

14964-785: Was a Free City from 1807 until 1814. After the final defeat of Napoleon in 1815, Danzig, Kulm, and Thorn were returned to West Prussia by resolution of the Vienna Congress . Some of the areas of Greater Poland annexed in 1772 that had formed the Netze District were added to West Prussia as well (the remainder became part of the Grand Duchy of Posen ). The Congress of Vienna established the German Confederation (German: Deutscher Bund ), an association of 39 German-speaking states in Central Europe under

15093-405: Was a province of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and 1878 to 1919. West Prussia was established as a province of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1773, formed from Royal Prussia of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth annexed in the First Partition of Poland . West Prussia was dissolved in 1829 and merged with East Prussia to form the Province of Prussia , but was re-established in 1878 when the merger

15222-459: Was built in 1734. The Jews of the town traded textiles and other fabricated goods to both Royal Prussia and Duchy of Prussia . The Jewish community in Zempelburg was still active until the early 20th century. The town was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia during the First Partition of Poland in 1772. Fires in 1781 and 1782 destroyed 73 houses so there existed now 84 devastated sites in

15351-515: Was especially active in seeking support from the Allies. Dmowski argued that an independent Poland needed access to the sea on demographic, historical and economic grounds as he maintained that a Poland without access to the sea could never be truly independent. After the war Poland was to be re-established as an independent state . Since a Polish state had not existed since the Congress of Vienna ,

15480-568: Was finally annexed into Germany following the North German Confederation Treaty (1866). The Polish historian Andrzej Chwalba cites Germanization measures that included: At the time of German Unification in 1871, the Kingdom of Prussia was the largest and dominant part of the North German Confederation , the predecessor of the newly-formed German Empire . In the German census of 1910,

15609-592: Was found at the northwestern end of the delta. The Nogat river, a distributary of the Vistula, flows to the northeast past the city of Malbork ( German : Marienburg ) and into the Vistula Lagoon . Further east near Elbląg ( German : Elbing ), the border with East Prussia crossed the Vistula Spit , Vistula Lagoon, and the Elbląg Upland . In the southeast, the course of the Vistula river forms

15738-544: Was inhabited by West Slavic Lechitic tribes ( Pomeranians in the Pomerelia region and Masovians in Kulmerland ), while the actual Old Prussians ( Pomesanians and Pogesanians ) populated only the remaining part of the territory lying to the east of the Vistula River . The Teutonic Order's conquest of the region resulted in German colonization in the 14th century. As a result of Germanisation , Germans became in

15867-571: Was looted. Sępólno suffered during the Swedish invasions and epidemics of the 17th century. The Evangelical church on Schulenberg was destroyed in 1620. The location of a castle mentioned in 1679 is unknown. In 1764, the Niederstadt had 79 houses and the suburbs 71. In the 18th century, the town had several weavers, shoemakers and farmers. In 1773 Zempelburg had 70 craftsmen, including eight cloth makers and numerous shoemakers. A new synagogue

15996-600: Was rapidly becoming a sphere of influence of an increasingly powerful Germany. On 24 October 1938, the German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop asked the Polish ambassador Józef Lipski to have Poland sign the Anti-Comintern Pact. During a visit to Rome on 27–28 October 1938, Ribbentrop told the Italian Foreign Minister Count Galeazzo Ciano that he wanted to turn the Anti-Comintern Pact into

16125-527: Was replaced by the Prussian system, and 750 schools were built from 1772-1775. Both Protestant and Roman Catholic teachers taught in West Prussia, and teachers and administrators were encouraged to be able to speak both German and Polish. Frederick II of Prussia also advised his successors to learn Polish, a policy followed by the Hohenzollern dynasty until Frederick III decided not to let William II learn Polish. Despite this, Frederick II (Frederick

16254-507: Was reversed and became part of the German Empire . From 1918, West Prussia was a province of the Free State of Prussia within Weimar Germany , losing most of its territory to the Second Polish Republic and the Free City of Danzig in the Treaty of Versailles . West Prussia was dissolved in 1920, and its remaining western territory was merged with Posen to form Posen-West Prussia , and its eastern territory merged with East Prussia as

16383-568: Was the Baltic coast, consisting of a graded shoreline with landmarks such as the Hel Peninsula stretching 35 kilometers into the Gdańsk Bay , and the Vistula Fens where that river meets the sea. The Vistula delta encompasses a heavily cultivated area of approximately 2,000 square kilometers of land, much of it below sea level. Gdańsk ( German : Danzig ), the largest city of the province,

16512-634: Was the administrative name for the region. In the 10th century, Pomerelia was settled by Slavic Pomeranians , ancestors of the Kashubians , who were subdued by Bolesław I of Poland . In the 11th century, they created an independent duchy. In 1116/1121, Pomerania was again conquered by Poland. In 1138, following the death of Duke Bolesław III , Poland was fragmented into several semi-independent principalities . The Samborides , principes in Pomerelia, gradually evolved into independent dukes, who ruled

16641-547: Was undertaken by the Frankfurt Parliament . In 1815, the province was administratively subdivided into the Regierungsbezirke Danzig and Marienwerder . From 1829 to 1878, West Prussia was combined with East Prussia to form the Province of Prussia , after which they were re-established as separate provinces. In 1840, King Frederick William IV of Prussia sought to reconcile the state with

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