Polish Corridor

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See also West Prussia
The Polish Corridor and associated territories

The Polish Corridor (which Poland named Pomorze; contemporary also Danzig Corridor or Vistula Corridor), was a creation of the Treaty of Versailles and consisted of the former Province of West Prussia or old Pomerelia (minus its former capital of Danzig), the latter's hinterland and the county of Posen, all of which were taken off Prussia (Germany) and given to the newly resurrected state of Poland, without a plebiscite, the latter action greatly angering the Germans.[1] The Corridor now separated Germany proper from its Province of East Prussia, and Danzig.

It has come to be felt that there is a moral taint about treaties signed under duress...[making them] morally discredited. ~ Professor of History, Edward Hallett Carr on the Versailles Treaty.[2]

The Corridor was the most momentous and contentious of the eastern frontier problems and, as predicted by so many, ultimately led to World War II.

Area

The dismemberment of Prussia by the Western Allies in 1919. The lands above the Vistula river were taken from her. The Corridor is shown.
Map showing the German railway network in the Corridor, Posen - and even into Congress Poland which had few railways. The loss of this infrastructure and capital investment without any compensation caused chaos and anger.
Disrupted communications
German proposals for extra-territorial access. The black and dotted territories were all part of Germany before 1919.

The Corridor extended to 16,295 square kilometres. It was 230 kilometres in length and varied in width from between 80 to over 200 kilometres at its southern end to 30 kilometres at its narrowest point towards the north. It had a sea frontage of 76 kilometres, and with the narrow Hela Peninsula, which curves round towards Danzig Bay, of 146 kilometres. The historical and political division between Pomerelia and Posen is the line of the Netze Canal, constructed by Prussian King Frederick the Great. Frederick reclaimed the whole of the territory forming the eastern block of the 'Corridor' and put it into communication by water with East Prussia and other parts of his kingdom.[3]

Versailles

United States' President Woodrow Wilson's infamous Fourteen Points, including self-determination, based upon governments' deriving their powers from the consent of the governed, was his ideal. However, in eastern Europe this was to end in tears. Pomerelia was never ethnically Polish or part of ethnic Poland. The Polish delegation at Versailles, led by Roman Dmowski, a fanatical nationalist, opposed self-determination; there should be no "plebiscite comedies" he said.[4] (Danzig, for instance, which the Poles asked for, was 98% German, and it was obvious which way a vote would have gone there.) Both President Wilson and Britain's Mr Lloyd George stated that territories inhabited by "essentially Polish elements" and "indisputably Polish populations" should go to Poland.[5] Polish delegates at Versailles also demanded the counties of Marienwerder (West Prussia) and Allenstein (East Prussia). However the conference decided upon plebiscites in those two counties, held on 11 July 1920, supervised by the Italians and the British. In Marienwerder 92.8 per cent voted to remain in Germany and in Allenstein 97.5 per cent.[6] These figures included a very large proportion of ethnic Poles living there. (It seems likely by all considerations available that something similar would have occurred across 'the Corridor' had a plebiscite been held there.)[7]

After Versailles - What they said

In response to the Versailles Treaty the German Government stated:

"No nation, even amongst the Allied and Associated Powers, can expect the German people to accept peace-terms which must detach vital members from the body-corporate of Germany without any consultation of the populations involved."[8]

Hermann Müller (SPD), new German Foreign Minister, stated in July 1919: "The German government would leave in no doubt its intentions to revise this treaty."

Fritz Thyssen, the famous industrialist who was one of the members of the German Peace Delegation in 1919, stated: "it is clear to everybody that the Treaty imposed on Germany was nefarious".[9]

Ferdinand Foch, French Marshal, wrote: "This is not peace. It is an armistice for 20 years"....."There (the Polish Corridor) lies the root of the next war."[10][11]

Francesco Nitti, Prime Minister of Italy wrote: "The [eastern] frontiers of Germany, as laid down by Articles 27 and 28 of the Treaty, constitute the greatest violation of the principles of self-determination, and are mere allotments of territory, marked out at random, and in violation of International Law....The labour of centuries was destroyed at a blow."[12]

Dr. Otto Braun, Prime Minister of Prussia 1920-1932, stated: "we will always protest against the violation of our rights. We will never recognise the arbitrary and unjust frontiers."[13]

Count Carlo Sforza, former Foreign Minister of Italy, said: "No serious statesman ever believed that the solution of the Corridor problem would not be temporary."[14]

Hjalmar Schacht. famous economist, wrote: "Never yet in modern history has a peace treaty so flown in the face of the basic principles of morality as the Treaty of Versailles."[15]

After the Treaty of Locarno, signed on 12 October 1925, when Germany's western borders as laid down in the Versailles Treaty were confirmed, the question of the eastern borders with Poland, and Danzig, remained a matter for future arbitration.[16]

Lord d'Abernon, former British Ambassador to Berlin, stated "After Locarno, the Polish Corridor becomes Europe's [next] powder-box."[17]

William E. Borah, USA Senator, startled Poland by suggesting that economic conditions cannot improve as long as the Treaty of Versailles is unmodified. "First of all the frontiers of Upper Silesia and the Polish Corridor must be rectified."[18]

In September 1930 Hitler, then leader of the NSDAP, contributed an article to the London newspaper The Sunday Express in part of which he stated: "We, the National Socialists, demand the revision of the Versailles Treaty; we demand the return to Germany of the Polish Corridor, which is like a strip of flesh cut from our body as it cuts Germany in two. It is a national wound that bleeds continuously, and will continue to bleed till the land is returned to us. We will rouse all Germans against this injustice."[19]

Karl Renner, Austrian socialist politician, writing to the Foreign Ministry in 1930 said: "It is impossible to imagine a peaceful solution to the problem of the Polish Corridor".

Austen Chamberlain's feelings were that "no British Government ever will or ever can risk the bones of a single British grenadier" for the Corridor.[20]

Tomáš G. Masaryk, Czech statesman, wrote: "As for the Polish Corridor, it may be definitely said that Germany will never tolerate a condition of things by which East Prussia is separated from the German Reich."[21].

H. G. Wells, famous British author, wrote: "The most disastrous of all the follies of Versailles was the creation of the Free City of Danzig and what was called the Polish Corridor."[22]

Sir Horace Rumbold, 9th Bt., British Ambassador at Berlin in a telegram to London Foreign Office, 26 Feb 1931: "It must be remembered that a war against Poland to rectify the eastern frontiers would be in the nature of a crusade. A large part of the population would eagerly join in it without compulsion."[23]

Edouard Daladier, Premier of France: "Soon, despite the [Great Power] illusions harboured by the Poles, there would [soon be] a Fuhrer in the Polish Corridor."[24]

Sir Robert Vansittart wrote on 1 May 1930, in a British Foreign Office Memorandum surveying international affairs, that the objectives of German Foreign Policy included "a drastic modification of the German-Polish frontier".[25]

The Luxemburg Conversations: In a Protocol of conversations held in January 1933 (these meetings had commenced in 1931) with delegates from Germany France, Belgium & Luxemburg of industrialists, the German delegation stated that "abolition of the Corridor" and "rectifications of the frontiers of Upper Silesia" had to take place and set forth their proposals.[26]

Since 1919 all German Governments had sought revisions based upon Article 19 of the League of Nations' Covenant (which was incorporated in the Treaty of Versailles)[27] which said:

The Assembly may from time to time advise the reconsideration by Members of the League of Treaties which have become inapplicable and the consideration of international conditions which might endanger the peace of the world.[28]

Following the installation by elections of the new National Socialist Government on 30 January 1933, the Foreign Ministry telegraphed embassies abroad stating that "any apprehensions regarding future German foreign policy should be met by reference to the Foreign Minister (Baron von Neurath), who has been a member of the last two Cabinets and who has the confidence of the President to conduct foreign policy. Continuity of policies is guaranteed."[29]

German Foreign Minister Baron von Neurath stated on 9 February 1933: For our starting point, we must always begin with the injustices of Versailles with regard to the Corridor,.........[and] Heretofore we have always demanded the return of all of Upper Silesia.[30]

Alfred Wysocki, Polish Minister in Berlin (Feb 1931-July 1933), in an agitated state, called upon Richard Meyer, Director of Dept IV at the German Foreign Ministry on 17 February 1933, saying "we are on the eve of a war between Germany and Poland" complaining about German press articles. In response Meyer said there would be no war, but that Wysocki knew "there was no German Government and no party in Germany, from the Communists to the National Socialists, which recognized as justified the borders forced on Germany by the dictatorial Treaty of Versailles". In reply Wysocki stated "the Polish people were of one mind that they would rather let themselves be killed than retreat one foot from the present borders."[31]

Jules Larouche, French Ambassador to Poland in February 1933, who had worked on various sub-committees during the Versailles peace deliberations, claimed that he had nothing to do with fixing the eastern border of Germany and he had foreseen that only friction and lasting enmity between Germany and Poland would result from the 'Corridor'. He regarded it as incompatible with the modern concept of State territory, said it was in the interests of Poland to reach a rapprochement with Germany, and he understood that was not possible without eliminating the Corridor. He had said this repeatedly at the French Foreign Office in the Quai d'Orsay in Paris. He also said that "there existed a fear bordering on psychosis" in Poland about any negotiations concerning it, adding that "all Poles who had broached this subject to him had always expressed the view in agreement with the present official position hammered into the whole population by intensive propaganda, that territorial negotiations were out of the question."[32]

Our main objective remains the revision of the eastern border. Only a total solution will do. ~ German Foreign Minister Baron von Neurath addressing a Ministerial Conference in Berlin, 7 April, 1933.[33]

Winston Churchill, Member of the UK parliament, also said in April 1933:

Many people would like to see, or would have liked to see a little while ago - I was one of them - the question of the Polish Corridor adjusted. For my part, I should certainly have considered that to be one of the greatest practical objectives of European peace-seeking diplomacy.[34]

It becomes very obvious that this was a major issue for Germany from 1919 onwards and was not a specifically National Socialist complaint:

Poland is not a grievance of Hitler's making, but a German grievance... ~ Sir Neville Henderson, British Ambassador to Berlin.[35]

The new National Socialist government was not even formed until 30 January 1933. It can therefore be safely assumed that it would be months before new foreign policy directives would be sent to the German Foreign Office.

Lord Halifax, British Foreign Secretary, speaking to The High Commissioner for Danzig, Professor Burckhardt (Swiss), in May 1938, said:

Danzig and the Corridor are absurdities. Separating a large province from the Reich had probably been the most foolish provision of the Treaty of Versailles.[36]

Some issues

During the Paris Peace Conference the demarcation of the new German-Polish frontier was handed over to a Commission on Polish Affairs on 12 Feb 1919. Its President was Jules Cambon and the Vice-President was General le Rond of the French army. Both were violently anti-German and pro-Poland. The Polish delegation to the conference pronounced Germany as "an enemy of humanity" and demanded the frontiers Poland had in 1771, which were not ethnographic frontiers.[37] This was declined by the Peace Conference, although almost all the county of Posen was returned to Poland. West Prussia was also given to them without a plebiscite, and Danzig forced to become a 'Free City' under the sovereignty of the League of Nations without any consultation of the 407,000 population.

Almost immediately, despite signing the Minorities Treaty at Versailles, Poland began a regime of systematic oppression against the German population who at a stroke had found themselves under a new sovereignty (See "Minorities" on the Poland page). This behaviour took many forms, some incredibly trivial: for instance, the Polish Post Office refused to deliver letters addressed to the ancient German place-names in what had been West Prussia and the former Prussian Province of Posen. In 1923 the Polish Government banned the Bromberg-based German League. By 1926, some 85% of the Germans in the towns of West Prussia and the province of Posen were said to have left, often by eviction due to 'land reform', meaning expropriation, and other bureaucratic procedures. (Although Newman states: Up to 1928 there was still an almost solid German population in the cities of Bromberg and Thorn.[38]) Anyone crossing the Corridor by road or rail now required a Polish transit visa, even if they were on a direct train which did not stop in Poland. One family who remained on their farm wrote that the German community to which she belonged had always felt superior to the Poles, such feelings were taken for granted. After 1919 they felt they had to simply seal themselves off from the Poles.[39]

On 17th February 1933, the Director of Department IV in the Berlin Foreign Office, Richard Meyer, speaking to the Polish Minister in Berlin, Alfred Wysocki, complained of the continuing discriminations against the German minority in Poland and mentioned the complaints about schools, agrarian 'reform', etc. He pointed out that the Polish press were permanently hostile to the German minority and that the Polish Government also violated the rights of Danzig, and took no account of any decision by the League of Nations on any issue.[40]

Railways

The Corridor totally disrupted the fine Prussian railway network, much of it now in Polish possession, and other communications. To go by train from East Prussia to the Reich or in the opposite direction, one now had to cross five frontiers: the German-Danzig frontier at Marienburg, the Danzig-Polish frontier at Dirschau, the Polish-Danzig frontier at Muehlbanz, the Danzig-Polish frontier at Zoppot or Gross Katz, and the Polish-German frontier at Boschpol. The Poles deliberately delayed the trains for fantastic periods, sometimes taking three to four days to cover a mere 200 miles. Freight trains from Berlin to Marienburg were now taking eight or more hours longer than before 1918. All kinds of ridiculous regulations were now imposed.[41]

Population

According to numerous references the southern boundary of the Polish Corridor was the ethnical and governmental frontier of fourteenth century Poland.[42] After the imposed Treaty of Thorn in 1466 the province came under Polish occupation until 1772, when it was returned to Prussia. Even then, Lord Eversley points out that "the larger part of West Prussia was inhabited by Germans."[43] In 1920 The Corridor and its over one million inhabitants were transferred from German sovereignty to Poland without being consulted[44] an absolute contravention of the infamous Fourteen Points. Von Bulow stated on 10 Feb 1933 that almost all of these "had already been pushed out" by then.[45] It was an ethnological "bridge" between East Prussia and the rest of Germany. The Poles were numerous both farther south and farther north, mostly through immigration (see below).

The last German Census in 1910 gave the relative numerical strength of Germans and Poles in West Prussia according to ethnicity and language[46]:

Germans: 603,821; Poles: 545,846; Kashubians: 104,474; Bilingual: 17,435. These figures exclude Danzig. Had Danzig, now carved out of the Corridor, been included, it would have been overwhelmingly German, with over 1.1 million of them.[47] The Polish delegation at Paris disputed the 1910 Census as "inaccurate" but Germany was in no difficulty then and there are no grounds whatsoever to suggest that the census was anything but completely accurate. It should be also noted that Polish migration and settlement into this region in the 50 years prior to the census was very considerable[48], something overlooked by several observers such as Bernard Newman.

Unrest in Poland

Sir Howard Kennard, British Ambassador at Warsaw telegraphed Viscount Halifax in London on 26 September 1938: "There were anti-German demonstrations in The Corridor yesterday".[49]

In March 1939 there were anti-German demonstrations in Bromberg, including the beating and maltreatment of German women and children. The Polish Ambassador in Berlin (Lipski) was called to the German Foreign Office to receive a protest about these "excesses" and "outrages". He replied that he "deplored" these events but gave the excuse that they were due to "the nervous tension at present prevailing in Poland".[50]

On 11 April 1939 the German Abwehr reported:

"Poland is safeguarding the crucial area of the Corridor against any surprise attacks, by maintaining troops on the frontier in a continuous state of alert."[51]

Quotes

  • "In 1939, after Poland cooperated with Hitler — it did collaborate with Hitler, you know — Hitler offered Poland peace and a treaty of friendship and alliance (we have all the relevant documents in the archives), demanding in return that Poland give back to Germany the so-called Danzig Corridor, which connected the bulk of Germany with East Prussia and Konigsberg. After World War I, this territory was transferred to Poland, and instead of Danzig, a city of Gdansk emerged. Hitler asked them to give it amicably, but they refused. [...] As the Poles had not given the Danzig Corridor to Germany, and went too far, pushing Hitler to start World War II by attacking them. Why was it Poland against whom the war started on 1 September 1939? Poland turned out to be uncompromising, and Hitler had nothing to do but start implementing his plans with Poland. [...] After the victory in the Great Patriotic War, as we call World War II, all those territories were ultimately enshrined as belonging to Russia, to the USSR. As for Poland, it received, apparently in compensation, the lands which had originally being German: the eastern parts of Germany (these are now western lands of Poland). Of course, Poland regained access to the Baltic Sea, and Danzig, which was once again given its Polish name. So this was how this situation developed." – Vladimir Putin in an interview with Tucker Carlson recorded on 6 February 2024 in the Kremlin in Moskow[52]

See also

Sources

  • Schmitz, Hans Jacob, The Colonization of the Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia translated into English by Ernst Horstmann, Heimatblatter-Verlag, n/d (l930s).
  • Blanke, Professor Richard, Orphans of Versailles - The Germans in Western Poland 1918-1939, University Press of Kentucky, 1993, ISBN: 0-8131-1803-4
  • Chu, Professor Winson, The German Minority in Inter-war Poland, Cambridge University Press, U.K., 2012/2013, ISBN 978-1-107-63462-6

References

  1. ↑ Danger Spots of Europe by Bernard Newman, London, 1938, p.106-7.
  2. ↑ Carr, Professor Edward Hallett, The Twenty Years' Crisis 1919 - 1939 Macmillan, London, 1939, "The Sanctity of Treaties", p.241-1.
  3. ↑ Donald, G.B.E., LL.D., Sir Robert, The Polish Corridor and the Consequences, London, 1929, p.23.
  4. ↑ Donald, 1929, p.6.
  5. ↑ Donald, 1929, p.20.
  6. ↑ The Eastern Frontiers of Germany by René Martel, London, 1930, p.67-9.
  7. ↑ Newman, 1938, p.106-7.
  8. ↑ Martel, London, 1930, p.66.
  9. ↑ I Paid Hitler by Fritz Thyssen, London & New York, 1941, p.90.
  10. ↑ Germany Under The Treaty by William Harbutt Dawson, London & New York 1933, citation:p.93.
  11. ↑ Lengyel, Emil, The Cauldron Boils, New York, 1932, p.7.
  12. ↑ The Decadence of Europe by Francesco Nitti, London, 1923, p.87.
  13. ↑ Lengyel, 1932, citation p.9.
  14. ↑ Lengyel, 1932, p.12-13.
  15. ↑ The End of Reparations by Hjalmar Schacht, New York, 1931, pps:1-5.
  16. ↑ The Weimar Republic edited by Henrik Neubauer, English-language edition, Cologne, Germany, 2000, p.96-7. ISBN 3-8290-2697-8
  17. ↑ Lengyel, 1932, p.13.
  18. ↑ Lengyel, 1932, p.13.
  19. ↑ The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, April 1922-August 1939 edited by Norman H. Baynes, New York, 1969, vol.ii, p.994-5.
  20. ↑ The Origins of the Second World War by A. J. P. Taylor, London, 1961, p.54.
  21. ↑ Saturday Review, London, October 1930.
  22. ↑ cited in Poland from the Inside by Count Bertram de Colonna, London, 1939p.76.
  23. ↑ Woodward, Professor E.L., & Butler, Rohan, Documents on British Foreign Policy 1919-1939 Second series, vol.1, HMSO, London, 1946,p.569.
  24. ↑ Documents on British Foreign Policy 1919-1939 edited by Professor E.L. Woodward, M.A., F.B.A., Rohan Butler, M.A., and Margaret Lambert, PhD., 3rd series, vol.ii, 1938, H.M.S.O., London, 1949, p.381.
  25. ↑ This was almost 3 years prior to the National Socialists being voted into power. Woodward & Butler, 1946, p.501n.
  26. ↑ Documents on German Foreign Policy 1918-1945 by an editorial committee, Her Majesty's Stationary Office, London, 1957, Series C, vol.1, pps:2-4
  27. ↑ Woodward, Professor E.L., & Butler, Rohan, editors, Documents on British Foreign Policy 1919-1939 Second series, vol.1, H.M.S.O., London, 1946, p.492-3
  28. ↑ Newman, 1938, p.20.
  29. ↑ German Documents, 1957, p.1.
  30. ↑ German Documents, 1957, pps: 38-41.
  31. ↑ German Documents, 1957, p.46-7.
  32. ↑ German Documents, 1957, p.73-4, Communication by Hans Adolf von Moltke, German Ambassador to Poland, dated 22 Feb 1939.
  33. ↑ Documents on German Foreign Policy 1918-1945, by an editorial committee, Series C, vol.1, p.257, Her Majesty's Stationary Office, London, 1957.
  34. ↑ Churchill is cited in France: The Tragic Years 1939-1947 by Sisley Huddleston, Devin-Adair Co., New York, 1955, p.15.
  35. ↑ Woodward, Professor E. L., Butler, Rohan, & Orde, Anne, editors, Documents on British Foreign Policy 1919-1939, Third Series, vol.vii, Her Majesty's Stationary Office, London, 1954, p.36.
  36. ↑ German Documents, 1953, Series D, vol.v, p.48.
  37. ↑ Donald, 1929, p.13.
  38. ↑ Newman, 1938, p.110.
  39. ↑ Ferguson, Niall, The War of the World, Allen Lane pubs., London 2006, p.169. ISBN:0-713-99708-7
  40. ↑ German Documents, 1957, p.47.
  41. ↑ Lengyel, 1932, p.17.
  42. ↑ The Cauldron Boils by Emil Lengyel, New York, 1932, p.10, being one reference.
  43. ↑ The Partitions of Poland by Lord Eversley, London, 1915, p.16-17.
  44. ↑ Orphans of Versailles - The Germans in Western Poland 1918-1939 by Professor Richard Blanke, Kentucky University Press, 1993, ISBN 0-8131-1803-4
  45. ↑ Bernhard von Bulow, Secretary of State at the German Foreign Ministry, in German Documents, 1957, p.42.
  46. ↑ Donald, 1929, p.22-3.
  47. ↑ Donald, 1929, p.23.
  48. ↑ Imperial Germany by Prince Bernhard von Bulow, Cassell & co., London & New York, 1914, "The Eastern Marches" pps:239-268.
  49. ↑ Woodward, Prof.E.L., Butler, Rohan, Lambert, Margaret, editors, Documents on British Foreign Policy 1919-1939, Third Series, vol.iii, HMSO, London, 1950, p.34.
  50. ↑ Documents on German Foreign Policy 1918-1945 by an editorial committee, Series D, vol.vi, Her Majesty's Stationary Office, London, 1956, no,.108, p.135.
  51. ↑ Documents on German Foreign Policy 1918-1945 by a large editorial board, Series D, vol.vi, Her Majesty's Stationary Office, London, 1956, pps: 101-2 & 223.
  52. ↑ Interview to Tucker Carlson (Archive)
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