The Influence of the Separation of Prussian Poland from Germany on Social and Ethnic Problems (1918-1923)

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  • ポーランド独立に伴う旧プロイセン領ポーランドのドイツからの分離と民族問題(1918-1923)
  • ポーランド ドクリツ ニ トモナウ キュウ プロイセンリョウ ポーランド ノ ドイツ カラ ノ ブンリ ト ミンゾク モンダイ 1918 1923

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This paper analyzes the influence of the separation of Prussian Poland from Germany on the economic situation of the border area between Germany and Poland in the first years of Polish Independence. It describes the period from the end of the First World War to August 1923, when the Polish government banned the German minority movement Deutschtumsbund in Bydgoszcz/Bromberg. This research is mainly based on materials from the National Archive in Poznan, but also uses German archival resources and daily newspapers in both languages published in Poznan. Those two Polish western provinces (Wielkopolska/Grospolen and Pomorze/Pommerellen) were integrated into Russian and Austrian Poland through the Wielkopolska Uprising (Powstanie Wiekopolskie) and the Versailles Treaty. However in the process of the uprising many Poles and Germans were involved in violent incidents. Taking this political background into consideration, this paper examines the economic crisis caused by this separation in the border area, where ethnical minorities such as Mazurian, Kashub and Silesian people lived. They were treated by German authorities as groups having a strong German cultural influence and an integral part of the German nation, but were also considered by the Polish national movement as an indispensable part of Polish nation due to their common linguistic, cultural (or religious partly among Silesian and Kashub) characteristics. I term these 'ethnically intermediate groups' between Germans and Poles. This economic crisis was in particular caused by, firstly, the strong devaluation of the Polish currency -the marka polska- in relation to the German mark. Secondly, and as a result, the price of crops in former Prussian Poland became much lower than in Germany (until 1922). The different velocities of postwar inflation of these two currencies, divided railway networks and difficult border control were among the factors that increased smuggling of goods and foreign currency. I also describe how such chaotic circumstances harmed the intensive agriculture of former Prussian Poland, stimulating ethnic antagonism. Further, the separation of citizenship between the two nations living in this border area deprived German farmers of their land through agricultural reform. Deutschtumsbund accused the government of violation of international treaties protecting minority rights in the International Court of Justice in the Hague. The Polish government lost the case and Polish society became more hostile towards the German minority. Finally, this economic crisis was used as justification for the Polish assimilation policy of the 'ethnically intermediate groups' and the nationalistic radicalization of German minority.

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