German-Polish customs war

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Ordinance on the provisional application of a protocol between the German Reich and the Republic of Poland of March 8, 1934

The German-Polish customs war was an economic policy conflict between Germany and Poland that lasted from 1925 to 1934 .

After the First World War , Upper Silesia was divided in 1922 . After the border was drawn, the coal areas were on the Polish side.

In June 1924 the Polish government passed a law setting high import tariffs to protect domestic production. At the same time, reduced customs tariffs were set for other countries. On June 20, 1925, the Polish side issued import bans after the duty-free border traffic agreed in the Versailles Treaty had expired on June 15 .

It was hoped in Germany to obtain political concessions from Poland, especially with regard to a partial revision of the German-Polish border ( Polish corridor , Free City of Danzig , Upper Silesia ), by in turn imposing an import ban on Polish coal. The risk of a “customs war” was also accepted. At that time Germany was an important trading partner of Poland and imported two thirds of Poland's coal. With great effort, Poland then built a 600-kilometer-long railway line in 1926–33, the “ Coal Mainline ” ( Magistrala węglowa ) for the transport of Upper Silesian coal to the newly expanded Polish Baltic Sea and export port of Gdynia . Despite the severe economic effects in the early days, Poland was able to switch to other foreign markets such as Great Britain or Sweden in the medium term and partially offset the losses. As early as July 1925, there was talk of a customs war on the German side. After negotiations between the German envoy in Warsaw Ulrich Rauscher and the Polish negotiator Juliusz Twardowski von Skrzypna Ogończyk (1874–1945), a trade agreement was concluded on March 31, 1930, which should end the disputes. But the treaty was not ratified.

On March 7, 1934, the Customs Peace Protocol was passed and on November 4, 1935, German-Polish relations were normalized by a trade agreement.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Jürgen Elvert: Central Europe !: German plans for a European reorganization (1918-1945) . Franz Steiner Verlag, 1999, ISBN 9783515076418 , p. 100f.
  2. http://www.ifz-muenchen.de/heftarchiv/1971_4.pdf
  3. http://www.bundesarchiv.de/aktenreichskanzlei/1919-1933/0a1/lut/lut1p/kap1_2/kap2_56/para3_1.html
  4. http://www.bundesarchiv.de/aktenreichskanzlei/1919-1933/0a1/lut/lut1p/kap1_2/kap2_118/para3_1.html
  5. http://scidok.sulb.uni-saarland.de/volltexte/2003/95/pdf/Polnic_Greuel.pdf
  6. http://www.helsinki.fi/iehc2006/papers2/Dlugobo.pdf
  7. ^ Roland G. Foerster: Operation Barbarossa . Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 1993, ISBN 9783486559798 , p. 25.