Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia

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Prussian province
Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia
flag coat of arms
Flag of the Province of Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia Coat of arms of the province of Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia
Situation in Prussia
Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia
Consist 1922 - 1938
Provincial capital Schneidemühl
surface 7,695.24 km²
Residents 332,443 (1925)
Population density 43 people / km²
Religions 57.96% Evangelical, 40.65% Catholic, 1.24% Israelite (1925)
Arose from Province of Poznan and Province of West Prussia
Today part of Poland
map
Map of the province of Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia with district boundaries (1938)

The Prussian province Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia , formed from the remaining western parts of the former provinces of Posen and West Prussia , existed in the Association of the German Reich from 1922 to 1938. The seat of the Upper President was Schneidemühl . The seat of the governor was Meseritz .

history

In December 1918 and January 1919, the Wielkopolska uprising brought most of the Prussian province of Posen back into Polish hands. In the outskirts of the province of Posen in the south, west and north, which were still German for the time being, the District President of Bromberg temporarily exercised his own powers as well as those of the Upper President and District President of Posen. The Treaty of Versailles , signed by the German delegation on June 28, 1919 , provided for the transfer of most of the former provinces of Poznan and West Prussia to the newly formed Polish state . On November 20, 1919, the District President of Bromberg took up his new position in the form of the government office for the administrative district Grenzmark West Prussia-Posen and, since the city of Bromberg was also part of the ceded area, moved his seat to Schneidemühl on January 20, 1920. This government agency temporarily administered all the districts and remnants of the districts from the provinces of Posen and West Prussia west of the Vistula and the Polish corridor, respectively, that remained in Germany . The term "Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia" probably goes back to Bernhard Schnackenburg , who was in office from May to August 1919 and who wanted to name the areas west of the Vistula that remained with the Prussian state to reflect the losses in the provinces of West Prussia and Posen to remember. On January 10, 1920, the Treaty of Versailles formally entered into force.

From January 11, 1921, the government office in Schneidemühl was called Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia . By law of the Prussian state government of July 21, 1922, the administrative unit was established as a new Prussian province. The province consisted of three disjointed areas along the German-Polish border. It was the smallest province of the Prussian state, and at the same time also the most sparsely populated (1925: 332,485 inhabitants, 43 inhabitants / km²). It consisted of a single administrative district, the administrative district of Schneidemühl , at the head of which the respective chief president also assumed the function of regional president. Before the province was created, there were also arguments for annexing these parts of the area to the neighboring provinces of Pomerania, Brandenburg and Silesia. Ultimately, political reasons were decisive for the formation of a separate province. On the one hand, the demonstrative adherence to the old names and the formation of the rump province expressed the non-recognition of the territorial status quo. On the other hand, local officials and officials argued that the particular interests and problems of the border region could be better expressed if it were organized as a separate province.

Since the actual departure of the Provincial President Hans von meibomian after the Nazis took power in 1933, the Province of Upper president was Brandenburg province in personal union also managed. The province was dissolved by the law of September 2, 1938, which came into force on October 1, 1938. The districts of Bomst (partially) and Fraustadt were assigned to the province of Silesia , the districts of Bomst (remainder), Meseritz and Schwerin (Warthe) to the province of Brandenburg and the rest of the area to the province of Pomerania . Within the province of Pomerania, the area with the districts of Dramburg and Neustettin and the districts of Arnswalde and Friedeberg, which were reclassified from the province of Brandenburg, became Nm. declared a new, independent administrative district, which had its seat in Schneidemühl. In order to preserve the tradition of the dissolved province, this was given the name of the administrative region Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia .

After the Second World War , the area was placed under Polish administration ; the German population fled or was expelled .

economy

Posen-West Prussia was shaped by agriculture to a greater extent than other eastern provinces. Around 61% of those in employment worked in the primary sector (for comparison: Pomerania 55.7%, East Prussia 50.7%). 19% of the usable agricultural area was accounted for by farms up to 2 ha and around 16% on large estates over 100 ha. The average income was accordingly low. The province received substantial subsidies from the Prussian state government.

Polish minority

After the Versailles Treaty came into force, part of the former local leadership of the Polish minority emigrated to Poland. In 1925, 13,284 people declared themselves either Polish-speaking or bilingual German / Polish. This corresponded to a population share of 4.3 percent. The share of the vote of the Polish-Catholic People's Party was stable at around 3 percent in all state and Reichstag elections in the Weimar Republic. The settlement centers of the minority were unevenly distributed. The districts Flatow (1925: 16.8%), Meseritz (5.8%) and Bomst (20.6%) had the highest proportions of the Polish-speaking or bilingual population. A special achievement of the minority was the establishment of a network of Polish private schools. At their peak, they were attended by 1,325 children in the 1932/33 school year.

Administrative division

Since August 2, 1919, the remaining German districts of Czarnikau, Filehne and Kolmar i. Poznan is administered jointly for the time being, by an official with the seat of administration in Schönlanke .

The government office for the administrative district Grenzmark West Prussia-Posen looked after from November 20, 1919:

  • from the province of West Prussia the districts
  1. German crown
  2. Flatow
  3. Schlochau
  • of the province of Poznan the districts
  1. Schneidemühl (city district since April 1, 1914)
  2. Bomb
  3. Czarnikau (rest; seat in Schönlanke)
  4. Filehne (rest; seat in Schönlanke)
  5. Woman city
  6. Kolmar i. Posen (rest; seat in Schönlanke)
  7. Meseritz
  8. Schwerin (Warta)

On December 15, 1919, the remaining districts of Czarnikau, Filehne and Kolmar i. Poznan combined to form the new network district with the administrative headquarters in Schönlanke.

The Prussian province of Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia comprised the administrative district of Schneidemühl from 1922 to 1938 with the corresponding number of urban and rural districts, which can be found in the following list.

Schneidemühl District (1938)

Seat of the upper president and the government in Schneidemühl
  1. Urban district
    1. Schneidemühl
  2. Counties
    1. Bomb
    2. German crown
    3. Flatow
    4. Woman city
    5. Meseritz
    6. Netzekreis (seat: Schönlanke, district town)
    7. Schlochau
    8. Schwerin (Warta)

politics

Chief President

Parties and communal parliaments

Local council elections
Political party 1925 1929 1933
be right Seats be right Seats be right Seats
DNVP 34.7% 11 33.7% 11 11.0% 4th
center 26.9% 9 26.6% 9 23.1% 8th
SPD 14.1% 5 17.7% 6th 8.0% 3
DVP 6.3% 2 11.1% 4th - -
DVFP 4.5% 1 - - - -
VVB 2.9% 1 - - - -
PKVP 3.4% - 3.2% - - -
Others 4.6% 1
NSDAP - - 4.7% - 55.0% 16
  1. ↑ a b In the network of the National Block ( DNVP / VNB / CNBL )
  2. ↑ a b In the network of the Block der Mitte ( DVP / DDP / WP )

In contrast to other provinces, the provincial parliament was called the communal parliament .

During the Weimar Republic, only three parties were of greater importance: the DNVP (National Block), the Center and the SPD . The NSDAP only achieved an absolute majority of 16 seats in 1933 with a 55% share of the vote. In the 1925 and 1930 elections, their share of the vote was below 5%.

Governors (Posen-West Prussia)

Districts of the Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia administrative district 1938–1945

The area of ​​the administrative district of Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia, formed with effect from October 1, 1938, was composed of most of the districts of the dissolved Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia province, two districts of the Brandenburg district of Frankfurt an der Oder and two districts of the Pomeranian district of Köslin .

The following districts have belonged to the Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia administrative district since 1938:

Personalities

See also

Web links

Commons : Posen-West Prussia  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Grenzmark Posen-Westpreußen , in: Online encyclopedia on the culture and history of Germans in Eastern Europe , University of Oldenburg.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Mathias Niendorf: The province Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia and its Polish population . In: Rudolf Jaworski, Marian Wojciechowski (Ed.): Texts and materials on contemporary history . tape 9 , 1996, ISBN 978-3-11-097669-4 , pp. 453–457 (German, Polish, online ).
  3. ^ The border region of Posen-West Prussia: Provincial regional elections 1921–1933. gonschior.de, accessed on February 13, 2020 .
  4. ^ Province of Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia , accessed on March 5, 2011
  5. ↑ Erich Stockhorst: Five thousand heads , p. 133.
  6. ↑ Gunthard Stübs: Pommern - Das Land am Meer: The administrative region Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia (2001), accessed on January 25, 2013.