District of Birnbaum (Wartheland)
District Birnbaum (Wartheland) was the name of a German administrative unit in occupied Poland (1939–45) during the Second World War .
Prehistory (1815 to 1920)
The area around what is now the western Polish town of Międzychód ( Birnbaum ) belonged from 1815 to 1920 as the Birnbaum district to the Prussian province of Posen . In the course of the Wielkopolska uprising , most of the district came under Polish control in January 1919. With the signing of the Versailles Treaty on June 28, 1919, the Birnbaum district was officially ceded to the newly founded Poland. The area remaining under German control, including the district town of Birnbaum, was cleared and handed over to Poland between January 17 and February 4, 1920.
Administrative history
During the attack on Poland at the beginning of the Second World War , German troops occupied the western Polish powiat Międzychód , the district town of Międzychód was taken on September 4, 1939.
On October 26, 1939, the powiat under the name of Landkreis Birnbaum (from May 21, 1941: Landkreis Birnbaum (Wartheland) ) was attached to the German Reich , which as a unilateral act of violence was ineffective under international law. The district became part of the administrative district of Posen in the Reichsgau Wartheland .
The seat of the German District Office was the district town of Międzychód ( Birnbaum ).
The German occupation ended with the invasion of the Red Army in January 1945.
politics
Land Commissioner
- 1939 :?
District administrators
- 1939–1940:?
- 1941–1945: Neumann
Municipal structure
The 73 localities in the district were initially grouped into seven administrative districts . On January 1, 1942, the district of Birnbaum-Stadt was named a city according to the German municipal code of 1935, and on April 1, 1944, the district of Zirke-Stadt . Towards the end of the occupation, the district consisted of two cities and five administrative districts.
size
The district of Birnbaum (Wartheland) had an area of 753 km².
population
The district of Birnbaum (Wartheland) had in 1941: 45,752 mostly Polish inhabitants. The German occupation authorities drove over 4,500 Poles from the area between December 1, 1939 and December 31, 1943.
A small German minority lived in the area, and Germans were also settled during the occupation. Towards the end of the occupation, most of them left the area.
Place names
The local occupation authorities immediately gave all localities in the district with German names, although officially, according to an unpublished decree of the Interior Minister of December 29, 1939, the German names valid in 1918 should initially continue to apply. On May 18, 1943, German names were set for all places with a post or train station in Wartheland , although there were again deviations.
List of cities and administrative districts in the district of Birnbaum (Wartheland):
| Polish name | German name (1918) | German name (1939–45) |
|---|---|---|
| Chrzypsko Wielkie | Seeberg |
1939–43 Groß Seeberg 1943–45 Großseeberg |
| Kwilcz | Kwiltsch | Larch Lake |
| Łowyń | Lioness |
1939–43 Taldorf 1943–45 Waldtaldorf |
| Międzychód | pear tree | pear tree |
| Sieraków | Zirke | Zirke |
Web links
- District of Birnbaum (Wartheland) Administrative history and the district administrators on the website territorial.de (Rolf Jehke), as of August 19, 2013.