District costs (Wartheland)
During the Second World War, the district of Kosten (Wartheland) was the name of a German administrative unit in occupied Poland (1939–45) .
Prehistory (1815 to 1918)
The area around the western Polish city of Kościan ( Kosten ) belonged to the Prussian province of Posen as the district of Kosten from 1815 to 1918 . In the course of the Greater Poland uprising , the district came under Polish control at the end of December 1918. With the signing of the Versailles Treaty on June 28, 1919, the Kreis Kosten was officially assigned to the newly founded Poland.
Administrative history
At the beginning of the Second World War , German troops occupied the western Polish powiat Kościan ; the district town of Kościan was captured on September 7, 1939.
On October 26, 1939, the powiat was connected to the German Reich under the name of Landkreis Kosten (from May 18, 1943: Landkreis Kosten (Wartheland) ) . As a unilateral act of violence, the annexation 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 Kościan ( costs ).
The German occupation ended with the invasion of the Red Army in January 1945 .
politics
Land Commissioner
- 1939 :?
District administrators
- 1939–1941:?
- 1941–1943: Helmut Liese
- 1943–1945: Robert Lorenz ( substitute )
Municipal structure
The 115 localities in the district were initially grouped into 10 administrative districts . On January 1, 1942, the district of Kosten-Stadt was named a city according to the German municipal code of 1935, and on July 1, 1942, the district of Schmiegel-Stadt . Towards the end of the occupation, the district consisted of two cities and eight administrative districts.
expansion
The district of Kosten (Wartheland) had an area of approx. 900 km².
population
The district of Kosten (Wartheland) had in 1941: 79,224 mostly Polish inhabitants. The German occupation authorities expelled over 13,000 Poles from the area between December 1, 1939 and December 31, 1943.
A small German minority lived in the area; 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authorities immediately gave all localities in the district with German names, although officially, according to an unpublished decree of the Interior Minister of December 29, 1939, the German names valid in 1918 should initially continue to apply.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 Kosten (Wartheland):
| Polish name | German name (1918) | German name (1939-1945) |
|---|---|---|
| Czempiń | Czempin | Karlshausen |
| Kościan | costs | costs |
| Krzywiń | Kriewen | Kriewen |
| Śmigiel | Schmiegel | Schmiegel |
| Starlings Bojanowo | Old Boyen | Old boys |
| Wielichowo | Wielichowo | Meadow city |
Web links
- District costs (Wartheland) administrative history and the district administrators on the website territorial.de (Rolf Jehke), as of August 17, 2013.