Narodowe Stronnictwo Robotników

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The Narodowe Stronnictwo Robotników (NSR) (dt. National Workers' Party ) was a Polish party founded in the Ruhr area in 1917 and existed until the 1920s.

history

The party emerged in the environment of the Polish trade union ZZP . Its members represented different political positions: a considerable number were close to the national Polish movement, but there were also those who rejected its efforts or were completely apolitical. In order to be able to articulate itself in the spirit of the national political movement, the NSR was founded on October 18, 1917 in Wanne-Eickel .

The party demonstratively chose Poznan as a political center in Poland as the official seat of the party. In August 1918 the party had over 10,000 and in 1919 over 25,000 members. The party saw itself as the political representative of the Polish workers in the Ruhr area, but also in the German, Austro-Hungarian and Russian partitions of the old Polish state. It also claimed that workers would be represented in a future Polish state. She demanded that the workers' rights won in the German Reich be taken over in a new Polish state. The focus of the work was the possibility of returning to a new Polish state. She viewed the Polish National Council in Poznan as the central political force of the Poles in Germany.

It saw the amalgamated Polish faction in the Prussian Landtag and in the Reichstag as the only legitimate representation of Poles in Germany vis-à-vis government and society .

In Germany she supported all efforts aimed at expanding the rights of the people and improving material living conditions. Although her rhetoric had class struggle features, she rejected socialism . Instead, she pleaded for national solidarity and social balance. It aimed to promote disadvantaged classes. Their goal was to increase their educational opportunities and improve their standard of living. In order to strengthen Polish national awareness and to prepare Polish workers for their return to Poland, the party, like the ZSR and the magazine Wiarus Polski, supported the establishment of a Polish community university or community college in the Ruhr area. This was opened in August 1919 in Bochum .

The party was positive about the November Revolution, also because it "gave freedom to the citizens of foreign nationalities in Germany." Participate in demonstrations. Therefore, the party did not take part in the elections for the German National Assembly. However, she professed her loyalty to the German state. Its members joined workers' councils , took part in company representatives or local politics.

In connection with the radicalization of many workers in the Ruhr area, the party lost considerable support among Polish workers. A significant part of Polish workers moved to Poland or emigrated to Belgium and France in the 1920s. The national political organizations in the Ruhr area lost their basis.

literature

  • Wulf Schade: The "Ruhr Poles" in the First World War and their relationship to the 1918 revolution in the German Reich . In: Frank Bischoff, Guido Wärme, Wilfried Reininghaus (eds.): Departure into democracy. The 1918/19 revolution in Rhineland and Westphalia. Münster, 2020 pp. 261–302