Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia
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Situation in Prussia | |
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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 |
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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
- of the province of Poznan the districts
- Schneidemühl (city district since April 1, 1914)
- Bomb
- Czarnikau (rest; seat in Schönlanke)
- Filehne (rest; seat in Schönlanke)
- Woman city
- Kolmar i. Posen (rest; seat in Schönlanke)
- Meseritz
- 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)
- Urban district
- Counties
- Bomb
- German crown
- Flatow
- Woman city
- Meseritz
- Netzekreis (seat: Schönlanke, district town)
- Schlochau
- Schwerin (Warta)
politics
Chief President
- 1922–1933: Friedrich von Bülow , DVP
- 1933-1934: Hans von Meibom DNVP
- 1935–1936: Wilhelm Kube ( provisional )
- 1936–1938: Emil Stürtz
Parties and communal parliaments
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 |
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)
- 1919– : Ernst von Heyking
- 1922–1933: Johannes Caspari
- 1933– : Hermann Fiebing (* 1901)
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:
- District of Arnswalde , until 1938 district in the administrative district of Frankfurt a. O. the province of Brandenburg
- District Deutsch Krone , since 1815 a district in the administrative district Marienwerder of the province of West Prussia , from 1922 to 1938 a district in the province of Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia
- District of Dramburg , until 1938 district in the administrative district of Köslin in the province of Pomerania
- District Flatow , since 1815 district in the administrative district Marienwerder of the province West Prussia , part of the original district Flatow belonged from 1922 to 1938 to the province Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia
- District of Friedeberg Nm. , until 1938 in the district of Frankfurt a. O. the province of Brandenburg
- Landkreis Netzekreis , 1919 from parts of the districts of Czarnikau , Filehne and Kolmar i. P. of the administrative district of Bromberg in the province of Posen , district office in Schönlanke, from 1922 to 1938 district in the province of Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia
- District Neustettin , until 1938 district in the administrative district Köslin of the province of Pomerania
- District of Schlochau , since 1815 district in the administrative district of Marienwerder in the province of West Prussia , a large part of the original district of Schlochau belonged to the province of Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia from 1922 to 1938
- City district of Schneidemühl , formed in 1914 from the city of Schneidemühl (previously in the Kolmar iP district ), until 1938 city district in the province of Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia, the official seat of the district president for this administrative district
Personalities
- Friedrich Foertsch (1900–1976), General Inspector of the Bundeswehr
- Burkhard Ritz (* 1931), farmer and politician ( CDU )
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Grenzmark Posen-Westpreußen , in: Online encyclopedia on the culture and history of Germans in Eastern Europe , University of Oldenburg.
- ↑ 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 ).
- ^ The border region of Posen-West Prussia: Provincial regional elections 1921–1933. gonschior.de, accessed on February 13, 2020 .
- ^ Province of Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia , accessed on March 5, 2011
- ↑ Erich Stockhorst: Five thousand heads , p. 133.
- ↑ Gunthard Stübs: Pommern - Das Land am Meer: The administrative region Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia (2001), accessed on January 25, 2013.