Poznan Uprising (1918-1919)
The Poznan Uprising (or Wielkopolska Uprising 1918-1919 , Polish powstanie wielkopolskie ) from December 27, 1918 to February 16, 1919 was a military uprising by Poland in the Prussian province of Posen . These fought for inclusion of the majority of Polish-speaking province and the region Wielkopolska in after the First World War revived Polish state .
The uprising ended in a Polish military and political victory. The main part of the previous province of Posen was factually separated from the German Empire before the provisions of the Versailles Treaty came into force .
Prehistory of the uprising
Since the Second Partition of Poland in 1793 and then after the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the historical heartland of Greater Poland belonged to the Kingdom of Prussia . When the Bismarck Empire was founded in 1871, the province of Posen became part of the new German nation-state. The political contradictions in the province, almost two-thirds of which are inhabited by Catholic Poles, had come to a head since the Kulturkampf against the Catholic Church in the 1870s had further fueled the dispute over the Germanization policy of the Prussian state .
At the end of the First World War, the Polish national movement in Poznan hoped to be integrated into the new Polish state. The so-called Regency Kingdom of Poland, founded in 1916 as a satellite state of the Central Powers , functioned as its core . But despite the Fourteen Points by US President Woodrow Wilson and the proclamation of national self-determination contained therein , the definition of the new Polish borders was uncertain. The Polish national forces in the province of Poznan therefore decided to act violently. This was to take advantage of the favorable moment when the German Eastern Army was still stationed in Eastern Europe and especially in Russia even after the armistice of November 11, 1918 . In addition, the revolution had broken out in Germany and, after the fall of the monarchy, the political balance of power was unsettled.
As early as November 1918, a workers 'and soldiers' council came to power in Poznan , which was made up of five Polish and five German representatives. At the beginning of December 1918, a so-called Teilsejm in Posen called for the province to join Poland. The uprising was triggered by a visit by the patriotic pianist and later Polish head of government Ignacy Jan Paderewski , who was enthusiastically welcomed by the Polish townspeople when he arrived. On the second day, December 27, 1918, demonstrations from both the Polish and German sides took place in Poznan before the first shots were fired that evening.
Course of the fighting and the armistice
The fighting lasted for a month and a half. The first clashes resulted in only minor losses. The city of Poznan was already in the hands of the insurgents on December 28th. Subsequently, the fighting spread to almost the entire province of Poznan. The Polish fighters belonged to a branch of the secret “Polish Military Organization” ( Polska Organizacja Wojskowa - POW). Its structure went back to Józef Piłsudski , who was meanwhile serving as the "Provisional Head of State" of the Republic of Poland . In mid-January 1919, almost the entire province of Posen was occupied by the Polish National Forces.
In the meantime the German side had partially reorganized. Some army units and behelfsartig established Volunteer Corps (u. A. Border Guard Battalion III ), under the collective name " Border Guard East " operated, the defense of the embattled areas and the eastern frontier took up to a peace settlement. The German border guards started counter-attacks and the fighting continued. There was a threat of escalation and armed conflict in other areas disputed between Germany and Poland.
On February 16, 1919, an extension of the Allied armistice with the German Reich was signed in Trier , which also referred to developments in the province of Posen. The German Reich undertook to renounce all hostilities on the border with Poland. The Wielkopolska Uprising officially ended. The insurgent army was indirectly recognized as an Allied force. In fact, Allied pressure brought the fighting to a halt and a military demarcation line was established. A few local battles took place in the weeks that followed.
Political aftermath
The Versailles Treaty of June 28, 1919 laid down a fait accompli ( uti possidetis ). As a result of the Paris Peace Conference, Germany suffered considerable territorial losses. According to the peace treaty, which came into force on January 10, 1920, u. a. most of the province of Poznan ceded to Poland without a referendum . This also affected some areas, e.g. B. the cities of Bromberg and Lissa , which were on the German side of the demarcation line. The Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ignacy Paderewski (since January 1919) signed for the Polish delegation .
From the areas of the province that remained with Germany, together with some remaining areas of the previous province of West Prussia, the new Prussian province of Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia emerged in 1922 , the name of which already hinted at a revision of the border regulation.
The soldiers of the Wielkopolska Uprising took part in larger numbers in the series of uprisings in Upper Silesia from August 1919 to July 1921, which, however, were unable to follow the example of the Poznan uprising. The memory of the Wielkopolska Uprising lives on in Polish history as one of the few successful uprising movements against foreign national rule .
literature
- Stanisław Kubiak: Niemcy a Wielkopolska 1918-1919 (= Dzieje polskiej granicy zachodniej. Vol. 4, ISSN 0070-7791 ). Instytut Zachodni, Poznań 1969.
- Antoni Czubiński: Powstanie Wielkopolskie 1918–1919. Geneza - character - znaczenie. Wydanie Poznańskie, Poznań 1978.
- Dietrich Vogt: The Greater Poland uprising 1918/1919. Report, reminders, documents. J.-G.-Herder-Institut, Marburg 1980, ISBN 3-87969-147-9 .
