Referendums as a result of the Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles of 1919 stipulated that referendums should take place in several border areas of the German Reich , through which the affiliation of the areas either to the German Reich or to its neighboring states ( Denmark , Poland , France or Belgium ) should be determined. This was regulated in Articles 88, 94 and 104 of the Versailles Treaty. In detail, the following results were obtained:
Schleswig
→ Main article: Referendum in Schleswig
Voting in Schleswig:
- I. Zone ( North Schleswig ), February 10, 1920, 25.1% for remaining with Germany, so this area fell to Denmark.
- Zone II (Mittelschleswig), March 14, 1920, a total of 80.2% of the votes for Germany, so the area remained with the German Empire.
The result of Zone I meant that in addition to cities such as Aabenraa and Sønderborg with majorities of 55.1% and 56.2% for Germany in an otherwise mostly Danish-minded surrounding area in the north of Zone I, the city of Tondern with over 76, 5% German votes and mostly German-minded surrounding areas came to Denmark, although this area is right on the border.
In Zone II there were only three places on Föhr with a Danish majority at the municipality level, which remained with Germany. Only in the case of municipalities near the border with a Danish majority in Zone II would Denmark have received additional areas.
In a temporarily discussed southern Zone III with the cities of Schleswig , Husum and Friedrichstadt , no vote was carried out, although national liberal circles on the Danish side had brought a vote there into play.
Contemporary German politicians and journalists criticized both the zoning itself, which was based on the Clausen line , as well as the fact that the first zone was rated en bloc, while in the second zone each municipality was counted individually. This approach led to a German minority in Denmark that was twice as large as the Danish minority in Germany. A proposal made on the day of the first vote by the German historian Johannes Tiedje to revise the controversial border strip around Tondern in Zone I, which would have resulted in equally large minorities on both sides of the border, was not accepted. He played a role in the final phase of the election campaign in Zone II.
The border between Zones I and II is still the German-Danish border today. The German minority in North Schleswig and the Danish minority in South Schleswig still have the status of national minorities with corresponding rights, cultural associations, schools, libraries and their own parties, the Schleswig Party in Denmark and the South Schleswig Voters Association in Germany.
Upper Silesia
In the vote on March 20, 1921, 59.6% of the votes were cast for Germany and 40.4% for Poland. The turnout was 98%. In 664 municipalities, the majority voted for the German Reich, in 597 for Poland.
The Versailles Treaty provided for the possibility of a division of the area. Accordingly, the larger, western part of Upper Silesia then remained in Germany while Eastern Upper Silesia with Katowice ( Katowice came to Poland) and its valuable coal mines.
Even before the vote, there had been fierce controversies between Germans and Poles, which are now coming to a head. After the count, the newly formed Wirth government demanded that because of the 59.6% of votes cast for Germany, the entire area of Germany must be preserved. On May 22nd, 1921, the German employers' associations, together with the trade unions, held a meeting in the Berlin Philharmonie to protest against the "rape" of Upper Silesia and to demand the right to self-determination for the region. The President of the Reichstag, Paul Löbe, and the President of the Prussian State Parliament, Robert Leinert (both SPD), gave speeches. In Upper Silesia itself, various groups ( self-protection and free corps ) set about arming themselves and resisting a possible assignment. Polish irregulars under Wojciech Korfanty tried, however, to obtain a cession of all of Upper Silesia to Poland. On May 23, 1921, Polish and German groups fought fierce battles at Annaberg (“ Third Uprising in Upper Silesia ”).
On October 20, 1921, an ambassadors conference in Paris decided that the area should be divided up, with the German Reich and Poland each receiving a share according to the election result. This decision calmed the situation on the surface, but on the German side there was still resentment and the desire to reverse the decision.
East and West Prussia
In East Prussia (measured against the borders of the interwar period), on July 11, 1920, votes were held in two areas on whether or not to belong to Germany or Poland.
- In the Marienwerder voting area, 92.8% voted for East Prussia and thus for Germany; the turnout was 84 percent. Thus the area came as the administrative district of West Prussia to the province of East Prussia.
- In the Allenstein voting area ( Masuria and parts of Warmia ), 97.9 percent voted for East Prussia; the turnout was slightly higher at 87 percent. The area thus remained German.
Realistic observers had expected majority votes for Germany. There were probably various reasons why they were so clear:
- The proportion of Slavic native speakers had decreased rapidly in the previous decades.
- A considerable part of the inhabitants of Masurian language identified with Germany.
- The election campaign for Germany was supported by the German administration. In contrast to other voting areas, this was replaced by a neutral administration during the voting preparations.
- Already in the First World War, the East Prussian Aid expressed national solidarity, and the Reich government provided loans to repair war damage.
- Poland was in the Polish-Soviet War in 1920 and was militarily on the defensive.
Saar area
In the Saar area , which was initially occupied by the French and then under the administration of the League of Nations, the referendum did not take place until January 13, 1935 in accordance with the provisions of the treaty. It produced a majority of 90.8% for Germany, so that the Saar area was annexed to the German Reich on March 1 of the same year. The National Socialists, who had been in power in the German Reich since 1933, exploited the “return of the Saar” as a propaganda success.
Excursus: assignments of territory without prior referendum
West Prussia
A large part of West Prussia was added to Poland and now formed the northern section of the Polish Corridor . Of the districts that came to Poland in 1910, only the city and district of Graudenz and the city of Thorn had a German-speaking majority.
As the Free City of Danzig, under the supervision of the League of Nations, Danzig became a German community in the Polish economic area in order to meet the Polish desire for an efficient seaport and the German majority in equal measure.
Poses
No referendum was held in the Poznan Province , the historic Polish region of Greater Poland . Here, the Wielkopolska uprising from the end of December 1918 to February 16, 1919 had already led to an armistice being enforced and a demarcation line established due to Allied pressure. In the 1910 census, 61.5% of the population had Polish as their mother tongue, 38.5% German. In 1910, 55% Poles and 45% Germans lived in the city of Poznan itself. A strip of territory on the northwestern edge of the province with a particularly high German population remained with the German Empire. The city of Bromberg (Polish: Bydgoszcz ) was ceded to Poland despite the German majority of 84%.
Eupen and Malmedy
By the end of the First World War, the Prussian territory had also included francophone areas here . The area around Malmedy was also called Prussian Wallonia . The new state border was east of the language border ( Eupen and St. Vith ). The Eupen-Malmedy area was initially ceded to Belgium without a referendum. Later there was a vote on list entries and resulted in a slight majority for Belgium, but remained controversial because of the voting mode.
The Neutral Moresnet special area, which has been jointly administered by Prussia (after 1871 the German Empire ) and Belgium (until 1830 belonged to the United Kingdom of the Netherlands ) , was granted to Belgium without a referendum.
Today, Eupen is the seat of government of the German-speaking Community of Belgium .
Alsace-Lorraine
There was also no vote in Alsace-Lorraine . The area, which had belonged to the East Franconian Empire (later the Holy Roman Empire ) since 870 , then conquered by the French King Louis XIV in the 17th century and ceded to Germany in 1871, fell again to France. Although the language border here traditionally runs along the Vosges, so that Alsace and German-Lorraine were German- speaking in 1918, the majority of the population there had taken a more pro-French stance during the centuries that it belonged to France, especially after the revolution of 1789 .
Special case German Austria
Since German Austria was not part of the German Reich, there can be no talk of an assignment - however, conversely, the desired affiliation to the German Reich was forbidden by the Allied victors. On October 21, 1918, the German members of the Austrian Reichsrat declared themselves part of the German-Austrian National Assembly , whereupon Emperor Karl renounced government business on October 25th. On October 30, before the armistice on November 3, this National Assembly had announced the establishment of the Republic of German-Austria in a letter to Wilson and declared it “part of the German Republic” - even before the republic was proclaimed in Germany . As of October, the state was no longer called German Austria, but instead was designated the Republic of Austria in the Treaty of Saint-Germain at the instigation of the victorious powers . The union with the German Empire was forbidden. In 1921 referendums were held in Tyrol (April 24, 1921: 98.8% for the German Empire) and in the Salzburg region (May 29, 1921: 99.3% for the German Empire). The victorious powers, especially France, prevented further votes and insisted on compliance with the Paris suburb agreements . In 1938, Austria was " annexed " to the German Reich under changed conditions .
See also
Referendums in the wake of the Treaty of Saint-Germain
Web links
- Elections in the Weimar Republic : Timetables 1918–1933
Individual evidence
- ↑ Deutsches Historisches Museum, collective memory portal : Referendum in Schleswig-Holstein 1920, under “Afterwards” also detailed map and figures
- ↑ Annex VIII to the Versailles Treaty, concerning § 88
- ↑ Ingrid Schulze-Bidlingmaier (arrangement), files of the Reich Chancellery , Die Kabinette Wirth I and II (1921/22) , Boldt, Boppard am Rhein 1973, p. LII online
- ↑ Manfred Overesch , The Weimar Republic (= Droste Geschichts-Kalendarium. Politics - Economy - Culture. Chronicle of German Contemporary History , Vol. 1), Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 1982, p. 494
- ↑ AHF -Information No. 54: The referendum 1920 - Requirements, course and its consequences ( Memento from February 10, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Robert Kempa: Youth in East Prussia
- ↑ Sophie Charlotte Preibusch: Constitutional developments in Alsace-Lorraine from 1871 to 1918. Integration through constitutional law? Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin 2010, p. 43 f.