Central working group of German parties

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The Central Working Group of German Parties (ZAG) - also: German Central Working Group - was a grouping of several parties and German associations in the provinces in Poland to be relinquished after the First World War , in which questions of Germanness were to be clarified and discussed among one another.

Foundation and composition

ZAG was founded in Bromberg on September 22nd, 1919, according to a report by Paul Fleischer on the same day. The chairmanship of the ZAG was taken over by Max Winkler , who he later relinquished to Klebba. The German Democratic Party , the German Center Party , the German Party, the Social Democratic Majority Party , the Poznan People's Council and the German Association each sent two representatives to the ZAG.

In addition, two provincial working groups were formed. One was based in Graudenz and was to be responsible for the future Pomeranian Voivodeship . Here, too, Winkler chaired and Klebba was his deputy. The management of the company was taken over by the lawyer Particle. Each of the above parties sent three representatives to this community.

The other provincial working group was set up to represent the ceded province of Posen in Bromberg. Two representatives each had their seats in this community, who were sent from the Netzegau .

Task and financing

The individual political groups and representative bodies should work together on the basis of independence and preservation of their individual character in the community. In relation to the Reich Chancellery , the ZAG determined its tasks as follows (quote from Wermuth):

The Central Working Group acts as an office of mutual understanding in order to clarify the various views and a common approach in matters affecting the whole of Germanness through mutual discussion .

The concrete work should extend through the establishment of contact in the organizations of the school and cultural system to merchants and members of Catholic circles as well as the working class, in order to bring about the strengthening of Germanness. The ZAG's activities were financed by the chairman of the German Foundation , Erich Krahmer-Möllenberg . The Foundation paid 90,000 Reichsmarks per month for expenses for staff and offices, social welfare, legal advice, information, support for sports clubs, youth care, cultural events and scholarships. Furthermore, the press work and the ZAG announcements were subsidized.

Political tension and dissolution

Although the task was not primarily focused on the outside world as a political group, the ZAG became more and more active in this direction. When the ZAG then suffered a defeat in the elections in May 1920, the Foreign Office (AA) began considering how the influence of the ZAG could be limited. Because of the pointed political statements of the representatives of the ZAG this became a major disruptive factor for the politics of the AA.

On December 14, 1920 there was a meeting between Krahmer-Möllenberg, the head of the cultural department at the AA, Jaffé, and Ziemke. A dissolution of the ZAG was strictly rejected by Krahmer-Möllenberg because it would meet with resolute resistance from representatives of Germanness in the ceded areas. Finally, a wait-and-see attitude was agreed, which should take into account the results of the election in Upper Silesia on March 20, 1921. For this purpose, a five-point note was drawn up that included measures to reduce ZAG's activities. In the months that followed, tensions arose between the German Association and on the part of the Deutschtumsbund vis-à-vis the ZAG.

In April 1921, the ZAG offered the Deutschtumsbund to unite both organizations. However, since the members of the Deutschtumbund saw themselves as the more suitable representatives of Germanness and the question of participation in the elections of both organizations was not resolved, no agreement was reached during negotiations in Bromberg. In addition, the political representatives on the left in the ZAG strictly rejected a political mandate with the Deutschtumsbund. When these representatives left the ZAG on April 21, 1921, that was the decisive impetus for the subsequent dissolution of the ZAG.

Organization of the ZAG in April 1920

The Reich and State Commissioner for the transfer to Poland dated April 26, 1920, wrote a report on the German-speaking organizations in Poland. He listed the following structure for ZAG:

  • German Central Working Group (based in Bromberg)
    • Chairman: Klebba, Graudenz
    • Managing director: Siegel, Bromberg
  • Provincial working group Pomerellen
    • Managing Director: Lawyer Particle, Bromberg
  • Provincial Association of Poznan
    • Managing Director: Großstück, Posen

The ZAG would not form groups at the district level, but only organize itself in local groups.

credentials

  • Kurt Oppitz: The German Foundation and its activities in preparation for the Second World War, doctoral thesis Potsdam 1973
  • Norbert Krekeler, Right to Appeal and Secret Ostpolitik of the Weimar Republic - Subsidizing the German Minority in Poland, Stuttgart 1973
  • Helga Wermuth: Dr. hc Winkler - An Assistant to State Press Policy in the Weimar Republic, Dissertation Munich 1975