Polish Corridor - Exodus of The German Population

Exodus of The German Population

The German author Christian Raitz von Frentz says that after First World War ended, the Polish government tried to reverse the systematic Germanization from the past decades. Frederick the Great settled around 300,000 colonists in the eastern provinces of Prussia and aimed at a removal of the Polish nobility, which he treated with contempt. Frederick also described Poles as 'slovenly Polish trash' and compared them to the Iroquois. A second colonization aimed at Germanisation was pursued by Prussia after 1832. On the other hand, he encouraged administrators and teachers to be able to speak both German and Polish. Laws were passed in Prussia aimed at Germanisation of the provinces of Posen and West Prussia in the late 19th century. A further 154,000 colonists, including locals, were settled by the Prussian Settlement Commission in the provinces of Posen and West Prussia before World War I. Military personnel was included in the population census. A number of German civil servants and merchants were introduced to the area, which influenced the population status.

According to Richard Blanke, an American historian of German descent, 421,029 Germans were living in the area in 1910, making up 42.5% of the population. Blanke has been criticised by Christian Raitz von Frentz, his book classified by him as part of a series on the subject that have an anti-Polish bias, additionally Blanke's views have been described by Polish professor A. Cienciala as sympathetic to Germany. In addition to the military personnel included in the population census, a number of German civil servants and merchants were introduced to the area, which influenced the population mix, according to Andrzej Chwalba. By 1921 the proportion of Germans had dropped to 18.8% (175,771). Over the next decade, the German population decreased by another 70,000 to a share of 9.6%.

German political scientist Stefan Wolff, Professor at the University of Birmingham, says that the actions of Polish state officials after the corridor's establishment followed "a course of assimilation and oppression". As a result, a large number of Germans left Poland after the war: According to Wolff, 800,000 Germans had left Poland by 1923, according to Gotthold Rhode, 575,000 left the former province of Posen and the corridor after the war, according to Herrmann Rauschning, 800,000 Germans had left between 1918 and 1926, contemporary author Alfons Krysinski estimated 800,000 plus 100,000 from East Upper Silesia, the contemporary German statistics say 592,000 Germans had left by 1921, other Polish scholars say that up to a million Germans left. Polish author Władysław Kulski says that a number of them were civil servants with no roots in the province and around 378,000, and this is to a lesser degree is confirmed by some German sources such as Hermann Rauschning. The question whether many of the Germans who left were actually settlers without roots in the area, has been raised by Lewis Bernstein Namier who remarked in 1933 "a question must be raised how many of those Germans had originally been planted artificially in that country by the Prussian Government."

According to the above mentioned Richard Blanke, in his book Orphans of Versailles, several reasons for the exodus of the German population are given.

• A number of former settlers from the Prussian Settlement Commission who settled in the area after 1886 in order to Germanise it were in some cases given a month to leave, in other cases they were told to leave at once.
• Poland found itself under threat during the Polish-Bolshevik war, and the German population feared that Bolshevik forces would control Poland. Migration to Germany was a way to avoid conscription and participation in the war.
• State-employed Germans such as judges, prosecutors, teachers and officials left as Poland did not renew their employment contracts. German industrial workers also left due to fear of lower-wage competition. Many Germans became economically dependent on Prussian state aid as it fought the "Polish problem" in its provinces.
• Germans refused to accept living in a Polish state. As Lewis Bernstein Namier said: "Some Germans undoubtedly left because they would not live under the dominion of a race which they had previously oppressed and despised."
• Germans feared that the Poles would seek reprisals after over a century of harassment and discrimination by the Prussian and German state against the Polish population.
• Social and linguistic isolation: While the population was mixed, only Poles were required to be bilingual. The Germans usually did not learn Polish. When Polish became the only official language in Polish-majority provinces, their situation became difficult. The Poles shunned Germans, which contributed to their isolation.
• Lower standards of living. Poland was a much poorer country than Germany.
• Former Nazi politician and later opponent Hermann Rauschning wrote that 10% of Germans were unwilling to remain in Poland regardless of their treatment, and another 10% were workers from other parts of the German Empire with no roots in the region.

Blanke says that official encouragement by the Polish state played a secondary role in the exodus. Christian Raitz von Frentz notes "that many of the repressive measures were taken by local and regional Polish authorities in defiance of Acts of Parliament and government decrees, which more often than not conformed with the minorities treaty, the Geneva Convention and their interpretation by the League council - though it is also true that some of the central authorities tacitly tolerated local initiatives against the German population." While there were demonstrations and protests and occasional violence against Germans, they were at a local level, and officials were quick to point out that they were a backlash against former discrimination against Poles. There were other demonstrations when Germans showed disloyalty during the Polish-Bolshevik war as the Red Army announced the return to the prewar borders of 1914. Despite popular pressure and occasional local actions, perhaps as many as 80% of Germans emigrated more or less voluntarily.

Helmut Lippelt writes that Germany used the existence of German minority in Poland for political means and as part of its revisionist demands, which resulted in Polish countermeasures. Polish Prime-Minister Władysław Sikorski stated in 1923 that the de-Germanization of these territories had to be ended by vigorous and quick liquidation of property and eviction of German "Optanten"(Germans who refused to accept Polish citizenship and per Versailles Treaty were to leave Poland) so that German nationalists will be educated that their view of temporary state of Polish western border is wrong.} To Lippelt this was partially a reaction to the German claims and partially Polish nationalism, urging to exclude the German element. In turn, German policy was fueled by anti-Polish prejudice.