Union of Poles in Germany - Early History

Early History

The union was intended to express the views of the Polish minority in Germany, This partly comprised the Polish-native population of the former East German provinces which remained with Germany under the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles (Upper Silesia, East Brandenburg, Pomerania, Warmia or areas where Poles settled in Middle Ages (East Prussia) — mostly farmers and workers — and partly the Polish immigrants in Ruhr area (see Ruhr Poles). This constituency of the Union was calculated to number approximately 1,500,000 people. Official German statistics from the mid 1920s showed approximately 200,000 persons with Polish mother tongue. Polish political parties gained between 33,000 and 101,000 votes in the legislative elections in the Weimar Republic between 1919 and 1932. However, the Polish minority was only legally recognised as such in Upper Silesia, where they possessed international status due to Treaty of Versailles. In other areas Poles had no special minority rights.

In February 1933 the Union created a central financial institution, "Bank Słowiański" (The Slavic Bank), with a professional and technical staff. This institution was one of many Polish financial and economic organisations in Germany, such as: banks of peasant farmers, cooperatives, agricultural circles and savings banks. Up to 1931, twenty-one Polish credit banks acted in Germany.

In Nazi Germany Poles faced increased problems, as the Nazis attempted to force cultural unity on the country. Poles outside of the Upper Silesia, such as Lower Silesia, were forced to declare German nationality; activists of the union were subject to persecutions. However, the union was kept legal in the hope of avoiding escalations of ethnic conflict that would create problems for the German minority in Poland (mostly in the autonomous Silesian Voivodeship, in Wielkopolska and the then Pomeranian Voivodeship, comprising parts of former West Prussia in the Polish Corridor, 1919–1939).

The leaders of the Union found it necessary to invent new symbols for the Union to avoid the possibility that Poles would adhere to the new “national” symbols, such as the Nazi salute and the swastika.

This led to invention of the symbol of the Union, the Rodło, a stylized representation of the Vistula river. The reason for its adoption was that the Polish national symbol, the White Eagle, was not allowed by Prussian law. The Nazi swastika provided a certain inspiration for the Poles's own alternative symbol that was designed to be a challenge to Nazi Germany.

It was created by the graphic designer Janina Kłopocka, who made a rough sketch of "the emblem of the Vistula river, cradle of the Polish people, and royal Kraków — the cradle of Polish culture". The white emblem was placed on a red background to emphasize the solidarity with the Polish nation and its soul.