danzig treaty of versailles

Matull, "Ostdeutschlands Arbeiterbewegung", p. 440, 450. It was a futile gesture. [119] Beck had not abandoned hopes of negotiating a settlement with Germany. Bernadotte Everly Schmitt wrote that "there is no reason to believe that the Allied governments were insincere when they stated at the beginning of Part V of the Treaty ... that in order to facilitate a general reduction of the armament of all nations, Germany was to be required to disarm first." [169], The British historian of modern Germany, Richard J. Evans, wrote that during the war the German right was committed to an annexationist program which aimed at Germany annexing most of Europe and Africa. The plebiscite allowing the Danish population of northern Schleswig to choose between joining Denmark or remaining with Germany was unarguably consistent with the principle of national self-determination. There was to go along clearly recognizable lines the treaty of six ships. Versailles, Treaty of, any of several treaties signed in the palace of Versailles, France. [125] The British historian Victor Rothwell described King's view that the Poles had caused their own suffering as one motivated by spite and his resentment at being pressured by public opinion into declaring war on Germany despite his own inclinations towards neutrality. ", Apostolic Administration of the Free City of Danzig, Apostolic Administration of Kamień (Cammin), Lubusz (Lebus) and the Prelature of Piła (Schneidemühl), This page was last edited on 13 September 2021, at 16:24. The treaty gave some German territories to neighbouring countries and placed … Obituary. [64] The East Prussia plebiscite was held on 11 July 1920. A complete withdrawal was considered, but rejected in order to maintain a presence to continue acting as a check on French ambitions and prevent the establishment of an autonomous Rhineland Republic. Polish Corridor. On 20 September 1920, the League of Nations allotted these territories to Belgium. Although it is often referred to as the "Versailles Conference", only the actual signing of the treaty took place at the historic palace. [19] On 24 March 1939, the Polish Foreign Minister, Colonel Jozef Beck, who was part of the triumvirate which ruled the Sanation regime and largely ran foreign policy on his own, told a meeting of the Polish cabinet that Poland should go to war if Germany made any attempt to alter the status of Danzig. In 1917, the new Bolshevik government under Vladimir Lenin in March 1918 signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, amounting to a surrender that was highly favourable to Germany. Found insideThe book discusses the role of experts and the Danzig Question at the Paris Peace Conference; the establishment of diplomatic history as a field of academic research; and the role of David Lloyd George and his Vision of Post-War Europe. [19], The blockade was maintained for eight months after the Armistice in November 1918, into the following year of 1919. As an example of the arguments against the Versaillerdiktat he quotes Elizabeth Wiskemann who heard two officer's widows in Wiesbaden complaining that "with their stocks of linen depleted they had to have their linen washed once a fortnight (every two weeks) instead of once a month! It called for a just and democratic peace uncompromised by territorial annexation. Point 14 of U.S. president Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points called for Polish independence to be restored and for Poland to have "secure access to the sea", a promise that implied that Danzig which occupied a strategic location where the Vistula river flowed into the Baltic sea, should become part of Poland. [11] Danzig's location as a deep-water port where the Vistula river met the Baltic Sea had made it into one of the wealthiest cities in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries as grain from Poland and Ukraine was shipped down the Vistula on barges to be loaded onto ships in Danzig, where it was shipped on to western Europe. ", while General Jan Smuts (a member of the South African delegation) wrote to Lloyd-George, before the signing, that the treaty was unstable and declared "Are we in our sober senses or suffering from shellshock? The Free City protested against the Westerplatte depot, the placement of Polish letter boxes within the City[103] and the presence of Polish war vessels at the harbour. ", Stuthoff Zeszyty 4 4 Stanislaw Mikos Recenzje i omówienia, Those congregations in Polish-annexed West Prussia (, In June 1922 the Senate of Danzig and the old-Prussian ecclesiastical executive, the. Found insideThe harrowing, tragic story of a city and a people ravaged by one of the most brutal battles of World War II. In 1945, in the face of the advancing Red Army, two and a half million people were forced out of Germany’s most easterly ... Instead, the Allies won decisively on the battlefield and forced an armistice in November 1918 that resembled a surrender. In November 1918, the Republican Party won the Senate election by a slim margin. By 1925, German companies had begun to design tanks and modern artillery. American policy experts, unaware of these secret agreements, nonetheless suggested that Japan had adopted a Prussian model that would imperil China's own search for autonomy, and these considerations influenced Wilson. Matull, "Ostdeutschlands Arbeiterbewegung", p. 419. [174] Having noted that much, Peukert commented that the policy of rapprochement with the Western powers that Gustav Stresemann carried out between 1923 and 1929 were constructive policies that might have allowed Germany to play a more positive role in Europe, and that it was not true that German democracy was doomed to die in 1919 because of Versailles. Lloyd George also wanted to neutralize the German navy to keep the Royal Navy as the greatest naval power in the world; dismantle the German colonial empire with several of its territorial possessions ceded to Britain and others being established as League of Nations mandates, a position opposed by the Dominions. It defended itself through the costly Siege of Danzig in 1577 in order to preserve special privileges, and subsequently insisted on negotiating by sending emissaries directly to the Polish king. On 7 November 1932, the Reich Minister of Defense Kurt von Schleicher authorized the illegal Umbau Plan for a standing army of 21 divisions based on 147,000 professional soldiers and a large militia. The presbyteries granted them usually to Northwestern German Lutheran congregations which had lost bells due to the war. [142] As the treaty did not ban German companies from producing war material outside of Germany, companies moved to the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Sweden. [109][110] The payment schedule required US$250 million within twenty-five days and then US$500 million annually, plus 26 per cent of the value of German exports. Kwartalnik kadry kierowniczej Policji, Poland Betrayed: The Nazi-Soviet Invasions of 1939, Stutthof Trial. The Lutheran congregation of St. Mary's Church could relocate its valuable parament collection and the presbytery granted it on loan to St. Annen Museum in Lübeck after the war. [5] In 1938, the Free City's population of 410,000 was 98% German, 1% Polish and 1% other. On the Western Front, the Allied forces launched the Hundred Days Offensive and decisively defeated the German western armies. "wir kennen die Wucht des Hasses, die uns hier entgegentritt ... Es wird von uns verlangt, daß wir uns als die allein Schuldigen am Kriege bekennen; ein solches Bekenntnis wäre in meinem Munde eine Lüge." Acknowledgements -- Destitute children in Alsace from the beginning of the twentieth century to the end of the 1930s : orphan care in Strasbourg, in between France and Germany / Catherine Maurer, Gabrielle Ripplinger -- Childhood in the ... To those who are saying that the treaty is bad and should never have been made and that it will involve Europe in infinite difficulties in its enforcement, I feel like admitting it. The French were willing to accept a smaller amount of reparations than the Americans would concede and Clemenceau was willing to discuss German capacity to pay with the German delegation, before the final settlement was drafted. Further plebiscites were held in Eupen-Malmedy and Neutral Moresnet. [150], In December 1931, the Reichswehr finalized a second rearmament plan that called for 480 million Reichsmarks to be spent over the following five years: this program sought to provide Germany the capability of creating and supplying a defensive force of 21 divisions supported by aircraft, artillery, and tanks. [75], In February and March 1920, the Schleswig Plebiscites were held. More damaging were the treaty’s commercial clauses that took from Germany most of its foreign financial holdings and reduced its merchant carrier fleet to roughly one-tenth of its prewar size. The Treaty of Versailles gave Poland acces to the Baltic Sea with the establishment of the so called Polish Corridor, but separated Eastprussia from the rest of Germany. On 8 January 1918, however, Wilson delivered a speech (known as the Fourteen Points) that declared the American peace objectives: the rebuilding of the European economy, self-determination of European and Middle Eastern ethnic groups, the promotion of free trade, the creation of appropriate mandates for former colonies, and above all, the creation of a powerful League of Nations that would ensure the peace. The German Board of Public Health in December 1918 stated that 763,000 German civilians had died during the Allied blockade, although an academic study in 1928 put the death toll at 424,000 people. Clemenceau accepted the offer, in return for an occupation of the Rhineland for fifteen years and that Germany would also demilitarise the Rhineland. [14][15][16], The terms of the armistice called for an immediate evacuation of German troops from occupied Belgium, France, and Luxembourg within fifteen days. During the city's conquest by the Soviet Army in the early months of 1945, a substantial number of citizens fled or were killed. Now they, along [120] During his visit to London on 4–6 April 1939 Beck told Chamberlain that any effort to include the Soviet Union in the "peace front" would cause the very war it was supposed to prevent, and wanted to exclude the Soviet Union from the "peace front" for that reason. Her promised share of German reparations never materialized, and a seat she coveted on the executive council of the new League of Nations went instead to Spain—which had remained neutral in the war. [15] Despite creating the Free City, the British did not really believe in the viability of the Free City of Danzig with Lloyd George writing at the time: "France would tomorrow fight for Alsace if her right to it were contested. [133], The United States Third Army entered Germany with 200,000 men. [19] Beck stated that Danzig "regardless of what it is worth as an object" had become a "symbol" in Poland that was so important that Poland should go to war over the issue. [23][70] The opposition also protested to the League of Nations, as did the Jewish Community of Danzig. a block of Eastern European states under Polish leadership) had sought to develop economic relations with Sweden and Finland. On 30 March 1945, the city was taken by the Red Army. The Paris Peace Conference was an international meeting convened in January 1919 at Versailles just outside Paris. [144] [14] It was felt that including a city that was 90% German into Poland would be a violation of the principle of national self-determination, but at the same time the promise in the 14 Points of allowing Poland "secure access to the sea" gave Poland a claim on Danzig, hence the compromise of the Free City of Danzig. The treaty recognized Portuguese sovereignty over these areas and awarded her small portions of Germany's bordering overseas colonies. [33] Andrzej Drzycimski estimates that Polish population at the end of 30s reached 20% (including Poles who arrived after the war). Danzig bordered on the Polish Corridor to the West and South, on East Prussia to the East. O'Rourke was succeeded by Bishop Carl Maria Splett, a native from the Free City area. [130] [91], Foreign relations were handled by Poland[92]. Wellington Koo refused to sign the treaty and the Chinese delegation at the Paris Peace Conference was the only nation that did not sign the Treaty of Versailles at the signing ceremony. The Free City of Danzig (German: Freie Stadt Danzig; Polish: Wolne Miasto Gdańsk; Kashubian: Wòlny Gard Gduńsk) was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) and nearly 200 towns and villages in the surrounding areas. Found inside"Based largely on documents from Polish archives never before seen in the English-speaking world, Sean Lester, Poland and the Nazi Takeover of Danzig attempts to explain more fully how and why the League of Nations, Poland and Great Britain ... [39] The French also wanted the iron ore and coal of the Saar Valley, by annexation to France. Furthermore, payments made between 1919 and 1921 were taken into account reducing the sum to 41 billion gold marks. The terms of the Treaty of Versailles that the Germans most resented, however, were the so-called honour clauses: Articles 227 through 230 gave the Allies the right to try individual Germans, including the former emperor, as war criminals; Article 231, often called the war guilt clause, provided the justification for Article 232, which established a commission to collect reparation payments, the total of which was eventually set at 132 billion gold marks. [151] London attempted to get Germany to return with the promise of all nations maintaining an equality in armaments and security. In August 1939 he brought an end to that. [127] In July 1939, the British government reluctantly extended its "guarantee" of Poland to the status of Free City of Danzig, stating a German attempt to take Danzig would be a casus belli. "Die "Jagd auf Deutsche" im Osten: Die Verfolgung begann nicht erst mit dem "Bromberger Blutsonntag" vor 50 Jahren", "The imposed gift of Versailles: the fiscal effects of restricting the size of Germany's armed forces, 1924–9", "HARDING ENDS WAR; SIGNS PEACE DECREE AT SENATOR'S HOME. [148] By 1947, 126,472 Danzigers of German ethnicity were expelled to Germany from Gdańsk, and 101,873 Poles from Central Poland and 26,629 from Soviet-annexed Eastern Poland took their place (these figures refer to the city of Gdańsk itself, not to the whole area of pre-war Free City).[148]. Portions of Upper Silesia were to be ceded to Poland, with the future of the rest of the province to be decided by plebiscite. In 1929, after problems with the mission, the British embassy handled the return of the German officers. [93], The closest the treaty came to passage was on 19 November 1919, as Lodge and his Republicans formed a coalition with the pro-Treaty Democrats, and were close to a two-thirds majority for a Treaty with reservations, but Wilson rejected this compromise and enough Democrats followed his lead to end the chances of ratification permanently. Much of the province of Posen, which, like West Prussia, had been acquired by Prussia in the late 18th-century partitions of Poland, was likewise granted to the restored Polish state. 19] [153][154][155] The resulting rearmament programmes were allotted 35 billion Reichsmarks over an eight-year period. "Scheidemann: "Welche Hand müßte nicht verdorren, die sich und uns in diese Fesseln legt? [73] Moreover, Germany’s frontier with France was to be permanently demilitarized; German military forces were to remain behind a line 31 miles (50 km) east of the Rhine. Politics. Furthermore, the Reichswehr was limited to just 100,000 soldiers. Nach weiterer Drangsal wurde das volksdeutsche Bevölkerungselement vom Warschauer Innenministerium am 15. It was a leading player in the Prussian Confederation directed against the Teutonic Monastic State of Prussia. [48], Britain had suffered heavy financial costs but suffered little physical devastation during the war,[49] but the British wartime coalition was re-elected during the so-called Coupon election at the end of 1918, with a policy of squeezing the Germans "'til the pips squeak". Let the Germans keep it Let the Polish have it Make a free city. March and April: Danzig citizens hold mass protests against the Versailles … Although, the Versailles Treaty was a major component in the start of the Second World War, there were many other components that added to the ignition of the war. It was August 1933, and the city then was called Danzig, today's Gdansk. Another 25% came from neighbouring areas of pre-war Polish Pomerania. The German government answered with "passive resistance", which meant that coal miners and railway workers refused to obey any instructions by the occupation forces. [18] The Canadian historian Margaret MacMillan wrote that a sense of Danzig national identity never emerged during the Free City's existence, and the German population of Danzig always regarded themselves as Germans who had been unjustly taken out of Germany. [118] Found inside – Page 91The High Commissioner will also be entrusted with the duty of dealing in the first instance with all differences arising between Poland and the Free City of Danzig in regard to this Treaty or any arrangements or agreements made ...
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