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Main page Contents Free City of Danzig Featured content Coordinates: 54°21′N 18°40′E Current events From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Random article Donate to Wikipedia For the Napoleonic client-state of the same name, see Free City of Danzig (Napoleonic). Wikimedia Shop The Free City of Danzig (German: Freie Stadt Danzig; Polish: Wolne Miasto Free City of Danzig Interaction Gdańsk) was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and Freie Stadt Danzig (German) Help 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) and Wolne Miasto Gdańsk (Polish) About Wikipedia nearly 200 towns in the surrounding areas. It was created on 15 November Community portal 1920[1][2] in accordance with the terms of Article 100 (Section XI of Part III) of Free City under League of Nations Recent changes protection the 1919 Treaty of Versailles after the end of World War I. Contact page ← The Free City included the city of Danzig and other nearby towns, villages, and → Tools ← 1920–1939 What links here settlements that had been primarily inhabited by ethnic Germans. As the → ← Related changes Treaty stated, the region was to remain separated from post-World War I Upload file Germany (the Weimar Republic) and from the newly independent nation of the Special pages Second Polish Republic ("interwar Poland"), but it was not an independent Permanent link state.[3] The Free City was under League of Nations protection and put into a Page information binding customs union with Poland. Wikidata item Cite this page Poland was given full rights to develop and maintain transportation, [4] Print/export communication, and port facilities in the city. The Free City was created in Flag Coat of arms Create a book order to give Poland access to a well-sized seaport, although it was Anthem Download as PDF acknowledged that the city's population was about 95 percent German.[5] The Für Danzig / Gdańsku Printable version German majority deeply resented being separated from Germany, and in some

Languages cases subjected the Polish minority to discrimination. This was especially true Български after the Nazi Party gained political control in 1935-36.[6] Brezhoneg Since Poland still was not in complete control of the seaport, especially Català regarding military equipment, a new seaport was built in nearby Gdynia, Čeština Dansk beginning 1921. Deutsch In 1933, the City's government was taken over by the local Nazi Party, which Eesti suppressed democratic opposition. Due to anti-Semitic persecution and Danzig, surrounded by Germany and Poland. Español oppression, many Jews fled. After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the Esperanto Euskara Nazis abolished the Free City and incorporated the area into the newly formed Français Reichsgau of Danzig-West Prussia. The Germans classified the Poles and Galego Jews as subhumans, subjecting them to discrimination, forced labor, and 한국어 extermination. Many were sent to death at concentration camps, including Hrvatski nearby Stutthof (now Sztutowo, Poland). Italiano ,During the city's conquest by the Soviet Army in the early months of 1945 עברית many citizens fled or were killed. After the war, many surviving ethnic Germans Kaszëbsczi were expelled and deported to the West when members of the pre-war Polish Latina minority started returning. The city subsequently became part of Poland, as a Lietuvių consequence of the Potsdam Agreement. Polish settlers were recruited to Magyar मराठी replace the German population. Nederlands Contents [hide] 日本語 Location of the Free City of Danzig in 1930 Europe. Norsk bokmål 1 Establishment Polski 1.1 Periods of independence and autonomy Capital Danzig Português 1.2 Territory Languages German Română 1.3 Polish rights declared by Treaty of Versailles Polish Русский 1.4 League of Nations High Commissioners Religion 64.6% Lutheran Simple English 32.2% Catholic 2 Population [citation needed] Slovenčina (1938) 2.1 Religion Српски / srpski 2.1.1 Regional Synodal Federation of the Free City of Danzig Government Republic Srpskohrvatski / High српскохрватски 2.1.2 Diocese of Danzig of the Roman Catholic Church Commissioner Suomi 2.1.3 Jewish Danzigers - 1919–1920 Reginald Tower Svenska 3 Politics - 1937–1939 Carl Burckhardt Українська 3.1 Government Senate President - 1920–1931 Heinrich Sahm Tiếng Việt 3.2 German-Polish tensions Page 1 / 8 中文 - 1934–1939 Arthur Greiser 4 Second World War and aftermath Edit links 5 In fiction Legislature Volkstag 6 See also Historical era Interwar period 7 References - Established 15 November 1920 - Invasion of 8 External links Poland 1 September 1939 - Annexed by Germany 2 September 1939

Establishment [edit] Area - 1923 1,966 km² (759 sq mi) Periods of independence and autonomy [edit] Population Danzig had an early history of independence. It was a leading player in the - 1923 est. 366,730 Prussian Confederation directed against the Teutonic Monastic State of Density 186.5 /km² (483.1 /sq mi) Prussia. The Confederation stipulated with the Polish king, Casimir IV Jagiellon, Currency Papiermark (before 1923) that the Polish Crown would be invested with the role of head of state of Danzig gulden (from 1923) western parts of Prussia (Royal Prussia). In contrast, Ducal Prussia remained a Today part of Poland Polish fief. Danzig and other cities such as Elbing and Thorn financed most of the warfare and enjoyed a high level of city autonomy. Danzig used the title Royal Polish City of Danzig.

In 1569, when Royal Prussia's estates agreed to incorporate the region into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the city insisted on preserving its special status. 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.[citation needed]

Although Danzig became part of the Kingdom of Prussia in the Second Partitition of Poland in 1793, Prussia was conquered by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1806, and in September 1807 Napoleon declared Danzig a semi-independent Client state of the French Empire, known as the Free City of Danzig. It lasted seven years, until it was re-incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia in 1814, after Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Leipzig (Battle of Nations by a coalition that included Russia, Austria and Prussia.

Territory [edit]

The interwar Free City of Danzig (1920–39) included the city of Danzig (Gdańsk), the towns of Zoppot (Sopot), Oliva (Oliwa), Tiegenhof (Nowy Dwór Gdański), Neuteich (Nowy Staw) and some 252 villages and 63 hamlets, covering a total area of 1,966 square kilometers (754 sq mi).

Polish rights declared by Treaty of Versailles [edit]

The Free City was to be represented abroad by Poland and was to be in a customs union with it. The German railway line that connected the Free City with 20 Danzig gulden note from the interwar period newly created Poland was to be administered by Poland, as were all rail lines in the territory of the Free City. On November 9, 1920, a convention that provided for the Presence of a Polish diplomatic representative in Danzig was signed between the Polish government and the Danzig authorities. In article 6, the Polish government undertook not to conclude any international agreements regarding Danzig without previous consultation with the Free City's government.[7]

A separate Polish post office was established, besides the existing municipal one.

League of Nations High Commissioners [edit]

Unlike Mandatory territories, which were entrusted to member countries, The Free City of Danzig (like the Territory of the Saar Basin) remained directly under the authority of the League of Nations. Representatives of various countries took on the role of High Commissioner:[8]

№ Name Period Country 1 Reginald Thomas Tower 1919–1920 United Kingdom 2 Edward Lisle Strutt 1920 United Kingdom 3 Bernardo Attolico 1920 Italy

4 Richard Cyril Byrne Haking 1921–1923 United Kingdom 5 Mervyn Sorley McDonnell 1923–1925 United Kingdom 6 Joost Adriaan van Hamel 1925–1929 Netherlands

7 Manfredi di Gravina 1929–1932 Italy 8 Helmer Rosting 1932–1934 Denmark

9 Seán Lester 1934–1936 Irish Free State Passport of the Free City of Danzig. 10 Carl Jakob Burckhardt 1937–1939 Switzerland

The League of Nations refused to let the city-state use the term of Hanseatic City as part of its official name; this referred to Danzig's long-lasting membership in the Hanseatic League.[9]

Population [edit]

The Free City's population rose from 357,000 (1919) to 408,000 in 1929; according to the official census, 95% were Germans,[10]:5, 11 with the rest mainly either Kashubians or Poles. According to E. Cieślak, the population registers of the Free City show that in 1929 the Polish population numbered 35,000, or 9.5% of the population.[11][need quotation to verify]

Henryk Stępniak estimates the 1929 Polish population as around 22,000, or around 6% of the population, increasing to around 13% in the 1930s.[12] Based on the estimated voting patterns (according to Stępniak many Poles voted for the Catholic Zentrumspartei instead of Polish parties), Stępniak estimates the number of Poles in the city to be 25–30% of Catholics living within it or about 30–36 thousand people.[13] Including around 4,000 Polish nationals who were registered in the city, Stępniak estimated the Polish population as 9.4–11% of population.[13]

In contrast Stefan Samerski estimates about 10 percent of the 130,000 Catholics Population density of Poland and the Free were Polish.[14] Andrzej Drzycimski estimates that Polish population at the end of City of Danzig (Gdansk), 1930. 30s reached 20%(including Poles who arrived after the war)[15]

The Treaty of Versailles required that the newly formed state have its own citizenship, based on residency. German inhabitants lost their German Citizenship with the creation of the Free City, but were given the right to re-obtain it within the first two years of the state's existence. Anyone desiring German citizenship had to leave their property and make their residence outside of the Free State of Danzig area in the remaining parts of Germany.[4]

Total population by language, November 1, 1923 according to the Free City of Danzig census[10]:11 Nationality German German and Polish, Kashub, Russian, Hebrew, Unclassified Total Polish Masurian Ukrainian Yiddish Danzig 327,827 1,108 6,788 99 22 77 335,921 Non-Danzig 20,666 521 5,239 2,529 580 1,274 30,809 Total 348,493 1,629 12,027 2,628 602 1,351 366,730 Percent 95.03% 0.44% 3.28% 0.72% 0.16% 0.37% 100.00%

Religion [edit]

In 1924, 54.7% of the populace was Protestant (220,731 persons, mostly Lutherans within the united old-Prussian church), 34.5% was Catholic (140,797 persons), and 2.4% Jewish (9,239 persons). Other Protestants included 5,604 Mennonites, 1,934 Calvinists (Reformed), 1,093 Baptists, 410 Free Religionists, as well as 2,129 dissenters, 1,394 faithful of other religions and denominations, and 664 irreligionists.[16][17] The Jewish community grew from 2,717 in 1910 to 7,282 in 1923, and 10,448 in 1929, many of them immigrants from Poland and Russia, where pogroms were conducted against them and discrimination was severe.[18]

Regional Synodal Federation of the Free City of Danzig [edit]

The mostly Lutheran and partially Reformed congregations situated in the territory of the Free City, which previously used to belong to the Ecclesiastical Province of West Prussia of the Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union (EKapU), were transformed into the Regional Synodal Federation of the Free City of Danzig after 1920. The executive body of that ecclesiastical province, the consistory (est. 1 November 1886), was seated in Danzig. After 1920 it was restricted in its responsibility to those congregations within the Free City's territory.[19] General Superintendent Paul The then-Lutheran Supreme Parish Kalweit (1920–1933) and Bishop Johannes Beermann (1933–1945) presided over the Church of St. Mary's in Danzig's consistory, one after another. Rechtstadt quarter. Unlike the Second Polish Republic, which opposed the cooperation of the United Evangelical Church in Poland with EKapU, Volkstag and Senate of Danzig approved cross-border religious bodies. Danzig's Regional Synodal Federation — just as the regional synodal federation of the autonomous Memelland — retained the status of an ecclesiastical province within EKapU.[20]

After the German annexation of the Free City in 1939, the EKapU merged the Danzig regional synodal federation in 1940 into the Ecclesiastical Region of Danzig-West Prussia. This included the Polish congregations of the United Evangelical Church in Poland in the homonymous Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia and the German congregations in the West Prussia governorate. Danzig's consistory functioned as an executive body for that region. With the flight and expulsion of most German Protestant parishioners from the area of the Free City of Danzig between 1945 and 1948, the congregations vanished.

In March 1945, the consistory had relocated to Lübeck and opened a refugee centre for Danzigers (Hilfsstelle beim evangelischen Konsistorium Danzig) led by Upper Consistorial Councillor Gerhard M. Gülzow. 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. Other Lutheran congregations of Danzig could reclaim their church bells, which the Wehrmacht had requisitioned as non-ferrous metal for war purposes since 1940, but which had survived, not yet melted down, in storage (e.g. Glockenfriedhof) in the British zone of occupation. The presbyteries granted them usually to Northwestern German Lutheran congregations which had lost bells due to the war.

Diocese of Danzig of the Roman Catholic Church [edit] Main article: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Gdańsk

The 36 Catholic parishes in the territory of the Free City in 1922 used to belong in equal shares to the Diocese of Culm, which was mostly Polish, and the Diocese of Ermland, which was mostly German. While the Second Polish Republic wanted all the parishes within the Free City to form part of Polish Culm, Volkstag and Senate wanted them all to become subject to German Ermland.[21] In 1922 the Holy See suspended the jurisdictions of both dioceses over their parishes in the Free State and established an exempt apostolic administration for the territory.[21]

The first apostolic administrator was Edward O'Rourke who became Bishop of Danzig on the occasion of the elevation of the administration to an exempt diocese. He was naturalised as Danziger on the same occasion. In 1938 he resigned after quarrels with the Nazi-dominated Senate of Danzig on appointments of parish priests of Polish ethnicity.[22] The senate also instigated the denaturalisation of O'Rourke, who subsequently became a Polish citizen. O'Rourke was succeeded by Bishop Carl Maria Splett, a native from the Free City area. The Archcathedral of the Holy Trinity, Splett remained bishop after the German annexation of the Free City. In early 1941, he Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Bernard applied for admitting the Danzig diocese as member in Archbishop Adolf Bertram's in Oliva, Danzig. Eastern German Ecclesiastical Province and thus at the Fulda Conference of Bishops; however, Bertram, also speaker of the Fulda conference, rejected the request.[23] Any arguments that the Free City of Danzig had been annexed to Nazi Germany did not impress Bertram since Danzig's annexation lacked international recognition. Until the reorganization of the Catholic dioceses in Danzig and the formerly eastern territories of Germany the diocesan territory remained unaltered and the see exempt. However, with the replacement of Danzig's population between 1945 and 1948 by mostly-Catholic Poles, the number of Catholic parishes increased and most formerly-Protestant churches were taken over for Catholic services.

Jewish Danzigers [edit] Main article: Jewish Community in the Free City of Danzig

Since 1883 most of the Jewish congregations in the later territory of Free State had merged into the Synagogal Community of Danzig. Only the Jews of Tiegenhof ran their own congregation until 1938.

Danzig became a centre of Polish and Russian Jewish emigration to North America. Between 1920 and 1925 60,000 Jews emigrated via Danzig to the US and Canada. At the same time, between 1923 and 1929, Danzig's own Jewish population increased from roughly 7,000 to 10,500.[24] Native Jews and newcomers established themselves in the city and contributed to its civic life, culture and economy. Danzig became a venue for international meetings of Jewish organisations, such as the convention of delegates from Jewish youth organisations of various nations, attended by David Ben-Gurion, which founded the World Union of Jewish Youth on 2 September 1924 in the Schützenhaus venue. On 21 March 1926 the Zionistische Organisation für Danzig convened delegates of Hechalutz from all over for the first conference in Danzig using Great Synagogue on Reitbahn Hebrew as common language, also attended by Ben Gurion. Street in Danzig's Rechtstadt quarter. With a Nazi majority in the Volkstag and Senate, anti-Semitic persecution and discrimination occurred unsanctioned by the authorities. In contrast to Germany, which exercised capital outflow control since 1931, emigration of Danzig's Jews was nonetheless somewhat easier, with capital transfers enabled by the Bank of Danzig. Moreover, the comparatively-few Danzig Jews were offered easier refuge in safe countries because of favorable Free City migration quotas.

After the anti-Jewish riots of Kristallnacht of 9/10 November 1938 in Germany, similar riots took place on 12/13 November in Danzig.[25][26] The Great Synagogue was taken over and demolished by the local authorities in 1939. Most Jews had already left the city and the Jewish Community of Danzig decided to organize its own emigration in early 1939.[27]

Politics [edit]

Government [edit]

Heads of State of the Free City of Danzig[8] № Name Took office Left office Party Presidents of the Danzig Senate 1 Heinrich Sahm 6 December 1920 10 January 1931 None 2 Ernst Ziehm 10 January 1931 20 June 1933 DNVP 3 Hermann Rauschning 20 June 1933 23 November 1934 NSDAP 4 Arthur Karl Greiser 23 November 1934 23 August 1939 NSDAP State President

5 Albert Forster 23 August 1939 1 September 1939 NSDAP Flag of the Danzig Senate.

The Free City was governed by the Senate of the Free City of Danzig, which was elected by the parliament (Volkstag) for a legislative period of four years. The official language was German,[28] although the usage of Polish was guaranteed by law.[29][30] The political parties in the Free City corresponded with the political parties in Weimar Germany; the most influential parties in the 1920s were the conservative German National People's Party, the Social Democratic Party of the Free City of Danzig and the Catholic Centre Party. A Communist Party was founded in 1921 with its origins in the Spartacus League and the Communist Party of East Prussia. Several liberal parties and Free Voter's Associations existed and ran in the elections with varying success. A Polish Party represented the Polish minority and received between 3% (1933) and 6% (1920) of the vote (in total, 4,358 votes in 1933 and 9,321 votes in 1920).[31]

Initially, the Nazi Party had only a small amount of success (0.8% of the vote in 1927) and was even briefly dissolved.[9] Its influence grew with the onset of difficult economic times and the increasing popularity of the Nazi Party in Germany proper. Albert Forster became the Gauleiter in October 1930. The Nazis won 50 percent of votes in the Volkstag elections of 28 May 1933, and took control of the Senate in June 1933, with Hermann Rauschning becoming President of the Senate of Danzig.

Rauschning was removed from his position by Forster and replaced by Arthur Greiser in November 1934.[25] He later appealed to the public not to vote for the Nazis in the 1935 elections.[9] Political opposition to the Nazis was repressed[32] with several politicians being imprisoned and murdered.[33][34] The economic policy of Danzig's Nazi-led government, which increased the public issues for employment-creation programs[35] and the retrenchment of financial aid from Germany led to a devaluation of more than 40% of the Danziger Gulden in 1935.[10][36][37][38][39][40] The Gold reserves of the Bank of Danzig declined from 30 million Gulden in 1933 to 13 million in 1935 and the foreign asset reserve from 10 million to 250,000 Gulden.[41] In 1935, Poland protested when Danzig's Senate reduced the value of the Gulden so that it would be the same as the Polish Zloty.[42]

As in Germany, the Nazis introduced an "Enabling Act" and the racialist Nuremberg laws (November 1938);[43] existing parties and unions were gradually banned. The presence of the League of Nations however still guaranteed a minimum of legal certainty. In 1935, the opposition parties, except for the Polish Party, filed a lawsuit to the Danzig High Court in protest against the manipulation of the Volkstag elections.[9][25] The opposition also protested to the League of Nations, as did the Jewish Community of Danzig.[44][45]

German-Polish tensions [edit]

The rights of the Second Polish Republic within the territory of the Free City were stipulated in the Treaty of Paris of 9 November 1920 and the Treaty of Warsaw of 24 October 1921.[46] The details of the Polish privileges soon became a permanent matter of disputes between the local populace and the Polish State. While the representatives of the Free City tried to uphold the City's autonomy and sovereignty, Poland sought to extend its privileges.[47]

Throughout the Polish–Soviet War, local dockworkers went on strike and refused to unload ammunition supplies for the Polish Army. While the ammunition was finally unloaded by British troops,[48] the incident led to the establishment of a permanent ammunition depot at the Westerplatte and the construction of a trade and naval port in Gdynia,[49] whose total exports and imports surpassed those of Danzig in May 1932.[50] In December 1925, the Council of the League of Nations agreed to the establishment of a Polish military guard of 88 men on the Westerplatte peninsula to protect the war material depot.[51][52]

Several disputes between Danzig and Poland occurred in the sequel. The Free City protested against the Westerplatte depot, the placement of Polish letter boxes within the City[53] and the presence of Polish war vessels at the harbour.[54] The attempt of the Free City to join the International Labour Organization was rejected by the Permanent Court of International Justice at the League of Nations after protests of the Polish ILO delegate.[55][56]

After Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, the Polish military doubled the number of troops at Westerplatte breaking international law in order to test the reaction of the new chancellor. After international protests the additional troops were withdrawn.[57] Fears of Polish aggression produced by this and other disputes further stoked by Nazi propaganda would give the local Nazis an absolute majority in the May 1933 Volkstag elections.[58]

Until June 1933, the High Commissioner decided in 66 cases of dispute between Danzig and Poland; in 54 cases one of the parties appealed to the Permanent Court of International Justice.[59] Subsequent disputes were resolved in direct negotiations between the Senate and Poland after both had agreed to abstain from further appeals to the International Court in the summer of 1933 and bilateral agreements were concluded.[60]

In the aftermath of the German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact of 1934, Danzig–Polish relations improved and Adolf Hitler instructed the local Nazi government to cease anti-Polish actions.[61] In return, Poland did not support the actions of the anti- Nazi opposition in Danzig. The Polish Ambassador to Germany, Józef Lipski, stated in a meeting with Hermann Göring:[62]

... that a National Socialist Senate in Danzig is also most desirable from our point of view, since it brought about a rapprochement between the Free City and Poland, I would like to remind him that we have always kept aloof from internal Danzig problems. In spite of approaches repeatedly made by the opposition parties, we rejected any attempt to draw us into action against the Senate. I mentioned quite confidentially that the Polish minority in Danzig was advised not to join forces with the opposition at the time of elections.

When Carl J. Burckhardt became High Commissioner in February 1937, both Poles and Germans openly welcomed his withdrawal, and Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Józef Beck notified him not to "count on the support of the Polish State" in the case of difficulties with the Senate or the Nazi Party.[63]

While the Senate appeared to respect the agreements with Poland, the "Nazification of Danzig proceeded relentlessly"[64] and Danzig became a springboard for anti-Polish propaganda among the German and Ukrainian minority in Poland.[65] The Catholic Bishop of Danzig, Edward O'Rourke, was forced to withdraw after he had tried to implement four additional Polish nationals as parish priests in October 1937.[22]

This section requires expansion. (July 2014)

See also: Polish Corridor

The German policy openly changed immediately after the Munich Conference in October 1938, when German Minister of Foreign Affairs Joachim von Ribbentrop demanded the incorporation of the Free City into the Reich.[66] In April 1939, High Commissioner Burckhardt was told by the Polish Commissioner-General that any attempt to alter its status would be answered with armed resistance on the part of Poland.[67]

Second World War and aftermath [edit]

World War II began with the shelling of the Westerplatte on 1 September 1939. Gauleiter Forster entered the High Commissioner's residence and ordered him to leave the City within two hours,[68] and the Free City was formally incorporated into the newly formed Reichsgau of Danzig-West Prussia. Polish civilian Post Office employees had received military training and were in possession of a cache of weapons – mostly pistols, three light machine guns, and some hand grenades – and were thus able to defend the Polish Post Office for fifteen hours. Upon their surrender, they were tried and executed. (The sentence was officially revoked by a German court as illegal in 1998.)[69][70] The Polish military forces in the city held

out until 7 September. Up to 4,500 members of Polish minority were arrested with Schleswig-Holstein firing at Westerplatte many of them executed[71] By the end of the Second World War, nearly all the city had been reduced to ruins. On 30 March 1945, the city was taken by the Red Army. It is estimated that nearly all the pre-war inhabitants were either dead or had fled.[citation needed] A number of inhabitants of the city perished when the military training ship Wilhelm Gustloff used for evacuation was sunk. It had up to 10,000 refugees on board at the time, including about 1,000 seriously wounded soldiers and sailors.

At the Yalta Conference in February 1945, the Allies agreed that the city would become part of Poland.[72]

By 1950, around 285,000 fled and expelled citizens of the former Free City were living in Germany,[citation needed] and 13,424 citizens of the former Free City had been "verified" and granted Polish citizenship.[73] 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- [73] annexed Eastern Poland took their place. 1 September 1939: German troops remove Polish insignia at the Polish–Danzig border In fiction [edit] near Zoppot. Historical Danzig forms the setting for several major works of Nobel Prize-winning author Günter Grass, including his acclaimed Danzig Trilogy novels The Tin Drum and Dog Years, as well as in his memoirs. Grass grew up in the Danzig suburb of Langfuhr (now Wrzeszcz).

See also [edit] Areas annexed by Nazi Germany Danzig Corridor Alfons Flisykowski Danzig Research Society History of Gdańsk Administrations of Danzig before April 1945 Stutthof concentration camp

References [edit]

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Nations, Transitional Administration and State building . 38. ^ Andrzejewski, Marek (1994). Opposition und Widerstand in Oxford University Press. p. 20. ISBN 978-0-19-926348-6. Danzig (in German). Dietz. p. 99. ISBN 9783801240547. Retrieved 2011-04-26. 39. ^ Cieslak, Edmund; Biernat, Czeslaw (1995). History of 6. ^ Levine, Herbert S., Hitler's Free City: A History of the Nazi Gdańsk . Fundacji Biblioteki Gdánskiej. p. 454. Party in Danzig, 1925-39 (University of Chicago Press, 1970), ISBN 9788386557004. p. 102. 40. ^ Matull, "Ostdeutschlands Arbeiterbewegung", pp. 417, 7. ^ Text in League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. 6, pp. 190– 418. 207. 41. ^ Intelligence Service Economic Intelligence Service; 8. ^ a b "Danzig subsection of Poland entry from World Service, Intellige Economic Intelligence (2007-03-01). Statesmen.org" . Commercial Banks 1929–1934 . League of Nations. 9. ^ a b c d Matull, Wilhelm (1973). "Ostdeutschlands p. LXXXIX. ISBN 978-1-4067-5963-1. Arbeiterbewegung: Abriß ihrer Geschichte, Leistung und 42. ^ Ruhnau, Rüdiger (1971). Danzig: Geschichte einer Opfer" (in German). Holzner. p. 419. Deutschen Stadt (in German). Holzner Verlag. p. 103. 10. ^ a b c Mason, John Brown (1946). The Danzig Dilemma, A 43. ^ Schwartze­Köhler, Hannelore (June 2009). "Die Study in Peacemaking by Compromise . Stanford Blechtrommel" von Günter Grass:Bedeutung, Erzähltechnik University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-2444-9. Retrieved 2011- und Zeitgeschichte (in German). Frank & Timme GmbH. 04-26. p. 396. ISBN 978-3-86596-237-9. 11. ^ Cieślak, E Biernat, C (1995) History of Gdánsk, Fundacji 44. ^ Kreutzberger, Max (1970). Leo Baeck Institute New York Biblioteki Gdanskiej, P455 Bibliothek und Archiv (in German). Mohr Siebeck. p. 67. 12. ^ Zapiski historyczne: Volume 60, page 256, Towarzystwo ISBN 978-3-16-830772-3. Naukowe w Toruniu. Wydział Nauk Historycznych – 1995 45. ^ Bacon, Gershon C. "Danzig Jewry: A Short History" . 13. ^ a b Ludność polska w Wolnym Mieście Gdańsku, 1920– Jewish Virtual Library. 1939, page 37, Henryk Stępniak, Wydawnictwo "Stella 46. ^ Hannum, Hurst (2011-10-12). Autonomy, Sovereignty and Maris", 1991, "Przyjmując, że Polacy gdańscy stanowili Self-Determination . University of Pennsylvania. p. 375. 25 — 30% ogólnej liczby ludności katolickiej Wolnego ISBN 978-0-8122-1572-4. Miasta Gdańska, liczącej w 1920 r. około 110 000 osób, 47. ^ Stahn, Carsten (2008-05-22). The Law and Practice of można ustalić, że w liczbach bezwzględnych stanowiło International Territorial Administration . Cambridge można ustalić, że w liczbach bezwzględnych stanowiło to University Press. p. 173 ff, 177. ISBN 978-0-521-87800-5. 30­ – 36 tyś. osób. Jeśli do liczby tej dodamy ok. 4 tyś. 48. ^ Hutt, Alan (2006-05-30). The Post-War history of the ludności obywatelstwa polskiego, otrzymamy łącznie ok. British Working Class . READ BOOKS. p. 38. ISBN 978-1- 9,4–11% ogółu ludności." 4067-9826-5. 14. ^ Samerski, Stefan (2003). Das Bistum Danzig in 49. ^ Buell, Raymond Leslie (2007-03-31). Poland – Key to Lebensbildern (in German). LIT Verlag. p. 8. ISBN 3-8258- Europe . READ BOOKS. p. 159. ISBN 978-1-4067-4564-1. 6284-4. 50. ^ Eugene van Cleef, "Danzig and Gdynia," Geographical 15. ^ Stuthoff Zeszyty 4 4 Stanislaw Mikos Recenzje i Review, Vol. 23, No. 1. (Jan., 1933): 106. omówienia Andrzej Drzycimski, Polacy w Wolnym Mieście 51. ^ Cieślak, E Biernat, C (1995) History of Gdańsk, Fundacji Gdańsku /1920 – 1933/. Polityka Seantu gdańskiego wobec Biblioteki Gdanskiej. p. 436 ludności polskiej Wrocław – Warszawa – Kraków – Gdańsk 52. ^ By a decision of the League Council in December 1925, 1978, the guard which the Poles were entitled to maintain on this 16. ^ Die Freie Stadt Danzig (German) spot [Westerplatte peninsula] was limited to 88 men, though 17. ^ Dr. Juergensen, Die freie Stadt Danzig, Danzig: Kafemann, the number might be increased with the consent of the High 1925. Commissioner. Geoffrey Malcolm Gathorne-Hardy. A Short 18. ^ Bacon, Gershon C.; Vivian B. Mann; Joseph Gutmann History of International Affairs, 1920 to 1934. Royal institute (1980). Danzig Jewry: A Short History . Jewish Museum of international affairs (1934). Oxford University Press. p. (New York). p. 31. ISBN 978-0-8143-1662-7. 384. 19. ^ Those congregations in Polish-annexed West Prussia 53. ^ worldcourts.com PCIJ, Advisory Opinion No. 11 (Pomeranian Voivodeship) merged into the new United 54. ^ worldcourts.com PCIJ, Advisory Opinion No. 22 Evangelical Church in Poland, which emerged from the old- 55. ^ worldcourts.com PCIJ, Advisory Opinion No. 18 Prussian Posen ecclesiastical province, with its consistory 56. ^ Lauterpacht, H (1936). "International Law Reports 1929– seated in Poznań. 1930" . Advisory Opinion No 18: Free City of Danzig and 20. ^ In June 1922 the Senate of Danzig and the old-Prussian International Labour Organization on August 26, 1930, ecclesiastical executive, the Evangelical Supreme Collection of Advisory Opinions: Free City of Danzig and Ecclesiastical Council (Evangelischer Oberkirchenrat, EOK), International Labour Organization, No. 18 Series B File F concluded a contract to that end. Cf. Adalbert Erler, Die (1930) (H. Lauterpacht). ISBN 978-0-521-46350-8. Retrieved rechtliche Stellung der evangelischen Kirche in Danzig, 2009-08-30. Berlin: 1929, simultaneously Univ. of Greifswald, Department 57. ^ Hargreaves, R (2010) Blitzkrieg Unleashed: The German of Law and Politics, doctor thesis of 21 February 1929, pp. Invasion of Poland, 1939 P31-2 36 seqq. 58. ^ Epstein, C (2012) Model Nazi: Arthur Greiser and the 21. ^ a b Georg May. Ludwig Kaas: der Priester, der Politiker Occupation of Western Poland, Oxford University Press P58 und der Gelehrte aus der Schule von Ulrich Stutz. John 59. ^ Hurst Hannum, p. 377. Benjamins Publishing. p. 175. ISBN 978-90-6032-197-3. 60. ^ Schlochauer, Hans J.; Krüger, Herbert; Mosler, Hermann 22. ^ a b Samerski, Stefan; Reimund Haas; Karl Josef Rivinius; (1960-05-01). Wörterbuch des Völkerrechts; Aachener Hermann-Josef Scheidgen (2000). Ein aussichtsloses Kongress – Hussar Fall (in German). de Gruyter Verlag. Unternehmen – Die Reaktivierung Bischof Eduard Graf pp. 307, 309. ISBN 978-3-11-001030-5. O’Rourkes 1939 (in German). Böhlau Verlag Köln 61. ^ Hiden, John; Lane, Thomas; Prazmowska, Anita J. (1992). Weimar. p. 378. ISBN 3-412-04100-9. The Baltic and the Outbreak of the Second World War . 23. ^ Hans­Jürgen Karp; Joachim Köhler (2001). Katholische Cambridge University Press. p. 74 ff, 80. ISBN 0-521-40467- Kirche unter nationalsozialistischer und kommunistischer 3. Diktatur: Deutschland und Polen 1939–1989. Böhlau Verlag 62. ^ Prazmowska, p. 80. Köln Weimar. p. 162. ISBN 978-3-412-11800-6. 63. ^ Prazmowska, p. 81. 24. ^ Ruhnau, Rüdiger (1971). Danzig: Geschichte einer 64. ^ Prazmowska, p. 85. Deutschen Stadt (in German). Holzner Verlag. p. 94. 65. ^ Prazmowska, p. 83. a b c 25. ^ Sodeikat, Ernst (1966). "Der Nationalsozialismus und 66. ^ Wasserstein, Bernard (2007). Barbarism and die Danziger Opposition" (in German). Institut für Civilization . Oxford University Press. p. 279. ISBN 978-0- Zeitgeschichte. p. 139 ff. 19-873074-3. 26. ^ Grass, Günther; Vivian B. Mann; Joseph Gutmann; Jewish 67. ^ Woodward, E.L., Butler, Rohan, Orde, Anne, editors, Museum (New York, N.Y.) (1980). Danzig 1939, treasures of Documents on British Foreign Policy 1919–1939, 3rd series, a destroyed community . The Jewish Museum, New York. vol.v, HMSO, London, 1952:25 p. 33. ISBN 978-0-8143-1662-7. 68. ^ Bleimeier, John Kuhn (1990-03-01). Hague Yearbook of 27. ^ Gdansk at the Jewish Virtual Library. International Law . Martinus Nijhoff Publ. p. 91. ISBN 0- 28. ^ Lemkin, Raphael (2008-06-30). Axis Rule in Occupied 7923-0655-4. Europe . The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. p. 155. ISBN 978-1- 69. ^ Dieter Schenk (1995). Die Post von Danzig: Geschichte 58477-901-8. eines deutschen Justizmords. p. 150. ISBN 3-498-06288-3. 29. ^ (German) Constitution of Danzig 70. ^ Dieter Schenk, Die Post von Danzig 30. ^ Matull, "Ostdeutschlands Arbeiterbewegung", p. 419. 71. ^ [1] 31. ^ (German) Die Freie Stadt Danzig, Wahlen 1919–1935 72. ^ The History of Poland Since 1863 By Robert F. Leslie page 32. ^ Ratner, Steven R. (1995-02-15). The new UN 281 peacekeeping . Palgrave Macmillan. p. 94. ISBN 0-312- 73. ^ a b Bykowska, Sylwia (2005). "Gdańsk – Miasto (Szybko) 12415-5. Odzyskane" . Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej (in 33. ^ Sodeikat, p.170, p. 173, Fn.92 Polish) 9–10 (56–57): 35–44. ISSN 1641-9561 . Retrieved 34. ^ Matull, "Ostdeutschlands Arbeiterbewegung", p. 440, 450. 2009-07-24.

External links [edit]

Extensive Prussian/ Danzig Historical Materials (many in German) Wikimedia Commons has Map of the Free City media related to Free City of Danzig. Jewish community history History of Gdańsk / Danzig Danzig Online Gdańsk history Celebration of Gdańsk's centenary in 1997 History & Hallucination , Wanderlust, Salon.com, January 5, 1998. The power of Gdansk at the Wayback Machine (archived September 30, 2007) 1933 Danzig passport , from passportland.com. First hand account of growing up in Danzig in the 1930s , a video interview.

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Categories: Former republics Former polities of the interwar period Former countries in Europe States and territories established in 1920 States and territories disestablished in 1939 Free City of Danzig League of Nations mandates

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Main page Contents Free City of Danzig Featured content Coordinates: 54°21′N 18°40′E Current events From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Random article Donate to Wikipedia For the Napoleonic client-state of the same name, see Free City of Danzig (Napoleonic). Wikimedia Shop The Free City of Danzig (German: Freie Stadt Danzig; Polish: Wolne Miasto Free City of Danzig Interaction Gdańsk) was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and Freie Stadt Danzig (German) Help 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) and Wolne Miasto Gdańsk (Polish) About Wikipedia nearly 200 towns in the surrounding areas. It was created on 15 November Community portal 1920[1][2] in accordance with the terms of Article 100 (Section XI of Part III) of Free City under League of Nations Recent changes protection the 1919 Treaty of Versailles after the end of World War I. Contact page ← The Free City included the city of Danzig and other nearby towns, villages, and → Tools ← 1920–1939 What links here settlements that had been primarily inhabited by ethnic Germans. As the → ← Related changes Treaty stated, the region was to remain separated from post-World War I Upload file Germany (the Weimar Republic) and from the newly independent nation of the Special pages Second Polish Republic ("interwar Poland"), but it was not an independent Permanent link state.[3] The Free City was under League of Nations protection and put into a Page information binding customs union with Poland. Wikidata item Cite this page Poland was given full rights to develop and maintain transportation, [4] Print/export communication, and port facilities in the city. The Free City was created in Flag Coat of arms Create a book order to give Poland access to a well-sized seaport, although it was Anthem Download as PDF acknowledged that the city's population was about 95 percent German.[5] The Für Danzig / Gdańsku Printable version German majority deeply resented being separated from Germany, and in some

Languages cases subjected the Polish minority to discrimination. This was especially true Български after the Nazi Party gained political control in 1935-36.[6] Brezhoneg Since Poland still was not in complete control of the seaport, especially Català regarding military equipment, a new seaport was built in nearby Gdynia, Čeština Dansk beginning 1921. Deutsch In 1933, the City's government was taken over by the local Nazi Party, which Eesti suppressed democratic opposition. Due to anti-Semitic persecution and Danzig, surrounded by Germany and Poland. Español oppression, many Jews fled. After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the Esperanto Euskara Nazis abolished the Free City and incorporated the area into the newly formed Français Reichsgau of Danzig-West Prussia. The Germans classified the Poles and Galego Jews as subhumans, subjecting them to discrimination, forced labor, and 한국어 extermination. Many were sent to death at concentration camps, including Hrvatski nearby Stutthof (now Sztutowo, Poland). Italiano ,During the city's conquest by the Soviet Army in the early months of 1945 עברית many citizens fled or were killed. After the war, many surviving ethnic Germans Kaszëbsczi were expelled and deported to the West when members of the pre-war Polish Latina minority started returning. The city subsequently became part of Poland, as a Lietuvių consequence of the Potsdam Agreement. Polish settlers were recruited to Magyar मराठी replace the German population. Nederlands Contents [hide] 日本語 Location of the Free City of Danzig in 1930 Europe. Norsk bokmål 1 Establishment Polski 1.1 Periods of independence and autonomy Capital Danzig Português 1.2 Territory Languages German Română 1.3 Polish rights declared by Treaty of Versailles Polish Русский 1.4 League of Nations High Commissioners Religion 64.6% Lutheran Simple English 32.2% Catholic 2 Population [citation needed] Slovenčina (1938) 2.1 Religion Српски / srpski 2.1.1 Regional Synodal Federation of the Free City of Danzig Government Republic Srpskohrvatski / High српскохрватски 2.1.2 Diocese of Danzig of the Roman Catholic Church Commissioner Suomi 2.1.3 Jewish Danzigers - 1919–1920 Reginald Tower Svenska 3 Politics - 1937–1939 Carl Burckhardt Українська 3.1 Government Senate President Tiếng Việt 3.2 German-Polish tensions - 1920–1931 Heinrich Sahm 中文 - 1934–1939 Arthur Greiser 4 Second World War and aftermath Edit links 5 In fiction Legislature Volkstag 6 See also Historical era Interwar period 7 References - Established 15 November 1920 - Invasion of 8 External links Poland 1 September 1939 - Annexed by Germany 2 September 1939

Establishment [edit] Area - 1923 1,966 km² (759 sq mi) Periods of independence and autonomy [edit] Population Danzig had an early history of independence. It was a leading player in the - 1923 est. 366,730 Prussian Confederation directed against the Teutonic Monastic State of Density 186.5 /km² (483.1 /sq mi) Prussia. The Confederation stipulated with the Polish king, Casimir IV Jagiellon, Currency Papiermark (before 1923) that the Polish Crown would be invested with the role of head of state of Danzig gulden (from 1923) western parts of Prussia (Royal Prussia). In contrast, Ducal Prussia remained a Today part of Poland Polish fief. Danzig and other cities such as Elbing and Thorn financed most of the warfare and enjoyed a high level of city autonomy. Danzig used the title Royal Polish City of Danzig.

In 1569, when Royal Prussia's estates agreed to incorporate the region into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the city insisted on preserving its special status. 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.[citation needed]

Although Danzig became part of the Kingdom of Prussia in the Second Partitition of Poland in 1793, Prussia was conquered by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1806, and in September 1807 Napoleon declared Danzig a semi-independent Client state of the French Empire, known as the Free City of Danzig. It lasted seven years, until it was re-incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia in 1814, after Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Leipzig (Battle of Nations by a coalition that included Russia, Austria and Prussia.

Territory [edit]

The interwar Free City of Danzig (1920–39) included the city of Danzig (Gdańsk), the towns of Zoppot (Sopot), Oliva (Oliwa), Tiegenhof (Nowy Dwór Gdański), Neuteich (Nowy Staw) and some 252 villages and 63 hamlets, covering a total area of 1,966 square kilometers (754 sq mi).

Polish rights declared by Treaty of Versailles [edit]

The Free City was to be represented abroad by Poland and was to be in a customs union with it. The German railway line that connected the Free City with 20 Danzig gulden note from the interwar period newly created Poland was to be administered by Poland, as were all rail lines in the territory of the Free City. On November 9, 1920, a convention that provided for the Presence of a Polish diplomatic representative in Danzig was signed between the Polish government and the Danzig authorities. In article 6, the Polish government undertook not to conclude any international agreements regarding Danzig without previous consultation with the Free City's government.[7]

A separate Polish post office was established, besides the existing municipal one.

League of Nations High Commissioners [edit]

Unlike Mandatory territories, which were entrusted to member countries, The Free City of Danzig (like the Territory of the Saar Basin) remained directly under the authority of the League of Nations. Representatives of various countries took on the role of High Commissioner:[8]

№ Name Period Country 1 Reginald Thomas Tower 1919–1920 United Kingdom 2 Edward Lisle Strutt 1920 United Kingdom 3 Bernardo Attolico 1920 Italy

4 Richard Cyril Byrne Haking 1921–1923 United Kingdom 5 Mervyn Sorley McDonnell 1923–1925 United Kingdom 6 Joost Adriaan van Hamel 1925–1929 Netherlands

7 Manfredi di Gravina 1929–1932 Italy 8 Helmer Rosting 1932–1934 Denmark

9 Seán Lester 1934–1936 Irish Free State Passport of the Free City of Danzig. 10 Carl Jakob Burckhardt 1937–1939 Switzerland

The League of Nations refused to let the city-state use the term of Hanseatic City as part of its official name; this referred to Page 2 / 8 Danzig's long-lasting membership in the Hanseatic League.[9]

Population [edit]

The Free City's population rose from 357,000 (1919) to 408,000 in 1929; according to the official census, 95% were Germans,[10]:5, 11 with the rest mainly either Kashubians or Poles. According to E. Cieślak, the population registers of the Free City show that in 1929 the Polish population numbered 35,000, or 9.5% of the population.[11][need quotation to verify]

Henryk Stępniak estimates the 1929 Polish population as around 22,000, or around 6% of the population, increasing to around 13% in the 1930s.[12] Based on the estimated voting patterns (according to Stępniak many Poles voted for the Catholic Zentrumspartei instead of Polish parties), Stępniak estimates the number of Poles in the city to be 25–30% of Catholics living within it or about 30–36 thousand people.[13] Including around 4,000 Polish nationals who were registered in the city, Stępniak estimated the Polish population as 9.4–11% of population.[13]

In contrast Stefan Samerski estimates about 10 percent of the 130,000 Catholics Population density of Poland and the Free were Polish.[14] Andrzej Drzycimski estimates that Polish population at the end of City of Danzig (Gdansk), 1930. 30s reached 20%(including Poles who arrived after the war)[15]

The Treaty of Versailles required that the newly formed state have its own citizenship, based on residency. German inhabitants lost their German Citizenship with the creation of the Free City, but were given the right to re-obtain it within the first two years of the state's existence. Anyone desiring German citizenship had to leave their property and make their residence outside of the Free State of Danzig area in the remaining parts of Germany.[4]

Total population by language, November 1, 1923 according to the Free City of Danzig census[10]:11 Nationality German German and Polish, Kashub, Russian, Hebrew, Unclassified Total Polish Masurian Ukrainian Yiddish Danzig 327,827 1,108 6,788 99 22 77 335,921 Non-Danzig 20,666 521 5,239 2,529 580 1,274 30,809 Total 348,493 1,629 12,027 2,628 602 1,351 366,730 Percent 95.03% 0.44% 3.28% 0.72% 0.16% 0.37% 100.00%

Religion [edit]

In 1924, 54.7% of the populace was Protestant (220,731 persons, mostly Lutherans within the united old-Prussian church), 34.5% was Catholic (140,797 persons), and 2.4% Jewish (9,239 persons). Other Protestants included 5,604 Mennonites, 1,934 Calvinists (Reformed), 1,093 Baptists, 410 Free Religionists, as well as 2,129 dissenters, 1,394 faithful of other religions and denominations, and 664 irreligionists.[16][17] The Jewish community grew from 2,717 in 1910 to 7,282 in 1923, and 10,448 in 1929, many of them immigrants from Poland and Russia, where pogroms were conducted against them and discrimination was severe.[18]

Regional Synodal Federation of the Free City of Danzig [edit]

The mostly Lutheran and partially Reformed congregations situated in the territory of the Free City, which previously used to belong to the Ecclesiastical Province of West Prussia of the Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union (EKapU), were transformed into the Regional Synodal Federation of the Free City of Danzig after 1920. The executive body of that ecclesiastical province, the consistory (est. 1 November 1886), was seated in Danzig. After 1920 it was restricted in its responsibility to those congregations within the Free City's territory.[19] General Superintendent Paul The then-Lutheran Supreme Parish Kalweit (1920–1933) and Bishop Johannes Beermann (1933–1945) presided over the Church of St. Mary's in Danzig's consistory, one after another. Rechtstadt quarter. Unlike the Second Polish Republic, which opposed the cooperation of the United Evangelical Church in Poland with EKapU, Volkstag and Senate of Danzig approved cross-border religious bodies. Danzig's Regional Synodal Federation — just as the regional synodal federation of the autonomous Memelland — retained the status of an ecclesiastical province within EKapU.[20]

After the German annexation of the Free City in 1939, the EKapU merged the Danzig regional synodal federation in 1940 into the Ecclesiastical Region of Danzig-West Prussia. This included the Polish congregations of the United Evangelical Church in Poland in the homonymous Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia and the German congregations in the West Prussia governorate. Danzig's consistory functioned as an executive body for that region. With the flight and expulsion of most German Protestant parishioners from the area of the Free City of Danzig between 1945 and 1948, the congregations vanished.

In March 1945, the consistory had relocated to Lübeck and opened a refugee centre for Danzigers (Hilfsstelle beim evangelischen Konsistorium Danzig) led by Upper Consistorial Councillor Gerhard M. Gülzow. 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. Other Lutheran congregations of Danzig could reclaim their church bells, which the Wehrmacht had requisitioned as non-ferrous metal for war purposes since 1940, but which had survived, not yet melted down, in storage (e.g. Glockenfriedhof) in the British zone of occupation. The presbyteries granted them usually to Northwestern German Lutheran congregations which had lost bells due to the war.

Diocese of Danzig of the Roman Catholic Church [edit] Main article: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Gdańsk

The 36 Catholic parishes in the territory of the Free City in 1922 used to belong in equal shares to the Diocese of Culm, which was mostly Polish, and the Diocese of Ermland, which was mostly German. While the Second Polish Republic wanted all the parishes within the Free City to form part of Polish Culm, Volkstag and Senate wanted them all to become subject to German Ermland.[21] In 1922 the Holy See suspended the jurisdictions of both dioceses over their parishes in the Free State and established an exempt apostolic administration for the territory.[21]

The first apostolic administrator was Edward O'Rourke who became Bishop of Danzig on the occasion of the elevation of the administration to an exempt diocese. He was naturalised as Danziger on the same occasion. In 1938 he resigned after quarrels with the Nazi-dominated Senate of Danzig on appointments of parish priests of Polish ethnicity.[22] The senate also instigated the denaturalisation of O'Rourke, who subsequently became a Polish citizen. O'Rourke was succeeded by Bishop Carl Maria Splett, a native from the Free City area. The Archcathedral of the Holy Trinity, Splett remained bishop after the German annexation of the Free City. In early 1941, he Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Bernard applied for admitting the Danzig diocese as member in Archbishop Adolf Bertram's in Oliva, Danzig. Eastern German Ecclesiastical Province and thus at the Fulda Conference of Bishops; however, Bertram, also speaker of the Fulda conference, rejected the request.[23] Any arguments that the Free City of Danzig had been annexed to Nazi Germany did not impress Bertram since Danzig's annexation lacked international recognition. Until the reorganization of the Catholic dioceses in Danzig and the formerly eastern territories of Germany the diocesan territory remained unaltered and the see exempt. However, with the replacement of Danzig's population between 1945 and 1948 by mostly-Catholic Poles, the number of Catholic parishes increased and most formerly-Protestant churches were taken over for Catholic services.

Jewish Danzigers [edit] Main article: Jewish Community in the Free City of Danzig

Since 1883 most of the Jewish congregations in the later territory of Free State had merged into the Synagogal Community of Danzig. Only the Jews of Tiegenhof ran their own congregation until 1938.

Danzig became a centre of Polish and Russian Jewish emigration to North America. Between 1920 and 1925 60,000 Jews emigrated via Danzig to the US and Canada. At the same time, between 1923 and 1929, Danzig's own Jewish population increased from roughly 7,000 to 10,500.[24] Native Jews and newcomers established themselves in the city and contributed to its civic life, culture and economy. Danzig became a venue for international meetings of Jewish organisations, such as the convention of delegates from Jewish youth organisations of various nations, attended by David Ben-Gurion, which founded the World Union of Jewish Youth on 2 September 1924 in the Schützenhaus venue. On 21 March 1926 the Zionistische Organisation für Danzig convened delegates of Hechalutz from all over for the first conference in Danzig using Great Synagogue on Reitbahn Hebrew as common language, also attended by Ben Gurion. Street in Danzig's Rechtstadt quarter. With a Nazi majority in the Volkstag and Senate, anti-Semitic persecution and discrimination occurred unsanctioned by the authorities. In contrast to Germany, which exercised capital outflow control since 1931, emigration of Danzig's Jews was nonetheless somewhat easier, with capital transfers enabled by the Bank of Danzig. Moreover, the comparatively-few Danzig Jews were offered easier refuge in safe countries because of favorable Free City migration quotas.

After the anti-Jewish riots of Kristallnacht of 9/10 November 1938 in Germany, similar riots took place on 12/13 November in Danzig.[25][26] The Great Synagogue was taken over and demolished by the local authorities in 1939. Most Jews had already left the city and the Jewish Community of Danzig decided to organize its own emigration in early 1939.[27]

Politics [edit]

Government [edit]

Heads of State of the Free City of Danzig[8] № Name Took office Left office Party Presidents of the Danzig Senate 1 Heinrich Sahm 6 December 1920 10 January 1931 None 2 Ernst Ziehm 10 January 1931 20 June 1933 DNVP 3 Hermann Rauschning 20 June 1933 23 November 1934 NSDAP 4 Arthur Karl Greiser 23 November 1934 23 August 1939 NSDAP State President

5 Albert Forster 23 August 1939 1 September 1939 NSDAP Flag of the Danzig Senate.

The Free City was governed by the Senate of the Free City of Danzig, which was elected by the parliament (Volkstag) for a legislative period of four years. The official language was German,[28] although the usage of Polish was guaranteed by law.[29][30] The political parties in the Free City corresponded with the political parties in Weimar Germany; the most influential parties in the 1920s were the conservative German National People's Party, the Social Democratic Party of the Free City of Danzig and the Catholic Centre Party. A Communist Party was founded in 1921 with its origins in the Spartacus League and the Communist Party of East Prussia. Several liberal parties and Free Voter's Associations existed and ran in the elections with varying success. A Polish Party represented the Polish minority and received between 3% (1933) and 6% (1920) of the vote (in total, 4,358 votes in 1933 and 9,321 votes in 1920).[31]

Initially, the Nazi Party had only a small amount of success (0.8% of the vote in 1927) and was even briefly dissolved.[9] Its influence grew with the onset of difficult economic times and the increasing popularity of the Nazi Party in Germany proper. Albert Forster became the Gauleiter in October 1930. The Nazis won 50 percent of votes in the Volkstag elections of 28 May 1933, and took control of the Senate in June 1933, with Hermann Rauschning becoming President of the Senate of Danzig.

Rauschning was removed from his position by Forster and replaced by Arthur Greiser in November 1934.[25] He later appealed to the public not to vote for the Nazis in the 1935 elections.[9] Political opposition to the Nazis was repressed[32] with several politicians being imprisoned and murdered.[33][34] The economic policy of Danzig's Nazi-led government, which increased the public issues for employment-creation programs[35] and the retrenchment of financial aid from Germany led to a devaluation of more than 40% of the Danziger Gulden in 1935.[10][36][37][38][39][40] The Gold reserves of the Bank of Danzig declined from 30 million Gulden in 1933 to 13 million in 1935 and the foreign asset reserve from 10 million to 250,000 Gulden.[41] In 1935, Poland protested when Danzig's Senate reduced the value of the Gulden so that it would be the same as the Polish Zloty.[42]

As in Germany, the Nazis introduced an "Enabling Act" and the racialist Nuremberg laws (November 1938);[43] existing parties and unions were gradually banned. The presence of the League of Nations however still guaranteed a minimum of legal certainty. In 1935, the opposition parties, except for the Polish Party, filed a lawsuit to the Danzig High Court in protest against the manipulation of the Volkstag elections.[9][25] The opposition also protested to the League of Nations, as did the Jewish Community of Danzig.[44][45]

German-Polish tensions [edit]

The rights of the Second Polish Republic within the territory of the Free City were stipulated in the Treaty of Paris of 9 November 1920 and the Treaty of Warsaw of 24 October 1921.[46] The details of the Polish privileges soon became a permanent matter of disputes between the local populace and the Polish State. While the representatives of the Free City tried to uphold the City's autonomy and sovereignty, Poland sought to extend its privileges.[47]

Throughout the Polish–Soviet War, local dockworkers went on strike and refused to unload ammunition supplies for the Polish Army. While the ammunition was finally unloaded by British troops,[48] the incident led to the establishment of a permanent ammunition depot at the Westerplatte and the construction of a trade and naval port in Gdynia,[49] whose total exports and imports surpassed those of Danzig in May 1932.[50] In December 1925, the Council of the League of Nations agreed to the establishment of a Polish military guard of 88 men on the Westerplatte peninsula to protect the war material depot.[51][52]

Several disputes between Danzig and Poland occurred in the sequel. The Free City protested against the Westerplatte depot, the placement of Polish letter boxes within the City[53] and the presence of Polish war vessels at the harbour.[54] The attempt of the Free City to join the International Labour Organization was rejected by the Permanent Court of International Justice at the League of Nations after protests of the Polish ILO delegate.[55][56]

After Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, the Polish military doubled the number of troops at Westerplatte breaking international law in order to test the reaction of the new chancellor. After international protests the additional troops were withdrawn.[57] Fears of Polish aggression produced by this and other disputes further stoked by Nazi propaganda would give the local Nazis an absolute majority in the May 1933 Volkstag elections.[58]

Until June 1933, the High Commissioner decided in 66 cases of dispute between Danzig and Poland; in 54 cases one of the parties appealed to the Permanent Court of International Justice.[59] Subsequent disputes were resolved in direct negotiations between the Senate and Poland after both had agreed to abstain from further appeals to the International Court in the summer of 1933 and bilateral agreements were concluded.[60]

In the aftermath of the German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact of 1934, Danzig–Polish relations improved and Adolf Hitler instructed the local Nazi government to cease anti-Polish actions.[61] In return, Poland did not support the actions of the anti- Nazi opposition in Danzig. The Polish Ambassador to Germany, Józef Lipski, stated in a meeting with Hermann Göring:[62]

... that a National Socialist Senate in Danzig is also most desirable from our point of view, since it brought about a rapprochement between the Free City and Poland, I would like to remind him that we have always kept aloof from internal Danzig problems. In spite of approaches repeatedly made by the opposition parties, we rejected any attempt to draw us into action against the Senate. I mentioned quite confidentially that the Polish minority in Danzig was advised not to join forces with the opposition at the time of elections.

When Carl J. Burckhardt became High Commissioner in February 1937, both Poles and Germans openly welcomed his withdrawal, and Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Józef Beck notified him not to "count on the support of the Polish State" in the case of difficulties with the Senate or the Nazi Party.[63]

While the Senate appeared to respect the agreements with Poland, the "Nazification of Danzig proceeded relentlessly"[64] and Danzig became a springboard for anti-Polish propaganda among the German and Ukrainian minority in Poland.[65] The Catholic Bishop of Danzig, Edward O'Rourke, was forced to withdraw after he had tried to implement four additional Polish nationals as parish priests in October 1937.[22]

This section requires expansion. (July 2014)

See also: Polish Corridor

The German policy openly changed immediately after the Munich Conference in October 1938, when German Minister of Foreign Affairs Joachim von Ribbentrop demanded the incorporation of the Free City into the Reich.[66] In April 1939, High Commissioner Burckhardt was told by the Polish Commissioner-General that any attempt to alter its status would be answered with armed resistance on the part of Poland.[67]

Second World War and aftermath [edit]

World War II began with the shelling of the Westerplatte on 1 September 1939. Gauleiter Forster entered the High Commissioner's residence and ordered him to leave the City within two hours,[68] and the Free City was formally incorporated into the newly formed Reichsgau of Danzig-West Prussia. Polish civilian Post Office employees had received military training and were in possession of a cache of weapons – mostly pistols, three light machine guns, and some hand grenades – and were thus able to defend the Polish Post Office for fifteen hours. Upon their surrender, they were tried and executed. (The sentence was officially revoked by a German court as illegal in 1998.)[69][70] The Polish military forces in the city held

out until 7 September. Up to 4,500 members of Polish minority were arrested with Schleswig-Holstein firing at Westerplatte many of them executed[71] By the end of the Second World War, nearly all the city had been reduced to ruins. On 30 March 1945, the city was taken by the Red Army. It is estimated that nearly all the pre-war inhabitants were either dead or had fled.[citation needed] A number of inhabitants of the city perished when the military training ship Wilhelm Gustloff used for evacuation was sunk. It had up to 10,000 refugees on board at the time, including about 1,000 seriously wounded soldiers and sailors.

At the Yalta Conference in February 1945, the Allies agreed that the city would become part of Poland.[72]

By 1950, around 285,000 fled and expelled citizens of the former Free City were living in Germany,[citation needed] and 13,424 citizens of the former Free City had been "verified" and granted Polish citizenship.[73] 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- [73] annexed Eastern Poland took their place. 1 September 1939: German troops remove Polish insignia at the Polish–Danzig border In fiction [edit] near Zoppot. Historical Danzig forms the setting for several major works of Nobel Prize-winning author Günter Grass, including his acclaimed Danzig Trilogy novels The Tin Drum and Dog Years, as well as in his memoirs. Grass grew up in the Danzig suburb of Langfuhr (now Wrzeszcz).

See also [edit] Areas annexed by Nazi Germany Danzig Corridor Alfons Flisykowski Danzig Research Society History of Gdańsk Administrations of Danzig before April 1945 Stutthof concentration camp

References [edit]

1. ^ Loew, Peter Oliver (February 2011). Danzig – Biographie 35. ^ Burckhardt, Carl Jakob. Meine Danziger Mission (in einer Stadt (in German). C.H. Beck. p. 189. ISBN 978-3- German). p. 39. 406-60587-1. Lichtenstein, Erwin (1973). Die Juden der Freien Stadt 2. ^ Samerski, Stefan (2003). Das Bistum Danzig in Danzig unter der Herrschaft des Nationalsozialismus (in Lebensbildern (in German). LIT Verlag. p. 8. ISBN 3-8258- German). p. 44. 6284-4. 36. ^ Loew, Peter Oliver (February 2011). Danzig – Biographie 3. ^ Kaczorowska, Alina (2010-07-21). Public International einer Stadt (in German). C.H. Beck. p. 206. ISBN 978-3- Law . Routledge. p. 199. ISBN 0-203-84847-0. 406-60587-1. 4. ^ a b Yale Law School. "The Versailles Treaty June 28, 1919: 37. ^ Loose, Ingo (2007). Kredite für NS­Verbrechen (in Part III" . The Avalon Project. Retrieved May 3, 2007. German). Institut für Zeitgeschichte. p. 33. ISBN 978-3-486- 5. ^ Chestermann, Simon (2004). You, the People; United 58331-1. Nations, Transitional Administration and State building . 38. ^ Andrzejewski, Marek (1994). Opposition und Widerstand in Oxford University Press. p. 20. ISBN 978-0-19-926348-6. Danzig (in German). Dietz. p. 99. ISBN 9783801240547. Retrieved 2011-04-26. 39. ^ Cieslak, Edmund; Biernat, Czeslaw (1995). History of 6. ^ Levine, Herbert S., Hitler's Free City: A History of the Nazi Gdańsk . Fundacji Biblioteki Gdánskiej. p. 454. Party in Danzig, 1925-39 (University of Chicago Press, 1970), ISBN 9788386557004. p. 102. 40. ^ Matull, "Ostdeutschlands Arbeiterbewegung", pp. 417, 7. ^ Text in League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. 6, pp. 190– 418. 207. 41. ^ Intelligence Service Economic Intelligence Service; 8. ^ a b "Danzig subsection of Poland entry from World Service, Intellige Economic Intelligence (2007-03-01). Statesmen.org" . Commercial Banks 1929–1934 . League of Nations. 9. ^ a b c d Matull, Wilhelm (1973). "Ostdeutschlands p. LXXXIX. ISBN 978-1-4067-5963-1. Arbeiterbewegung: Abriß ihrer Geschichte, Leistung und 42. ^ Ruhnau, Rüdiger (1971). Danzig: Geschichte einer Opfer" (in German). Holzner. p. 419. Deutschen Stadt (in German). Holzner Verlag. p. 103. 10. ^ a b c Mason, John Brown (1946). The Danzig Dilemma, A 43. ^ Schwartze­Köhler, Hannelore (June 2009). "Die Study in Peacemaking by Compromise . Stanford Blechtrommel" von Günter Grass:Bedeutung, Erzähltechnik University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-2444-9. Retrieved 2011- und Zeitgeschichte (in German). Frank & Timme GmbH. 04-26. p. 396. ISBN 978-3-86596-237-9. 11. ^ Cieślak, E Biernat, C (1995) History of Gdánsk, Fundacji 44. ^ Kreutzberger, Max (1970). Leo Baeck Institute New York Biblioteki Gdanskiej, P455 Bibliothek und Archiv (in German). Mohr Siebeck. p. 67. 12. ^ Zapiski historyczne: Volume 60, page 256, Towarzystwo ISBN 978-3-16-830772-3. Naukowe w Toruniu. Wydział Nauk Historycznych – 1995 45. ^ Bacon, Gershon C. "Danzig Jewry: A Short History" . 13. ^ a b Ludność polska w Wolnym Mieście Gdańsku, 1920– Jewish Virtual Library. 1939, page 37, Henryk Stępniak, Wydawnictwo "Stella 46. ^ Hannum, Hurst (2011-10-12). Autonomy, Sovereignty and Maris", 1991, "Przyjmując, że Polacy gdańscy stanowili Self-Determination . University of Pennsylvania. p. 375. 25 — 30% ogólnej liczby ludności katolickiej Wolnego ISBN 978-0-8122-1572-4. Miasta Gdańska, liczącej w 1920 r. około 110 000 osób, 47. ^ Stahn, Carsten (2008-05-22). The Law and Practice of można ustalić, że w liczbach bezwzględnych stanowiło International Territorial Administration . Cambridge można ustalić, że w liczbach bezwzględnych stanowiło to University Press. p. 173 ff, 177. ISBN 978-0-521-87800-5. 30­ – 36 tyś. osób. Jeśli do liczby tej dodamy ok. 4 tyś. 48. ^ Hutt, Alan (2006-05-30). The Post-War history of the ludności obywatelstwa polskiego, otrzymamy łącznie ok. British Working Class . READ BOOKS. p. 38. ISBN 978-1- 9,4–11% ogółu ludności." 4067-9826-5. 14. ^ Samerski, Stefan (2003). Das Bistum Danzig in 49. ^ Buell, Raymond Leslie (2007-03-31). Poland – Key to Lebensbildern (in German). LIT Verlag. p. 8. ISBN 3-8258- Europe . READ BOOKS. p. 159. ISBN 978-1-4067-4564-1. 6284-4. 50. ^ Eugene van Cleef, "Danzig and Gdynia," Geographical 15. ^ Stuthoff Zeszyty 4 4 Stanislaw Mikos Recenzje i Review, Vol. 23, No. 1. (Jan., 1933): 106. omówienia Andrzej Drzycimski, Polacy w Wolnym Mieście 51. ^ Cieślak, E Biernat, C (1995) History of Gdańsk, Fundacji Gdańsku /1920 – 1933/. Polityka Seantu gdańskiego wobec Biblioteki Gdanskiej. p. 436 ludności polskiej Wrocław – Warszawa – Kraków – Gdańsk 52. ^ By a decision of the League Council in December 1925, 1978, the guard which the Poles were entitled to maintain on this 16. ^ Die Freie Stadt Danzig (German) spot [Westerplatte peninsula] was limited to 88 men, though 17. ^ Dr. Juergensen, Die freie Stadt Danzig, Danzig: Kafemann, the number might be increased with the consent of the High 1925. Commissioner. Geoffrey Malcolm Gathorne-Hardy. A Short 18. ^ Bacon, Gershon C.; Vivian B. Mann; Joseph Gutmann History of International Affairs, 1920 to 1934. Royal institute (1980). Danzig Jewry: A Short History . Jewish Museum of international affairs (1934). Oxford University Press. p. (New York). p. 31. ISBN 978-0-8143-1662-7. 384. 19. ^ Those congregations in Polish-annexed West Prussia 53. ^ worldcourts.com PCIJ, Advisory Opinion No. 11 (Pomeranian Voivodeship) merged into the new United 54. ^ worldcourts.com PCIJ, Advisory Opinion No. 22 Evangelical Church in Poland, which emerged from the old- 55. ^ worldcourts.com PCIJ, Advisory Opinion No. 18 Prussian Posen ecclesiastical province, with its consistory 56. ^ Lauterpacht, H (1936). "International Law Reports 1929– seated in Poznań. 1930" . Advisory Opinion No 18: Free City of Danzig and 20. ^ In June 1922 the Senate of Danzig and the old-Prussian International Labour Organization on August 26, 1930, ecclesiastical executive, the Evangelical Supreme Collection of Advisory Opinions: Free City of Danzig and Ecclesiastical Council (Evangelischer Oberkirchenrat, EOK), International Labour Organization, No. 18 Series B File F concluded a contract to that end. Cf. Adalbert Erler, Die (1930) (H. Lauterpacht). ISBN 978-0-521-46350-8. Retrieved rechtliche Stellung der evangelischen Kirche in Danzig, 2009-08-30. Berlin: 1929, simultaneously Univ. of Greifswald, Department 57. ^ Hargreaves, R (2010) Blitzkrieg Unleashed: The German of Law and Politics, doctor thesis of 21 February 1929, pp. Invasion of Poland, 1939 P31-2 36 seqq. 58. ^ Epstein, C (2012) Model Nazi: Arthur Greiser and the 21. ^ a b Georg May. Ludwig Kaas: der Priester, der Politiker Occupation of Western Poland, Oxford University Press P58 und der Gelehrte aus der Schule von Ulrich Stutz. John 59. ^ Hurst Hannum, p. 377. Benjamins Publishing. p. 175. ISBN 978-90-6032-197-3. 60. ^ Schlochauer, Hans J.; Krüger, Herbert; Mosler, Hermann 22. ^ a b Samerski, Stefan; Reimund Haas; Karl Josef Rivinius; (1960-05-01). Wörterbuch des Völkerrechts; Aachener Hermann-Josef Scheidgen (2000). Ein aussichtsloses Kongress – Hussar Fall (in German). de Gruyter Verlag. Unternehmen – Die Reaktivierung Bischof Eduard Graf pp. 307, 309. ISBN 978-3-11-001030-5. O’Rourkes 1939 (in German). Böhlau Verlag Köln 61. ^ Hiden, John; Lane, Thomas; Prazmowska, Anita J. (1992). Weimar. p. 378. ISBN 3-412-04100-9. The Baltic and the Outbreak of the Second World War . 23. ^ Hans­Jürgen Karp; Joachim Köhler (2001). Katholische Cambridge University Press. p. 74 ff, 80. ISBN 0-521-40467- Kirche unter nationalsozialistischer und kommunistischer 3. Diktatur: Deutschland und Polen 1939–1989. Böhlau Verlag 62. ^ Prazmowska, p. 80. Köln Weimar. p. 162. ISBN 978-3-412-11800-6. 63. ^ Prazmowska, p. 81. 24. ^ Ruhnau, Rüdiger (1971). Danzig: Geschichte einer 64. ^ Prazmowska, p. 85. Deutschen Stadt (in German). Holzner Verlag. p. 94. 65. ^ Prazmowska, p. 83. a b c 25. ^ Sodeikat, Ernst (1966). "Der Nationalsozialismus und 66. ^ Wasserstein, Bernard (2007). Barbarism and die Danziger Opposition" (in German). Institut für Civilization . Oxford University Press. p. 279. ISBN 978-0- Zeitgeschichte. p. 139 ff. 19-873074-3. 26. ^ Grass, Günther; Vivian B. Mann; Joseph Gutmann; Jewish 67. ^ Woodward, E.L., Butler, Rohan, Orde, Anne, editors, Museum (New York, N.Y.) (1980). Danzig 1939, treasures of Documents on British Foreign Policy 1919–1939, 3rd series, a destroyed community . The Jewish Museum, New York. vol.v, HMSO, London, 1952:25 p. 33. ISBN 978-0-8143-1662-7. 68. ^ Bleimeier, John Kuhn (1990-03-01). Hague Yearbook of 27. ^ Gdansk at the Jewish Virtual Library. International Law . Martinus Nijhoff Publ. p. 91. ISBN 0- 28. ^ Lemkin, Raphael (2008-06-30). Axis Rule in Occupied 7923-0655-4. Europe . The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. p. 155. ISBN 978-1- 69. ^ Dieter Schenk (1995). Die Post von Danzig: Geschichte 58477-901-8. eines deutschen Justizmords. p. 150. ISBN 3-498-06288-3. 29. ^ (German) Constitution of Danzig 70. ^ Dieter Schenk, Die Post von Danzig 30. ^ Matull, "Ostdeutschlands Arbeiterbewegung", p. 419. 71. ^ [1] 31. ^ (German) Die Freie Stadt Danzig, Wahlen 1919–1935 72. ^ The History of Poland Since 1863 By Robert F. Leslie page 32. ^ Ratner, Steven R. (1995-02-15). The new UN 281 peacekeeping . Palgrave Macmillan. p. 94. ISBN 0-312- 73. ^ a b Bykowska, Sylwia (2005). "Gdańsk – Miasto (Szybko) 12415-5. Odzyskane" . Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej (in 33. ^ Sodeikat, p.170, p. 173, Fn.92 Polish) 9–10 (56–57): 35–44. ISSN 1641-9561 . Retrieved 34. ^ Matull, "Ostdeutschlands Arbeiterbewegung", p. 440, 450. 2009-07-24.

External links [edit]

Extensive Prussian/ Danzig Historical Materials (many in German) Wikimedia Commons has Map of the Free City media related to Free City of Danzig. Jewish community history History of Gdańsk / Danzig Danzig Online Gdańsk history Celebration of Gdańsk's centenary in 1997 History & Hallucination , Wanderlust, Salon.com, January 5, 1998. The power of Gdansk at the Wayback Machine (archived September 30, 2007) 1933 Danzig passport , from passportland.com. First hand account of growing up in Danzig in the 1930s , a video interview.

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Categories: Former republics Former polities of the interwar period Former countries in Europe States and territories established in 1920 States and territories disestablished in 1939 Free City of Danzig League of Nations mandates

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Main page Contents Free City of Danzig Featured content Coordinates: 54°21′N 18°40′E Current events From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Random article Donate to Wikipedia For the Napoleonic client-state of the same name, see Free City of Danzig (Napoleonic). Wikimedia Shop The Free City of Danzig (German: Freie Stadt Danzig; Polish: Wolne Miasto Free City of Danzig Interaction Gdańsk) was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and Freie Stadt Danzig (German) Help 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) and Wolne Miasto Gdańsk (Polish) About Wikipedia nearly 200 towns in the surrounding areas. It was created on 15 November Community portal 1920[1][2] in accordance with the terms of Article 100 (Section XI of Part III) of Free City under League of Nations Recent changes protection the 1919 Treaty of Versailles after the end of World War I. Contact page ← The Free City included the city of Danzig and other nearby towns, villages, and → Tools ← 1920–1939 What links here settlements that had been primarily inhabited by ethnic Germans. As the → ← Related changes Treaty stated, the region was to remain separated from post-World War I Upload file Germany (the Weimar Republic) and from the newly independent nation of the Special pages Second Polish Republic ("interwar Poland"), but it was not an independent Permanent link state.[3] The Free City was under League of Nations protection and put into a Page information binding customs union with Poland. Wikidata item Cite this page Poland was given full rights to develop and maintain transportation, [4] Print/export communication, and port facilities in the city. The Free City was created in Flag Coat of arms Create a book order to give Poland access to a well-sized seaport, although it was Anthem Download as PDF acknowledged that the city's population was about 95 percent German.[5] The Für Danzig / Gdańsku Printable version German majority deeply resented being separated from Germany, and in some

Languages cases subjected the Polish minority to discrimination. This was especially true Български after the Nazi Party gained political control in 1935-36.[6] Brezhoneg Since Poland still was not in complete control of the seaport, especially Català regarding military equipment, a new seaport was built in nearby Gdynia, Čeština Dansk beginning 1921. Deutsch In 1933, the City's government was taken over by the local Nazi Party, which Eesti suppressed democratic opposition. Due to anti-Semitic persecution and Danzig, surrounded by Germany and Poland. Español oppression, many Jews fled. After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the Esperanto Euskara Nazis abolished the Free City and incorporated the area into the newly formed Français Reichsgau of Danzig-West Prussia. The Germans classified the Poles and Galego Jews as subhumans, subjecting them to discrimination, forced labor, and 한국어 extermination. Many were sent to death at concentration camps, including Hrvatski nearby Stutthof (now Sztutowo, Poland). Italiano ,During the city's conquest by the Soviet Army in the early months of 1945 עברית many citizens fled or were killed. After the war, many surviving ethnic Germans Kaszëbsczi were expelled and deported to the West when members of the pre-war Polish Latina minority started returning. The city subsequently became part of Poland, as a Lietuvių consequence of the Potsdam Agreement. Polish settlers were recruited to Magyar मराठी replace the German population. Nederlands Contents [hide] 日本語 Location of the Free City of Danzig in 1930 Europe. Norsk bokmål 1 Establishment Polski 1.1 Periods of independence and autonomy Capital Danzig Português 1.2 Territory Languages German Română 1.3 Polish rights declared by Treaty of Versailles Polish Русский 1.4 League of Nations High Commissioners Religion 64.6% Lutheran Simple English 32.2% Catholic 2 Population [citation needed] Slovenčina (1938) 2.1 Religion Српски / srpski 2.1.1 Regional Synodal Federation of the Free City of Danzig Government Republic Srpskohrvatski / High српскохрватски 2.1.2 Diocese of Danzig of the Roman Catholic Church Commissioner Suomi 2.1.3 Jewish Danzigers - 1919–1920 Reginald Tower Svenska 3 Politics - 1937–1939 Carl Burckhardt Українська 3.1 Government Senate President Tiếng Việt 3.2 German-Polish tensions - 1920–1931 Heinrich Sahm 中文 - 1934–1939 Arthur Greiser 4 Second World War and aftermath Edit links 5 In fiction Legislature Volkstag 6 See also Historical era Interwar period 7 References - Established 15 November 1920 - Invasion of 8 External links Poland 1 September 1939 - Annexed by Germany 2 September 1939

Establishment [edit] Area - 1923 1,966 km² (759 sq mi) Periods of independence and autonomy [edit] Population Danzig had an early history of independence. It was a leading player in the - 1923 est. 366,730 Prussian Confederation directed against the Teutonic Monastic State of Density 186.5 /km² (483.1 /sq mi) Prussia. The Confederation stipulated with the Polish king, Casimir IV Jagiellon, Currency Papiermark (before 1923) that the Polish Crown would be invested with the role of head of state of Danzig gulden (from 1923) western parts of Prussia (Royal Prussia). In contrast, Ducal Prussia remained a Today part of Poland Polish fief. Danzig and other cities such as Elbing and Thorn financed most of the warfare and enjoyed a high level of city autonomy. Danzig used the title Royal Polish City of Danzig.

In 1569, when Royal Prussia's estates agreed to incorporate the region into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the city insisted on preserving its special status. 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.[citation needed]

Although Danzig became part of the Kingdom of Prussia in the Second Partitition of Poland in 1793, Prussia was conquered by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1806, and in September 1807 Napoleon declared Danzig a semi-independent Client state of the French Empire, known as the Free City of Danzig. It lasted seven years, until it was re-incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia in 1814, after Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Leipzig (Battle of Nations by a coalition that included Russia, Austria and Prussia.

Territory [edit]

The interwar Free City of Danzig (1920–39) included the city of Danzig (Gdańsk), the towns of Zoppot (Sopot), Oliva (Oliwa), Tiegenhof (Nowy Dwór Gdański), Neuteich (Nowy Staw) and some 252 villages and 63 hamlets, covering a total area of 1,966 square kilometers (754 sq mi).

Polish rights declared by Treaty of Versailles [edit]

The Free City was to be represented abroad by Poland and was to be in a customs union with it. The German railway line that connected the Free City with 20 Danzig gulden note from the interwar period newly created Poland was to be administered by Poland, as were all rail lines in the territory of the Free City. On November 9, 1920, a convention that provided for the Presence of a Polish diplomatic representative in Danzig was signed between the Polish government and the Danzig authorities. In article 6, the Polish government undertook not to conclude any international agreements regarding Danzig without previous consultation with the Free City's government.[7]

A separate Polish post office was established, besides the existing municipal one.

League of Nations High Commissioners [edit]

Unlike Mandatory territories, which were entrusted to member countries, The Free City of Danzig (like the Territory of the Saar Basin) remained directly under the authority of the League of Nations. Representatives of various countries took on the role of High Commissioner:[8]

№ Name Period Country 1 Reginald Thomas Tower 1919–1920 United Kingdom 2 Edward Lisle Strutt 1920 United Kingdom 3 Bernardo Attolico 1920 Italy

4 Richard Cyril Byrne Haking 1921–1923 United Kingdom 5 Mervyn Sorley McDonnell 1923–1925 United Kingdom 6 Joost Adriaan van Hamel 1925–1929 Netherlands

7 Manfredi di Gravina 1929–1932 Italy 8 Helmer Rosting 1932–1934 Denmark

9 Seán Lester 1934–1936 Irish Free State Passport of the Free City of Danzig. 10 Carl Jakob Burckhardt 1937–1939 Switzerland

The League of Nations refused to let the city-state use the term of Hanseatic City as part of its official name; this referred to Danzig's long-lasting membership in the Hanseatic League.[9]

Population [edit]

The Free City's population rose from 357,000 (1919) to 408,000 in 1929; according to the official census, 95% were Germans,[10]:5, 11 with the rest mainly either Kashubians or Poles. According to E. Cieślak, the population registers of the Free City show that in 1929 the Polish population numbered 35,000, or 9.5% of the population.[11][need quotation to verify]

Henryk Stępniak estimates the 1929 Polish population as around 22,000, or around 6% of the population, increasing to around 13% in the 1930s.[12] Based on the estimated voting patterns (according to Stępniak many Poles voted for the Catholic Zentrumspartei instead of Polish parties), Stępniak estimates the number of Poles in the city to be 25–30% of Catholics living within it or about 30–36 thousand people.[13] Including around 4,000 Polish nationals who were registered in the city, Stępniak estimated the Polish population as 9.4–11% of population.[13]

In contrast Stefan Samerski estimates about 10 percent of the 130,000 Catholics Population density of Poland and the Free were Polish.[14] Andrzej Drzycimski estimates that Polish population at the end of City of Danzig (Gdansk), 1930. 30s reached 20%(including Poles who arrived after the war)[15]

The Treaty of Versailles required that the newly formed state have its own citizenship, based on residency. German inhabitants lost their German Citizenship with the creation of the Free City, but were given the right to re-obtain it within the first two years of the state's existence. Anyone desiring German citizenship had to leave their property and make their residence outside of the Free State of Danzig area in the remaining parts of Germany.[4]

Total population by language, November 1, 1923 according to the Free City of Danzig census[10]:11 Nationality German German and Polish, Kashub, Russian, Hebrew, Unclassified Total Polish Masurian Ukrainian Yiddish Danzig 327,827 1,108 6,788 99 22 77 335,921 Non-Danzig 20,666 521 5,239 2,529 580 1,274 30,809 Total 348,493 1,629 12,027 2,628 602 1,351 366,730 Percent 95.03% 0.44% 3.28% 0.72% 0.16% 0.37% 100.00%

Religion [edit]

In 1924, 54.7% of the populace was Protestant (220,731 persons, mostly Lutherans within the united old-Prussian church), 34.5% was Catholic (140,797 persons), and 2.4% Jewish (9,239 persons). Other Protestants included 5,604 Mennonites, 1,934 Calvinists (Reformed), 1,093 Baptists, 410 Free Religionists, as well as 2,129 dissenters, 1,394 faithful of other religions and denominations, and 664 irreligionists.[16][17] The Jewish community grew from 2,717 in 1910 to 7,282 in 1923, and 10,448 in 1929, many of them immigrants from Poland and Russia, where pogroms were conducted against them and discrimination was severe.[18]

Regional Synodal Federation of the Free City of Danzig [edit]

The mostly Lutheran and partially Reformed congregations situated in the territory of the Free City, which previously used to belong to the Ecclesiastical Province of West Prussia of the Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union (EKapU), were transformed into the Regional Synodal Federation of the Free City of Danzig after 1920. The executive body of that ecclesiastical province, the consistory (est. 1 November 1886), was seated in Danzig. After 1920 it was restricted in its responsibility to those congregations within the Free City's territory.[19] General Superintendent Paul The then-Lutheran Supreme Parish Kalweit (1920–1933) and Bishop Johannes Beermann (1933–1945) presided over the Church of St. Mary's in Danzig's consistory, one after another. Rechtstadt quarter. Unlike the Second Polish Republic, which opposed the cooperation of the United Evangelical Church in Poland with EKapU, Volkstag and Senate of Danzig approved cross-border religious bodies. Danzig's Regional Synodal Federation — just as the regional synodal federation of the autonomous Memelland — retained the status of an ecclesiastical province within EKapU.[20]

After the German annexation of the Free City in 1939, the EKapU merged the Danzig regional synodal federation in 1940 into the Ecclesiastical Region of Danzig-West Prussia. This included the Polish congregations of the United Evangelical Church in Poland in the homonymous Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia and the German congregations in the West Prussia governorate. Danzig's consistory functioned as an executive body for that region. With the flight and expulsion of most German Protestant parishioners from the area of the Free City of Danzig between 1945 and 1948, the congregations vanished.

In March 1945, the consistory had relocated to Lübeck and opened a refugee centre for Danzigers (Hilfsstelle beim evangelischen Konsistorium Danzig) led by Upper Consistorial Councillor Gerhard M. Gülzow. The Lutheran congregationPage of 3 / 8 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. Other Lutheran congregations of Danzig could reclaim their church bells, which the Wehrmacht had requisitioned as non-ferrous metal for war purposes since 1940, but which had survived, not yet melted down, in storage (e.g. Glockenfriedhof) in the British zone of occupation. The presbyteries granted them usually to Northwestern German Lutheran congregations which had lost bells due to the war.

Diocese of Danzig of the Roman Catholic Church [edit] Main article: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Gdańsk

The 36 Catholic parishes in the territory of the Free City in 1922 used to belong in equal shares to the Diocese of Culm, which was mostly Polish, and the Diocese of Ermland, which was mostly German. While the Second Polish Republic wanted all the parishes within the Free City to form part of Polish Culm, Volkstag and Senate wanted them all to become subject to German Ermland.[21] In 1922 the Holy See suspended the jurisdictions of both dioceses over their parishes in the Free State and established an exempt apostolic administration for the territory.[21]

The first apostolic administrator was Edward O'Rourke who became Bishop of Danzig on the occasion of the elevation of the administration to an exempt diocese. He was naturalised as Danziger on the same occasion. In 1938 he resigned after quarrels with the Nazi-dominated Senate of Danzig on appointments of parish priests of Polish ethnicity.[22] The senate also instigated the denaturalisation of O'Rourke, who subsequently became a Polish citizen. O'Rourke was succeeded by Bishop Carl Maria Splett, a native from the Free City area. The Archcathedral of the Holy Trinity, Splett remained bishop after the German annexation of the Free City. In early 1941, he Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Bernard applied for admitting the Danzig diocese as member in Archbishop Adolf Bertram's in Oliva, Danzig. Eastern German Ecclesiastical Province and thus at the Fulda Conference of Bishops; however, Bertram, also speaker of the Fulda conference, rejected the request.[23] Any arguments that the Free City of Danzig had been annexed to Nazi Germany did not impress Bertram since Danzig's annexation lacked international recognition. Until the reorganization of the Catholic dioceses in Danzig and the formerly eastern territories of Germany the diocesan territory remained unaltered and the see exempt. However, with the replacement of Danzig's population between 1945 and 1948 by mostly-Catholic Poles, the number of Catholic parishes increased and most formerly-Protestant churches were taken over for Catholic services.

Jewish Danzigers [edit] Main article: Jewish Community in the Free City of Danzig

Since 1883 most of the Jewish congregations in the later territory of Free State had merged into the Synagogal Community of Danzig. Only the Jews of Tiegenhof ran their own congregation until 1938.

Danzig became a centre of Polish and Russian Jewish emigration to North America. Between 1920 and 1925 60,000 Jews emigrated via Danzig to the US and Canada. At the same time, between 1923 and 1929, Danzig's own Jewish population increased from roughly 7,000 to 10,500.[24] Native Jews and newcomers established themselves in the city and contributed to its civic life, culture and economy. Danzig became a venue for international meetings of Jewish organisations, such as the convention of delegates from Jewish youth organisations of various nations, attended by David Ben-Gurion, which founded the World Union of Jewish Youth on 2 September 1924 in the Schützenhaus venue. On 21 March 1926 the Zionistische Organisation für Danzig convened delegates of Hechalutz from all over for the first conference in Danzig using Great Synagogue on Reitbahn Hebrew as common language, also attended by Ben Gurion. Street in Danzig's Rechtstadt quarter. With a Nazi majority in the Volkstag and Senate, anti-Semitic persecution and discrimination occurred unsanctioned by the authorities. In contrast to Germany, which exercised capital outflow control since 1931, emigration of Danzig's Jews was nonetheless somewhat easier, with capital transfers enabled by the Bank of Danzig. Moreover, the comparatively-few Danzig Jews were offered easier refuge in safe countries because of favorable Free City migration quotas.

After the anti-Jewish riots of Kristallnacht of 9/10 November 1938 in Germany, similar riots took place on 12/13 November in Danzig.[25][26] The Great Synagogue was taken over and demolished by the local authorities in 1939. Most Jews had already left the city and the Jewish Community of Danzig decided to organize its own emigration in early 1939.[27]

Politics [edit]

Government [edit]

Heads of State of the Free City of Danzig[8] № Name Took office Left office Party Presidents of the Danzig Senate 1 Heinrich Sahm 6 December 1920 10 January 1931 None 2 Ernst Ziehm 10 January 1931 20 June 1933 DNVP 3 Hermann Rauschning 20 June 1933 23 November 1934 NSDAP 4 Arthur Karl Greiser 23 November 1934 23 August 1939 NSDAP State President

5 Albert Forster 23 August 1939 1 September 1939 NSDAP Flag of the Danzig Senate.

The Free City was governed by the Senate of the Free City of Danzig, which was elected by the parliament (Volkstag) for a legislative period of four years. The official language was German,[28] although the usage of Polish was guaranteed by law.[29][30] The political parties in the Free City corresponded with the political parties in Weimar Germany; the most influential parties in the 1920s were the conservative German National People's Party, the Social Democratic Party of the Free City of Danzig and the Catholic Centre Party. A Communist Party was founded in 1921 with its origins in the Spartacus League and the Communist Party of East Prussia. Several liberal parties and Free Voter's Associations existed and ran in the elections with varying success. A Polish Party represented the Polish minority and received between 3% (1933) and 6% (1920) of the vote (in total, 4,358 votes in 1933 and 9,321 votes in 1920).[31]

Initially, the Nazi Party had only a small amount of success (0.8% of the vote in 1927) and was even briefly dissolved.[9] Its influence grew with the onset of difficult economic times and the increasing popularity of the Nazi Party in Germany proper. Albert Forster became the Gauleiter in October 1930. The Nazis won 50 percent of votes in the Volkstag elections of 28 May 1933, and took control of the Senate in June 1933, with Hermann Rauschning becoming President of the Senate of Danzig.

Rauschning was removed from his position by Forster and replaced by Arthur Greiser in November 1934.[25] He later appealed to the public not to vote for the Nazis in the 1935 elections.[9] Political opposition to the Nazis was repressed[32] with several politicians being imprisoned and murdered.[33][34] The economic policy of Danzig's Nazi-led government, which increased the public issues for employment-creation programs[35] and the retrenchment of financial aid from Germany led to a devaluation of more than 40% of the Danziger Gulden in 1935.[10][36][37][38][39][40] The Gold reserves of the Bank of Danzig declined from 30 million Gulden in 1933 to 13 million in 1935 and the foreign asset reserve from 10 million to 250,000 Gulden.[41] In 1935, Poland protested when Danzig's Senate reduced the value of the Gulden so that it would be the same as the Polish Zloty.[42]

As in Germany, the Nazis introduced an "Enabling Act" and the racialist Nuremberg laws (November 1938);[43] existing parties and unions were gradually banned. The presence of the League of Nations however still guaranteed a minimum of legal certainty. In 1935, the opposition parties, except for the Polish Party, filed a lawsuit to the Danzig High Court in protest against the manipulation of the Volkstag elections.[9][25] The opposition also protested to the League of Nations, as did the Jewish Community of Danzig.[44][45]

German-Polish tensions [edit]

The rights of the Second Polish Republic within the territory of the Free City were stipulated in the Treaty of Paris of 9 November 1920 and the Treaty of Warsaw of 24 October 1921.[46] The details of the Polish privileges soon became a permanent matter of disputes between the local populace and the Polish State. While the representatives of the Free City tried to uphold the City's autonomy and sovereignty, Poland sought to extend its privileges.[47]

Throughout the Polish–Soviet War, local dockworkers went on strike and refused to unload ammunition supplies for the Polish Army. While the ammunition was finally unloaded by British troops,[48] the incident led to the establishment of a permanent ammunition depot at the Westerplatte and the construction of a trade and naval port in Gdynia,[49] whose total exports and imports surpassed those of Danzig in May 1932.[50] In December 1925, the Council of the League of Nations agreed to the establishment of a Polish military guard of 88 men on the Westerplatte peninsula to protect the war material depot.[51][52]

Several disputes between Danzig and Poland occurred in the sequel. The Free City protested against the Westerplatte depot, the placement of Polish letter boxes within the City[53] and the presence of Polish war vessels at the harbour.[54] The attempt of the Free City to join the International Labour Organization was rejected by the Permanent Court of International Justice at the League of Nations after protests of the Polish ILO delegate.[55][56]

After Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, the Polish military doubled the number of troops at Westerplatte breaking international law in order to test the reaction of the new chancellor. After international protests the additional troops were withdrawn.[57] Fears of Polish aggression produced by this and other disputes further stoked by Nazi propaganda would give the local Nazis an absolute majority in the May 1933 Volkstag elections.[58]

Until June 1933, the High Commissioner decided in 66 cases of dispute between Danzig and Poland; in 54 cases one of the parties appealed to the Permanent Court of International Justice.[59] Subsequent disputes were resolved in direct negotiations between the Senate and Poland after both had agreed to abstain from further appeals to the International Court in the summer of 1933 and bilateral agreements were concluded.[60]

In the aftermath of the German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact of 1934, Danzig–Polish relations improved and Adolf Hitler instructed the local Nazi government to cease anti-Polish actions.[61] In return, Poland did not support the actions of the anti- Nazi opposition in Danzig. The Polish Ambassador to Germany, Józef Lipski, stated in a meeting with Hermann Göring:[62]

... that a National Socialist Senate in Danzig is also most desirable from our point of view, since it brought about a rapprochement between the Free City and Poland, I would like to remind him that we have always kept aloof from internal Danzig problems. In spite of approaches repeatedly made by the opposition parties, we rejected any attempt to draw us into action against the Senate. I mentioned quite confidentially that the Polish minority in Danzig was advised not to join forces with the opposition at the time of elections.

When Carl J. Burckhardt became High Commissioner in February 1937, both Poles and Germans openly welcomed his withdrawal, and Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Józef Beck notified him not to "count on the support of the Polish State" in the case of difficulties with the Senate or the Nazi Party.[63]

While the Senate appeared to respect the agreements with Poland, the "Nazification of Danzig proceeded relentlessly"[64] and Danzig became a springboard for anti-Polish propaganda among the German and Ukrainian minority in Poland.[65] The Catholic Bishop of Danzig, Edward O'Rourke, was forced to withdraw after he had tried to implement four additional Polish nationals as parish priests in October 1937.[22]

This section requires expansion. (July 2014)

See also: Polish Corridor

The German policy openly changed immediately after the Munich Conference in October 1938, when German Minister of Foreign Affairs Joachim von Ribbentrop demanded the incorporation of the Free City into the Reich.[66] In April 1939, High Commissioner Burckhardt was told by the Polish Commissioner-General that any attempt to alter its status would be answered with armed resistance on the part of Poland.[67]

Second World War and aftermath [edit]

World War II began with the shelling of the Westerplatte on 1 September 1939. Gauleiter Forster entered the High Commissioner's residence and ordered him to leave the City within two hours,[68] and the Free City was formally incorporated into the newly formed Reichsgau of Danzig-West Prussia. Polish civilian Post Office employees had received military training and were in possession of a cache of weapons – mostly pistols, three light machine guns, and some hand grenades – and were thus able to defend the Polish Post Office for fifteen hours. Upon their surrender, they were tried and executed. (The sentence was officially revoked by a German court as illegal in 1998.)[69][70] The Polish military forces in the city held

out until 7 September. Up to 4,500 members of Polish minority were arrested with Schleswig-Holstein firing at Westerplatte many of them executed[71] By the end of the Second World War, nearly all the city had been reduced to ruins. On 30 March 1945, the city was taken by the Red Army. It is estimated that nearly all the pre-war inhabitants were either dead or had fled.[citation needed] A number of inhabitants of the city perished when the military training ship Wilhelm Gustloff used for evacuation was sunk. It had up to 10,000 refugees on board at the time, including about 1,000 seriously wounded soldiers and sailors.

At the Yalta Conference in February 1945, the Allies agreed that the city would become part of Poland.[72]

By 1950, around 285,000 fled and expelled citizens of the former Free City were living in Germany,[citation needed] and 13,424 citizens of the former Free City had been "verified" and granted Polish citizenship.[73] 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- [73] annexed Eastern Poland took their place. 1 September 1939: German troops remove Polish insignia at the Polish–Danzig border In fiction [edit] near Zoppot. Historical Danzig forms the setting for several major works of Nobel Prize-winning author Günter Grass, including his acclaimed Danzig Trilogy novels The Tin Drum and Dog Years, as well as in his memoirs. Grass grew up in the Danzig suburb of Langfuhr (now Wrzeszcz).

See also [edit] Areas annexed by Nazi Germany Danzig Corridor Alfons Flisykowski Danzig Research Society History of Gdańsk Administrations of Danzig before April 1945 Stutthof concentration camp

References [edit]

1. ^ Loew, Peter Oliver (February 2011). Danzig – Biographie 35. ^ Burckhardt, Carl Jakob. Meine Danziger Mission (in einer Stadt (in German). C.H. Beck. p. 189. ISBN 978-3- German). p. 39. 406-60587-1. Lichtenstein, Erwin (1973). Die Juden der Freien Stadt 2. ^ Samerski, Stefan (2003). Das Bistum Danzig in Danzig unter der Herrschaft des Nationalsozialismus (in Lebensbildern (in German). LIT Verlag. p. 8. ISBN 3-8258- German). p. 44. 6284-4. 36. ^ Loew, Peter Oliver (February 2011). Danzig – Biographie 3. ^ Kaczorowska, Alina (2010-07-21). Public International einer Stadt (in German). C.H. Beck. p. 206. ISBN 978-3- Law . Routledge. p. 199. ISBN 0-203-84847-0. 406-60587-1. 4. ^ a b Yale Law School. "The Versailles Treaty June 28, 1919: 37. ^ Loose, Ingo (2007). Kredite für NS­Verbrechen (in Part III" . The Avalon Project. Retrieved May 3, 2007. German). Institut für Zeitgeschichte. p. 33. ISBN 978-3-486- 5. ^ Chestermann, Simon (2004). You, the People; United 58331-1. Nations, Transitional Administration and State building . 38. ^ Andrzejewski, Marek (1994). Opposition und Widerstand in Oxford University Press. p. 20. ISBN 978-0-19-926348-6. Danzig (in German). Dietz. p. 99. ISBN 9783801240547. Retrieved 2011-04-26. 39. ^ Cieslak, Edmund; Biernat, Czeslaw (1995). History of 6. ^ Levine, Herbert S., Hitler's Free City: A History of the Nazi Gdańsk . Fundacji Biblioteki Gdánskiej. p. 454. Party in Danzig, 1925-39 (University of Chicago Press, 1970), ISBN 9788386557004. p. 102. 40. ^ Matull, "Ostdeutschlands Arbeiterbewegung", pp. 417, 7. ^ Text in League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. 6, pp. 190– 418. 207. 41. ^ Intelligence Service Economic Intelligence Service; 8. ^ a b "Danzig subsection of Poland entry from World Service, Intellige Economic Intelligence (2007-03-01). Statesmen.org" . Commercial Banks 1929–1934 . League of Nations. 9. ^ a b c d Matull, Wilhelm (1973). "Ostdeutschlands p. LXXXIX. ISBN 978-1-4067-5963-1. Arbeiterbewegung: Abriß ihrer Geschichte, Leistung und 42. ^ Ruhnau, Rüdiger (1971). Danzig: Geschichte einer Opfer" (in German). Holzner. p. 419. Deutschen Stadt (in German). Holzner Verlag. p. 103. 10. ^ a b c Mason, John Brown (1946). The Danzig Dilemma, A 43. ^ Schwartze­Köhler, Hannelore (June 2009). "Die Study in Peacemaking by Compromise . Stanford Blechtrommel" von Günter Grass:Bedeutung, Erzähltechnik University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-2444-9. Retrieved 2011- und Zeitgeschichte (in German). Frank & Timme GmbH. 04-26. p. 396. ISBN 978-3-86596-237-9. 11. ^ Cieślak, E Biernat, C (1995) History of Gdánsk, Fundacji 44. ^ Kreutzberger, Max (1970). Leo Baeck Institute New York Biblioteki Gdanskiej, P455 Bibliothek und Archiv (in German). Mohr Siebeck. p. 67. 12. ^ Zapiski historyczne: Volume 60, page 256, Towarzystwo ISBN 978-3-16-830772-3. Naukowe w Toruniu. Wydział Nauk Historycznych – 1995 45. ^ Bacon, Gershon C. "Danzig Jewry: A Short History" . 13. ^ a b Ludność polska w Wolnym Mieście Gdańsku, 1920– Jewish Virtual Library. 1939, page 37, Henryk Stępniak, Wydawnictwo "Stella 46. ^ Hannum, Hurst (2011-10-12). Autonomy, Sovereignty and Maris", 1991, "Przyjmując, że Polacy gdańscy stanowili Self-Determination . University of Pennsylvania. p. 375. 25 — 30% ogólnej liczby ludności katolickiej Wolnego ISBN 978-0-8122-1572-4. Miasta Gdańska, liczącej w 1920 r. około 110 000 osób, 47. ^ Stahn, Carsten (2008-05-22). The Law and Practice of można ustalić, że w liczbach bezwzględnych stanowiło International Territorial Administration . Cambridge można ustalić, że w liczbach bezwzględnych stanowiło to University Press. p. 173 ff, 177. ISBN 978-0-521-87800-5. 30­ – 36 tyś. osób. Jeśli do liczby tej dodamy ok. 4 tyś. 48. ^ Hutt, Alan (2006-05-30). The Post-War history of the ludności obywatelstwa polskiego, otrzymamy łącznie ok. British Working Class . READ BOOKS. p. 38. ISBN 978-1- 9,4–11% ogółu ludności." 4067-9826-5. 14. ^ Samerski, Stefan (2003). Das Bistum Danzig in 49. ^ Buell, Raymond Leslie (2007-03-31). Poland – Key to Lebensbildern (in German). LIT Verlag. p. 8. ISBN 3-8258- Europe . READ BOOKS. p. 159. ISBN 978-1-4067-4564-1. 6284-4. 50. ^ Eugene van Cleef, "Danzig and Gdynia," Geographical 15. ^ Stuthoff Zeszyty 4 4 Stanislaw Mikos Recenzje i Review, Vol. 23, No. 1. (Jan., 1933): 106. omówienia Andrzej Drzycimski, Polacy w Wolnym Mieście 51. ^ Cieślak, E Biernat, C (1995) History of Gdańsk, Fundacji Gdańsku /1920 – 1933/. Polityka Seantu gdańskiego wobec Biblioteki Gdanskiej. p. 436 ludności polskiej Wrocław – Warszawa – Kraków – Gdańsk 52. ^ By a decision of the League Council in December 1925, 1978, the guard which the Poles were entitled to maintain on this 16. ^ Die Freie Stadt Danzig (German) spot [Westerplatte peninsula] was limited to 88 men, though 17. ^ Dr. Juergensen, Die freie Stadt Danzig, Danzig: Kafemann, the number might be increased with the consent of the High 1925. Commissioner. Geoffrey Malcolm Gathorne-Hardy. A Short 18. ^ Bacon, Gershon C.; Vivian B. Mann; Joseph Gutmann History of International Affairs, 1920 to 1934. Royal institute (1980). Danzig Jewry: A Short History . Jewish Museum of international affairs (1934). Oxford University Press. p. (New York). p. 31. ISBN 978-0-8143-1662-7. 384. 19. ^ Those congregations in Polish-annexed West Prussia 53. ^ worldcourts.com PCIJ, Advisory Opinion No. 11 (Pomeranian Voivodeship) merged into the new United 54. ^ worldcourts.com PCIJ, Advisory Opinion No. 22 Evangelical Church in Poland, which emerged from the old- 55. ^ worldcourts.com PCIJ, Advisory Opinion No. 18 Prussian Posen ecclesiastical province, with its consistory 56. ^ Lauterpacht, H (1936). "International Law Reports 1929– seated in Poznań. 1930" . Advisory Opinion No 18: Free City of Danzig and 20. ^ In June 1922 the Senate of Danzig and the old-Prussian International Labour Organization on August 26, 1930, ecclesiastical executive, the Evangelical Supreme Collection of Advisory Opinions: Free City of Danzig and Ecclesiastical Council (Evangelischer Oberkirchenrat, EOK), International Labour Organization, No. 18 Series B File F concluded a contract to that end. Cf. Adalbert Erler, Die (1930) (H. Lauterpacht). ISBN 978-0-521-46350-8. Retrieved rechtliche Stellung der evangelischen Kirche in Danzig, 2009-08-30. Berlin: 1929, simultaneously Univ. of Greifswald, Department 57. ^ Hargreaves, R (2010) Blitzkrieg Unleashed: The German of Law and Politics, doctor thesis of 21 February 1929, pp. Invasion of Poland, 1939 P31-2 36 seqq. 58. ^ Epstein, C (2012) Model Nazi: Arthur Greiser and the 21. ^ a b Georg May. Ludwig Kaas: der Priester, der Politiker Occupation of Western Poland, Oxford University Press P58 und der Gelehrte aus der Schule von Ulrich Stutz. John 59. ^ Hurst Hannum, p. 377. Benjamins Publishing. p. 175. ISBN 978-90-6032-197-3. 60. ^ Schlochauer, Hans J.; Krüger, Herbert; Mosler, Hermann 22. ^ a b Samerski, Stefan; Reimund Haas; Karl Josef Rivinius; (1960-05-01). Wörterbuch des Völkerrechts; Aachener Hermann-Josef Scheidgen (2000). Ein aussichtsloses Kongress – Hussar Fall (in German). de Gruyter Verlag. Unternehmen – Die Reaktivierung Bischof Eduard Graf pp. 307, 309. ISBN 978-3-11-001030-5. O’Rourkes 1939 (in German). Böhlau Verlag Köln 61. ^ Hiden, John; Lane, Thomas; Prazmowska, Anita J. (1992). Weimar. p. 378. ISBN 3-412-04100-9. The Baltic and the Outbreak of the Second World War . 23. ^ Hans­Jürgen Karp; Joachim Köhler (2001). Katholische Cambridge University Press. p. 74 ff, 80. ISBN 0-521-40467- Kirche unter nationalsozialistischer und kommunistischer 3. Diktatur: Deutschland und Polen 1939–1989. Böhlau Verlag 62. ^ Prazmowska, p. 80. Köln Weimar. p. 162. ISBN 978-3-412-11800-6. 63. ^ Prazmowska, p. 81. 24. ^ Ruhnau, Rüdiger (1971). Danzig: Geschichte einer 64. ^ Prazmowska, p. 85. Deutschen Stadt (in German). Holzner Verlag. p. 94. 65. ^ Prazmowska, p. 83. a b c 25. ^ Sodeikat, Ernst (1966). "Der Nationalsozialismus und 66. ^ Wasserstein, Bernard (2007). Barbarism and die Danziger Opposition" (in German). Institut für Civilization . Oxford University Press. p. 279. ISBN 978-0- Zeitgeschichte. p. 139 ff. 19-873074-3. 26. ^ Grass, Günther; Vivian B. Mann; Joseph Gutmann; Jewish 67. ^ Woodward, E.L., Butler, Rohan, Orde, Anne, editors, Museum (New York, N.Y.) (1980). Danzig 1939, treasures of Documents on British Foreign Policy 1919–1939, 3rd series, a destroyed community . The Jewish Museum, New York. vol.v, HMSO, London, 1952:25 p. 33. ISBN 978-0-8143-1662-7. 68. ^ Bleimeier, John Kuhn (1990-03-01). Hague Yearbook of 27. ^ Gdansk at the Jewish Virtual Library. International Law . Martinus Nijhoff Publ. p. 91. ISBN 0- 28. ^ Lemkin, Raphael (2008-06-30). Axis Rule in Occupied 7923-0655-4. Europe . The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. p. 155. ISBN 978-1- 69. ^ Dieter Schenk (1995). Die Post von Danzig: Geschichte 58477-901-8. eines deutschen Justizmords. p. 150. ISBN 3-498-06288-3. 29. ^ (German) Constitution of Danzig 70. ^ Dieter Schenk, Die Post von Danzig 30. ^ Matull, "Ostdeutschlands Arbeiterbewegung", p. 419. 71. ^ [1] 31. ^ (German) Die Freie Stadt Danzig, Wahlen 1919–1935 72. ^ The History of Poland Since 1863 By Robert F. Leslie page 32. ^ Ratner, Steven R. (1995-02-15). The new UN 281 peacekeeping . Palgrave Macmillan. p. 94. ISBN 0-312- 73. ^ a b Bykowska, Sylwia (2005). "Gdańsk – Miasto (Szybko) 12415-5. Odzyskane" . Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej (in 33. ^ Sodeikat, p.170, p. 173, Fn.92 Polish) 9–10 (56–57): 35–44. ISSN 1641-9561 . Retrieved 34. ^ Matull, "Ostdeutschlands Arbeiterbewegung", p. 440, 450. 2009-07-24.

External links [edit]

Extensive Prussian/ Danzig Historical Materials (many in German) Wikimedia Commons has Map of the Free City media related to Free City of Danzig. Jewish community history History of Gdańsk / Danzig Danzig Online Gdańsk history Celebration of Gdańsk's centenary in 1997 History & Hallucination , Wanderlust, Salon.com, January 5, 1998. The power of Gdansk at the Wayback Machine (archived September 30, 2007) 1933 Danzig passport , from passportland.com. First hand account of growing up in Danzig in the 1930s , a video interview.

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Main page Contents Free City of Danzig Featured content Coordinates: 54°21′N 18°40′E Current events From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Random article Donate to Wikipedia For the Napoleonic client-state of the same name, see Free City of Danzig (Napoleonic). Wikimedia Shop The Free City of Danzig (German: Freie Stadt Danzig; Polish: Wolne Miasto Free City of Danzig Interaction Gdańsk) was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and Freie Stadt Danzig (German) Help 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) and Wolne Miasto Gdańsk (Polish) About Wikipedia nearly 200 towns in the surrounding areas. It was created on 15 November Community portal 1920[1][2] in accordance with the terms of Article 100 (Section XI of Part III) of Free City under League of Nations Recent changes protection the 1919 Treaty of Versailles after the end of World War I. Contact page ← The Free City included the city of Danzig and other nearby towns, villages, and → Tools ← 1920–1939 What links here settlements that had been primarily inhabited by ethnic Germans. As the → ← Related changes Treaty stated, the region was to remain separated from post-World War I Upload file Germany (the Weimar Republic) and from the newly independent nation of the Special pages Second Polish Republic ("interwar Poland"), but it was not an independent Permanent link state.[3] The Free City was under League of Nations protection and put into a Page information binding customs union with Poland. Wikidata item Cite this page Poland was given full rights to develop and maintain transportation, [4] Print/export communication, and port facilities in the city. The Free City was created in Flag Coat of arms Create a book order to give Poland access to a well-sized seaport, although it was Anthem Download as PDF acknowledged that the city's population was about 95 percent German.[5] The Für Danzig / Gdańsku Printable version German majority deeply resented being separated from Germany, and in some

Languages cases subjected the Polish minority to discrimination. This was especially true Български after the Nazi Party gained political control in 1935-36.[6] Brezhoneg Since Poland still was not in complete control of the seaport, especially Català regarding military equipment, a new seaport was built in nearby Gdynia, Čeština Dansk beginning 1921. Deutsch In 1933, the City's government was taken over by the local Nazi Party, which Eesti suppressed democratic opposition. Due to anti-Semitic persecution and Danzig, surrounded by Germany and Poland. Español oppression, many Jews fled. After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the Esperanto Euskara Nazis abolished the Free City and incorporated the area into the newly formed Français Reichsgau of Danzig-West Prussia. The Germans classified the Poles and Galego Jews as subhumans, subjecting them to discrimination, forced labor, and 한국어 extermination. Many were sent to death at concentration camps, including Hrvatski nearby Stutthof (now Sztutowo, Poland). Italiano ,During the city's conquest by the Soviet Army in the early months of 1945 עברית many citizens fled or were killed. After the war, many surviving ethnic Germans Kaszëbsczi were expelled and deported to the West when members of the pre-war Polish Latina minority started returning. The city subsequently became part of Poland, as a Lietuvių consequence of the Potsdam Agreement. Polish settlers were recruited to Magyar मराठी replace the German population. Nederlands Contents [hide] 日本語 Location of the Free City of Danzig in 1930 Europe. Norsk bokmål 1 Establishment Polski 1.1 Periods of independence and autonomy Capital Danzig Português 1.2 Territory Languages German Română 1.3 Polish rights declared by Treaty of Versailles Polish Русский 1.4 League of Nations High Commissioners Religion 64.6% Lutheran Simple English 32.2% Catholic 2 Population [citation needed] Slovenčina (1938) 2.1 Religion Српски / srpski 2.1.1 Regional Synodal Federation of the Free City of Danzig Government Republic Srpskohrvatski / High српскохрватски 2.1.2 Diocese of Danzig of the Roman Catholic Church Commissioner Suomi 2.1.3 Jewish Danzigers - 1919–1920 Reginald Tower Svenska 3 Politics - 1937–1939 Carl Burckhardt Українська 3.1 Government Senate President Tiếng Việt 3.2 German-Polish tensions - 1920–1931 Heinrich Sahm 中文 - 1934–1939 Arthur Greiser 4 Second World War and aftermath Edit links 5 In fiction Legislature Volkstag 6 See also Historical era Interwar period 7 References - Established 15 November 1920 - Invasion of 8 External links Poland 1 September 1939 - Annexed by Germany 2 September 1939 Establishment [edit] Area - 1923 1,966 km² (759 sq mi) Periods of independence and autonomy [edit] Population Danzig had an early history of independence. It was a leading player in the - 1923 est. 366,730 Prussian Confederation directed against the Teutonic Monastic State of Density 186.5 /km² (483.1 /sq mi) Prussia. The Confederation stipulated with the Polish king, Casimir IV Jagiellon, Currency Papiermark (before 1923) that the Polish Crown would be invested with the role of head of state of Danzig gulden (from 1923) western parts of Prussia (Royal Prussia). In contrast, Ducal Prussia remained a Today part of Poland Polish fief. Danzig and other cities such as Elbing and Thorn financed most of the warfare and enjoyed a high level of city autonomy. Danzig used the title Royal Polish City of Danzig.

In 1569, when Royal Prussia's estates agreed to incorporate the region into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the city insisted on preserving its special status. 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.[citation needed]

Although Danzig became part of the Kingdom of Prussia in the Second Partitition of Poland in 1793, Prussia was conquered by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1806, and in September 1807 Napoleon declared Danzig a semi-independent Client state of the French Empire, known as the Free City of Danzig. It lasted seven years, until it was re-incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia in 1814, after Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Leipzig (Battle of Nations by a coalition that included Russia, Austria and Prussia.

Territory [edit]

The interwar Free City of Danzig (1920–39) included the city of Danzig (Gdańsk), the towns of Zoppot (Sopot), Oliva (Oliwa), Tiegenhof (Nowy Dwór Gdański), Neuteich (Nowy Staw) and some 252 villages and 63 hamlets, covering a total area of 1,966 square kilometers (754 sq mi).

Polish rights declared by Treaty of Versailles [edit]

The Free City was to be represented abroad by Poland and was to be in a customs union with it. The German railway line that connected the Free City with 20 Danzig gulden note from the interwar period newly created Poland was to be administered by Poland, as were all rail lines in the territory of the Free City. On November 9, 1920, a convention that provided for the Presence of a Polish diplomatic representative in Danzig was signed between the Polish government and the Danzig authorities. In article 6, the Polish government undertook not to conclude any international agreements regarding Danzig without previous consultation with the Free City's government.[7]

A separate Polish post office was established, besides the existing municipal one.

League of Nations High Commissioners [edit]

Unlike Mandatory territories, which were entrusted to member countries, The Free City of Danzig (like the Territory of the Saar Basin) remained directly under the authority of the League of Nations. Representatives of various countries took on the role of High Commissioner:[8]

№ Name Period Country 1 Reginald Thomas Tower 1919–1920 United Kingdom 2 Edward Lisle Strutt 1920 United Kingdom 3 Bernardo Attolico 1920 Italy

4 Richard Cyril Byrne Haking 1921–1923 United Kingdom 5 Mervyn Sorley McDonnell 1923–1925 United Kingdom 6 Joost Adriaan van Hamel 1925–1929 Netherlands

7 Manfredi di Gravina 1929–1932 Italy 8 Helmer Rosting 1932–1934 Denmark

9 Seán Lester 1934–1936 Irish Free State Passport of the Free City of Danzig. 10 Carl Jakob Burckhardt 1937–1939 Switzerland

The League of Nations refused to let the city-state use the term of Hanseatic City as part of its official name; this referred to Danzig's long-lasting membership in the Hanseatic League.[9]

Population [edit]

The Free City's population rose from 357,000 (1919) to 408,000 in 1929; according to the official census, 95% were Germans,[10]:5, 11 with the rest mainly either Kashubians or Poles. According to E. Cieślak, the population registers of the Free City show that in 1929 the Polish population numbered 35,000, or 9.5% of the population.[11][need quotation to verify]

Henryk Stępniak estimates the 1929 Polish population as around 22,000, or around 6% of the population, increasing to around 13% in the 1930s.[12] Based on the estimated voting patterns (according to Stępniak many Poles voted for the Catholic Zentrumspartei instead of Polish parties), Stępniak estimates the number of Poles in the city to be 25–30% of Catholics living within it or about 30–36 thousand people.[13] Including around 4,000 Polish nationals who were registered in the city, Stępniak estimated the Polish population as 9.4–11% of population.[13]

In contrast Stefan Samerski estimates about 10 percent of the 130,000 Catholics Population density of Poland and the Free were Polish.[14] Andrzej Drzycimski estimates that Polish population at the end of City of Danzig (Gdansk), 1930. 30s reached 20%(including Poles who arrived after the war)[15]

The Treaty of Versailles required that the newly formed state have its own citizenship, based on residency. German inhabitants lost their German Citizenship with the creation of the Free City, but were given the right to re-obtain it within the first two years of the state's existence. Anyone desiring German citizenship had to leave their property and make their residence outside of the Free State of Danzig area in the remaining parts of Germany.[4]

Total population by language, November 1, 1923 according to the Free City of Danzig census[10]:11 Nationality German German and Polish, Kashub, Russian, Hebrew, Unclassified Total Polish Masurian Ukrainian Yiddish Danzig 327,827 1,108 6,788 99 22 77 335,921 Non-Danzig 20,666 521 5,239 2,529 580 1,274 30,809 Total 348,493 1,629 12,027 2,628 602 1,351 366,730 Percent 95.03% 0.44% 3.28% 0.72% 0.16% 0.37% 100.00%

Religion [edit]

In 1924, 54.7% of the populace was Protestant (220,731 persons, mostly Lutherans within the united old-Prussian church), 34.5% was Catholic (140,797 persons), and 2.4% Jewish (9,239 persons). Other Protestants included 5,604 Mennonites, 1,934 Calvinists (Reformed), 1,093 Baptists, 410 Free Religionists, as well as 2,129 dissenters, 1,394 faithful of other religions and denominations, and 664 irreligionists.[16][17] The Jewish community grew from 2,717 in 1910 to 7,282 in 1923, and 10,448 in 1929, many of them immigrants from Poland and Russia, where pogroms were conducted against them and discrimination was severe.[18]

Regional Synodal Federation of the Free City of Danzig [edit]

The mostly Lutheran and partially Reformed congregations situated in the territory of the Free City, which previously used to belong to the Ecclesiastical Province of West Prussia of the Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union (EKapU), were transformed into the Regional Synodal Federation of the Free City of Danzig after 1920. The executive body of that ecclesiastical province, the consistory (est. 1 November 1886), was seated in Danzig. After 1920 it was restricted in its responsibility to those congregations within the Free City's territory.[19] General Superintendent Paul The then-Lutheran Supreme Parish Kalweit (1920–1933) and Bishop Johannes Beermann (1933–1945) presided over the Church of St. Mary's in Danzig's consistory, one after another. Rechtstadt quarter. Unlike the Second Polish Republic, which opposed the cooperation of the United Evangelical Church in Poland with EKapU, Volkstag and Senate of Danzig approved cross-border religious bodies. Danzig's Regional Synodal Federation — just as the regional synodal federation of the autonomous Memelland — retained the status of an ecclesiastical province within EKapU.[20]

After the German annexation of the Free City in 1939, the EKapU merged the Danzig regional synodal federation in 1940 into the Ecclesiastical Region of Danzig-West Prussia. This included the Polish congregations of the United Evangelical Church in Poland in the homonymous Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia and the German congregations in the West Prussia governorate. Danzig's consistory functioned as an executive body for that region. With the flight and expulsion of most German Protestant parishioners from the area of the Free City of Danzig between 1945 and 1948, the congregations vanished.

In March 1945, the consistory had relocated to Lübeck and opened a refugee centre for Danzigers (Hilfsstelle beim evangelischen Konsistorium Danzig) led by Upper Consistorial Councillor Gerhard M. Gülzow. 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. Other Lutheran congregations of Danzig could reclaim their church bells, which the Wehrmacht had requisitioned as non-ferrous metal for war purposes since 1940, but which had survived, not yet melted down, in storage (e.g. Glockenfriedhof) in the British zone of occupation. The presbyteries granted them usually to Northwestern German Lutheran congregations which had lost bells due to the war.

Diocese of Danzig of the Roman Catholic Church [edit] Main article: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Gdańsk

The 36 Catholic parishes in the territory of the Free City in 1922 used to belong in equal shares to the Diocese of Culm, which was mostly Polish, and the Diocese of Ermland, which was mostly German. While the Second Polish Republic wanted all the parishes within the Free City to form part of Polish Culm, Volkstag and Senate wanted them all to become subject to German Ermland.[21] In 1922 the Holy See suspended the jurisdictions of both dioceses over their parishes in the Free State and established an exempt apostolic administration for the territory.[21]

The first apostolic administrator was Edward O'Rourke who became Bishop of Danzig on the occasion of the elevation of the administration to an exempt diocese. He was naturalised as Danziger on the same occasion. In 1938 he resigned after quarrels with the Nazi-dominated Senate of Danzig on appointments of parish priests of Polish ethnicity.[22] The senate also instigated the denaturalisation of O'Rourke, who subsequently became a Polish citizen. O'Rourke was succeeded by Bishop Carl Maria Splett, a native from the Free City area. The Archcathedral of the Holy Trinity, Splett remained bishop after the German annexation of the Free City. In early 1941, he Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Bernard applied for admitting the Danzig diocese as member in Archbishop Adolf Bertram's in Oliva, Danzig. Eastern German Ecclesiastical Province and thus at the Fulda Conference of Bishops; however, Bertram, also speaker of the Fulda conference, rejected the request.[23] Any arguments that the Free City of Danzig had been annexed to Nazi Germany did not impress Bertram since Danzig's annexation lacked international recognition. Until the reorganization of the Catholic dioceses in Danzig and the formerly eastern territories of Germany the diocesan territory remained unaltered and the see exempt. However, with the replacement of Danzig's population between 1945 and 1948 by mostly-Catholic Poles, the number of Catholic parishes increased and most formerly-Protestant churches were taken over for Catholic services.

Jewish Danzigers [edit] Main article: Jewish Community in the Free City of Danzig

Since 1883 most of the Jewish congregations in the later territory of Free State had merged into the Synagogal Community of Danzig. Only the Jews of Tiegenhof ran their own congregation until 1938.

Danzig became a centre of Polish and Russian Jewish emigration to North America. Between 1920 and 1925 60,000 Jews emigrated via Danzig to the US and Canada. At the same time, between 1923 and 1929, Danzig's own Jewish population increased from roughly 7,000 to 10,500.[24] Native Jews and newcomers established themselves in the city and contributed to its civic life, culture and economy. Danzig became a venue for international meetings of Jewish organisations, such as the convention of delegates from Jewish youth organisations of various nations, attended by David Ben-Gurion, which founded the World Union of Jewish Youth on 2 September 1924 in the Schützenhaus venue. On 21 March 1926 the Zionistische Organisation für Danzig convened delegates of Hechalutz from all over for the first conference in Danzig using Great Synagogue on Reitbahn Hebrew as common language, also attended by Ben Gurion. Street in Danzig's Rechtstadt quarter. With a Nazi majority in the Volkstag and Senate, anti-Semitic persecution and discrimination occurred unsanctioned by the authorities. In contrast to Germany, which exercised capital outflow control since 1931, emigration of Danzig's Jews was nonetheless somewhat easier, with capital transfers enabled by the Bank of Danzig. Moreover, the comparatively-few Danzig Jews were offered easier refuge in safe countries because of favorable Free City migration quotas.

After the anti-Jewish riots of Kristallnacht of 9/10 November 1938 in Germany, similar riots took place on 12/13 November in Danzig.[25][26] The Great Synagogue was taken over and demolished by the local authorities in 1939. Most Jews had already left the city and the Jewish Community of Danzig decided to organize its own emigration in early 1939.[27]

Politics [edit]

Government [edit]

Heads of State of the Free City of Danzig[8]

№ Name Took office Left office Party Page 4 / 8 Presidents of the Danzig Senate 1 Heinrich Sahm 6 December 1920 10 January 1931 None 2 Ernst Ziehm 10 January 1931 20 June 1933 DNVP 3 Hermann Rauschning 20 June 1933 23 November 1934 NSDAP 4 Arthur Karl Greiser 23 November 1934 23 August 1939 NSDAP State President

5 Albert Forster 23 August 1939 1 September 1939 NSDAP Flag of the Danzig Senate.

The Free City was governed by the Senate of the Free City of Danzig, which was elected by the parliament (Volkstag) for a legislative period of four years. The official language was German,[28] although the usage of Polish was guaranteed by law.[29][30] The political parties in the Free City corresponded with the political parties in Weimar Germany; the most influential parties in the 1920s were the conservative German National People's Party, the Social Democratic Party of the Free City of Danzig and the Catholic Centre Party. A Communist Party was founded in 1921 with its origins in the Spartacus League and the Communist Party of East Prussia. Several liberal parties and Free Voter's Associations existed and ran in the elections with varying success. A Polish Party represented the Polish minority and received between 3% (1933) and 6% (1920) of the vote (in total, 4,358 votes in 1933 and 9,321 votes in 1920).[31]

Initially, the Nazi Party had only a small amount of success (0.8% of the vote in 1927) and was even briefly dissolved.[9] Its influence grew with the onset of difficult economic times and the increasing popularity of the Nazi Party in Germany proper. Albert Forster became the Gauleiter in October 1930. The Nazis won 50 percent of votes in the Volkstag elections of 28 May 1933, and took control of the Senate in June 1933, with Hermann Rauschning becoming President of the Senate of Danzig.

Rauschning was removed from his position by Forster and replaced by Arthur Greiser in November 1934.[25] He later appealed to the public not to vote for the Nazis in the 1935 elections.[9] Political opposition to the Nazis was repressed[32] with several politicians being imprisoned and murdered.[33][34] The economic policy of Danzig's Nazi-led government, which increased the public issues for employment-creation programs[35] and the retrenchment of financial aid from Germany led to a devaluation of more than 40% of the Danziger Gulden in 1935.[10][36][37][38][39][40] The Gold reserves of the Bank of Danzig declined from 30 million Gulden in 1933 to 13 million in 1935 and the foreign asset reserve from 10 million to 250,000 Gulden.[41] In 1935, Poland protested when Danzig's Senate reduced the value of the Gulden so that it would be the same as the Polish Zloty.[42]

As in Germany, the Nazis introduced an "Enabling Act" and the racialist Nuremberg laws (November 1938);[43] existing parties and unions were gradually banned. The presence of the League of Nations however still guaranteed a minimum of legal certainty. In 1935, the opposition parties, except for the Polish Party, filed a lawsuit to the Danzig High Court in protest against the manipulation of the Volkstag elections.[9][25] The opposition also protested to the League of Nations, as did the Jewish Community of Danzig.[44][45]

German-Polish tensions [edit]

The rights of the Second Polish Republic within the territory of the Free City were stipulated in the Treaty of Paris of 9 November 1920 and the Treaty of Warsaw of 24 October 1921.[46] The details of the Polish privileges soon became a permanent matter of disputes between the local populace and the Polish State. While the representatives of the Free City tried to uphold the City's autonomy and sovereignty, Poland sought to extend its privileges.[47]

Throughout the Polish–Soviet War, local dockworkers went on strike and refused to unload ammunition supplies for the Polish Army. While the ammunition was finally unloaded by British troops,[48] the incident led to the establishment of a permanent ammunition depot at the Westerplatte and the construction of a trade and naval port in Gdynia,[49] whose total exports and imports surpassed those of Danzig in May 1932.[50] In December 1925, the Council of the League of Nations agreed to the establishment of a Polish military guard of 88 men on the Westerplatte peninsula to protect the war material depot.[51][52]

Several disputes between Danzig and Poland occurred in the sequel. The Free City protested against the Westerplatte depot, the placement of Polish letter boxes within the City[53] and the presence of Polish war vessels at the harbour.[54] The attempt of the Free City to join the International Labour Organization was rejected by the Permanent Court of International Justice at the League of Nations after protests of the Polish ILO delegate.[55][56]

After Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, the Polish military doubled the number of troops at Westerplatte breaking international law in order to test the reaction of the new chancellor. After international protests the additional troops were withdrawn.[57] Fears of Polish aggression produced by this and other disputes further stoked by Nazi propaganda would give the local Nazis an absolute majority in the May 1933 Volkstag elections.[58]

Until June 1933, the High Commissioner decided in 66 cases of dispute between Danzig and Poland; in 54 cases one of the parties appealed to the Permanent Court of International Justice.[59] Subsequent disputes were resolved in direct negotiations between the Senate and Poland after both had agreed to abstain from further appeals to the International Court in the summer of 1933 and bilateral agreements were concluded.[60]

In the aftermath of the German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact of 1934, Danzig–Polish relations improved and Adolf Hitler instructed the local Nazi government to cease anti-Polish actions.[61] In return, Poland did not support the actions of the anti- Nazi opposition in Danzig. The Polish Ambassador to Germany, Józef Lipski, stated in a meeting with Hermann Göring:[62]

... that a National Socialist Senate in Danzig is also most desirable from our point of view, since it brought about a rapprochement between the Free City and Poland, I would like to remind him that we have always kept aloof from internal Danzig problems. In spite of approaches repeatedly made by the opposition parties, we rejected any attempt to draw us into action against the Senate. I mentioned quite confidentially that the Polish minority in Danzig was advised not to join forces with the opposition at the time of elections.

When Carl J. Burckhardt became High Commissioner in February 1937, both Poles and Germans openly welcomed his withdrawal, and Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Józef Beck notified him not to "count on the support of the Polish State" in the case of difficulties with the Senate or the Nazi Party.[63]

While the Senate appeared to respect the agreements with Poland, the "Nazification of Danzig proceeded relentlessly"[64] and Danzig became a springboard for anti-Polish propaganda among the German and Ukrainian minority in Poland.[65] The Catholic Bishop of Danzig, Edward O'Rourke, was forced to withdraw after he had tried to implement four additional Polish nationals as parish priests in October 1937.[22]

This section requires expansion. (July 2014)

See also: Polish Corridor

The German policy openly changed immediately after the Munich Conference in October 1938, when German Minister of Foreign Affairs Joachim von Ribbentrop demanded the incorporation of the Free City into the Reich.[66] In April 1939, High Commissioner Burckhardt was told by the Polish Commissioner-General that any attempt to alter its status would be answered with armed resistance on the part of Poland.[67]

Second World War and aftermath [edit]

World War II began with the shelling of the Westerplatte on 1 September 1939. Gauleiter Forster entered the High Commissioner's residence and ordered him to leave the City within two hours,[68] and the Free City was formally incorporated into the newly formed Reichsgau of Danzig-West Prussia. Polish civilian Post Office employees had received military training and were in possession of a cache of weapons – mostly pistols, three light machine guns, and some hand grenades – and were thus able to defend the Polish Post Office for fifteen hours. Upon their surrender, they were tried and executed. (The sentence was officially revoked by a German court as illegal in 1998.)[69][70] The Polish military forces in the city held

out until 7 September. Up to 4,500 members of Polish minority were arrested with Schleswig-Holstein firing at Westerplatte many of them executed[71] By the end of the Second World War, nearly all the city had been reduced to ruins. On 30 March 1945, the city was taken by the Red Army. It is estimated that nearly all the pre-war inhabitants were either dead or had fled.[citation needed] A number of inhabitants of the city perished when the military training ship Wilhelm Gustloff used for evacuation was sunk. It had up to 10,000 refugees on board at the time, including about 1,000 seriously wounded soldiers and sailors.

At the Yalta Conference in February 1945, the Allies agreed that the city would become part of Poland.[72]

By 1950, around 285,000 fled and expelled citizens of the former Free City were living in Germany,[citation needed] and 13,424 citizens of the former Free City had been "verified" and granted Polish citizenship.[73] 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- [73] annexed Eastern Poland took their place. 1 September 1939: German troops remove Polish insignia at the Polish–Danzig border In fiction [edit] near Zoppot. Historical Danzig forms the setting for several major works of Nobel Prize-winning author Günter Grass, including his acclaimed Danzig Trilogy novels The Tin Drum and Dog Years, as well as in his memoirs. Grass grew up in the Danzig suburb of Langfuhr (now Wrzeszcz).

See also [edit] Areas annexed by Nazi Germany Danzig Corridor Alfons Flisykowski Danzig Research Society History of Gdańsk Administrations of Danzig before April 1945 Stutthof concentration camp

References [edit]

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Nations, Transitional Administration and State building . 38. ^ Andrzejewski, Marek (1994). Opposition und Widerstand in Oxford University Press. p. 20. ISBN 978-0-19-926348-6. Danzig (in German). Dietz. p. 99. ISBN 9783801240547. Retrieved 2011-04-26. 39. ^ Cieslak, Edmund; Biernat, Czeslaw (1995). History of 6. ^ Levine, Herbert S., Hitler's Free City: A History of the Nazi Gdańsk . Fundacji Biblioteki Gdánskiej. p. 454. Party in Danzig, 1925-39 (University of Chicago Press, 1970), ISBN 9788386557004. p. 102. 40. ^ Matull, "Ostdeutschlands Arbeiterbewegung", pp. 417, 7. ^ Text in League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. 6, pp. 190– 418. 207. 41. ^ Intelligence Service Economic Intelligence Service; 8. ^ a b "Danzig subsection of Poland entry from World Service, Intellige Economic Intelligence (2007-03-01). Statesmen.org" . Commercial Banks 1929–1934 . League of Nations. 9. ^ a b c d Matull, Wilhelm (1973). "Ostdeutschlands p. LXXXIX. ISBN 978-1-4067-5963-1. Arbeiterbewegung: Abriß ihrer Geschichte, Leistung und 42. ^ Ruhnau, Rüdiger (1971). Danzig: Geschichte einer Opfer" (in German). Holzner. p. 419. Deutschen Stadt (in German). Holzner Verlag. p. 103. 10. ^ a b c Mason, John Brown (1946). The Danzig Dilemma, A 43. ^ Schwartze­Köhler, Hannelore (June 2009). "Die Study in Peacemaking by Compromise . Stanford Blechtrommel" von Günter Grass:Bedeutung, Erzähltechnik University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-2444-9. Retrieved 2011- und Zeitgeschichte (in German). Frank & Timme GmbH. 04-26. p. 396. ISBN 978-3-86596-237-9. 11. ^ Cieślak, E Biernat, C (1995) History of Gdánsk, Fundacji 44. ^ Kreutzberger, Max (1970). Leo Baeck Institute New York Biblioteki Gdanskiej, P455 Bibliothek und Archiv (in German). Mohr Siebeck. p. 67. 12. ^ Zapiski historyczne: Volume 60, page 256, Towarzystwo ISBN 978-3-16-830772-3. Naukowe w Toruniu. Wydział Nauk Historycznych – 1995 45. ^ Bacon, Gershon C. "Danzig Jewry: A Short History" . 13. ^ a b Ludność polska w Wolnym Mieście Gdańsku, 1920– Jewish Virtual Library. 1939, page 37, Henryk Stępniak, Wydawnictwo "Stella 46. ^ Hannum, Hurst (2011-10-12). Autonomy, Sovereignty and Maris", 1991, "Przyjmując, że Polacy gdańscy stanowili Self-Determination . University of Pennsylvania. p. 375. 25 — 30% ogólnej liczby ludności katolickiej Wolnego ISBN 978-0-8122-1572-4. Miasta Gdańska, liczącej w 1920 r. około 110 000 osób, 47. ^ Stahn, Carsten (2008-05-22). The Law and Practice of można ustalić, że w liczbach bezwzględnych stanowiło International Territorial Administration . Cambridge można ustalić, że w liczbach bezwzględnych stanowiło to University Press. p. 173 ff, 177. ISBN 978-0-521-87800-5. 30­ – 36 tyś. osób. Jeśli do liczby tej dodamy ok. 4 tyś. 48. ^ Hutt, Alan (2006-05-30). The Post-War history of the ludności obywatelstwa polskiego, otrzymamy łącznie ok. British Working Class . READ BOOKS. p. 38. ISBN 978-1- 9,4–11% ogółu ludności." 4067-9826-5. 14. ^ Samerski, Stefan (2003). Das Bistum Danzig in 49. ^ Buell, Raymond Leslie (2007-03-31). Poland – Key to Lebensbildern (in German). LIT Verlag. p. 8. ISBN 3-8258- Europe . READ BOOKS. p. 159. ISBN 978-1-4067-4564-1. 6284-4. 50. ^ Eugene van Cleef, "Danzig and Gdynia," Geographical 15. ^ Stuthoff Zeszyty 4 4 Stanislaw Mikos Recenzje i Review, Vol. 23, No. 1. (Jan., 1933): 106. omówienia Andrzej Drzycimski, Polacy w Wolnym Mieście 51. ^ Cieślak, E Biernat, C (1995) History of Gdańsk, Fundacji Gdańsku /1920 – 1933/. Polityka Seantu gdańskiego wobec Biblioteki Gdanskiej. p. 436 ludności polskiej Wrocław – Warszawa – Kraków – Gdańsk 52. ^ By a decision of the League Council in December 1925, 1978, the guard which the Poles were entitled to maintain on this 16. ^ Die Freie Stadt Danzig (German) spot [Westerplatte peninsula] was limited to 88 men, though 17. ^ Dr. Juergensen, Die freie Stadt Danzig, Danzig: Kafemann, the number might be increased with the consent of the High 1925. Commissioner. Geoffrey Malcolm Gathorne-Hardy. A Short 18. ^ Bacon, Gershon C.; Vivian B. Mann; Joseph Gutmann History of International Affairs, 1920 to 1934. Royal institute (1980). Danzig Jewry: A Short History . Jewish Museum of international affairs (1934). Oxford University Press. p. (New York). p. 31. ISBN 978-0-8143-1662-7. 384. 19. ^ Those congregations in Polish-annexed West Prussia 53. ^ worldcourts.com PCIJ, Advisory Opinion No. 11 (Pomeranian Voivodeship) merged into the new United 54. ^ worldcourts.com PCIJ, Advisory Opinion No. 22 Evangelical Church in Poland, which emerged from the old- 55. ^ worldcourts.com PCIJ, Advisory Opinion No. 18 Prussian Posen ecclesiastical province, with its consistory 56. ^ Lauterpacht, H (1936). "International Law Reports 1929– seated in Poznań. 1930" . Advisory Opinion No 18: Free City of Danzig and 20. ^ In June 1922 the Senate of Danzig and the old-Prussian International Labour Organization on August 26, 1930, ecclesiastical executive, the Evangelical Supreme Collection of Advisory Opinions: Free City of Danzig and Ecclesiastical Council (Evangelischer Oberkirchenrat, EOK), International Labour Organization, No. 18 Series B File F concluded a contract to that end. Cf. Adalbert Erler, Die (1930) (H. Lauterpacht). ISBN 978-0-521-46350-8. Retrieved rechtliche Stellung der evangelischen Kirche in Danzig, 2009-08-30. Berlin: 1929, simultaneously Univ. of Greifswald, Department 57. ^ Hargreaves, R (2010) Blitzkrieg Unleashed: The German of Law and Politics, doctor thesis of 21 February 1929, pp. Invasion of Poland, 1939 P31-2 36 seqq. 58. ^ Epstein, C (2012) Model Nazi: Arthur Greiser and the 21. ^ a b Georg May. Ludwig Kaas: der Priester, der Politiker Occupation of Western Poland, Oxford University Press P58 und der Gelehrte aus der Schule von Ulrich Stutz. John 59. ^ Hurst Hannum, p. 377. Benjamins Publishing. p. 175. ISBN 978-90-6032-197-3. 60. ^ Schlochauer, Hans J.; Krüger, Herbert; Mosler, Hermann 22. ^ a b Samerski, Stefan; Reimund Haas; Karl Josef Rivinius; (1960-05-01). Wörterbuch des Völkerrechts; Aachener Hermann-Josef Scheidgen (2000). Ein aussichtsloses Kongress – Hussar Fall (in German). de Gruyter Verlag. Unternehmen – Die Reaktivierung Bischof Eduard Graf pp. 307, 309. ISBN 978-3-11-001030-5. O’Rourkes 1939 (in German). Böhlau Verlag Köln 61. ^ Hiden, John; Lane, Thomas; Prazmowska, Anita J. (1992). Weimar. p. 378. ISBN 3-412-04100-9. The Baltic and the Outbreak of the Second World War . 23. ^ Hans­Jürgen Karp; Joachim Köhler (2001). Katholische Cambridge University Press. p. 74 ff, 80. ISBN 0-521-40467- Kirche unter nationalsozialistischer und kommunistischer 3. Diktatur: Deutschland und Polen 1939–1989. Böhlau Verlag 62. ^ Prazmowska, p. 80. Köln Weimar. p. 162. ISBN 978-3-412-11800-6. 63. ^ Prazmowska, p. 81. 24. ^ Ruhnau, Rüdiger (1971). Danzig: Geschichte einer 64. ^ Prazmowska, p. 85. Deutschen Stadt (in German). Holzner Verlag. p. 94. 65. ^ Prazmowska, p. 83. a b c 25. ^ Sodeikat, Ernst (1966). "Der Nationalsozialismus und 66. ^ Wasserstein, Bernard (2007). Barbarism and die Danziger Opposition" (in German). Institut für Civilization . Oxford University Press. p. 279. ISBN 978-0- Zeitgeschichte. p. 139 ff. 19-873074-3. 26. ^ Grass, Günther; Vivian B. Mann; Joseph Gutmann; Jewish 67. ^ Woodward, E.L., Butler, Rohan, Orde, Anne, editors, Museum (New York, N.Y.) (1980). Danzig 1939, treasures of Documents on British Foreign Policy 1919–1939, 3rd series, a destroyed community . The Jewish Museum, New York. vol.v, HMSO, London, 1952:25 p. 33. ISBN 978-0-8143-1662-7. 68. ^ Bleimeier, John Kuhn (1990-03-01). Hague Yearbook of 27. ^ Gdansk at the Jewish Virtual Library. International Law . Martinus Nijhoff Publ. p. 91. ISBN 0- 28. ^ Lemkin, Raphael (2008-06-30). Axis Rule in Occupied 7923-0655-4. Europe . The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. p. 155. ISBN 978-1- 69. ^ Dieter Schenk (1995). Die Post von Danzig: Geschichte 58477-901-8. eines deutschen Justizmords. p. 150. ISBN 3-498-06288-3. 29. ^ (German) Constitution of Danzig 70. ^ Dieter Schenk, Die Post von Danzig 30. ^ Matull, "Ostdeutschlands Arbeiterbewegung", p. 419. 71. ^ [1] 31. ^ (German) Die Freie Stadt Danzig, Wahlen 1919–1935 72. ^ The History of Poland Since 1863 By Robert F. Leslie page 32. ^ Ratner, Steven R. (1995-02-15). The new UN 281 peacekeeping . Palgrave Macmillan. p. 94. ISBN 0-312- 73. ^ a b Bykowska, Sylwia (2005). "Gdańsk – Miasto (Szybko) 12415-5. Odzyskane" . Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej (in 33. ^ Sodeikat, p.170, p. 173, Fn.92 Polish) 9–10 (56–57): 35–44. ISSN 1641-9561 . Retrieved 34. ^ Matull, "Ostdeutschlands Arbeiterbewegung", p. 440, 450. 2009-07-24.

External links [edit]

Extensive Prussian/ Danzig Historical Materials (many in German) Wikimedia Commons has Map of the Free City media related to Free City of Danzig. Jewish community history History of Gdańsk / Danzig Danzig Online Gdańsk history Celebration of Gdańsk's centenary in 1997 History & Hallucination , Wanderlust, Salon.com, January 5, 1998. The power of Gdansk at the Wayback Machine (archived September 30, 2007) 1933 Danzig passport , from passportland.com. First hand account of growing up in Danzig in the 1930s , a video interview.

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Categories: Former republics Former polities of the interwar period Former countries in Europe States and territories established in 1920 States and territories disestablished in 1939 Free City of Danzig League of Nations mandates

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Main page Contents Free City of Danzig Featured content Coordinates: 54°21′N 18°40′E Current events From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Random article Donate to Wikipedia For the Napoleonic client-state of the same name, see Free City of Danzig (Napoleonic). Wikimedia Shop The Free City of Danzig (German: Freie Stadt Danzig; Polish: Wolne Miasto Free City of Danzig Interaction Gdańsk) was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and Freie Stadt Danzig (German) Help 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) and Wolne Miasto Gdańsk (Polish) About Wikipedia nearly 200 towns in the surrounding areas. It was created on 15 November Community portal 1920[1][2] in accordance with the terms of Article 100 (Section XI of Part III) of Free City under League of Nations Recent changes protection the 1919 Treaty of Versailles after the end of World War I. Contact page ← The Free City included the city of Danzig and other nearby towns, villages, and → Tools ← 1920–1939 What links here settlements that had been primarily inhabited by ethnic Germans. As the → ← Related changes Treaty stated, the region was to remain separated from post-World War I Upload file Germany (the Weimar Republic) and from the newly independent nation of the Special pages Second Polish Republic ("interwar Poland"), but it was not an independent Permanent link state.[3] The Free City was under League of Nations protection and put into a Page information binding customs union with Poland. Wikidata item Cite this page Poland was given full rights to develop and maintain transportation, [4] Print/export communication, and port facilities in the city. The Free City was created in Flag Coat of arms Create a book order to give Poland access to a well-sized seaport, although it was Anthem Download as PDF acknowledged that the city's population was about 95 percent German.[5] The Für Danzig / Gdańsku Printable version German majority deeply resented being separated from Germany, and in some

Languages cases subjected the Polish minority to discrimination. This was especially true Български after the Nazi Party gained political control in 1935-36.[6] Brezhoneg Since Poland still was not in complete control of the seaport, especially Català regarding military equipment, a new seaport was built in nearby Gdynia, Čeština Dansk beginning 1921. Deutsch In 1933, the City's government was taken over by the local Nazi Party, which Eesti suppressed democratic opposition. Due to anti-Semitic persecution and Danzig, surrounded by Germany and Poland. Español oppression, many Jews fled. After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the Esperanto Euskara Nazis abolished the Free City and incorporated the area into the newly formed Français Reichsgau of Danzig-West Prussia. The Germans classified the Poles and Galego Jews as subhumans, subjecting them to discrimination, forced labor, and 한국어 extermination. Many were sent to death at concentration camps, including Hrvatski nearby Stutthof (now Sztutowo, Poland). Italiano ,During the city's conquest by the Soviet Army in the early months of 1945 עברית many citizens fled or were killed. After the war, many surviving ethnic Germans Kaszëbsczi were expelled and deported to the West when members of the pre-war Polish Latina minority started returning. The city subsequently became part of Poland, as a Lietuvių consequence of the Potsdam Agreement. Polish settlers were recruited to Magyar मराठी replace the German population. Nederlands Contents [hide] 日本語 Location of the Free City of Danzig in 1930 Europe. Norsk bokmål 1 Establishment Polski 1.1 Periods of independence and autonomy Capital Danzig Português 1.2 Territory Languages German Română 1.3 Polish rights declared by Treaty of Versailles Polish Русский 1.4 League of Nations High Commissioners Religion 64.6% Lutheran Simple English 32.2% Catholic 2 Population [citation needed] Slovenčina (1938) 2.1 Religion Српски / srpski 2.1.1 Regional Synodal Federation of the Free City of Danzig Government Republic Srpskohrvatski / High српскохрватски 2.1.2 Diocese of Danzig of the Roman Catholic Church Commissioner Suomi 2.1.3 Jewish Danzigers - 1919–1920 Reginald Tower Svenska 3 Politics - 1937–1939 Carl Burckhardt Українська 3.1 Government Senate President Tiếng Việt 3.2 German-Polish tensions - 1920–1931 Heinrich Sahm 中文 - 1934–1939 Arthur Greiser 4 Second World War and aftermath Edit links 5 In fiction Legislature Volkstag 6 See also Historical era Interwar period 7 References - Established 15 November 1920 - Invasion of 8 External links Poland 1 September 1939 - Annexed by Germany 2 September 1939 Establishment [edit] Area - 1923 1,966 km² (759 sq mi) Periods of independence and autonomy [edit] Population Danzig had an early history of independence. It was a leading player in the - 1923 est. 366,730 Prussian Confederation directed against the Teutonic Monastic State of Density 186.5 /km² (483.1 /sq mi) Prussia. The Confederation stipulated with the Polish king, Casimir IV Jagiellon, Currency Papiermark (before 1923) that the Polish Crown would be invested with the role of head of state of Danzig gulden (from 1923) western parts of Prussia (Royal Prussia). In contrast, Ducal Prussia remained a Today part of Poland Polish fief. Danzig and other cities such as Elbing and Thorn financed most of the warfare and enjoyed a high level of city autonomy. Danzig used the title Royal Polish City of Danzig.

In 1569, when Royal Prussia's estates agreed to incorporate the region into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the city insisted on preserving its special status. 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.[citation needed]

Although Danzig became part of the Kingdom of Prussia in the Second Partitition of Poland in 1793, Prussia was conquered by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1806, and in September 1807 Napoleon declared Danzig a semi-independent Client state of the French Empire, known as the Free City of Danzig. It lasted seven years, until it was re-incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia in 1814, after Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Leipzig (Battle of Nations by a coalition that included Russia, Austria and Prussia.

Territory [edit]

The interwar Free City of Danzig (1920–39) included the city of Danzig (Gdańsk), the towns of Zoppot (Sopot), Oliva (Oliwa), Tiegenhof (Nowy Dwór Gdański), Neuteich (Nowy Staw) and some 252 villages and 63 hamlets, covering a total area of 1,966 square kilometers (754 sq mi).

Polish rights declared by Treaty of Versailles [edit]

The Free City was to be represented abroad by Poland and was to be in a customs union with it. The German railway line that connected the Free City with 20 Danzig gulden note from the interwar period newly created Poland was to be administered by Poland, as were all rail lines in the territory of the Free City. On November 9, 1920, a convention that provided for the Presence of a Polish diplomatic representative in Danzig was signed between the Polish government and the Danzig authorities. In article 6, the Polish government undertook not to conclude any international agreements regarding Danzig without previous consultation with the Free City's government.[7]

A separate Polish post office was established, besides the existing municipal one.

League of Nations High Commissioners [edit]

Unlike Mandatory territories, which were entrusted to member countries, The Free City of Danzig (like the Territory of the Saar Basin) remained directly under the authority of the League of Nations. Representatives of various countries took on the role of High Commissioner:[8]

№ Name Period Country 1 Reginald Thomas Tower 1919–1920 United Kingdom 2 Edward Lisle Strutt 1920 United Kingdom 3 Bernardo Attolico 1920 Italy 4 Richard Cyril Byrne Haking 1921–1923 United Kingdom 5 Mervyn Sorley McDonnell 1923–1925 United Kingdom 6 Joost Adriaan van Hamel 1925–1929 Netherlands 7 Manfredi di Gravina 1929–1932 Italy 8 Helmer Rosting 1932–1934 Denmark 9 Seán Lester 1934–1936 Irish Free State Passport of the Free City of Danzig. 10 Carl Jakob Burckhardt 1937–1939 Switzerland

The League of Nations refused to let the city-state use the term of Hanseatic City as part of its official name; this referred to Danzig's long-lasting membership in the Hanseatic League.[9]

Population [edit]

The Free City's population rose from 357,000 (1919) to 408,000 in 1929; according to the official census, 95% were Germans,[10]:5, 11 with the rest mainly either Kashubians or Poles. According to E. Cieślak, the population registers of the Free City show that in 1929 the Polish population numbered 35,000, or 9.5% of the population.[11][need quotation to verify]

Henryk Stępniak estimates the 1929 Polish population as around 22,000, or around 6% of the population, increasing to around 13% in the 1930s.[12] Based on the estimated voting patterns (according to Stępniak many Poles voted for the Catholic Zentrumspartei instead of Polish parties), Stępniak estimates the number of Poles in the city to be 25–30% of Catholics living within it or about 30–36 thousand people.[13] Including around 4,000 Polish nationals who were registered in the city, Stępniak estimated the Polish population as 9.4–11% of population.[13]

In contrast Stefan Samerski estimates about 10 percent of the 130,000 Catholics Population density of Poland and the Free were Polish.[14] Andrzej Drzycimski estimates that Polish population at the end of City of Danzig (Gdansk), 1930. 30s reached 20%(including Poles who arrived after the war)[15]

The Treaty of Versailles required that the newly formed state have its own citizenship, based on residency. German inhabitants lost their German Citizenship with the creation of the Free City, but were given the right to re-obtain it within the first two years of the state's existence. Anyone desiring German citizenship had to leave their property and make their residence outside of the Free State of Danzig area in the remaining parts of Germany.[4]

Total population by language, November 1, 1923 according to the Free City of Danzig census[10]:11 Nationality German German and Polish, Kashub, Russian, Hebrew, Unclassified Total Polish Masurian Ukrainian Yiddish Danzig 327,827 1,108 6,788 99 22 77 335,921 Non-Danzig 20,666 521 5,239 2,529 580 1,274 30,809 Total 348,493 1,629 12,027 2,628 602 1,351 366,730 Percent 95.03% 0.44% 3.28% 0.72% 0.16% 0.37% 100.00%

Religion [edit]

In 1924, 54.7% of the populace was Protestant (220,731 persons, mostly Lutherans within the united old-Prussian church), 34.5% was Catholic (140,797 persons), and 2.4% Jewish (9,239 persons). Other Protestants included 5,604 Mennonites, 1,934 Calvinists (Reformed), 1,093 Baptists, 410 Free Religionists, as well as 2,129 dissenters, 1,394 faithful of other religions and denominations, and 664 irreligionists.[16][17] The Jewish community grew from 2,717 in 1910 to 7,282 in 1923, and 10,448 in 1929, many of them immigrants from Poland and Russia, where pogroms were conducted against them and discrimination was severe.[18]

Regional Synodal Federation of the Free City of Danzig [edit]

The mostly Lutheran and partially Reformed congregations situated in the territory of the Free City, which previously used to belong to the Ecclesiastical Province of West Prussia of the Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union (EKapU), were transformed into the Regional Synodal Federation of the Free City of Danzig after 1920. The executive body of that ecclesiastical province, the consistory (est. 1 November 1886), was seated in Danzig. After 1920 it was restricted in its responsibility to those congregations within the Free City's territory.[19] General Superintendent Paul The then-Lutheran Supreme Parish Kalweit (1920–1933) and Bishop Johannes Beermann (1933–1945) presided over the Church of St. Mary's in Danzig's consistory, one after another. Rechtstadt quarter. Unlike the Second Polish Republic, which opposed the cooperation of the United Evangelical Church in Poland with EKapU, Volkstag and Senate of Danzig approved cross-border religious bodies. Danzig's Regional Synodal Federation — just as the regional synodal federation of the autonomous Memelland — retained the status of an ecclesiastical province within EKapU.[20]

After the German annexation of the Free City in 1939, the EKapU merged the Danzig regional synodal federation in 1940 into the Ecclesiastical Region of Danzig-West Prussia. This included the Polish congregations of the United Evangelical Church in Poland in the homonymous Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia and the German congregations in the West Prussia governorate. Danzig's consistory functioned as an executive body for that region. With the flight and expulsion of most German Protestant parishioners from the area of the Free City of Danzig between 1945 and 1948, the congregations vanished.

In March 1945, the consistory had relocated to Lübeck and opened a refugee centre for Danzigers (Hilfsstelle beim evangelischen Konsistorium Danzig) led by Upper Consistorial Councillor Gerhard M. Gülzow. 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. Other Lutheran congregations of Danzig could reclaim their church bells, which the Wehrmacht had requisitioned as non-ferrous metal for war purposes since 1940, but which had survived, not yet melted down, in storage (e.g. Glockenfriedhof) in the British zone of occupation. The presbyteries granted them usually to Northwestern German Lutheran congregations which had lost bells due to the war.

Diocese of Danzig of the Roman Catholic Church [edit] Main article: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Gdańsk

The 36 Catholic parishes in the territory of the Free City in 1922 used to belong in equal shares to the Diocese of Culm, which was mostly Polish, and the Diocese of Ermland, which was mostly German. While the Second Polish Republic wanted all the parishes within the Free City to form part of Polish Culm, Volkstag and Senate wanted them all to become subject to German Ermland.[21] In 1922 the Holy See suspended the jurisdictions of both dioceses over their parishes in the Free State and established an exempt apostolic administration for the territory.[21]

The first apostolic administrator was Edward O'Rourke who became Bishop of Danzig on the occasion of the elevation of the administration to an exempt diocese. He was naturalised as Danziger on the same occasion. In 1938 he resigned after quarrels with the Nazi-dominated Senate of Danzig on appointments of parish priests of Polish ethnicity.[22] The senate also instigated the denaturalisation of O'Rourke, who subsequently became a Polish citizen. O'Rourke was succeeded by Bishop Carl Maria Splett, a native from the Free City area. The Archcathedral of the Holy Trinity, Splett remained bishop after the German annexation of the Free City. In early 1941, he Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Bernard applied for admitting the Danzig diocese as member in Archbishop Adolf Bertram's in Oliva, Danzig. Eastern German Ecclesiastical Province and thus at the Fulda Conference of Bishops; however, Bertram, also speaker of the Fulda conference, rejected the request.[23] Any arguments that the Free City of Danzig had been annexed to Nazi Germany did not impress Bertram since Danzig's annexation lacked international recognition. Until the reorganization of the Catholic dioceses in Danzig and the formerly eastern territories of Germany the diocesan territory remained unaltered and the see exempt. However, with the replacement of Danzig's population between 1945 and 1948 by mostly-Catholic Poles, the number of Catholic parishes increased and most formerly-Protestant churches were taken over for Catholic services.

Jewish Danzigers [edit] Main article: Jewish Community in the Free City of Danzig

Since 1883 most of the Jewish congregations in the later territory of Free State had merged into the Synagogal Community of Danzig. Only the Jews of Tiegenhof ran their own congregation until 1938.

Danzig became a centre of Polish and Russian Jewish emigration to North America. Between 1920 and 1925 60,000 Jews emigrated via Danzig to the US and Canada. At the same time, between 1923 and 1929, Danzig's own Jewish population increased from roughly 7,000 to 10,500.[24] Native Jews and newcomers established themselves in the city and contributed to its civic life, culture and economy. Danzig became a venue for international meetings of Jewish organisations, such as the convention of delegates from Jewish youth organisations of various nations, attended by David Ben-Gurion, which founded the World Union of Jewish Youth on 2 September 1924 in the Schützenhaus venue. On 21 March 1926 the Zionistische Organisation für Danzig convened delegates of Hechalutz from all over for the first conference in Danzig using Great Synagogue on Reitbahn Hebrew as common language, also attended by Ben Gurion. Street in Danzig's Rechtstadt quarter. With a Nazi majority in the Volkstag and Senate, anti-Semitic persecution and discrimination occurred unsanctioned by the authorities. In contrast to Germany, which exercised capital outflow control since 1931, emigration of Danzig's Jews was nonetheless somewhat easier, with capital transfers enabled by the Bank of Danzig. Moreover, the comparatively-few Danzig Jews were offered easier refuge in safe countries because of favorable Free City migration quotas.

After the anti-Jewish riots of Kristallnacht of 9/10 November 1938 in Germany, similar riots took place on 12/13 November in Danzig.[25][26] The Great Synagogue was taken over and demolished by the local authorities in 1939. Most Jews had already left the city and the Jewish Community of Danzig decided to organize its own emigration in early 1939.[27]

Politics [edit]

Government [edit]

Heads of State of the Free City of Danzig[8] № Name Took office Left office Party Presidents of the Danzig Senate 1 Heinrich Sahm 6 December 1920 10 January 1931 None 2 Ernst Ziehm 10 January 1931 20 June 1933 DNVP 3 Hermann Rauschning 20 June 1933 23 November 1934 NSDAP 4 Arthur Karl Greiser 23 November 1934 23 August 1939 NSDAP State President

5 Albert Forster 23 August 1939 1 September 1939 NSDAP Flag of the Danzig Senate.

The Free City was governed by the Senate of the Free City of Danzig, which was elected by the parliament (Volkstag) for a legislative period of four years. The official language was German,[28] although the usage of Polish was guaranteed by law.[29][30] The political parties in the Free City corresponded with the political parties in Weimar Germany; the most influential parties in the 1920s were the conservative German National People's Party, the Social Democratic Party of the Free City of Danzig and the Catholic Centre Party. A Communist Party was founded in 1921 with its origins in the Spartacus League and the Communist Party of East Prussia. Several liberal parties and Free Voter's Associations existed and ran in the elections with varying success. A Polish Party represented the Polish minority and received between 3% (1933) and 6% (1920) of the vote (in total, 4,358 votes in 1933 and 9,321 votes in 1920).[31]

Initially, the Nazi Party had only a small amount of success (0.8% of the vote in 1927) and was even briefly dissolved.[9] Its influence grew with the onset of difficult economic times and the increasing popularity of the Nazi Party in Germany proper. Albert Forster became the Gauleiter in October 1930. The Nazis won 50 percent of votes in the Volkstag elections of 28 May 1933, and took control of the Senate in June 1933, with Hermann Rauschning becoming President of the Senate of Danzig.

Rauschning was removed from his position by Forster and replaced by Arthur Greiser in November 1934.[25] He later appealed to the public not to vote for the Nazis in the 1935 elections.[9] Political opposition to the Nazis was repressed[32] with several politicians being imprisoned and murdered.[33][34] The economic policy of Danzig's Nazi-led government, which increased the public issues for employment-creation programs[35] and the retrenchment of financial aid from Germany led to a devaluation of more than 40% of the Danziger Gulden in 1935.[10][36][37][38][39][40] The Gold reserves of the Bank of Danzig declined from 30 million Gulden in 1933 to 13 million in 1935 and the foreign asset reserve from 10 million to 250,000 Gulden.[41] In 1935, Poland protested when Danzig's Senate reduced the value of the Gulden so that it would be the same as the Polish Zloty.[42]

As in Germany, the Nazis introduced an "Enabling Act" and the racialist Nuremberg laws (November 1938);[43] existing parties and unions were gradually banned. The presence of the League of Nations however still guaranteed a minimum of legal certainty. In 1935, the opposition parties, except for the Polish Party, filed a lawsuit to the Danzig High Court in protest against the manipulation of the Volkstag elections.[9][25] The opposition also protested to the League of Nations, as did the Jewish Community of Danzig.[44][45]

German-Polish tensions [edit]

The rights of the Second Polish Republic within the territory of the Free City were stipulated in the Treaty of Paris of 9 November 1920 and the Treaty of Warsaw of 24 October 1921.[46] The details of the Polish privileges soon became a permanent matter of disputes between the local populace and the Polish State. While the representatives of the Free City tried to uphold the City's autonomy and sovereignty, Poland sought to extend its privileges.[47]

Throughout the Polish–Soviet War, local dockworkers went on strike and refused to unload ammunition supplies for the Polish Army. While the ammunition was finally unloaded by British troops,[48] the incident led to the establishment of a permanent ammunition depot at the Westerplatte and the construction of a trade and naval port in Gdynia,[49] whose total exports and imports surpassed those of Danzig in May 1932.[50] In December 1925, the Council of the League of Nations agreed to the establishment of a Polish military guard of 88 men on the Westerplatte peninsula to protect the war material depot.[51][52]

Several disputes between Danzig and Poland occurred in the sequel. The Free City protested against the Westerplatte depot, the placement of Polish letter boxes within the City[53] and the presence of Polish war vessels at the harbour.[54] The attempt of the Free City to join the International Labour Organization was rejected by the Permanent Court of International Justice at the League of Nations after protests of the Polish ILO delegate.[55][56]

After Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, the Polish military doubled the number of troops at Westerplatte breaking international law in order to test the reaction of the new chancellor. After international protests the additional troops were withdrawn.[57] Fears of Polish aggression produced by this and other disputes further stoked by Nazi propaganda would give the local Nazis an absolute majority in the May 1933 Volkstag elections.[58]

Until June 1933, the High Commissioner decided in 66 cases of dispute between Danzig and Poland; in 54 cases one of the parties appealed to the Permanent Court of International Justice.[59] Subsequent disputes were resolved in direct negotiations between the Senate and Poland after both had agreed to abstain from further appeals to the International Court in the summer of 1933 and bilateral agreements were concluded.[60]

In the aftermath of the German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact of 1934, Danzig–Polish relations improved and Adolf Hitler instructed the local Nazi government to cease anti-Polish actions.[61] In return, Poland did not support the actions of the anti- Nazi opposition in Danzig. The Polish Ambassador to Germany, Józef Lipski, stated in a meeting with Hermann Göring:[62]

... that a National Socialist Senate in Danzig is also most desirable from our point of view, since it brought about a Page 5 / 8 rapprochement between the Free City and Poland, I would like to remind him that we have always kept aloof from internal Danzig problems. In spite of approaches repeatedly made by the opposition parties, we rejected any attempt to draw us into action against the Senate. I mentioned quite confidentially that the Polish minority in Danzig was advised not to join forces with the opposition at the time of elections.

When Carl J. Burckhardt became High Commissioner in February 1937, both Poles and Germans openly welcomed his withdrawal, and Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Józef Beck notified him not to "count on the support of the Polish State" in the case of difficulties with the Senate or the Nazi Party.[63]

While the Senate appeared to respect the agreements with Poland, the "Nazification of Danzig proceeded relentlessly"[64] and Danzig became a springboard for anti-Polish propaganda among the German and Ukrainian minority in Poland.[65] The Catholic Bishop of Danzig, Edward O'Rourke, was forced to withdraw after he had tried to implement four additional Polish nationals as parish priests in October 1937.[22]

This section requires expansion. (July 2014)

See also: Polish Corridor

The German policy openly changed immediately after the Munich Conference in October 1938, when German Minister of Foreign Affairs Joachim von Ribbentrop demanded the incorporation of the Free City into the Reich.[66] In April 1939, High Commissioner Burckhardt was told by the Polish Commissioner-General that any attempt to alter its status would be answered with armed resistance on the part of Poland.[67]

Second World War and aftermath [edit]

World War II began with the shelling of the Westerplatte on 1 September 1939. Gauleiter Forster entered the High Commissioner's residence and ordered him to leave the City within two hours,[68] and the Free City was formally incorporated into the newly formed Reichsgau of Danzig-West Prussia. Polish civilian Post Office employees had received military training and were in possession of a cache of weapons – mostly pistols, three light machine guns, and some hand grenades – and were thus able to defend the Polish Post Office for fifteen hours. Upon their surrender, they were tried and executed. (The sentence was officially revoked by a German court as illegal in 1998.)[69][70] The Polish military forces in the city held

out until 7 September. Up to 4,500 members of Polish minority were arrested with Schleswig-Holstein firing at Westerplatte many of them executed[71] By the end of the Second World War, nearly all the city had been reduced to ruins. On 30 March 1945, the city was taken by the Red Army. It is estimated that nearly all the pre-war inhabitants were either dead or had fled.[citation needed] A number of inhabitants of the city perished when the military training ship Wilhelm Gustloff used for evacuation was sunk. It had up to 10,000 refugees on board at the time, including about 1,000 seriously wounded soldiers and sailors.

At the Yalta Conference in February 1945, the Allies agreed that the city would become part of Poland.[72]

By 1950, around 285,000 fled and expelled citizens of the former Free City were living in Germany,[citation needed] and 13,424 citizens of the former Free City had been "verified" and granted Polish citizenship.[73] 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- [73] annexed Eastern Poland took their place. 1 September 1939: German troops remove Polish insignia at the Polish–Danzig border In fiction [edit] near Zoppot. Historical Danzig forms the setting for several major works of Nobel Prize-winning author Günter Grass, including his acclaimed Danzig Trilogy novels The Tin Drum and Dog Years, as well as in his memoirs. Grass grew up in the Danzig suburb of Langfuhr (now Wrzeszcz).

See also [edit] Areas annexed by Nazi Germany Danzig Corridor Alfons Flisykowski Danzig Research Society History of Gdańsk Administrations of Danzig before April 1945 Stutthof concentration camp

References [edit]

1. ^ Loew, Peter Oliver (February 2011). Danzig – Biographie 35. ^ Burckhardt, Carl Jakob. Meine Danziger Mission (in einer Stadt (in German). C.H. Beck. p. 189. ISBN 978-3- German). p. 39. 406-60587-1. Lichtenstein, Erwin (1973). Die Juden der Freien Stadt 2. ^ Samerski, Stefan (2003). Das Bistum Danzig in Danzig unter der Herrschaft des Nationalsozialismus (in Lebensbildern (in German). LIT Verlag. p. 8. ISBN 3-8258- German). p. 44. 6284-4. 36. ^ Loew, Peter Oliver (February 2011). Danzig – Biographie 3. ^ Kaczorowska, Alina (2010-07-21). Public International einer Stadt (in German). C.H. Beck. p. 206. ISBN 978-3- Law . Routledge. p. 199. ISBN 0-203-84847-0. 406-60587-1. 4. ^ a b Yale Law School. "The Versailles Treaty June 28, 1919: 37. ^ Loose, Ingo (2007). Kredite für NS­Verbrechen (in Part III" . The Avalon Project. Retrieved May 3, 2007. German). Institut für Zeitgeschichte. p. 33. ISBN 978-3-486- 5. ^ Chestermann, Simon (2004). You, the People; United 58331-1. Nations, Transitional Administration and State building . 38. ^ Andrzejewski, Marek (1994). Opposition und Widerstand in Oxford University Press. p. 20. ISBN 978-0-19-926348-6. Danzig (in German). Dietz. p. 99. ISBN 9783801240547. Retrieved 2011-04-26. 39. ^ Cieslak, Edmund; Biernat, Czeslaw (1995). History of 6. ^ Levine, Herbert S., Hitler's Free City: A History of the Nazi Gdańsk . Fundacji Biblioteki Gdánskiej. p. 454. Party in Danzig, 1925-39 (University of Chicago Press, 1970), ISBN 9788386557004. p. 102. 40. ^ Matull, "Ostdeutschlands Arbeiterbewegung", pp. 417, 7. ^ Text in League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. 6, pp. 190– 418. 207. 41. ^ Intelligence Service Economic Intelligence Service; 8. ^ a b "Danzig subsection of Poland entry from World Service, Intellige Economic Intelligence (2007-03-01). Statesmen.org" . Commercial Banks 1929–1934 . League of Nations. 9. ^ a b c d Matull, Wilhelm (1973). "Ostdeutschlands p. LXXXIX. ISBN 978-1-4067-5963-1. Arbeiterbewegung: Abriß ihrer Geschichte, Leistung und 42. ^ Ruhnau, Rüdiger (1971). Danzig: Geschichte einer Opfer" (in German). Holzner. p. 419. Deutschen Stadt (in German). Holzner Verlag. p. 103. 10. ^ a b c Mason, John Brown (1946). The Danzig Dilemma, A 43. ^ Schwartze­Köhler, Hannelore (June 2009). "Die Study in Peacemaking by Compromise . Stanford Blechtrommel" von Günter Grass:Bedeutung, Erzähltechnik University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-2444-9. Retrieved 2011- und Zeitgeschichte (in German). Frank & Timme GmbH. 04-26. p. 396. ISBN 978-3-86596-237-9. 11. ^ Cieślak, E Biernat, C (1995) History of Gdánsk, Fundacji 44. ^ Kreutzberger, Max (1970). Leo Baeck Institute New York Biblioteki Gdanskiej, P455 Bibliothek und Archiv (in German). Mohr Siebeck. p. 67. 12. ^ Zapiski historyczne: Volume 60, page 256, Towarzystwo ISBN 978-3-16-830772-3. Naukowe w Toruniu. Wydział Nauk Historycznych – 1995 45. ^ Bacon, Gershon C. "Danzig Jewry: A Short History" . 13. ^ a b Ludność polska w Wolnym Mieście Gdańsku, 1920– Jewish Virtual Library. 1939, page 37, Henryk Stępniak, Wydawnictwo "Stella 46. ^ Hannum, Hurst (2011-10-12). Autonomy, Sovereignty and Maris", 1991, "Przyjmując, że Polacy gdańscy stanowili Self-Determination . University of Pennsylvania. p. 375. 25 — 30% ogólnej liczby ludności katolickiej Wolnego ISBN 978-0-8122-1572-4. Miasta Gdańska, liczącej w 1920 r. około 110 000 osób, 47. ^ Stahn, Carsten (2008-05-22). The Law and Practice of można ustalić, że w liczbach bezwzględnych stanowiło International Territorial Administration . Cambridge można ustalić, że w liczbach bezwzględnych stanowiło to University Press. p. 173 ff, 177. ISBN 978-0-521-87800-5. 30­ – 36 tyś. osób. Jeśli do liczby tej dodamy ok. 4 tyś. 48. ^ Hutt, Alan (2006-05-30). The Post-War history of the ludności obywatelstwa polskiego, otrzymamy łącznie ok. British Working Class . READ BOOKS. p. 38. ISBN 978-1- 9,4–11% ogółu ludności." 4067-9826-5. 14. ^ Samerski, Stefan (2003). Das Bistum Danzig in 49. ^ Buell, Raymond Leslie (2007-03-31). Poland – Key to Lebensbildern (in German). LIT Verlag. p. 8. ISBN 3-8258- Europe . READ BOOKS. p. 159. ISBN 978-1-4067-4564-1. 6284-4. 50. ^ Eugene van Cleef, "Danzig and Gdynia," Geographical 15. ^ Stuthoff Zeszyty 4 4 Stanislaw Mikos Recenzje i Review, Vol. 23, No. 1. (Jan., 1933): 106. omówienia Andrzej Drzycimski, Polacy w Wolnym Mieście 51. ^ Cieślak, E Biernat, C (1995) History of Gdańsk, Fundacji Gdańsku /1920 – 1933/. Polityka Seantu gdańskiego wobec Biblioteki Gdanskiej. p. 436 ludności polskiej Wrocław – Warszawa – Kraków – Gdańsk 52. ^ By a decision of the League Council in December 1925, 1978, the guard which the Poles were entitled to maintain on this 16. ^ Die Freie Stadt Danzig (German) spot [Westerplatte peninsula] was limited to 88 men, though 17. ^ Dr. Juergensen, Die freie Stadt Danzig, Danzig: Kafemann, the number might be increased with the consent of the High 1925. Commissioner. Geoffrey Malcolm Gathorne-Hardy. A Short 18. ^ Bacon, Gershon C.; Vivian B. Mann; Joseph Gutmann History of International Affairs, 1920 to 1934. Royal institute (1980). Danzig Jewry: A Short History . Jewish Museum of international affairs (1934). Oxford University Press. p. (New York). p. 31. ISBN 978-0-8143-1662-7. 384. 19. ^ Those congregations in Polish-annexed West Prussia 53. ^ worldcourts.com PCIJ, Advisory Opinion No. 11 (Pomeranian Voivodeship) merged into the new United 54. ^ worldcourts.com PCIJ, Advisory Opinion No. 22 Evangelical Church in Poland, which emerged from the old- 55. ^ worldcourts.com PCIJ, Advisory Opinion No. 18 Prussian Posen ecclesiastical province, with its consistory 56. ^ Lauterpacht, H (1936). "International Law Reports 1929– seated in Poznań. 1930" . Advisory Opinion No 18: Free City of Danzig and 20. ^ In June 1922 the Senate of Danzig and the old-Prussian International Labour Organization on August 26, 1930, ecclesiastical executive, the Evangelical Supreme Collection of Advisory Opinions: Free City of Danzig and Ecclesiastical Council (Evangelischer Oberkirchenrat, EOK), International Labour Organization, No. 18 Series B File F concluded a contract to that end. Cf. Adalbert Erler, Die (1930) (H. Lauterpacht). ISBN 978-0-521-46350-8. Retrieved rechtliche Stellung der evangelischen Kirche in Danzig, 2009-08-30. Berlin: 1929, simultaneously Univ. of Greifswald, Department 57. ^ Hargreaves, R (2010) Blitzkrieg Unleashed: The German of Law and Politics, doctor thesis of 21 February 1929, pp. Invasion of Poland, 1939 P31-2 36 seqq. 58. ^ Epstein, C (2012) Model Nazi: Arthur Greiser and the 21. ^ a b Georg May. Ludwig Kaas: der Priester, der Politiker Occupation of Western Poland, Oxford University Press P58 und der Gelehrte aus der Schule von Ulrich Stutz. John 59. ^ Hurst Hannum, p. 377. Benjamins Publishing. p. 175. ISBN 978-90-6032-197-3. 60. ^ Schlochauer, Hans J.; Krüger, Herbert; Mosler, Hermann 22. ^ a b Samerski, Stefan; Reimund Haas; Karl Josef Rivinius; (1960-05-01). Wörterbuch des Völkerrechts; Aachener Hermann-Josef Scheidgen (2000). Ein aussichtsloses Kongress – Hussar Fall (in German). de Gruyter Verlag. Unternehmen – Die Reaktivierung Bischof Eduard Graf pp. 307, 309. ISBN 978-3-11-001030-5. O’Rourkes 1939 (in German). Böhlau Verlag Köln 61. ^ Hiden, John; Lane, Thomas; Prazmowska, Anita J. (1992). Weimar. p. 378. ISBN 3-412-04100-9. The Baltic and the Outbreak of the Second World War . 23. ^ Hans­Jürgen Karp; Joachim Köhler (2001). Katholische Cambridge University Press. p. 74 ff, 80. ISBN 0-521-40467- Kirche unter nationalsozialistischer und kommunistischer 3. Diktatur: Deutschland und Polen 1939–1989. Böhlau Verlag 62. ^ Prazmowska, p. 80. Köln Weimar. p. 162. ISBN 978-3-412-11800-6. 63. ^ Prazmowska, p. 81. 24. ^ Ruhnau, Rüdiger (1971). Danzig: Geschichte einer 64. ^ Prazmowska, p. 85. Deutschen Stadt (in German). Holzner Verlag. p. 94. 65. ^ Prazmowska, p. 83. a b c 25. ^ Sodeikat, Ernst (1966). "Der Nationalsozialismus und 66. ^ Wasserstein, Bernard (2007). Barbarism and die Danziger Opposition" (in German). Institut für Civilization . Oxford University Press. p. 279. ISBN 978-0- Zeitgeschichte. p. 139 ff. 19-873074-3. 26. ^ Grass, Günther; Vivian B. Mann; Joseph Gutmann; Jewish 67. ^ Woodward, E.L., Butler, Rohan, Orde, Anne, editors, Museum (New York, N.Y.) (1980). Danzig 1939, treasures of Documents on British Foreign Policy 1919–1939, 3rd series, a destroyed community . The Jewish Museum, New York. vol.v, HMSO, London, 1952:25 p. 33. ISBN 978-0-8143-1662-7. 68. ^ Bleimeier, John Kuhn (1990-03-01). Hague Yearbook of 27. ^ Gdansk at the Jewish Virtual Library. International Law . Martinus Nijhoff Publ. p. 91. ISBN 0- 28. ^ Lemkin, Raphael (2008-06-30). Axis Rule in Occupied 7923-0655-4. Europe . The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. p. 155. ISBN 978-1- 69. ^ Dieter Schenk (1995). Die Post von Danzig: Geschichte 58477-901-8. eines deutschen Justizmords. p. 150. ISBN 3-498-06288-3. 29. ^ (German) Constitution of Danzig 70. ^ Dieter Schenk, Die Post von Danzig 30. ^ Matull, "Ostdeutschlands Arbeiterbewegung", p. 419. 71. ^ [1] 31. ^ (German) Die Freie Stadt Danzig, Wahlen 1919–1935 72. ^ The History of Poland Since 1863 By Robert F. Leslie page 32. ^ Ratner, Steven R. (1995-02-15). The new UN 281 peacekeeping . Palgrave Macmillan. p. 94. ISBN 0-312- 73. ^ a b Bykowska, Sylwia (2005). "Gdańsk – Miasto (Szybko) 12415-5. Odzyskane" . Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej (in 33. ^ Sodeikat, p.170, p. 173, Fn.92 Polish) 9–10 (56–57): 35–44. ISSN 1641-9561 . Retrieved 34. ^ Matull, "Ostdeutschlands Arbeiterbewegung", p. 440, 450. 2009-07-24.

External links [edit]

Extensive Prussian/ Danzig Historical Materials (many in German) Wikimedia Commons has Map of the Free City media related to Free City of Danzig. Jewish community history History of Gdańsk / Danzig Danzig Online Gdańsk history Celebration of Gdańsk's centenary in 1997 History & Hallucination , Wanderlust, Salon.com, January 5, 1998. The power of Gdansk at the Wayback Machine (archived September 30, 2007) 1933 Danzig passport , from passportland.com. First hand account of growing up in Danzig in the 1930s , a video interview.

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Categories: Former republics Former polities of the interwar period Former countries in Europe States and territories established in 1920 States and territories disestablished in 1939 Free City of Danzig League of Nations mandates

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Main page Contents Free City of Danzig Featured content Coordinates: 54°21′N 18°40′E Current events From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Random article Donate to Wikipedia For the Napoleonic client-state of the same name, see Free City of Danzig (Napoleonic). Wikimedia Shop The Free City of Danzig (German: Freie Stadt Danzig; Polish: Wolne Miasto Free City of Danzig Interaction Gdańsk) was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and Freie Stadt Danzig (German) Help 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) and Wolne Miasto Gdańsk (Polish) About Wikipedia nearly 200 towns in the surrounding areas. It was created on 15 November Community portal 1920[1][2] in accordance with the terms of Article 100 (Section XI of Part III) of Free City under League of Nations Recent changes protection the 1919 Treaty of Versailles after the end of World War I. Contact page ← The Free City included the city of Danzig and other nearby towns, villages, and → Tools ← 1920–1939 What links here settlements that had been primarily inhabited by ethnic Germans. As the → ← Related changes Treaty stated, the region was to remain separated from post-World War I Upload file Germany (the Weimar Republic) and from the newly independent nation of the Special pages Second Polish Republic ("interwar Poland"), but it was not an independent Permanent link state.[3] The Free City was under League of Nations protection and put into a Page information binding customs union with Poland. Wikidata item Cite this page Poland was given full rights to develop and maintain transportation, [4] Print/export communication, and port facilities in the city. The Free City was created in Flag Coat of arms Create a book order to give Poland access to a well-sized seaport, although it was Anthem Download as PDF acknowledged that the city's population was about 95 percent German.[5] The Für Danzig / Gdańsku Printable version German majority deeply resented being separated from Germany, and in some

Languages cases subjected the Polish minority to discrimination. This was especially true Български after the Nazi Party gained political control in 1935-36.[6] Brezhoneg Since Poland still was not in complete control of the seaport, especially Català regarding military equipment, a new seaport was built in nearby Gdynia, Čeština Dansk beginning 1921. Deutsch In 1933, the City's government was taken over by the local Nazi Party, which Eesti suppressed democratic opposition. Due to anti-Semitic persecution and Danzig, surrounded by Germany and Poland. Español oppression, many Jews fled. After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the Esperanto Euskara Nazis abolished the Free City and incorporated the area into the newly formed Français Reichsgau of Danzig-West Prussia. The Germans classified the Poles and Galego Jews as subhumans, subjecting them to discrimination, forced labor, and 한국어 extermination. Many were sent to death at concentration camps, including Hrvatski nearby Stutthof (now Sztutowo, Poland). Italiano ,During the city's conquest by the Soviet Army in the early months of 1945 עברית many citizens fled or were killed. After the war, many surviving ethnic Germans Kaszëbsczi were expelled and deported to the West when members of the pre-war Polish Latina minority started returning. The city subsequently became part of Poland, as a Lietuvių consequence of the Potsdam Agreement. Polish settlers were recruited to Magyar मराठी replace the German population. Nederlands Contents [hide] 日本語 Location of the Free City of Danzig in 1930 Europe. Norsk bokmål 1 Establishment Polski 1.1 Periods of independence and autonomy Capital Danzig Português 1.2 Territory Languages German Română 1.3 Polish rights declared by Treaty of Versailles Polish Русский 1.4 League of Nations High Commissioners Religion 64.6% Lutheran Simple English 32.2% Catholic 2 Population [citation needed] Slovenčina (1938) 2.1 Religion Српски / srpski 2.1.1 Regional Synodal Federation of the Free City of Danzig Government Republic Srpskohrvatski / High српскохрватски 2.1.2 Diocese of Danzig of the Roman Catholic Church Commissioner Suomi 2.1.3 Jewish Danzigers - 1919–1920 Reginald Tower Svenska 3 Politics - 1937–1939 Carl Burckhardt Українська 3.1 Government Senate President Tiếng Việt 3.2 German-Polish tensions - 1920–1931 Heinrich Sahm 中文 - 1934–1939 Arthur Greiser 4 Second World War and aftermath Edit links 5 In fiction Legislature Volkstag 6 See also Historical era Interwar period 7 References - Established 15 November 1920 - Invasion of 8 External links Poland 1 September 1939 - Annexed by Germany 2 September 1939 Establishment [edit] Area - 1923 1,966 km² (759 sq mi) Periods of independence and autonomy [edit] Population Danzig had an early history of independence. It was a leading player in the - 1923 est. 366,730 Prussian Confederation directed against the Teutonic Monastic State of Density 186.5 /km² (483.1 /sq mi) Prussia. The Confederation stipulated with the Polish king, Casimir IV Jagiellon, Currency Papiermark (before 1923) that the Polish Crown would be invested with the role of head of state of Danzig gulden (from 1923) western parts of Prussia (Royal Prussia). In contrast, Ducal Prussia remained a Today part of Poland Polish fief. Danzig and other cities such as Elbing and Thorn financed most of the warfare and enjoyed a high level of city autonomy. Danzig used the title Royal Polish City of Danzig.

In 1569, when Royal Prussia's estates agreed to incorporate the region into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the city insisted on preserving its special status. 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.[citation needed]

Although Danzig became part of the Kingdom of Prussia in the Second Partitition of Poland in 1793, Prussia was conquered by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1806, and in September 1807 Napoleon declared Danzig a semi-independent Client state of the French Empire, known as the Free City of Danzig. It lasted seven years, until it was re-incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia in 1814, after Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Leipzig (Battle of Nations by a coalition that included Russia, Austria and Prussia.

Territory [edit]

The interwar Free City of Danzig (1920–39) included the city of Danzig (Gdańsk), the towns of Zoppot (Sopot), Oliva (Oliwa), Tiegenhof (Nowy Dwór Gdański), Neuteich (Nowy Staw) and some 252 villages and 63 hamlets, covering a total area of 1,966 square kilometers (754 sq mi).

Polish rights declared by Treaty of Versailles [edit]

The Free City was to be represented abroad by Poland and was to be in a customs union with it. The German railway line that connected the Free City with 20 Danzig gulden note from the interwar period newly created Poland was to be administered by Poland, as were all rail lines in the territory of the Free City. On November 9, 1920, a convention that provided for the Presence of a Polish diplomatic representative in Danzig was signed between the Polish government and the Danzig authorities. In article 6, the Polish government undertook not to conclude any international agreements regarding Danzig without previous consultation with the Free City's government.[7]

A separate Polish post office was established, besides the existing municipal one.

League of Nations High Commissioners [edit]

Unlike Mandatory territories, which were entrusted to member countries, The Free City of Danzig (like the Territory of the Saar Basin) remained directly under the authority of the League of Nations. Representatives of various countries took on the role of High Commissioner:[8]

№ Name Period Country 1 Reginald Thomas Tower 1919–1920 United Kingdom 2 Edward Lisle Strutt 1920 United Kingdom 3 Bernardo Attolico 1920 Italy 4 Richard Cyril Byrne Haking 1921–1923 United Kingdom 5 Mervyn Sorley McDonnell 1923–1925 United Kingdom 6 Joost Adriaan van Hamel 1925–1929 Netherlands 7 Manfredi di Gravina 1929–1932 Italy 8 Helmer Rosting 1932–1934 Denmark 9 Seán Lester 1934–1936 Irish Free State Passport of the Free City of Danzig. 10 Carl Jakob Burckhardt 1937–1939 Switzerland

The League of Nations refused to let the city-state use the term of Hanseatic City as part of its official name; this referred to Danzig's long-lasting membership in the Hanseatic League.[9]

Population [edit]

The Free City's population rose from 357,000 (1919) to 408,000 in 1929; according to the official census, 95% were Germans,[10]:5, 11 with the rest mainly either Kashubians or Poles. According to E. Cieślak, the population registers of the Free City show that in 1929 the Polish population numbered 35,000, or 9.5% of the population.[11][need quotation to verify]

Henryk Stępniak estimates the 1929 Polish population as around 22,000, or around 6% of the population, increasing to around 13% in the 1930s.[12] Based on the estimated voting patterns (according to Stępniak many Poles voted for the Catholic Zentrumspartei instead of Polish parties), Stępniak estimates the number of Poles in the city to be 25–30% of Catholics living within it or about 30–36 thousand people.[13] Including around 4,000 Polish nationals who were registered in the city, Stępniak estimated the Polish population as 9.4–11% of population.[13]

In contrast Stefan Samerski estimates about 10 percent of the 130,000 Catholics Population density of Poland and the Free were Polish.[14] Andrzej Drzycimski estimates that Polish population at the end of City of Danzig (Gdansk), 1930. 30s reached 20%(including Poles who arrived after the war)[15]

The Treaty of Versailles required that the newly formed state have its own citizenship, based on residency. German inhabitants lost their German Citizenship with the creation of the Free City, but were given the right to re-obtain it within the first two years of the state's existence. Anyone desiring German citizenship had to leave their property and make their residence outside of the Free State of Danzig area in the remaining parts of Germany.[4]

Total population by language, November 1, 1923 according to the Free City of Danzig census[10]:11 Nationality German German and Polish, Kashub, Russian, Hebrew, Unclassified Total Polish Masurian Ukrainian Yiddish Danzig 327,827 1,108 6,788 99 22 77 335,921 Non-Danzig 20,666 521 5,239 2,529 580 1,274 30,809 Total 348,493 1,629 12,027 2,628 602 1,351 366,730 Percent 95.03% 0.44% 3.28% 0.72% 0.16% 0.37% 100.00%

Religion [edit]

In 1924, 54.7% of the populace was Protestant (220,731 persons, mostly Lutherans within the united old-Prussian church), 34.5% was Catholic (140,797 persons), and 2.4% Jewish (9,239 persons). Other Protestants included 5,604 Mennonites, 1,934 Calvinists (Reformed), 1,093 Baptists, 410 Free Religionists, as well as 2,129 dissenters, 1,394 faithful of other religions and denominations, and 664 irreligionists.[16][17] The Jewish community grew from 2,717 in 1910 to 7,282 in 1923, and 10,448 in 1929, many of them immigrants from Poland and Russia, where pogroms were conducted against them and discrimination was severe.[18]

Regional Synodal Federation of the Free City of Danzig [edit]

The mostly Lutheran and partially Reformed congregations situated in the territory of the Free City, which previously used to belong to the Ecclesiastical Province of West Prussia of the Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union (EKapU), were transformed into the Regional Synodal Federation of the Free City of Danzig after 1920. The executive body of that ecclesiastical province, the consistory (est. 1 November 1886), was seated in Danzig. After 1920 it was restricted in its responsibility to those congregations within the Free City's territory.[19] General Superintendent Paul The then-Lutheran Supreme Parish Kalweit (1920–1933) and Bishop Johannes Beermann (1933–1945) presided over the Church of St. Mary's in Danzig's consistory, one after another. Rechtstadt quarter. Unlike the Second Polish Republic, which opposed the cooperation of the United Evangelical Church in Poland with EKapU, Volkstag and Senate of Danzig approved cross-border religious bodies. Danzig's Regional Synodal Federation — just as the regional synodal federation of the autonomous Memelland — retained the status of an ecclesiastical province within EKapU.[20]

After the German annexation of the Free City in 1939, the EKapU merged the Danzig regional synodal federation in 1940 into the Ecclesiastical Region of Danzig-West Prussia. This included the Polish congregations of the United Evangelical Church in Poland in the homonymous Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia and the German congregations in the West Prussia governorate. Danzig's consistory functioned as an executive body for that region. With the flight and expulsion of most German Protestant parishioners from the area of the Free City of Danzig between 1945 and 1948, the congregations vanished.

In March 1945, the consistory had relocated to Lübeck and opened a refugee centre for Danzigers (Hilfsstelle beim evangelischen Konsistorium Danzig) led by Upper Consistorial Councillor Gerhard M. Gülzow. 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. Other Lutheran congregations of Danzig could reclaim their church bells, which the Wehrmacht had requisitioned as non-ferrous metal for war purposes since 1940, but which had survived, not yet melted down, in storage (e.g. Glockenfriedhof) in the British zone of occupation. The presbyteries granted them usually to Northwestern German Lutheran congregations which had lost bells due to the war.

Diocese of Danzig of the Roman Catholic Church [edit] Main article: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Gdańsk

The 36 Catholic parishes in the territory of the Free City in 1922 used to belong in equal shares to the Diocese of Culm, which was mostly Polish, and the Diocese of Ermland, which was mostly German. While the Second Polish Republic wanted all the parishes within the Free City to form part of Polish Culm, Volkstag and Senate wanted them all to become subject to German Ermland.[21] In 1922 the Holy See suspended the jurisdictions of both dioceses over their parishes in the Free State and established an exempt apostolic administration for the territory.[21]

The first apostolic administrator was Edward O'Rourke who became Bishop of Danzig on the occasion of the elevation of the administration to an exempt diocese. He was naturalised as Danziger on the same occasion. In 1938 he resigned after quarrels with the Nazi-dominated Senate of Danzig on appointments of parish priests of Polish ethnicity.[22] The senate also instigated the denaturalisation of O'Rourke, who subsequently became a Polish citizen. O'Rourke was succeeded by Bishop Carl Maria Splett, a native from the Free City area. The Archcathedral of the Holy Trinity, Splett remained bishop after the German annexation of the Free City. In early 1941, he Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Bernard applied for admitting the Danzig diocese as member in Archbishop Adolf Bertram's in Oliva, Danzig. Eastern German Ecclesiastical Province and thus at the Fulda Conference of Bishops; however, Bertram, also speaker of the Fulda conference, rejected the request.[23] Any arguments that the Free City of Danzig had been annexed to Nazi Germany did not impress Bertram since Danzig's annexation lacked international recognition. Until the reorganization of the Catholic dioceses in Danzig and the formerly eastern territories of Germany the diocesan territory remained unaltered and the see exempt. However, with the replacement of Danzig's population between 1945 and 1948 by mostly-Catholic Poles, the number of Catholic parishes increased and most formerly-Protestant churches were taken over for Catholic services.

Jewish Danzigers [edit] Main article: Jewish Community in the Free City of Danzig

Since 1883 most of the Jewish congregations in the later territory of Free State had merged into the Synagogal Community of Danzig. Only the Jews of Tiegenhof ran their own congregation until 1938.

Danzig became a centre of Polish and Russian Jewish emigration to North America. Between 1920 and 1925 60,000 Jews emigrated via Danzig to the US and Canada. At the same time, between 1923 and 1929, Danzig's own Jewish population increased from roughly 7,000 to 10,500.[24] Native Jews and newcomers established themselves in the city and contributed to its civic life, culture and economy. Danzig became a venue for international meetings of Jewish organisations, such as the convention of delegates from Jewish youth organisations of various nations, attended by David Ben-Gurion, which founded the World Union of Jewish Youth on 2 September 1924 in the Schützenhaus venue. On 21 March 1926 the Zionistische Organisation für Danzig convened delegates of Hechalutz from all over for the first conference in Danzig using Great Synagogue on Reitbahn Hebrew as common language, also attended by Ben Gurion. Street in Danzig's Rechtstadt quarter. With a Nazi majority in the Volkstag and Senate, anti-Semitic persecution and discrimination occurred unsanctioned by the authorities. In contrast to Germany, which exercised capital outflow control since 1931, emigration of Danzig's Jews was nonetheless somewhat easier, with capital transfers enabled by the Bank of Danzig. Moreover, the comparatively-few Danzig Jews were offered easier refuge in safe countries because of favorable Free City migration quotas.

After the anti-Jewish riots of Kristallnacht of 9/10 November 1938 in Germany, similar riots took place on 12/13 November in Danzig.[25][26] The Great Synagogue was taken over and demolished by the local authorities in 1939. Most Jews had already left the city and the Jewish Community of Danzig decided to organize its own emigration in early 1939.[27]

Politics [edit]

Government [edit]

Heads of State of the Free City of Danzig[8] № Name Took office Left office Party Presidents of the Danzig Senate 1 Heinrich Sahm 6 December 1920 10 January 1931 None 2 Ernst Ziehm 10 January 1931 20 June 1933 DNVP 3 Hermann Rauschning 20 June 1933 23 November 1934 NSDAP 4 Arthur Karl Greiser 23 November 1934 23 August 1939 NSDAP State President

5 Albert Forster 23 August 1939 1 September 1939 NSDAP Flag of the Danzig Senate.

The Free City was governed by the Senate of the Free City of Danzig, which was elected by the parliament (Volkstag) for a legislative period of four years. The official language was German,[28] although the usage of Polish was guaranteed by law.[29][30] The political parties in the Free City corresponded with the political parties in Weimar Germany; the most influential parties in the 1920s were the conservative German National People's Party, the Social Democratic Party of the Free City of Danzig and the Catholic Centre Party. A Communist Party was founded in 1921 with its origins in the Spartacus League and the Communist Party of East Prussia. Several liberal parties and Free Voter's Associations existed and ran in the elections with varying success. A Polish Party represented the Polish minority and received between 3% (1933) and 6% (1920) of the vote (in total, 4,358 votes in 1933 and 9,321 votes in 1920).[31]

Initially, the Nazi Party had only a small amount of success (0.8% of the vote in 1927) and was even briefly dissolved.[9] Its influence grew with the onset of difficult economic times and the increasing popularity of the Nazi Party in Germany proper. Albert Forster became the Gauleiter in October 1930. The Nazis won 50 percent of votes in the Volkstag elections of 28 May 1933, and took control of the Senate in June 1933, with Hermann Rauschning becoming President of the Senate of Danzig.

Rauschning was removed from his position by Forster and replaced by Arthur Greiser in November 1934.[25] He later appealed to the public not to vote for the Nazis in the 1935 elections.[9] Political opposition to the Nazis was repressed[32] with several politicians being imprisoned and murdered.[33][34] The economic policy of Danzig's Nazi-led government, which increased the public issues for employment-creation programs[35] and the retrenchment of financial aid from Germany led to a devaluation of more than 40% of the Danziger Gulden in 1935.[10][36][37][38][39][40] The Gold reserves of the Bank of Danzig declined from 30 million Gulden in 1933 to 13 million in 1935 and the foreign asset reserve from 10 million to 250,000 Gulden.[41] In 1935, Poland protested when Danzig's Senate reduced the value of the Gulden so that it would be the same as the Polish Zloty.[42]

As in Germany, the Nazis introduced an "Enabling Act" and the racialist Nuremberg laws (November 1938);[43] existing parties and unions were gradually banned. The presence of the League of Nations however still guaranteed a minimum of legal certainty. In 1935, the opposition parties, except for the Polish Party, filed a lawsuit to the Danzig High Court in protest against the manipulation of the Volkstag elections.[9][25] The opposition also protested to the League of Nations, as did the Jewish Community of Danzig.[44][45]

German-Polish tensions [edit]

The rights of the Second Polish Republic within the territory of the Free City were stipulated in the Treaty of Paris of 9 November 1920 and the Treaty of Warsaw of 24 October 1921.[46] The details of the Polish privileges soon became a permanent matter of disputes between the local populace and the Polish State. While the representatives of the Free City tried to uphold the City's autonomy and sovereignty, Poland sought to extend its privileges.[47]

Throughout the Polish–Soviet War, local dockworkers went on strike and refused to unload ammunition supplies for the Polish Army. While the ammunition was finally unloaded by British troops,[48] the incident led to the establishment of a permanent ammunition depot at the Westerplatte and the construction of a trade and naval port in Gdynia,[49] whose total exports and imports surpassed those of Danzig in May 1932.[50] In December 1925, the Council of the League of Nations agreed to the establishment of a Polish military guard of 88 men on the Westerplatte peninsula to protect the war material depot.[51][52]

Several disputes between Danzig and Poland occurred in the sequel. The Free City protested against the Westerplatte depot, the placement of Polish letter boxes within the City[53] and the presence of Polish war vessels at the harbour.[54] The attempt of the Free City to join the International Labour Organization was rejected by the Permanent Court of International Justice at the League of Nations after protests of the Polish ILO delegate.[55][56]

After Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, the Polish military doubled the number of troops at Westerplatte breaking international law in order to test the reaction of the new chancellor. After international protests the additional troops were withdrawn.[57] Fears of Polish aggression produced by this and other disputes further stoked by Nazi propaganda would give the local Nazis an absolute majority in the May 1933 Volkstag elections.[58]

Until June 1933, the High Commissioner decided in 66 cases of dispute between Danzig and Poland; in 54 cases one of the parties appealed to the Permanent Court of International Justice.[59] Subsequent disputes were resolved in direct negotiations between the Senate and Poland after both had agreed to abstain from further appeals to the International Court in the summer of 1933 and bilateral agreements were concluded.[60]

In the aftermath of the German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact of 1934, Danzig–Polish relations improved and Adolf Hitler instructed the local Nazi government to cease anti-Polish actions.[61] In return, Poland did not support the actions of the anti- Nazi opposition in Danzig. The Polish Ambassador to Germany, Józef Lipski, stated in a meeting with Hermann Göring:[62]

... that a National Socialist Senate in Danzig is also most desirable from our point of view, since it brought about a rapprochement between the Free City and Poland, I would like to remind him that we have always kept aloof from internal Danzig problems. In spite of approaches repeatedly made by the opposition parties, we rejected any attempt to draw us into action against the Senate. I mentioned quite confidentially that the Polish minority in Danzig was advised not to join forces with the opposition at the time of elections.

When Carl J. Burckhardt became High Commissioner in February 1937, both Poles and Germans openly welcomed his withdrawal, and Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Józef Beck notified him not to "count on the support of the Polish State" in the case of difficulties with the Senate or the Nazi Party.[63]

While the Senate appeared to respect the agreements with Poland, the "Nazification of Danzig proceeded relentlessly"[64] and Danzig became a springboard for anti-Polish propaganda among the German and Ukrainian minority in Poland.[65] The Catholic Bishop of Danzig, Edward O'Rourke, was forced to withdraw after he had tried to implement four additional Polish nationals as parish priests in October 1937.[22]

This section requires expansion. (July 2014)

See also: Polish Corridor

The German policy openly changed immediately after the Munich Conference in October 1938, when German Minister of Foreign Affairs Joachim von Ribbentrop demanded the incorporation of the Free City into the Reich.[66] In April 1939, High Commissioner Burckhardt was told by the Polish Commissioner-General that any attempt to alter its status would be answered with armed resistance on the part of Poland.[67]

Second World War and aftermath [edit]

World War II began with the shelling of the Westerplatte on 1 September 1939. Gauleiter Forster entered the High Commissioner's residence and ordered him to leave the City within two hours,[68] and the Free City was formally incorporated into the newly formed Reichsgau of Danzig-West Prussia. Polish civilian Post Office employees had received military training and were in possession of a cache of weapons – mostly pistols, three light machine guns, and some hand grenades – and were thus able to defend the Polish Post Office for fifteen hours. Upon their surrender, they were tried and executed. (The sentence was officially revoked by a German court as illegal in 1998.)[69][70] The Polish military forces in the city held

out until 7 September. Up to 4,500 members of Polish minority were arrested with Schleswig-Holstein firing at Westerplatte many of them executed[71] By the end of the Second World War, nearly all the city had been reduced to ruins. On 30 March 1945, the city was taken by the Red Army. It is estimated that nearly all the pre-war inhabitants were either dead or had fled.[citation needed] A number of inhabitants of the city perished when the military training ship Wilhelm Gustloff used for evacuation was sunk. It had up to 10,000 refugees on board at the time, including about 1,000 seriously wounded soldiers and sailors.

At the Yalta Conference in February 1945, the Allies agreed that the city would become part of Poland.[72]

By 1950, around 285,000 fled and expelled citizens of the former Free City were living in Germany,[citation needed] and 13,424 citizens of the former Free City had been "verified" and granted Polish citizenship.[73] 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- [73] annexed Eastern Poland took their place. 1 September 1939: German troops remove Polish insignia at the Polish–Danzig border In fiction [edit] near Zoppot. Historical Danzig forms the setting for several major works of Nobel Prize-winning author Günter Grass, including his acclaimed Danzig Trilogy novels The Tin Drum and Dog Years, as well as in his memoirs. Grass grew up in the Danzig suburb of Langfuhr (now Wrzeszcz).

See also [edit] Areas annexed by Nazi Germany Danzig Corridor Alfons Flisykowski Danzig Research Society History of Gdańsk Administrations of Danzig before April 1945 Stutthof concentration camp

References [edit]

1. ^ Loew, Peter Oliver (February 2011). Danzig – Biographie 35. ^ Burckhardt, Carl Jakob. Meine Danziger Mission (inPage 6 / 8 einer Stadt (in German). C.H. Beck. p. 189. ISBN 978-3- German). p. 39. 406-60587-1. Lichtenstein, Erwin (1973). Die Juden der Freien Stadt 2. ^ Samerski, Stefan (2003). Das Bistum Danzig in Danzig unter der Herrschaft des Nationalsozialismus (in Lebensbildern (in German). LIT Verlag. p. 8. ISBN 3-8258- German). p. 44. 6284-4. 36. ^ Loew, Peter Oliver (February 2011). Danzig – Biographie 3. ^ Kaczorowska, Alina (2010-07-21). Public International einer Stadt (in German). C.H. Beck. p. 206. ISBN 978-3- Law . Routledge. p. 199. ISBN 0-203-84847-0. 406-60587-1. 4. ^ a b Yale Law School. "The Versailles Treaty June 28, 1919: 37. ^ Loose, Ingo (2007). Kredite für NS­Verbrechen (in Part III" . The Avalon Project. Retrieved May 3, 2007. German). Institut für Zeitgeschichte. p. 33. ISBN 978-3-486- 5. ^ Chestermann, Simon (2004). You, the People; United 58331-1. Nations, Transitional Administration and State building . 38. ^ Andrzejewski, Marek (1994). Opposition und Widerstand in Oxford University Press. p. 20. ISBN 978-0-19-926348-6. Danzig (in German). Dietz. p. 99. ISBN 9783801240547. Retrieved 2011-04-26. 39. ^ Cieslak, Edmund; Biernat, Czeslaw (1995). History of 6. ^ Levine, Herbert S., Hitler's Free City: A History of the Nazi Gdańsk . Fundacji Biblioteki Gdánskiej. p. 454. Party in Danzig, 1925-39 (University of Chicago Press, 1970), ISBN 9788386557004. p. 102. 40. ^ Matull, "Ostdeutschlands Arbeiterbewegung", pp. 417, 7. ^ Text in League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. 6, pp. 190– 418. 207. 41. ^ Intelligence Service Economic Intelligence Service; 8. ^ a b "Danzig subsection of Poland entry from World Service, Intellige Economic Intelligence (2007-03-01). Statesmen.org" . Commercial Banks 1929–1934 . League of Nations. 9. ^ a b c d Matull, Wilhelm (1973). "Ostdeutschlands p. LXXXIX. ISBN 978-1-4067-5963-1. Arbeiterbewegung: Abriß ihrer Geschichte, Leistung und 42. ^ Ruhnau, Rüdiger (1971). Danzig: Geschichte einer Opfer" (in German). Holzner. p. 419. Deutschen Stadt (in German). Holzner Verlag. p. 103. 10. ^ a b c Mason, John Brown (1946). The Danzig Dilemma, A 43. ^ Schwartze­Köhler, Hannelore (June 2009). "Die Study in Peacemaking by Compromise . Stanford Blechtrommel" von Günter Grass:Bedeutung, Erzähltechnik University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-2444-9. Retrieved 2011- und Zeitgeschichte (in German). Frank & Timme GmbH. 04-26. p. 396. ISBN 978-3-86596-237-9. 11. ^ Cieślak, E Biernat, C (1995) History of Gdánsk, Fundacji 44. ^ Kreutzberger, Max (1970). Leo Baeck Institute New York Biblioteki Gdanskiej, P455 Bibliothek und Archiv (in German). Mohr Siebeck. p. 67. 12. ^ Zapiski historyczne: Volume 60, page 256, Towarzystwo ISBN 978-3-16-830772-3. Naukowe w Toruniu. Wydział Nauk Historycznych – 1995 45. ^ Bacon, Gershon C. "Danzig Jewry: A Short History" . 13. ^ a b Ludność polska w Wolnym Mieście Gdańsku, 1920– Jewish Virtual Library. 1939, page 37, Henryk Stępniak, Wydawnictwo "Stella 46. ^ Hannum, Hurst (2011-10-12). Autonomy, Sovereignty and Maris", 1991, "Przyjmując, że Polacy gdańscy stanowili Self-Determination . University of Pennsylvania. p. 375. 25 — 30% ogólnej liczby ludności katolickiej Wolnego ISBN 978-0-8122-1572-4. Miasta Gdańska, liczącej w 1920 r. około 110 000 osób, 47. ^ Stahn, Carsten (2008-05-22). The Law and Practice of można ustalić, że w liczbach bezwzględnych stanowiło International Territorial Administration . Cambridge można ustalić, że w liczbach bezwzględnych stanowiło to University Press. p. 173 ff, 177. ISBN 978-0-521-87800-5. 30­ – 36 tyś. osób. Jeśli do liczby tej dodamy ok. 4 tyś. 48. ^ Hutt, Alan (2006-05-30). The Post-War history of the ludności obywatelstwa polskiego, otrzymamy łącznie ok. British Working Class . READ BOOKS. p. 38. ISBN 978-1- 9,4–11% ogółu ludności." 4067-9826-5. 14. ^ Samerski, Stefan (2003). Das Bistum Danzig in 49. ^ Buell, Raymond Leslie (2007-03-31). Poland – Key to Lebensbildern (in German). LIT Verlag. p. 8. ISBN 3-8258- Europe . READ BOOKS. p. 159. ISBN 978-1-4067-4564-1. 6284-4. 50. ^ Eugene van Cleef, "Danzig and Gdynia," Geographical 15. ^ Stuthoff Zeszyty 4 4 Stanislaw Mikos Recenzje i Review, Vol. 23, No. 1. (Jan., 1933): 106. omówienia Andrzej Drzycimski, Polacy w Wolnym Mieście 51. ^ Cieślak, E Biernat, C (1995) History of Gdańsk, Fundacji Gdańsku /1920 – 1933/. Polityka Seantu gdańskiego wobec Biblioteki Gdanskiej. p. 436 ludności polskiej Wrocław – Warszawa – Kraków – Gdańsk 52. ^ By a decision of the League Council in December 1925, 1978, the guard which the Poles were entitled to maintain on this 16. ^ Die Freie Stadt Danzig (German) spot [Westerplatte peninsula] was limited to 88 men, though 17. ^ Dr. Juergensen, Die freie Stadt Danzig, Danzig: Kafemann, the number might be increased with the consent of the High 1925. Commissioner. Geoffrey Malcolm Gathorne-Hardy. A Short 18. ^ Bacon, Gershon C.; Vivian B. Mann; Joseph Gutmann History of International Affairs, 1920 to 1934. Royal institute (1980). Danzig Jewry: A Short History . Jewish Museum of international affairs (1934). Oxford University Press. p. (New York). p. 31. ISBN 978-0-8143-1662-7. 384. 19. ^ Those congregations in Polish-annexed West Prussia 53. ^ worldcourts.com PCIJ, Advisory Opinion No. 11 (Pomeranian Voivodeship) merged into the new United 54. ^ worldcourts.com PCIJ, Advisory Opinion No. 22 Evangelical Church in Poland, which emerged from the old- 55. ^ worldcourts.com PCIJ, Advisory Opinion No. 18 Prussian Posen ecclesiastical province, with its consistory 56. ^ Lauterpacht, H (1936). "International Law Reports 1929– seated in Poznań. 1930" . Advisory Opinion No 18: Free City of Danzig and 20. ^ In June 1922 the Senate of Danzig and the old-Prussian International Labour Organization on August 26, 1930, ecclesiastical executive, the Evangelical Supreme Collection of Advisory Opinions: Free City of Danzig and Ecclesiastical Council (Evangelischer Oberkirchenrat, EOK), International Labour Organization, No. 18 Series B File F concluded a contract to that end. Cf. Adalbert Erler, Die (1930) (H. Lauterpacht). ISBN 978-0-521-46350-8. Retrieved rechtliche Stellung der evangelischen Kirche in Danzig, 2009-08-30. Berlin: 1929, simultaneously Univ. of Greifswald, Department 57. ^ Hargreaves, R (2010) Blitzkrieg Unleashed: The German of Law and Politics, doctor thesis of 21 February 1929, pp. Invasion of Poland, 1939 P31-2 36 seqq. 58. ^ Epstein, C (2012) Model Nazi: Arthur Greiser and the 21. ^ a b Georg May. Ludwig Kaas: der Priester, der Politiker Occupation of Western Poland, Oxford University Press P58 und der Gelehrte aus der Schule von Ulrich Stutz. John 59. ^ Hurst Hannum, p. 377. Benjamins Publishing. p. 175. ISBN 978-90-6032-197-3. 60. ^ Schlochauer, Hans J.; Krüger, Herbert; Mosler, Hermann 22. ^ a b Samerski, Stefan; Reimund Haas; Karl Josef Rivinius; (1960-05-01). Wörterbuch des Völkerrechts; Aachener Hermann-Josef Scheidgen (2000). Ein aussichtsloses Kongress – Hussar Fall (in German). de Gruyter Verlag. Unternehmen – Die Reaktivierung Bischof Eduard Graf pp. 307, 309. ISBN 978-3-11-001030-5. O’Rourkes 1939 (in German). Böhlau Verlag Köln 61. ^ Hiden, John; Lane, Thomas; Prazmowska, Anita J. (1992). Weimar. p. 378. ISBN 3-412-04100-9. The Baltic and the Outbreak of the Second World War . 23. ^ Hans­Jürgen Karp; Joachim Köhler (2001). Katholische Cambridge University Press. p. 74 ff, 80. ISBN 0-521-40467- Kirche unter nationalsozialistischer und kommunistischer 3. Diktatur: Deutschland und Polen 1939–1989. Böhlau Verlag 62. ^ Prazmowska, p. 80. Köln Weimar. p. 162. ISBN 978-3-412-11800-6. 63. ^ Prazmowska, p. 81. 24. ^ Ruhnau, Rüdiger (1971). Danzig: Geschichte einer 64. ^ Prazmowska, p. 85. Deutschen Stadt (in German). Holzner Verlag. p. 94. 65. ^ Prazmowska, p. 83. a b c 25. ^ Sodeikat, Ernst (1966). "Der Nationalsozialismus und 66. ^ Wasserstein, Bernard (2007). Barbarism and die Danziger Opposition" (in German). Institut für Civilization . Oxford University Press. p. 279. ISBN 978-0- Zeitgeschichte. p. 139 ff. 19-873074-3. 26. ^ Grass, Günther; Vivian B. Mann; Joseph Gutmann; Jewish 67. ^ Woodward, E.L., Butler, Rohan, Orde, Anne, editors, Museum (New York, N.Y.) (1980). Danzig 1939, treasures of Documents on British Foreign Policy 1919–1939, 3rd series, a destroyed community . The Jewish Museum, New York. vol.v, HMSO, London, 1952:25 p. 33. ISBN 978-0-8143-1662-7. 68. ^ Bleimeier, John Kuhn (1990-03-01). Hague Yearbook of 27. ^ Gdansk at the Jewish Virtual Library. International Law . Martinus Nijhoff Publ. p. 91. ISBN 0- 28. ^ Lemkin, Raphael (2008-06-30). Axis Rule in Occupied 7923-0655-4. Europe . The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. p. 155. ISBN 978-1- 69. ^ Dieter Schenk (1995). Die Post von Danzig: Geschichte 58477-901-8. eines deutschen Justizmords. p. 150. ISBN 3-498-06288-3. 29. ^ (German) Constitution of Danzig 70. ^ Dieter Schenk, Die Post von Danzig 30. ^ Matull, "Ostdeutschlands Arbeiterbewegung", p. 419. 71. ^ [1] 31. ^ (German) Die Freie Stadt Danzig, Wahlen 1919–1935 72. ^ The History of Poland Since 1863 By Robert F. Leslie page 32. ^ Ratner, Steven R. (1995-02-15). The new UN 281 peacekeeping . Palgrave Macmillan. p. 94. ISBN 0-312- 73. ^ a b Bykowska, Sylwia (2005). "Gdańsk – Miasto (Szybko) 12415-5. Odzyskane" . Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej (in 33. ^ Sodeikat, p.170, p. 173, Fn.92 Polish) 9–10 (56–57): 35–44. ISSN 1641-9561 . Retrieved 34. ^ Matull, "Ostdeutschlands Arbeiterbewegung", p. 440, 450. 2009-07-24.

External links [edit]

Extensive Prussian/ Danzig Historical Materials (many in German) Wikimedia Commons has Map of the Free City media related to Free City of Danzig. Jewish community history History of Gdańsk / Danzig Danzig Online Gdańsk history Celebration of Gdańsk's centenary in 1997 History & Hallucination , Wanderlust, Salon.com, January 5, 1998. The power of Gdansk at the Wayback Machine (archived September 30, 2007) 1933 Danzig passport , from passportland.com. First hand account of growing up in Danzig in the 1930s , a video interview.

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Main page Contents Free City of Danzig Featured content Coordinates: 54°21′N 18°40′E Current events From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Random article Donate to Wikipedia For the Napoleonic client-state of the same name, see Free City of Danzig (Napoleonic). Wikimedia Shop The Free City of Danzig (German: Freie Stadt Danzig; Polish: Wolne Miasto Free City of Danzig Interaction Gdańsk) was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and Freie Stadt Danzig (German) Help 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) and Wolne Miasto Gdańsk (Polish) About Wikipedia nearly 200 towns in the surrounding areas. It was created on 15 November Community portal 1920[1][2] in accordance with the terms of Article 100 (Section XI of Part III) of Free City under League of Nations Recent changes protection the 1919 Treaty of Versailles after the end of World War I. Contact page ← The Free City included the city of Danzig and other nearby towns, villages, and → Tools ← 1920–1939 What links here settlements that had been primarily inhabited by ethnic Germans. As the → ← Related changes Treaty stated, the region was to remain separated from post-World War I Upload file Germany (the Weimar Republic) and from the newly independent nation of the Special pages Second Polish Republic ("interwar Poland"), but it was not an independent Permanent link state.[3] The Free City was under League of Nations protection and put into a Page information binding customs union with Poland. Wikidata item Cite this page Poland was given full rights to develop and maintain transportation, [4] Print/export communication, and port facilities in the city. The Free City was created in Flag Coat of arms Create a book order to give Poland access to a well-sized seaport, although it was Anthem Download as PDF acknowledged that the city's population was about 95 percent German.[5] The Für Danzig / Gdańsku Printable version German majority deeply resented being separated from Germany, and in some

Languages cases subjected the Polish minority to discrimination. This was especially true Български after the Nazi Party gained political control in 1935-36.[6] Brezhoneg Since Poland still was not in complete control of the seaport, especially Català regarding military equipment, a new seaport was built in nearby Gdynia, Čeština Dansk beginning 1921. Deutsch In 1933, the City's government was taken over by the local Nazi Party, which Eesti suppressed democratic opposition. Due to anti-Semitic persecution and Danzig, surrounded by Germany and Poland. Español oppression, many Jews fled. After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the Esperanto Euskara Nazis abolished the Free City and incorporated the area into the newly formed Français Reichsgau of Danzig-West Prussia. The Germans classified the Poles and Galego Jews as subhumans, subjecting them to discrimination, forced labor, and 한국어 extermination. Many were sent to death at concentration camps, including Hrvatski nearby Stutthof (now Sztutowo, Poland). Italiano ,During the city's conquest by the Soviet Army in the early months of 1945 עברית many citizens fled or were killed. After the war, many surviving ethnic Germans Kaszëbsczi were expelled and deported to the West when members of the pre-war Polish Latina minority started returning. The city subsequently became part of Poland, as a Lietuvių consequence of the Potsdam Agreement. Polish settlers were recruited to Magyar मराठी replace the German population. Nederlands Contents [hide] 日本語 Location of the Free City of Danzig in 1930 Europe. Norsk bokmål 1 Establishment Polski 1.1 Periods of independence and autonomy Capital Danzig Português 1.2 Territory Languages German Română 1.3 Polish rights declared by Treaty of Versailles Polish Русский 1.4 League of Nations High Commissioners Religion 64.6% Lutheran Simple English 32.2% Catholic 2 Population [citation needed] Slovenčina (1938) 2.1 Religion Српски / srpski 2.1.1 Regional Synodal Federation of the Free City of Danzig Government Republic Srpskohrvatski / High српскохрватски 2.1.2 Diocese of Danzig of the Roman Catholic Church Commissioner Suomi 2.1.3 Jewish Danzigers - 1919–1920 Reginald Tower Svenska 3 Politics - 1937–1939 Carl Burckhardt Українська 3.1 Government Senate President Tiếng Việt 3.2 German-Polish tensions - 1920–1931 Heinrich Sahm 中文 - 1934–1939 Arthur Greiser 4 Second World War and aftermath Edit links 5 In fiction Legislature Volkstag 6 See also Historical era Interwar period 7 References - Established 15 November 1920 - Invasion of 8 External links Poland 1 September 1939 - Annexed by Germany 2 September 1939 Establishment [edit] Area - 1923 1,966 km² (759 sq mi) Periods of independence and autonomy [edit] Population Danzig had an early history of independence. It was a leading player in the - 1923 est. 366,730 Prussian Confederation directed against the Teutonic Monastic State of Density 186.5 /km² (483.1 /sq mi) Prussia. The Confederation stipulated with the Polish king, Casimir IV Jagiellon, Currency Papiermark (before 1923) that the Polish Crown would be invested with the role of head of state of Danzig gulden (from 1923) western parts of Prussia (Royal Prussia). In contrast, Ducal Prussia remained a Today part of Poland Polish fief. Danzig and other cities such as Elbing and Thorn financed most of the warfare and enjoyed a high level of city autonomy. Danzig used the title Royal Polish City of Danzig.

In 1569, when Royal Prussia's estates agreed to incorporate the region into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the city insisted on preserving its special status. 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.[citation needed]

Although Danzig became part of the Kingdom of Prussia in the Second Partitition of Poland in 1793, Prussia was conquered by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1806, and in September 1807 Napoleon declared Danzig a semi-independent Client state of the French Empire, known as the Free City of Danzig. It lasted seven years, until it was re-incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia in 1814, after Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Leipzig (Battle of Nations by a coalition that included Russia, Austria and Prussia.

Territory [edit]

The interwar Free City of Danzig (1920–39) included the city of Danzig (Gdańsk), the towns of Zoppot (Sopot), Oliva (Oliwa), Tiegenhof (Nowy Dwór Gdański), Neuteich (Nowy Staw) and some 252 villages and 63 hamlets, covering a total area of 1,966 square kilometers (754 sq mi).

Polish rights declared by Treaty of Versailles [edit]

The Free City was to be represented abroad by Poland and was to be in a customs union with it. The German railway line that connected the Free City with 20 Danzig gulden note from the interwar period newly created Poland was to be administered by Poland, as were all rail lines in the territory of the Free City. On November 9, 1920, a convention that provided for the Presence of a Polish diplomatic representative in Danzig was signed between the Polish government and the Danzig authorities. In article 6, the Polish government undertook not to conclude any international agreements regarding Danzig without previous consultation with the Free City's government.[7]

A separate Polish post office was established, besides the existing municipal one.

League of Nations High Commissioners [edit]

Unlike Mandatory territories, which were entrusted to member countries, The Free City of Danzig (like the Territory of the Saar Basin) remained directly under the authority of the League of Nations. Representatives of various countries took on the role of High Commissioner:[8]

№ Name Period Country 1 Reginald Thomas Tower 1919–1920 United Kingdom 2 Edward Lisle Strutt 1920 United Kingdom 3 Bernardo Attolico 1920 Italy

4 Richard Cyril Byrne Haking 1921–1923 United Kingdom 5 Mervyn Sorley McDonnell 1923–1925 United Kingdom 6 Joost Adriaan van Hamel 1925–1929 Netherlands

7 Manfredi di Gravina 1929–1932 Italy

8 Helmer Rosting 1932–1934 Denmark 9 Seán Lester 1934–1936 Irish Free State Passport of the Free City of Danzig. 10 Carl Jakob Burckhardt 1937–1939 Switzerland

The League of Nations refused to let the city-state use the term of Hanseatic City as part of its official name; this referred to Danzig's long-lasting membership in the Hanseatic League.[9]

Population [edit]

The Free City's population rose from 357,000 (1919) to 408,000 in 1929; according to the official census, 95% were Germans,[10]:5, 11 with the rest mainly either Kashubians or Poles. According to E. Cieślak, the population registers of the Free City show that in 1929 the Polish population numbered 35,000, or 9.5% of the population.[11][need quotation to verify]

Henryk Stępniak estimates the 1929 Polish population as around 22,000, or around 6% of the population, increasing to around 13% in the 1930s.[12] Based on the estimated voting patterns (according to Stępniak many Poles voted for the Catholic Zentrumspartei instead of Polish parties), Stępniak estimates the number of Poles in the city to be 25–30% of Catholics living within it or about 30–36 thousand people.[13] Including around 4,000 Polish nationals who were registered in the city, Stępniak estimated the Polish population as 9.4–11% of population.[13]

In contrast Stefan Samerski estimates about 10 percent of the 130,000 Catholics Population density of Poland and the Free were Polish.[14] Andrzej Drzycimski estimates that Polish population at the end of City of Danzig (Gdansk), 1930. 30s reached 20%(including Poles who arrived after the war)[15]

The Treaty of Versailles required that the newly formed state have its own citizenship, based on residency. German inhabitants lost their German Citizenship with the creation of the Free City, but were given the right to re-obtain it within the first two years of the state's existence. Anyone desiring German citizenship had to leave their property and make their residence outside of the Free State of Danzig area in the remaining parts of Germany.[4]

Total population by language, November 1, 1923 according to the Free City of Danzig census[10]:11 Nationality German German and Polish, Kashub, Russian, Hebrew, Unclassified Total Polish Masurian Ukrainian Yiddish Danzig 327,827 1,108 6,788 99 22 77 335,921 Non-Danzig 20,666 521 5,239 2,529 580 1,274 30,809 Total 348,493 1,629 12,027 2,628 602 1,351 366,730 Percent 95.03% 0.44% 3.28% 0.72% 0.16% 0.37% 100.00%

Religion [edit]

In 1924, 54.7% of the populace was Protestant (220,731 persons, mostly Lutherans within the united old-Prussian church), 34.5% was Catholic (140,797 persons), and 2.4% Jewish (9,239 persons). Other Protestants included 5,604 Mennonites, 1,934 Calvinists (Reformed), 1,093 Baptists, 410 Free Religionists, as well as 2,129 dissenters, 1,394 faithful of other religions and denominations, and 664 irreligionists.[16][17] The Jewish community grew from 2,717 in 1910 to 7,282 in 1923, and 10,448 in 1929, many of them immigrants from Poland and Russia, where pogroms were conducted against them and discrimination was severe.[18]

Regional Synodal Federation of the Free City of Danzig [edit]

The mostly Lutheran and partially Reformed congregations situated in the territory of the Free City, which previously used to belong to the Ecclesiastical Province of West Prussia of the Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union (EKapU), were transformed into the Regional Synodal Federation of the Free City of Danzig after 1920. The executive body of that ecclesiastical province, the consistory (est. 1 November 1886), was seated in Danzig. After 1920 it was restricted in its responsibility to those congregations within the Free City's territory.[19] General Superintendent Paul The then-Lutheran Supreme Parish Kalweit (1920–1933) and Bishop Johannes Beermann (1933–1945) presided over the Church of St. Mary's in Danzig's consistory, one after another. Rechtstadt quarter. Unlike the Second Polish Republic, which opposed the cooperation of the United Evangelical Church in Poland with EKapU, Volkstag and Senate of Danzig approved cross-border religious bodies. Danzig's Regional Synodal Federation — just as the regional synodal federation of the autonomous Memelland — retained the status of an ecclesiastical province within EKapU.[20]

After the German annexation of the Free City in 1939, the EKapU merged the Danzig regional synodal federation in 1940 into the Ecclesiastical Region of Danzig-West Prussia. This included the Polish congregations of the United Evangelical Church in Poland in the homonymous Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia and the German congregations in the West Prussia governorate. Danzig's consistory functioned as an executive body for that region. With the flight and expulsion of most German Protestant parishioners from the area of the Free City of Danzig between 1945 and 1948, the congregations vanished.

In March 1945, the consistory had relocated to Lübeck and opened a refugee centre for Danzigers (Hilfsstelle beim evangelischen Konsistorium Danzig) led by Upper Consistorial Councillor Gerhard M. Gülzow. 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. Other Lutheran congregations of Danzig could reclaim their church bells, which the Wehrmacht had requisitioned as non-ferrous metal for war purposes since 1940, but which had survived, not yet melted down, in storage (e.g. Glockenfriedhof) in the British zone of occupation. The presbyteries granted them usually to Northwestern German Lutheran congregations which had lost bells due to the war.

Diocese of Danzig of the Roman Catholic Church [edit] Main article: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Gdańsk

The 36 Catholic parishes in the territory of the Free City in 1922 used to belong in equal shares to the Diocese of Culm, which was mostly Polish, and the Diocese of Ermland, which was mostly German. While the Second Polish Republic wanted all the parishes within the Free City to form part of Polish Culm, Volkstag and Senate wanted them all to become subject to German Ermland.[21] In 1922 the Holy See suspended the jurisdictions of both dioceses over their parishes in the Free State and established an exempt apostolic administration for the territory.[21]

The first apostolic administrator was Edward O'Rourke who became Bishop of Danzig on the occasion of the elevation of the administration to an exempt diocese. He was naturalised as Danziger on the same occasion. In 1938 he resigned after quarrels with the Nazi-dominated Senate of Danzig on appointments of parish priests of Polish ethnicity.[22] The senate also instigated the denaturalisation of O'Rourke, who subsequently became a Polish citizen. O'Rourke was succeeded by Bishop Carl Maria Splett, a native from the Free City area. The Archcathedral of the Holy Trinity, Splett remained bishop after the German annexation of the Free City. In early 1941, he Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Bernard applied for admitting the Danzig diocese as member in Archbishop Adolf Bertram's in Oliva, Danzig. Eastern German Ecclesiastical Province and thus at the Fulda Conference of Bishops; however, Bertram, also speaker of the Fulda conference, rejected the request.[23] Any arguments that the Free City of Danzig had been annexed to Nazi Germany did not impress Bertram since Danzig's annexation lacked international recognition. Until the reorganization of the Catholic dioceses in Danzig and the formerly eastern territories of Germany the diocesan territory remained unaltered and the see exempt. However, with the replacement of Danzig's population between 1945 and 1948 by mostly-Catholic Poles, the number of Catholic parishes increased and most formerly-Protestant churches were taken over for Catholic services.

Jewish Danzigers [edit] Main article: Jewish Community in the Free City of Danzig

Since 1883 most of the Jewish congregations in the later territory of Free State had merged into the Synagogal Community of Danzig. Only the Jews of Tiegenhof ran their own congregation until 1938.

Danzig became a centre of Polish and Russian Jewish emigration to North America. Between 1920 and 1925 60,000 Jews emigrated via Danzig to the US and Canada. At the same time, between 1923 and 1929, Danzig's own Jewish population increased from roughly 7,000 to 10,500.[24] Native Jews and newcomers established themselves in the city and contributed to its civic life, culture and economy. Danzig became a venue for international meetings of Jewish organisations, such as the convention of delegates from Jewish youth organisations of various nations, attended by David Ben-Gurion, which founded the World Union of Jewish Youth on 2 September 1924 in the Schützenhaus venue. On 21 March 1926 the Zionistische Organisation für Danzig convened delegates of Hechalutz from all over for the first conference in Danzig using Great Synagogue on Reitbahn Hebrew as common language, also attended by Ben Gurion. Street in Danzig's Rechtstadt quarter. With a Nazi majority in the Volkstag and Senate, anti-Semitic persecution and discrimination occurred unsanctioned by the authorities. In contrast to Germany, which exercised capital outflow control since 1931, emigration of Danzig's Jews was nonetheless somewhat easier, with capital transfers enabled by the Bank of Danzig. Moreover, the comparatively-few Danzig Jews were offered easier refuge in safe countries because of favorable Free City migration quotas.

After the anti-Jewish riots of Kristallnacht of 9/10 November 1938 in Germany, similar riots took place on 12/13 November in Danzig.[25][26] The Great Synagogue was taken over and demolished by the local authorities in 1939. Most Jews had already left the city and the Jewish Community of Danzig decided to organize its own emigration in early 1939.[27]

Politics [edit]

Government [edit]

Heads of State of the Free City of Danzig[8] № Name Took office Left office Party Presidents of the Danzig Senate 1 Heinrich Sahm 6 December 1920 10 January 1931 None 2 Ernst Ziehm 10 January 1931 20 June 1933 DNVP 3 Hermann Rauschning 20 June 1933 23 November 1934 NSDAP 4 Arthur Karl Greiser 23 November 1934 23 August 1939 NSDAP State President

5 Albert Forster 23 August 1939 1 September 1939 NSDAP Flag of the Danzig Senate.

The Free City was governed by the Senate of the Free City of Danzig, which was elected by the parliament (Volkstag) for a legislative period of four years. The official language was German,[28] although the usage of Polish was guaranteed by law.[29][30] The political parties in the Free City corresponded with the political parties in Weimar Germany; the most influential parties in the 1920s were the conservative German National People's Party, the Social Democratic Party of the Free City of Danzig and the Catholic Centre Party. A Communist Party was founded in 1921 with its origins in the Spartacus League and the Communist Party of East Prussia. Several liberal parties and Free Voter's Associations existed and ran in the elections with varying success. A Polish Party represented the Polish minority and received between 3% (1933) and 6% (1920) of the vote (in total, 4,358 votes in 1933 and 9,321 votes in 1920).[31]

Initially, the Nazi Party had only a small amount of success (0.8% of the vote in 1927) and was even briefly dissolved.[9] Its influence grew with the onset of difficult economic times and the increasing popularity of the Nazi Party in Germany proper. Albert Forster became the Gauleiter in October 1930. The Nazis won 50 percent of votes in the Volkstag elections of 28 May 1933, and took control of the Senate in June 1933, with Hermann Rauschning becoming President of the Senate of Danzig.

Rauschning was removed from his position by Forster and replaced by Arthur Greiser in November 1934.[25] He later appealed to the public not to vote for the Nazis in the 1935 elections.[9] Political opposition to the Nazis was repressed[32] with several politicians being imprisoned and murdered.[33][34] The economic policy of Danzig's Nazi-led government, which increased the public issues for employment-creation programs[35] and the retrenchment of financial aid from Germany led to a devaluation of more than 40% of the Danziger Gulden in 1935.[10][36][37][38][39][40] The Gold reserves of the Bank of Danzig declined from 30 million Gulden in 1933 to 13 million in 1935 and the foreign asset reserve from 10 million to 250,000 Gulden.[41] In 1935, Poland protested when Danzig's Senate reduced the value of the Gulden so that it would be the same as the Polish Zloty.[42]

As in Germany, the Nazis introduced an "Enabling Act" and the racialist Nuremberg laws (November 1938);[43] existing parties and unions were gradually banned. The presence of the League of Nations however still guaranteed a minimum of legal certainty. In 1935, the opposition parties, except for the Polish Party, filed a lawsuit to the Danzig High Court in protest against the manipulation of the Volkstag elections.[9][25] The opposition also protested to the League of Nations, as did the Jewish Community of Danzig.[44][45]

German-Polish tensions [edit]

The rights of the Second Polish Republic within the territory of the Free City were stipulated in the Treaty of Paris of 9 November 1920 and the Treaty of Warsaw of 24 October 1921.[46] The details of the Polish privileges soon became a permanent matter of disputes between the local populace and the Polish State. While the representatives of the Free City tried to uphold the City's autonomy and sovereignty, Poland sought to extend its privileges.[47]

Throughout the Polish–Soviet War, local dockworkers went on strike and refused to unload ammunition supplies for the Polish Army. While the ammunition was finally unloaded by British troops,[48] the incident led to the establishment of a permanent ammunition depot at the Westerplatte and the construction of a trade and naval port in Gdynia,[49] whose total exports and imports surpassed those of Danzig in May 1932.[50] In December 1925, the Council of the League of Nations agreed to the establishment of a Polish military guard of 88 men on the Westerplatte peninsula to protect the war material depot.[51][52]

Several disputes between Danzig and Poland occurred in the sequel. The Free City protested against the Westerplatte depot, the placement of Polish letter boxes within the City[53] and the presence of Polish war vessels at the harbour.[54] The attempt of the Free City to join the International Labour Organization was rejected by the Permanent Court of International Justice at the League of Nations after protests of the Polish ILO delegate.[55][56]

After Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, the Polish military doubled the number of troops at Westerplatte breaking international law in order to test the reaction of the new chancellor. After international protests the additional troops were withdrawn.[57] Fears of Polish aggression produced by this and other disputes further stoked by Nazi propaganda would give the local Nazis an absolute majority in the May 1933 Volkstag elections.[58]

Until June 1933, the High Commissioner decided in 66 cases of dispute between Danzig and Poland; in 54 cases one of the parties appealed to the Permanent Court of International Justice.[59] Subsequent disputes were resolved in direct negotiations between the Senate and Poland after both had agreed to abstain from further appeals to the International Court in the summer of 1933 and bilateral agreements were concluded.[60]

In the aftermath of the German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact of 1934, Danzig–Polish relations improved and Adolf Hitler instructed the local Nazi government to cease anti-Polish actions.[61] In return, Poland did not support the actions of the anti- Nazi opposition in Danzig. The Polish Ambassador to Germany, Józef Lipski, stated in a meeting with Hermann Göring:[62]

... that a National Socialist Senate in Danzig is also most desirable from our point of view, since it brought about a rapprochement between the Free City and Poland, I would like to remind him that we have always kept aloof from internal Danzig problems. In spite of approaches repeatedly made by the opposition parties, we rejected any attempt to draw us into action against the Senate. I mentioned quite confidentially that the Polish minority in Danzig was advised not to join forces with the opposition at the time of elections.

When Carl J. Burckhardt became High Commissioner in February 1937, both Poles and Germans openly welcomed his withdrawal, and Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Józef Beck notified him not to "count on the support of the Polish State" in the case of difficulties with the Senate or the Nazi Party.[63]

While the Senate appeared to respect the agreements with Poland, the "Nazification of Danzig proceeded relentlessly"[64] and Danzig became a springboard for anti-Polish propaganda among the German and Ukrainian minority in Poland.[65] The Catholic Bishop of Danzig, Edward O'Rourke, was forced to withdraw after he had tried to implement four additional Polish nationals as parish priests in October 1937.[22]

This section requires expansion. (July 2014)

See also: Polish Corridor

The German policy openly changed immediately after the Munich Conference in October 1938, when German Minister of Foreign Affairs Joachim von Ribbentrop demanded the incorporation of the Free City into the Reich.[66] In April 1939, High Commissioner Burckhardt was told by the Polish Commissioner-General that any attempt to alter its status would be answered with armed resistance on the part of Poland.[67]

Second World War and aftermath [edit]

World War II began with the shelling of the Westerplatte on 1 September 1939. Gauleiter Forster entered the High Commissioner's residence and ordered him to leave the City within two hours,[68] and the Free City was formally incorporated into the newly formed Reichsgau of Danzig-West Prussia. Polish civilian Post Office employees had received military training and were in possession of a cache of weapons – mostly pistols, three light machine guns, and some hand grenades – and were thus able to defend the Polish Post Office for fifteen hours. Upon their surrender, they were tried and executed. (The sentence was officially revoked by a German court as illegal in 1998.)[69][70] The Polish military forces in the city held

out until 7 September. Up to 4,500 members of Polish minority were arrested with Schleswig-Holstein firing at Westerplatte many of them executed[71] By the end of the Second World War, nearly all the city had been reduced to ruins. On 30 March 1945, the city was taken by the Red Army. It is estimated that nearly all the pre-war inhabitants were either dead or had fled.[citation needed] A number of inhabitants of the city perished when the military training ship Wilhelm Gustloff used for evacuation was sunk. It had up to 10,000 refugees on board at the time, including about 1,000 seriously wounded soldiers and sailors.

At the Yalta Conference in February 1945, the Allies agreed that the city would become part of Poland.[72]

By 1950, around 285,000 fled and expelled citizens of the former Free City were living in Germany,[citation needed] and 13,424 citizens of the former Free City had been "verified" and granted Polish citizenship.[73] 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- [73] annexed Eastern Poland took their place. 1 September 1939: German troops remove Polish insignia at the Polish–Danzig border In fiction [edit] near Zoppot. Historical Danzig forms the setting for several major works of Nobel Prize-winning author Günter Grass, including his acclaimed Danzig Trilogy novels The Tin Drum and Dog Years, as well as in his memoirs. Grass grew up in the Danzig suburb of Langfuhr (now Wrzeszcz).

See also [edit] Areas annexed by Nazi Germany Danzig Corridor Alfons Flisykowski Danzig Research Society History of Gdańsk Administrations of Danzig before April 1945 Stutthof concentration camp

References [edit]

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Nations, Transitional Administration and State building . 38. ^ Andrzejewski, Marek (1994). Opposition und Widerstand in Oxford University Press. p. 20. ISBN 978-0-19-926348-6. Danzig (in German). Dietz. p. 99. ISBN 9783801240547. Retrieved 2011-04-26. 39. ^ Cieslak, Edmund; Biernat, Czeslaw (1995). History of 6. ^ Levine, Herbert S., Hitler's Free City: A History of the Nazi Gdańsk . Fundacji Biblioteki Gdánskiej. p. 454. Party in Danzig, 1925-39 (University of Chicago Press, 1970), ISBN 9788386557004. p. 102. 40. ^ Matull, "Ostdeutschlands Arbeiterbewegung", pp. 417, 7. ^ Text in League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. 6, pp. 190– 418. 207. 41. ^ Intelligence Service Economic Intelligence Service; 8. ^ a b "Danzig subsection of Poland entry from World Service, Intellige Economic Intelligence (2007-03-01). Statesmen.org" . Commercial Banks 1929–1934 . League of Nations. 9. ^ a b c d Matull, Wilhelm (1973). "Ostdeutschlands p. LXXXIX. ISBN 978-1-4067-5963-1. Arbeiterbewegung: Abriß ihrer Geschichte, Leistung und 42. ^ Ruhnau, Rüdiger (1971). Danzig: Geschichte einer Opfer" (in German). Holzner. p. 419. Deutschen Stadt (in German). Holzner Verlag. p. 103. 10. ^ a b c Mason, John Brown (1946). The Danzig Dilemma, A 43. ^ Schwartze­Köhler, Hannelore (June 2009). "Die Study in Peacemaking by Compromise . Stanford Blechtrommel" von Günter Grass:Bedeutung, Erzähltechnik University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-2444-9. Retrieved 2011- und Zeitgeschichte (in German). Frank & Timme GmbH. 04-26. p. 396. ISBN 978-3-86596-237-9. 11. ^ Cieślak, E Biernat, C (1995) History of Gdánsk, Fundacji 44. ^ Kreutzberger, Max (1970). Leo Baeck Institute New York Biblioteki Gdanskiej, P455 Bibliothek und Archiv (in German). Mohr Siebeck. p. 67. 12. ^ Zapiski historyczne: Volume 60, page 256, Towarzystwo ISBN 978-3-16-830772-3. Naukowe w Toruniu. Wydział Nauk Historycznych – 1995 45. ^ Bacon, Gershon C. "Danzig Jewry: A Short History" . 13. ^ a b Ludność polska w Wolnym Mieście Gdańsku, 1920– Jewish Virtual Library. 1939, page 37, Henryk Stępniak, Wydawnictwo "Stella 46. ^ Hannum, Hurst (2011-10-12). Autonomy, Sovereignty and Maris", 1991, "Przyjmując, że Polacy gdańscy stanowili Self-Determination . University of Pennsylvania. p. 375. 25 — 30% ogólnej liczby ludności katolickiej Wolnego ISBN 978-0-8122-1572-4. Miasta Gdańska, liczącej w 1920 r. około 110 000 osób, 47. ^ Stahn, Carsten (2008-05-22). The Law and Practice of można ustalić, że w liczbach bezwzględnych stanowiło International Territorial Administration . Cambridge można ustalić, że w liczbach bezwzględnych stanowiło to University Press. p. 173 ff, 177. ISBN 978-0-521-87800-5. 30­ – 36 tyś. osób. Jeśli do liczby tej dodamy ok. 4 tyś. 48. ^ Hutt, Alan (2006-05-30). The Post-War history of the ludności obywatelstwa polskiego, otrzymamy łącznie ok. British Working Class . READ BOOKS. p. 38. ISBN 978-1- 9,4–11% ogółu ludności." 4067-9826-5. 14. ^ Samerski, Stefan (2003). Das Bistum Danzig in 49. ^ Buell, Raymond Leslie (2007-03-31). Poland – Key to Lebensbildern (in German). LIT Verlag. p. 8. ISBN 3-8258- Europe . READ BOOKS. p. 159. ISBN 978-1-4067-4564-1. 6284-4. 50. ^ Eugene van Cleef, "Danzig and Gdynia," Geographical 15. ^ Stuthoff Zeszyty 4 4 Stanislaw Mikos Recenzje i Review, Vol. 23, No. 1. (Jan., 1933): 106. omówienia Andrzej Drzycimski, Polacy w Wolnym Mieście 51. ^ Cieślak, E Biernat, C (1995) History of Gdańsk, Fundacji Gdańsku /1920 – 1933/. Polityka Seantu gdańskiego wobec Biblioteki Gdanskiej. p. 436 ludności polskiej Wrocław – Warszawa – Kraków – Gdańsk 52. ^ By a decision of the League Council in December 1925, 1978, the guard which the Poles were entitled to maintain on this 16. ^ Die Freie Stadt Danzig (German) spot [Westerplatte peninsula] was limited to 88 men, though 17. ^ Dr. Juergensen, Die freie Stadt Danzig, Danzig: Kafemann, the number might be increased with the consent of the High 1925. Commissioner. Geoffrey Malcolm Gathorne-Hardy. A Short 18. ^ Bacon, Gershon C.; Vivian B. Mann; Joseph Gutmann History of International Affairs, 1920 to 1934. Royal institute (1980). Danzig Jewry: A Short History . Jewish Museum of international affairs (1934). Oxford University Press. p. (New York). p. 31. ISBN 978-0-8143-1662-7. 384. 19. ^ Those congregations in Polish-annexed West Prussia 53. ^ worldcourts.com PCIJ, Advisory Opinion No. 11 (Pomeranian Voivodeship) merged into the new United 54. ^ worldcourts.com PCIJ, Advisory Opinion No. 22 Evangelical Church in Poland, which emerged from the old- 55. ^ worldcourts.com PCIJ, Advisory Opinion No. 18 Prussian Posen ecclesiastical province, with its consistory 56. ^ Lauterpacht, H (1936). "International Law Reports 1929– seated in Poznań. 1930" . Advisory Opinion No 18: Free City of Danzig and 20. ^ In June 1922 the Senate of Danzig and the old-Prussian International Labour Organization on August 26, 1930, ecclesiastical executive, the Evangelical Supreme Collection of Advisory Opinions: Free City of Danzig and Ecclesiastical Council (Evangelischer Oberkirchenrat, EOK), International Labour Organization, No. 18 Series B File F concluded a contract to that end. Cf. Adalbert Erler, Die (1930) (H. Lauterpacht). ISBN 978-0-521-46350-8. Retrieved rechtliche Stellung der evangelischen Kirche in Danzig, 2009-08-30. Berlin: 1929, simultaneously Univ. of Greifswald, Department 57. ^ Hargreaves, R (2010) Blitzkrieg Unleashed: The German of Law and Politics, doctor thesis of 21 February 1929, pp. Invasion of Poland, 1939 P31-2 36 seqq. 58. ^ Epstein, C (2012) Model Nazi: Arthur Greiser and the 21. ^ a b Georg May. Ludwig Kaas: der Priester, der Politiker Occupation of Western Poland, Oxford University PressPage P58 7 / 8 und der Gelehrte aus der Schule von Ulrich Stutz. John 59. ^ Hurst Hannum, p. 377. Benjamins Publishing. p. 175. ISBN 978-90-6032-197-3. 60. ^ Schlochauer, Hans J.; Krüger, Herbert; Mosler, Hermann 22. ^ a b Samerski, Stefan; Reimund Haas; Karl Josef Rivinius; (1960-05-01). Wörterbuch des Völkerrechts; Aachener Hermann-Josef Scheidgen (2000). Ein aussichtsloses Kongress – Hussar Fall (in German). de Gruyter Verlag. Unternehmen – Die Reaktivierung Bischof Eduard Graf pp. 307, 309. ISBN 978-3-11-001030-5. O’Rourkes 1939 (in German). Böhlau Verlag Köln 61. ^ Hiden, John; Lane, Thomas; Prazmowska, Anita J. (1992). Weimar. p. 378. ISBN 3-412-04100-9. The Baltic and the Outbreak of the Second World War . 23. ^ Hans­Jürgen Karp; Joachim Köhler (2001). Katholische Cambridge University Press. p. 74 ff, 80. ISBN 0-521-40467- Kirche unter nationalsozialistischer und kommunistischer 3. Diktatur: Deutschland und Polen 1939–1989. Böhlau Verlag 62. ^ Prazmowska, p. 80. Köln Weimar. p. 162. ISBN 978-3-412-11800-6. 63. ^ Prazmowska, p. 81. 24. ^ Ruhnau, Rüdiger (1971). Danzig: Geschichte einer 64. ^ Prazmowska, p. 85. Deutschen Stadt (in German). Holzner Verlag. p. 94. 65. ^ Prazmowska, p. 83. a b c 25. ^ Sodeikat, Ernst (1966). "Der Nationalsozialismus und 66. ^ Wasserstein, Bernard (2007). Barbarism and die Danziger Opposition" (in German). Institut für Civilization . Oxford University Press. p. 279. ISBN 978-0- Zeitgeschichte. p. 139 ff. 19-873074-3. 26. ^ Grass, Günther; Vivian B. Mann; Joseph Gutmann; Jewish 67. ^ Woodward, E.L., Butler, Rohan, Orde, Anne, editors, Museum (New York, N.Y.) (1980). Danzig 1939, treasures of Documents on British Foreign Policy 1919–1939, 3rd series, a destroyed community . The Jewish Museum, New York. vol.v, HMSO, London, 1952:25 p. 33. ISBN 978-0-8143-1662-7. 68. ^ Bleimeier, John Kuhn (1990-03-01). Hague Yearbook of 27. ^ Gdansk at the Jewish Virtual Library. International Law . Martinus Nijhoff Publ. p. 91. ISBN 0- 28. ^ Lemkin, Raphael (2008-06-30). Axis Rule in Occupied 7923-0655-4. Europe . The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. p. 155. ISBN 978-1- 69. ^ Dieter Schenk (1995). Die Post von Danzig: Geschichte 58477-901-8. eines deutschen Justizmords. p. 150. ISBN 3-498-06288-3. 29. ^ (German) Constitution of Danzig 70. ^ Dieter Schenk, Die Post von Danzig 30. ^ Matull, "Ostdeutschlands Arbeiterbewegung", p. 419. 71. ^ [1] 31. ^ (German) Die Freie Stadt Danzig, Wahlen 1919–1935 72. ^ The History of Poland Since 1863 By Robert F. Leslie page 32. ^ Ratner, Steven R. (1995-02-15). The new UN 281 peacekeeping . Palgrave Macmillan. p. 94. ISBN 0-312- 73. ^ a b Bykowska, Sylwia (2005). "Gdańsk – Miasto (Szybko) 12415-5. Odzyskane" . Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej (in 33. ^ Sodeikat, p.170, p. 173, Fn.92 Polish) 9–10 (56–57): 35–44. ISSN 1641-9561 . Retrieved 34. ^ Matull, "Ostdeutschlands Arbeiterbewegung", p. 440, 450. 2009-07-24.

External links [edit]

Extensive Prussian/ Danzig Historical Materials (many in German) Wikimedia Commons has Map of the Free City media related to Free City of Danzig. Jewish community history History of Gdańsk / Danzig Danzig Online Gdańsk history Celebration of Gdańsk's centenary in 1997 History & Hallucination , Wanderlust, Salon.com, January 5, 1998. The power of Gdansk at the Wayback Machine (archived September 30, 2007) 1933 Danzig passport , from passportland.com. First hand account of growing up in Danzig in the 1930s , a video interview.

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Categories: Former republics Former polities of the interwar period Former countries in Europe States and territories established in 1920 States and territories disestablished in 1939 Free City of Danzig League of Nations mandates

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Main page Contents Free City of Danzig Featured content Coordinates: 54°21′N 18°40′E Current events From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Random article Donate to Wikipedia For the Napoleonic client-state of the same name, see Free City of Danzig (Napoleonic). Wikimedia Shop The Free City of Danzig (German: Freie Stadt Danzig; Polish: Wolne Miasto Free City of Danzig Interaction Gdańsk) was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and Freie Stadt Danzig (German) Help 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) and Wolne Miasto Gdańsk (Polish) About Wikipedia nearly 200 towns in the surrounding areas. It was created on 15 November Community portal 1920[1][2] in accordance with the terms of Article 100 (Section XI of Part III) of Free City under League of Nations Recent changes protection the 1919 Treaty of Versailles after the end of World War I. Contact page ← The Free City included the city of Danzig and other nearby towns, villages, and → Tools ← 1920–1939 What links here settlements that had been primarily inhabited by ethnic Germans. As the → ← Related changes Treaty stated, the region was to remain separated from post-World War I Upload file Germany (the Weimar Republic) and from the newly independent nation of the Special pages Second Polish Republic ("interwar Poland"), but it was not an independent Permanent link state.[3] The Free City was under League of Nations protection and put into a Page information binding customs union with Poland. Wikidata item Cite this page Poland was given full rights to develop and maintain transportation, [4] Print/export communication, and port facilities in the city. The Free City was created in Flag Coat of arms Create a book order to give Poland access to a well-sized seaport, although it was Anthem Download as PDF acknowledged that the city's population was about 95 percent German.[5] The Für Danzig / Gdańsku Printable version German majority deeply resented being separated from Germany, and in some

Languages cases subjected the Polish minority to discrimination. This was especially true Български after the Nazi Party gained political control in 1935-36.[6] Brezhoneg Since Poland still was not in complete control of the seaport, especially Català regarding military equipment, a new seaport was built in nearby Gdynia, Čeština Dansk beginning 1921. Deutsch In 1933, the City's government was taken over by the local Nazi Party, which Eesti suppressed democratic opposition. Due to anti-Semitic persecution and Danzig, surrounded by Germany and Poland. Español oppression, many Jews fled. After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the Esperanto Euskara Nazis abolished the Free City and incorporated the area into the newly formed Français Reichsgau of Danzig-West Prussia. The Germans classified the Poles and Galego Jews as subhumans, subjecting them to discrimination, forced labor, and 한국어 extermination. Many were sent to death at concentration camps, including Hrvatski nearby Stutthof (now Sztutowo, Poland). Italiano ,During the city's conquest by the Soviet Army in the early months of 1945 עברית many citizens fled or were killed. After the war, many surviving ethnic Germans Kaszëbsczi were expelled and deported to the West when members of the pre-war Polish Latina minority started returning. The city subsequently became part of Poland, as a Lietuvių consequence of the Potsdam Agreement. Polish settlers were recruited to Magyar मराठी replace the German population. Nederlands Contents [hide] 日本語 Location of the Free City of Danzig in 1930 Europe. Norsk bokmål 1 Establishment Polski 1.1 Periods of independence and autonomy Capital Danzig Português 1.2 Territory Languages German Română 1.3 Polish rights declared by Treaty of Versailles Polish Русский 1.4 League of Nations High Commissioners Religion 64.6% Lutheran Simple English 32.2% Catholic 2 Population [citation needed] Slovenčina (1938) 2.1 Religion Српски / srpski 2.1.1 Regional Synodal Federation of the Free City of Danzig Government Republic Srpskohrvatski / High српскохрватски 2.1.2 Diocese of Danzig of the Roman Catholic Church Commissioner Suomi 2.1.3 Jewish Danzigers - 1919–1920 Reginald Tower Svenska 3 Politics - 1937–1939 Carl Burckhardt Українська 3.1 Government Senate President Tiếng Việt 3.2 German-Polish tensions - 1920–1931 Heinrich Sahm 中文 - 1934–1939 Arthur Greiser 4 Second World War and aftermath Edit links 5 In fiction Legislature Volkstag 6 See also Historical era Interwar period 7 References - Established 15 November 1920 - Invasion of 8 External links Poland 1 September 1939 - Annexed by Germany 2 September 1939 Establishment [edit] Area - 1923 1,966 km² (759 sq mi) Periods of independence and autonomy [edit] Population Danzig had an early history of independence. It was a leading player in the - 1923 est. 366,730 Prussian Confederation directed against the Teutonic Monastic State of Density 186.5 /km² (483.1 /sq mi) Prussia. The Confederation stipulated with the Polish king, Casimir IV Jagiellon, Currency Papiermark (before 1923) that the Polish Crown would be invested with the role of head of state of Danzig gulden (from 1923) western parts of Prussia (Royal Prussia). In contrast, Ducal Prussia remained a Today part of Poland Polish fief. Danzig and other cities such as Elbing and Thorn financed most of the warfare and enjoyed a high level of city autonomy. Danzig used the title Royal Polish City of Danzig.

In 1569, when Royal Prussia's estates agreed to incorporate the region into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the city insisted on preserving its special status. 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.[citation needed]

Although Danzig became part of the Kingdom of Prussia in the Second Partitition of Poland in 1793, Prussia was conquered by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1806, and in September 1807 Napoleon declared Danzig a semi-independent Client state of the French Empire, known as the Free City of Danzig. It lasted seven years, until it was re-incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia in 1814, after Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Leipzig (Battle of Nations by a coalition that included Russia, Austria and Prussia.

Territory [edit]

The interwar Free City of Danzig (1920–39) included the city of Danzig (Gdańsk), the towns of Zoppot (Sopot), Oliva (Oliwa), Tiegenhof (Nowy Dwór Gdański), Neuteich (Nowy Staw) and some 252 villages and 63 hamlets, covering a total area of 1,966 square kilometers (754 sq mi).

Polish rights declared by Treaty of Versailles [edit]

The Free City was to be represented abroad by Poland and was to be in a customs union with it. The German railway line that connected the Free City with 20 Danzig gulden note from the interwar period newly created Poland was to be administered by Poland, as were all rail lines in the territory of the Free City. On November 9, 1920, a convention that provided for the Presence of a Polish diplomatic representative in Danzig was signed between the Polish government and the Danzig authorities. In article 6, the Polish government undertook not to conclude any international agreements regarding Danzig without previous consultation with the Free City's government.[7]

A separate Polish post office was established, besides the existing municipal one.

League of Nations High Commissioners [edit]

Unlike Mandatory territories, which were entrusted to member countries, The Free City of Danzig (like the Territory of the Saar Basin) remained directly under the authority of the League of Nations. Representatives of various countries took on the role of High Commissioner:[8]

№ Name Period Country 1 Reginald Thomas Tower 1919–1920 United Kingdom 2 Edward Lisle Strutt 1920 United Kingdom 3 Bernardo Attolico 1920 Italy

4 Richard Cyril Byrne Haking 1921–1923 United Kingdom 5 Mervyn Sorley McDonnell 1923–1925 United Kingdom 6 Joost Adriaan van Hamel 1925–1929 Netherlands

7 Manfredi di Gravina 1929–1932 Italy 8 Helmer Rosting 1932–1934 Denmark

9 Seán Lester 1934–1936 Irish Free State Passport of the Free City of Danzig. 10 Carl Jakob Burckhardt 1937–1939 Switzerland

The League of Nations refused to let the city-state use the term of Hanseatic City as part of its official name; this referred to Danzig's long-lasting membership in the Hanseatic League.[9]

Population [edit]

The Free City's population rose from 357,000 (1919) to 408,000 in 1929; according to the official census, 95% were Germans,[10]:5, 11 with the rest mainly either Kashubians or Poles. According to E. Cieślak, the population registers of the Free City show that in 1929 the Polish population numbered 35,000, or 9.5% of the population.[11][need quotation to verify]

Henryk Stępniak estimates the 1929 Polish population as around 22,000, or around 6% of the population, increasing to around 13% in the 1930s.[12] Based on the estimated voting patterns (according to Stępniak many Poles voted for the Catholic Zentrumspartei instead of Polish parties), Stępniak estimates the number of Poles in the city to be 25–30% of Catholics living within it or about 30–36 thousand people.[13] Including around 4,000 Polish nationals who were registered in the city, Stępniak estimated the Polish population as 9.4–11% of population.[13]

In contrast Stefan Samerski estimates about 10 percent of the 130,000 Catholics Population density of Poland and the Free were Polish.[14] Andrzej Drzycimski estimates that Polish population at the end of City of Danzig (Gdansk), 1930. 30s reached 20%(including Poles who arrived after the war)[15]

The Treaty of Versailles required that the newly formed state have its own citizenship, based on residency. German inhabitants lost their German Citizenship with the creation of the Free City, but were given the right to re-obtain it within the first two years of the state's existence. Anyone desiring German citizenship had to leave their property and make their residence outside of the Free State of Danzig area in the remaining parts of Germany.[4]

Total population by language, November 1, 1923 according to the Free City of Danzig census[10]:11 Nationality German German and Polish, Kashub, Russian, Hebrew, Unclassified Total Polish Masurian Ukrainian Yiddish Danzig 327,827 1,108 6,788 99 22 77 335,921 Non-Danzig 20,666 521 5,239 2,529 580 1,274 30,809 Total 348,493 1,629 12,027 2,628 602 1,351 366,730 Percent 95.03% 0.44% 3.28% 0.72% 0.16% 0.37% 100.00%

Religion [edit]

In 1924, 54.7% of the populace was Protestant (220,731 persons, mostly Lutherans within the united old-Prussian church), 34.5% was Catholic (140,797 persons), and 2.4% Jewish (9,239 persons). Other Protestants included 5,604 Mennonites, 1,934 Calvinists (Reformed), 1,093 Baptists, 410 Free Religionists, as well as 2,129 dissenters, 1,394 faithful of other religions and denominations, and 664 irreligionists.[16][17] The Jewish community grew from 2,717 in 1910 to 7,282 in 1923, and 10,448 in 1929, many of them immigrants from Poland and Russia, where pogroms were conducted against them and discrimination was severe.[18]

Regional Synodal Federation of the Free City of Danzig [edit]

The mostly Lutheran and partially Reformed congregations situated in the territory of the Free City, which previously used to belong to the Ecclesiastical Province of West Prussia of the Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union (EKapU), were transformed into the Regional Synodal Federation of the Free City of Danzig after 1920. The executive body of that ecclesiastical province, the consistory (est. 1 November 1886), was seated in Danzig. After 1920 it was restricted in its responsibility to those congregations within the Free City's territory.[19] General Superintendent Paul The then-Lutheran Supreme Parish Kalweit (1920–1933) and Bishop Johannes Beermann (1933–1945) presided over the Church of St. Mary's in Danzig's consistory, one after another. Rechtstadt quarter. Unlike the Second Polish Republic, which opposed the cooperation of the United Evangelical Church in Poland with EKapU, Volkstag and Senate of Danzig approved cross-border religious bodies. Danzig's Regional Synodal Federation — just as the regional synodal federation of the autonomous Memelland — retained the status of an ecclesiastical province within EKapU.[20]

After the German annexation of the Free City in 1939, the EKapU merged the Danzig regional synodal federation in 1940 into the Ecclesiastical Region of Danzig-West Prussia. This included the Polish congregations of the United Evangelical Church in Poland in the homonymous Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia and the German congregations in the West Prussia governorate. Danzig's consistory functioned as an executive body for that region. With the flight and expulsion of most German Protestant parishioners from the area of the Free City of Danzig between 1945 and 1948, the congregations vanished.

In March 1945, the consistory had relocated to Lübeck and opened a refugee centre for Danzigers (Hilfsstelle beim evangelischen Konsistorium Danzig) led by Upper Consistorial Councillor Gerhard M. Gülzow. 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. Other Lutheran congregations of Danzig could reclaim their church bells, which the Wehrmacht had requisitioned as non-ferrous metal for war purposes since 1940, but which had survived, not yet melted down, in storage (e.g. Glockenfriedhof) in the British zone of occupation. The presbyteries granted them usually to Northwestern German Lutheran congregations which had lost bells due to the war.

Diocese of Danzig of the Roman Catholic Church [edit] Main article: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Gdańsk

The 36 Catholic parishes in the territory of the Free City in 1922 used to belong in equal shares to the Diocese of Culm, which was mostly Polish, and the Diocese of Ermland, which was mostly German. While the Second Polish Republic wanted all the parishes within the Free City to form part of Polish Culm, Volkstag and Senate wanted them all to become subject to German Ermland.[21] In 1922 the Holy See suspended the jurisdictions of both dioceses over their parishes in the Free State and established an exempt apostolic administration for the territory.[21]

The first apostolic administrator was Edward O'Rourke who became Bishop of Danzig on the occasion of the elevation of the administration to an exempt diocese. He was naturalised as Danziger on the same occasion. In 1938 he resigned after quarrels with the Nazi-dominated Senate of Danzig on appointments of parish priests of Polish ethnicity.[22] The senate also instigated the denaturalisation of O'Rourke, who subsequently became a Polish citizen. O'Rourke was succeeded by Bishop Carl Maria Splett, a native from the Free City area. The Archcathedral of the Holy Trinity, Splett remained bishop after the German annexation of the Free City. In early 1941, he Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Bernard applied for admitting the Danzig diocese as member in Archbishop Adolf Bertram's in Oliva, Danzig. Eastern German Ecclesiastical Province and thus at the Fulda Conference of Bishops; however, Bertram, also speaker of the Fulda conference, rejected the request.[23] Any arguments that the Free City of Danzig had been annexed to Nazi Germany did not impress Bertram since Danzig's annexation lacked international recognition. Until the reorganization of the Catholic dioceses in Danzig and the formerly eastern territories of Germany the diocesan territory remained unaltered and the see exempt. However, with the replacement of Danzig's population between 1945 and 1948 by mostly-Catholic Poles, the number of Catholic parishes increased and most formerly-Protestant churches were taken over for Catholic services.

Jewish Danzigers [edit] Main article: Jewish Community in the Free City of Danzig

Since 1883 most of the Jewish congregations in the later territory of Free State had merged into the Synagogal Community of Danzig. Only the Jews of Tiegenhof ran their own congregation until 1938.

Danzig became a centre of Polish and Russian Jewish emigration to North America. Between 1920 and 1925 60,000 Jews emigrated via Danzig to the US and Canada. At the same time, between 1923 and 1929, Danzig's own Jewish population increased from roughly 7,000 to 10,500.[24] Native Jews and newcomers established themselves in the city and contributed to its civic life, culture and economy. Danzig became a venue for international meetings of Jewish organisations, such as the convention of delegates from Jewish youth organisations of various nations, attended by David Ben-Gurion, which founded the World Union of Jewish Youth on 2 September 1924 in the Schützenhaus venue. On 21 March 1926 the Zionistische Organisation für Danzig convened delegates of Hechalutz from all over for the first conference in Danzig using Great Synagogue on Reitbahn Hebrew as common language, also attended by Ben Gurion. Street in Danzig's Rechtstadt quarter. With a Nazi majority in the Volkstag and Senate, anti-Semitic persecution and discrimination occurred unsanctioned by the authorities. In contrast to Germany, which exercised capital outflow control since 1931, emigration of Danzig's Jews was nonetheless somewhat easier, with capital transfers enabled by the Bank of Danzig. Moreover, the comparatively-few Danzig Jews were offered easier refuge in safe countries because of favorable Free City migration quotas.

After the anti-Jewish riots of Kristallnacht of 9/10 November 1938 in Germany, similar riots took place on 12/13 November in Danzig.[25][26] The Great Synagogue was taken over and demolished by the local authorities in 1939. Most Jews had already left the city and the Jewish Community of Danzig decided to organize its own emigration in early 1939.[27]

Politics [edit]

Government [edit]

Heads of State of the Free City of Danzig[8] № Name Took office Left office Party Presidents of the Danzig Senate 1 Heinrich Sahm 6 December 1920 10 January 1931 None 2 Ernst Ziehm 10 January 1931 20 June 1933 DNVP 3 Hermann Rauschning 20 June 1933 23 November 1934 NSDAP 4 Arthur Karl Greiser 23 November 1934 23 August 1939 NSDAP State President

5 Albert Forster 23 August 1939 1 September 1939 NSDAP Flag of the Danzig Senate.

The Free City was governed by the Senate of the Free City of Danzig, which was elected by the parliament (Volkstag) for a legislative period of four years. The official language was German,[28] although the usage of Polish was guaranteed by law.[29][30] The political parties in the Free City corresponded with the political parties in Weimar Germany; the most influential parties in the 1920s were the conservative German National People's Party, the Social Democratic Party of the Free City of Danzig and the Catholic Centre Party. A Communist Party was founded in 1921 with its origins in the Spartacus League and the Communist Party of East Prussia. Several liberal parties and Free Voter's Associations existed and ran in the elections with varying success. A Polish Party represented the Polish minority and received between 3% (1933) and 6% (1920) of the vote (in total, 4,358 votes in 1933 and 9,321 votes in 1920).[31]

Initially, the Nazi Party had only a small amount of success (0.8% of the vote in 1927) and was even briefly dissolved.[9] Its influence grew with the onset of difficult economic times and the increasing popularity of the Nazi Party in Germany proper. Albert Forster became the Gauleiter in October 1930. The Nazis won 50 percent of votes in the Volkstag elections of 28 May 1933, and took control of the Senate in June 1933, with Hermann Rauschning becoming President of the Senate of Danzig.

Rauschning was removed from his position by Forster and replaced by Arthur Greiser in November 1934.[25] He later appealed to the public not to vote for the Nazis in the 1935 elections.[9] Political opposition to the Nazis was repressed[32] with several politicians being imprisoned and murdered.[33][34] The economic policy of Danzig's Nazi-led government, which increased the public issues for employment-creation programs[35] and the retrenchment of financial aid from Germany led to a devaluation of more than 40% of the Danziger Gulden in 1935.[10][36][37][38][39][40] The Gold reserves of the Bank of Danzig declined from 30 million Gulden in 1933 to 13 million in 1935 and the foreign asset reserve from 10 million to 250,000 Gulden.[41] In 1935, Poland protested when Danzig's Senate reduced the value of the Gulden so that it would be the same as the Polish Zloty.[42]

As in Germany, the Nazis introduced an "Enabling Act" and the racialist Nuremberg laws (November 1938);[43] existing parties and unions were gradually banned. The presence of the League of Nations however still guaranteed a minimum of legal certainty. In 1935, the opposition parties, except for the Polish Party, filed a lawsuit to the Danzig High Court in protest against the manipulation of the Volkstag elections.[9][25] The opposition also protested to the League of Nations, as did the Jewish Community of Danzig.[44][45]

German-Polish tensions [edit]

The rights of the Second Polish Republic within the territory of the Free City were stipulated in the Treaty of Paris of 9 November 1920 and the Treaty of Warsaw of 24 October 1921.[46] The details of the Polish privileges soon became a permanent matter of disputes between the local populace and the Polish State. While the representatives of the Free City tried to uphold the City's autonomy and sovereignty, Poland sought to extend its privileges.[47]

Throughout the Polish–Soviet War, local dockworkers went on strike and refused to unload ammunition supplies for the Polish Army. While the ammunition was finally unloaded by British troops,[48] the incident led to the establishment of a permanent ammunition depot at the Westerplatte and the construction of a trade and naval port in Gdynia,[49] whose total exports and imports surpassed those of Danzig in May 1932.[50] In December 1925, the Council of the League of Nations agreed to the establishment of a Polish military guard of 88 men on the Westerplatte peninsula to protect the war material depot.[51][52]

Several disputes between Danzig and Poland occurred in the sequel. The Free City protested against the Westerplatte depot, the placement of Polish letter boxes within the City[53] and the presence of Polish war vessels at the harbour.[54] The attempt of the Free City to join the International Labour Organization was rejected by the Permanent Court of International Justice at the League of Nations after protests of the Polish ILO delegate.[55][56]

After Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, the Polish military doubled the number of troops at Westerplatte breaking international law in order to test the reaction of the new chancellor. After international protests the additional troops were withdrawn.[57] Fears of Polish aggression produced by this and other disputes further stoked by Nazi propaganda would give the local Nazis an absolute majority in the May 1933 Volkstag elections.[58]

Until June 1933, the High Commissioner decided in 66 cases of dispute between Danzig and Poland; in 54 cases one of the parties appealed to the Permanent Court of International Justice.[59] Subsequent disputes were resolved in direct negotiations between the Senate and Poland after both had agreed to abstain from further appeals to the International Court in the summer of 1933 and bilateral agreements were concluded.[60]

In the aftermath of the German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact of 1934, Danzig–Polish relations improved and Adolf Hitler instructed the local Nazi government to cease anti-Polish actions.[61] In return, Poland did not support the actions of the anti- Nazi opposition in Danzig. The Polish Ambassador to Germany, Józef Lipski, stated in a meeting with Hermann Göring:[62]

... that a National Socialist Senate in Danzig is also most desirable from our point of view, since it brought about a rapprochement between the Free City and Poland, I would like to remind him that we have always kept aloof from internal Danzig problems. In spite of approaches repeatedly made by the opposition parties, we rejected any attempt to draw us into action against the Senate. I mentioned quite confidentially that the Polish minority in Danzig was advised not to join forces with the opposition at the time of elections.

When Carl J. Burckhardt became High Commissioner in February 1937, both Poles and Germans openly welcomed his withdrawal, and Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Józef Beck notified him not to "count on the support of the Polish State" in the case of difficulties with the Senate or the Nazi Party.[63]

While the Senate appeared to respect the agreements with Poland, the "Nazification of Danzig proceeded relentlessly"[64] and Danzig became a springboard for anti-Polish propaganda among the German and Ukrainian minority in Poland.[65] The Catholic Bishop of Danzig, Edward O'Rourke, was forced to withdraw after he had tried to implement four additional Polish nationals as parish priests in October 1937.[22]

This section requires expansion. (July 2014)

See also: Polish Corridor

The German policy openly changed immediately after the Munich Conference in October 1938, when German Minister of Foreign Affairs Joachim von Ribbentrop demanded the incorporation of the Free City into the Reich.[66] In April 1939, High Commissioner Burckhardt was told by the Polish Commissioner-General that any attempt to alter its status would be answered with armed resistance on the part of Poland.[67]

Second World War and aftermath [edit]

World War II began with the shelling of the Westerplatte on 1 September 1939. Gauleiter Forster entered the High Commissioner's residence and ordered him to leave the City within two hours,[68] and the Free City was formally incorporated into the newly formed Reichsgau of Danzig-West Prussia. Polish civilian Post Office employees had received military training and were in possession of a cache of weapons – mostly pistols, three light machine guns, and some hand grenades – and were thus able to defend the Polish Post Office for fifteen hours. Upon their surrender, they were tried and executed. (The sentence was officially revoked by a German court as illegal in 1998.)[69][70] The Polish military forces in the city held

out until 7 September. Up to 4,500 members of Polish minority were arrested with Schleswig-Holstein firing at Westerplatte many of them executed[71] By the end of the Second World War, nearly all the city had been reduced to ruins. On 30 March 1945, the city was taken by the Red Army. It is estimated that nearly all the pre-war inhabitants were either dead or had fled.[citation needed] A number of inhabitants of the city perished when the military training ship Wilhelm Gustloff used for evacuation was sunk. It had up to 10,000 refugees on board at the time, including about 1,000 seriously wounded soldiers and sailors.

At the Yalta Conference in February 1945, the Allies agreed that the city would become part of Poland.[72]

By 1950, around 285,000 fled and expelled citizens of the former Free City were living in Germany,[citation needed] and 13,424 citizens of the former Free City had been "verified" and granted Polish citizenship.[73] 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- [73] annexed Eastern Poland took their place. 1 September 1939: German troops remove Polish insignia at the Polish–Danzig border In fiction [edit] near Zoppot. Historical Danzig forms the setting for several major works of Nobel Prize-winning author Günter Grass, including his acclaimed Danzig Trilogy novels The Tin Drum and Dog Years, as well as in his memoirs. Grass grew up in the Danzig suburb of Langfuhr (now Wrzeszcz).

See also [edit] Areas annexed by Nazi Germany Danzig Corridor Alfons Flisykowski Danzig Research Society History of Gdańsk Administrations of Danzig before April 1945 Stutthof concentration camp

References [edit]

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Nations, Transitional Administration and State building . 38. ^ Andrzejewski, Marek (1994). Opposition und Widerstand in Oxford University Press. p. 20. ISBN 978-0-19-926348-6. Danzig (in German). Dietz. p. 99. ISBN 9783801240547. Retrieved 2011-04-26. 39. ^ Cieslak, Edmund; Biernat, Czeslaw (1995). History of 6. ^ Levine, Herbert S., Hitler's Free City: A History of the Nazi Gdańsk . Fundacji Biblioteki Gdánskiej. p. 454. Party in Danzig, 1925-39 (University of Chicago Press, 1970), ISBN 9788386557004. p. 102. 40. ^ Matull, "Ostdeutschlands Arbeiterbewegung", pp. 417, 7. ^ Text in League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. 6, pp. 190– 418. 207. 41. ^ Intelligence Service Economic Intelligence Service; 8. ^ a b "Danzig subsection of Poland entry from World Service, Intellige Economic Intelligence (2007-03-01). Statesmen.org" . Commercial Banks 1929–1934 . League of Nations. 9. ^ a b c d Matull, Wilhelm (1973). "Ostdeutschlands p. LXXXIX. ISBN 978-1-4067-5963-1. 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Mann; Joseph Gutmann; Jewish 67. ^ Woodward, E.L., Butler, Rohan, Orde, Anne, editors, Museum (New York, N.Y.) (1980). Danzig 1939, treasures of Documents on British Foreign Policy 1919–1939, 3rd series, a destroyed community . The Jewish Museum, New York. vol.v, HMSO, London, 1952:25 p. 33. ISBN 978-0-8143-1662-7. 68. ^ Bleimeier, John Kuhn (1990-03-01). Hague Yearbook of 27. ^ Gdansk at the Jewish Virtual Library. International Law . Martinus Nijhoff Publ. p. 91. ISBN 0- 28. ^ Lemkin, Raphael (2008-06-30). Axis Rule in Occupied 7923-0655-4. Europe . The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. p. 155. ISBN 978-1- 69. ^ Dieter Schenk (1995). Die Post von Danzig: Geschichte 58477-901-8. eines deutschen Justizmords. p. 150. ISBN 3-498-06288-3. 29. ^ (German) Constitution of Danzig 70. ^ Dieter Schenk, Die Post von Danzig 30. ^ Matull, "Ostdeutschlands Arbeiterbewegung", p. 419. 71. ^ [1] 31. ^ (German) Die Freie Stadt Danzig, Wahlen 1919–1935 72. ^ The History of Poland Since 1863 By Robert F. Leslie page 32. ^ Ratner, Steven R. (1995-02-15). The new UN 281 peacekeeping . Palgrave Macmillan. p. 94. ISBN 0-312- 73. ^ a b Bykowska, Sylwia (2005). "Gdańsk – Miasto (Szybko) 12415-5. Odzyskane" . Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej (in 33. ^ Sodeikat, p.170, p. 173, Fn.92 Polish) 9–10 (56–57): 35–44. ISSN 1641-9561 . Retrieved 34. ^ Matull, "Ostdeutschlands Arbeiterbewegung", p. 440, 450. 2009-07-24.

External links [edit]

Extensive Prussian/ Danzig Historical Materials (many in German) Wikimedia Commons has Map of the Free City media related to Free City of Danzig. Jewish community history History of Gdańsk / Danzig Danzig Online Gdańsk history Celebration of Gdańsk's centenary in 1997 History & Hallucination , Wanderlust, Salon.com, January 5, 1998. The power of Gdansk at the Wayback Machine (archived September 30, 2007) 1933 Danzig passport , from passportland.com. First hand account of growing up in Danzig in the 1930s , a video interview.

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Categories: Former republics Former polities of the interwar period Former countries in Europe States and territories established in 1920 States and territories disestablished in 1939 Free City of Danzig League of Nations mandates

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