The German Question, Part Ninety-Seven

"A Divisive Treaty" Part Six/C-2

"Territorial Changes/Eastern Boundaries"

The most contentious provisions of the Versailles Treaty were not really about the establishment of a Polish state, but rather what borders that new state would have. The Allies, much supported by American President Woodrow Wilson, wanted the new Polish nation to have an outlet to the Baltic Sea, mainly for the purpose of trade. The problem was, German East Prussia was directly to the north of most of the core of the new Polish nation, to the northeast lay Lithuania, and to the northwest lay much of German West Prussia. Lithuania was also just being established from the former Russian Empire, and was overwhelmingly Lithuanian.* East Prussia was overwhelmingly German, with some pro-Polish elements, mainly along its border areas with Poland.** This left West Prussia. The population of the region was somewhere between about 550,000 and 600,000 Poles and about 375,000 to 425,000 Germans. The area was given to Poland, providing a "corridor" to the Baltic Sea between German East Prussia to the east and the rest of Germany to the west. In the midst of the area lay the city of Danzig (Gdańsk in Polish) with a population of about 360,000, very heavily German. The combined Polish and Kashubian percentage of the population is tough to pin down, but "about" 10-12%. Kashubians were a Slavic people and thus related to the Poles. Danzig was made a "free city" under the administration of the newly established "League of Nations," but it was to serve Poland as a port.

No question about it, the "Polish Corridor," as it came to be called, and the detachment of Danzig from Germany, was a VERY sore spot for many Germans, and undoubtedly not just with right wing elements. This became a very significant territorial dispute with Poland a few years after Hitler took power and I will cover it later.

* The city of Memel (called "Klaipeda" by Lithuanians) and the area around it became part of Lithuania, after initial control by the League of Nations. The area had a population of about 140,000, about 27% of whom were Lithuanians, with the rest German and "Germanized" Lithuanians. The idea was to eventually hold a referendum to determine if the area should return to Germany, but it never happened. The loss of this territory remained something of a grievance for some Germans.

** East Prussia was a mixture of Germans and people of Slavic background who, over time, had been "Germanized," and thus many (probably most) saw themselves as "Germans." There were also some elements of Lithuanian background along its eastern border, many of them "Germanized." A referendum (plebiscite) was held in the border areas in accordance with the Versailles Treaty. The results were overwhelming for most areas remaining in Germany, and only a couple of small areas in the western part (bordering West Prussia) were made part of Poland.

WORD HISTORY:
Eat-This word goes back to the Indo European root "ed/et" (see note) which meant "to bite." This then gave Old Germanic "etanan," meaning "to eat," which then gave Old English "etan," with the same meaning. It later was spelled "eten," before acquiring the modern spelling "eat." Frisian has "ite," Dutch and Low German Saxon have "eten," standard German has "essen," Luxembourish has "iessen," Swedish has "äta," Icelandic has "eta." Both modern Danish and modern Norwegian use a different word for "eat," but Danish had "aede," and Norwegian had "ete" (might still be used in dialect?). The modern German and Luxembourgish "s" sound compared to the "t" in the other Germanic languages traces back centuries ago and is not uncommon in other words, like English "kettle," but German "Kessel." It was part of the sound shift that took place in the Germanic dialects generally stretching from central Germany southwards dating back about 1200 to 1400 years ago.

Note: In reference to "et," many, many years ago I heard this little joke: A boy in school told his teacher, "Teacher, I et six eggs for breakfast." The teacher said, "You mean ate, don't you?" The boy said, "Hm, maybe it was eight that I et." (Hey, no falling on the floor in laughter.)