The German Question, Part Ninety-Six

"A Divisive Treaty" Part Six/C-1"

Territorial Changes/Eastern Boundaries"

The territorial changes to Germany's eastern boundaries were significant, and some of the changes were highly controversial. Most of the province around the city of Posen ("Poznan" in Polish) was returned to the "new" Poland, although by that time the Poles had already captured much of the area from German control.* It contained a population of more than four million, overwhelmingly Polish, but with a German minority. There was no referendum, but the area would have undoubtedly voted in substantial numbers to be a part of Poland.

A small portion of Upper Silesia also became part of Poland, with some 25,000 citizens, most of them Polish. Again, no referendum, but similar to the above. Another portion of Upper Silesia went to the new state of Czechoslovakia, with nearly 50,000 residents, many of them of Czech ancestry. There was no referendum, but as the area had been under German rule and influence for so long, these "Germanized Czechs" may have opted for Germany, but the call to nationalism can be very powerful, and they likely would have chosen Czechoslovakia, but we will never know. In a larger part of Upper Silesia, a referendum had been held in accordance with the Versailles Treaty, with 60% voting to remain with Germany,** but a large portion of the area, with more than 900,000 people, was given to Poland after Poles took military control of that part of the region, after some serious fighting with nationalist German units. This territorial loss remained something of a German grievance. For Germans who had lived under authoritarian rule for centuries, this was not a good example of "democracy in action." In fact, for a people more accustomed to "might makes right," this whole episode only reinforced that notion, as the Poles seized much of the territory they were then awarded by the Allies, which went against the whole principle of the referendum established by the Treaty of Versailles. This is not a matter of being for Germany and against Poland. The problem was the provision of the Treaty of Versailles. Personally, I favor the idea of the heavily Polish districts joining Poland, rather than observing the overall regional vote, which would have given all to Germany. The more evenly divided districts would have been a problem, as no matter how the vote tilted, the other side would have been less than happy. Then there may also well have been pockets of either Germans or Poles within larger areas where one or the other group was a majority. Moving over the border into one country or the other is about the only solution, but not without great pain, as many of these folks may have lived in these areas for generations.

Next, "The Polish Corridor and Danzig"....

* For more information on Poland and the Polish uprising against German rule, see:

http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2011/03/german-question-part-eighty-eight.html

** The overall region had more than 2 million people, and about 1.2 million participated in the referendum. About 717,000 votes were cast for Germany and 483,000 for Poland. Generally speaking, the eastern areas, adjacent to Poland, voted more heavily for Poland and the western areas, adjacent to, and with strong historical ties to, Germany (Prussia), voted heavily for Germany. The areas more around the middle tended to vote for Germany, but by less than overwhelming majorities, and there were definite pockets of pro-Poland votes. It seems that "some" people of Polish background supported Germany, perhaps because of German domination of the area for so long. Just a guess, but I would think many of these people spoke both German and Polish. Silesia was important economically, because part of the area was a major industrial sector, so not only was ethnic identity an issue, but substantial economic impact was a concern for both Poland and Germany.

WORD HISTORY:
Speak-Forms of this word are common in the West Germanic languages (English is West Germanic), but beyond that fact, its ancestry is uncertain. It traces back to Old Germanic "sprekanan," which had the notion of "make sounds." This gave Old English "sprecan," but gradually the "r" sound died out (by 1100s?), which also happened in certain forms in other Germanic dialects back then, but these forms did not overtake the original pronunciation as in English. This left English with "specan," which then became "speken," before acquiring the modern spelling. Standard German has "sprechen," Low German and Dutch have "spreken," West Frisian has "sprekke."