The German Question, Part One Hundred Thirty-One

"Hitler Rules Germany" Part Two/B
"Foreign Policy & The German Question" Part Nine
"Toward War Over Danzig"

In April 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt communicated to Hitler a number of his concerns about events in Europe. Up until this point, "isolationist" America had largely stayed out of the developing situation in Europe. Hitler summoned the Reichstag into session as a platform to give a public answer to Roosevelt and to publicly lay out his proposals to Poland to deal with issues of the former German territories lost to Poland as a result of post-World War One border adjustments.*

The issues between Germany and Poland were over the city of Danzig and the area known as "the Polish Corridor." When Poland was re-established after World War One, the country needed an outlet to the Baltic Sea for trade. The territories along that part of the Baltic all belonged to just defeated Germany. These areas had been under German rule for quite some time, but still, the population of certain areas was mixed, with actual Polish majorities in many places.** An area was carved out to provide Poland with access to the sea, and this area came to be known as "the Polish Corridor." It was a "corridor," because it divided the largest part of Germany from its eastern province, East Prussia. Also in the eastern area of this corridor lay the port city of Danzig, a city with between 90-95% German population. Poland needed a port, but with the city so overwhelmingly German, it was decided to remove Danzig from German rule, make it a "free city," and place it under a League of Nations commissioner; Poland, however, was given special rights in Danzig to guarantee Polish use of its port facilities, and all routes in and out of the city, both by rail and roadway, were under Polish control.

In his speech to the Reichstag, Hitler told of the proposal he had made to the Polish government about Danzig:
-Danzig would return to German rule, but Germany would recognize and acknowledge Polish economic rights in Danzig
-Germany would build and control a rail line through the (Polish) corridor, as a sort of corridor through the corridor, to have direct land connection to her territories in Danzig/East Prussia
-Germany would then "accept the borders between Germany and Poland as final"
-Germany and Poland would sign a "non-aggression pact" of 25 year duration.

This proposal is actually quite astounding to me. Hitler was giving up any claim on the Polish Corridor territories, which had been a sore spot for many Germans (of course, what were they going to do, protest to Hitler?). He wanted Danzig returned to Germany, but he would then guarantee Polish economic rights there.*** Why the Polish government refused the offer is puzzling (although just how the "corridor through the corridor" would have worked, I'm not sure), except that they had seen Hitler deal with Czechoslovakia recently, and they had decided the safest deal with Hitler was no deal.****

Prominent, but controversial, British historian, A.J. P. Taylor believed Hitler was willing to put such an offer on the table to Poland, because he wanted Poland as an ally in a war against the Soviet Union. I tend to agree with Taylor on this point, as there was no love lost between Poland and the Soviet Union; the former Russia. Taylor argued that Hitler needed an area with a fairly large common border with the Soviet Union, and Poland certainly qualified for that. By having Poland as an ally in such a war, Hitler would have been able to send troops and supplies for those troops through Poland, without having to worry about occupying and garrisoning the country, which would have been necessary, if he were to take it over by force; thus creating an adversary in the rear of his armies fighting the Soviet Union. Whatever Hitler's reason(s), the Polish rejection of the proposal caused rising tensions in Europe over the summer of 1939.

Hitler's speech of that day, April 28, 1939, is perhaps his most famous, and its best remembered segment had to do with one of his answers to Roosevelt. Who advised Roosevelt to send such a letter to Hitler, worded as it was, must have been under the influence of some strange substance. Roosevelt asked for the assurance that Germany would not invade any of the countries enumerated in Roosevelt's question. Hitler, on friendly grounds in the German Reichstag, and with a huge radio audience in Europe and elsewhere, turned the question into a belittlement of Roosevelt by sarcastically reading off the names of the individual countries, ALL 30 OF THEM. The German delegates broke into laughter as the list went on and on (American correspondent and writer William L. Shirer mistakenly says in his book, "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich," that Hitler left out Poland from the list, but that is not true. I've seen the clip of that part of the speech numerous times, and Hitler did indeed mention Poland, which in German is "Polen"). Hitler then also turned the question on Roosevelt, by asking by whose authority the American president was asking for assurances for these countries. Further, by noting that Roosevelt had mentioned "Ireland" as one of the countries, Hitler said that he checked with Irish officials to determine whether they felt threatened by Germany, and he had received the answer that they were far more fearful of Britain, than Germany.***** He noted too that some countries mentioned in Roosevelt's list were not independent countries at all, but under "occupation" by British or French forces. It was quite an embarrassment for Roosevelt and his foreign policy people.

* Hitler had already communicated his proposals to Poland, but the Polish government, with Jozef Beck as Foreign Minister, had rejected them, although the Poles agreed to ponder some of the proposals. I've given the essentials of Hitler's proposal in the text above.

** After these areas became part of Poland, large numbers of Germans moved over the border, in one direction or the other, into Germany over the following years, but by 1939, there was still a German minority there, but much reduced in size.

*** Poland had been developing her own port at Gdynia, not far from Danzig, but that only lessened the importance of Danzig to Poland somewhat.

**** The Polish government also had claims against Czechoslovakia, as I noted in the earlier articles about the Czech crisis, so they weren't exactly innocent in the dismemberment of that country.

***** Of course, in case you did not already know, Ireland and Britain had very bitter feelings between them, something that has settled down somewhat, but not completely, even in our own time.

WORD HISTORY:
Rathskeller-Some of you may live in an area where you have a bar and restaurant with the name "Rathskeller," so I thought I'd keep the tie in with this series on Germany by doing this compound word, borrowed into English from German, although English also has forms of both parts of this compound on its own. Since it is a compound, first the "rath" part, which is NOT related to our word "rat," the rodent ("rat, the animal, IS, however, related to the first part of "rodent")." Since we're at the part of German history about Hitler, I think I will do the history of "rat," the animal, next, as it is appropriate. German "Rat(h)," is closely related to English "read" and the archaic "rede" (advise/council/counsel), although since these are verbs, the actual related German verb is "raten." It goes back to Indo European "re(i)," with the general meaning of "to reason," and thus, "to consider." This gave the Old Germanic spinoff "raedaz," with the notion of "consider, interpret, advise" (all tied to "reason"). Modern German "Rat," a noun, means "advice, counsel," and was originally "rad," in Old High German. By the way, German "Rathaus" is not a "rat house," but rather "city hall," or "town council house." The modern meaning of its English relative, the verb "read," came from the notion of "interpreting a text." The "Keller" part, as does English "cellar," goes back to Indo European "kel," which had the idea of "conceal, cover;" thus by extension "save, protect." This gave Latin "cella," which meant "storage room, storeroom." This then produced "cellarium," a word for "pantry, storeroom." Old French inherited the word from Latin as "celier," and it meant an underground storage room" (people kept many things in underground storage to keep them cool). English then borrowed the word, probably from Norman French (the Normans would have brought their form of the word with them to England), as "celer," and then the modern spelling. German also borrowed the word from French "cellier," as "chellari," which then became "kellari," before the modern spelling. "Rathskeller" developed from the practice of selling beer from the cellar of town halls, where is was kept cool before refrigeration was available.