Free City of Danzig

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Template:Short description Template:For {{#invoke:Infobox|infoboxTemplate |templatestyles = Template:Infobox country/styles.css | bodyclass = ib-country vcard | aboveclass = adr | above = {{#if:Free City of DanzigTemplate:Native name
Template:Native name 

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Free City of Danzig
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Template:Native name

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| subheader = {{#if:1920–1939 | 1920–1939 | {{#if:|{{{year_start}}}{{#if:|–{{{year_end}}} }} }} }}

| image1 = {{#if:Wappen Freie Stadt Danzig.svgFlag of the Free City of Danzig.svg 

 |Template:Infobox country/imagetable }}

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Template:Smaller

|Motto: Template:If empty{{#if:|

{{{englishmotto}}}

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Location of the Free City of Danzig in Europe (1930)

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Map of the Subdivisions of the Free City of Gdańsk/Danzig

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and largest city
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• 

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• 

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• 

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• 

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| label128= Internet TLD | data128=

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|

Website
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| {{#invoke:InfoboxImage|InfoboxImage|image=|size=|alt=|title=Location of Danzig }}{{#if:|

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 }}

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| label135 = Today part of | data135 = Poland

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|

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  1. }}{{#if:|
  2. }}{{#if:|
  3. }}{{#if:|
  4. }}{{#if:|
  5. }}{{#if:|
  6. }}{{#if:|
  7. }}{{#if:|
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  1. }}{{#if:|
  2. }}{{#if:|
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{{{footnotes}}}{{#if:|
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| belowclass = mergedtoprow noprint | below = {{#if:| Template:Navbar }} }}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Infobox country with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| admin_center_type | admin_center | alt_coat | alt_flag | alt_flag2 | alt_map | alt_map2 | alt_map3 | alt_symbol | anthem | anthems | antipodes | area_acre | area_data2 | area_data3 | area_footnote | area_ha | area_km2 | area_label | area_label2 | area_label3 | area_land_acre | area_land_footnote | area_land_ha | area_land_km2 | area_land_sq_mi | area_link | area_rank | area_sq_mi | area_water_acre | area_water_footnote | area_water_ha | area_water_km2 | area_water_sq_mi | regexp1 = border_[ps][%d]+ | calling_code | capital_exile | capital_type | capital | cctld | coa_size | coat_alt | common_languages | common_name | conventional_long_name | coordinates | currency_code | currency | date_end | regexp2 = date_event[%d]+ | date_format | date_post | date_pre | date_start | demonym | regexp3 = deputy[%d]+ | drives_on | DST_note | DST | empire | englishmotto | era | regexp4 = established_date[%d]+ | regexp5 = established_event[%d]+ | established | ethnic_groups_ref | ethnic_groups_year | ethnic_groups | event_end | event_post | event_pre | event_start | regexp6 = event[%d]+ | flag| flag_alt | flag_alt2 | flag_border | flag_caption | flag_caption | regexp7 = flag_[ps][%d]+ | flag_size | flag_type | flag_type_article | flag_width | flag2_border | regexp8 = footnote_[a-h] | regexp9 = footnote[%d]+ | footnotes | footnotes2 | FR_cadastre_area_km2 | FR_cadastre_area_rank | FR_cadastre_area_sq_mi | FR_foot | FR_foot2 | FR_foot3 | FR_foot4 | FR_foot5 | FR_IGN_area_km2 | FR_IGN_area_rank | FR_IGN_area_sq_mi | FR_metropole_population_estimate_rank | FR_metropole_population | FR_metropole | FR_total_population_estimate_rank | FR_total_population_estimate_year | FR_total_population_estimate | GDP_nominal_per_capita_rank | GDP_nominal_per_capita | GDP_nominal_rank | GDP_nominal_year | GDP_nominal | GDP_PPP_per_capita_rank | GDP_PPP_per_capita | GDP_PPP_rank | GDP_PPP_year | GDP_PPP | Gini_change | Gini_rank | Gini_ref | Gini_year | Gini | government_type | HDI_change | HDI_rank | HDI_ref | HDI_year | HDI | house1 | house2 | image_coat | image_flag | image_flag2 | image_map_alt | image_map_caption | image_map_size | image_map | image_map2_alt | image_map2_caption | image_map2_size | image_map2 | image_map3 | regexp10 = image_[ps][%d]+ | image_symbol | iso3166code | languages_sub | languages_type | languages | languages2_sub | languages2_type | languages2 | largest_city | largest_settlement_type | largest_settlement | regexp11 = leader_name[%d]+ | regexp12 = leader_title[%d]+ | regexp13 = leader[%d]+ | legislature | life_span | linking_name | location_map | loctext | lower_house | map_caption | map_caption2 | map_caption3 | map_width | map2_width | map3_width | membership_type | membership | micronation | module | motto | name | national_anthem | national_languages | national_motto | native_name | navbar | nummembers | official_languages | official_website | org_type | other_symbol_type | other_symbol | regexp14 = [ps][%d]+ | patron_saint | patron_saints | percent_water | politics_link | pop_den_footnote | population_census_rank | population_census_year | population_census | population_data2 | population_data3 | population_density_km2 | population_density_rank | population_density_sq_mi | population_estimate_rank | population_estimate_year | population_estimate | population_label2 | population_label3 | population_link | recognised_languages | recognised_national_languages | recognised_regional_languages | recognized_languages | recognized_national_languages | regexp15 = ref_area[%d]+ | regexp16 = ref_pop[%d]+ | regional_languages | recognized_regional_languages | religion_ref | religion_year | religion | regexp17 = representative[%d]+ | royal_anthem | flag_anthem | march | national_march | regional_anthem | territorial_anthem | state_anthem | sovereignty_note | sovereignty_type | regexp18 = stat_area[%d]+ | regexp19 = stat_pop[%d]+ | regexp20 = stat_year[%d]+ | status_text | status | symbol| symbol_type_article | symbol_type | symbol_width | text_symbol_type | text_symbol | time_zone_DST | time_zone | title_deputy | title_leader | title_representative | today | type_house1 | type_house2 | upper_house | utc_offset_DST | utc_offset | regexp21 = year_deputy[%d]+ | year_end | year_exile_end | year_exile_start | regexp22 = year_leader[%d]+ | regexp23 = year_representative[%d]+ | year_start}}Template:Main other{{#if:Free City under League of Nations protection|{{#ifeq:Special territory|Colony|Template:Main other|{{#ifeq:Special territory|Exile|Template:Main other}}}} }} The Free City of Danzig (Template:Langx; Template:Langx) was a city-state under the protection and oversight of the League of Nations between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) and nearly 200 other small localities in the surrounding areas.<ref> Template:Cite book</ref> The polity was established on November 15, 1920,<ref> Template:Cite book

Although predominantly German-populated, the territory was bound by the imposed union with Poland, which covered foreign policy, defense, customs, railways, and post, and remained distinct from both the post-war Weimar Republic and the newly independent Polish Republic.<ref> Template:Cite book</ref> Additionally, Poland was granted certain rights related to port facilities in the city.<ref name="Versailles"> Template:Cite web</ref>

In the 1920 Constituent Assembly election, the Polish Party received over 6% of the vote; however, its percentage of votes later declined to approximately 3%. A large number of Danzig Poles voted for the Catholic Centre Party instead.<ref name="Henryk" /><ref name="waszkiewicz" /> In 1921, Poland began developing the city of Gdynia, a mid-sized fishing town. This new port, located north of Danzig, was established on territory awarded in 1919, known as the Polish Corridor. By 1933, the commerce passing through Gdynia exceeded that of Danzig.<ref name="ReferenceE">"Encyclopaedia Britannica Year Book for 1938", pp. 193–194.</ref> By 1936, the city's Senate had a majority of local Nazis, and agitation to rejoin Germany was stepped up.<ref>Levine, Herbert S., Hitler's Free City: A History of the Nazi Party in Danzig, 1925–39 (University of Chicago Press, 1970), p. 102.</ref> Many Jews fled from German persecution.

After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the Nazis abolished the Free City and incorporated the area into the newly formed Template:Lang of Danzig-West Prussia. The Nazis classified the Poles and Jews living in the city as subhumans, subjecting them to discrimination, forced labor, and extermination at Nazi concentration camps, including nearby Stutthof (now Sztutowo, Poland).<ref name="Blatman"> Template:Cite book</ref> Upon the city's capture in the early months of 1945 by the Soviet and Polish troops, a significant number of German inhabitants perished in ill-prepared and over-delayed attempts to evacuate by sea, while the remainder fled or were expelled. The city was fully integrated into Poland due to the Potsdam Agreement, while members of the pre-war Polish ethnic minority began returning, and new Polish settlers started arriving. Gdańsk suffered severe underpopulation due to these events and did not recover until the late 1950s.

Establishment

Periods of independence and autonomy

Danzig had an early history of independence. It was a leading player in the Prussian Confederation, which was directed against the Teutonic Monastic State of Prussia. The Confederation stipulated with the Polish king, Casimir IV Jagiellon, that the Polish Crown would be invested as head of state of the western parts of Prussia (Royal Prussia). In contrast, Ducal Prussia remained a Polish fief. Danzig and other cities, such as Elbing and Thorn, financed most of the warfare and enjoyed high city autonomy.

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 Siege of Danzig in 1577 to protect its special privileges. Subsequently, it insisted on negotiating by sending emissaries directly to the Polish king.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Danzig's location as a deep-water port where the Vistula River met the Baltic Sea had made it into one of the wealthiest cities in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries, as grain from Poland and Ukraine was shipped down the Vistula on barges to be loaded onto ships in Danzig, where it was shipped on to western Europe.<ref name="Macmillan, Margaret page 211">Macmillan, Margaret Paris 1919, New York: Random House p. 211</ref> As many merchants shipping the grain from Danzig were Dutch and built Dutch-style houses for themselves, leading to other Danzigers imitating them, the city was thus given a distinctively Dutch appearance.<ref name="Macmillan, Margaret page 211"/> Danzig became known as "the Amsterdam of the East", a wealthy seaport and trading crossroads that linked Western and Eastern European economies. Its location, where the Vistula flowed into the Baltic, led to various powers competing to rule the city.<ref name="Macmillan, Margaret page 211"/>

Although Danzig became part of the Kingdom of Prussia following the Second Partition of Poland in 1793, Prussia was subsequently conquered by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1806. 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 reincorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia in 1814, following Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Leipzig (also known as the Battle of Nations) at the hands of a coalition that included Russia, Austria, and Prussia.

Point 13 of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points called for Polish independence to be restored and for Poland to have "secure access to the sea", a promise that implied that Danzig, which occupied a strategic location where the Vistula River flowed into the Baltic Sea, should become part of Poland.<ref name="Macmillan, Margaret page 211"/> At the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, the Polish delegation, led by Roman Dmowski, asked for Wilson to honor point 13 of the Fourteen Points by transferring Danzig to Poland, arguing that Poland would not be economically viable without Danzig and that since the city had been part of Poland until 1793, it was rightfully part of Poland anyway.<ref name="ReferenceB">Macmillan, Margaret Paris 1919, New York: Random House p. 211.</ref> However, Wilson had promised that national self-determination would be the basis of the Treaty of Versailles. As 90% of the people in Danzig in this period were German, the Allied leaders at the Paris Peace Conference compromised by creating the Free City of Danzig, a city-state in which Poland had certain special rights.<ref name="Macmillan, Margaret page 218">Macmillan, Margaret Paris 1919, New York: Random House p. 218.</ref> It was felt that including a city that was 90% German into Poland would be a violation of the principle of national self-determination, but at the same time, the promise in the Fourteen Points of allowing Poland "secure access to the sea" gave Poland a claim on Danzig, hence the compromise of the Free City of Danzig.<ref name="Macmillan, Margaret page 218"/>

The Free City of Danzig was primarily the result of British diplomacy, as both French Premier Georges Clemenceau and U.S. President Woodrow Wilson supported the Polish claim to Danzig (Gdańsk). Only objections from the British Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, prevented Danzig from being awarded to Poland.<ref name="Rothwell, Victor pages 106-107">Rothwell, Victor The Origins of the Second World War, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001 pp. 106–07.</ref> Despite creating the Free City, the British did not believe in the viability of the Free City of Danzig; Lloyd George wrote at the time: "France would tomorrow fight for Alsace if her right to it were contested. But would we make war for Danzig?"<ref name="Rothwell, Victor pages 106-107"/> The Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour wrote in the summer of 1918 that the Germans had such a ferocious contempt for Poles that it was unwise for Germany to lose any territory to Poland, even if morally justified, as the Germans would never accept losing land to the despised Poles, and such a situation was bound to cause a war.<ref name="Rothwell, Victor page 11">Rothwell, Victor The Origins of the Second World War, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001 p. 11.</ref> During the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, the British consistently sought to minimize German territorial losses to Poland because the Germans had such an utter contempt for the Poles, together with the rest of the Slavic peoples, that such losses were bound to wound their feelings deeply and cause a war.<ref name="Rothwell, Victor page 11"/> For all the bitterness of the French–German enmity, the Germans had a certain grudging respect for the French that did not extend to the Poles. During the Paris Peace Conference, a commission of inquiry chaired by British historian James Headlam-Morley, which was investigating where the borders between Germany and Poland, began researching the history of Danzig.<ref name="Overy, Richard page 2">Overy, Richard & Wheatcroft, Andrew The Road to War, Random House: London 2009 p. 2.</ref> Upon discovering that Danzig had been a Free City in the past, Headlam-Morley devised what he regarded as a brilliant compromise solution, under which Danzig would become a Free City again, belonging to neither Germany nor Poland.<ref name="Overy, Richard page 2"/> As the British opposed Danzig becoming part of Poland, and the French and Americans opposed Danzig remaining part of Germany, Headlam-Morley's compromise of the Free City of Danzig was accepted.<ref name="Overy, Richard page 2"/><ref name="ReferenceB_quote">Template:Cite book</ref>

The representatives of the German population of Danzig complained about being severed from Germany, and constantly demanded that the Free City of Danzig be reincorporated into the Reich.<ref name="Macmillan, Margaret page 219">Macmillan, Margaret Paris 1919, New York: Random House p. 219.</ref> The Canadian historian Margaret MacMillan wrote that a sense of Danzig national identity emerged during the Free City's existence, and the German population of Danzig did not always regard themselves as Germans who had been unjustly taken out of Germany.<ref name="Macmillan, Margaret page 219"/> The loss of Danzig deeply hurt German national pride, and, in the interwar period, German nationalists spoke of the "open wound in the east" that was the Free City of Danzig.<ref name="Overy, Richard page 16">Overy, Richard & Wheatcroft, Andrew The Road to War, Random House: London 2009 p. 16.</ref> However, until the building of Gdynia, almost all of Poland's exports went through Danzig, and Polish public opinion was opposed to Germany having a "choke-hold" on the Polish economy.<ref>Overy, Richard & Wheatcroft, Andrew The Road to War, Random House: London 2009 p. 3.</ref>

Territory

File:Verbreitung bestimmter Ortsnamen im Gebiet der Freien Stadt Danzig.png
Distribution of certain German city and village names

Template:CSS image crop The Free City of Danzig 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 Template:Convert. The cities of Danzig (since 1818) and Zoppot (since 1920) formed autonomous cities (Template:Lang), whereas all other towns and municipalities were part of one of the three rural districts (Template:Lang), Template:Lang, Template:Lang (both seated in Danzig city), and Template:Lang, seated in Tiegenhof.Template:Citation needed

In 1928, its territory covered 1,952 km2, including 58 square kilometers of freshwater surface. The border had a length of Template:Cvt, of which the coastline accounted for Template:Cvt (although coastline measures are not well-defined).<ref name="Wagner1929">Template:Cite book</ref>

Its tripoint is the city of Marienburg, now Malbork. The Nogat River formed the boundary between German East Prussia and the Free City of Danzig (Gdańsk).

Polish rights declared by the Treaty of Versailles

The Free City was to be represented abroad by Poland and be in a customs union. The German railway line that connected the Free City with 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 was signed between the Polish government and the Danzig authorities, providing for a Polish diplomatic representative in Danzig. In Article 6, the Polish government undertook not to conclude any international agreements regarding Danzig without first consulting the government of the Free City.<ref>Text in League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. 6, pp. 190–207.</ref>

A separate Polish post office was established in addition to the existing municipal one.

League of Nations High Commissioners

File:Danzig passport.jpg
Passport of the Free City of Danzig

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 from various countries assumed the role of High Commissioner:Template:Citation needed

File:Polish passport issued at Danzing, Gdansk.jpg
Polish passport issued at Danzig by the "Polish Commission for Gdańsk" in 1935 and extended again in 1937, before the holder immigrated to British Palestine the following year
No. Name Period Country
1 Reginald Tower 1919–1920 Template:Flagcountry
2 Edward Lisle Strutt 1920 Template:Flagcountry
3 Bernardo Attolico 1920 Template:Flagcountry
4 Richard Haking 1921–1923 Template:Flagcountry
5 Template:Ill 1923–1925 Template:Flagcountry
6 Template:Ill 1925–1929 Template:Flagcountry
7 Template:Ill 1929–1932 Template:Flagcountry
8 Template:Ill 1932–1934 Template:Flagcountry
9 Seán Lester 1934–1936 Template:Flagcountry
10 Carl Jacob Burckhardt 1937–1939 Template:Flagcountry

The League of Nations refused to allow the city-state to use Hanseatic City as part of its official name, referring to Danzig's long-standing membership in the Hanseatic League.Template:Explain<ref name="Matull">Template:Cite web</ref>

State Constabulary

Template:Main

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-14649, Danzig, Verhaftung am Wahltag.jpg
Danzig police arrest a protester in the aftermath of the 1933 Parliamentary Elections

With the creation of the Free City in the aftermath of World War I, a security police force was created on August 19, 1919. On April 9, 1920, a military style marching band, the Musikkorps, was formed. Led by composer Ernst Stieberitz, the police band gained widespread recognition in the city and abroad. In 1921, Danzig's government reformed the entire institution and established the Schutzpolizei, or protection police.<ref name= DPOL>Template:Cite web</ref> Helmut Froböss became President of the Police (i.e., Chief) on April 1, 1921. He served in this capacity until the German annexation of the city.<ref name= DPOL />

The police initially operated from twelve precincts and seven registration points. In 1926, the number of precincts was reduced to seven.<ref name= DPOL />

After the Nazi takeover of the Senate, the police were increasingly used to suppress free speech and political dissent.<ref>Policja. Kwartalnik kadry kierowniczej Policji Template:Webarchive (in Polish)</ref> In 1933, Froböss ordered the left-wing newspapers Danziger Volksstimme and Danziger Landeszeitung to suspend publications for two months and eight days, respectively.<ref name= DPLET>HeinOnline 15 League of Nations (1934) Template:Webarchive (translated from German)</ref>

By 1939, Polish-German relations had worsened, and war seemed a likely possibility. The police began planning to seize Polish installations within the city in the event of conflict.<ref name= DP>Danzig: Der Kampf um die polnische Post Template:Webarchive (in German)</ref> Ultimately, the Danzig police participated in the September Campaign, fighting alongside the local SS and the German Army at the city's Polish post office and at Westerplatte.<ref name= DP /><ref name= DGW>Williamson, D. G. Poland Betrayed: The Nazi-Soviet Invasions of 1939 Template:Webarchive p. 66</ref>

Even though Nazi Germany formally annexed the Free City in October 1939, the police force more or less continued to operate as a law enforcement agency. The Stutthof concentration camp, 35 km east of the city, was run by the President of the Police as an internment camp from 1939 until November 1941.<ref>United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Holocaust Encyclopedia – Danzig Template:Webarchive</ref> Administration was finally dissolved when the Soviets occupied the city in 1945.

Population

File:Deutscher Bevölkerungsanteil in den Gemeinden der Freien Stadt Danzig.png
Distribution of German (blue) and Polish/Kashub (red) population majorities in and around the Free City of Danzig (the state border marked in red)

The demographics of the Free City are a matter of some dispute over the period of its existence.Template:Citation needed

In 1770, before the partitions of Poland, of all inhabitants of the city of Danzig 58% were Germans and 42% were Poles, Kashubians and others.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1890, after a century of Germanisation, according to Stefan Ramułt there were 92.28% Germans, 5.44% Kashubians and Poles, 2.11% Jews and 0.17% others in the city of Danzig itself.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> On the other hand, the entire territory of the future Free City of Danzig in 1910 had 329,781 inhabitants, of whom, according to the official census, 312,358 (94.7%) were German-speakers, 14,106 (4.3%) spoke Polish or Kashubian, 2,716 (0.8%) were Jews and 601 (0.2%) were all others.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The Free City's population rose from 357,000 (1919) to 408,000 in 1929; according to the official census of 1923, 95% were Germans,<ref name="Mason 1946">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp with 3.72% either Kashubians or Poles, however in 1920 election 6.1% of the inhabitants of the Free City voted for the Polish Party.<ref name=":02">Template:Cite book</ref> According to E. Cieślak, the population registers of the city of Danzig show that in 1929 the Polish population numbered 35,000, or 10.7%.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Similar figure of 9.1% Poles and Kashubians in the Free City in 1929 is given by T. Kijeński.<ref name=":03">Template:Cite book</ref> Some estimates put the proportion of Danzig Poles at between 10 and 13%.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="ReferenceA">Zapiski historyczne: Volume 60, p. 256, Towarzystwo Naukowe w Toruniu. Wydział Nauk Historycznych – 1995</ref> Henryk Stępniak estimates the 1929 Polish population as around 22,000, or around 6% of the population, increasing to around 13% in the 1930s.<ref name="ReferenceA" />

In the 1920s and 1930s, the Polish population increased. Some estimates suggest the proportion of Poles in the population of the Free City was around 20% in 1939<ref name="somogyi">Template:Cite journal</ref> or around 25% in 1936.<ref name="waszkiewicz" />

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.<ref name="Henryk" /> Including around 4,000 Polish nationals who were registered in the city, Stępniak estimated the Polish population as 9.4–11% of population.<ref name="Henryk">Ludność polska w Wolnym Mieście Gdańsku, 1920–1939, page 37, Henryk Stępniak, Wydawnictwo "Stella Maris", 1991, "Przyjmując, że Polacy gdańscy stanowili 25–30% ogólnej liczby ludności katolickiej Wolnego Miasta Gdańska, liczącej w 1920 r. około 110 000 osób, można ustalić, że w liczbach bezwzględnych stanowiło można ustalić, że w liczbach bezwzględnych stanowiło to 30- – 36 tyś. osób. Jeśli do liczby tej dodamy ok. 4 tyś. ludności obywatelstwa polskiego, otrzymamy łącznie ok. 9,4–11% ogółu ludności."</ref>

In contrast, Stefan Samerski estimates about 10 percent of the 130,000 Catholics were Polish.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Andrzej Drzycimski estimates that Polish population at the end of 30s reached 20% (including Poles who arrived after the war).<ref>Stuthoff Zeszyty 4 4 Stanislaw Mikos Recenzje i omówienia Andrzej Drzycimski, Polacy w Wolnym Mieście Gdańsku /1920 – 1933/. Polityka Seantu gdańskiego wobec ludności polskiej Wrocław – Warszawa – Kraków – Gdańsk 1978,</ref>

The Polish population increased disproportionately in the 1920s and 1930s and was estimated at 20% shortly before the start of World War II in 1939.<ref name="somogyi" /> The Catholic priest Franciszek Rogaczewski estimated that Poles made up about 20% of the population of the Free City of Danzig in 1936.<ref name="waszkiewicz">Template:Cite journal</ref> The accuracy of demographic estimates is complicated by the discrepancy between the ethnic and linguistic identities of the Danzig population - while 95% of the inhabitants of the Free City of Danzig were German-speaking, many Poles were bilingual and also spoke German, and were included in such estimates.Template:Citation needed Another significant minority were the Kashubs, another West Slavic group who derived their language from Pomeranian and had their own independent identity.<ref name="somogyi" /> Additionally, as the result of Kulturkampf laws, German Catholics, who made up about 40% of the city's population,<ref name="waszkiewicz" /> supported the Polish national movement and stood up for Polish interests.<ref name="blanke">Template:Cite journal</ref> This was further exacerbated by anti-Catholic legislation introduced by NSDAP-dominated Danzig Senate, which involved arrests of Catholic clergy as well as the activists and members of the Catholic Centre Party.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The Catholic Centre Party was friendly to the Danzig Poles, and many Poles voted for the Centre Party instead of Polish organisations.Template:Citation needed The German Catholic clergy in Danzig also strongly supported the Polish minority, and the Bishop of Danzig, Edward O'Rourke, actively fought for the interests of Danzig Poles.<ref name="waszkiewicz" />

In 1929, Tadeusz Kijański, a Polish citizen of Danzig, questioned the results of the official 1923 census, according to which only 3% to 1% of the Danzig population was Polish. Kijański pointed out that the census was conducted by the police, which was "a deviation from the usual and only sensible and proven way of conducting this type of census". The police officers in charge of conducting the census were mostly German citizens who were granted Danzig citizenship for the duration of their service, and there were several incidents in which they intimidated the local non-German population. The census also often relied on information provided by landlords or homeowners instead of asking each citizen directly; as a result, Kijański stated that "the results of the census show significant deviations from the actual proportions in terms of nationality data".<ref name="kijanski">Template:Cite book</ref> According to Kijański, many Poles in Danzig did not reveal their nationality in the census as a result of this intimidation, as well as pressure from German employers.<ref name="bacinski">Template:Cite journal</ref> He estimated that Poles accounted for 14.5% of the Free City's permanent population, but noted that the actual number of Poles may have been higher, as Poles made up 60% of all foreigners in Danzig at the time.<ref name="kijanski"/>

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 the Free State of Danzig area in the remaining parts of Germany.<ref name="Versailles"/>

Total population by language, November 1, 1923, according to the Free City of Danzig census<ref name="Mason 1946"/>Template:Rp
Nationality German German and
Polish 		Polish, Kashub,
Masurian 		Russian,
Ukrainian 		Hebrew,
Yiddish 		Unclassified Total
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%

Notable people born in the Free City of Danzig

File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F034158-0018, Ausschnitt Eddi Arent.jpg
Eddi Arent in 1971
File:IMG 0220 Ingrid van Bergen.jpg
Ingrid van Bergen in 2010
File:Günter Grass auf dem Blauen Sofa.jpg
Günter Grass in 2006
File:Klaus Kinski Cannes-(retouched-cropped).jpg
Klaus Kinski in the 1980s
File:Rupert-neudeck001.jpg
Rupert Neudeck 2007
File:Portrat wolfgang voelz philipp von ostau.jpg
Wolfgang Völz in 2011

Religion

In 1924, 54.7% of the populace was Protestant (220,731 persons, mostly Lutherans within the united old-Prussian church), 34.5% was Roman 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. The population also included 2,129 dissenters, 1,394 faithful of other religions and denominations, and 664 irreligionists.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Dr. Juergensen, Die freie Stadt Danzig, Danzig: Kafemann, 1925.</ref>

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.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref>

Regional Synodal Federation of the Free City of Danzig

File:Danzig-Marienkirche.jpg
The Lutheran Supreme Parish Church of St. Mary's in Danzig's Rechtstadt quarter

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.<ref>Those congregations in Polish-annexed West Prussia (Pomeranian Voivodeship) merged into the new United Evangelical Church in Poland, which emerged from the old-Prussian Posen ecclesiastical province, with its consistory seated in Poznań.</ref> First General Superintendent Template:Ill (1920–1933) and then Bishop Template:Ill (1933–1945) presided over the consistory.

Unlike the Second Polish Republic, which opposed the cooperation of the Template:Ill with EKapU, Volkstag and the 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.<ref>In June 1922 the Senate of Danzig and the old-Prussian ecclesiastical executive, the Template:Ill, EOK), concluded a contract to that end. Cf. Adalbert Erler, Die rechtliche Stellung der evangelischen Kirche in Danzig, Berlin: 1929, simultaneously Univ. of Greifswald, Department of Law and Politics, doctor thesis of 21 February 1929, pp. 36 seqq.</ref>

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 ethnically 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 Template:Ill. 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. Template:Ill) 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

Template:Main

File:CH-NB - Freie Stadt Danzig, Danzig (Gdansk)- Kirche - Annemarie Schwarzenbach - SLA-Schwarzenbach-A-5-13-066.jpg
The Archcathedral of the Holy Trinity, Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Bernard in Oliva, Danzig

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.<ref name="May 175">Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref name="May 175"/>

The first apostolic administrator was Edward O'Rourke (born in Minsk and of Irish ancestry) who became Bishop of Danzig on the occasion of the elevation of the administration to an exempt diocese in 1925. 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.<ref name="db-thueringen.de">Template:Cite book</ref> 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.

Splett remained bishop after the German annexation of the Free City. In early 1941, he applied for admitting the Danzig diocese as member in Archbishop Adolf Bertram's Eastern German Ecclesiastical Province and thus at the Fulda Conference of Bishops; however, Bertram, also speaker of the Fulda conference, rejected the request.<ref name="Pietrzak 2001 p. 162">Template:Cite book</ref> 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

File:GreatSynagogueDanzig.jpg
The Great Synagogue on Reitbahn Street in Danzig's Rechtstadt quarter

Template:Main 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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 Hebrew as common language, also attended by Ben Gurion.

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.<ref name="Sodeikat">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="TYM">Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref name="JVL">Gdańsk Template:Webarchive at the Jewish Virtual Library.</ref>

Politics

Government

File:Danzig Senatsflagge 1920-1939.svg
Flag of the Danzig Senate

Template:Css Image Crop

Heads of State of the Free City of DanzigTemplate:Citation needed
Template:Abbr Portrait Name
(Born-Died) 		Term of office Political Party
Took office Left office Time in office
Presidents of the Danzig Senate

Template:Officeholder table Template:Officeholder table Template:Officeholder table Template:Officeholder table

State President

Template:Officeholder table

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,<ref name="Lemkin">Template:Cite book</ref> although the usage of Polish was guaranteed by law.<ref>Template:In lang Constitution of Danzig Template:Webarchive</ref><ref>Matull, "Ostdeutschlands Arbeiterbewegung", p. 419.</ref> 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).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Initially, the Nazi Party had only a small amount of success (0.8% of the vote in 1927) and was even briefly dissolved.<ref name="Matull"/> 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. In contrast to Germany, the Nazi Party was relatively weak in the Free City of Danzig, and remained unstable because of "furious factional struggles" which plagued the Nazi administration throughout its rule. The party membership was generally low, and the 1935 election in Danzig "amounted to an electoral defeat for the Nazis".<ref name="carsten">Template:Cite journal</ref> The democratic opposition remained strong and was able to temporarily block the Nazi Gleichschaltung policies between 1935 and 1937.<ref name="huntrm">Template:Cite journal</ref> German Catholics were supportive of the Polish minority and most Danzig Poles voted for the Catholic Centre Party.<ref name="waszkiewicz"/> Social Democrats were also willing to cooperate with Catholics and Poles, and the Catholic Church in Danzig was pro-Polish and opposed National Socialism.<ref name="riekhoff">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Rauschning was removed from his position by Forster and replaced by Arthur Greiser in November 1934.<ref name =Sodeikat/> He later appealed to the public not to vote for the Nazis in the 1935 elections.<ref name=Matull/> Political opposition to the Nazis was repressed<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> with several politicians being imprisoned and murdered.<ref>Sodeikat, p. 170, p. 173, Fn.92</ref><ref>Matull, "Ostdeutschlands Arbeiterbewegung", pp. 440, 450.</ref> The economic policy of Danzig's Nazi-led government, which increased the public expenditures for employment-creation programs<ref>Template:Cite book
Template:Cite book</ref> and the retrenchment of financial aid from Germany led to a devaluation of more than 40% of the Danziger Gulden in 1935.<ref name="Mason 1946"/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Matull, "Ostdeutschlands Arbeiterbewegung", pp. 417, 418.</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1935, Poland protested when Danzig's Senate reduced the value of the Gulden so that it would be the same as the Polish złoty.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

As in Germany, the Nazis introduced laws mirroring the Enabling Act and Nuremberg laws (November 1938);<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref name=Matull/><ref name=Sodeikat/> The opposition also protested to the League of Nations, as did the Jewish Community of Danzig.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The number of members of the Nazi Party in Danzig increased from 21,861 in June 1934 to 48,345 in September 1938.<ref name="Berendt">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Foreign relations

Foreign relations were handled by the Second Polish Republic.<ref>Article 104 (6) of the Treaty of Versailles.</ref> In 1927, the Free City of Danzig sent a military advisory mission to Bolivia. The Bolivian government of Hernando Siles Reyes wanted to continue the pre-World War I German military mission but the Treaty of Versailles prohibited that. The German officers, including Ernst Röhm, were transferred to the Danzig police force and then sent to Bolivia. In 1929, after problems with the mission, the British embassy handled the return of the German officers.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

German-Polish tensions

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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> whose total exports and imports surpassed those of Danzig in May 1932.<ref>Eugene van Cleef, "Danzig and Gdynia," Geographical Review, Vol. 23, No. 1. (Jan., 1933): 106.</ref> 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.<ref>Cieślak, E Biernat, C (1995) History of Gdańsk, Fundacji Biblioteki Gdanskiej. p. 436</ref><ref>By a decision of the League Council in December 1925, the guard which the Poles were entitled to maintain on this spot [Westerplatte peninsula] was limited to 88 men, though the number might be increased with the consent of the High Commissioner. Geoffrey Malcolm Gathorne-Hardy. A Short History of International Affairs, 1920 to 1934. Royal institute of international affairs (1934). Oxford University Press. p. 384.</ref>

During the interwar period the Polish minority was heavily discriminated against by the German population, which openly attacked its members using racist slurs and harassment, and attacks against the Polish consulate by German students were praised by authorities.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In June 1932, a crisis broke out when the Polish destroyer ORP Wicher was sent into Danzig harbour without the permission of the Senate to greet a visiting squadron of British destroyers.<ref name="auto">Wandycz, Piotr Stefan The Twilight of French Eastern Alliances, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988 p. 237</ref> The crisis was resolved when the Free City granted more access rights to the Polish Navy in exchange for a promise to not take the Wicher back into Danzig harbour.<ref name="auto"/>

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<ref>worldcourts.com Template:Webarchive PCIJ, Advisory Opinion No. 11</ref> and the presence of Polish war vessels at the harbour.<ref>worldcourts.com Template:Webarchive PCIJ, Advisory Opinion No. 22</ref> 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.<ref>worldcourts.com Template:Webarchive PCIJ, Advisory Opinion No. 18</ref><ref name="ILR">Template:Cite book</ref>

After Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, the Polish military doubled the number of 88 troops at Westerplatte in order to test the reaction of the new chancellor. After protests the additional troops were withdrawn.<ref>Hargreaves, R (2010) Blitzkrieg Unleashed: The German Invasion of Poland, 1939 pp. 31–32</ref> Nazi propaganda used these events in the Volkstag elections of May 1933, in which Nazis won absolute majority.<ref>Epstein, C (2012) Model Nazi: Arthur Greiser and the Occupation of Western Poland, Oxford University Press p. 58</ref>

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.<ref>Hurst Hannum, p. 377.</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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<ref>Prazmowska, p. 80.</ref>

"... 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.<ref>Prazmowska, p. 81.</ref>

While the Senate appeared to respect the agreements with Poland, the "Nazification of Danzig proceeded relentlessly"<ref>Prazmowska, p. 85.</ref> and Danzig became a springboard for anti-Polish propaganda among the German and Ukrainian minority in Poland.<ref>Prazmowska, p. 83.</ref> 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.<ref name="db-thueringen.de"/>

Danzig crisis

Template:See also 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The Polish ambassador to Germany, Jozef Lipski, declined Ribbentrop's offer, saying that Polish public opinion would not tolerate the Free City joining Germany and predicated that if Warsaw allowed that to happen, then the Sanation military dictatorship that had ruled Poland since 1926 would be overthrown.<ref name="Overy, Richard page 16" /> Ernst von Weizsäcker on 29 March 1939 told the Danzig government the Reich would carry out a policy to the Zermürbungspolitik (point of destruction) towards Poland, saying a compromise solution was not wanted, and on 5 April 1939 told Hans-Adolf von Moltke under no conditions was he to negotiate with the Poles.<ref>Weinberg Gerhard The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany : Starting World War II 1937–39, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980 p. 560.</ref>

All through the spring and summer of 1939 there was a massive media campaign in Germany demanding the immediate return of the Free City of Danzig to Germany under the slogan "Home to the Reich!". However, the Danzig crisis was just a pretext for war. Ribbentrop ordered Count Hans-Adolf von Moltke, the German ambassador to Poland, not to negotiate with the Poles over Danzig as it was always Ribbentrop's great fear that the Poles might actually agree to the Free City returning to Germany, thereby depriving the Reich of its pretext for attacking Poland.<ref>Weinberg Gerhard The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany : Starting World War II 1937–39, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980 pp. 560–562 & 583–584</ref>

File:Adolf Hitler addresses an audience in Danzig 03.jpg
Hitler gives a speech in Danzig on 19 September 1939

In the middle of August, Beck offered a concession, saying that Poland was willing to give up its control of Danzig's customs, a proposal which caused fury in Berlin.<ref name="Rothwell, Victor page 161">Rothwell, Victor The Origins of the Second World War, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001 p. 161.</ref> However, the leaders of the Free City sent a message to Berlin on 19 August 1939 saying: "Gauleiter Forster intends to extend claims...Should the Poles yield again it is intended to increase the claims further in order to make accord impossible".<ref name="Rothwell, Victor page 161"/> The same day a telegram from Berlin expressed approval with the proviso: "Discussions will have to be conducted and pressure exerted against Poland in such a way that responsibility for failure to come to an agreement and the consequences rest with Poland".<ref name="Rothwell, Victor page 161"/> On 23 August 1939, Albert Forster, the Gauleiter of Danzig, called a meeting of the Senate that voted to have the Free City rejoin Germany, raising tensions to the breaking point.<ref>Prazmowska, Anita "Poland" pp. 155–64 from The Origins of The Second World War edited by Robert Boyce and Joseph Maiolo, London: Macmillan, 2003 p. 163.</ref> The same meeting appointed Forster the Danzig State President, through this was due to Forster's long-running rivalry with Arthur Greiser, a völkisch fanatic who regarded Forster as too soft on the Poles. Both the appointment of Forster as State President and the resolution calling for the Free City to rejoin the Reich were violations of the charter the League of Nations had given Danzig in 1920, and the matter should have been taken to the League of Nations's Security Council for discussion.<ref name="ReferenceC">Prazmowska, Anita "Poland, the 'Danzig Question', and the Outbreak of the Second World War" pp. 394–408 from The Origins of the Second World War edited by Frank McDonough, London: Continuum, 2011 p. 406.</ref>

Since these violations of the Danzig charter would have resulted in the League deposing Danzig's Nazi government, both the French and British prevented the matter from being referred to the Security Council.<ref>Prazmowska, Anita "Poland, the 'Danzig Question', and the Outbreak of the Second World War" pp. 394–408 from The Origins of the Second World War edited by Frank McDonough, London: Continuum, 2011 pp. 406–07.</ref> Instead the British and French applied strong pressure on the Poles not to send in a military force to depose the Danzig government, and appoint a mediator to resolve the crisis.<ref name="ReferenceD">Prazmowska, Anita "Poland, the 'Danzig Question', and the Outbreak of the Second World War" pp. 394–408 from The Origins of the Second World War edited by Frank McDonough, London: Continuum, 2011 p. 407.</ref> By late August 1939, the crisis continued to escalate with the Senate confiscating on 27 August 1939 stocks of wheat, salt and petrol that belonged to the Polish businesses that were in the process of being exported or imported via the Free City, an action that led to sharp Polish complaints.<ref>Watt, D.C. How War Came, London: Heinemann, 1989 p. 512.</ref> The same day, 200 Polish workers at the Danzig shipyards were fired without severance pay and their identification papers revoked, meaning that they legally could not live in Danzig anymore.<ref name="Watt, D.C. page 513">Watt, D.C. How War Came, London: Heinemann, 1989 p. 513.</ref> The Danzig government imposed food rationing, the Danzig newspapers took a militantly anti-Polish line, and almost every day there were "incidents" on the border with Poland.<ref name="Watt, D.C. page 513"/> Ordinary people in Danzig were described as being highly worried in the last days of August 1939 as it become apparent that war was imminent.<ref name="Watt, D.C. page 513"/>

In the meantime, the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein had arrived in Danzig on 15 August.<ref name="ReferenceD" /> Originally, it was planned to send the light cruiser Königsberg to Danzig for what was described as a "friendship visit", but it was decided at the last minute that a ship with more firepower was needed, leading to the Schleswig-Holstein with its Template:Convert guns being substituted.<ref>Watt, D.C. How War Came, London: Heinemann, 1989 p. 484.</ref> Upon anchoring in Danzig harbor, the Schleswig-Holstein ominously aimed its guns at the Polish Military Depot on the Westerplatte peninsula in a provocative gesture that further raised the tensions in the Free City.<ref name="ReferenceD" /> At about 4:48am on 1 September 1939, the Schleswig-Holstein opened fire on Westerplatte, firing the first shots of World War II.<ref>Watt, D.C. How War Came, London: Heinemann, 1989 p. 530.</ref>

Second World War and aftermath

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-E10458, Polen, Zollstation, deutsche Soldaten.jpg
1 September 1939: Danzig police remove Polish insignia at the Polish–Danzig border near Zoppot

On 1 September 1939, the day of the German invasion of the Free City of Danzig, Forster signed a law declaring the Free City to be incorporated into Germany.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On the same day, Hitler signed a law declaring the law signed by Forster to be German law and the Free City of Danzig was officially incorporated into Germany.

The Polish garrison of Westerplatte held out until 7 September.

Up to 4,500 members of the Polish minority were arrested with many of them executed.<ref>http://www.piasnica.auschwitzmemento.pl/download/pia_nica_2010__stan_bada__i_postulaty_ostateczne.pdf Template:Webarchive Template:Bare URL PDF</ref> In the city itself hundreds of Polish prisoners were subjected to cruel executions and experiments, which included castration of men and sterilization of women considered dangerous to the "purity of Nordic race" and beheading by guillotine.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The judicial system was one of the main tools of extermination policy towards Poles led by Nazi Germany in the city and verdicts were motivated by statements that Poles were subhuman.<ref>Eksterminacyjna i dyskryminacyjna działalność hitlerowskich sądów okręgu Gdańsk-Prusy Zachodnie w latach 1939-1945 "W wyrokach używano często określeń obraźliwych dla Polaków w rodzaju: „polscy podludzie" Edmund Zarzycki Wydawn. Uczelniane WSP, 1981 [Extermination and discriminatory activity of Nazi courts in the Gdańsk-West Prussia district in the years 1939-1945 "The judgments often used terms offensive to Poles, such as: "Polish subhumans" Edmund Zarzycki Wywn. University School of Fine Arts, 1981]</ref>

By the end of the Second World War, nearly all of the city had been reduced to ruins. On 30 March 1945, the city was taken by the Red Army.

At the Yalta Conference in February 1945, the Allies agreed that the city would become part of Poland.<ref>The History of Poland Since 1863 By Robert F. Leslie page 281</ref> No formal treaty has ever altered the status of the Free City of Danzig, and its incorporation into Poland has rested upon the general acquiescence of the international community.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Subsequently, several groups proclaimed they represented the Free City of Danzig Government in Exile, a continuation of the state.

The expulsion of the pre-war inhabitants started already before the decisions of the Potsdam Conference of August 1945. From June to October an estimated number of 60,000 residents were expelled by Polish authorities, often units of the Polish Armed Forces, the Polish State Security and the Milicja Obywatelska encircled certain areas and forced the inhabitants to make room for newly arrived Polish settlers. About 20,000 Germans left on their own and by late 1945 between 10,000 and 15,000 pre-war inhabitants remained.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

By 1950, 13,424 citizens of the former Free City had been "verified" and granted Polish citizenship.<ref name="BIPN">Template:Cite journal</ref> By 1947, 126,472 Danzigers of German ethnicity were expelled to Germany from Gdańsk, and 101,873 Poles from Central Poland and 26,629 from Soviet-annexed Eastern Poland took their place (these figures refer to the city of Gdańsk itself, not to the whole area of pre-war Free City).<ref name="BIPN" />

Origin of the post-war population

During the Polish post-war census of December 1950, data about the pre-war places of residence of the inhabitants as of August 1939 was collected. In case of children born between September 1939 and December 1950, their origin was reported based on the pre-war places of residence of their mothers. Thanks to this data it is possible to reconstruct the pre-war geographical origin of the post-war population. The same territory which corresponded to pre-war Free City of Danzig was inhabited in December 1950 by:

1950 population by place of residence back in 1939:<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Region (within 1939 borders): Number Percent
Autochthons (1939 DE/FCD citizens) 35,311 12,1%
Polish expellees from Kresy (USSR) 55,599 19,0%
Poles from abroad except the USSR 2,213 0,8%
Resettlers from the City of Warsaw 19,322 6,6%
From Warsaw region (Masovia) 22,574 7,7%
From Białystok region and Sudovia 7,638 2,6%
From pre-war Polish Pomerania 72,847 24,9%
Resettlers from Poznań region 10,371 3,5%
Katowice region (East Upper Silesia) 2,982 1,0%
Resettlers from the City of Łódź 2,850 1,0%
Resettlers from Łódź region 7,465 2,6%
Resettlers from Kielce region 16,252 5,6%
Resettlers from Lublin region 19,002 6,5%
Resettlers from Kraków region 5,278 1,8%
Resettlers from Rzeszów region 6,200 2,1%
place of residence in 1939 unknown 6,559 2,2%
Total pop. in December 1950 292,463 100,0%

At least 85% of the population as of December 1950 were post-war newcomers, but over 10% of inhabitants were still pre-war Danzigers (most of them members of pre-war Polish and Kashubian minorities in the Free City of Danzig). Another 25% came from neighbouring areas of pre-war Polish Pomerania. Almost 20% were Poles from areas of former Eastern Poland annexed by the USSR (many from Wilno Voivodeship). Several percent came from the city of Warsaw, which had been largely destroyed in 1944.

See also

References

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Further reading

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