Polish Corridor

The Polish Corridor was the name given to land transferred from Germany to a reformed Poland through the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. The Corridor, in some places 40 km wide, was made a part of the Pomeranian Voivodship. It effectively separated East Prussia from the rest of Weimar Germany.

Background

Giving Poland access to the sea was one of the guarantees proposed by United States President Woodrow Wilson in his Fourteen Points of 1918. The thirteenth of Wilson's points was:

An independent Polish state should be erected which should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea, and whose political and economic independence and territorial integrity should be guaranteed by international covenant.

The transfer of this territory was said to be justified on these grounds:

Historical: The area had been part of the Kingdom of Poland from the tenth century to the fourteenth century (see Kingdom of Poland (1025–1138), Kingdom of Poland (1138–1320), Kingdom of Poland (1320–1385), and Kingdom of Poland (1385–1569)) and from 1453/66 to 1772, when it was annexed by Prussia during the first partition of Poland.
Ethnographic: The majority population of the region was either Polish (in the area on the west bank of the Vistula, between Gdańsk (Danzig) and Bydgoszcz (Bromberg), or Kashubian (the direct descendants of an early Slavic tribe of Pomeranians) in the coastal area north-west of Danzig. Germans constituted a minority in this particular area, making about 421,000 people out of 990,000 inhabitants (42.5%) of the region. However, towns like Bydgoszcz (Bromberg), Toruń (Thorn) and Grudziądz (Graudenz) had a German majority in 1910 (see ^* for data per county).
Economic and political: It was argued that if the newly independent Polish state did not have an outlet to the Baltic Sea, it would be economically and therefore politically dependent on Germany. Since Britain and France wanted a strong Polish state as a counter-weight to Germany, they accepted this argument.

Consequences and the Post-War Era

Also in the post-World War I period, the important seaport of Danzig (Gdańsk), which had a largely German-speaking population, was made a state called "Free City of Danzig" and put under the protection of the League of Nations, without consulting the local populace. Taking advantage of the Corridor and reducing their dependence on Danzig, the Poles built a new seaport at Gdynia.

Following the appropriation of the Polish Corridor, the province of East Prussia was cut off from the rest of Germany, resulting in severe economic difficulties. In 1922 the "Seedienst Ostpreußen" (literally: Sea Service East Prussia) was established by the German Ministry for Transport to have a ferry connection to East Prussia that was not dependent on the transit through Polish territory.

The creation of the Corridor aroused great resentment in Germany, and all post-war German Weimar governments refused to recognize the eastern borders agreed on at Versailles. The German statesman Gustav Stresemann, for instance, known for his policy of conciliation with the Western Allies, several times declared that Germany's eastern borders would have to be revised, and refused to follow Germany's acknowledgement of its western borders in the Treaty of Locarno of 1925 with a similar declaration with respect to its eastern borders. Many British statesmen had expressed the same sentiment prior to the creation of the Free City of Danzig and Polish Corridor, believing the situation to be a temporary arrangement that would be revised in Germany’s favor within 10 years.^*

Nazi Era

In 1933 the Nazi Party, led by Adolf Hitler, took power in Germany. Hitler at first ostentatiously pursued a policy of rapprochement with Poland, culminating in the 10 years' Polish-German Non-Aggression Pact of 1934. In the coming years, Germany placed an emphasis on rearmament, as did Poland and other European powers.^*" target="_blank" >Regardless, the Nazis were able to achieve their immediate goals without provoking armed conflict; Austria and the Sudentenland were both annexed in 1938. In October, Germany tried to get Poland to join the Anti-Comintern Pact. Poland refused, as the alliance was quickly becoming a sphere of influence for an increasingly powerful Germany.[http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0195136810&id=bnprF2IvIMoC&pg=PA170&lpg=PA169&printsec=8&dq=anti-comintern+Poland&sig=svyLN1e6z1vqj0FJaRJfLjweSMU

The Nazis also increased their requests for the incorporation of the Free State of Danzig into the Reich, citing the "protection" of the German majority as a motive.^* In November 1938, Danzig's district adminstrator, Albert Forster reported to the League of Nations that Hitler had told him Polish frontiers would be guaranteed if the Poles were "reasonable like the Czechs." German State Secretary Ernst von Weizsäcker reaffirmed this alleged guarantee in December 1938.^*

The situation regarding the Free State of Danzig and the Polish Corridor created a number of headaches for German and Polish Customs.^* The Germans requested the construction of an extra-territorial highway and railway through the Polish Corridor, connecting East Prussia to Danzig and Germany proper. Poland agreed on building a German highway and to allow German railway traffic. However, no agreement was reached concerning the Free State of Danzig.

This seemed to conflict with Hitler's plans and with Poland's rejection of the Anti-Comintern Pact, his desire to either isolate or gain support against the Soviet Union. German newspapers in Danzig and Nazi Germany played an important role inciting nationalist sentiment; headlines buzzed about how Poland was misusing its economic rights in Danzig and German Danzigers were increasingly subjugated to the will of the Polish state.At the same time, Hitler also offered Poland additional territory as an enticement, such as the possible annexation of Lithuania, Memel, Soviet Ukraine and Czech inhabited lands.^*" target="_blank" >However, Polish leaders continued to fear for the loss of their independence and a shared fate with Czechoslovakia, although they had also taken part in its petitioning. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0415289556&id=oNmfAL0CBBIC&pg=PA234&lpg=PA234&dq=poland++anti-comintern&sig=YwSmZsajgULDzg4HAVe89v8zChI Some felt that the Danzig question was inextricably tied to the problems in the Polish Corridor and any settlement regarding Danzig would be one step towards the eventual loss of Poland's access to the sea.^*

In 1939, Nazi Germany made another attempt to renegotiate the status of Danzig; the city was to be incorporated into the Reich while the Polish section of the population was to be "evacuated" and resettled elsewhere.^* Poland was to retain a permanent right to use the seaport and the route through the Polish Corridor was to be constructed. However, the Poles distrusted Hitler and saw the plan as a threat to Polish sovereignty, practically subordinating Poland to the Axis and the Anti-Comintern Bloc while reducing the country to a state of near-servitude. ^* ^* Additionally, Poland was backed by guarantees of support from both the Britain and France in regards to Danzig.

A revised and less favorable proposal came in the form of an ultimatum made by Nazis in late August, after the orders had already been given to attack Poland on September 1. Nevertheless, at midnight on August 29, Ribbentrop handed British Ambassador Sir Neville Henderson a list of terms which would allegedly ensure peace in regards to Poland. Danzig was to return to Germany and there was to be a plebiscite in the Polish Corridor; all Poles who were born or settled there since 1919 would have no vote, while all Germans born but not living there would. An exchange of minority populations between the two countries was proposed. If Poland accepted these terms, Germany would agree to the British offer of an international guarantee, which would include the Soviet Union. A Polish plenipotentiary, with full powers, was to arrive in Berlin and accept these terms by noon the next day. The British Cabinet viewed the terms as "reasonable," except the demand for a Polish Plenipotentiary, which was seen as similar to Czech President Hacha accepting Hitler’s terms in mid-March 1939.

When Ambassador Lipski went to see Ribbentrop on August 30, he was presented with Hitler’s demands. However, he did not have the full power to sign and Ribbentrop ended the meeting. It was then broadcasted that Poland had rejected Germany's offer.^*

On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and German forces captured the corridor during the Battle of Bory Tucholskie by 5 September. By mid-October, Danzig and the Polish Corridor were under the control of Nazi Germany.

Post-War Era

At the Potsdam Conference, 1945, following the German defeat in World War II, Poland's borders were reorganized at the insistence of the Soviet Union, which was in occupation of the whole area. Territories east of the Oder-Neisse Line, including the Corridor and Danzig, were put under Polish control. East Germany recognised this border in 1953, West Germany did so in 1970 and the re-unified Germany did so in 1990.

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Background

Consequences and the Post-War Era

Nazi Era

Post-War Era

See also