July 11, 1920

[Martin Antonenko]

Nationality by referendum!


In Articles 88, 94 and 104 of the Peace Treaty of Versailles in 1919 it was stipulated that referendums should be held in several border areas of the German Reich, through which the affiliation of the areas either to the German Reich or to its neighboring states (Denmark, Poland, France or Belgium) should be decided.

This series of referendums begins at Schleswig-Holstein:







On February 10, 1920, only 25.1 percent voted in "Voting Zone I" (North Schleswig) to remain with Germany, so that the area was assigned to Denmark.

On March 14, 1921, the vote in "Zone II (Central Schleswig) went completely the opposite way: There, a total of 80.2% of the population voted to remain with Germany; the area remained with the German Reich.



If you look at pictures of the events, you can see a solemn and at the same time happy event, like here in Schleswig...:




**continued next post**

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Part II


On July 11, 1920, the next two votes provided for in the Versailles Treaty took place - in the areas of "Marienwerder" and "Allenstein" in East Prussia.

As the following pictures from Neidenburg show, the thing has more of a folk festival character...:







The next two pictures were taken on the same day in the town of Allenstein (near which the so-called "Battle of Tannenberg" took place in August 1914)...:





And the result is also clear!

In the "Marienwerder voting area" 92.8% voted for East Prussia and thus for Germany. The area thus became part of the province of East Prussia as the administrative district of West Prussia.

In the "Allenstein voting area" (Masuria and parts of Ermland), 97.9 percent voted for East Prussia, while turnout was slightly higher at 87 percent. The area thus remained German.



The unexpectedly clear outcome probably had several reasons:

The proportion of Slavic native speakers had decreased rapidly in the previous decades.

A significant part of the Masurian-speaking population identified with Germany.

The election campaign for Germany was supported by the German administration. In contrast to other voting areas, this was replaced by a neutral administration during the voting preparations.

As early as World War I, Ostpreußenhilfe expressed national solidarity, and the Reich government provided loans to repair war damage.


In the "Upper Silesia" voting zone, however, the mood changes and things end bloody - there were also a lot of bad emotions at play here from the start - on both sides...:





On March 20, 1921, the majority in 664 communities voted for the German Reich, in 597 for Poland, which corresponded to a percentage of the votes of 59.6% of the votes for Germany and 40.4% for Poland.



The victorious powers then made use of the option contained in the Versailles Treaty to divide the area - like Schleswig-Holstein before them!

Although the larger part remained with the German Reich, the much more valuable part - with the coal mines around Kattowice (formerly Kattowitz) - was added to the newly created Republic of Poland after the war.

This outcome caused bad blood in both population groups. Fueled by radicals from Germany and Poland, armed "self-defence groups" or "free corps" were formed, which literally waged war against each other...:



The Polish "Self-Defenders" are led by a regular Polish general, the former KuK officer Stanisław Szeptycki (the following picture shows him at Kattowice)...:



Here Polish units...:





On the German side, the so-called "Special Police of Upper Silesian Self-Defense" should be mentioned as the "Freikorps", which consisted almost exclusively of members of the 3rd Marine Brigade (Naval Brigade von Loewenfeld) and was headed by Karl Guido Oskar Hauenstein (or Heinz Oskar Hauenstein). was led. Here he is standing in the middle (with spats on)...:



And this is what the German combattants looked like...:









The whole thing culminated in the so-called "Battle at Annaberg" on May 23, 1921 (35 dead)...

... and was by no means over; However, the victorious powers forced both parties to an armistice (July 5, 1921) with threats of intervention and then pushed through the division of Upper Silesia.

 

[Nap]

Very interesting to read about , particularly the way voting went

Nap