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Posen–West Prussia

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Frontier March of Posen–West Prussia
Grenzmark Posen–Westpreußen (German)
Marchia Graniczna Poznańsko–Zachodniopruska (Polish)
A province of Prussia
1919/1922–1938
Flag of Posen–West Prussia
Flag
(1923–1935)
Coat of arms of Posen–West Prussia
Coat of arms
Image
Posen–West Prussia (red) within the
Free State of Prussia (blue).
Image
Posen–West Prussia in dark blue
CapitalSchneidemühl
Area
 • Coordinates53°9′N 16°44′E / 53.150°N 16.733°E / 53.150; 16.733
 
• 1925
7,695 km2 (2,971 sq mi)
Population 
• 1925
332,400
History 
• Created from parts of Posen and
West Prussia
1919/1922
• Governed by Brandenburg
1934
• Divided between
Brandenburg, Pomerania
and Silesia
1 October 1938
Preceded by		Succeeded by
Image Province of Posen
Image West Prussia
Province of Pomerania (1815–1945) Image
Province of Brandenburg Image
Province of Silesia Image
Today part of

The Frontier March of Posen–West Prussia (German: Grenzmark Posen–Westpreußen; Polish: Marchia Graniczna Poznańsko–Zachodniopruska) was a province of Prussia from 1919 (de facto) and 1922 (de jure) until its dissolution in 1938. It comprised the three non-contiguous regions of the former provinces of Posen and West Prussia that remained part of Germany following its post-World War I territorial losses to the newly formed Second Polish Republic.

Schneidemühl (present-day Piła, Poland) served as the provincial capital. In 1934, Posen–West Prussia came under the administration of the Province of Brandenburg, and on 1 October 1938 it was officially dissolved by Nazi Germany. Its lands were then incorporated into the neighbouring provinces of Pomerania, Brandenburg and Silesia.[1] Following World War II, the entire area of the former province became part of Poland.

Background

[edit]

Until the late 18th century partitions of Poland, the territory which later made up Posen–West Prussia was part of the Greater Poland and East Pomeranian regions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In the First Partition of Poland in 1772, the Kingdom of Prussia established the Province of West Prussia and the Netze District on land annexed from the Pomeranian and Greater Polish (and Kuyavian) territories, respectively.[2][3][4] The Province of South Prussia was established as part of the 1793 Second Partition and included the remainder of Greater Poland along with some additional territory.[5]

In 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars, South Prussia, the Kulmerland (part of West Prussia) and a portion of the Netze District, along with New Silesia and New East Prussia (excluding the area around Białystok, which was ceded to Russia) were made part of the newly formed Napoleonic client state called the Duchy of Warsaw; at the same time, Danzig was detached from West Prussia as the Free City of Danzig.[6] The parts of the Netze District which remained within the Kingdom of Prussia were incorporated into West Prussia. After the Napoleonic Wars and the 1815 Congress of Vienna, the Duchy of Warsaw was partitioned between the Grand Duchy of Posen under Prussia, the Kingdom of Poland under Russia and the Free City of Cracow (a joint protectorate of Austria, Prussia, and Russia); Danzig was returned to West Prussia.[7] The Grand Duchy of Posen was made up mostly of former parts of South Prussia and the Netze District, but it also included the Kulmerland which had been part of West Prussia before 1807.[8] The Kulmerland was returned to West Prussia in 1817.[9]

Neither Posen (which was nominally semi-autonomous) nor West Prussia was part of the German Confederation of 1815–1866, to which the majority of Prussia belonged.[10] The two provinces' populations were predominantly Catholic and Polish-speaking, while a sizable Protestant German minority existed along their western fringes. Posen lost its semi-autonomous status after the failed Greater Poland Uprising of 1848 and was reorganized as the Province of Posen.[11] As provinces of Prussia, they became part of the North German Confederation in 1867 and of the unified German Empire in 1871. Under the Empire, ethnic tensions between Poles and Germans were exacerbated by the Germanisation policies of the Berlin government and the anti-Catholic Kulturkampf measures enacted by Chancellor Otto von Bismarck.[12][13]

History

[edit]

Creation

[edit]

Following the German Empire's defeat in World War I, a final Greater Poland Uprising broke out in Posen in December 1918. Its goal was to incorporate the lands that had been annexed by Prussia into a re-established Polish state. The insurgents quickly took the city of Posen from the Germans and controlled most of the rest of the province by mid-January.[14][15] Despite German protests that the Poles had been the aggressors, the German-Polish armistice signed at Trier on 16 February 1919 established a demarcation line that left the territory occupied by the Poles under their control.[16] The line was subsequently moved farther west, reducing the territory from the Province of Posen that remained in Germany. It consisted of five predominantly German-speaking districts in three non-contiguous parts: Netzekreis farthest to the north; Schwerin an der Warthe, Meseritz and Bomst in the central area; and Fraustadt in the south.[17][18]

The Province of West Prussia lost over half of its territory to the new Polish Republic under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, which were announced in May 1919 and became effective in January 1920. In the west, only the regions of Deutsch Krone, Flatow und Schlochau remained with Germany. The districts farthest to the east were made part of the Province of East Prussia as the administrative district of West Prussia with its seat at Marienwerder; the central region was granted to the new Polish state as the Pomeranian Voivodeship, also referred to as the Polish Corridor; and the region around Danzig became a free city under the oversight of the League of Nations.[19]

Image
The areas in orange and red are the parts of the former Province of Posen (in gray) that remained in Germany. (The regions from West Prussia are not shown.) Note: ehem. = 'former'

On 20 November 1919, the Prussian Ministry of the Interior in Berlin established a government office for the combined remnants of the provinces of Posen and West Prussia at Schneidemühl and named the new administrative district the "Frontier March of West Prussia–Posen"; it was subsequently renamed the "Frontier March of Posen–West Prussia" on 11 January 1921.[20] The Regional Council of Bromberg, which was on the Polish side of the border, was relocated to Schneidemühl to take on the role of the unified administration, but since the city did not have the buildings needed to support a provincial capital, the government offices were set up at Meseritz, where the Provinzialverband (a higher-level municipal association within a Prussian province) was permanently located. The capital did not move its offices and personnel to Schneidemühl until 1928.[19][21][22]

The Prussian constitution of 20 November 1920 provided for the formation of the new province, but in the Prussian Landtag (parliament) there was heated debate over the matter, with some favouring instead the unification of the various sections with their neighbouring provinces (Pomerania, Brandenburg and Silesia). The parties of the Left – the Communists (KPD), Independent Social Democrats (USPD) and Social Democrats (SPD) – were against creating a new province on economic grounds, while the middle-class parties favoured the new province in part due to their opposition to the Treaty of Versailles. In the border regions themselves, all parties except the KPD supported a new provincial association and the autonomy it would give them in the face of their much larger neighbouring provinces. In the end, the new province was created on 1 July 1922, with its name reflecting the provinces that had lost territory to Poland; the term Grenzmark ("frontier march") underscored the belief that the cession was unjustified. Posen–West Prussia's first president, Friedrich von Bülow [de], saw the province as a "promontory" against additional Polish territorial claims.[21][19][20][18]

Development and government

[edit]

The newly created Frontier March faced the immediate task of creating an administrative structure for the much-reduced German territory. The law that established the province required that it take on all government officials who had worked for Posen or West Prussia, but many government buildings, hospitals, schools and the like were in Poland and needed to be replaced. Rail and other links that were broken at the new border caused economic hardships. Posen–West Prussia needed financial support from the national government for its restructuring, but it was slow in coming because of Weimar Germany's own economic difficulties.[22][19]

The administration also had to accommodate and integrate many of the Germans who left the territory ceded to Poland.[18] Under the new Polish government's strict policy regarding minorities, well over half of the German speakers in the regions of Posen and West Prussia that had become part of Poland emigrated.[23]

Many German residents of Posen–West Prussia wanted to redraw the border with Poland to give Germany more territory, or even to deny Poland's right to exist. At the same time, much of the populace, including all of the political parties, feared additional Polish expansion. As a result, provincial authorities consistently refused any degree of détente with the new Polish republic.[22]

In the province's Landtag (parliament), the national-conservative and monarchist German National People's Party (DNVP) was the strongest single party until 1933, but it was internally splintered. As a result, a weak coalition of centre and left-of-centre parties was able to maintain a majority. In the last election to the Landtag in March 1933, after the Nazi Party had come to power at the national level, the Nazis took 55% of the votes and 16 of 30 seats.[18][24]

Friedrich von Bülow, a member of the national-liberal German People's Party, served as governor (Oberpräsident) from the province's formal establishment in 1922 until his retirement in 1933. He was succeeded by DNVP politician Hans von Meibom [de], who held the office until mid-1933, when the DNVP was dissolved as part of the Nazi regime's Gleichschaltung measures.[25]

Nazi era and dissolution

[edit]

On 18 July 1933, following Meibom's removal, administrative authority over Posen–West Prussia was assumed by Wilhelm Kube, the Nazi Oberpräsident of neighbouring Brandenburg. Kube, who had a reputation for corruption, administered both provinces until 7 August 1936.[26] He was dismissed after a political dispute with Nazi jurist Walter Buch, the father-in-law of Martin Bormann. Thereafter, Posen–West Prussia remained under joint administration with Brandenburg under Nazi Oberpräsident Emil Stürtz.[27] Administrative jurisdiction over the province was transferred to the Brandenburg Regional Council at Frankfurt an der Oder in 1937.[22] Posen–West Prussia was formally dissolved on 1 October 1938 and its territory divided between the provinces of Silesia, Pomerania and Brandenburg.[18]

Aftermath: World War II and incorporation into Poland

[edit]

After the German invasion of Poland in September 1939 that began World War II, the province was incorporated into the newly formed Reichsgau Wartheland, with smaller portions absorbed into Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia. German civil administration replaced the short-lived military occupation, and Nazi authorities implemented a programme of forced Germanisation, expulsions of the Polish and Jewish populations, and the establishment of ghettos and camps. The former provincial structures of Posen–West Prussia were not reinstated; the annexation was treated instead as a permanent extension of Nazi Germany, in breach of international law.

Following Germany's defeat in World War II, the entire territory that once constituted the province was placed under Polish administration in accordance with the decisions made at the Potsdam Conference. The Oder–Neisse line was established as the new German-Polish border, moving it considerably westward. As a result, the former German population was subject to mass expulsion and replaced by Poles, many of whom had themselves been displaced from areas annexed by the Soviet Union. The former lands of Posen–West Prussia were fully integrated into the post-war Polish state.

Subdivisions

[edit]
Image
Districts of Posen–West Prussia, 1922–1938. Note that the Fraustadt district is not contiguous with the Bomst district to its north. (Niederschlesien = Lower Silesia)

The capital of Posen–West Prussia and seat of the governor (Oberpräsident) was Schneidemühl. The seat of the province's Landeshauptmann (lit. 'land captain') was at Meseritz.[19] The province consisted of a single governmental district (Regierungsbezirk), Schneidemühl.

From the former Province of Posen:

From the former West Prussia:

Administration

[edit]
Image
The former government building at Schneidemühl

The office of Oberpräsident appointed by the Prussian state government carried out central prerogatives on the provincial level and supervised the implementation of central policy on the lower levels of administration.

As to common interests and tasks to be fulfilled on the provincial level, such as schools, traffic installations, hospitals, cultural institutions, sanitary premises, jails etc., the urban and rural districts (Kreise) within each province (sometimes within each government region) formed a corporation with common assets to these ends, called Provinzialverband (provincial association, or – within government regions or smaller entities – Bezirksverband or Kommunalverband, i.e. municipal or regional associations). Since 1875 all provinces had this double identity, based first on central Prussian prerogatives from above and then on bottom-up corporations of province-wide or region-wide self-rule. Initially, the assemblies of the urban and rural districts elected representatives for the provincial parliaments (Provinziallandtage; or as to regional parliaments, the Kommunallandtage), which were thus indirectly elected.

After the end of the Prussian monarchy in 1918, the provincial or regional parliaments were all directly elected by the citizens of the provinces (or regions, respectively), with direct elections first held in 1921 and 1922. The parliaments legislated within the competencies transferred to the provincial or regional associations. Before the formal establishment of the new province, the rural and urban district assemblies elected representatives for the Kommunallandtag Posen–West Prussia, legislating within the competencies of the former Posen and West Prussia provincial associations and its premises within the territory of the future Posen–West Prussia. After the formal formation of the province, its parliament was called the provincial parliament of Posen–West Prussia, which elected a provincial executive body (government), the provincial committee (Provinzialausschuss), and a head of province, the Landeshauptmann.

Leaders

[edit]
Governor (Oberpräsident)[20]
Name In office Party Notes
Friedrich von Bülow [de] 1922–1933 German People's Party
Hans von Meibom [de] 1933 German National People's Party
Wilhelm Kube 1933–1936 Nazi Party also Oberpräsident of Brandenburg
Emil Stürtz 1936–1938 Nazi Party also Oberpräsident of Brandenburg
Landeshauptmann[20]
Name In office Party
Johannes Caspari [de] 1922–1933 Social Democratic Party
Hans von Meibom [de] 1933 Nazi Party

Population

[edit]
Image
Polish minority in the districts of Posen–West Prussia
  • 1910: 309,200 (in areas which later became parts of the province)
  • 1919: 326,900
  • 1925: 332,400
  • 1933: 470,600

Religion

[edit]
Confessions[28]
Pct.
Protestant 62.4
Catholic 36.2
Jewish 1.0
Other 0.4

Polish minority

[edit]

After the Treaty of Versailles came into force, some members of the local Polish minority emigrated to Poland. In 1925, 13,284 people declared themselves to be either Polish-speaking or bilingual German/Polish, corresponding to a population share of 4.3%.[citation needed] The share of the vote of the Polish-Catholic People's Party was at around 3% in the elections in which it competed.[29] The centres of the Polish minority were unevenly distributed. According to the census of 1925, the districts of Bomst (20.6%), Flatow (16.8%) and Meseritz (5.8%) had the highest proportions of Polish speakers (including bilinguals). A special achievement of the Polish minority was the establishment of a network of Polish private schools.[citation needed]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ↑ Buchholz, Werner (1999). Deutsche Geschichte im Osten Europas. Band 9: Pommern [German History in Eastern Europe. Vol. 9: Pomerania] (in German). Berlin: Siedler. p. 511. ISBN 978-3-88680-272-2.
  2. ↑ Lakeberg, Beata (2013). "Pommerellen/Westpreußen" [Pomerelia/West Prussia]. Online-Lexikon zur Kultur und Geschichte der Deutschen im östlichen Europa (in German). Retrieved 2026-10-01.
  3. ↑ "Netzedistrikt". Meyer's Great Conversational Encyclopedia [Meyer's Great Conversational Encyclopedia] (in German). Vol. 14. Leipzig: Bibliographisches Institut. 1908. p. 537.
  4. ↑ "Zur Geschichte der Region an der unteren Weichsel" [On the History of the Region on the Lower Vistula]. Westpreussische Gesellschaft (in German). Retrieved 1 October 2026.
  5. ↑ Schutte, Christoph (2013). "Großpolen" [Greater Poland]. Online-Lexikon zur Kultur und Geschichte der Deutschen im östlichen Europa (in German). Retrieved 2 October 2026.
  6. ↑ Redaktionskommittee, ed. (1918). Polen: Entwicklung und gegenwärtiger Zustand [Poland: Development and Present Situation] (in German). Bern: Hallersche Buchdruckerei. p. 266 n.1.
  7. ↑ Czarnomski, Francis Bauer, ed. (1925). The Polish Handbook. A Guide to the Country and Resources. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode. p. 61.
  8. ↑ Brachelli, Hugo Franz (1857). Deutsche Staatenkunde: Die Norddeutschen Bundesstaaten [German Political Science: The Northern German States] (in German). Vienna: W. Braumüller. p. 602.
  9. ↑ Mannkopff, Adolph Julius (1837). Allgemeine Gerichtsordnung für die Preussischen Staaten [General Code of Judicial Procedure for the Prussian States] (in German). Berlin: G. Reimer. p. 25.
  10. ↑ Steinkühler, Martin (2001). "Die Bundesversammlung in Frankfurt/ Main erklärt Ost- und Westpreussen als nicht zum Deutschen Bund gehörend" [The Federal Assembly in Frankfurt am Main Declares that East and West Prussia Do Not Belong to the German Confederation]. Kulturstiftung der deutschen Vertriebenen (in German). Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  11. ↑ Köbler, Gerhard (2007). Historisches Lexikon der deutschen Länder: die deutschen Territorien vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart [Historical Encyclopedia of the German States: German Territories from the Middle Ages to the Present] (in German) (7th ed.). Munich: Beck. p. 535. ISBN 978-3-406-54986-1.
  12. ↑ Wikisource This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Posen (province)". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  13. ↑ "Kulturkampf – Auseinandersetzung zwischen Kirche und Bismarck" [Kulturkampf – The Conflict Between the Church and Bismarck]. abipur.de (in German). Retrieved 2026-10-03.
  14. ↑ Elsbach, Sebastian (10 October 2022). "Wessen Freiheit? Der 9. November 1918 und Polen" [Whose Freedom? 9 November 1918 and Poland]. Gesellschaft zur Erforschung der Demokratiegeschichte (in German). Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  15. ↑ "Großpolnischer Aufstand" [Greater Poland Uprising 1918–1919]. Region Wielkopolska (in German). Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  16. ↑ von Hammerstein-Gesmold, Hans Freiherr (1928). Der Waffenstillstand 1918 –1919 und Polen [The Armistice of 1918 –1919 and Poland] (in German). Berlin: Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft für Politik und Geschichte. pp. 8 f.
  17. ↑ "Warum Großpolen gewann: Geschichte eines erfolgreichen Freiheitskampfes" [Why Greater Poland Won: The Story of a Successful Struggle for Freedom]. Polskie Radio. 16 February 2026. Retrieved 7 October 2026.
  18. 1 2 3 4 5 von Unruh, Georg-Christoph. "Die Provinz Grenzmark Posen–Westpreußen" [The Province Frontier March Posen–West Prussia]. Heimatkreis Meseritz (in German). Retrieved 2026-10-08.
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 Porada, Haik Thomas (4 October 2021). "Grenzmark Posen-Westpreußen" [Frontier March of Posen–West Prussia]. Online-Lexikon zur Kultur und Geschichte der Deutschen im östlichen Europa (in German). Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  20. 1 2 3 4 Jehke, Rolf (22 December 2025). "Provinz Grenzmark Posen–Westpreußen" [Province Frontier March Posen–West Prussia]. territorial.de (in German). Retrieved 2026-10-12.
  21. 1 2 Sztuba-Frackowiak, Katarzyna. "Von Posen nach Obrawalde – Ernst Baron von Heyking (1862–1940)" [From Posen to Obrawalde – Ernst Baron von Heyking (1862–1940)]. Heimatkreis Meseritz (in German). Retrieved 7 October 2026.
  22. 1 2 3 4 "100 Jahre Grenzmark Posen-Westpreußen" [100 Years of the Frontier March Posen–West Prussia]. Königsgnade (in German). Retrieved 2026-10-09.
  23. ↑ Porada, Haik Thomas (4 October 2021). "Grenzmark Posen-Westpreußen" [Frontier March of Posen–West Prussia]. Online-Lexikon zur Kultur und Geschichte der Deutschen im östlichen Europa (in German). Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  24. ↑ "Die Grenzmark Posen-Westpreußen. Provinziallandtagswahlen 1921–1933" [The Frontier March of Posen–West Prussia. Provincial Landtag Elections 1921–1933]. gonschior.de (in German). Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  25. ↑ Shirer, William L. (1960). The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 201. LCCN 60-6729.
  26. ↑ Miller, Michael D.; Schulz, Andreas (2017). Gauleiter: The Regional Leaders of the Nazi Party and Their Deputies, 1925–1945. Vol. 2 (Georg Joel – Dr. Bernhard Rust). R. James Bender Publishing. p. 144. ISBN 978-1-932-97032-6.
  27. ↑ Fritz, Gause (1996). Die Geschichte der Stadt Königsberg in Preußen [The History of the City of Königsberg in Prussia] (in German). Vol. 3. Vienna and Cologne: Böhlau Verlag. p. 80. ISBN 978-3-412-08896-5.
  28. ↑ "Die Grenzmark Posen-Westpreußen. Überblick" [The Frontier March Posen–West Prussia. Overview]. gonschior.de (in German). Retrieved 15 October 2026.
  29. ↑ "Die Grenzmark Posen-Westpreußen. Landtagswahlen 1919–1933" [The Frontier March of Posen–West Prussia. Landtag Elections 1919–1933]. gonschior.de (in German). Retrieved 16 October 2026.
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