Polish Corridor

The Polish Corridor in 1923-1939

The Polish Corridor (also known as Danzig Corridor or Gdańsk Corridor) refers to that part of interwar Poland which gave the country access to the Baltic Sea. In the course of the reestablishment of the previously partitioned Polish state as a result of the Treaty of Versailles, the "corridor" was established from 70% of the dissolved former province of West Prussia, comprising Pomerelian areas and the Chelmno (Kulmer) Land, thereby cutting Germany off from her province of East Prussia and the Free City of Danzig. German historian Hartmut Boockmann claims the term was first used by Polish politicians and came into international use, and as later criticised by Polish politicians as a German nationalistic term. The equivalent German term is Polnischer Korridor; Polish names include korytarz polski ("Polish corridor") and korytarz gdański ("Gdańsk corridor"). However, reference to the region as a corridor came to be regarded as offensive by Poles, who would refer to it instead as Pomorze Gdańskie ("Gdańsk Pomerania, Pomerelia") or simply Pomorze ("Pomerania"), or as województwo pomorskie ("Pomeranian Voivodeship"), which was the administrative name for the region.

Terminology

The administrative name of the area was Pomeranian Voivodship. German sources claim "Polish Corridor" was initially coined in Poland. It soon came into international use.

Historical Background

Pomerelia before World War I

Further information: History of Pomerania and Pomerelia

From 966 till 13865 during the Middle Ages the area was part of the Polish state and known as Pomerelian duchies. Afterwad it fell to Teutonic Knights' state only to be recovered by Poland in Peace of Thorn (1466) when it became part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as Royal Prussia. Since the First Partition of Poland in 1772 it had been a part of Prussia as the province of West Prussia. With Prussia, the province joined the German Empire upon its constitution in 1871.

Allied plans for a corridor in the World War I aftermath

After the First World War, a new Polish republic was to be established. Since a Polish state had not existed since the late 18th century partitions of Poland, the future republic's territory had to be defined. Following arguments were behind the creation of the corridor

• Polish view held that without direct access to the Baltic Sea Poland would be economically dependent on Germany and therefore politically dependent on Germany. Since the United Kingdom and France wanted a strong Polish state as a counter-weight to Germany, they accepted this argument. The proposed link to the Baltic was to be in Pomerelia.

• Majority of the population in the area was Polish, and even the Prussian census of 1910 (which was considerable unreliable in itself and down) showed that there were 528,000 Poles compared to 385,000 Germans. the population of the region was Polish (in the area on the west bank of the Vistula, between Danzig (Gdańsk) and Bromberg (Bydgoszcz), including Kashubians (the direct descendants of the medieval West Slavic tribe of Pomeranians) in the coastal area north-west of Danzig.

• Historical grounds. The Polish Corridor was not a new creation but restoration of old territorial border that existed prior the First Partition of Poland.

Giving Poland access to the sea was one of the guarantees proposed by the 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.

Establishment of the corridor

In the post-World War I period, the "corridor" was established from 70% of the dissolved former province of West Prussia. Its cession to the Second Polish Republic had been published in June 1919. Poland took over complete control on January 20, 1920. The primarily German-speaking seaport of Danzig (Gdańsk) became the Free City of Danzig and was placed under the protection of the League of Nations, without consulting the local populace. After the seaport workers of the Free City of Danzig harbour went on strike throughout the Polish-Soviet War the Polish Government decided to build a new seaport at Gdynia (Gdingen) in the territory of the Corridor, and connected this seaport to the Upper Silesian industrial centers by the newly constructed Polish Coal Trunk Line railways.

Exodus of the German population

A large part of the German population of the Polish Corridor left the area after its cession to the Second Polish Republic had been published. Those people who wanted to stay in their hometowns had to take Polish citizenship, as Poland refused to accept German citizens living in its territory. Former public officials were not accepted as Polish citizens and had to leave the area. Other people, declining to give up German citizenship, had also to leave the Corridor. Due to the reduced population German schools were closed and property of former Germans residents was confiscated.

Embarking on a course of assimilation and oppression, the Polish government had managed to make some 800,000 Germans leave Poland by 1923.

The Versailles treaty had stipulated that Germans in the part of German Reich territory to be ceded to Poland, the Polish Corridor, had until 1922 to make the choice for Polish or German citizenship.

The book Orphans of Versailles [10] states, that as result of disloyalty of German citizens, who openly expressed their joy at Polish defeats in Polish-Soviet war, Other places witnessed violent demonstrations against the minority, in Chelmno/Culm the Starost reportedly encouraged Poles" If a German or Jew dares to say anything against the Polish State, (to) tie him up and drag him through the streets to the starost's office or to the court." Although the Versailles Treaty gave Germans until January 1922 to make the choice for Polish or German citizenship, many were compelled to declare right away, either for Germany (and expulsion) or for Poland and induction into the Polish army. In one village four Germans were killed in mob violence and numerous others arrested on basis of denunciations by Polish neighbors.

Germans were thus confronted with the "choice" to be Polish and to enlist in a Polish army, (that directly following World War I started a war against Soviet Russia), or give up everything and move away.

In his book Alfred de Zayas documents several thousand cases [11] filed by German minorities against Poland's confiscation of farms in the 1920s and 30s in what had become Poland.

In addition the area was abandoned by numerous Germans (a number estimated for 10% of Germans [12]) who were public officials and other workers with no ties to the province or military personnel (German garrisons were included in Prussian censuses as part of population).

Impact on the East Prussian plebiscite

Throughout the East Prussian plebiscite in July 1920 Polish authorities tried to prevent traffic through the Corridor, interrupting any postal, telegraphic and telephonic communication. On March 10, 1920, the British representative on the Marienwerder Plebiscite Commission, H.D. Beaumont, wrote of numerous continuing difficulties being made by Polish officials and added "as a result, the ill-will between Polish and German nationalities and the irritation due to Polish intolerance towards the German inhabitants in the Corridor (now under their rule), far worse than any former German intolerance of the Poles, are growing to such an extent that it is impossible to believe the present settlement (borders) can have any chance of being permanent.... It can confidently be asserted that not even the most attractive economic advantages would induce any German to vote Polish. If the frontier is unsatisfactory now, it will be far more so when it has to be drawn on this side (of the river) with no natural line to follow, cutting off Germany from the river bank and within a mile or so of Marienwerder, which is certain to vote German. I know of no similar frontier created by any treaty."

Impact on German through traffic

The German Ministry for Transport established the Seedienst Ostpreußen ("Sea Service East Prussia") in 1922 to provide a ferry connection to East Prussia, now a German exclave, to be more independent from transit through Polish territory.

In May 1925 a train, passing the Corridor on its way to East Prussia, crashed because the spikes had been removed from the tracks for a short distance and the fishplates unbolted. 25 persons, including 12 women and 2 children, were killed, some other 30 were injured. Throughout the 1920s and especially the 1930s, according to German propaganda, German planes and buses were reported to have been shot at by Polish police and militia while passing through or flying over the Polish Republic's territory on their way to or from German East Prussia.

Land reform of 1925

In 1925 the Polish government enacted a land reform program intending to expropriate landowners. While 39 percent of the agricultural land of the Corridor area was owned by Germans, the first annual list of properties to be reformed included 10,800 hectares from 32 German landowners and 950 hectares from seven Poles. The voivode of Pomorze, Wiktor Lamot, stressed that “the part of Pomorze through which the so-called corridor runs must be cleansed of larger German holdings”. The coastal region “ must be settled with a nationally conscious Polish population.. Estates belonging to Germans must be taxed more heavily to encourage them voluntarily to turn over land for settlement. Border counties, ... particularly a strip of land ten kilometers wide, must be settled with Poles. German estates that lie here must be reduced without concern for their economic value or the views of their owners.”

Prominent politicians and members of the German minority were the first to be included on the land reform list and whose property was attached.

Weimar German interests

The creation of the corridor aroused great resentment in Germany, and all post-war German Weimar governments refused to recognize the eastern borders agreed at Versailles, and refused to follow Germany's acknowledgment of its western borders in the Treaty of Locarno of 1925 with a similar declaration with respect to its eastern borders.

Institutions in Weimar Germany supported and encouraged German minority organizations in Poland, in part radicalized by the Polish policy towards them, in filing close to ten thousand complaints about violations of minority rights to the League of Nations.

Poland refused to debate her new western borders.

Nazi German interests

The Nazi Party, led by Adolf Hitler, took power in Germany in 1933 . Hitler at first ostentatiously pursued a policy of rapprochement with Poland, culminating in the ten year Polish-German Non-Aggression Pact of 1934. In the coming years, Germany placed an emphasis on rearmament, as did Poland and other European powers. Regardless, the Nazis were able to achieve their immediate goals without provoking armed conflict; in 1938 Nazi Germany annexed Austria and the Sudetenland after the Munich Agreement. In October 1938, 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.

Following negotiations with Hitler for the Munich Agreement, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain reported that, "He told me privately, and last night he repeated publicly, that after this Sudeten German question is settled, that is the end of Germany's territorial claims in Europe". Almost immediately following the agreement, however, Hitler reneged. The Nazis increased their requests for the incorporation of the Free City of Danzig into the Reich, citing the "protection" of the German majority as a motive. In November 1938, Danzig's district administrator, 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 City and the Polish Corridor created a number of headaches for German and Polish Customs. The Germans requested the Free City of Danzig and the construction of an extra-territorial highway (Berlinka) and railway through the Polish Corridor, connecting East Prussia to Danzig and Germany proper. If Poland agreed, in return they would extend the non-aggression pact for 25 years.

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, the Memel Territory, Soviet Ukraine and Czech inhabited lands. 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 partitioning. 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. Nevertheless, Hitler's credibility outside of Germany was very low after the occupation of Czechoslovakia.

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 United Kingdom and France in regard to Danzig.

Ultimatum of 1939

A revised and less favorable proposal came in the form of an ultimatum made by the Nazis in late August, after the orders had already been given to attack Poland on September 1 1939. Nevertheless, at midnight on August 29, Joachim von Ribbentrop handed British Ambassador Sir Neville Henderson a list of terms which would allegedly ensure peace in regard 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 Czechoslovak President Emil Hácha accepting Hitler’s terms in mid-March 1939.

When Ambassador Józef 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. News was then broadcast that Poland had rejected Germany's offer.

Nazi German invasion - end of the corridor

On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. Before and after armed conflict erupted on September 1, 1939, both sides reported a number of atrocities.[4] The Nazis claimed that the worst persecutions of ethnic Germans was that which occurred on September 3, in Bromberg (Bydgoszcz) (see Bloody Sunday (1939)). The German version is that Polish troops and civilians - due to confusion - massacred German civilians. The Polish version is that the Germany's fifth column forces were constantly engaging Polish troops behind the frontlines. German forces captured the corridor during the Battle of Tuchola Forest by 5 September. Other notable battles were at Westerplatte, the Polish post office in Danzig, Oksywie, and Hel.

Ethnic composition

Most of the area was inhabited by Poles, Germans, and Kashubians. Since 1886, a Settlement Commission was set up by Prussia to enforce German settlement while at the same time Germans migrated west during the Ostflucht. In 1910 42,5% of the population was German (421,029 Germans) including German soldiers stationed in the area and public officials sent to admnistrate the area. In 1921 Germans counted 18,8% (175,771). Over the next decade, the German population decreased by another 70,000 to a share of 9,6%. Also, there was a Jewish minority. in 1905, Kashubians numbered about 72,500.

After the occupation by Nazi Germany, a census was made by the German authorities in December 1939. 71% of people declared themselves as Poles, 188,000 people declared Kashubian as their language, 100,000 of those declared themselves Polish.

German Population in the Corridor as of 1921 according to
Richard Blanke, Orphans of Versailles: The Germans in Western Poland 1918-1939, 1993

County	Total population	of which German	Percentage
Działdowo (Soldau)	23,290	8,187	34.5 % (35.2%)
Lubawa (Löbau)	59,765	4,478	7.6 %
Brodnica (Strasburg)	61,180	9,599	15.7%
Wąbrzeźno (Briesen)	47,100	14,678	31.1%
Toruń (Thorn)	79,247	16,175	20.4%
Chełmno (Kulm)	46,823	12,872	27.5%
Świecie (Schwetz)	83,138	20,178	24.3%
Grudziądz (Graudenz)	77,031	21,401	27.8%
Tczew (Dirschau)	62,905	7,854	12.5%
Wejherowo (Neustadt)	71,692	7,857	11.0%
Kartuzy (Karthaus)	64,631	5,037	7.8%
Kościerzyna (Berent)	49,935	9,290	18.6%
Starogard Gdański (Preußisch Stargard)	62,400	5,946	9.5%
Chojnice (Konitz)	71,018	13,129	18.5%
Tuchola (Tuchel)	34,445	5,660	16.4%
Sępólno Krajeńskie (Zempelburg)	27,876	13,430	48.2%
Total	935,643 (922,476 when added)	175,771	18.8% (19.1% with 922,476)

The former corridor area after World War II

Further information: History of Pomerania

At the 1945 Potsdam Conference following the German defeat in World War II, Poland's borders were reorganized at the insistence of the Soviet Union, which occupied the entire area. Territories east of the Oder-Neisse line, including the corridor and Danzig, were put under Polish administration. East Germany recognised this border in 1950, West Germany recognised it with the Treaty of Warsaw (1970), and re-unified Germany did so in 1990 with the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany.

The corridor in literature

In The Shape of Things to Come, published in 1933, H.G.Wells predicted the Corridor as the starting point of a future Second World War.

Similar corridors

Other land corridors linking a country either to the sea or to a remote part of the country are:

• Czech Corridor (concept)
• Eilat Corridor (Israel)
• Jerusalem Corridor (Israel)
• Antofagasta or Atacama corridor (Bolivia)
• Lachin corridor (Armenia/Azerbaidjan)
• Siliguri Corridor (India)
• Teen Bigha Corridor (Bangladesh)
• Wakhan Corridor (Afghanistan, this corridor was not created to link, but to separate areas)