Summary:

Kari Alenius, Alien or one’s own? The German political elite’s attitude towards the Polish minority, 1918–1919

The purpose of this study is to determine how, and why, Polish minority was taken into note in a certain way in 1918–1919, when Germany was living through the critical stage following the end of the First World War. Germany had suffered a military defeat and her outward might had collapsed. Even more so, the defeat effected the domestic social development of Germany. In 1918–1919, there was intense debate in the country regarding the direction that the development of German society would take in the future. In this turbulent situation, among other issues, Germany had to consider the future of national minorities – and above all that of the Polish minority – within the new Germany.

From the right-wing view, minorities, especially the Polish, did not have any reason to complain of their status in Germany. Instead, there was justification to blame Poles for their ingratitude. All in all, in the opinion of the right the minority politics of the Imperial period had been correct in both a legal and moral sense. As important evidence of their views right-wing representatives brought forth the fact that the Polish standard of living was higher in Germany than outside Germany. One additional factor was the belief of the right wing representatives in German cultural superiority in comparison to Polish.

In the political center national questions were examined from more equal starting points. Germany’s center parties considered taking national interests into account more than the left, but unlike the right, German national chauvinism was much less popular among supporters of the center. Among the center there was also willingness to recognize the value of the Poles and take into account their wishes. From the perspective of the center, the minority policy of the Imperial period, particularly towards the Poles, was in need of radical reform, in which direction the center had already acted, being in opposition in the previous decades.

The German left strongly drove general social equality, but according to its ideological axiom Poles or other national minorities did not need any special attention in comparison to others who had social disadvantage. Left-wing ideology basically excluded those kinds of special arrangements based on nationality which could have been interpreted as privileges. In any case, the left also criticized the minority policies of the Imperial period and were in favor of some degree of reform, as the outright repression of Poles was inconsistent with left-wing objectives of general equality.

It is possible that for the left and center Poles were simultaneously “foreigners” and “non-Germans” (or “alien) on one hand and “parts of the German people” (or “one’s own) on the other. Accordingly, the left and center made the distinction between “nationality” (Nation) and “people” (Volk). The “German people” was then a broader concept that included different nationality groups living in Germany.

The period from April to August 1919 can be characterized as a new stage in the development of the status of the Poles and other minorities. Of new essence now was the effect of the disclosure of the peace treaty. Germany’s political elite now confirmed it inevitable that in the future many more Germans would live outside Germany than national minorities within Germany. The only thing that Germany could do for the good of foreign German nationals was to act as an example in the area of minority protection. Therefore, the majority of German political elite accepted the idea that Poles and other minorities should be guaranteed fundamental rights that were seen to be reasonable in legislation.