1921 Upper Silesia plebiscite

Voting regarding the German–Polish border Upper Silesia Germany Poland 707393 479365 invalid 1220979 Upper Silesia is divided. East Upper Silesia goes to Poland. West Upper Silesia goes to Germany. Upper Silesia 20 March 1921 thumb|300px|Map of the plebiscite areasPink = GermanyGreen = PolandLilac = Czechoslovakia (including, without plebiscite, Hlučín)Pale green = to Poland following plebisciteOrange = remaining in Germany following plebiscite The Upper Silesia plebiscite was a plebiscite mandated by the Versailles Treaty and carried out on 20 March 1921 to determine ownership of the province of Upper Silesia between Weimar Germany and the Second Polish Republic.F. Gregory Campbell, "The Struggle for Upper Silesia, 1919–1922." Journal of Modern History 42.3 (1970): 361–385. online https://web.archive.org/web/20220201142939/http://piotrwroblewski.us.edu.pl/rudy/F_Gregory_Campbell.pdf 2022-02-01 The region was ethnically mixed with both Germans and Poles. According to prewar statistics, ethnic Poles formed 60 percent of the population.T. Hunt Tooley, "National Identity and Weimar Germany: Upper Silesia and the eastern border", University of Nebraska Press, 1997, p. 140 Under the previous rule by the German Empire, Poles claimed they had faced discrimination and had been effectively second-class citizens."Racisms Made in Germany" edited by Wulf D. Hund, Wulf Dietmar Hund, Christian Koller, Moshe Zimmermann LIT Verlag Münster 2011 pp. 20, 21The Ideology of Kokugo: Nationalizing Language in Modern Japan Lee Yeounsuk p. 161 University of Hawaii Press 2009"The Immigrant Threat: The Integration of Old and New Migrants in Western Europe since 1850" (Studies of World Migrations) Leo Lucassen p. 61 University of Illinois Press. 2005 The period of the plebiscite campaign and the Allied occupation was marked by violence. Three Polish uprisings occurred, and German volunteer paramilitary units came to the region. The area was policed by French, British and Italian troops and overseen by an Interallied Commission. The Allies planned a partition of the region, but a Polish insurgency took control of over half the area. The Germans responded with the Freikorps, volunteer paramilitary units from all over Germany that fought the Polish units. The Freikorps from all over Germany participated in the plebiscite, as well as other bussed-in Germans. In the end, after renewed Allied military intervention, the final position of the opposing forces became, roughly, the new border. The decision was handed over to the League of Nations, which confirmed the border, and Poland received roughly one third of the plebiscite zone by area, including the greater part of the industrial region.T. Hunt Tooley, "German political violence and the border plebiscite in Upper Silesia, 1919–1921." Central European History 21.1 (1988): 56–98. After the referendum, a conference of ambassadors in Paris on 20 October 1921 decided to divide the region. Consequently, the German-Polish Accord on East Silesia (Geneva Convention), a minority treaty, was concluded on 15 May 1922 and dealt with the constitutional and legal future of Upper Silesia, which had partly become Polish territory. Ethnolinguistic structure before the plebiscite thumb|Language situation in Silesia in 1905-06 The earliest exact census figures on ethnolinguistic or national structure (Nationalverschiedenheit) of the Prussian part of Upper Silesia, come from 1819. Polish immigration from Galicia, Congress Poland and Prussian provinces into Upper Silesia during the 19th century was a major factor in their increasing numbers. The last Prussian general census figures available are from 1910 (if not including the 1911 census of school children – Sprachzählung unter den Schulkindern – which revealed a higher percent of Polish-speakers among school children than the 1910 census among the general populace). Figures (Table 1.) show that large demographic changes took place between 1819 and 1910, with the region's total population quadrupling, the percent of Germans increasing significantly, while Polish-speakers maintained their steady increasing numbers. Also the total land area in which Polish was spoken, as well as the land area in which it was spoken, declined between 1790 and 1890. Joseph Partsch Joseph Partsch Schlesien: eine Landeskunde für das deutsche Volk. T. 1., Das ganze Land http://www.sbc.org.pl/dlibra/docmetadata?id=3315&dirds=1&tab=1 1896 Verlag Ferdinand Hirt Breslau Die Sprachgrenze 1790 und 1890 364–367 de Polish authors before 1918 estimated the number of Poles in Prussian Upper Silesia as slightly higher than according to official German censuses.https://archive.org/details/polesunderprussi00kozi/page/2 The Poles under Prussian rule Kozicki Stanislas London, Polish Press Bur. 1918 Toronto 2–3 The three western districts of Falkenberg (Niemodlin), Grottkau (Grodków) and Neisse (Nysa), though part of Regierungsbezirk Oppeln, were not included in the plebiscite area, as they were almost entirely populated by Germans. Table 1. Numbers of Polish, German and other inhabitants (Regierungsbezirk Oppeln)https://books.google.com/books?id=31DMAJgQV28C&pg=PA34 Statistischer Umriß der sämmtlichen europäischen und der vornehmsten außereuropäischen Staaten, in Hinsicht ihrer Entwickelung, Größe, Volksmenge, Finanz- und Militärverfassung, tabellarisch dargestellt; Erster Heft: Welcher die beiden großen Mächte Österreich und Preußen und den Deutschen Staatenbund darstellt Georg Hassel Verlag des Geographischen Instituts Weimar 1823 34 de Nationalverschiedenheit 1819: Polen – 377,100; Deutsche – 162,600; Mährer – 12,000; Juden – 8,000; Tschechen – 1,600; Gesamtbevölkerung: 561,203https://archive.org/details/diepoleninobersc00webeuoft Die Polen in Oberschlesien: eine statistische Untersuchung Paul Weber Verlagsbuchhandlung von Julius Springer 1913 Berlin deKalisch Johannes Bochinski Hans 1958 Stosunki narodowościowe na Śląsku w świetle relacji pruskich urzędników z roku 1882 http://sobotka.uni.wroc.pl/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Sobotka_13_1958_43-58.pdf Śląski Kwartalnik Historyczny Sobótka Leipzig 13 https://web.archive.org/web/20200201215644/http://sobotka.uni.wroc.pl/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Sobotka_13_1958_43-58.pdf 2020-02-01Year18191828183118341837184018431846185218551858186118671890190019051910 Polish377,100 (67.2%) 418,837 (61.1%) 443,084 (62.0%)468,691 (62.6%) 495,362 (62.1%) 525,395 (58.6%) 540,402 (58.1%) 568,582 (58.1%) 584,293 (58.6%)590,248 (58.7%) 612,849 (57.3%) 665,865 (59.1%) 742,153 (59.8%) 918,728 (58.2%) 1,048,230 (56.1%) 1,158,805 (57.0%) Census, monolingual Polish: 1,169,340 (53.0%)https://archive.org/details/diepoleninobersc00webeuoft Die Polen in Oberschlesien: eine statistische Untersuchung Paul Weber Verlagsbuchhandlung von Julius Springer 1913 Berlin 27 de or up to 1,560,000 together with bilinguals German162,600 (29.0%) 255,483 (37.3%) 257,852 (36.1%)266,399 (35.6%) 290,168 (36.3%) 330,099 (36.8%) 348,094 (37.4%) 364,175 (37.2%) 363,990 (36.5%)366,562 (36.5%) 406,950 (38.1%) 409,218 (36.3%) 457,545 (36.8%) 566,523 (35.9%) 684,397 (36.6%) 757,200 (37.2%)884,045 (40.0%)Other21,503 (3.8%)10,904 (1.6%)13,254 (1.9%)13,120 (1.8%)12,679 (1.6%)41,570 (4.6%)42,292 (4.5%)45,736 (4.7%)49,445 (4.9%)48,270 (4.8%)49,037 (4.6%)51,187 (4.6%)41,611 (3.4%)92,480 (5.9%)135,519 (7.3%)117,651 (5.8%)Total population: 2,207,981 The plebiscite thumb|Members of the Polish Plebiscite Committee thumb|A bilingual Polish Propaganda poster: Vote for Poland and you will be free thumb|A German Propaganda poster: Prayer of the Homeland: Upper Silesia remain German! thumb|Upper Silesia Plebiscite 1921 cast iron campaign medal of the pro- German side. The obverse shows the Bavarian born Saint Hedwig of Silesia. thumb|The reverse of this medal states in German and Polish the German origin of the Upper Silesian Christianisation. The Paris Peace Conference at the end of the First World War placed some formerly German territory in neighbouring countries, some of which had not existed before the war. In the case of the new Second Polish Republic, the Treaty of Versailles established some 54,000 square kilometrs of formerly-German territory as part of the newly independent Poland. Many of these areas were ethnically mixed. In three of the ethnically mixed areas on the new German-Polish border, however, the Allied leaders provided for border plebiscites or referendums. The areas would be occupied by Allied forces and governed to some degree by Allied commissions. The most significant of those plebiscites was the one in Upper Silesia since the region was a principal industrial centre. The most important economic asset was the enormous coal-mining industry and its ancillary businesses, but the area yielded iron, zinc, and lead. The "Industrial Triangle", on the eastern side of the plebiscite zone, between the cities of Beuthen (Bytom), Kattowitz (Katowice), and Gleiwitz (Gliwice) was the heart of this large industrial complex. The Upper Silesia plebiscite was therefore a plebiscite for self-determination of Upper Silesia required by the Treaty of Versailles. Both Germany and Poland valued the region not only for reasons of national feeling but also for its economic importance. The area was occupied by British, French, and Italian forces, and an Interallied Committee headed by a French general, Henri Le Rond. The plebiscite was set for 20 March 1921. Both Poles and Germans were allowed to organize campaigns. Each side developed secret paramilitary forces, which were financed from the opposing capitals: Warsaw and Berlin. The major figure of the campaign was Wojciech Korfanty, a pro-Polish politician. The Poles carried out uprisings during the campaign in August 1919 and August 1920. The Allies restored order in each case, but the Polish insurrectionists clashed with German "volunteers", the Freikorps.T. Hunt Tooley, "German Political Violence and the Border Plebiscite in Upper Silesia, 1919–1921," Central European History 21 (March 1988): 56–98. A feature of the plebiscite campaign was the growing prominence of a strong autonomist movement, the most visible branch of which was the Bund der Oberschlesier/Związek Górnoślązaków, an organisation attempted to gain promises of autonomy from both states and possible future independence for Upper Silesia.Günter Doose, Die separatistische Bewegung in Oberschlesien nach dem ersten Weltkrieg. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1987 There were 1,186,758 votes cast in an area inhabited by 2,073,663 people.herder-institut.de: de fr pl Results of the plebiscites in three Prussian districts conducted between July 1920 and March 1921, according to Polish sources. http://www.herder-institut.de//uploads/tx_himmat/003_2_003_Plebiszite.pdf Główny Urząd Statystyczny Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej GUS, Annual (Main Statistical Office of the Republic of Poland) Rocznik statystyki Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej 1920 2012-06-08 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20130722212004/http://www.herder-institut.de//uploads/tx_himmat/003_2_003_Plebiszite.pdf 2013-07-22 – Also in https://archive.today/20130211084843/http://www.herder-institut.de/startseite/dokumente-und-materialien/moduluebersicht/zweite-polnische-republik/materialien.html?tx_himmat_pi1%5BshowUid%5D=169&cHash=64c5894541f8d9b304ebee841028f938 HTML They resulted in 717,122 votes being cast for Germany and 483,514 for Poland. The towns and most of the villages in the plebiscite territory had German majorities. However, the districts of Pless (Pszczyna) and Rybnik in the southeast, as well as Tarnowitz (Tarnowskie Góry) in the east and Tost-Gleiwitz (Gliwice) in the interior showed considerable Polish majorities, while in Lublinitz (Lubliniec) and Groß Strehlitz (Strzelce Opolskie) the votes cast on either side were practically equal. All districts of the industrial zone in a narrower sense – Beuthen (Bytom), Hindenburg (Zabrze), Kattowitz (Katowice), and Königshütte (Chorzów) – had slight German majorities, but in Beuthen and Kattowitz, that was entirely because of the town vote (four fifths in Kattowitz. compared to an overall 60%).Polen Urban 2nd C.H.Beck 2003 3-406-44793-7 https://books.google.com/books?id=7YKoyrS5orgC&pg=PA40 2008-08-28 40 Many country communes of Upper Silesia had Polish majorities. Overall, however, the Germans won the vote by a measure of 59.4% to 40.6%.Volksabstimmungen in Oberschlesien 1920–1922 (gonschior.de) The Interallied Commission deliberated, but the British proposed a more easterly border than the French, which would have given much less of the Industrial Triangle to Poland. thumb|A crowd awaits the plebiscite results in Oppeln (Opole) thumb|1920 special passport issued to those living in the region during the Upper Silesian plebiscite. In late April 1921, when pro-Polish forces began to fear that the region would be partitioned according to the British plan, elements on the Polish side announced a popular uprising. Korfanty was the leading figure of the uprising, but he had much support in Upper Silesia and from the Polish government, in Warsaw. Korfanty called for a popular armed uprising, whose aim was to maximize the territory that Poland would receive in the partition. German volunteers rushed to meet this uprising, and large-scale fighting took place in the late spring and early summer of 1921. German-speaking spokesmen and German officials complained that the French units of the Upper Silesian army of occupation supported the insurrection by refusing to put down violent activities or to restore order. Twelve days after the start of the uprising, Korfanty offered to take his Upper Silesian forces behind a line of demarcation if the released territory was occupied not by German forces but by Allied troops. On 1 July, British troops returned to Upper Silesia to help French forces occupy this area. Simultaneously with those events, the Interallied Commission pronounced a general amnesty for the illegal actions committed during the recent violence except for acts of revenge and cruelty. The German defence force was finally withdrawn. Because the Allied Supreme Council was unable to come to an agreement on the partition of the Upper Silesian territory on the basis of the confusing plebiscite results, a solution was found by turning the question over to the Council of the League of Nations. Agreements between the Germans and Poles in Upper Silesia and appeals issued by both sides, as well as the dispatch of six battalions of Allied troops and the disbandment of the local guards, contributed markedly to the pacification of the district. On the basis of the reports of a League commission and those of its experts, the Council awarded the greater part of the Upper Silesian industrial district to Poland, which obtained almost exactly half of the 1,950,000 inhabitants (965,000) but not quite a third of the territory (only 3,214.26 km2 (1,255 mi2) out of 10,950.89 km2 (4,265 mi2)) but more than 80% of the heavy industry of the region.Karl Junge, 1922, "Foreign and colonial history: Germany and Austria (Ch. III), Germany," in The Annual Register: A Review of Public Events at Home and Abroad, for the Year 1921 (M. Epstein, Ed.), pp. 177–186, esp. 179f, New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., see , accessed 6 July 2015. The German and Polish governments, under a League of Nations recommendation, agreed to enforce protections of minority interests that would last for 15 years. Special measures were threatened in case either state refused to participate in the drawing up of such regulations or to accept them subsequently. In the event, the German minority remaining on the Polish side of the border suffered considerable discrimination in the subsequent decades.Richard Blanke, Orphans of Versailles: The Germans in Western Poland, 1918–1939. Lexington: The University of Kentucky Press, 1993. The Polish government, convinced by the economic and political power of the region and by the autonomist movement of the plebiscite campaign, decided to give Upper Silesia considerable autonomy, with a Silesian Parliament as a legislature and the Silesian Voivodship Council as the executive body. On the German side the new Prussian province of Upper Silesia (Oberschlesien) with regional government in Oppeln was formed, likewise with special autonomy. Results thumb|Map of Upper Silesian Plebiscite of 1921|center|1024x1024px County population (1919) registered voters turnout votes for Germany% votes for Poland%Beuthen (Bytom), town http://home.arcor.de/oberschlesien-ka/abstimmung/beuthen.htm Die Volksabstimmung in Oberschlesien 1921: Beuthen 2016-02-04 2015-04-05 https://web.archive.org/web/20150405001452/http://home.arcor.de/oberschlesien-ka/abstimmung/beuthen.htm dead 71,18742,99039,99129,890 74.7%10,101 25.3%Beuthen (Bytom), district 213,790109,749106,69843,677 40.9%63,021 59.1%Cosel (Koźle), district Die Volksabstimmung in Oberschlesien 1921: Cosel https://web.archive.org/web/20160304093254/http://home.arcor.de/oberschlesien-ka/abstimmung/cosel.htm 2016-03-04 79,97351,36450,10037,651 75.2%12,449 24.8%Gleiwitz (Gliwice), town Die Volksabstimmung in Oberschlesien 1921: Gleiwitz und Tost https://web.archive.org/web/20160304162102/http://home.arcor.de/oberschlesien-ka/abstimmung/gleiwitz-tost.htm 2016-03-04 69,02841,94940,58732,029 78.9%8,558 21.1%Groß Strehlitz (Strzelce Opolskie), district Die Volksabstimmung in Oberschlesien 1921: Groß Strehlitz https://web.archive.org/web/20160304123242/http://home.arcor.de/oberschlesien-ka/abstimmung/gross-strehlitz.htm 2016-03-04 76,50246,52845,46122,415 49.3%23,046 50.7%Hindenburg (Zabrze), district http://home.arcor.de/oberschlesien-ka/abstimmung/hindenburg.htm Die Volksabstimmung in Oberschlesien 1921: Hindenburg 2016-02-04 2013-12-24 https://web.archive.org/web/20131224110515/http://home.arcor.de/oberschlesien-ka/abstimmung/hindenburg.htm dead 167,63290,79388,48045,219 51.1%43,261 48.9%Kattowitz (Katowice), town Die Volksabstimmung in Oberschlesien 1921: Kattowitz https://web.archive.org/web/20160304050125/http://home.arcor.de/oberschlesien-ka/abstimmung/kattowitz.htm 2016-03-04 45,42228,53126,67422,774 85.4%3,900 14.6%Kattowitz (Katowice), district 227,657122,342119,01152,892 44.4%66,119 55.6%Königshütte (Chorzów), town http://home.arcor.de/oberschlesien-ka/abstimmung/koenigshuette.htm Die Volksabstimmung in Oberschlesien 1921: Königshütte 2016-02-04 2015-04-04 https://web.archive.org/web/20150404152322/http://home.arcor.de/oberschlesien-ka/abstimmung/koenigshuette.htm dead 74,81144,05242,62831,864 74.7%10,764 25.3%Kreuzburg (Kluczbork), district http://home.arcor.de/oberschlesien-ka/abstimmung/kreuzburg.htm Die Volksabstimmung in Oberschlesien 1921: Kreuzburg 2016-02-04 2015-04-04 https://web.archive.org/web/20150404170149/http://home.arcor.de/oberschlesien-ka/abstimmung/kreuzburg.htm dead 52,55840,60239,62737,975 95.8%1,652 4.2%Leobschütz (Głubczyce), district http://home.arcor.de/oberschlesien-ka/abstimmung/leobschuetz.htm Die Volksabstimmung in Oberschlesien 1921: Leobschütz 2016-02-04 2015-04-04 https://web.archive.org/web/20150404154835/http://home.arcor.de/oberschlesien-ka/abstimmung/leobschuetz.htm dead 78,24766,69765,38765,128 99.6%2590.4% Lublinitz (Lubliniec), district Die Volksabstimmung in Oberschlesien 1921: Lublinitz https://web.archive.org/web/20160304192452/http://home.arcor.de/oberschlesien-ka/abstimmung/lublinitz.htm 2016-03-04 55,38029,99129,13215,453 53.0%13,679 47.0%Namslau (Namysłów), district http://home.arcor.de/oberschlesien-ka/abstimmung/namslau.htm Die Volksabstimmung in Oberschlesien 1921: Namslau 2016-02-04 2015-04-04 https://web.archive.org/web/20150404162646/http://home.arcor.de/oberschlesien-ka/abstimmung/namslau.htm dead 5,6595,6065,4815,348 97.6%133 2.4%Neustadt (Prudnik), district Die Volksabstimmung in Oberschlesien 1921: Neustadt https://web.archive.org/web/20160304101735/http://home.arcor.de/oberschlesien-ka/abstimmung/neustadt.htm 2016-03-04 51,28736,94136,09331,825 88.2%4,268 11.8%Oppeln (Opole), town Die Volksabstimmung in Oberschlesien 1921: Oppeln https://web.archive.org/web/20160304210528/http://home.arcor.de/oberschlesien-ka/abstimmung/oppeln.htm 2016-03-04 35,48322,93021,91420,816 95.0%1,098 5.0%Oppeln (Opole), district 123,16582,71580,89656,170 69.4%24,726 30.6%Pleß (Pszczyna), district Die Volksabstimmung in Oberschlesien 1921: Pless https://web.archive.org/web/20150502200241/http://home.arcor.de/oberschlesien-ka/abstimmung/pless.htm 2015-05-02 141,82873,92372,05318,675 25.9%53,378 74.1%Ratibor (Racibórz), town Die Volksabstimmung in Oberschlesien 1921: Ratibor https://web.archive.org/web/20160304050408/http://home.arcor.de/oberschlesien-ka/abstimmung/ratibor.htm 2016-03-04 36,99425,33624,51822,291 90.9%2,227 9.1%Ratibor (Racibórz), district 78,23845,90044,86726,349 58.7%18,518 41.3%Rosenberg (Olesno), district Die Volksabstimmung in Oberschlesien 1921: Rosenberg https://web.archive.org/web/20160304124001/http://home.arcor.de/oberschlesien-ka/abstimmung/rosenberg.htm 2016-03-04 54,96235,97635,00723,857 68.1%11,150 31.9%Rybnik, district Die Volksabstimmung in Oberschlesien 1921: Rybnik https://web.archive.org/web/20160304050546/http://home.arcor.de/oberschlesien-ka/abstimmung/rybnik.htm 2016-03-04 160,83682,35080,26627,919 34.8%52,347 65.2%Tarnowitz (Tarnowskie Góry), district Die Volksabstimmung in Oberschlesien 1921: Tarnowitz https://web.archive.org/web/20140201234003/http://home.arcor.de/oberschlesien-ka/abstimmung/tarnowitz.htm 2014-02-01 86,56345,56144,59117,078 38.3%27,513 61.7%Tost-Gleiwitz (Gliwice), district 86,46148,15347,29620,098 42.5%27,198 57.5%Total Herder Institut de2,073,6631,220,9791,186,758707,393 59.6%479,365 40.4%Total without Namslau district 2,068,0041,215,3731,181,277702,045 59.4%479,232 40.6% thumb|Arrival of the train with migrant workers from western Germany in Neustadt (Prudnik) According to Article 88 of the Treaty of Versailles all inhabitants of the plebiscite district older than 20 years of age and those who had "been expelled by the German authorities and have not retained their domicile there" were entitled to return to vote. That stipulation of the Treaty of Versailles allowed the participation of thousands of Upper Silesian migrant workers from western Germany (Ruhrpolen). Hugo Service regards the transport of these eligible voters to Silesia, organized by German authorities, "a cynical act aimed at boosting the German vote" and as one of the reasons for the overall result. As Service writes, although almost 60% of Upper Silesians voted for their region to remain part of Germany, it would be dubious to claim that most of them were ethnically German or regarded themselves as Germans. Voting for Germany in the 1921 vote and regarding oneself as German were two different things. People had diverse, often very pragmatic reasons for voting for Germany, which usually had little to do with regarding themselves as having a German ethnonational identity.Germans to Poles https://books.google.com/books?id=9YQYAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT163 Hugo Service Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-67148-5 2013Tooley, T. Hunt. National Identity and Weimar Germany: Upper Silesia and the Eastern Border, 1918–1922 University of Nebraska Press 1997, 978-0803244290, pp. 234–252 According to Robert Machray, a British international observer,https://minds.wisconsin.edu/bitstream/handle/1793/95454/Kozon_uwm_0263D_14081.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y 265 Przybysz: a political biography of Silesian voivode Michał Grażyński Martin John Kozon May 2025 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Doctor of Philosophy in History 192,408 of all plebiscite voters were migrants and made up 16% of the total electorate. Among them, 94.7% voted for Germany.Machray Robert 1945 The Problem of Upper Silesia https://kpbc.umk.pl/Content/252495/PDF/Gromadzenie_POPC_030_27.pdf Michigan G. Allen & Unwin Limited 79–83 There were cases of votes being cast in the name of already deceased persons who died outside of Upper Silesia, and since their deaths were registered "in comparatively inaccessible German registration departments in Central Germany", it was often difficult to detect voter fraud. Additionally, "the general conditions in which the plebiscite was held by no means created an atmosphere for a free and independent vote" since the administration was staffed only by ethnic Germans, and no Polish schools were allowed, which limited Polish cultural life to churches and private organisations. The Polish population of Silesia overwhelmingly consisted of poor workers and small farmers, who owned no real property and were highly dependent on the German authorities to provide appropriate infrastructure. All offices and industries were controlled by the German population, who exerted an overwhelming pressure on Poles to vote for Germany, and they "frequently exceeded their lawful powers and supported many forms of anti-Polish activities". Demobilised German officers joined the Freikorps and terrorised the Polish population. Machray states, "Upper Silesia was the scene of incessant confusion, sanguinary struggles with armed German attacks on Polish meetings and on the terrorized and defenceless Polish population, especially in the rural areas". Emil Julius Gumbel investigated and condemned the cases of widespread intimidation and murders by Freikorps and Selbstschutz divisions and remarked that “a denunciation, a suspicion without foundation under the given circumstances, was sufficient. The man concerned is fetched from his lodgings and instantly shot... all this only because the man was a Pole or was considered a Pole and worked for union with Poland”.Gumbel Emil Julius 1929 Verräter verfallen der Feme! Berlin 156 de Machray establishes that many Poles were either prevented from voting or intimidated into voting for Germany and notes that in provinces such as Kozle and Olesno, a minority of voters voted for Poland although the areas were overwhelmingly Polish according to the 1910 census, with 75% in Kozle and 81% in Olesno Provinces. Machray concludes that given the aggressive anti-Polish campaign conducted by local authorities and German volunteers, "the results were far from being an objective reflection of the true desires of the oppressed people". The constant ethnic tensions and attacks on Polish voters resulted in the Silesian Uprisings.Peter Leśniewski (2001) The 1919 insurrection in upper Silesia, Civil Wars, 4:1, 22–48, 10.1080/13698240108402462 Comparison of district demographics with voting behaviour The following table compares the percentage of German-speakers (excluding bilinguals) as reported in the 1910 census in each district, with the pro-German vote share registered in the respective district. In almost all districts, the percentage of pro-German votes exceeded the percentage of those who identified as German by almost 25% on average, which suggests that many non-Germans voted in favour of Germany.Belzyt Leszek https://opacplus.bsb-muenchen.de/search?isbn Sprachliche Minderheiten im preussischen Staat: 1815–1914; die preußische Sprachenstatistik in Bearbeitung und Kommentar 1998 Herder-Inst. 978-3-87969-267-5 MarburgJune 2023 InternetArchiveBot yes District% of German Population% of votes for GermanyBeuthen (Bytom), town60.7%74.7%Beuthen (Bytom), district30.3%40.9%Cosel (Koźle), district21.7%75.2%Gleiwitz (Gliwice), town74.0%78.9%Groß Strehlitz (Strzelce Opolskie), district17.2%49.3%Hindenburg (Zabrze), district40.0%51.1%Kattowitz (Katowice), town85.4%85.4%Kattowitz (Katowice), district30.3%44.4%Königshütte (Chorzów), town54.1%74.7%Kreuzburg (Kluczbork), district46.9%95.8%Leobschütz (Głubczyce), district84.6%99.6%Lublinitz (Lubliniec), district14.7%53.0%Namslau (Namysłów), district172.5%97.6%Neustadt (Prudnik), district252.8%88.2%Oppeln (Opole), town80.0%95.0%Oppeln (Opole), district20.1%69.4%Pleß (Pszczyna), district13.4%25.9%Ratibor (Racibórz), town59.6%90.9%Ratibor (Racibórz), district311.2%58.7%Rosenberg (Olesno), district16.4%68.1%Rybnik, district18.9%34.8%Tarnowitz (Tarnowskie Góry), district27.0%38.3%Tost-Gleiwitz (Gliwice), district20.4%42.5%Total35.7%59.6%Total without Namslau district35.1%59.4% The above population percentages refer to the entire area of the respective districts, but in a few cases, only parts of a district were included in the plebiscite a: 1 Only a small part of the Namslau district was part of the plebiscite area; 1905 census data was used for the district 2 The predominantly German south-western part of the Neustadt district (including the town of Neustadt) was not part of the plebiscite area 3 The southern part of the Ratibor district (Hlučín Region) was ceded to Czechoslovakia in 1919 and so was not included in the plebiscite area Settlements that voted to secede for Poland In the 1921 plebiscite, 40.6% of eligible voters decided to secede from Germany and become Polish citizens. In total, over 700 towns and villages voted to secede from Germany and become part of Poland, especially in the rural districts of Pszczyna, Rybnik, Tarnowskie Góry, Toszek-Gliwice, Strzelce Opolskie, Bytom, Katowice, Lubliniec, Zabrze, Racibórz, Olesno, Koźle and Opole. Division of the region after the plebiscite +Division of Prussian Silesia between Weimar Germany, Poland and Czechoslovakia after the First World WarDivision of:Area in 1910 in km2Share of territoryPopulation in 1910After WW1 part of:NotesLower Silesia27,105 km2 http://www.gemeindeverzeichnis.de/gem1900/gem1900.htm?schlesien/schlesien1900.htm Gemeindeverzeichnis Deutschland: Schlesien 2019-06-20 2016-07-10 https://web.archive.org/web/20160710092602/http://www.gemeindeverzeichnis.de/gem1900/gem1900.htm?schlesien%2Fschlesien1900.htm dead100%3,017,981Divided between:to Poland526 km2 1921 Rocznik statystyki Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej 1920/21 https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plik:Rocznik_Statystyki_Rzeczypospolitej_Polskiej_-_1920-21.djvu Rocznik Statystyki Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej pl, fr Warsaw Główny Urząd Statystyczny I 56–62https://ome-lexikon.uni-oldenburg.de/regionen/schlesien/ Schlesien: Geschichte im 20. Jahrhundert OME-Lexikon – Universität Oldenburg2%1%Poznań Voivodeship (Niederschlesiens Ostmarkhttp://obc.opole.pl/Content/7836/D8150.pdf Aus Niederschlesiens Ostmark Sperling Gotthard Hermann 1932 Opolska Biblioteka Cyfrowa)After the First World War, Poland received a small part of historical Lower Silesia, with had a mostly-Polish population as of 1918. The area included parts of Syców (German: Polnisch Wartenberg), Namysłów, Góra and Milicz districts. In total, around 526 square kilometres with around 30,000 inhabitants, including the city of Rychtal. Too small to form its own voivodeship, the area was incorporated to Poznań Voivodeship (formerly the Province of Posen). Noteto Germany26,579 km298%99%Province of Lower SilesiaUpper Silesia13,230 km2100%2,207,981Divided between:to Poland3,225 km2http://cyfrowa.chbp.chelm.pl/dlibra/docmetadata?id=11366 Tablice statystyczne Polski: wydanie za rok 1924 [Poland's statistical tables: edition for year 1924] Weinfeld Ignacy Instytut Wydawniczy "Bibljoteka Polska" 1925 Warsaw 2 2019-06-20 2018-12-25 https://web.archive.org/web/20181225225031/http://cyfrowa.chbp.chelm.pl/dlibra/docmetadata?id=11366 dead25%41% Silesian VoivodeshipInterwar Silesian Voivodeship was formed from Prussian East Upper Silesia (area 3,225 km2) and Polish part of Austrian Cieszyn Silesia (1,010 km2), in total 4,235 km2. After the annexation of Trans-Olza from Czechoslovakia in 1938, it increased to 5,122 km2.http://istmat.info/files/uploads/51382/maly_rocznik_statystyczny_1939.pdf Mały Rocznik Statystyczny [Little Statistical Yearbook] 1939 GUS 1939 Warsaw 14 2019-06-20 2018-11-27 https://web.archive.org/web/20181127193450/http://istmat.info/files/uploads/51382/maly_rocznik_statystyczny_1939.pdf dead Silesian Voivodeship's capital was Katowice. Noteto Czechoslovakia325 km22%2% Hlučín Regionto Germany9,680 km273%57% Province of Upper Silesia See also Territorial changes of Germany after World War I Territorial changes of Poland after World War I 1920 Schleswig plebiscites 1920 East Prussian plebiscite Notes Note References 2 Further reading Campbell, F. Gregory Campbell, "The Struggle for Upper Silesia, 1919-1922." Journal of Modern History 42.3 (1970): 361–385. online https://web.archive.org/web/20220201142939/http://piotrwroblewski.us.edu.pl/rudy/F_Gregory_Campbell.pdf 2022-02-01 Rodriguez, Allison Ann. "Silesia at the Crossroads: Defining Germans and Poles in Upper Silesia During the First World War and Plebiscite Period" (PhD Diss. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2020) online. Tooley, T. Hunt. "German political violence and the border plebiscite in Upper Silesia, 1919–1921." Central European History 21.1 (1988): 56–98. Tooley, T. Hunt. National Identity and Weimar Germany: Upper Silesia and the Eastern Border, 1918–1922. (University of Nebraska Press, 1997). Walters, F. P. A History of the League of Nations (Oxford University Press, 1952). online Wilson, T. K. Frontiers of Violence: Conflict and Identity in Ulster and Upper Silesia 1918–1922 (Oxford University Press, 2010). Die Volksabstimmung in Oberschlesien 1921: nationale Selbstbestimmung oder geopolitisches Machtspiel? Brill Schöningh Paderborn 2023 978-3-657-79535-2 de External links Wojciech Korfanty's proclamation after plebiscite Exact plebiscite results – according to villages and districts (in German) 1920 map showing German territory's changes, including marked area for the Upper Silesia plebiscite Map of interwar Poland; shows plebiscite areas Map of interwar Poland; shows plebiscite areas https://web.archive.org/web/20120209011956/http://img.iap.pl/s/87/201574/Edytor/Image/Aktualnosci/Duza%20mapa.jpg 2012-02-09 (in color, Polish) Category:Border polls Category:1921 referendums Category:Referendums in Germany Category:Referendums in Poland Category:Aftermath of World War I in Germany Category:1921 in Poland Category:Politics of the Weimar Republic Category:Germany–Poland relations (1918–1939) Category:Silesian Uprisings Category:1921 in international relations Category:March 1921 in Europe