Silesian Uprisings - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Silesian Uprisings were a series of three armed uprisings

Rebellion

Rebellion, uprising or insurrection, is a refusal of obedience or order. It may, therefore, be seen as encompassing a range of behaviors aimed at destroying or replacing an established authority such as a government or a head of state...

of the Poles

Poles

thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...

and Polish Silesians

Silesians

Silesians , are the inhabitants of Silesia in Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic. A small diaspora community also exists in Karnes County, Texas in the USA....

of Upper Silesia

Upper Silesia

Upper Silesia is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia. Since the 9th century, Upper Silesia has been part of Greater Moravia, the Duchy of Bohemia, the Piast Kingdom of Poland, again of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown and the Holy Roman Empire, as well as of...

, from 1919–1921, against German

Weimar Republic

The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...

rule; the resistance hoped to break away from Germany in order to join the Second Polish Republic

Second Polish Republic

The Second Polish Republic, Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland refers to Poland between the two world wars; a period in Polish history in which Poland was restored as an independent state. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland , the Polish state was...

, which had been established in the wake of World War I. In the latter-day history of Poland after World War II, the insurrections were celebrated as centrepieces of national pride.

Historical background

Much of Silesia belonged to the Polish Crown in medieval times, but passed to the Kings of Bohemia

Bohemia

Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...

in the 14th century, then to the Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n Habsburgs. Frederick the Great of Prussia seized Silesia from Maria Theresa of Austria

Maria Theresa of Austria

Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina was the only female ruler of the Habsburg dominions and the last of the House of Habsburg. She was the sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeria and Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands and Parma...

in 1740 in the War of Austrian Succession, after which it became a part of Prussia

Prussia

Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...

and, in 1871, the German Empire

German Empire

The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...

.

After World War I, during the negotiations of the Treaty of Versailles

Treaty of Versailles

The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...

, the German government claimed that without Upper Silesia it would not be able to fulfil its obligations in regards to reparations to the Allies

Allies of World War I

The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...

Mineral resources

Upper Silesia was a bounty in mineral resources and heavy industry, with mines and iron and steel mills. "The Silesian mines were responsible for almost a quarter of Germany's annual output of coal, 81 percent of its zinc and 34 percent of its lead."

Demographics in the early 20th century

The area east of the Oder

Oder

The Oder is a river in Central Europe. It rises in the Czech Republic and flows through western Poland, later forming of the border between Poland and Germany, part of the Oder-Neisse line...

in Upper Silesia was dominated by ethnic Poles, most of whom were lower class. A large proportion spoke a dialect

Dialect

The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...

of Polish, many also felt that they were a Slavic

Slavic peoples

The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...

ethnic group of their own called Silesians

Silesians

Silesians , are the inhabitants of Silesia in Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic. A small diaspora community also exists in Karnes County, Texas in the USA....

. Simultaneously, most of the local elites - the landowners, businessmen, factory owners, local government, police and Catholic

Roman Catholic Church

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

clergy - were German. There was a further division along the religious lines: almost all of the higher German Silesian officials were Protestant while the vast majority of Polish Silesians were Catholic.

In the German census

Census

A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

of 1900, 65% of the population of that eastern part of Silesia was recorded as Polish speaking, decreasing to 57% in 1910. This was the result of forced Germanization as well as creating a category of "bilingual inhabitants" for the purpose of the census, which reduced the number of Polish-speaking Silesians. German scholar Paul Weber drew a language map that showed that in 1910 in majority of Upper Silesian districts east of the Oder

Oder

The Oder is a river in Central Europe. It rises in the Czech Republic and flows through western Poland, later forming of the border between Poland and Germany, part of the Oder-Neisse line...

river Polish-speaking Silesians were a majority, forming over 70% of the population.

Versailles plebiscite

The Treaty of Versailles

Treaty of Versailles

had ordered a plebiscite in Upper Silesia

Upper Silesia plebiscite

The Upper Silesia plebiscite was a border referendum mandated by the Versailles Treaty and carried out in March 1921 to determine a section of the border between Weimar Germany and Poland. The region was ethnically mixed, chiefly among Germans, Poles and Silesians. According to prewar statistics,...

to determine whether the territory should be a part of Germany or Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

. The plebiscite was to be held within two years of the Treaty (signed in 1919) in the whole of Silesia, although the Polish government only wanted it to be held in the part of Silesia east of the Oder

Oder

The Oder is a river in Central Europe. It rises in the Czech Republic and flows through western Poland, later forming of the border between Poland and Germany, part of the Oder-Neisse line...

river where there were significant numbers of Polish speakers. It was however decided to hold the plebiscite in all of Upper Silesia, including both the predominantly Polish-speaking areas in the east and the predominantly German-speaking Upper Silesia

Upper Silesia

n areas west of the river.

It was decided by the Allies that the Upper Silesian plebiscite was to be conducted on March 20, 1921. In the meantime, German administration and police were left in place.

In the background, propaganda

Propaganda

Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....

and strongarm tactics on both sides led to increasing unrest. The German authorities warned that those voting for Poland would lose their jobs and pensions. Former German Army veterans joined "Freikorps

Freikorps

Freikorps are German volunteer military or paramilitary units. The term was originally applied to voluntary armies formed in German lands from the middle of the 18th century onwards. Between World War I and World War II the term was also used for the paramilitary organizations that arose during...

" (Free Corps), an organization whose troops terrorized pro-Polish activists. At the same time, Poles argued that under the new Polish regime, Silesian Poles would no longer be discriminated against; the Poles also promised to honor the German state social benefits such as the old age pensions. The Polish sides also employed the Polish Military Organisation

Polish Military Organisation

Polish Military Organisation, PMO was a secret military organization created by Józef Piłsudski in August 1914, and officially named in November 1914, during World War I. Its tasks were to gather intelligence and sabotage the enemies of the Polish people...

- a secret military organization and predecessor of Polish intelligence - to further their cause.

Eventually the deteriorating situation resulted in the first two Silesian Uprisings in 1919 and 1920.

The plebiscite took place as arranged on March 20, two days after the signing of the Treaty of Riga, on March 18, 1921, which ended the Polish-Soviet war

Polish-Soviet War

The Polish–Soviet War was an armed conflict between Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine and the Second Polish Republic and the Ukrainian People's Republic—four states in post–World War I Europe...

of 1919–1920.

In the plebiscite, around 707,605 votes were cast for Germany, while 479,359 for Poland. The Germans thus had 228,246 votes of majority.

A right to vote was granted to those aged 20 and older who had been born in or lived within the plebiscite area. A result was mass migration. The German outvoters numbering 179,910; the Polish numbering over 10,000. Without the outvoters, the Germans would have a majority of 58,336 instead of 228,246. However, the inclusion of outvoters had been done by explicit request of the Polish delegation in Versailles who counted on the support of pro-Polish organizations in the Ruhr area.

The Third Silesian Uprising broke out in 1921. The League of Nations

League of Nations

The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...

was asked to settle the matter before it led to even more bloodshed. In 1922, a six-week investigation determined that the land should be divided between the two nations. This decision was accepted by both countries, and the majority of Upper Silesians (whereby the Germans having lost World War I had no power to oppose such a decision). Approximately 736,000 Poles and 260,000 Germans lived in Polish (Upper) Silesia and 532,000 Poles and 637,000 Germans in German (Upper) Silesia.

First Silesian Uprising (1919)

On 15 August 1919, German border guards (Grenzschutz) massacred ten Silesian civilians in the Mysłowice mine (Myslowitzer Grube) and caused the First Silesian Uprising against German control over Upper Silesia. The massacre sparked protests from the Silesian Polish miners. Ultimately, several Polish leaders were arrested during a general strike

General strike

A general strike is a strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region, or country. While a general strike can be for political goals, economic goals, or both, it tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class sympathies of the participants...

of about 140,000 mine workers. Revolting, the miners declared that they want the police and local government officials to be both German and Polish in the future.

Roughly 21,000 Germans soldiers of the Weimar Republic

Weimar Republic

The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...

's Provisional National Army

Reichswehr

The Reichswehr formed the military organisation of Germany from 1919 until 1935, when it was renamed the Wehrmacht ....

(Vorläufige Reichsheer

Reichswehr

The Reichswehr formed the military organisation of Germany from 1919 until 1935, when it was renamed the Wehrmacht ....

), with about 40,000 troops in reserve, quickly suppressed the uprising. What followed was German repression of the ethnic Poles of Silesia, and approximately 2,500 Poles were either hanged or executed by firing squad. 9,000 ethnic Poles sought refuge in the Second Polish Republic

Second Polish Republic

along with thousands of family members (altogether about 22,000 persons). The repressive actions came to an end when Allied

Allies of World War I

forces were brought in to restore order, and the refugees were allowed to return later that year. Once the Uprising had been crushed, a strong resentment arose within the Silesian Poles, reinforcing the Polish culture with which they identified.

Second Silesian Uprising (1920)

The Second Silesian Uprising was the second of three uprisings.

In February 1920 an Allied Plebiscite Commission was sent to Upper Silesia. It was composed of the representatives of the Allied forces, and thus its members hailed from mostly from France, with smaller contingents from United Kingdom and Italy. Soon, however, it became apparent that the Allied forces were too few to maintain order; further, the Commission was torn apart by lack of consensus: the British and Italians favored the Germans, while the French supported the Poles. Those forces failed to prevent continuing unrest.

In August 1920, a German Newspaper in Upper Silesia printed what later turned out to be a false announcement of the fall of Warsaw to the Red Army in the Polish-Soviet war

Polish-Soviet War

The Polish–Soviet War was an armed conflict between Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine and the Second Polish Republic and the Ukrainian People's Republic—four states in post–World War I Europe...

. This led to celebrations among the German community over what they assumed would be the end of independent Poland. The volatile situation quickly degenerated into violence (as German militias attacked the Poles) which continued even after it was made clear that Warsaw had not fallen

Battle of Warsaw (1920)

The Battle of Warsaw sometimes referred to as the Miracle at the Vistula, was the decisive battle of the Polish–Soviet War. That war began soon after the end of World War I in 1918 and lasted until the Treaty of Riga resulted in the end of the hostilities between Poland and Russia in 1921.The...

.

The violence eventually led on August 19 to a Polish uprising which quickly took control of government offices in the districts of Kattowitz, Pless, Beuthen. Between August 20 and 25, the rebellion spread to Konigshutte, Tarnowitz, Rybink, Lublinitz and Gross Strehlitz. The Allied Commission declared its intention to restore order but internal differences kept anything from being done. British representatives held the French responsible for the easy spread of the uprising through the eastern region.

The uprising was slowly brought to an end in September by a combination of allied military operations and negotiations between the parties. The Poles obtained the disbanding of the Sipo

Sicherheitspolizei

The Sicherheitspolizei , often abbreviated as SiPo, was a term used in Nazi Germany to describe the state political and criminal investigation security agencies. It was made up by the combined forces of the Gestapo and the Kripo between 1936 and 1939...

police and the creation of a new police (Abstimmungspolizei) for the area which would be 50% Polish. Poles were also admitted to the local administration. The Polish Military Organisation

Polish Military Organisation

in Upper Silesia was supposed to be disbanded though in practice this did not happen.

Third Silesian Uprising (1921)

The Third Silesian Uprising was the last and largest and longest of the three uprisings, as it included the Battle of Annaberg

Battle of Annaberg

The Battle of Annaberg or Storming of Annaberg was the biggest battle of the Silesian Uprisings. The battle, which took place between May 21–26, 1921, was fought at the Annaberg , a strategic hill near the village of Annaberg O.S. , located southeast of Oppeln in Upper Silesia, Weimar...

.

It began in the aftermath of the plebiscite which yielded mixed results. The British and French governments could not reach a consensus on the interpretation of the plebiscite. The primary problem was the disposition of the "Industrial Triangle" east of the Oder

Oder

The Oder is a river in Central Europe. It rises in the Czech Republic and flows through western Poland, later forming of the border between Poland and Germany, part of the Oder-Neisse line...

river, whose triangle ends were marked by the cities of Beuthen (Bytom), Gleiwitz (Gliwice) and Kattowitz (Katowice). The French wanted to weaken Germany, and thus supported the Polish claim; the British and the Italians disagreed, particularly as the Germans claimed they could not pay war reparations

War reparations

War reparations are payments intended to cover damage or injury during a war. Generally, the term war reparations refers to money or goods changing hands, rather than such property transfers as the annexation of land.- History :...

if they were to lose the Silesian industries.

In late April 1921, rumors spread that the British pro-German position would prevail. This caused the local Polish sympathizers to act again. The insurrection began on a date planned for early in May. Unlike the Second Uprising, the Third was carefully planned and organized under the leadership of Wojciech Korfanty

Wojciech Korfanty

Wojciech Korfanty , born Adalbert Korfanty, was a Polish nationalist activist, journalist and politician, serving as member of the German parliaments Reichstag and Prussian Landtag, and later on, in the Polish Sejm...

.

The Third Silesian Uprising began on May 2–3, 1921, with Polish destruction of German rail bridges (see "Wawelberg Group

Wawelberg Group

The Wawelberg Group , also known as the Konrad Wawelberg Destruction Group , was a Polish special-forces unit. The group began the Third Silesian Uprising on May 2/3, 1921 by blowing up seven rail bridges linking Upper Silesia with the rest of Germany....

") in order to thwart immediate German measures to suppress the uprising. A particular concern was to prevent a recurrence of the many acts of violence that had been perpetrated against the populace by German paramilitary

Paramilitary

A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....

groups, the Freikorps

Freikorps

, which had ostensibly been created to support the German border-protection police

Police

The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...

(the Grenzschutz). The Freikorps comprised mostly volunteers and demobilised German soldiers.

The Inter-Allied Commission, in which General Henri Le Rond was the most influential personage, waited rather long before taking any steps to end the violence. The French

French Army

The French Army, officially the Armée de Terre , is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces.As of 2010, the army employs 123,100 regulars, 18,350 part-time reservists and 7,700 Legionnaires. All soldiers are professionals, following the suspension of conscription, voted in...

troops of occupation

Military occupation

Military occupation occurs when the control and authority over a territory passes to a hostile army. The territory then becomes occupied territory.-Military occupation and the laws of war:...

generally favored the insurrection. In some cases British

British Army

The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

and Italian

Italian Army

The Italian Army is the ground defence force of the Italian Armed Forces. It is all-volunteer force of active-duty personnel, numbering 108,355 in 2010. Its best-known combat vehicles are the Dardo infantry fighting vehicle, the Centauro tank destroyer and the Ariete tank, and among its aircraft...

contingents actively cooperated with Germans. On the other hand UK Prime Minister Lloyd George

David Lloyd George

David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British Liberal politician and statesman...

's speech in the British Parliament, strongly disapproving of the insurrection, aroused the hopes of some Germans. But the Entente appeared to have no troops ready and available for dispatch. The only action the 'Inter-Allied Military Control Commission' and the French government

French Third Republic

The French Third Republic was the republican government of France from 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed due to the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, to 1940, when France was overrun by Nazi Germany during World War II, resulting in the German and Italian occupations of France...

made was demanding immediate prohibition of the recruiting of German volunteers from outside Upper Silesia, and this was promptly made public

Public

In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individuals, and the public is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the Öffentlichkeit or public sphere. The concept of a public has also been defined in political science,...

.

After an initial success of the insurgents

Insurgency

An insurgency is an armed rebellion against a constituted authority when those taking part in the rebellion are not recognized as belligerents...

, taking over a large portion of the area of Upper Silesia, the German Grenzschutz several times resisted the attacks of Wojciech Korfanty

Wojciech Korfanty

's Polish troops, some cases in cooperation with British and Italian troops. An attempt on the part of the British

English people

The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

troops to take steps against the Polish forces was prevented by General Jules Gratier, the French commander-in-chief

Commander-in-Chief

A commander-in-chief is the commander of a nation's military forces or significant element of those forces. In the latter case, the force element may be defined as those forces within a particular region or those forces which are associated by function. As a practical term it refers to the military...

of the Allied troops. Eventually, the insurgents kept most of territory they had won, including the local industrial

Industry

Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...

district. They proved that they could mobilize

Mobilization

Mobilization is the act of assembling and making both troops and supplies ready for war. The word mobilization was first used, in a military context, in order to describe the preparation of the Prussian army during the 1850s and 1860s. Mobilization theories and techniques have continuously changed...

large amounts local support, while the German forces based outside Silesia were barred from taking an active part in the conflict.

Twelve days after the outbreak of the insurrection Korfanty offered to take his troops behind a line of demarcation (the "Korfanty Line"), conditional upon the released territory not being re-occupied by German forces, but by Allied troops. It was not, however, until July 1 that the British troops arrived in Upper Silesia and began to advance in company with those of the other Allies towards the former frontier

Frontier

A frontier is a political and geographical term referring to areas near or beyond a boundary. 'Frontier' was absorbed into English from French in the 15th century, with the meaning "borderland"--the region of a country that fronts on another country .The use of "frontier" to mean "a region at the...

. Simultaneously with this advance the 'Inter-Allied Commission' pronounced a general amnesty

Amnesty

Amnesty is a legislative or executive act by which a state restores those who may have been guilty of an offense against it to the positions of innocent people, without changing the laws defining the offense. It includes more than pardon, in as much as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the...

for the illegal actions committed during the insurrection, with the exception of acts of revenge

Revenge

Revenge is a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived. It is also called payback, retribution, retaliation or vengeance; it may be characterized, justly or unjustly, as a form of justice.-Function in society:Some societies believe that the...

and cruelty

Cruelty

Cruelty can be described as indifference to suffering, and even positive pleasure in inflicting it. If this is supported by a legal or social framework, then receives the name of perversion. Sadism can also be related to this form of action or concept....

. The German Grenzschutz was withdrawn and disbanded.

Aftermath

Agreements between the Germans and Poles in Upper Silesia and appeals issued by both sides, as well as the dispatch of six battalion

Battalion

A battalion is a military unit of around 300–1,200 soldiers usually consisting of between two and seven companies and typically commanded by either a Lieutenant Colonel or a Colonel...

s of Allied troops and the disbandment of the local guards, contributed markedly to the pacification

Peace

Peace is a state of harmony characterized by the lack of violent conflict. Commonly understood as the absence of hostility, peace also suggests the existence of healthy or newly healed interpersonal or international relationships, prosperity in matters of social or economic welfare, the...

of the district.

The Allied Supreme Council was however still unable to come to an agreement on the partition of the Upper Silesian territory on the lines of the plebiscite. The British and the French could only agree on one solution: turning the question over to the Council of the League of Nations

League of Nations

.

The greatest excitement was caused all over Germany and in the German part of Upper Silesia by the intimation that the Council of the League of Nations had handed over the matter for closer investigation to a commission, consisting of four representatives—one each from Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

, Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

, Spain, and China. The commission collected its own data and issued a decision, stressing the principle of self-determination

Self-determination

Self-determination is the principle in international law that nations have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no external compulsion or external interference...

. On the basis of the reports of this commission and those of its experts, in October 1921 the Council awarded the greater part of the Upper Silesian industrial district to Poland.

Polish Government had decided to give Silesia considerable Autonomy with Silesian Parliament

Silesian Parliament

Silesian Parliament or Silesian Sejm was the governing body of the Silesian Voivodeship , an autonomous voivodeship of the Second Polish Republic between 1920 and 1945. It was elected in democratic elections and had certain influence over the usage of taxes collected in Silesia...

as a constituency and Silesian Voivodeship

Silesian Voivodeship

Silesian Voivodeship, or Silesia Province , is a voivodeship, or province, in southern Poland, centering on the historic region known as Upper Silesia...

Council as the executive body.

Poland obtained almost exactly half of the 1,950,000 inhabitants, viz., 965,000, but not quite a third of the territory, i.e., only 3,214 of 10,951 square kilometres (1,241 of 4,228 mi²). This, however, comprised by far the more valuable portion of the district. Of 61 coal mines 49½ fell to Poland, the Prussian state losing 3 mines out of 4. Of a coal output of 31,750,000 tonnes, 24,600,000 tonnes fell to Poland. All iron mines with an output of 61,000 tonnes fell to Poland. Of 37 furnaces 22 went to Poland, 15 to Germany. Of a pig-iron output of 570,000 tonnes, 170,000 tonnes remained German, and 400,000 tonnes became Polish. Of 16 zinc and lead mines, which produced 233,000 tons in 1920, only 4 with an output of 44,000 tonnes remained German. The main towns of Königshütte (Chorzów), Kattowitz (Katowice), and Tarnowitz (Tarnowskie Góry) were given to Poland.

In the Silesian territory which Poland regained the Germans were a significant minority. Similarly, a significant minority of Poles (about half a million Poles) was still left on the German side, most of them in Oppeln (Opole).

In order to mitigate the hardships likely to arise from the partition of a district which was essentially an economic unit, it was decided, on the recommendation of the Council of the League of Nations, that German and Polish delegates, under a chairman appointed by the Council of the League, should draw up economic regulations as well as a statute for the protection of minorities, which were to have a duration of fifteen years. Special measures were threatened in the event that either of the two states should refuse to participate in the drawing up of such regulations, or to accept them subsequently.

In May 1922, League of Nations issued the Upper Silesian Convention (also known as the Geneva Convention) intended to preserve the economic unity of the area. The League also set up a tribunal to arbitrate disputes. Furthermore, in response to a German complaint about the importance of Silesian coal for the German industry, Germany was given the right to import 500,000 tons per year at discounted prices. Three years down the road, in 1925, when the coal agreement ended, Germany refused to import the coal, attempting to use the coal issue as a lever against Poland, trying to impose a revision of the whole Polish–German frontier. Polish-German relations worsened, as Germany also begun a tariff war with Poland, but the Polish government would not yield on the border issue.

The last veteran of the Silesian Uprisings, Wilhelm Meisel

Wilhelm Meisel (Silesian Uprisings veteran)

Wilhelm Meisel was the last veteran of the Silesian Uprisings, He joined up to the Polish Army in 1919 at the age of 15 and served during the Silesian Uprisings from 1919 until it ended in 1921...

, died in 2009.

Historical background

Mineral resources

Demographics in the early 20th century

Versailles plebiscite

First Silesian Uprising (1919)

Second Silesian Uprising (1920)

Third Silesian Uprising (1921)

Aftermath

Further reading