Polish Corridor
The word corridor first appeared in Polish political discourse during the early 1920s, according to German historian Hartmut Boockmann. Polish politicians used the term to describe the strip of land connecting their nation to the Baltic Sea. German nationalist propaganda later adopted the same phrase to frame the territory as an artificial wound in Germany's body. The English language picked up the term by the 18th of March 1919, when The New York Times published a sketch of the proposed strip. By the 16th of August 1920, Russian forces had hoisted the German flag over Soldau, and newspapers began calling it the Polish Corridor again. International usage became widespread enough that Edmund Jan Osmańczyk defined it as the international term for Poland's access to the Baltic between 1919 and 1939. Polish Foreign Minister Józef Beck rejected the label entirely in his the 5th of May 1939 speech before the Sejm. He insisted that Pomeranian Voivodeship should be the only correct name because the land had been Polish for centuries. Only a small percentage of German settlers lived there, he argued. Most Poles called the region Gdańsk Pomerania or simply Pomerania instead.
The earliest census data on West Prussia dates back to 1819, showing 327,300 Poles making up 52% of the population. Germans numbered 290,000 at 46%, while Jews accounted for 12,700 people or 2%. Karl Andree recorded a total population of 700,000 in Leipzig 1831, with 50% Poles and 47% Germans. By 1910, the Prussian census showed 528,000 Poles including Kashubians compared to 385,000 Germans. The province contained between 36% and 43% ethnic Poles depending on the source used. In four main counties by World War I end, Puck held 77.4% Poles, Wejherowo 54.9%, Kartuzy 77.3%, and Kościerzyna 64.5%. The Polish General Census of 1931 found 95% Poles in Puck, 93% in Wejherowo, 88% in Kartuzy, and 88% in Kościerzyna. Richard Blanke noted that 421,029 Germans lived there in 1910, representing 42.5% of the total. By 1921, the German proportion had dropped to 18.8% or 175,771 people. Over the next decade, another 70,000 Germans left, reducing their share to 9.6%. A December 1939 census under Nazi rule recorded 71% declaring themselves as Poles.
Woodrow Wilson included access to the sea in his Fourteen Points speech delivered January 1918. He stated an independent Poland should include territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations with free and secure access to the sea. The Paris Peace Conference opened on January 18, resulting in the draft Treaty of Versailles signed the 28th of June 1919. Articles 27 and 28 defined the corridor's shape while articles 89 to 93 covered transit rights and citizenship issues. The treaty took effect on the 20th of January 1920, establishing Poland's access from 70% of dissolved West Prussia. The region included around 140 km of coastline including the Hel Peninsula plus 69 km without it. David Hunter Miller wrote in his diary that leaving all of Pomerelia under German control would cut off millions of Poles from commercial outlets. Granting such access meant cutting East Prussia off from Germany proper. The Inquiry recommended both the Corridor and Danzig be ceded directly to Poland. Most of West Prussia went to Poland but Danzig became a Free City instead. The primarily German-speaking port controlled the Vistula river estuary and remained under League of Nations protection without a plebiscite.
Frederick the Great settled around 300,000 colonists in eastern Prussian provinces between 1740 and 1786. He described Poles as slovenly Polish trash and compared them to Iroquois. The Prussian Settlement Commission established another 154,000 colonists before World War I. By 1921, 800,000 Germans had left Poland according to Stefan Wolff. Gotthold Rhode claimed 575,000 departed from former Posen and corridor areas. Hermann Rauschning stated 800,000 left between 1918 and 1926. Contemporary German statistics said 592,000 emigrated by 1921. Some scholars estimated up to one million total departures. In May 1925, a train crash killed 25 people including 12 women and two children after spikes were removed from tracks. The Polish government enacted land reform that year expropriating property owners. Only 39% of agricultural land belonged to Germans yet the first list included 10,800 hectares from 32 German landowners plus 950 hectares from seven Poles. Wiktor Lamot stressed the corridor region must be cleansed of larger German holdings. Border counties required settlement with nationally conscious Poles within ten kilometers of the coast. Estates belonging to Germans faced heavier taxation to encourage voluntary land turnover.
All interwar Weimar Republic governments refused to recognize eastern borders agreed at Versailles. They also declined to follow Germany's western border acknowledgments in the Locarno Treaties signed 1925. Institutions supported German minority organizations filing nearly 10,000 complaints about rights violations to the League of Nations. Poland declared commitment to peace in 1931 but warned any border revision meant war. Filipowicz told U.S. President Herbert Hoover that continued provocations could tempt Poland to invade. The German Ministry for Transport established Sea Service East Prussia in 1922 to provide ferry connections. Passengers on sealed trains called Korridorzug did not need official Polish visas but faced rigorous inspections. Marion Dönhoff documented psychological consequences through her booklet Names no longer called by anyone. On the 10th of March 1920, British representative H.D. Beaumont wrote of continuing difficulties made by Polish officials regarding traffic interruptions. He noted ill-will between nationalities growing worse than former German intolerance toward Poles. Not even attractive economic advantages would induce a German to vote Polish if the frontier remained unsatisfactory.
Adolf Hitler took power in Germany during 1933 and initially pursued rapprochement with Poland. This culminated in the ten-year Polish-German Non-Aggression Pact signed 1934. Nazi Germany annexed Austria in March 1938 and Sudetenland later that September. Joachim von Ribbentrop asked Polish ambassador Józef Lipski to sign the Anti-Comintern Pact on the 24th of October 1938. Hitler ordered his Foreign Minister to convert the pact into an anti-British military alliance starting the 17th of January 1939. The Z Plan called for a gigantic fleet to challenge the Royal Navy. In November 1938, Hitler complained peace propaganda had been too successful with Germans and demanded bellicose mood stoking. German newspapers incited nationalist sentiment claiming Poland misused economic rights in Danzig. On the 29th of August 1939, at midnight, Ribbentrop handed British Ambassador Sir Nevile Henderson a list of terms demanding Danzig return to Germany. A plebiscite was proposed for the corridor where Poles born after 1919 would have no vote. All Germans born but not living there would vote. An exchange of minority populations between countries was also suggested. Poland refused these terms to retain independence.
The Potsdam Conference reorganized Poland's borders following Germany's defeat in World War II. Territories east of the Oder-Neisse line including Danzig went under Polish administration. The conference did not debate future status of western Poland territories before the war automatically becoming part of reborn state in 1945. Many German residents were executed or expelled to Soviet occupation zones later becoming East Germany. H.G. Wells predicted in The Shape of Things to Come published 1933 that the corridor would start a Second World War. He depicted heavy aerial bombing of civilians beginning January 1940 leading to worldwide societal collapse by 1950s. The corridor remained directly annexed by Germany until recaptured by the Red Army at war end. Other notable battles occurred at Westerplatte, the Polish post office in Danzig, Oksywie, and Hel. The Fourth Army defeated the Pomorze Army tasked with defending this region during Battle of Tuchola Forest by the 5th of September 1939.
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Common questions
What is the Polish Corridor and when did it exist?
The Polish Corridor was a strip of land connecting Poland to the Baltic Sea between 1919 and 1939. It existed as part of the Second Polish Republic following the Treaty of Versailles signed on the 28th of June 1919.
Who created the term Polish Corridor and when did it enter English usage?
Polish politicians first used the word corridor in political discourse during the early 1920s according to German historian Hartmut Boockmann. The English language adopted the term by the 18th of March 1919 when The New York Times published a sketch of the proposed territory.
How many Poles lived in West Prussia before World War I compared to Germans?
By 1910 the Prussian census showed 528,000 Poles including Kashubians compared to 385,000 Germans living in the region. Richard Blanke noted that 421,029 Germans represented 42.5% of the total population while ethnic Poles made up between 36% and 43% depending on the source.
When was the Treaty of Versailles signed and what did it establish for Poland?
The draft Treaty of Versailles was signed on the 28th of June 1919 and took effect on the 20th of January 1920. Articles 27 and 28 defined the shape of the Polish Corridor while articles 89 to 93 covered transit rights and citizenship issues establishing Poland's access from 70% of dissolved West Prussia.
Why did Adolf Hitler demand the return of Danzig and the corridor in 1939?
Adolf Hitler demanded the return of Danzig and a plebiscite for the corridor starting on the 29th of August 1939 when Ribbentrop handed British Ambassador Sir Nevile Henderson a list of terms. He proposed an exchange of minority populations where all Germans born but not living there would vote while Poles born after 1919 would have no vote.