A History of the Free City of Danzig (Now Gdansk)

The terms of the World War I-ending Treaty of Versailles required defeated Germany to grant the territories of West Prussia to the newly independent Polish State. German-Polish interests clashed over the small territory of Danzig (today Gdańsk, Poland), primarily inhabited by German speakers. To avoid future confrontation and preserve peace, the newly-formed international peace organization, the League of Nations, created a semi-autonomous city-state of Danzig in 1920 and placed it under its protection. The Free City of Danzig existed until Adolf Hitler invaded it in 1939, marking the start of World War II.

Danzig, an important port city, had a unique status even before World War I because of its geostrategic location. Thus, its history has always been shaped by the competing interests of the regional players.

Danzig was a major city in the newly formed State of the Teutonic Order in the 13th century. Its proximity to the Baltic Sea contributed to its economic prosperity. Due to this advantageous location and socio-political power, Danzig rebelled against the Teutonic Order in 1454 and became a largely autonomous and sovereign entity, joining the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Danzig continued to flourish in the 16th and 17th centuries.

With Danzig serving as the loading point, its deep-water port and the Vistula River’s meeting with the Baltic Sea represented the key point for exporting grain from Eastern European nations to Western European ones. During this time, Danzig was widely referred to as “the Amsterdam of the East.”

During the second partition of Poland in 1793 (between the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia), Poland was forced to cede Danzig to Prussia, but only briefly. Napoleon Bonaparte acquired control over the territories of Prussia in 180, and just a year later, in September 1807, he made Danzig a semi-independent client state of his French Empire, also known as the Free City of Danzig.

Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated in 1814, and the territory of Danzig, once again, fell under Prussian influence. Danzig remained first within Prussia and later within the German Empire until its demise in November 1918.

The end of World War I saw the defeat and subsequent collapse of the German Empire in November 1918. The international order shifted as new political entities emerged in an international arena, including the Polish Republic. For the newly established Polish State, Danzig and its main harbor on the Baltic Sea represented an integral and crucial part of its socio-economic development. However, the majority of Danzig’s German-speaking population rejected their integration into the socio-culturally and linguistically distinct state of Poland.

Negotiations at Versailles during the Paris Peace Conference regarding the fate of the highly anticipated territory of Danzig were intense. The German delegation outlined that the surrender of “this purely German Hanseatic city” and “it’s equally purely German environs is in the sharpest opposition to all the assurances and would lead to violent resistance and to an enduring state of war in the East.”

However, the victorious nations of World War I announced their plan to reinstate Danzig’s former position as a partially independent city within Poland. The reason behind the decision rests in US President Woodrow Wilson’s famous Fourteen Points, defining the post-World War I international order. The 13th point called for establishing an independent Polish State with access to the sea, as without the access, Poland would not be an economically viable country. This implied that Danzig, with the Vistula River flowing into the Baltic Sea, would eventually become part of Poland.

However, Woodrow Wilson’s suggested new order also guaranteed national self-determination. Danzig, whose German-speaking population comprised almost 90 % of the total population at the end of World War I, contradicted the 13th point.

As a compromise, in 1920, the Free City of Danzig was officially established, one year after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919. Danzig encompassed 1,952 square kilometers and was populated by about 350,000 residents in 1920, most of whom were German-speaking. Though historical sources vary, on average, Polish speakers represented 9% to 13% of the population, with the remaining population being Jewish, Ukrainian, and Russian origins.

The Treaty of Versailles dictated that the Free City of Danzig would remain under the authority of the newly established international organization and a manifestation of Woodrow Wilson’s foreign policy vision: the League of Nations. The new organization was supposed to be the platform of international cooperation, maintaining and safeguarding world peace and security. A special high commissioner would be appointed to oversee and guarantee the administration of Danzig as a Free City.

Internationally, Danzig would be represented by Poland. Poland would also get full access and the right to administer the city’s railway infrastructure, including the German railway line connecting the territory of Danzig to the Polish one. Danzig would have its own government, and Polish authorities would consult first with the Free City’s representatives before concluding any international agreement.

To some extent, the Free City of Danzig represented an anomaly in the international system. It had all the national attributes: anthem, flag, currency, and postal stamps, without being a fully independent political entity.

Four centers of power accumulated in the political establishment of the Free City of Danzig: the single-chamber parliament and the executive authority, the Senate, headed by the Senate president and elected for a four-year term; The High Commissioner of the League of Nations, the General Commissioner of the Republic of Poland who was representing the interests of Poland in Danzig, and the Council of Waterways and Port, being an autonomous authority administering the port of Danzig and river Vistula.

Hopes were high that establishing the Free City of Danzig would prevent any escalation of conflict between Germany and Poland. The British Prime Minister, Lloyd George, however, questioned the viability of the decision, stating, “France would tomorrow fight for Alsace if her right to it were contested. But would we make war for Danzig?”

The British doubts started to become a reality when the political environment of the Free City of Danzig began to shift towards the emerging Nazi ideology in the mid-1920s.

During the 1920s, the leading political parties of the Free City of Danzig were the German National People’s Party, the Social Democratic Party of the Free City of Danzig, the Catholic Centre Party, and the Communist Party. However, the inter-war period saw tense relations between Polish authorities and Danzig. The tensions were further aggravated by Poland’s increasing interest in developing a new harbor at the city of Gdynia in northern Poland, just about 20 kilometers away from the Free City of Danzig.

The established Polish Corridor, also known as the Danzig Corridor, separated Germany from East Prussia and the province of Pomerania. The corridor ensured Poland’s guaranteed access to the Baltic Sea. The project had international support, particularly from the French prime minister, Georges Clemenceau, who saw it as a powerful tool to deteriorate Germany by isolating it from East Prussia. An article by Commander Bruce R. Ware, Jr., from the US Navy, published in September 1931, assessed the situation as follows:

“Into this new seaport, railways are beginning to enter directly from the heart of Poland and from Silesia. Here is trade rivalry—here is concrete evidence of how failure to recognize the importance of the mouth of the Vistula has created a danger spot to the fostering of peace in Europe. Danzig is fast failing economically. Will the Free City with its population of some 400,000 Germans appeal to Germany for relief? In the war it was a part of Germany. Its citizens fought valiantly in behalf of Germany. Gdynia is destined to replace this old port. The financial ruin of Danzig is another wound in the pride of the German nation. It is well to understand this situation and to realize the facts.”

This event, coupled with post-World War I economic hardships and subsequent crises, intensified socio-political frustration within the population of the Free City of Danzig. The fact galvanized wider support for the Nazi party. And in a parliamentary election held on May 28, 1933, the Nazis acquired 50% of the votes.

The policies of the new government were oppressive and radical, particularly against the Polish and Jewish populations. Albert Forster, an official representative of Adolf Hitler in the Free City, was directly ordered to replicate the Nazi policies against the Jewish communities. Press and media outlets were widely used as a means of propaganda, instilling antisemitism and anti-Polish narratives. The synagogue was demolished in May 1939, the Polish newspaper Gdanska was banned, and by 1937, all political parties except for the National Socialist German Workers’ Party ceased to exist in the Free City of Danzig. These policies resulted in the mass migration of Polish and Jewish persons from the Free City.

Following the establishment of the supportive government in the Free City of Danzig, on October 14, 1938, Adolf Hitler demanded Poland to return the territory of the Free City of Danzig to Nazi Germany, as well as set up German railway networks throughout the Polish corridor, which would connect Germany to East Prussia. The demand was dictated by the Nazi ideology, which saw the establishment of the German-speaking Free City of Danzig and the Polish Corridor as a violation of the Third Reich’s territorial integrity. Nazis often referred to the Polish Corridor as the “Corridor of Shame,” forcefully imposed by the victorious powers of World War I. Poland refused, providing additional incentives to the Nazi Germany to invade Poland.

On September 1, 1939, a Nazi warship named Schleswig-Holstein attacked the Polish garrison located at Westerplatte on the territory of the Free City of Danzig. The event marked the start of World War II.

The fate of the Free City of Danzig was finally sealed when Adolf Hitler acquired complete control over the territories of Danzig, the Polish Corridor, Posen (today Poznań), and districts along Silesia. Danzig remained occupied by the Third Reich for the duration of World War II. It was only in March 1945 that the Soviet Union’s Red Army managed to penetrate the lands of Danzig. Following the end of World War II, the territory was once again re-mapped and returned to Poland.

The history of Danzig proved to be the place of revolutionary origins. Just as the invasion of Nazi Germany in the Free City of Danzig signaled the start of World War II, the well-known strike in the Lenin shipyard in Gdańsk (Danzig) also signaled the start of the Solidarity Movement and the subsequent struggles for freedom within the Soviet Union, ultimately leading to its collapse in 1991.