UPPER SILESIA PLEBISCITE

'Upper Silesia plebiscite' was the form of self-determination for Upper Silesia on demand of one of the clauses of the Treaty of Versailles. The German government had already declared during the negotiations in London, and indeed at an earlier period, that the possession of Upper Silesia was indispensable to Germany if she was to fulfill her obligations in regard to reparations. After some negotiation the plebiscite was fixed for March 20, and resulted in 717,122 votes being cast for Germany against 483,514 for Poland. All the towns in the plebiscite territory and most of the villages gave German majorities. Of the ''Kreise'' (districts) only those of Pless and Rybnik in the southeast, Tarnowitz in the east, and Tost-Gleiwitz in the interior showed considerable Polish majorities, while in Lublinitz and Gross Strelitz the votes cast on either side were practically equal. All the ''Kreise'' of the industrial district in a narrower sense - Beuthen, Hindenburg, Kattowitz, and Königshütte - had slight German majorities, though in Beuthen and Kattowitz this was due entirely to the town vote, as the country parishes had given Polish majorities. However, most of area of Upper Silesia voted for Poland. The Polish side pointed to the fact, that German majority was achieved artificially by the votes of Silesian emigrants from Western Germany. Without their votes, the vote count was almost 1:1. The situation led to the outbreak of Third Silesian Uprising.

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Details

Treaty of Versailles had a clause demanding a plebiscite in Upper Silesia. The German government had already declared during the negotiations in London that the possession of Upper Silesia was indispensable to Germany if she was to fulfill her obligations in regard to reparations. After some negotiation the plebiscite was fixed for March 20, and resulted in 717,122 votes being cast for Germany against 483,514 for Poland, the result very different from the last 1910 census, where Poles had clear 60% majority.
With the results of the Plebiscite making the ultimate fate of Upper Silesia unclear, fighting erupted in the province between insurgent Polish forces and German militias (The Third Silesian Uprising). The Germanophone section of the population made strong complaints, being firmly convinced that the French division of the Upper Silesian army of occupation was favoring the insurrection by refusing to do anything.
Twelve days after the start of the Uprising Wojciech Korfanty offered to take his Upper Silesian forces behind a line of demarcation, on condition that the released territory would not be occupied by German forces, but by Allied troops. It was not, however, till July 1 that the British troops arrived in Upper Silesia and began to advance in company with those of the Allies towards the former frontier. Simultaneously with this advance the Inter-Allied Commission pronounced a general amnesty for the illegal actions committed during the recent violence, with the exception of acts of revenge and cruelty. The German defense force was finally withdrawn and disbanded and quiet was restored.
As the Supreme Council was unable to come to an agreement on the partition of the Upper Silesian territory on the lines of the plebiscite, 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. 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 3,214.26 km² (1,255 mi²) out of 10,950.89 km² (4,265 mi²).
German and Polish officials, under a League of Nations recommendation, agreed to come up with protections of minority interests that would last for 15 years. Special measures were threatened in case either of the two states should refuse to participate in the drawing up of such regulations, or to accept them subsequently.
Polish Government had decided to give Upper Silesia considerable autonomy with Silesian Parliament as a constituency and Silesian Autonomous Voivodship Council as the executive body.

External links

★ Wojciech Korfanty's proclamation after plebiscite

★ Exact plebiscite results - according to villages and discrits (in German)

References

★ Czesław Madajczyk, Tadeusz Jędruszczak, ''Plebiscyt i trzecie powstanie śląskie'' ("Plebiscite and Third Silesian Uprising") [in:] ''Historia Polski'' ("History of Poland"), Vol.IV, part 1, PAN, Warszawa 1984 ISBN 83-01-03865-9

★ Kazimierz Popiołek, ''Historia Śląska od pradziejów do 1945 roku'' ("History of Poland since prehistory until 1945", ''Śląski Inst. Naukowy'' (Silesian Science Institute) 1984 ISBN 83-21-60151-0