Historical calendar: anniversary of the adoption by the Parliament of Germany of the celebrated anti-Polish Act on the Colonization Commission.
Today in our calendar we will look at the circumstances of the establishment of this institution and its methods of operation.
The population of the Prussian business was primarily merchants, craftsmen and German factories. There were besides many Jews active in trade, usury, and tiny craftsmanship. They supported anti-Polish actions of the Prussian government, as they hoped for profits resulting from their loyalty. They absolutely did not believe and did not let themselves to think that 1 day the Polish state would be reborn, which could account for them from their collaboration. This is why, during the war, erstwhile the task of regaining independency gained blushes, they began fighting it in all ways.
Poles were the most powerful in the villages, which is why the main blade of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck turned to the village.
In 1885, the so-called. Prussian Rugs, based on a regulation of the Minister of the Interior on the expulsion from Germany of all Poles without German citizenship. This meant expelling any 40,000 people of Polish nationality, mainly seasonal employed workers coming to work in Wielkopolska from the Russian and Austrian occupations. Among them were many who had already settled in and brought their families. In subsequent years, the above provisions were tightened up.
However, it was not adequate to get free of the Polish element. Therefore, on 26 April 1886 the Berlin Parliament adopted the Act on supporting German colonization in Wielkopolska and Gdańsk Pomerania. It has created the alleged Colonization Commission. The Commission's officially declared nonsubjective was to prevent the outflow of inexpensive labour from agrarian areas by creating household farms. They were to be created through the parcelation of large noble estates, which were frequently indebted.
In fact, the Commission sought to colonize and Germanise the Polish countryside. With the support of the state apparatus, she purchased Polish land to then sale it to German colonists coming from the western lands. Her real aspirations were exposed by the fact that she did not buy land from the Germans.
In 1909, the Prussian Minister of Agriculture in a heart attack confessed:
Colonization has 2 major national-political and economical tasks to solve: firstly, the task of creating a average state as a counterweight to the ever-increasing working condition in cities ... secondly, the defence against the Slavic flood by instigating German colonists based on healthy grounds.
The Colonization Commission initially focused on the acquisition of large Polish noble estates, with little importance attached to lands owned by peasants. By 1890, 82 "rycer" assets and only 32 peasants with a full area of 50,000 hectares were purchased. Later, the emphasis was evenly placed on both types of property. It is possible that in this case there may have been a massive increase in Polish national awareness in peasants.
In addition, purchases of land were made with a peculiar emphasis on the border belt, including the Kuyawa, the Noteta basin and the Chelmin land. In this way, an additional goal of Prussian chauvinists was realized, consisting in cutting off the dense German belt Wielkopolska and Pomerania from the Polish lands under the Russian partition.
The Commission had immense funds from the Prussian government. In 1886, she received 100 million brands from the state budget, which at the then price of 600 marks per hectare, allowed considerable purchases. In the following years, grants were renewed, in different but always advanced amounts. As a result, there was an inflation origin and an increase in land prices – in the 1990s they reached about 800 brands per hectare in Wielkopolska.
However, by 1906, the Commission managed to get and dispose of 204,000 hectares of fresh farms among German settlers. Bureaucrats faced a serious dilemma: did they make small, average or large farms at the expense of Poles?
The erstwhile were easier to make due to smaller capital requirements than a possible colonist, but were economically inefficient. The second and 3rd in turn were much more efficient, but they liberated the request for employed workers, mainly Poles, which argued with the Germanization nonsubjective of the institutions.
Over the years, the number of large and medium-sized farms recently established with the aid of the Commission has fallen, indicating that the concept of a little economically efficient tiny and medium-sized property creation strategy prevailed. As you can see, political factors – germanization and antipolonism proved to be crucial.
The Commission gave plots to German colonists on theoretically convenient terms. After usually 3 years of freedom, they were obliged to pay only rent, akin to cadastral tax. It amounted to about 3% of the land value per year. They could besides number on preferential loans and livestock aid schemes. The rent was repaid only in 9/10, while the remaining 1/10 was perpetual, which gave the Commission the chance to interfere in property rights.
Furthermore, the colonists were not allowed to share or sale plots without the approval of the Commission. In practice, this meant full organization control, which aimed at preventing the sale of parcels to Poles. We should not be amazed that this kind of rule has alienated any Germans from participating in the project.
Appearance graphics: a painting depicting Otto von Bismarck.
Previous entry from our calendar is available Here..
