Free City of Danzig

The Free City of Danzig (; ) was a self-governing port on the Baltic Sea port and a city-state. It was set up on January 10, 1920, by Part III Section XI of the Treaty of Versailles of 1919, and put under League of Nations protection, with special rights reserved to Poland, because it was the only port in the Polish Corridor.

The Free City ceased to exist after 1939 when it was occupied and annexed by Nazi Germany. After Germany's defeat in 1945 Danzig was occupied and annexed by Poland under the Polish name Gdańsk.

Establishment

Territory 
The Free City of Danzig included the major city of Danzig (Gdańsk) as well as Zoppot (Sopot), Tiegenhof (Nowy Dwór Gdański), Neuteich (Nowy Staw) and some 252 villages and 63 hamlets. Its area was .

Polish rights 
The Free City was represented abroad by Poland's ambassadors. The railway line that connected the Free City with Poland was administered by Poland. Similarly, the separated military post within the city's harbour, the Westerplatte (formerly a city beach), was also given to Poland. There were also two post-offices, one for the Danzig Postal Service, the other was Polish-run.

League of Nations High Commissioners 
League of Nations mandated territories, were run by member countries on behalf of the League. But Danzig and the Saargebiet were run by the League of Nations itself, with representatives of various countries taking on the role of High Commissioner:

Population 
The Free City's population was 357,000 in (1919). 98% were German-speakers, with the rest mainly speaking either Kashubian or Polish.

The Treaty of Versailles, split Danzig from Germany. The treaty made the people living in the city citizens of the Free City. German inhabitants lost their German nationality, if they wanted to stay German they had to go and live outside the Free City's territory.

Politics 
Heads of State of the Free City of Danzig

In May 1933, the Nazi Party won the local elections in the city. But they had less than the two-thirds majority that would let them change the Constitution of the Free City of Danzig. The government introduced anti-Semitic and also anti-Catholic laws against the Poles and Kashubian inhabitants.

Poland always refused to allow the status of Danzig to change. In April 1939 the Polish Commissioner-General said that Poland was willing to fight if there was a change..

Second World War and aftermath 
The Nazi government voted for re-unification with Germany on September 2, 1939, the day after the German invasion of Poland began.

Around 90% of the city was reduced to ruins towards the end of the Second World War. On March 30, 1945 the city was taken by the USSR. It is thought that more than 90% of the pre-war population were either dead or had fled by 1945.

The Allied Powers were told at the Potsdam conference that the former Free State was now part of Poland. (The Yalta conference was unclear whether the Free City would be recreated or not).

Related pages
 Gdańsk
 Danzig Corridor

References

Other websites 

 Jewish community history
 History of Gdansk/Danzig
 Gdańsk history 
 In 1997 Gdansk celebrated his thousand anniversary
 history & hallucination 
 The power of Gdansk 

1930s disestablishments in Germany
1920 establishments in Europe
1920s establishments in Germany
Former city-states
Gdańsk
League of Nations mandates
States and territories disestablished in the 20th century
States and territories established in the 20th century