page_title: Greater Poland uprising (1848)
section_title: From cooperation to confrontation
hierarchical_section_title: Greater Poland uprising (1848) / Start of the Uprising / From cooperation to confrontation
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Karl Wilhelm von Willisen Русский: Пруский генерал Карл Вилхелм фон Вилизен
context_page_description: The Greater Poland uprising of 1848 or Poznań Uprising was an unsuccessful military insurrection of Poles against Prussian forces, during the Spring of Nations period. While the main fighting was concentrated in the Greater Poland region, fights also occurred in other part of the Prussian Partition of Poland, and protests were held in Polish inhabited regions of Silesia.
context_section_description: The atmosphere among the Germans and a portion of the Jewish population began to change diametrically and a German National Committee was founded on 23 March, a second one on 27 March, now largely influenced by German public officials loyal to the Prussian King. Encroachments against Jews caused a further support of the German Committee by the Jewish population and the breakdown of Prussian authority allowed long-simmering resentments to explode, as the German Committee urged in a complaint addressed to the Polish Committee: "There have been many cases in which armed groups of your people have threatened and violated the property and personal security of your German-speaking neighbors. Keep in mind that through such acts of infamous violence you stain the honor of your nation and you undermine the sympathy for your cause among the nations of Germany and Europe.”
  In a few days the Polish movement embraced the whole Greater Poland region. Polish peasants and urban citizens turned against Prussian officials. Polish nobility and peasantry took up arms, preparing for confrontation with Prussian Army, Prussian symbols were torn down, and in couple of places fighting erupted with German colonists
  In West Prussia, Toruń, Chełmno, Bory Tucholskie the Polish population took inspiration from events in Greater Poland and openly turned against Prussian officials, led by Natalis Sulerzyski and Seweryn Elżanowski. In Chełmno a Temporary National Committee of Polish Prussia was formed. By the end of march though local Germans turned harshly against Poles and together with Prussian military pacified the area, while Polish leaders were imprisoned.
  The reason for initial support of Poles by Prussians and Germans was the fear of Russian intervention which would stop creation of strong unified Germany. Germans saw in Poles an opportunity to create a diversion stopping Russians from intervention in Germany itself. The hostility to Russia manifested by Poles was the base of German sympathy towards Polish aspiration during the initial phase of the Uprising.  Wilhelm von Willisen encouraged Mierosławski to fight a war against Russia. The Prussian foreign minister Arnim used the Polish issue as weapon against Russia. Leading German politicians and thinkers supported using Poles as protection against Russia, such as Karl August Varnhagen, Robert Blum, Heinrich von Gagern, Georg Gervinius, Johann Wirth, Constantin Frantz. As the threat of war with Russia grew distant, the German elites and society became hostile to Polish aspirations. Nationalist and even chauvinist voices could be heard in Germany demanding incorporation of the whole Greater Poland into German Confederation.
  Overnight Poles turned for Germans from an ally against Russia into the enemy that would threaten German control over Greater Poland and Pomerania.
  Polish successes created distrust in local Germans' and they  felt threatened  and the news of national reorganization of the province was the turning-point. The assumption of power by a Polish administration and the creation of a military corps out of local Polish population  create a German fear for their position in a Polish-ruled Duchy.
  Thus German National Committee was founded on 23 March, and a  second one on 27 March, now largely influenced by German public officials loyal to the Prussian King.
  The new German committee that emerged in Poznań subsequently engaged in consistent opposition to Polish movement. German separate national committees were established and petitions demanding the division of the Duchy and the incorporation of cities and counties into German Confederation addressed to Berlin. With the army protecting them, Germans started to paralyze development of Polish self-rule.
  German officials, colonists and tradesmen seized the opportunity and begun counteraction, demanding incorporation of the Polish territories into unified German state, accused Poles of repressions.  Their claims were methodically used by German propaganda to win support of European countries such as Great Britain and France. Additionally Ger
caption: Karl Wilhelm von Willisen
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