The Polish Corridor (; ), also known as the Pomeranian Corridor, was a territory located in the region of Pomerelia (Pomeranian Voivodeship, Eastern Pomerania), which provided the Second Polish Republic with access to the Baltic Sea, thus dividing the bulk of Weimar Germany from the province of East Prussia. At its narrowest point, the Polish territory was just wide. The Free City of Danzig (now the Polish cities of Gdańsk, Sopot and the surrounding areas), situated to the east of the corridor, was a semi-independent German speaking city-state forming part of neither Germany nor Poland, though united with the latter through an imposed union covering customs, mail, foreign policy, railways as well as defence. It was under the protection of the League of Nations.
After Poland lost Western Pomerania to Germany in the late 13th century, the area of Eastern Pomerania with the strategically important port of Gdańsk remained a narrow strip of land giving Poland access to the Baltic Sea and was also sometimes referred to as Pomeranian corridor.A History of Western Civilization: Then came the acquisition of Prussia (separated from Brandenburg by the "Polish corridor") page 382, author Roland N. Stromberg Dorsey Press 1969.The Scandinavians in History. "Brandenburg, by the acquisition of Eastern Pomerania besides other territories within the empire was firmly established on the Baltic, though a Polish corridor running between Eastern Pomerania and East Prussia to Danzig denied her all she desired", page 174, author Stanley Mease Toyne. Ayer Publishing 1970
Terminology
According to German historian Hartmut Boockmann the term corridor was first used by Polish politicians,Hartmut Boockmann, Ostpreussen und Westpreussen, Siedler 2002, p. 401, while Polish historian Grzegorz Lukomski writes that the word was coined by German nationalist propaganda of the 1920s. Internationally the term was used in English as early as March 1919The New York Times: March 18, 1919: Outlines Polish "Corridor"; Paris Paper Sketches Proposed Strip to Danzig.; March 17, 1919: Plan to Give Germany Land Communication Across Polish Corridor to the Baltic and whatever its origins it became a widespread term in English.Edmund Jan Osmańczyk, Anthony Mango, Encyclopedia of the United Nations and international agreements, 3rd edition, Taylor & Francis, 2003, p.1818, : "Polish Corridor: International term for Poland's access to the Baltic in 1919–1939."Hartmut Boockmann, Ostpreussen und Westpreussen, Siedler 2002, p. 401, e.g.The New York Times: March 18, 1919: POLISH "CORRIDOR."; Paris Paper Sketches Proposed Strip to Danzig.; August 16, 1920: Russians Hoist the German Flag Over Soldau; Say Polish Corridor Will Be Returned to Germany; March 17, 1919: Plan to Give Germany Land Communication Across Polish Corridor to the Baltic; November 16, 1930 Europe Sorest Spot: The Polish Corridor.; The Old German Port of Danzig; August 17, 1932 Germans United On Polish CorridorDenmark: Salmonsens Konversationsleksikon, e.g., in the article about railways: ("the German railway network was reduced due to [Germany's] territorial concessions following the [first world] war and is cut in two separate parts by the Polish corridor.") (1930) and article about Poland (1924)Barbara Dotts Paul, The Polish-German Borderlands: An Annotated Bibliography, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1994, : contains an abundant collection of contemporary sources using Polish or Danzig Corridor
The equivalent German term is . Polish names include ('Polish corridor') and ('Gdańsk corridor'); however, reference to the region as a corridor came to be regarded as offensive by interwar Polish diplomats. Among the harshest critics of the term corridor was Polish Foreign Minister Józef Beck, who in his May 5, 1939 speech in the Sejm (Polish parliament) said: "I am insisting that the term Pomeranian Voivodeship should be used. The word corridor is an artificial idea, as this land has been Polish for centuries, with a small percentage of German settlers".Official webpage of Polish Sejm, Chronicle of speeches Poles commonly referred to the region as ('Gdańsk Pomerania', Pomerelia") or simply ('Pomerania'), or as ('Pomeranian Voivodeship'), which was the administrative name for the region.
Background
History of the area
In the 10th century, Pomerelia was settled by Slavic Pomeranians, ancestors of the Kashubians, who were subdued by Bolesław I of Poland. In the 11th century, they created an independent duchy.James Minahan, One Europe, Many Nations: A Historical Dictionary of European National Groups, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000, p. 375, In 1116/1121, Pomerania was again conquered by Poland. In 1138, following the death of Duke Bolesław III, Poland was fragmented into several semi-independent principalities. The Samborides, principes in Pomerelia, gradually evolved into independent dukes, who ruled the duchy until 1294. Before Pomerelia regained independence in 1227,W. D. Halsey, L. Shores, Bernard Johnston, Emanuel Friedman, Merit Students Encyclopedia, Macmillan Educational Corporation, 1979, p. 195: Pomerelia, independent in 1227 and thereafter their dukes were vassals of Poland and Denmark. Since 1308–1309, following succession wars between Poland and Brandenburg, Pomerelia was subjugated by the Monastic state of the Teutonic Knights in Prussia. In 1466, with the second Peace of Thorn, Pomerelia became part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as a part of autonomous Royal Prussia. After the First Partition of Poland in 1772 it was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia and named West Prussia, and became a constituent part of the new German Empire in 1871. Thus the Polish Corridor was not an entirely new creation: the territory assigned to Poland had been an integral part of Poland prior to 1772, but with a large degree of autonomy.A Lasting Peace page 127, James Clerk Maxwell Garnett, Heinrich F. Koeppler – 1940Arms and Policy, 1939–1944 page 40, Hoffman Nickerson – 1945The Congress of Vienna: A Study in Allied Unity, 1812–1822 page 279, Harold Nicolson. Grove Pres 2000Urban Societies in East-Central Europe, pages 190–191, Jaroslav Miller 2008
Historical population Perhaps the earliest census data on the ethnic and national structure of West Prussia (including areas which later made up the corridor) is from 1819. +Ethnic/national data () for West Prussia in 1819Ethnic or national groupPopulation (number)Population (percentage)Poles ()327,30052%Germans ()290,00046%Jews ()12,7002%Total630,077100%
Karl Andree, in (Leipzig 1831), gives the total population of West Prussia as 700,000including 50% Poles (350,000), 47% Germans (330,000) and 3% Jews (20,000).
Data from the 19th century and early 20th century show the following ethnic changes in four main counties of the corridor (Puck and Wejherowo on the Baltic Sea coast; Kartuzy and Kościerzyna between the Province of Pomerania and Free City of Danzig):
+ Percent of Poles and Kashubians (including Polish-German bilinguals) in four main counties of the corridor, 1831–1931 Puck (Putzig) Wejherowo (Neustadt) Kartuzy (Karthaus) Kościerzyna (Berent) Source 183182%85%72% Jan Mordawski's estimate 183178%84%71% Leszek Belzyt's estimate 183777%84%71% Volkszählung census 185280%77%64% Volkszählung 185580%76%64% Volkszählung 185880%76%63% Volkszählung 186180%77%64% Belzyt 188675%64%66%57% Schulzählung school census 189069%56%67%54% Volkszählung 189073%61%68%57% Belzyt 189174%62%66%56% Schulzählung 189277%67%76%59% Stefan Ramułt's estimate 189672%61%70%58% Schulzählung 190069%54%69%55% Volkszählung 190176%60%71%59% Schulzählung 190570%51%70%56% Volkszählung 190673%62%72%60% Schulzählung 191070%50%72%58% Volkszählung 191074%62%74%62% Belzyt 191174%63%74%63% Schulzählung 191877%55%77%65% Map of Polish population 192189%92%81% Polish General Census 193195%93%88% Polish General Census
Allied plans for a corridor after World War I During the First World War, both sides made bids for Polish support, and in turn Polish leaders were active in soliciting support from both sides. Roman Dmowski, a former deputy in the Russian State Duma and the leader of the Endecja movement was especially active in seeking support from the Allies. Dmowski argued that an independent Poland needed access to the sea on demographic, historical and economic grounds as he maintained that a Poland without access to the sea could never be truly independent. After the war Poland was to be re-established as an independent state. Since a Polish state had not existed since the Congress of Vienna, the future republic's territory had to be defined.
Giving Poland access to the sea was one of the guarantees proposed by United States President Woodrow Wilson in his Fourteen Points of January 1918. The thirteenth of Wilson's points was: An independent Polish state should be erected which should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea, and whose political and economic independence and territorial integrity should be guaranteed by international covenant.The text of Woodrow's Fourteen Points Speech
The following arguments were behind the creation of the corridor:
Ethnographic reasons