The Prussian Settlement Commission, officially known as the Royal Prussian Settlement Commission in the Provinces West Prussia and Posen (; ) was a Prussian government commission that operated between 1886 and 1924, but actively only until 1918.Ethno-nationality, Property Rights in Land and Territorial Sovereignty in Prussian Poland, 1886-1918: Buying the land from under the Poles' feet?" by Scott M. Eddie University of Toronto It was first up on the initiative of Otto von Bismarck to increase land ownership by ethnic Germans at the expense of Poles in the Prussian partition, by economic and political means, in Prussia's eastern provinces of West Prussia and the Posen as part of his larger efforts aiming at the removal of Poles from their native lands that had come under Prussian (later German) rule, the Germanisation of greater territories, in particular those under German rule and strengthening of and ascendancy of “Germandom” and the dominant German culture (in particular German Protestant culture) especially in the “East”, during the Kulturkampf though it survived it, and the end of the Bismarck-era generalised anti-Catholic government policy.
The commission was ideologically motivated by German racism.
The commission was one of Prussia's prime instruments in the official policy of Germanization of the historically Polish lands of West Prussia (the former Royal Prussia) and the dissolved Grand Duchy of Posen. The Commission ultimately purchased 613 estates from ethnic German owners and 214 from ethnic Poles, functioning to more often bail out German debtors rather than fulfilling its declared national mission. By the end of its existence, a total of 21,886 German families (154,704 persons) out of a planned 40,000 had been settled. The commission's activities had a countereffect in Poles using what has been termed "defensive nationalism", unifying "Polish nationalism, Catholicism and cultural resistance" and triggered countermeasures by the Polish minority. Efforts of new private initiatives by the minority, but actually a majority in wide parts of Posen and West Prussia province, who founded the Prussian banks Bank Ziemski, Bank Związku Spółek Zarobkowych (Vereinsbank der Erwerbsgenossenschaften) and local land acquisition cooperatives (spółki ziemskie)"Rozwój polskiej bankowości w Poznaniu rozpoczął się w 2. połowie XIX wieku", on: POZnan*, retrieved on 5 August 2021. which collected private funds and succeeded to buy more latifundia from defaulted owners and settle more ethnically Polish Germans as farmers on the parcelled land than their governmentally funded counter-party. A big success of the Prussian activists for the Polish nation.
Nevertheless, this Polish success under difficult circumstances was little recognised, and after World War I, when the Second Polish Republic was established, new governmental Polish measures climaxed in the expropriation of Commission-owned lands and reversing Germanization. Some of the former colonists, then as ethnically German Poles part of the German minority in Poland, were active in a Nazi campaign of genocide against Poles during World War II.Szymon Datner, 55 dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce. Zbrodnie dokonane na polskiej ludności cywilnej w okresie 1. IX. -25. X. 1939 r. (Warsaw: Wydawnictwo MON, 1967
Name English translations include German Colonization Commission for Poznań,Land, Labor and the Origins of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, 1882-1914, Gershon Shafir page 159, 1996 Prussian Colonization CommissionHistorical Dictionary of Poland, 966-1945 - page 478 Jerzy Jan Lerski, Piotr Wróbel, Richard J. Kozicki - 1996The Royal Commission of Colonization for West Prussia and PosnaniaInternational Review of Agricultural Economics - page 81 International Institute of Agriculture, International Institute of Agriculture Bureau of Economic and Social Intelligence, Social Intelligence - 1917). The majority of Polish sources translate the title as Colonization Commission rather than Settlement Commission, which is more politically charged. The issue of translation is also connected to the fact that in 1904 the legal difference between settlement and colony was abolished in Prussia.
Background
Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia during the partitions of Poland acquired West Prussia (, ) in 1772 and the later Province of Posen (, ) in 1793 and 1815. The Polish language was abolished as an official language and the German language was introduced. Frederick the Great hoped to replace Poles with Germans, placing Germans in most of the administration as well. Poles were portrayed as "backward Slavs" by Prussian officials who acted to spread the German language and culture. The lands of Polish nobility were confiscated and given to German nobles. The Prussian hold on Polish areas was somewhat weakened after 1807 when parts of its partition were restored to the Duchy of Warsaw. The power status of Prussia was dependent on hindering any form of Polish statehood and it didn't support Polish attempts at restoration of Poland during Congress of Vienna, when Prussia tried to obtain the Duchy of Warsaw or at least its western provinces. In 1815 the Prussian king made several guarantees in his speech to Poles in the newly formed Grand Duchy of Posen (created out of territories of Duchy of Warsaw) in regards to rights of the Polish language and cultural institutions.
However, in practice, the right to use Polish in courts and institutions was respected only until 1830. While the Poles constituted the majority of population in the area, they held only 4 out of 21 official posts of high level. Despite the colonizing actions between 1793 and 1806, in 1815 in Poznań only 11.1 per cent of the population was ethnically German.Życie gospodarczo-społeczne w Poznaniu, 1815-1918, Czesław Łuczak Wydawnictwo Poznańskie, page 283, 196 After 1832 Poles could no longer hold high posts at the local administrative level (landrat). At the same time the Prussian government and Prussian King pursued Germanization of the administrative and judicial systems, while local officials enforced Germanization of the educational system and tried to eradicate the economic position of Polish nobility. The provincial parliament issued calls to ensure the right of use of the Polish language and called for the creation of Polish educational institutions as well as autonomy, but those requests were rejected by the Prussian state. In 1847, two hundred fifty seven Polish activists were imprisoned upon charges of conspiracy and eight of them were sentenced to death, the Spring of Nations, however, stopped their execution. The Frankfurt Parliament showed that the German delegates refused to accept the rights of non-German peoples and, while the Prussian government declared itself ready to discuss Polish concerns, it soon ordered the Prussian military to crush the freedom movement of Polish activists and peasants. Afterwards, the victorious Prussian government retreated from its earlier declarations of autonomy in the Greater Poland region.
Earlier settlement attempts by the Kingdom of Prussia
Prior to the Prussian Settlement Commission (established in 1886) the Kingdom of Prussia had made a number of attempts to settle ethnic Germans in regions inhabited by ethnic Poles.
Frederick the Great, who treated Poles with contempt and called them 'slovenly Polish trash', settled around 300,000 colonists in the eastern provinces of Prussia and aimed at a removal of the Polish nobility."In fact from Hitler to Hans we find frequent references to Jews as Indians. This, too, was a long standing trope. It can be traced back to Frederick the Great, who likened the 'slovenly Polish trash' in newly reconquered West Prussia to Iroquois". Localism, Landscape, and the Ambiguities of Place: German-speaking Central Europe, 1860–1930 David Blackbourn, James N. Retallack University of Toronto 2007 Another colonization attempt aimed at Germanisation was pursued by Prussia after 1832.Wielka historia Polski t. 4 Polska w czasach walk o niepodległość (1815-1864). Od niewoli do niepodległości (1864–1918) Marian Zagórniak, Józef Buszko 2003 page 186
German Empire In 1871, the German Empire was founded with Prussia being the leading and dominating state. The advent of the Kulturkampf marked a period, when the Prussian government attempted to Germanise the Poles through language, schooling, and religious restrictions. Later, the increase in the sheer numbers of Poles led the government to a direct anti-Polish demographic policy.Scott M. Eddie, "Ethno-nationality and property rights in land in Prussian Poland, 1886-1918, Buying the land from under the Poles' feet?" in S. Engerman, Land rights, ethno-nationality and sovereignty in history, 2004, p.56, The Polish population in the Province of Posen (Poznań) made up for nearly 60% (1,049,000 Poles vs 702,000 Germans in 1890), and in West Prussia for one third of the population (484,000 Poles vs 949,000 Germans in 1890). By 1885, Prussia still faced difficulties digesting her "Polish provinces", and the "Polish Question" was one of the Reich's most pressing problems.Scott M. Eddie citing Grzesś 1979:202, "Ethno-nationality and property rights in land in Prussian Poland, 1886-1918, Buying the land from under the Poles' feet?" in S. Engerman, Land rights, ethno-nationality and sovereignty in history, 2004, p.56, The state itself was led by German nationalism and Bismarck viewed Poles as one of the chief threats to German power; as he declared The Polish question is to us a question of life and death and wanted Polish nation to disappear"He has taught that it is the duty of Germany to use all the power of the State for crushing and destroying the Polish language and nationality; the Poles in Prussia are to become Prussian, as those in Russia have to become Russian. A hundred years ago the Polish State was destroyed; now the language and the nation must cease to exist." Bismarck and the Foundation of the German Empire by James Wycliffe Headlam 1899 in private going as far as expressing his wish to exterminate Poles."If we want to exist, we have to exterminate them; the wolf can also not help if he was created by God and nevertheless he is being shot whenever one sees the opportunity" The Immigrant Threat Leo Lucassen University of Illinois Press, 2005 page 60 As a result, the Polish population faced economic, religious and political discrimination as the Germanisation of their territories was promoted. In some places where Poles and Germans lived, it was a virtual apartheid state.Martin Kitchen, A History of Modern Germany, 1800-2000 Blackwell Publishing 2006, page 130
In the late 19th century, an east-to west migration (Ostflucht) took place, in which parts of the population of the eastern provinces migrated to western, more prosperous territories. The German government was concerned that Ostflucht would lower the percentage of Germans in the eastern regions. This event was used as pretext and justification presented to the international community for actions aiming at Germanisation of those provinces.Andrzej Chwalba - Historia Polski 1795-1918 pages 175-184, 461-463 In reality both Poles, Jews and Germans moved to richer western German provinces.
Goals
The goals of the commission were the financial weakening of Polish landowners, and ensuring Germanisation of Polish cities as well as rural areas. The destruction of Polish landownership combined with the fight against the Polish clergy (Kulturkampf) was to achieve the elimination of a Polish national identity. Polish landowners were regarded by Bismarck as the principal agitators for Polish nationalism, purchasing their estates and parceling them out to Germans in family-sized farms was intended to both disestablish this group and significantly increase the numbers of Germans in these areas.