1916 Warsaw City Council election

Elections to the Warsaw City Council were held in July 1916 – under German occupation during World War I. It was the first modern municipal election in Warsaw, as well as the first local election in Poland after the Russian retreat.Robert E. Blobaum. A Minor Apocalypse: Warsaw during the First World War. Cornell University Press, 2017. The electorate was divided into six curiae, each with 15 seats in the council. As a pre-electoral pact was reached for four out of the six curiae, voting was held only in the Third Curia (intellectuals) and the Sixth Curia (general public). In the Sixth Curia, to which most voters belonged, the winners were the National Democracy on the Polish side and the Folkists on the Jewish side. Per Jesse Kaufmann (2015) "the election brought to the fore the question of Polish-Jewish relations and triggered an attempt on part of the occupiers to limit Jewish influence while maintaining a facade of strict impartiality".

Background On July 1, 1915, the German authorities issued call for convening City Councils in occupied Poland based on Prussian model, to replace system of Citizens Committees put in place under Russian rule.Kalman Weiser, Keith Ian Weiser. Jewish People, Yiddish Nation: Noah Prylucki and the Folkists in Poland. University of Toronto Press, 2011. pp. 140-141, 144-146 On August 6, 1915, the overtook functions of the city government. The Warsaw Citizens Committee eventually approached the German authorities asking for elections, and on March 23, 1916, the German occupation authorities agreed that the Citizens Committee would be replaced by an elected City Council.

Furthermore, during the spring of 1916, the city boundaries of Warsaw were expanded with suburbs being integrated into the city – on the Vistula River left bank; Czerniaków, Siekierki, Szopy, Mokotów, Ochota, Czyste, Wola, Koło, Powązki, Bielany, Marymont, Buraków and Słodowiec, on the right bank; Golędzinów, Żerań, Szmulowizna, Bródno, Pelcowizna, Targówek, Kawęczyn, Grochów, Saska Kępa, Kamionek and Gocławek.Juliusz A. Chrościcki, Andrzej Rottermund. Atlas of Warsaw's Architecture. Arkady, 1978. p. 30 Through the incorporation of these areas into the city, the area of Warsaw grew from 32.75 square kilometres to 114.83 square kilometres. Under German rule, the city was divided into 26 militia commissariat districts.

Citizens Committee draft ordinance The Warsaw Citizens Committee held several extraordinary meetings in April 1916, to discuss a draft electoral ordinance for the City Council election. The most extensive of these meetings occurred on April 16, 1916. At the meeting Piotr Drzewiecki called for a fixed quota for Jewish members of the City Council, to avoid a potential Jewish majority. Zdzisław Lubomirski, installed by the German authorities as mayor of Warsaw, called for measures to restrict the numbers of Jews that could participate in the election in order to guarantee the Polish character of the City Council. Others criticized Lubomirski's propositions, stating that such measures would cause embarrassment to Poland internationally. Samuel Dickstein, a Jewish assimilationist, rejected the argument that Jews would constitute a unified political bloc. In the end the proposals calling for restricting Jewish participation were voted down with 8 votes in favour, 15 against and 1 abstention.Glenn Dynner, François Guesnet. Warsaw. The Jewish Metropolis: Essays in Honor of the 75th Birthday of Professor Antony Polonsky. BRILL, 2015. pp. 291-292

Prussian electoral system and voter registry The German occupation authorities ultimately rejected the Warsaw Citizens Committee April 1916 draft electoral ordinance, and instead opted for an electoral ordinance based on the Prussian system of separate and unequal curiae. On May 28, 1916, the German occupation authorities issued a bulletin with the provisions for the election of the Warsaw City Council. The electoral regulation mixed a system of curiae with proportional election (except in the Third Curia). The new City Council would have 90 seats. Candidates had to be men over the age of 30 years, with "spotless moral and political reputation" and fluent Polish language skills.Zieliński, Konrad. The Poles and the Jews in the Local Authorities of the Kingdom of Poland during the First World War. Iggud: Selected Essays in Jewish Studies, vol. 2005, p. 123-134 Voting rights were given to men aged over 25 years. Moreover, a small number of wealthy and educated women were given the right to vote, albeit only through a male proxy. The German authorities divided the voters into six curiae, with each of the curiae being allotted 15 seats in the City Council. On June 4, 1916, Warsaw residents began entering their names in electoral rolls of the six curiae. Initially interest in the election was low, but the electoral campaign soon captured the attention of the city. All in all by late June 1916, there were a total of 82,223 registered voters.Statystyka wyborcow do wzystkich kurji, in Goniec Poranny, June 27, 1916. p. 1 CuriaNumber of registered voters% of registered votersFirst CuriaReal estate owners (landlords)5,6746.90%Second CuriaTrade or industrial license (patent) payers, i.e. representatives of heavy industry and large commercial concerns1,2831.56%Third CuriaIntellectuals, subdivided into six groups – 1st group – Roman Catholic clergy (1 seat), 2nd group – lawyers (3 seats), 3rd group – tutors, teachers and school inspectors (3 seats, with one of the seats reserved for faculty of Warsaw University), 4th group – physicians, dentists, veterinarians and pharmacists (3 seats), 5th group – engineers and technicians with higher education (3 seats, with one seat reserved for faculty of Warsaw Technical College), 6th group – students and others with higher education who did not belong to any of the other five groups of the Third Curia (2 seats)2,3452.85%Fourth CuriaTrade or industrial license (patent) payers (at a lower rate than 2d Curia members), i.e. representatives of craft-based industries, smaller merchants and small businesses16,05019.52%Fifth CuriaPayers of housing tax in Warsaw (in 1915 and 1916)5,7947.05%Sixth CuriaRegistered inhabitants of Warsaw who did not fulfill any of the criteria of the first five Curiae, i.e. the working class51,07762.12% Jesse Kauffman. Elusive Alliance. Harvard University Press, 2015. pp. 125-127, 130

The city was divided into 52 electoral districts. The 2,345 registered voters of the Third Curia were not divided into electoral districts. District Electoral Bureau Militia Commiss. First Curia % Second Curia % Fourth Curia % Fifth Curia % Sixth Curia % Total 1 Bednarska 6 I 95 5.6 15 0.9 54 3.2 104 6.1 1,425 84.2 1,694 2 12 I 14 0.7 101 4.9 294 14.4 270 13.2 1,363 66.7 2,169 3 Miodowa 12 II 52 6.4 20 2.5 107 13.2 32 4.0 597 73.9 808 4 10 II 106 6.2 1 0.1 230 13.4 40 2.3 1,335 78.0 1,712 5 10 II 73 4.1 24 1.4 355 20.1 102 5.8 1,208 68.6 1,762 6 Przejazd 5 III 74 3.3 12 0.5 464 20.9 188 8.5 1,477 66.7 2,215 7 52 III 95 5.4 16 0.9 312 17.6 123 6.9 1,226 69.2 1,772 8 14 III 113 4.7 36 1.5 460 19.3 224 9.4 1,546 65.0 2,379 9 100 III 58 5.7 7 0.7 139 13.7 12 1.2 801 78.8 1,017 10 12 IV 94 3.6 56 2.1 1,225 47.0 397 15.2 835 32.0 2,607 11 20 IV 67 3.6 17 0.9 783 41.8 151 8.1 854 45.6 1,862 12 Muranowska 34 IV 89 4.1 18 0.8 872 40.4 232 10.7 950 44.0 2,161 13 Nowokarmelicka 7 V 88 3.3 24 0.9 657 24.3 252 9.3 1,683 62.2 2,704 14 68 V 34 3.4 1 0.1 99 9.9 16 1.6 848 85.0 998 15 24 V 52 3.9 4 0.3 233 17.4 74 5.5 976 72.9 1,335 16 Młocińska 9 V 44 4.0 3 0.3 124 11.2 20 1.8 917 82.8 1,108 17 13 VI 117 5.4 12 0.6 281 13.0 133 6.1 1,620 74.9 2,163 18 64 VI 112 5.9 7 0.4 369 19.5 126 6.7 1,276 67.5 1,890 19 Corner of and VI 69 5.2 5 0.4 214 16.1 42 3.2 999 75.2 1,329 20 45 VII 146 6.0 21 0.9 508 20.8 227 9.3 1,543 63.1 2,445 21 26 VII 46 2.5 11 0.6 604 33.1 81 4.4 1,084 59.4 1,826 22 44 VII 85 4.5 12 0.6 379 20.3 53 2.8 1,340 71.7 1,869 23 45 VII 63 4.8 3 0.2 178 13.5 31 2.4 1,043 79.1 1,318 24 35 VIII 109 4.7 49 2.1 669 29.1 244 10.6 1,231 53.5 2,302 25 Sosnowa 13 VIII 152 6.3 35 1.4 455 18.8 273 11.3 1,508 62.2 2,423 26 58 VIII 132 5.7 42 1.8 411 17.8 209 9.1 1,514 65.6 2,308 27 13 IX 164 11.6 29 2.1 131 9.3 274 19.4 813 57.6 1,411 28 72 IX 38 3.3 1 0.1 153 13.3 15 1.3 946 82.0 1,153 29 12 X 113 9.1 47 3.8 227 18.3 183 14.7 671 54.1 1,241 30 Świętokrzyska 27 X 146 10.1 67 4.6 309 21.3 224 15.4 704 48.6 1,450 31 Jerozolimska 14 X 117 6.3 18 1.0 249 13.5 153 8.3 1,314 71.0 1,851 32 41 XI 157 8.0 47 2.4 334 16.9 388 19.7 1,048 53.1 1,974 33 63 (Market halls) XI 192 9.5 24 1.2 387 19.1 227 11.2 1,194 59.0 2,024 34 10 XII 89 8.5 81 7.7 226 21.6 130 12.4 521 49.8 1,047 35 Nowo-Miodowa 3 XII 151 7.0 65 3.0 536 24.9 157 7.3 1,241 57.7 2,150 36 31 XIII 194 8.9 40 1.8 359 16.5 291 13.4 1,295 59.4 2,169 37 Nowy Świat 2 XIII 150 9.5 40 2.5 268 17.0 268 17.0 853 54.0 1,579 38 16 XIII 27 3.6 4 0.5 75 10.0 23 3.1 623 82.8 752 39 2 XIV 102 6.9 2 0.1 223 15.0 44 3.0 1,113 75.0 1,384 40 11 XIV 157 10.5 7 0.5 216 14.4 45 3.0 1,070 71.6 1,495 41 3 XV 110 5.9 10 0.5 481 25.6 84 4.5 1,194 63.5 2,179 42 17 XV 73 11.5 1 0.2 63 9.9 10 1.6 489 76.9 636 43 House of the Union of Consumer Associations, Mickiewicza Street, Mokotów XVI 186 9.7 6 0.3 350 18.3 1 0.1 1,370 71.6 1,913 44 , Grochów XVII 93 27.2 3 0.9 93 27.2 1 0.3 152 44.4 341 45 Sawicki steelworks, XVIII 119 27.3 0 0.0 55 12.6 0 0.0 262 60.1 436 46 18, Koło-Budy XIX 65 17.2 0 0.0 64 16.9 0 0.0 250 66.0 379 47 , Sielce and Czerniaków XX-XXI 214 28.8 4 0.5 95 12.8 0 0.0 431 57.9 744 48 Lilpop, Rau i Loewenstein factory, Wola XXII 140 16.9 4 0.5 119 14.3 1 0.1 566 68.2 830 49 60, Ochota and Czyste XXIII 123 16.3 0 0.0 125 16.5 0 0.0 508 67.2 756 50 Szczepanowski residence, Targówek XXIV 149 25.5 0 0.0 143 24.4 0 0.0 293 50.1 585 51 Urbanski residence, XXV 127 37.7 0 0.0 98 29.1 0 0.0 112 33.2 437 52 Suski residence, Gross estate, XXVI 172 29.4 1 0.2 88 15.0 0 0.0 325 55.5 586 Przed wyborami do rady miejskiej in Kurjer Warszawski, June 6, 1916. p. 1Przed wyborami do rady miejskiej in Kurjer Warszawski, June 6, 1916. p. 4Wybory do rady miejskiej in Kurjer Warszawski, June 8, 1916. p. 1Przed wyborami do rady miejskiej in Kurjer Warszawski, June 8, 1916. p. 3דיִ וואַהל-בּיוּרעם, in , July 13, 1916. p. 3

The newspaper Kurjer Warszawski estimated that 55.86% of the eligible voters were Polish (Christians) and 44.14% Jews. The newspaper made the following estimates for the voters of the First, Second, Fourth and Fifth curiae, CuriaChristians (%)Jews (%) I 67.53 32.47 II 57.18 42.82 IV 40.82 59.18 V 49.20 50.80

Among the Polish right-wing, there were strong concerns about the German-imposed unequal curiae electoral system, as Jews were well represented in the first five curiae. In particular the Polish right-wing was worried about the Fourth Curia (merchants and artisans) where Jews were expected to dominate the vote. The announcement of the electoral ordinance prompted a campaign of harsh attacks against Jewish candidates in (a newspaper linked to National Democracy). The attacks were especially targeted at the assimilationists, questioning their Polish credentials. Gazeta Poranna 2 Grosze was somewhat more conciliatory in its tone towards the Orthodox Jews, arguing that the Orthodox Jews did not get involved in Polish affairs and that they were "always remembering that this is a Polish country, not a Polish-Jewish country."

The two Polish committees