Prussian Settlement Commission

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. 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. 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.

thumb|250px|right|Former seat of the Prussian Settlement Commission, now [[Poznań University's Collegium Maius]]

Name

English translations include German Colonization Commission for Poznań, Prussian Colonization Commission'The Royal Commission of Colonization for West Prussia and Posnania). The majority of Polish sources translate the title as Colonization Commission rather than Settlement Commission, which is more politically charged. After 1832 Poles could no longer hold high posts at the local administrative level (landrat). 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. Another colonization attempt aimed at Germanisation was pursued by Prussia after 1832.

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.

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. 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 in private going as far as expressing his wish to exterminate Poles. As a result, the Polish population faced economic, religious and political discrimination as the Germanisation of their territories was promoted.

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. 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. After this, the original budget of 100,000,000 marks was exhausted.

thumb|250px|right|Acquisitions of the Prussian Settlement Commission

Acquisitions by 1913

By 1913, the SC had bought up about 5.4% of the land in West Prussia and 10.4% in Posen. In 1914, Germans owned 59% of land in Province of Posen, while making up for about 40% of population in 1890. Altogether, about 22,000 families were settled, 5,400 families were German arrivals taken from other parts of the partitioned Poland, Congress Poland (Russian Empire province) and Galicia (Austrian province).

Overall, the commission bought 828 estates (430,450 ha) for 443 million marks, 214 of those (115,525 ha) from Poles for 96,4 million marks, and the other 614 (314,926 ha) from Germans for 346,7 million marks. and later included in the region's population figures.

Germans from West Prussia and Greater Poland region who took part in the settlement process declined over time, while the number of Germans from the Russian Empire increased. In the first years (1886–90), locals from Greater Poland and West Prussia constituted 48% of the settlers while the proportion of Germans from Russia was below 1%, however in the years 1902–1906, locals only made up for 17% and Germans from Russia for 29% of the settlers.

Of those settled until the end of 1906, a quarter originated in Posen and West Prussia, another quarter in the neighboring provinces of East Prussia, Pomerania, Brandenburg, Saxony and Silesia, 30% from other parts of the German Empire and 20% from outside the empire, especially from Russia.

Impact on the ethnic composition

One of the chief aims of the commission was to stop the restoration of Polish population in Germanised territories of Greater Poland which was restoring its numbers after drastic fall during initial Prussian takeover. || 1861 || 1890 || 776.000 ||1.467.604 || 1.751.642 || 2.099.831

|-bgcolor=white align="center"

| align="center" | % Poles <br />(including bilinguals)<br />|| 73% || 54,6% || 60,1% || 61,5%

|-bgcolor=white align="center"

| align="center" | % Germans || 25% || 43,4% || 39,9% || 38,5%

{| class="wikitable" valign="top"

|- bgcolor=white align="center"

! bgcolor=#BBCCFF align="left" colspan="5" | Ethnic composition of West Prussia

|- bgcolor=white align="center"

! align="center" | year || 1858|| 1890|| 1910

Legislation

As the economic approach showed to be a failure, various laws were enacted to promote the Settlement Commission's aims.

1896: Land acquired from the commission could be sold freely only to the settler's next of kin: the commission's approval was required for any other sale.
1904: The Prussian Government sought to restrict Poles from acquiring land, if this would interfere with the goals of the commission. Any new settlement required a building permit, even if it were only for renovation of an existing building to make it habitable. Local officials routinely denied these permits to Poles. The law faced international criticism and opposition from liberal groups concerned about private property rights. The Prussian Administrative High Court ended this legislation. The law faced criticism from international community and liberals concerned about the free market rights. Additionally, the Austrian State Council, upon the request of the Poles, who enjoyed considerable autonomy and influence in Austro-Hungary, condemned the actions of German government. and united Polish nationalism, Catholicism and cultural resistance among the Poles in Pomerania, Masuria and Silesia. For the Settlement Commission, these countermeasures led to a decreasing availability of purchasable Polish-owned land, in 1895 and all years following 1898, the vast majority of estates was purchased from Germans instead of Poles, and since 1902, the commission was able to acquire land from Poles "only rarely and only through a middleman". With the coming of the war, those ideas began to take real and determined form in the shape of plans to be realised after German victory and, as a consequence, hegemony of Central and Eastern Europe. The idea of extraordinary measures was the result of the failed economic attempt to Germanise Polish provinces. By 1918, the total ethnic Polish population was greater than when the commission began operations. Between 1918 and 1939, the German population in these areas declined by another 70%, and the land owned by Germans by 45%. Their plans were a renovation of the idea, this time however rather than colonize just the land purchased by Prussian Settlement Commission, Poles would be ethnically cleansed and murdered, and German colonists would occupy their place. The Nazis planned also to form a Reich Settlement Commission to coordinate all internal colonization within German Reich, which was to be based on Prussian Settlement Commission. The plan was laid out by Nazi official Curt von Gottberg, who presented it to Himmler, and as reward was appointed as Land Registry Chief in Prague in June 1939.