At France's insistence, Alsace and Lorraine were taken from Germany and given to France at the Armistice of November 11, 1918. The Saar, Germany's coal producing area, was brought under the control of the League of Nations for 15 years, with France receiving the profits from the German coal mines as compensation, the unhappy German miners being no better than slave laborers. In contrast, when Prussia defeated France in 1871, France lost only 2.6% of its territory and 4.1% of its population to Germany in areas originally German in the first place! |
In Alsace-Lorraine, 87.2 percent of the population was German in 1910. Alsace remained a part of Germany until the end of the war, when Germany was forced to cede it back to France, even though Strassburg was by then almost exclusively German speaking. It was not offered the plebiscite granted to some of the eastern German territories. German stores throughout the region were plundered by French soldiers and many Germans were forcefully expelled under massive Frankization which wanted to remove those of "German blood" with the hope of restoring French racial purity; Up to 150,000 German men, women, and children living in Alsace moved to Germany between late 1918 and late 1920, and approximately 100,000 Germans in Lorraine met the same fate. |
Those expelled from Stassburg were only allowed to take only a few small handbags and they left amid jeering, rock-throwing French crying, “death to the boches” while French soldiers stood by and laughed. An estimated 200,000-250,000 Germans were expelled until the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, and only about half were allowed to return, and then only after pressure on the French by the USA. 50 year residents, or Germans who had settled in Elsass since 1871, remained expelled and strict policies strictly forbade the use of the German language and required the exclusive use of French. France even refused to extend to Srassburg the same rights as they gave other French cities in regards to separation of church and state. Some inhabitants of the village of Kehl were also expelled. The gateway to Strassburg, the German village was first mentioned 1038. In 1678 the city was taken by France and the village was transformed into a fortress. After several changes of sovereigns, the city was finally returned to Germany in 1815 and the fortress was dismantled. After the First World War, according to the Treaty of Versailles, the harbor of Kehl was placed under French administration for seven years and many Germans here were also expelled. |
The dismemberment of the German Empire continued, having repercussions for years to come. Eupen and Malmedy were ceded to Belgium and North Schleswig was ceded to Denmark. |
World War One German Territorial Losses |
Poland, now "recreated" as a state, was also strengthened by the cession of a large part of German East Prussia and the cession of West Prussia for access to the sea. In Posen, there was a strip of territory which runs from River Vistula to the sea called the "Polish Corridor." The port of Danzig and surrounding territory with its predominantly German population was established as a Free City to be administered by a High Commissioner appointed by the League of Nations. |
Another bone of contention was the fact that Germany had the audacity to form colonies abroad. The short lived German Empire, in the manner of the day, acquired four colonies or "Schutzgebiete" in Africa in the late 19th century, but comparatively late and on a vastly smaller scale than the other European nations. These included: German SW Africa (now Namibia), German East Africa (now Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi), Cameroon and Togo. Before the Great War, 13,500 Germans lived in German South-West Africa and 4,701 Germans lived in East Africa. |
Woodrow Wilson's 14 Points stated that the Allies would not take control of Germany's colonies as Germany needed its colonies as a source of raw materials and as areas for surplus population. Point Five promised "a free, generous and impartial resolution of all colonial claims." Germany found herself hood-winked at Versailles when her colonies were removed without considering her claims. By accusing Germany of "incompetent administration", the colonies were declared "mandates", an action which lent a facade of legality to cover up outright theft. Germany also lost all her colonies in Africa and the Pacific. Most of them were transferred to the League of Nations which allowed the victorious powers to rule over them as Mandates. |
German Sudetenland, an extensive territory with a predominant ethnic German population, had been part of the Austro- Hungarian Empire. The Treaty of Versailles provided that the old frontier as it existed on August 3, 1914 between the Austro-Hungarian and German Empires would constitute the frontier between Germany and Czechoslovakia. Thus, the "Sudeten" German lands, including pockets in the interior of Bohemia and Moravia, passed outright into the waiting hands of the Czechs. Hultschin, an area of some 350 square kilometers with a German majority population, was ceded outright to the newly hatched Czechoslovakia. |
The victors planned their carving up of central Europe well in advance as well. On January 8, 1918 Wilson gave a significant Fourteen Points propaganda speech where he called for a "readjustment" of Italy’s frontiers and for the establishment of self-governing states for Poles, Yugoslavs, Serbs and Romanians who were at the time under Austria-Hungary's rule. This speech immediately inspired the British propagandists at Crewe House to target Austria-Hungary with separatist propaganda and foster disintegration of the Dual Monarchy by promoting internal strife and insurrection among the ‘oppressed nationalities’ which, in turn, would weaken Germany’s ability to sustain war. They did this by printing and distributing 60 million copies of 643 different leaflets in eight languages, together with 10 million copies of 112 different newspapers in four languages throughout Austria-Hungary from May to October of 1918. With the Habsburg collapse, Crewe House then concentrated on eroding German morale at a time when the German Empire was already in trouble. |
East Upper Silesia was ceded to Poland by the Supreme Allied Command in September 1921. Despite the fact that in a March, 1921 plebiscite, 60% of the Upper Silesian population voted to remain a part of Germany and even though Germans outnumbered the Poles by about five to three in the area and had built up the economy of the area for centuries, two-fifths of Upper Silesia was taken away. Germany was left with the larger but economically unimportant West Upper Silesia. |
Millions of Austrians lived in the vast territories lost by Austria, 250,000 in Tirol alone. When Austria was forbidden to unite with Germany, it was a terrible blow to Austria's survival because Austrian goods had always depended upon the German market. Lastly, Austria had to pay reparations and had to be disarmed to the lowest limit. All in all, the Austrian portion of the Dual Monarchy was deprived of 3/4 of her former area and 3/4 of her people and she became an insignificant, land-locked state with few economic resources. In effect, her future was sealed as a second rate nation, her glorious past condemned to memory. |
Probably the biggest irony is that throughout over half a millennium of Habsburg domination, the separate ethnic cultures, identities and languages in their realm were protected and flourished. Once the "world was made safe for democracy", the nationalistic zealots, which the Allies had enabled, abetted and encouraged, inflicted as much genocide and ethnic oppression as humanly possible. |
Instead, millions of ethnic Germans and Hungarians were victimized, harassed, outrageously taxed and deprived of their civil rights. German and Hungarian property was confiscated by the Czech government without compensation and distributed among Czech and Slovak colonists and censuses were rigged to guarantee a false majority. Without plebiscite and despite the protest of the population on February 4, 1920, for example, Czechoslovakia seized one town and 37 communities with 50,000 inhabitants and 333 square kilometers of fruitful, productive land plus two coal mines! With only two exceptions, all German language schools were closed and German instruction was only available through private teaching centers. Czech intolerance under the First Czechoslovak "Republic" made life a hellish misery for its minorities and added more conflicts which led directly to the next war. |
Versailles resulted in a few plebiscites, a few bogus or mock plebiscites, and a few plebiscites which never came to life to determine the fates of certain areas. Other areas were ceded outright and it began to change the ethnic face of Europe and also result in new conflicts. |
Austria's territorial losses included Trieste, Istria and Deutsch-Südtirol (German South Tyrol) which were ceded outright to Italy by terms of the Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye. Bohemia (including parts of the German speaking Sudetenland, Moravia and part of Silesia) also went to the newly established Czechoslovakia, which, with the inclusion of the Slovaks, established Prague as the capital. Burgenland was ceded to Hungary from Austria. Lower Steiermark, consisting primarily of ethnic Slovenes, was ceded to the new "Serb-Croat-Slovene State". Bukovina went to Rumania, and Bosnia, Herzegovina and Dalmatia were given to Yugoslavia and Galicia went to Poland. |
This all constituted a traumatic and confusing situation for ethnic German minorities in these new states. Overnight, they became second class citizens in homelands they had inhabited for generations, and in some cases centuries. An example is that of the Donau-Schwaben, or "Danube Swabians", a name given to early German immigrants to regions of Hungary beginning in 1683 when they were lured there to act as a buffer between Europe and the Ottomans. At a huge price (more than half of the original settlers died of diseases such as Malaria because of the swampy land they were given), they eventually thrived. The Danube Germans excelled and helped develop the cities of Hungary: the stately classical buildings in Budapest such as the former Royal Palace and Parliament Buildings, the National Theater, the Bourse and the original bridges across the Danube were all mainly the creation of Danube Swabian architects and engineers. Furthermore, Hungarian achievements in medicine, science and mathematics were enhanced due to these hard working, intelligent ethnic Germans. |
They were already under attack by 1905 when, under Magyarization, the German language was replaced by Hungarian throughout the realm and no one without a Hungarian name could get employment in any government, railways, or other national positions or even take part in Olympic Games. After Versailles, the partitioning of Hungary split the Danube Swabian settlements among three mutually antagonistic states: 700,000 remained in Hungary, 350,000 became Romanian and the remaining 550,000 became the doomed German national minority in Yugoslavia. |
The dismemberment of the thousand-year-old Hungarian Kingdom resulted in Hungary losing 71.5% of its territory and 63.6% of its population at peace treaty of Trianon in 1920. Under the treaty, three and a half million Hungarians were forced, without a right of self-determination, to live with Serbs, Croats, Slovenians and Romanians and in the new Czechoslovakia who, despite promising to guarantee the rights of national minorities under the protection of the League of Nations in 1918, never did during its first twenty years. |
The Treaty of Trianon: Hungary lost 3/4 territory and 2/3 of its population to Rumania, Czecho-Slovakia and Yugoslavia |
In 1918, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania became independent states. Dorpat University was strictly German, and most of the faculty of all large schools were ethnic Germans. Germans owned 42% of Estonia's arable land, 90% of large estates in Estonia and 90% of businesses in the capital of Riga, a port city designed and built by Baltic Germans. The wealthy Baltic Germans who had dominated the entire coastline for over 700 years gave way to petty, nationalistic new Allied sponsored dictatorships in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania who immediately set about eroding German influence, banning German-language schools, institutions, and newspapers. They also began confiscating German owned land and businesses. German Memelland was ceded to the Principal Allied and Associated Powers and the disposition of the territory was left to the discretion of the Allies which undertook occupation and administration. In 1923, Lithuania seized the territory and the League of Nations approved. |
Alsace-Lorraine, the territories, although actually annexed by France in 1681, which were ceded to Germany in accordance with the Preliminaries of Peace signed at Versailles on February 26, 1871, and the Treaty of Frankfurt of May 10, 1871, were restored to French sovereignty without a plebiscite as a precondition to armistice with effect from the date of the Armistice (November 11, 1918). (1,815,000 inhabitants (1905)) (Although Denmark had not participated in the War) Northern Schleswig including the German- dominated towns of Tondern (Tønder), Apenrade (Aabenraa), Sonderburg (Sønderborg), Hadersleben (Haderslev) and Lügum in Schleswig-Holstein, after the Schleswig Plebiscite, to Denmark (163,600 inhabitants (1920)) The Prussian provinces Posen and West Prussia, which Prussia had annexed in Partitions of Poland (1772-1795), were returned to the "reborn" Poland (4,224,000 inhabitants (1931), including 26,000 inhabitants from Upper Silesia) West Prussia was given to Poland to provide free access to the sea, along with a sizeable German minority, creating the Polish corridor The Hlučínsko Hulczyn area of Upper Silesia to Czechoslovakia (49,000 inhabitants), and the east part of Upper Silesia, to Poland (965,000 inhabitants), although during the Upper Silesia plebiscite 60 % voted in favour of remaining inside Germany The area of German cities Eupen and Malmedy to Belgium The northern part of East Prussia as Memelland under control of France, later transferred to Lithuania without plebiscite The area of Soldau in East Prussia (railway station on the Warsaw-Danzig route) to Poland From the eastern part of West Prussia and the southern part of East Prussia, Warmia and Masuria to Poland The province of Saarland to be under the control of the League of Nations for 15 years, after that a plebiscite between France and Germany, to decide to which country it would belong. The port of Danzig with the delta of Vistula river at the Baltic Sea was made the Freie Stadt Danzig (Free City of Danzig) under the League of Nations. (408,000 inhabitants (1929)) That Germany acknowledge and respect strictly the independence of Austria The colonies abroad |