Der Ostdeutsche Heimatdienst und die Volksabstimmungszeit in Ostpreußen. Der Anfang vom Ende der friedlichen Koexistenz? | Ostdeutscher Heimatdienst and the Plebiscite in East Prussia. The Beginning of the End of Peaceful Coexistence?

Abstract

A fierce national East Prussia-related conflict between Germans and Poles after the First WorldWar basically contrasted with the prewar situation in the province. After the decision taken atthe Paris Peace Conference in 1919 to hold a plebiscite in two governmental districts of thisGerman province on their inhabitants’ political affiliations, the vast population there had totake a test on the basic choice of their political, and simultaneously cultural, orientation. Today,researchers agree that the plebiscite of 1920 caused irreversible damage to the multiethnicarea. There is no doubt that the so-called Ostdeutscher Heimatdienst organisation stronglycontributed to this. The article raises questions as to what circumstances promoted the establishmentof the organisation, who its principal actors were, and how they affected the EastPrussian population. Key words: East Prussia, the Versailles system, German-Polish relations, propaganda, Ostdeutscher Heimatdienst . DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15181/ahuk.v30i0.1181