Abstract
The last decades of the nineteenth century witnessed intense social, economic, and political conflicts between Poles and Germans in Prussia's eastern provinces (Poznania, West Prussia, East Prussia, and Upper Silesia).1 The three million Poles constituted roughly ten per cent of Prussia's population and demanded recognition of their special status within Prussia as stipulated in the Congress of Vienna treaties of 1815. The Prussian government, however, regarded Polish aspirations with great suspicion, in particular after the uprising in Poznania in 1848, and decided upon a programme of rigid Germanization. Under Bismarck's forceful leadership (1862-90) the Prussian government enacted a series of measures designed to strengthen the German element at the expense of the Polish aristocracy and Catholic clergy, who were regarded as being the chief exponents of Polish nationalism. The Kulturkampf affected Polish Catholics more severely than German Catholics and anti-Polish laws remained in force long after a reconciliation with Rome had been effected. In 1885 Bismarck ordered the expulsion of 32,000 non-Prussian Poles and Jews from the Reich despite the protests of Austria-Hungary and Russia.2 In April 1886 the Prussian Landtag created the
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