372 GRANICE
German areas. The German element was heavily preponderant in all the cities,
from Stettin to Breslau; it dominated almost all the towns, and many of the
country districts. Yet throughout these areas the proximity of an independent
Polish Republic created tensions which reverberated for thirty years. It inspired
one armed Rising in Posnania, and three'in Upper Silesia. At the end of the
Second World War Poland's western frontier was the last to be settled, and in
the most arbitrary and controversial manner.
The Poznan Rising was followed by a minor civil war. It was sparked off on 26
December 1918 by the arrival of Ignacy Paderewski, on his way to Warsaw, thus
breaking an uneasy division of power in the city between the local German
Soldatenrat and the Polish Commissariat of the 'Supreme People's Council'
(NRL). Demonstrations and counter-demonstrations soon led to pitched battles in
the streets, and to the rapid polarization of the two communities. Within a week,
the NRL took control of the city and the surrounding countryside, but failed in its
attempts to reach an understanding with the government in Berlin. Its activities
caused a rapid closing of the German ranks and the advance of Grentzschutz units.
On 8 January 1919, it declared its independence. The fighting, which at Chodziez
(Kolmar) on 8 January and at Szubin (Schubin) on the 11 th caused several hun-
dred fatalities, continued for four weeks until the NRL was recognized by the
Interallied Control Commission in Germany as an 'Allied force'. The German
Reicbswehr operating from Colberg did not abandon its offensive designs until the
Treaty of Versailles, which awarded the whole of the former Duchy of Posen to
Poland, was signed. The NRL finally transferred its duties to the 'Ministry of the
Former German Partition' in Warsaw in September 1919.^10
The Silesian Risings were launched in protest against the terms of the Treaty
requiring a plebiscite in the three most southerly regencies. The first Rising, last-
ing for eight days, from 16 to 24 August 1919, was centred on Rybnik and was
brutally suppressed by the Reicbswehr. It was followed by the arrival of an
Interallied garrison drawn from British, French and Italian regiments. The
Second Rising, from 19 to 25 August 1920, coincided with the zenith of the
Soviet War. German demonstrators, prematurely celebrating the capture of
Warsaw by Tukhachevsky, were forced on to the defensive by a wave of strikes
and reprisals which soon engulfed the entire mining area. The Third Rising, and
by far the most serious, was launched by Polish elements who refused to accept
the result of the plebiscite. In the voting, which had taken place on 20 March
1921, 702,000 (59.4 per cent) voters opted for Germany and 479,000 (40.5 per
cent) for Poland. Taken as a whole, the result was a resounding success for the
elaborate German campaign. But in detail, especially in the industrial areas, it
left several German enclaves stranded in the midst of a Polish sea. Wojciech
Korfanty (1873-1939), long-serving deputy in the Prussian Reichstag and now
Plebiscite Commissioner of the Polish Republic, was determined to resist. His
speeches provided the inspiration for some 40,000 workers and partisans, many
of them belonging to Pilsudski's POW, who took to arms. From 3 May to 5 July,
they confronted the German forces on an equal footing, and succeeded in