Prussian Settlement Commission
The Royal Prussian Settlement Commission for West Prussia and Posen was founded in 1886 as a core component of Germanization of the eastern provinces of the Kingdom of Prussia. The aim was to resettle German immigrants in the provinces of Posen and West Prussia. The Settlement Commission was officially until the 1920s, but their practical work ended already in 1918.
Goals and intentions
The grant for the settlement policy was part of a general change in the Prussian Poles policy. Instead of cultural assimilation we sat on population policy and demographic measures since the 1880s. A specific cause was the increased migration of large parts of the German population from the eastern provinces of Prussia agrarian to the industrial centers in the west of the country. A majority of Conservatives and National Liberals decided in the Prussian House of Representatives with the "Law concerning the carriage German settlements in the provinces of West Prussia and Posen ," the foundation of the Settlement Commission. Their purpose was to buy up debt goods in Polish possession. This measure was directed against the Polish nobility, the Prussian Prime Minister ( and chancellor ) Otto von Bismarck regarded as the main carrier of the Polish resistance will.
The goods should be divided and given to German settlers. The division implemented by the National Liberals against Bismarck and many conservatives in general saw a negative impact on the noble estate.
Your seat, the Commission had in the city of Poznan. Equipped she was beginning with a capital of 100 million marks. This was later increased significantly to approximately tenfold. The leaders hoped to settle as 40,000 new farmers. These should, as it was contemporary, form a "living wall against the Slavic tide ". The Commission was directly subordinated to the Prussian State Ministry.
Follow
In fact, significantly less Neusiedler jobs were created than expected on the basis of the law. The majority was in the province of Posen.
The foundation of the Settlement Commission leads instead to unwanted strengthening of the Polish national movement. A Polish state no longer existed since the divisions at the end of the 18th century, except for the brief interlude of the Duchy of Warsaw in the Napoleonic era. The Poles founded to secure the land tenure a national bank ( Bank Ziemski ) and a cooperative bank ( Bank spolek Zarobkowych ). These and other facilities managed to purchase more goods and distribute the proceeds to Polish settlers as the German Commission.
The aim of weakening by the Settlement Commission, the Polish national movement, was also therefore be wrong, because their focus was no longer among the nobility, but the middle class and still with the Catholic Church.
Ultimately, the Commission bought more German than Polish Possession. Between 1886 and 1906 220 million Mark went to German owners and only thirty millions of Polish landowners. Overall, the Commission issued until the beginning of World War I from about 1 billion mark. Hans- Ulrich Wehler judges that the Commission was ultimately a restoration company for many heavily indebted Junker. By this threatened to sell their land to the Polish cooperatives, they led the Settlement Commission to purchase at prices significantly above value. Since the Commission failed in the Germanization, II expropriation laws were enacted in the next time of William.
After the First World War the majority of the provinces of Posen and West Prussia according to the Treaty of Versailles to the new Polish state was ceded. Thus, the Settlement Commission lost its practical significance.
Commissioners
Chairman
Other members of the Commission
- Wilhelm von Waldow
- Hans von meibomian
- Alfred Hugenberg
- Friedrich von Born- Fallois