Cesarstwo Niemieckie a odbudowa państwa polskiego
The German Empire and the Reconstruction of Poland’s Statehood

Summary/Abstract: Following the outbreak of World War I, a reconstruction of Poland’s statehood emerged as a legitimate issue on the German Empire’s political agenda. German decision-makers deemed the Polish cause an important instrument of the anti- Russian diversion, thus falling back onto the original strategic plans contemplated by the German Army’s General Staff as early as 1880s. The rebuilt Polish statehood was also deemed a component of the so-called Mitteleuropa concept, i.e. a union of European states, officially invested with equal rights, but actually subject to German domination. In Berlin, it was believed that by controlling Mitteleuropa Germany would gain a dominant position on a global scale, and would consequently join the elite club of autarkic world powers, as its bona fide fourth member, alongside the United States, British Empire, and Russia. Postulated establishment of a Central European Economic Union (Mitteleuropa concept), one of whose components was to be a rebuilt Polish statehood, was incorporated into the key agenda of German war aims, the so-called Septemberprogramm of 1914, endorsed by the Chancellor of the German Reich, and Prime Minister of Prussia, Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg. Germany briefly implemented the Mitteleuropa concept between March (Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty with Bolshevik Russia) and November of 1918 (ultimate war defeat of the German Reich).

• Details
• Contents