Działalność Kazimierza Papée na terenie Wolnego Miasta Gdańska i jego kontakty z prezydentem Hermannem Rauschningiem w świetle nieznanych dokumentów z lat 1933-1934
The activity of Kazimierz Papée in the Free City of Danzig and his contacts with President Hermann Rauschning in the light of unknown documents from the years 1933-1934

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the article was to examine the diplomatic activity of the Polish diplomat Kazimierz Papée (1889-1979) in the Free City of Danzig in the years 1933-1934. The author focused on Papée’s relations with Hermann Rauschning, the President of the Free City of Danzig Senate, taking into account the accompanying circumstances. The historical sources utilised and analysed in this study are, in large part, unknown reports prepared by Papée, which he sent to Warsaw.Papée was the General Commissioner of the Republic of Poland in the Free City of Danzig from 1932 to 1936. He sought to preserve the Polish rights in Danzig. His term in office coincided also with the presidency of Rauschning, who was the first politician associated with the Nazi Party at the post of President of the Danzig Senate. Both Papée and Rauschning fulfilled their duties in circumstances of subordination of the Polish-Danzig relations to relations between Warsaw and Berlin. Each of them had his own vision of how relations between Poland and the Free City should be shaped. Rauschning was remembered as a politician who sought to reach a settlement with Poland. That being so, the question arises how Papée managed to cope, given the then current conditions, and what particular courses of action were taken by him in contacts with the President of the Danzig Senate. Another issue related to the research is an assessment of the consequences of these contacts. Such an appraisal had to be made in the light of the paramount principle of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs which was the maintenance of good Polish-German relations.

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