Theterritorial evolution of Germany in this article includes all changes in the modern territory ofGermany from its unification making it a country on 1 January 1871 to the present, although the history of both "Germany" as a territorial polity concept and the history of theethnic Germans are much longer and much more complex. Modern Germany was formed when theKingdom of Prussiaunified most of the German states, with the exception of multi-ethnicAustria (which was ruled by theGerman-speaking royal family ofHabsburg and had significant German-speaking land), into theGerman Empire.[1] As a result of its loss in theFirst World War, the 1919Treaty of Versailles stipulated that Germany cede about 13% of its territory to its neighbours; itscolonies were lost at the same time.[2] TheWeimar Republic was formed two days before the end of fighting in WWI. This republic included territories to the east oftoday's German borders.
The period ofNazi rule from the early 1930s through the end of theSecond World War brought significant territorial losses for the country.Nazi Germany initially expanded the country's territory dramatically andconquered most of Europe, though not all areas were added to Germanyofficially. However, the Nazi plan for the near future was the establishment of aGreater Germanic Reich[3][4] including most of Europe. The Nazi regime eventually collapsed, and the fourAllies occupied Germany.
Naziannexations from the time of its annexation of Austria on 13 March 1938 were annulled while theformer eastern territories of Germany before Nazi annexation of Austria were ceded toPoland and theSoviet Union and theOder and Neisse Rivers became Germany's new eastern boundary. This territory became Poland's so-called "Recovered Territories", while approximately one-third ofEast Prussia became theRussian Federation'sKaliningrad Oblast. In the west, theSaar area (Saarland) formed one French-controlled protectorate with its own high autonomy.
The western part of Germany was unified as theTrizone, becoming theFederal Republic of Germany on 23 May 1949 ("West Germany"). Western-occupiedWest Berlin declared its accession to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949 but was denied by the occupying powers. The Soviet zone of Germany in the east, including theSoviet sector of Berlin, became thecommunistGerman Democratic Republic ("East Germany") on 7 October of the same year.[1] on 1 January 1957, the Saar Protectorate (which was separated from Germany on 17 December 1947) became a part the Federal Republic of Germany,[5] as provided by itsGrundgesetz (constitution) article no. 23 ("Little reunification"). East Germany, including East Berlin, became parts the Federal Republic of Germany on 3 October 1990 – an event referred to asGerman reunification.[1]
Part of the motivation behind the territorial changes is based on historical events in the Eastern and Central Europe. Migrations to the East that took place over more than a millennium led to pockets of Germans living throughout Central and Eastern Europe as far east as Russia. The existence of these enclaves was sometimes used by German nationalists, such as the Nazis, to justify territorial claims.
The territorial changes of Germany after World War II can be interpreted in the context of the evolution of global nationalism and European nationalism.
The latter half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century saw the rise ofnationalism in Europe. Previously, a country consisted largely of whatever peoples lived on the land that was under the dominion of a particular ruler. As principalities and kingdoms grew through conquest and marriage, a ruler could wind up with many different ethnicities under his dominion.
The concept of nationalism was based on the idea of a "people" who shared a common bond through race, religion, language and culture. Furthermore, nationalism asserted that each "people" had a right to its own state. Thus, much of European history in the latter half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century can be understood as efforts to realign national boundaries with this concept of "one people, one state". Many interior conflicts were a result of more or less pressurising citizens of alternative ethnicities and/or other native languages to assimilate to the ethnicity dominant in the state. Switzerland was the exception, lacking a common native language.
Much conflict would arise when one nation asserted territorial rights to land outside its borders on the basis of an ethnic bond with the people living on the land. Another source of conflict arose when a group of people who constituted a minority in one nation would seek to secede from the nation either to form an independent nation or join another nation with whom they felt stronger ties. Yet another source of conflict was the desire of some nations to expel people from territory within its borders because people did not share a common bond with the majority of people of that nation.
-en.png)
In 1701, theKingdom of Prussia was established, which then expanded at the expense of the weakening neighboringpowers. During theGreat Northern War, in 1720, Prussia took a part ofSwedish Pomerania with the city ofSzczecin fromSweden.[6] During theSilesian Wars, Prussia annexed the bulk ofSilesia from theHabsburg monarchy in 1742. During thePartitions of Poland between 1772 and 1795, Prussia seized 141,400 square kilometres (54,600 sq mi) of thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth's western territory, including the regions ofGreater Poland,Gdańsk Pomerania,Kuyavia,Warmia, northern and westernMazovia, and theDuchy of Siewierz, including the Polish capital ofWarsaw. Subsequently, renaming them as South Prussia, West Prussia, New East Prussia and New Silesia. After the annexation of the Polish territories,Frederick the Great immediately sent 57,475 German families to the newly conquered lands in order to solidify his new acquisitions,[7] and abolished the use of the Polish language.[8] During theNapoleonic Wars, Prussia lost control of parts of the annexed Polish territories, which became the short-lived PolishDuchy of Warsaw in 1807.
Following the Napoleonic Wars, Prussia annexed several territories per theCongress of Vienna, that isRhineland andSaarlouis from France, the western part of the just dissolved Duchy of Warsaw with theChełmno Land and most of Greater Poland and Kuyavia,Lower Lusatia fromSaxony, and the remainder of Swedish Pomerania withStralsund from Sweden.
The Prussian-ledNorth German Confederation, founded in 1866, was combined with the southern states ofBaden,Württemberg,Bavaria andHesse and the formerly French newly mergedAlsace–Lorraine to form the states and imperial territory ofGerman Empire in 1871. In some areas of Prussia's easternprovinces, such as theProvince of Posen, the majority of the population was Polish. Many Lorrainians were by native language French. Many Alsatians and Lorrainians of German language clung to France (seeDéputé protestataire [fr]), despite their native languages.
Britain cededHeligoland to Germany in 1890 in accordance with the terms of theHeligoland–Zanzibar Treaty. The Heligolanders, then still prevailingly fluent in theirHeligolandic dialect ofNorth Frisian, adopted German citizenship, like many otherFrisians of Germany along the North Sea coast.
The only territory that Germany annexed during theFirst World War was the German-Belgian-DutchcondominiumNeutral Moresnet. Since 1914, Germany occupied the territory, and on 27 June 1915, it was annexed as part of Prussia. The annexation never received international recognition (is not known whether the other Central Powers recognized the annexation).
As part of theTreaty of Brest-Litovsk, Russia's newBolshevik (communist) government renounced all claims to Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland,Belarus, andUkraine.
Most of these territories were in effect ceded to the German Empire, intended to become economically dependent on and politically closely tied to that empire under different Germankings anddukes.
Regarding the ceded territories, the treaty stated that "Germany and Austria-Hungary intend to determine the future fate of these territories in agreement with their population" with few other effects than the appointment of German rulers to the new thrones of Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, andPoland.
The provisions of theTreaty of Versailles at the end of World War I obliged Germany to cede some territory to other countries. Besides the loss of theGerman colonial empire, the territories Germany lost were:
In Article 80 of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany acknowledged and promised to respect the independence ofAustria.
The Sudeten Germans had attempted to prevent the German language border areas of formerAustria-Hungary from becoming part of Czechoslovakia in 1918. Once part ofBohemia, they had proclaimed the German-Austrian province of Sudetenland in October 1918, voting instead to join the newly declared Republic ofGerman Austria in November 1918. However, this had been forbidden by the victorious allied powers of the First World War (theTreaty of Saint-Germain) and by the Czechoslovak government, partly with force of arms in 1919. Many Sudeten Germans rejected an affiliation to Czechoslovakia, since they had been refused the right toself-determination promised by US presidentWoodrow Wilson in hisFourteen Points of January 1918.
TheSilesian Uprisings (Polish:Powstania śląskie) were a series of three armeduprisings (1919–1921) ofPoles in theUpper Silesia region againstWeimar Republic in order to separate the region (where in some parts Poles constituted a majority) from Germany and join it with theSecond Polish Republic.
By World War I, there were isolated groups of Germans or so-calledSchwaben as far southeast as theBosphorus (Turkey),Georgia, andAzerbaijan. After the war, Germany's and Austria-Hungary's loss of territory and the rise of communism in the Soviet Union meant that more Germans than ever constituted sizable minorities in various countries.[clarification needed]
German nationalists used the existence of large German minorities in other countries as a basis for territorial claims. Many of thepropaganda themes of the Nazi regime against Czechoslovakia and Poland claimed that the ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche) in those territories were persecuted.
The Nazis negotiated a number of population transfers with Joseph Stalin and others with Benito Mussolini so that both Germany and the other country would increase their ethnic homogeneity. However, these population transfers were not sufficient to appease the demands of the Nazis. TheHeim ins Reich rhetoric of the Nazis over the continued disjoint status of enclaves such as Danzig and East Prussia was an agitating factor in the politics leading up to World War II, and is considered by many to be among the major causes of Nazi aggressiveness and thus the war.Adolf Hitler used these issues as a pretext for waging wars of aggression against Czechoslovakia and Poland.
On 7 March 1936, Hitler sent a small expeditionary force into the demilitarized Rhineland. This was a clear violation of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles which officially ended World War I. France and Britain were within their rights, via the Treaty, to oust the German forces. British public opinion blocked any use of military force, thus preventing French action, as they were internally divided and would not act without British support.
In 1933, a considerable number of anti-NaziGermans fled to the Saar, as it was the only part of Germany left outside theThird Reich's control. As a result, anti-Nazi groups campaigned heavily for the Saarland to remain under control ofLeague of Nations as long as Adolf Hitler ruled Germany. However, long-held sentiments against France remained entrenched, with very few sympathizing openly with France. When the 15-year-term was over, aplebiscite was held in the territory on 13 January 1935: 90.3% of those voting wished to joinGermany.
On 17 January 1935, the territory's re-union with Germany was approved by theLeague Council. On 1 March, Nazi Germany took over the region and appointedJosef Bürckel asReichskommissar für die Rückgliederung des Saarlandes, "Realm Commissioner for the re-union ofSaarland".
As the newGau was extended to theRhine, including the historicPalatinate, the region's name was changed again on 8 April 1940 toGau Saarpfalz (Saar-Palatinate). After theBattle of France, the Frenchdépartement ofMoselle was incorporated in theReichsgau.
TheAllies were, on paper, committed to upholding the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, which specifically prohibited the union of Germany and post-war Austria (a German-speaking country). This notwithstanding, the Anschluss was among the first major steps in the Austrian-born Adolf Hitler's long-desired creation of an empire including German-speaking lands and territories Germany had lost after World War I.
The events of 12 March 1938, marked the culmination of historical cross-national pressures to unify the German populations of Austria and Germany under one nation. However, the 1938 Anschluss, regardless of its popularity, was enacted by Germany. Earlier, Hitler's Germany had provided support for theAustrian National Socialist Party (Austrian Nazi Party) in its bid to seize power from Austria'sAustrofascist leadership. Fully devoted to remaining independent but amidst growing pressures, the chancellor of Austria,Kurt Schuschnigg, tried to hold aplebiscite.
Although Schuschnigg expected Austria to vote in favour of maintaining autonomy, a well-plannedcoup d'état by the Austrian Nazi Party of Austria's state institutions inVienna took place on 11 March, prior to the vote. With power quickly transferred over to Germany, theWehrmacht troops entered Austria to enforce the Anschluss. The Nazis held aplebiscite within the following month, where they received 99.73% of the vote. No fighting ever took place and the strongest voices against the annexation, particularlyFascist Italy,France and the United Kingdom (parties to theStresa Front), were powerless or, in the case of Italy, appeased.
On 29 September 1938, Adolf Hitler,Neville Chamberlain,Benito Mussolini andÉdouard Daladier signed theMunich Agreement. The Czechoslovak government capitulated on 30 September and reluctantly agreed to abide by the agreement. The settlement gave Germany theSudetenland starting 10 October, and de facto control over therest of Czechoslovakia as long as Hitler promised to go no further.
Hitler and Chamberlain signed an additional resolution determining to resolve all future disputes between Germany and the United Kingdom through peaceful means. This is often confused with the Four-Power Munich Agreement itself, not least because most photographs of Chamberlain's return show him waving the paper containing the resolution, not the Munich Agreement itself.
Withoutfortification which was built in Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia was now defenseless. On 5 October,Edvard Beneš resigned asPresident of Czechoslovakia, realising that the fall of Czechoslovakia wasfait accompli. Following the outbreak ofWorld War II, he would form aCzechoslovak government-in-exile inLondon.
On 13 March 1939, Nazi armies enteredPrague andproceeded to occupy the remainder ofBohemia andMoravia, which was transformed into aprotectorate of the Reich. The eastern half of the country,Slovakia, became a separate pro-Nazi state, theSlovak Republic.
Prime Minister Chamberlain felt betrayed by the Nazi seizure of Czechoslovakia, realising his policy ofappeasement towards Hitler had failed, and immediately began to mobilize the British Empire's armed forces on a war footing. France did the same. Though no immediate action followed, Hitler'smove on Poland in September started World War II in Europe.
By late 1938, Lithuania had lost control over the situation in theKlaipėda Region. In the early hours of 23 March 1939, after a political ultimatum had made a Lithuanian delegation travel toBerlin, the Lithuanian Minister of Foreign AffairsJuozas Urbšys and his German counterpartJoachim von Ribbentrop signed theTreaty of the Cession of the Memel Territory to Germany in exchange for a Lithuanian Free Zone in the port of Memel, using the facilities erected in previous years.
Afterinvading Poland in 1939, Germany annexed the lands it was forced to give to a reformedPoland in 1919–1922 by the Treaty of Versailles, including the so-called "Polish Corridor", the formerProvince of Posen, andEast Upper Silesia. TheVolkstag of theFree City of Danzig voted to become a part of Germany again, althoughPoles andJews were deprived of their voting rights and all non-Nazi political parties were banned. Parts of Poland that had not been part ofWilhelmine Germany were also incorporated into theReich.
Two decrees by Adolf Hitler (8 October and 12 October 1939) provided for the division of the annexed areas of Poland into the following administrative units:
These territories had an area of 94,000 km2 (36,000 sq mi) and a population of 10,000,000 people. The remainder of the Polish territory was annexed by theSoviet Union (c. 52%; seeMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact) or made into the German-controlledGeneral Government occupation zone.
After theGerman attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941, theBiałystok Voivodeship, which included theBiałystok,Bielsk Podlaski,Grajewo,Łomża,Sokółka,Volkovysk, andGrodno Counties, was "attached to" (not incorporated into)East Prussia, whileEast Galicia was added to theGeneral Government.
After the invasion of France in 1940, Germany annexed thedépartements ofBas-Rhin,Haut-Rhin, andMoselle (Alsace-Lorraine). The German government never negotiated or declared a formal annexation, however, in order to preserve the possibility of an agreement with the West.[citation needed]
Luxembourg was invaded and occupied by German Forces on 10 May 1940. It was formally annexed to Germany in August 1942.
From:History of Slovenia "AfterYugoslavia fell, Germany, Italy, and Hungary each annexed parts of Slovenia, the largest part beingLower Styria which was annexed to the "Ostmark" (Nazi German Austria)."
South Tyrol wasde facto annexed by Nazi Germany; it was part of theItalian Social Republic, a Germanpuppet state at the time.
The fact there were the areas that had been incorporated intoNazi Germany since theAnschluss were repudiated in the Berlin Declaration of 5 June 1945 by the four victorious Allies who also officially abolished Nazi Germany and started to represent post-war Germany with the Declaration, new Nazi areas since the Anschluss were already considered the "annexations" by the Allies before in the war and were therefore non-issues in the post-war Germany.
With the Allied Berlin Declaration of 6 June 1945 and Potsdam Agreement of 2 August 1945, German annexations which began with the German annexation of Austria were annulled and Germany also lost the traditionally ethnic German eastern region[9] prior to the German annexation of Austria. Saarland separated from Allied occupied Germany to become a country under French protection on 17 December 1947, in 1949 the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and later the German Democratic Republic (GDR) were born, leading to Germany being split into two countries; present-day German territories were formed when the Saarland became part of the FRG on 1 January 1957 and the territories of the GDR became part of the FRG on 3 October 1990 (German borders also had other changes but tiny).
As it became evident that the Allies were going to defeat Nazi Germany decisively, the question arose as to how to redraw the borders of Central and Eastern European countries after the war. In the context of those decisions, the problem arose of what to do about ethnic minorities within the redrawn borders. The territorial changes at the end of World War II were part of negotiated agreements between the victorious Allies to redraw national borders and arrange for deportation of all Germans that were east of the Oder–Neisse line. The Allies occupied Germany, but the Western allies and Soviet Union formed separate governments covering specific parts of Germany (West Germany andEast Germany). The two Germanies reunified in 1990.
The final decision to move Poland's boundary westward was made by theUS, Britain and the Soviets at theYalta Conference, shortly before the end of the war. The precise location of the border was left open; the western Allies also accepted in general the principle of the Oder River as the future western border of Poland and of population transfer as the way to prevent future border disputes. The open question was whether the border should follow the eastern or western Neisse rivers, and whetherStettin, the traditional seaport of Berlin, should remain German or be included in Poland.
Originally, Germany was to retain Stettin while the Poles were to annexEast Prussia withKönigsberg.[10] Eventually, however, Stalin decided that he wanted Königsberg as a year-roundwarm water port for the Soviet Navy and argued that the Poles should receive Stettin instead. The wartimePolish government-in-exile had little to say in these decisions.[10]
Key points of the meeting that are relevant to the territorial changes of Germany are as follows:
At thePotsdam Conference the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union placed the German territories within the 1937 Nazi Germany borders east of theOder–Neisse line (beforeAustria became part of Nazi Germany ie an "annexation" on 13 March 1938) like in theBerlin Declaration of 5 June 1945 officially abolishing Nazi Germany before, and with the exception of parts of East Prussia, as formally under Polish administrative control. These were referred to by the Polish communist government as the "Western Territories" or "Regained Territories", as all these territories were under Polish rule in the past. It was anticipated that a finalpeace treaty would follow shortly and either confirm this border or determine whatever alterations might be agreed upon. Northern East Prussia and Memelland were placed under Soviet administrative control. The 1919 Versailles Treaty created Free City of Danzig was also placed under Polish administration. TheGerman population east of the Oder–Neisse line disappeared from their traditional territories when they fled due to war then they were forcibly expelled.
At the end of the conference, the Three Heads of Government agreed on the following actions:
The problem with the status of these territories was that theconcluding document of thePotsdam Conference in 1945 was not a legally bindingtreaty, but amemorandum between the USSR, the US and the UK. It regulated the issue of the eastern German border, which was to be the Oder–Neisse line, but the final article of the memorandum said that the final decisions concerning Germany were to be subject to a separate peace treaty.
Based upon this interpretation of the Potsdam Agreement, theCDU controlled German government maintained that theOder–Neisse line was completely unacceptable and subject to negotiation. Also the Social Democrats of theSPD initially refused to accept the Oder–Neisse line. Thus, theofficial German government position on the status of areas vacated by settled German communities east of the Oder–Neisse rivers was that the areas were "temporarily under Polish (or [Soviet]) administration."
Between 1970 and 1990, the West German political establishment gradually recognised the "facts on the ground" and accepted clauses in theTreaty on the Final Settlement, whereby Germany renounced all claims to territory east of the Oder–Neisse line.In theTreaty of Warsaw (1970; ratified in 1972)West Germany recognized the Oder–Neisse line as Poland's western border and renounced any present and future territorial claims; this was reaffirmed by both German states in the 1990Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany as a pre-condition for re-union. The treaty was ratified in 1991 by the united Germany. United Germany and Poland then finally settled the issue of the Oder–Neisse border by theGerman–Polish Border Treaty in November 1990. This ended the legal limbo which meant that for 45 years, people on both sides of the border could not be sure whether the status quo reached in 1945 might be changed at some future date.
The "Working Party on Provisional Adjustments to the Western Frontiers of Germany" approved in 1949 the provisional transfer of 20 km2 (7.7 sq mi) containing 500 inhabitants to Belgium:[12]
As part of the 1956 treaty, in exchange for the territory ceded by Germany, Belgium ceded to Germany its territory north of the Fringshaus roads and bounded by theVennbahn. The detached territory, in 1956 containing 704 inhabitants including refugees, was, prior to its 1956 dissolution and partition between West Germany and Belgium, ruled as an independent territory by Belgian Army Major GeneralPaul Bolle, who enjoyed dictatorial powers.[13]
Despite the more extensive annexation proposals of theBakker-Schut Plan, only a few border modifications were implemented. On 23 April 1949, Dutch troops occupied an area of 69 km2 (27 sq mi), the largest parts of which wereElten (nearEmmerich am Rhein) andSelfkant. Many other small border changes were executed, mostly in the vicinity ofArnhem andDinxperlo. At that time, these areas were inhabited by a total of almost 10,000 people.
Starting in March 1957, West Germany negotiated with the Netherlands for the return of these areas. The negotiations led to an agreement (German:Vertrag vom 8. April 1960 zwischen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und dem Königreich der Niederlande zur Regelung von Grenzfragen und anderen zwischen beiden Ländern bestehenden Problemen; short: Ausgleichsvertrag, i.e. treaty of settlement[14]) made in The Hague on 8 April 1960, in which Germany agreed to payDEM 280 million for the return of Elten, Selfkant, and Suderwick, asWiedergutmachung.
The territory was returned to Germany on 1 August 1963, except for one small hill (about 3 km2, 1.2 sq mi) nearWyler village, calledDuivelsberg/Wylerberg which was annexed by the Netherlands.
Starting on 16 February 1946 Francede facto disentangled the Saar area and the separateSaar Protectorate of France was established when its constitution came into force on 17 December 1947, further attaching parts of the PrussianRhine Province and the BavarianPalatinate (Saarpfalz). Like theformer eastern territories of Germany the Saar area was out of the jurisdiction of theAllied Control Council for Germany and thus not part ofAllied-occupied Germany. However, unlike the eastern territories, the domestic Saar population was not expelled by the controlling French. With the effect of 1 January 1957, the Saar Protectorate declared its accession to the Federal Republic of Germany, as provided by itsGrundgesetz (constitution) art. 23 (Little Reunification), thus becoming the new federal state ofSaarland.Kehl was directly annexed to France in 1945 and returned to Germany in 1953.
In 1949, there was modest exchange of territory between the Polish People's Republic and the German Democratic Republic (GDR). What is now the1B 104/B 113 road junction at Linken, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania to the immediate west of the Polish town of Lubieszyn was transferred from Poland to the GDR in return for a narrow strip of land lying directly on the west side of the road that connected the settlements of Linki andBuk. This move necessitated the creation of a new road linking Lubieszyn to Linki and Buk that mirrored the new shape of the border.[15] In 1951, a small area of land on Usedom Island (Polish: Uznam) was ceded from the German Democratic Republic (Eastern Germany) to Poland. The water pumping station forŚwinoujście lies on that land and was therefore handed over to Poland. In return, a similarly-sized area north of Mescherin, including the village of Staffelde (Polish: Staw), was transferred from Poland to the German Democratic Republic.[16] In 1968, East Germany and Poland signed a treaty for the Baltic continental shelf delimitation. On 22 May 1989, East Germany and Poland completed the delimitation of their territorial waters in the Gulf of Szczecin.[citation needed]
Media related toTerritorial evolution of Germany at Wikimedia Commons| By country | |
|---|---|
| By former country | |
| By subdivision | |
| By region |
|
| By country, people, region or period | |
| Byinternational organisation | |
