Suchergebnisse

Upper Silesia, one of Central Europe's most important industrial borderlands, was at the center of heated conflict between Germany and Poland and experienced annexations and border re-drawings in 1922, 1939, and 1945. This transnational history examines these episodes of territorial re-nationalization and their cumulative impacts on the region and nations involved, as well as their use by the Nazi and postwar communist regimes to legitimate violent ethnic cleansing. In their interaction with—and mutual influence on—one another, political and cultural actors from both nations developed a transnational culture of territorial rivalry. Architecture, spaces of memory, films, museums, folklore, language policy, mass rallies, and archeological digs were some of the means they used to give the borderland a "German"/"Polish" face. Representative of the wider politics of twentieth-century Europe, the situation in Upper Silesia played a critical role in the making of history's most violent and uprooting eras, 1939–1950

This article examines a previously un-researched aspect of nationalist politics, borderland contestation, national indifference and the politicisation of youth and cultural diplomacy in interwar Central Europe: the German–Polish 'summer vacation exchange for children' (Ferienkinderaustausch). The Versailles territorial settlement, which left nationalists in both countries in discontent about territories and minority groups remaining in the hands of the neighbour, formed the basis for this venture in cultural diplomacy. Each party gave the other the right to rally 'its youth' living on the other side of the border to travel to its 'motherland' for summer camp. Focusing on the case study of the heatedly contested industrial borderland of Upper Silesia, this article examines the German–Polish children's exchange on two levels. On the local level it examines how youth were rallied and transported to their 'motherland' for the summer and what treatment and experience they received. On the international level it explores the paradox of German–Polish cooperation and the conflict that was an inherent aspect of this venture.

AbstractThis study in comparative global history sheds light on a largely ignored forum for the politics of transition from monarchical empire to nation-state in the Middle East and Central Europe—religious festivals at sacred shrines. It compares the role of key pilgrimage festivals at politically important sacred shrines: (1) the Islamic Nabi Musa (Prophet Moses) pilgrimage to the Haram esh-Sharif and Nabi Musa Tomb near the Dead Sea in Mandatory Palestine and (2) various Catholic pilgrimages to Jasna Góra in Częstochowa in interwar Poland. The author demonstrates how these events served as sacred forums for secular politics, where various political factions contested their partisan ideas of the nation, which included the elite nationalism of Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Hajj Amin al-Husseini and the Catholic-Endecja nationalism of Polish clerical leaders. Moreover, I examine the role of these pilgrimage festivals in some of the major conflicts afflicting their respective areas, such as Arab–Jewish violence and hostility in Palestine and wars for borders as well as anti-minority sentiment, especially anti-Semitism, in Poland.

This essay aims to shed light on the role of radio in state territorial conflicts during the interwar era, a topic that has hardly received serious attention from scholars. Its focus is on the use of radio in the German-Polish contest over the Upper Silesian borderland. State actors of both countries built radio stations at the border with the explicit aim of integrating the largely culturally-mixed and 'nationally indifferent' population of locals on both sides of the borderland into – and thereby to secure the whole region for – their nation. A 'radio war' thus erupted by 1927, as the two sides competed against one another in this effort, and it lasted to the very end of the interwar era. This essay focuses its analysis on the programmes of the Polish Radio Katowice as they were broadcast over and received in German Upper Silesia. It demonstrates that contrary to the views of Polish nationalists, the popularity of this radio station stemmed not so much from widespread Polish consciousness as the quality of the programmes and popularity of the performers.

On March 28, 1926, government officials and borderland activists staged a massive rally to protest the border with Poland in Oppeln (Opole), the capital of the German part of the Upper Silesian borderland. The Social Democratic interior minister of the Prussian state, Carl Severing, took the occasion to articulate the terms of a rivalry with the Polish neighboring nation-state to which the disputed drawing of the border here in 1922 had given way. In his speech he noted that he was "not speaking about an arms race" but rather "a struggle" for "Germandom and Kultur" that "should be fought out with the weapons of the spirit"—rather than with actual arms. As part of the struggle, the whole of this border society was to demonstrate that they were "better than the eastern neighbor" in their everyday work. This promotion of good stewardship was meant not only to ensure that Germany would not lose another "single foot-long of soil," but also foremost "to uphold the faith of the Upper Silesian masses in Polish Silesia's speedy return to Germany." This last phrase was coined by Aleksander Szczepański, the Polish Consul in Beuthen (Bytom) on the German side of the border. Like other government officials, and also the media, he followed this rally and was startled by how—in his words—"tirelessly" "all of Germany" was calling for the border's revision. In turn, Szczepański warned the Polish government that "it is easy to imagine a sad outcome"—such as the revision of the border in Germany's favor—if Poland did not step up its efforts to counter such propaganda.