Battle of Annaberg - Germany and Poland Fight Over Silesia I THE GREAT WAR 1921

this episode of the great war is sponsored by curiosity stream so go to curiositystream.com the great war and you can sign up there'll be more information at the end of this video and in the video description below it's may 1921 and in the border region of upper silasia trouble is brewing once again most salesians have voted to remain within germany rather than join poland but now it's civil war [Applause] [Applause] [Music] hi i'm jesse alexander and welcome to the great war the versailles peace treaty that had brought an end to the first world war had also created a contentious new border between poland and germany one of the disputed regions was upper silesia which was part of germany but was majority polish speaking a low-level proxy war had flared up in 1919 and again in 1920 but the peak of the violence was in may 1921. in this episode we'll take a look at the events surrounding the third upper silesian uprising and it all began exactly 100 years ago back in 1918 the second to last point of u.s president woodrow wilson's 14 points for peace stated that quote indisputably polish territories should go to poland the trouble for the post-war paris peace conference was that areas like upper silasia were linguistically and ethnically mixed many locals considered themselves upper silesians before poles or germans but the national question began to dominate the political fight over the region economics though was the most important thing for german and polish state interests since both wanted to control the region's large coal and iron deposits the treaty of versailles called for a plebiscite which would determine whether upper silesia would stay a part of germany or join with poland the allies sent a plebiscite commission and a 15 000 strong french and italian peacekeeping force but the situation was tense according to french general and head of the commission on their job was not easy the commission has a hostile population a hostile police force a hostile magistracy a hostile german government and a not altogether friendly polish government in the months leading up to the vote both sides pushed their option hard but the germans had the support of the state the bureaucracy the school system and the police were all under ethnic german control german-speaking citizens also formed the defense league which agitated for the german cause the pro-polish campaign was led by charismatic politician voicier corfanti but was partly suppressed by the german authorities the violent clashes in 1919 and 1920 had resulted in radicalization on both sides and a dispute about who would be eligible to vote strained the situation even further but when the plebiscite took place in march 1921 there was relatively little violence and 98 participation the result was 60 in favor of germany even though about 60 percent of upper slasians spoke polish as their mother tongue historians have argued about why locals voted as they did and some recent studies have argued that upper salesians were primarily motivated by the local situation rather than blind patriotism for most germany seemed to offer a more prosperous future than poland now the results of the vote did not automatically resolve the border problem the allied commission would have to take the results into account but the allies couldn't agree on a solution the french favored polish claims since they wanted to make sure that the new polish republic would be a strong ally in any future conflict with germany the british worried that if poland got too much territory german bitterness would prevent a lasting peace franco-british mistrust got even worse in february and march 1921 over the question of how much germany would have to pay in war reparations and the french occupation of three more german cities in the rhineland the germans argued that they would need the revenue from the salayan mines in order to pay the reparations the french were unmoved but british prime minister lloyd george was sympathetic the question of reparations is bound up with upper silesia if the poles won't give the germans the product of the mines at reasonable terms the germans say they cannot pay the indemnity there the allies may be cutting off their nose to spite their faces if they hand the minds to poland without regard to the question of the indemnity in april there was still no sign of an end to the deadlock while the british and italians wanted to give most of the region to germany france and poland wanted the border along the oda river to complicate matters in the larger cities and the most industrialized region voting had been quite close the longer the crisis lasted the more the british worried that germany's economic recovery was being held up by the uncertainty so the tricky question of what to do with upper silesia had split the allies and inflamed germany and poland and in the middle of the negotiations the situation on the ground boiled over on may 1st corvantes newspaper published an article which falsely claimed that the allied commission was about to accept the british italian border proposal which was favorable to germany the article set off a powder kick polish-speaking coal miners went on strike and local paramilitary groups took up arms joined by volunteers from across the border in poland the third and most violent of the upper salesian uprisings had begun on may 3rd about 12 thousand armed poles and polish silesians began to advance towards the northern and western parts of the province in the eyes of the polish state and local nationalists these groups were acting against german oppression pro-polish paramilitary leader jan fashka gave his reasons in his memoirs my father's stories left a grim impression on me i saw the horror in his eyes as he gave me a detailed account of the bloody suppression of a minor strike in 1919. when the german cavalry charged in to attack the strikers my father barely managed to cheat death shaken by the experience he ground his teeth and helpless fury as he recounted it cursing the german nation according to british reports french troops had begun disarming the german paramilitaries but weren't doing much to stop the polish ones italian units and pro-polish insurgents did clash at ribnik which resulted in 25 italians killed and 100 wounded thanks in part to tacit french support the polish militias were able to defeat many of the unsupported and isolated german units german chancellor joseph viet and his government were outraged and submitted a note of protest to the allies the upper salesian voting area is now largely in the hands of polish gangs the peace-loving population is being terrorized and destruction of valuable production facilities is to be expected acts of murder and abduction are increasing the regular operation of the mines and smelting works is forcibly prevented corfanti has assumed the position of chief administrative officer is appointing military and customs officials and is handing out death sentences the polish gangs are heavily armed and organized on military lines and their activity has spread over the whole of the country at breakneck speed the weimar government asked the allies for permission to send in the german army but the french refused to add to the crisis at the same time the upper silesian civil war was raging the allies presented germany with a revised reparations bill of 132 billion gold marks british prime minister lloyd george largely agreed with the german position and urged the french to use their troops on the ground which included tanks and artillery to restore order he felt that poland had broken the rules of the versailles peace treaty by supporting the uprising and openly challenged the french on may 13th either the allies ought to insist upon the treaty being respected or they ought to allow the germans to do it not merely to disarm germany but to say that such troops as she has got are not to be permitted to take part in restoring order in what until the decision comes is their own province that is not fair fair play is what britain stands for and i hope she will stand for it to the end french prime minister aristide brian refused to back down and insisted that france was protecting its polish ally and itself i am certain that mr lloyd george would never on his own initiative invite german troops to march against poland and sow against france no such invitation could possibly be issued except in concert with the allies we've been getting a lot of advice from england recently but it would be more useful for the establishment of order if we could get more british troops to help our twelve thousand the french government could never consent to german troops entering upper salaya as the diplomatic conflict got worse in early may so too did the situation on the ground both the german and polish governments lent indirect support to the fighters and set up command centers just outside the province german-speaking upper salesians had begun to organize their own militia the zelpstrutz oberschlesien in the next two weeks they were joined by volunteers from the rest of the country and freiko units like the well-known marine brigade erhad which had been instrumental in the failed capped porch a year earlier one of the volunteers was ernst fonzaloman who described how his unit was created on the fly in the train we formed the nucleus of a company a leader was found after a few minutes talk immediately and as a matter of course his authority was recognized a future sergeant major wrote out the role officially the german government opposed the illegal activities of the freikorps and some were stopped and disarmed before they made it to upper salazia but in practice german leadership and newspapers were convinced that the pro-polish uprising had been planned long in advance was professionally led and was being actively supported by france the government couldn't send its own troops but it also didn't want to give the radical and violent paramilitaries a free hand so berlin sent general leutan khalhofa to oversee the german militia and in theory reign in the freikora to avoid the risk of open war polish paramilitaries under leaders like jan fashka who was a veteran of the great war were also organizing warsaw even secretly sent an extrajudicial paramilitary force known as the bayufska polska to upper salisia corfanti sometimes clashed with these paramilitaries who were quick to resort to violence no matter what the political cost the warsaw militias of mr magnitsky wupeck and others are at large in sos novyettes there are grounds to suspect that these people organize expeditions to upper silasia by themselves and commit murder and pillage banditry is having a terrible effect on the local population and much the same was said of their german opponents as well so the third phase of the upper salesian civil war was now underway and german reinforcements had arrived and it wouldn't be long before they went into action between may 6th and may 20th the fighting in upper silesia had been mostly isolated skirmishes with pro-polish forces on the attack janfaschka's units managed to capture the important saint anne's mountain also known as annaberg in german and gura sriente ani in polish the mountain was actually a 300 meter high hill which dominated the oda valley and gave pro polish troops a clear observation point over the german positions with more and more experienced fraicoa fighters arriving the pro-german side began to counter-attack veteran groups like the company from iden and the storm battalion heinz successfully recaptured several local strong points the key battlegrounds were the railway lines and the banks of the older river a major clash took place on may 20th along the zembowitz kreuzberg rail line a polish armored train equipped with machine guns and artillery managed to force the germans back and retain the control of the line for the polish side when general hurfa arrived preparations were already underway for bernard von hulsen's freiko oberland and the salesian militia to retake saint anne's mountain herfe acknowledged that the position was tactically important but he worried that if local pro-german forces launched a high-profile offensive france might invade western germany in response another problem for the germans was supply they were short of rifles ammunition and only had a few machine guns it was a gamble for the germans but herfa agreed to let the attack go in even though berlin had officially forbidden it at half past midnight on may 21 900 german troops left their trenches the plan was to attack the mountain from three sides while an extra battalion advanced on the neighboring village polish defensive fire stopped the germans at first but the former stormtroopers used the tactics that they'd learned in the great war to penetrate the pro-polish defenses and bypass points of resistance the pro-german spearheads reached the top of saint anne's mountain more quickly than they expected and their advance on the village forced the poles into a retreat by 12 30 in the afternoon the germans were in control of the heights and the village and began to consolidate their new lions they also raised the old imperial flag and not the flag of the weimar republic polish forces counter-attacked throughout the afternoon with the support of an armored train but the german's elastic defense tactics wore them down fonhoozen would even later call the battle the first german victory since 1918. according to herfa's memoirs the victory boosted morale unrealistically a great pride filled the victorious troops some believe that they could now accomplish anything if only given the chance how gladly we would have complied with their wishes but such an inferior assessment of the insurgents was not justified as the next few days clearly demonstrated the insurgents had lost a battle and an important position on the anaberg they'd been surprised to feel the german fist and they'd been terrified but one must judge with moderation the insurgents recovered from the defeat much faster than we expected and there was heavy fighting for the next few days the capture of saint ann's mountain brought the germans much-needed weapons that they'd captured from the retreating polish troops but it also meant that they were now stretched even further than before and they were still lacking ammunition although fighting continued around saint anne's for several days neither side could deliver a knockout blow the germans were left in control of about two-thirds of upper silesia and the poles with the remaining third and there was political fallout from the battle as well paris formally protested to berlin and threatened to withdraw the protection of french troops from german areas in upper salesian cities general laurent insisted that the freikor be disarmed and that the remaining german militias withdraw from saint anne's mountain the german government responded that they were not involved and the frykur had acted independently both of which were half truths but the germans did realize that the political risks of another such attack were simply too great to bear and they also feared that corfanti might order the destruction of the mayans if his forces began to lose ground the british position remained largely sympathetic to what they viewed as the german right to defend themselves they also wanted to avoid a rift with their ally france and to avoid an escalation of violence in early june the allied commission tried once again to create a neutral zone between the two sides the british had sent in reinforcements under canadian general william henniker who was able to mediate between leroy herfer and corfanti an agreement was finally reached according to which both the german and the polish militias would withdraw starting in july all told the three conflicts in upper silesia between 1919 and 1921 cost the lives of at least 3 000 people on both sides according to the most conservative estimates the neutral zone agreement reached in june did calm things down on the ground but a long-term political solution was still needed the allied supreme council in paris started yet another round of negotiations in august and lloyd george and brian were still at loggerheads they haggled over villages and towns but the main problem was still whether the industrial zone of upper salisia would go to germany so that it could pay the war reparations or to poland to help with its struggling economy france was isolated since the smaller allies involved in the talks like belgium china and brazil sided with the british the british were not really in a position to force a solution in favor of germany since they were distracted by the war in ireland the greco-turkish war and the middle east they also did not want to destroy the alliance with france over a question like upper salaya the issue of the border was turned over to the league of nations the league appointed two experts to finalize the line one from switzerland and one from czechoslovakia the germans protested that british support for the czechoslovak candidate was unfair but they were overruled since the league wanted to put the upper sales in question to rest the league drew the new frontier with the intent of keeping most of the industrial area intact as an economic unit 57 of the inhabitants and about 70 percent of the territory of upper silasia would remain in germany although poland received a smaller share it did get most of the factories and the mines neither side was satisfied with this arrangement but the decision generally favored poland when the outcome became known in germany politicians and the press were livid the scandal was so serious that the german cabinet was forced to resign but it wasn't only german politics that were now out of control as of fall 1921 inflation began to spiral to previously unseen levels and the mark lost half of its value between august and december an ominous sign of things to come for the german reich bringing you the story of versailles flash points like upper silesia is what we love to do here at the great war but i have to admit it's not always smooth sailing to be honest history is a bit of a niche topic in the grand scheme of youtube's reach and they haven't always made it that easy for history creators like us in the past few years to bring you what we hope is an objective and accurate view of historic events that's why we crowdfunded and released our battle of berlin documentary 16 days in berlin specifically outside of youtube because 250 of our youtube videos were retroactively demonetized because youtube changed their rules years after these videos were originally made and in this kind of climate we went even further to be safe in the future we teamed up with some other creator friends to have a platform where we don't have to worry about youtube's capricious actions this platform is called nebula on nebula you can watch top educational creators like us ad free and support them at the same time for example this video that you're watching now does not have this very ad on nebula and we can publish content there which we can't put on youtube like our documentary series 16 days in berlin which i mentioned earlier so what does this have to do with curiosity stream another platform for classic high quality documentary content and the sponsor of today's video they like nebula and what we're doing over there and they are supporting it with a pretty sweet deal if you sign up for curiosity stream through curiositystream.com the great war you get access to two platforms instead of one that's right signing up through curiositystream.com the great war gets you access to both curiositystream and to nebula as well and right now you can sign up for 26 off that's less than 15 dollars for an entire year this is not a trial you'll have access to nebula as long as you're signed up for curiosity stream so if our inflation cliffhanger in this episode piqued your interest and you want to know more about another economic disaster in the 20th century you can watch the documentary called 1929 on curiosity stream and if you want to see the most detailed documentary about the battle of berlin you can do that on nebula so again that's curiositystream.com the great war and right now it's 26 off that's less than 15 for an entire year we want to thank marcus lincke for his help with this episode and as usual if you want to know the sources we use for the episode they're listed in the video description and if you want to support our channel you can do that on patreon and the link for that is in the video description as well i'm jesse alexander and this is the great war 1921 a production of real-time history and the only youtube history channel that wants to organize a plebiscite on the youtube algorithm you

Channel: The Great War

Views: 135,509

Rating: 4.9487939 out of 5

Keywords: History, World War 1, WW1, First World War, Documentary, Documentary Series, The Great War, Indy Neidell, 1919, Interwar Period, 1920s, Educational, Russian Civil War, Revolution, Interbelum, Silesia, Upper Silesia, Freikorps, Poland, Germany, Plebiscite, Allies, Paris Peace Conference, Annaberg

Id: HwDAorQnd4U

Length: 25min 50sec (1550 seconds)

Published: Fri May 14 2021