Między Polską a Niemcami. Nieunikniony konflikt o Wolne Miasto Gdańsk

Between Poland and Germany. Inevitable conflict over the Free City of Gdańsk

The Weimar Germany did not accept the consequences of losing the First World War, thus it did not accept the border line with Poland. This border ran along two disputed areas: Pomerania in the north and Upper Silesia in the south-west, crossing many commu-nication routes. The return of Pomerania to Poland was one of the fundamental issues for the reborn Polish state, which was considered the basis of international prestige and facili-tation of military contacts with its western allies.
The Free City of Gdansk was created on the basis of the Treaty of Versailles as a com-promise between the need for Poland to gain access to the Baltic Sea and the interests of the city's majority German-speaking population. It was an independent entity of interna-tional relations, connected by a special relationship of dependence with the League of Nations and an administrative protectorate with Poland. The international legal status of Gdańsk and its system was shaped by the aforementioned treaty, the Constitution of the Free City of Gdańsk and agreements concluded by the Gdańsk authorities with the Polish state. This complicated legal anchor and the granting of the power to decide on public matters to various decision-makers, whose interests often conflicted, has become the basis for serious conflicts and one of the hotspots in the still not easy German-Polish relations. The situation that developed in the Free City of Gdańsk also placed special tasks for Po-lish border formations and Polish customs service posts.
The powers granted to Poland in the Free City of Gdańsk were extensive. The problem was their enforcement. Poland's relations with the Free City of Gdańsk were usually the result of Polish-German relations, and along with the war threat from Germany, they sys-tematically deteriorated. Gdańsk gradually took on the features of a German base for Po-land.
The difficult Polish-Gdańsk relations were affected by issues such as the Gdańsk consti-tution, the city's military defense and the problem of determining the place of transhi-pment of war materials.