Freie Stadt Danzig 1920 – 1939.

Alex Webber - 14th January 2010

© PAN Library Gdansk Frauenkirche in Danzig, Mariacki in Gdansk Share:

Zap yourself back some 80 years and where you today find the city of Gdansk you would have found yourself standing in the Free City of Danzig, an independent state created by the bumbling bods at the League of Nations.

For over a century Poland had existed in memory only, its territories carved up between Prussian, Habsburg and Russian empires. The end of WWI brought with it a house-of-cards collapse, and a new independent Polish republic was established on the back of this redress of power. But there was one key problem; the re-born Poland needed access to the sea. To meet this end the Treaty of Versailles stipulated a chunk of West Prussia be handed over to Poland, thereby creating a Polish ...