Why wasn't East Prussia given to Poland?

[Crimea]

A thought occurred to me earlier today - why was Danzig given to Poland after WWI, and not Koenigsberg? Both of them are major Baltic Sea ports, so either of them could have been made the Polish Corridor. Why was Germany partitioned in such a way that made its 'lost' territories more obvious, and basically invited Germans to desire the land back to have an overland route to their East Prussian exclave? From my point of view, it would've made far more sense to give OTL East Prussia - or at least part of it - to Poland. I'm aware that there's the issue of West Prussia having a greater number of ethnic Poles, but surely the populations could've been shuffled around appropriately?

And, of course, what if this had been the case, with a Polish East Prussia and no German exclave?

 

[Dr. No]

Why should Poland put up with millions of other Germans inside its new borders? You know, ethnic cleansing only became an option with World War II.

 

[Magnificate]

A thought occurred to me earlier today - why was Danzig given to Poland after WWI, and not Koenigsberg?

Danzing wasn't Polish during the interwar era.

Both of them are major Baltic Sea ports, so either of them could have been made the Polish Corridor.

There is no Vistula in Konigsberg.

Why was Germany partitioned in such a way that made its 'lost' territories more obvious, and basically invited Germans to desire the land back to have an overland route to their East Prussian exclave?

Ethnic issues. Non-plebiscite East Prussia was almost entirely German, so removing them would require major relocations. There was not enough support for these sort of radical solutions after WWI.

And, of course, what if this had been the case, with a Polish East Prussia and no German exclave?

Depends on who makes it happen and how.

 

[anotherlurker]

poles beeing reduced to a simple plurality (along with ze germans) in their own country is a really bad move.

see hungary.

 

[MarshalBraginsky]

I once read a book on Belarus's history and mentioned on how East Prussia could have gone to the Belarusian SSR, although this may involve taking NE Poland and parts of the Lithuanian SSR and giving it to the Belarusian SSR.

 

[Evilprodigy]

Poland was offered the rest of East Prussia (note that IOTL they did get East Prussia, just the southern half) but they declined because the region was doo ravaged by war and they did not want to bother rebuilding it, so it went to Russia.
Not very hard to reverse the descision by the Polish government.

EDIT: I screwed up, it was the Lithuanian SSR it was offered to, not Poland.

 

[MarshalBraginsky]

Either way, East Prussia going to the Lithuanian SSR would have boosted Lithuania's territorial sovereignty, although a Belarusian controlled East Prussia plus NE Poland and parts of Lithuania would have allowed the Belarusians access to the Baltic Sea.

 

[Enigmajones]

Poland was offered the rest of East Prussia (note that IOTL they did get East Prussia, just the southern half) but they declined because the region was doo ravaged by war and they did not want to bother rebuilding it, so it went to Russia.
Not very hard to reverse the descision by the Polish government.

EDIT: I screwed up, it was the Lithuanian SSR it was offered to, not Poland.

Also, the offer didn't come until after WW2, when the Germans had all been expelled. Also a sizeable portion was given away, the Kalinigrad exclave is largely reduced portion of former Konigsberg.

 

[ctesiphon]

A thought occurred to me earlier today - why was Danzig given to Poland after WWI, and not Koenigsberg? Both of them are major Baltic Sea ports, so either of them could have been made the Polish Corridor. Why was Germany partitioned in such a way that made its 'lost' territories more obvious, and basically invited Germans to desire the land back to have an overland route to their East Prussian exclave? From my point of view, it would've made far more sense to give OTL East Prussia - or at least part of it - to Poland. I'm aware that there's the issue of West Prussia having a greater number of ethnic Poles, but surely the populations could've been shuffled around appropriately?

And, of course, what if this had been the case, with a Polish East Prussia and no German exclave?

First things first: Danzig was not given to Poland. It was a free city throughout the interbellum period. Poland received a part of West Prussia province, which is known as the "Polish Corridor", which, btw, had no ports of note (one was built in 1920s by the Poles, since Danzig was unreliable)

And the answer to your question is: Koenigsberg was a German city in a German province that belonged to some German entity since medieval times, and was inhabhited almost exclusively by Germans and Pro-German Masurians, while the "Corridor" was only German since the partitions, and had a Polish / Pro-Polish majority. Also, mouth of the Vistula is the natural place for a port for Poland, for obvious reasons.

 

[jmc247]

If they do this they might as well split Germany up into four seperate states as they are going have to continue fighting for another year or so anyway as Germany is not going to accept the 'peace'.

 

[Snaut]

poles beeing reduced to a simple plurality (along with ze germans) in their own country is a really bad move.

I don't think there were enough people in East Prussia for this to happen unless Poland annexes more then IOTL besides that area. (Also, since the Polish-German border was settled before Poland's eastern frontier, Poland could also limit its annexations there accordingly if it feels so inclined.) Of course, this doesn't make East Prussia any more desirable.

 

[Rich Rostrom]

A thought occurred to me earlier today - why was Danzig given to Poland after WWI,

Danzig was not given to Poland. Danzig was made a "Free City" under League of Nations protection, with special rights for Poland.

and not Koenigsberg? Both of them are major Baltic Sea ports, so either of them could have been made the Polish Corridor.

Danzig was not in the Polish Corridor, which lay just to its west. The territory of the Polish Corridor had been part of the Kingdom of Poland before the First Partition in 1772, and was ethnic Polish (mostly).

Konigsberg was in the center of East Prussia, a completely German area, which had been independent of Poland since 1618, and never more then indirectly ruled by Poland.

Also, rather obviously, Danzig communicates with the heartland of Poland via the Vistula River, a major waterway; Konigsberg has no water communications with Poland, and the railroads aren't much better.

I'm aware that there's the issue of West Prussia having a greater number of ethnic Poles, but surely the populations could've been shuffled around appropriately?

That sort of drastic population exchange was not acceptable in 1920. Well, it was in the Greco-Turkish War, which was much nastier than anything in Europe up to that time.

But the forcible expulsion of millions of Germans from East Prussia would not have been conducive to a lasting peace.

 

[edvardas]

Poland could have been given the eastern third of East Prussia, with a boundary running just west of Elk, through Insterburg and hitting the baltic at Niederung district. Since most of the German population would have been west of this line, there would have been less need of a population exchange. If Poland could maintain friendly relations with Lithuania, Poland would only have to get as far as Tilsit, which was navigable for steamers.

 

[ctesiphon]

Poland could have been given the eastern third of East Prussia, with a boundary running just west of Elk, through Insterburg and hitting the baltic at Niederung district. Since most of the German population would have been west of this line, there would have been less need of a population exchange. If Poland could maintain friendly relations with Lithuania, Poland would only have to get as far as Tilsit, which was navigable for steamers.

...yeah, no.

 

[Tongera]

...yeah, no.

Care to give more detail?

 

[Snaut]

Care to give more detail?

If it wants to annex part of Poland, Germany no longer has the 'excuse' that directly accessing one of its coastal provinces required it to use ferries [1]. That or being nice enough to Poland for the latter to allow an exterritorial transit route to be built. OTOH, it has the much more legitimate grievance that Poland now has a large area with an overwhelming German majority, with all the problems which that entails. The infrastructure required to support Poland's trade would also take decades to build. Poland's trade originally passed through Danzig, so building a small stretch of additional railway to Gdynia was not much of a problem. But rerouting imports and exports all the way through the farthest corner of east Prussia would obviously require even more changes besides building a new port on the Baltic coast. These are two obvious cons.

[1] Strangely, this alleged inability to properly administer East Prussia did not prevent numerous Germans from dreaming of colonies in Africa.