How Free was the Free City of Danzig? (Short Animated Documentary)
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- čas přidán 5. 06. 2024
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Sources:
A Concise History of German (Third Edition) by Mary Fullbrook
Mapping the Polish Corridor: Ethnicity, Economics and Geopolitics by Joshua Hagen.
Its funny whenever I hear the word "free" or "people's" in the title of a city or country it's usually the most restricted.
Don't forget "democratic" (NK for example)
@@kevintrang3007Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Double point
Free Democratic People's Republic of *X*
Free States are so called because they are free to make their own rules; essentially means “independent sovereignty”, as opposed to belonging to a union of other states.
Kevin Trang
The Middle East before.
“Hey, we’re armed and able to keep things peaceful as much as we can, hey allies give us better guns.”
Allies: democracy
Everyone not allied and also the majority that votes
“It’s free real state.”
The allied and group that kept it together
“We sided in the wrong war.”
US: *surprise pikachu face* the shitty people vote to keep the shitty city shitty?!
let's also militarily guarantee the status quo to make sure war definitely won't break out
R/sadcringe
@@Nietabs ?
@@Nietabs r/ihavereddit
Status quo - youre in the army now
@@Nietabs r/sadcringe
Lmao i wont post it because im almost never using reddit, i just wanted to understand reverse your cringe
Danzigers. I never thought such word existed
Sounds kinda stupid to be honest.
@@merrittanimation7721 sounds perfectly fine from the perspective of the German language and it's not like English has anything else to offer in this case (see also "Londoner", "New Yorker", etc.)
@@r8rgtrs Fair
I didn't think there ever was a place called 'Germany Proper' either, but according to 2.20 there is/was.
danzinger z
Next time, *"How free was Free City of Tangier?"* (DURING 1924 - 1956) in Moroco
*How free is the city of england
Found the Hipster
It was an International Zone, it was never actually free, not even by name.
How about the Free City of Trieste after the Second World War?
Ohhhh yeasss please do that... that's an interesting one
Frederick the great - 0:19
"Mein Gott!! What happened to my partition!??"
Tf where do you see him
@@ivoandonov3576 background. Looks like a ghost.
Wow great spot
Btw technically Danzig did not become a part of Prussia in the first partition, but in the second in which Fredrick the Great did not partake in. His successor king Fredrick William II was king at that time.
The Entente did not expect the Germans to agree to give up all that land. After WW1 it was expected that Germany would negotiate and the Entente and the Central powers would come to reasonable agreement to bring about a lasting peace. Germany was in a state of Chaos at the time and just accepted whatever deal was offered and signed it. The treaty of Versailles was such an unreasonable piece of nonsense only because the Germans didn't negotiate.
Making Germany give up all that territory pretty much guaranteed a 2nd world war.
All things considered, creating "The Free City of Danzig" was just another one in the long list of follies inside the Treaty of Versailles.
The events would have taken place either way. The Soviet union was rising and I'm sure Poland wouldve stretched to its modern borders today or even annexation by the Soviet union all the way to cologne even
@@looinrims Why most of the stuff people criticize about the Treaty of Versailles was done by Britian and France?
@@seco000 ^
People complaining about Versailles when it was by far the most moderate and conciliatory treaty of the era, compare it to Sèvres, Trianon and Brest-Litovsk and it's incredibly mild, the fate of the polish corridor is the textbook example of that : to not piss off the Germans too much they allowed them to keep East Prussia instead of all of Prussia (which honestly, they could easily have lost all of it in any other treaty of the era) and as for West Prussia, the winners not only ensured that Germans could travel through the corridor unimpeded but they also tried to make the Free City to appease the Germans. There's more examples elsewhere but basically, Versailles was extremely generous compared to what it could have been (like Turkey becoming ....... I don't know how to qualify those borders they were supposed to have, or Russia not only losing a great deal of it's economically significant regions whilst having to pay reparations that were based off their pre war financial states, whereas Versailles again had much more reasonable reparations especially when compared to these ones, and a truly gargantuan amount of it's land and population was lost and made into German puppets that made it incredibly vulnerable)
I read this in his voice lol
You really should have mentioned that the Poles decided to build a new port city, Gdynia, a couple kilometers northwest of Danzig. It was imperative for Poland to have a port they had total control over, in contrast to the compromise they had with the Free City of Danzig. By the time WWII loomed Gydnia overshadowed Danzig in terms of economic importance; it was the largest port on the Baltic Sea, and the tenth in Europe in fact, despite only having half of Danzig's population (250k vs 120k).
I was thinking the same. It was very important that Polrs knew that city will never be totaly in their hands thats why Gdynia was born. Wich was one of the fastest growing cities in the world at that time. Video was good but for me it was lacking this
@@qzg7857 cities tend to grow fast when the demands of an entire nations economy force the government to build it
Which makes it even more nonsensical for Britain to escalate a second global conflict because of a German city of 350k. Thanks papa Chamberlain for the guarantees, 50 years of Soviet dictatorship was such a nice treat.
@@Omnesomm2 oh no how dare the soviets industrialize your country in less than 3 decades and bring with them guarantees of a stable livelihood and a secured future. despicable. truly i feel your pain.
@@cageybee7221 Never mind thousands of officers shot like dogs in the forest, university proffessors, any member of the elites either imprisoned or shot, thousands of regular people imprisoned, burned houses, land taken from average Joe, because the country had the ability to industralize fast.
During the Polish-Soviet war German workers refused to take in supplies for Poland from western Europe.That is why in the 30' Poland took great effort to build another port in Gdynia which was majority Polish to be not dependent on the German city.
And Czechoslovakia exchange free pass to aid from Hungary (and all south) to Polish Zaolzie. They betray and stop trains.
@SMA Productions "Polish-lithuanian" is not a nationality, the city was prussian baltic, but after centuries of influence by the Teutonic Order, the city was germanised. Poland did the same with L'viv and Vilnius, those cities had been ruthenian and lithuanian, but were assimilated during polish rule. All that changed after WW2.
@SMA Productions It was a german city. The population said so.
@SMA Productions thats not true Danzig was part of the Hanse and foundet by germanic settlers.
@SMA Productions "From the wiki on Gdansk" no words needed.
I really like the easter egges you can find on your second viewing, Fredrick the Great's ghost at 0:20
Jackluck2 This channel is quality
I saw that :)
Know of any other good ones?
@@richyhu2042 Be sure to pause and read the Danziger constitution. :)
@@Fauntleroy. What is written there is very true thought.
Since we are the topic of Poland. How did Lithuania get so big in the first place prior to the Union with Poland?
im not sure nor researched on this but maybe the power vacum left after mongols left??
That was before the concert of nationalism, so Lithuania could incorporate almost anything
That region is mostly flat land. Easy to attack, hard to defend.
Moreover, it's not that Lithuanians just stepped into some power vacuum, they still had to fight with the Golden Horde for the control over the Rus'. The most famous and significant Lithuanian victory being the Battle of Blue Waters in 1362 (or maybe 1363).
Steppe
This whole concept always made me think the League of Nations was trying to bring city states to recreate Renaissance Italy in northern Europe.
Then why didn’t they break Germany back to a million pieces like it was before the Unification and perhaps with a weaker and smaller Prussia?
@@brandonlyon730 They would think that it would be too "cruel" to the German people probably.
@@brandonlyon730 Ease them into it.
Germany wasn't broken up for three reasons:
1. Noone wanted to set a precedent. Breaking up the Austro-Hungarian Empire happened (mainly) along ethnical lines, which is why it worked. In the case of Germany, that break-up would have created several states with the same ethnicity in them. Eventually, a unified Germany would have reformed and with THAT kind of precedent, what would have kept Germany from doing the same to say, France, given the chance?
2. The US was against it, due to Wilson's doctrine of the right of national self-determination. And since the european Entente powers relied on american goodwill because of the war-time loans, the US had a strong say in these matters.
3. The UK wanted to keep a strong enough Germany to keep the Soviets in check in the Baltic Sea.
Also quite a few people in the british government did not trust the Poles (they insisted on the Danzig Free State, France wanted to just give the city to Poland).
@@gerdforster883 This isn't such a relevant reason but I think they also didn't split it up or at least weaken it too much so it would be strong enough to withstand a communist revolution.
At 0:22 and other times you represent Germans in Danzig as wearing Bavarian clothes... but Danzig was in Prussia. It's like representing the south English by a guy wearing a kilt.
It's not a design choice or failure, it's just laziness at this point. He keeps putting out more and more videos at shorter length.
Or maybe he is just using a stereotype that makes the visual differentiation between Poles and Germans easier, which wouldve otherwise been visualy completely identical, but that is maybe just me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Actually a lot of the Danzigers were of Scots origin, so kilts could have been shown !!
I don’t think they wear kilts in any part of England, except on weekends.
@@bjarkel.993
Not really, at least not during 1920. This used to be true but somewhere around 1500's
0:02 you forgot the danish border. I know it's not that important, but just to let you know.
Rollo37 Denmark? You mean southern Sweden right?
@@Aviationlord7742 Sweden doesn't exist
@@Noble2704 Denmark and Sweden don't exist
@@Kludgzenjammer you guys mean *Britain*
He forgot to include Northern Schleswig
0:20 I like how the spirit of fredrick the great is walking normally in the city xD
3samツ Easter eggu
Especially considering how adamantly the city kept telling him to fuck off.
Good video, but I think you should have mentioned Poland building the new port city of Gdynia right next to Gdańsk/Danzig.
@Hubert Dąbrowski Thanks! Can you believe that I stared at my comment for about 3 minutes, thinking "What is he on about? I wrote Danzig." and not seeing the extra n?
Thus, Danzig should have been returned to Germany when Gdynia was completed.
@@johnshelton1141 stuff like this this was decided mostly by france and britain and they made about 0 good decisions during the time between the wars so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@@johnshelton1141 not really those lands were taken by The germans.. it was our land
@@johnshelton1141 *Ekhem* Historically it was Baltic/Slavic, only around the early XIV century was the Polish then half of the city massacred by the German rioters (Who rebelled aganist the king Vladislav Łokietek)
You forgot to mention that in the interwar period Poland built a new huge port and entirely new city of Gdynia, just some 20 kilometers north west from Gdańsk, and thus, polish trade became independent from good or bad will of the german authorities of Gdańsk. Today Gdańsk, Gdynia and Sopot (a town located between them) form one metropolitan area called Trójmiasto (triple city).
Yes true. Are you also Polish?
@@dachydachshund Yes, but I'm not from that region. I'm from southern Poland
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Danzig*
@@xeon39688 Cope. Poland owned Gdansk first before they got tag teamed by Russia, Prussia, and Austria. Germoids malding.
Free City of Danzig was free as much as the Independent State of Croatia was independent.
??? You clearly don't know anything
Andrew Vasirov You’re kind of right, but it depends on the definition of “free”. If by “free” you mean it didn’t belong to anyone, it was. If by “free” you mean self-determining, it wasn’t. And if you mean the government wasn’t 100% pro-nazi...it wasn’t.
One out of three isn’t bad.
@@wisemankugelmemicus1701 Too bad we can't say the same about Croatia, or the Balkan as a whole really
Berlin,Bruxelles...What's the difference ?
And as much as the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea is democratic.
I remember (very) briefly covering this topic in Grade 10 History class, but the textbook never explained what was meant by a "free city", and our teacher did not know. Thank-you for this concise explanation of how things worked.
Your teacher sounds dumb
I must warn you this may sound cliché but History matters is one of my favorite history channels and I do believe they can be mostly reliable and they're humor is a nice added bonus. In short also in my opinion an all around good history oriented channel. If you do not agree that is fine because ultimately I won't be majorly affected by it.
I remember reading an excerpt of the diary of WL MacKenzie King, Canadian PM during the time.
While a perponent of middle powers (provided they were British and former colonies), till his dying day, he blamed Poland, and their refusal to grant the Germans the German corridor and Danzig.
In fact, he was (like most of the Allies until WW2) pro-Hitler and believed that the Nazis wouldn’t have ever declared war had Poland not “provoked” them and just given in to appeasement.
For what it’s worth, he’s currently the longest serving PM, not just in Canada, but in the entire former British Empire, he held seances to talk to the ghost of his dead mother and laid the groundwork for the post war world along with Churchill, FDR, Attlee and Truman.
Many such diplomats blamed Poland when you read the diplomatic telegrams and for what it's worth they were right. Germany had no plans or intentions of war with Poland until the British encirclement policy undertaken on March 31st. Naturally diplomats and Commonwealth PMs wouldn't blame Britain for their actions. Rather the Poles for not returning to negotiations with Germany (which they broke from after receiving British military promises).
And he remains unloved and forgotten in his home country to this day.
@@AFGuidesHD oh yey a nazi apologist
When will the Orthodox view on Protestantism come out?
Good idea
Orthodox view on Prots or Convertodox view on Prots or Orthodox view on Convertodox?
double yess! :D
Hey he made it
LOVED the text of that Danzig constitution you put up. Really hope you'll one day go back to 10 minute videos. It's clear that you're knowledgeable about the subject matters in your videos but restricted by time. Keep up the great work!!
Please do a video on the history of james bizinet and how he became the lead donor.
Great idea! *Clap*
It's worth mentioning that Poland wanting to have sea port truly in its hands build new one - Gdynia basically from scratch. It's even more impressive if you remember that 20s and 30s were Great Depression times and building big city and port is very expensive.
Yeah in some respects Gdynia actually became more successful than the city of Gdańsk itself
And as Gdynia grew, so did increase trade coming frought it. It made Danzig less revelant over time as Danzig was getting shrinking share of Polish sea trade.
The Great Depression didn't begin until late 1929
In fact, the primary reason for Gdynia being built was concerned with easening emigration to the States which would then serve as a source of remittances for the struggling Polish economy. Danzig was enough for their regular Baltic trade.
Yeah, Poland did very good, with considering everything they had to do to become a European power, to stand up against Germany and the USSR. I believe I read that they was within another year of their army being fully modernized. They was also right about warning the world about Nazi Germany and the USSR.
Perhaps an episode on Kaiser Karl’s attempts to take back the throne of Hungary post Great War
I like how the characters always carry little signs and the facial expressions they make
1:10 my grandfather came from a German “polonised” (his father was German and his mother Polish) family and I have never heard my family mentioning any discrimination during the second Polish republic (1918-1939), contrary to what happened during the communist period when he had to change his surname (got rid of the aristocratic “von” in front) and still ended up prosecuted by the communist authorities. The Polish government before WW2 had much respect for his family, didnt confiscate any land (again contrary to the communist). Of course it helped that he basicly felt loyal to Poland not Germany (was in the Polish army) but he never had to hide his German roots
My Grandgrandfather had a completely other experience...ok, could be that he came from the Baltic People how lived there before the Poles and Germans and how became German over time.
@@felixjohnsens3201 I find that a funny statement " before the Germans and Poles" maybe you ment before Poland and Germany, or you ment before the Slavs or you ment that the Vidinist faith or the Prussian faith ( as I call it because it's basically the same) as there is no before germans in Eastern Europe. Tutons are only outlived by the Solduri the founders of the Soldatin. I find the Tutonic conquest really just like the Norman one- a 3rd party comming in and saying both groups lose, but other than the name of their thunder God and all father there is little outside of Baltic peoples that can separate them. Liths of course are different they are a horse people from the steps but they only are Balts by losing as much as the celts and being forced to where they are now.
Like basically general Rómmel, whos name isn't so different than german Rommel, was a german descendant and he was one of the leaders of PL military. To be fair I can imagine after so many years of oppresion that common folks when given a chance wanted to make some revenge on germans, but as long as I'm checking sources, there were no direct laws nor any state created ethnic cleansings etc.
Not that such cleansings wouldn't be a good idea, considering the german fifth column during WWII (so the germans who betrayed their polish neigbhoors and worked for the third reich during and just before the war, basically traitors)
@@Mszaanisko Hey, I know how you meant that, but condoning or legitimizing ethnic cleansing is a bit ......
The problem with such statements is that the other side can also use it. For example, the Nazis wanted to legitimize the invasion of the Czech Republic and Poland on the basis of discrimination and persecution of German minorities. If that had been factually true, Britain might not have intervened.
History Matters upload a video on my birthday! Woo thank you :). Plus i've been to Gdansk and it's a stunning place.
Can we get some videos about Trieste and Saar?
The Tin Drum takes place mostly in Danzig in this exact time period, and it's a very interesting view into the city's life.
Yess! As do a lot of Gunter Grass books, like Cat and Mouse for example. Gunter Grass himself had grown up in Danzig in that time period.
Thank you for this little piece of history.
Happy 1 million subs, this was the videos whith which I found you
You should do something on kilingrad and how it transformed from German to Russian
@Sigurd Hlodversson Start shit, get hit.
Nazis:"Don't mind me just coming to slaughter eastern slavs."
Also Nazis:"Why do slavs hate us?!"
@Sigurd Hlodversson In case of Königsberg and Prussia, many Germans fled before said genocide could happen, though.
Hundreds of thousands of Poles died after the war as well when the German and Polish borders were moved westward
@@KerianRegis Riiiiiiiight. Because the people started the shit right?
With that logic i could say the killing of jews was justified because they 'started shit' wich they didnt same as the German population
0:01 The map of imperial Germany is wrong. It held some possessions of modern day southern Denmark.
Good stuff!
Very interesting! Thanks!
I love your “Golden Years” bit. Your animation has a GREAT sense of humor and is extremely cute!
A little correction. Poland didn't rely entirely on Gdańsk (Danzig) as a trade port during interwar period, but we built our own port in our own borders out of nothing. It is called Gdynia and is located right next to Gdańsk. In about 5 years Gdynia transformed from little fishing villiage to full grown international port from which operated some big passenger ships that connected Gdynia with New York. Even Germans, after they invaded Poland in 1939 used it to house their battleships like, for example, battleship Bismarck
@@gerdforster883 as much as i agree with you it was only true in the humble begings of Gdynia.
In 1939 Gdynia transported more goods than Gdańsk it was modern with great railroad connections. Actually it was better suited for modern vessels and overshadowed Gdańsk.
Yes riber was important but keep in minde that by that time it was also not as fast as train
@@qzg7857 Sure it overshadowed Danzig in the end. But I am pretty sure the Polish state would have prefered not to make the huge initial investment.
And for most goods, the increased speed of railroads over the river is not really that important. Ore does not go stale ;)
@vitoduval Yes, but that was a few decades after the time we were discussing here ;)
Basically, the reason for building the Gdynia seaport was:
1. Poland fought a war against Russia, and thus had to import a bunch of military supplies from the West, via Danzig.
2. Danzig's German dockworkers, who didn't particularly want to aid the Polish army, went on strike.
3. This made Poland really unhappy with having its sea trade be dependent on a foreign state, so they decided it was necessary to have a 100% Polish-controlled port.
@@gerdforster883 bloody tosspot go re-read
@historymatters I love your history videos. Keep up the great work!
0:03 Germany also lost the south of Denmark but you didnt show it as them ever having it
To be fair Germany did take it at one point from the Danes. I don't know its history, but I think half of Holstein was German, Germany all of it fro. Danmark
@@aksmex2576 Schleswig-Holstein was since the end of the middle ages under Danish rule. Holstein remained a part of the HRE while Schleswig was a direct fiefdom of the Danish kings. While Holstein was domenantly German (>90%) Schleswig had a mixed population of Germans, Danes and Frisians. When Prussia annexed Schleswig-Holstein, they referred to an old "law" that was made when SH fell under Danish rule: "
that they stay together forever undivided" and took everything. After WW1 they came to a sudden case of common sense and asked the people where they want to belong to and adjusted thier borders more or less accordingly.
@@julibean5125 Prussia and Austria fought a War against Denmark after denmark wanted to take full Control over Schleswig-Holstein since they were not really integrated. Bad Decision since, for Prussia it broke some Treaty, they had with Denmark. So Prussia and Austria declared War on Denmark and they won. Prussia got Schleswig and Austria got Holstein. After the Brother War between Prussia and Austria where Prussia won, Prussia then formed the North German Conferderation.
Gdańsk was aliasy Polish Timeline of Gdańsk
Historical affiliations
Kingdom of Poland 997-1227
Duchy of Pomerelia 1227-1282
Kingdom of Poland 1282-1308
Teutonic Order 1308-1410
Kingdom of Poland 1410-1411
Teutonic Order 1411-1454
Kingdom of Poland 1454-1569
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth 1569-1793
Kingdom of Prussia 1793-1807
Free City of Danzig 1807-1814
Kingdom of Prussia 1814-1871
German Empire 1871-1918
Weimar Germany 1918-1920
Free City of Danzig 1920-1939
Nazi Germany 1939-1945
People's Republic of Poland 1945-1989
Republic of Poland 1989-present
The Free City "solution" was just asking for trouble...
0:52 Imagine if the city was called Danig instead
YES
I love this channel.
This is so high quality, in my opinion better than Oversimplified and you have so much good and interesting content. Keep up the good work.
That’s not a high bar to beat oversimplified
It even had its own anthem!
Kennst du die Stadt am Bergsteinstrand,
Umgrünt von ew' ger Wälder Band,
Wo schlanke Giebel streben, Empor zum Sonnenschein.
Ja sollt' ich fröhlich leben,
Ja sollt' ich fröhlich leben,
In Danzig
In Danzig
In Danzig müsst es sein!
This is the first Text.
I am realy Danziger.
I'll I read was Sicko Mode
Most German towns had its own anthemns, it's not really suprising.
If you're a real Danziger you must be really old
So you're a German, still living in Danzig?
@@Retardeano No but Danziger sounds like ,,Ganz sicher'' which means: I am very sure.
0:20 *FRITZ!!*
Thanks for telling me history of my city!
From humble beginnings, passing to be a powerful nation in Europe, Disappeared 3 times, and yet coming back from the ashes each time and now have one of the best gaming studios of our generation Poland has a very interesting history, Greetings from Dominican Republic ^^
and trying to lose it all again... :(
Poland was made strong by the Entente because they wanted something to hold off the Soviets in the east. They should’ve just made a strong Ukraine or Lithuania and avoid these messy borders with Germany, also Ukraine and Lithuania weren’t as aggressive as Poland.
@@5Penkets I beg your pardon
@@PopelPL What ? Why do you need a pardon this is just what happened and we can’t change it. There were good reasons to choose Poland like it having more German influence, when Lithuania gained Memel they didn’t knew what were they doing with places like the Curonian spit which contained one of the best resorts in the German empire, and the people there were smart and educated where in Lithuania everyone were if comparing to the citizens of the memel region: absolute retards, even the president of Lithuania, Antanas Smetona only spent 1 day in Juodkrante and immediately left for Palanga saying: this is too expensive.
A PRESIDENT HAD NO IDEA WHAT TO DO WITH A RESORT. And Same thing was for Ukraine, it was all under Russian influence the whole time, but Poland got parts of Germany and since the people there were under German influence they were way more educated, i think Poland was chosen because it was seen like a legit state with smart and educated people.
@@5Penkets lithunia was to weak and small and Ukraine is berly a nation created 50 Years after the war in 1991
I know it's old video but i think it was worth mentioning that Polish/Kashubian population was actively discriminated against by German population and cities council. My Grandpa was beaten up by Germans for being Polish and "polluting" the city. I'm so happy that nationalism and imperialism is slowly dying so situation like this don't happen anymore!
Do a short documentary on the Greek civil war can you?
so it's basically hongkong but in 1930s
Hong Kong isn't even a city state and never was it was a British colony then a Chinese special zone
@@fclp67 He talks about the situation and the specific events.
Hrmm.... A few similarities I suppose.
And you're basically basic with your basic anime avatar
There are some similarities on a practical layer, and as I'm a citizen of Gdansk/Danzig, who really like the idea of our city's autonomy (because let's be clear, this was a real status of the Free City and also a status that the city had in Kingdom of Poland after 1454 and later in Poland-Lithuania as well) and as I identify myself as neither Polish nor German, I wouldn't argue if we had an extensive autonomy within Poland/EU.
Do the Easter Rising and the Irish Civil War.
Do something out of left field like, I don't know, Israel and the Six Days' War, or maybe even the birth of modern Israel itself, if you're not afraid to open that can of worms. I feel like you could cover it in a fair and balanced way.
Just make sure to explain the role of the French and more importantly the British
This isn't 10 Minute History anymore, it's 2 Minute History; no way he can cover those topics in that amount of time.
@Iskander 122 you obviously know nothing about us. so generally, don't bother talking about subjects you don't understand or have knowledge about - not only about jews/israel - but generally in life.
@@ChrisDynamo Some of the videos approach 5 minutes. There's no reason he couldn't do a 10 minute video every once in a while. It's what the fans want.
@Iskander 122 As soon as you said "it's simple", you were wrong.
Don't you watch the videos on this channel? That would lead a reasonable person to believe that you have at least a meddling interest in history, which would precipitate your understanding that literally nothing about any piece of history is simple. That's why historiography exists.
I’m gonna say the D word
*Danzigers*
Oh my god
You monster
My junior high school German teacher was from Danzig. He always spoke (and taught!) German in his Danzig dialect, in which the city's name was pronounced "Danzisch" - and likewise, "zwansig" became "zwansisch," "ich" was "isch," etc.
Pronouncing the 'ig' at the end of a word as roughly 'ich' or 'isch' is part of Standard German, not just a local Danzig dialect.
As "ich," yes, as "isch," no, at least in my experience dealing with Germans over the years, and visiting Germany more than once. That German teacher told us after our visit to the Goethe Institute in San Francisco that when he was conversing in German with the staff there, they soon asked him "so, you're from Danzig?" His accent gave him away.
🇵🇱🇵🇱🇵🇱🇵🇱🇵🇱🇵🇱 GDANSK
germany is🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷
That is interesting! Well many of these special zones and districts that were international creates never really work out.
Damn! That sounds like a very complicated situation to be a part of
Fun fact, when the Teutonic Knights built the castle of Marlbork, near Gdańsk (Danzig), they named their elevated outhouse the “Danziger” so they could symbolically shit on the orignal Slavic inhabitants of the area every time they used it.
Can you do one about the Free City of Trieste
I honestly wonder about this. Do one about Tangier!
I’m reading The Tin Drum & this helps a lot
Can you do a video on the 1848 Revolutions please?
I wish you had gone further back in history about the city and the area.
0:20 Ghost of Frederick in the background
Thanks so much. I’ve wondered about the anomaly that this city was.
That Danzig constitution tho ("In order to ensure international squabbling for the next 30 years or so")
I know you're getting bombarded by requests, but would you be able to do "How BIG a miracle was the "Miracle of the Rhine"?
0:21 lmao, nice ghost Frederick the Great there
Fun fact: the Danzig currency, the "Danziger Gulden" or Guilder was pegged to the British pound - which may not have been the obvious choice in a micro-state wedged in between Germany and Poland.
Do some history of the Old Indian Empires as well
Nice video ! Now could you do one about the French occupation of Memel after ww1?
Ohhn that's why we have good baguettes
Ah yes the mighty Memel
@@windex1613 Memel was given to France, but Lithuanians living there rose up against them and the French pulled out leaving Memel to Lithuania.
Poland, always geopolitically "inconvenient"
What is so inconvinient about Polish location? It only becomes bad when Germany and Russia gang up against her. Germany and Russia are both as flat as Poland is.
@@Vitalis94 germany is mountanious at the south and filled with rivers at north. Russia has defensible borders except for the Polish Cooridor and its filled with various biomes, regardless Poland is doomed if any of them gain power
@@hauntologicalwittgensteini2542 Poland is also mountainous to the south, has Oder river as it's western border, Bug as eastern, not unlike Germany.
@@Vitalis94 Poland is geographically located in between the two of them, it was going to get caught in the crossfire either way. It wasn't the terrain itself.
@@DrewPicklesTheDark In 20 century, Germany was located between France and Russia. And it still stands there today.
Do the Saar referendum 1935.
I was there. Beautiful city. There was a street that used to be the Adolf Hitler Street and the Joseph Stalin Street. Lovely
At least theres equal opportunity for mass murders
@@seanshure *Mao breathes heavily*
If Danzig existed now, this channel would have made a video titled-"Why does Danzig exist?"
Well it exists? It's just renamed and part of Poland now?
I know because i live here
@@basedhalo No, I meant as a Free City.
I’m lovin’ it
It's worth remembering that Poland built the nearby, rival port of Gdynia.
This summer I visited Gdansk and went to the WW2 museum. The history of the free city of Danzig portrayed there is a bit different than what's stated in this video
Polish government changing history up to their benefit¿!! Wow who could have guessed
is it from a polish nationalist standpoint?
He forgot north-schleswig as a loss in the treaty
TY🙏🙏
Don't forget the America-Firster slogan: "We will not die for Danzig"
Mother... Tell your children not to walk my way,
Tell your children not to hear my words
What they mean, What they say
Mother
FATHEEEER
0:19 So we got Friedrich II the Great and we already had Hitler's spirit. After few episodes we will see team of German ghost-leaders!
I think, that Otto von Bismarck or Wilhelm II will be next.
Could you do videos on the dissolution of Vichy France, before the Allied victory, and the Italian invasion of France in 1940?
Thanks for this video, I was always curious about danzig during the interwar period
To follow up this video you should do one on how Germany lost it’s eastern territories after WW2 and how their native German populations were expelled. I’ve always found it fascinating that such a removal of people is never discussed by the media or historians at all.
Native? Send by lebensraum and kulturkampf? Maybe "Drang nach Osten" doesn't exist!?
@@wojciechkuske242. Most of the population there was indeed native, native germanized Slavic people. I have roots form upper Silesia, there is not a single German last name among them all -ski and -ek etc, they all lived there for centuries. Yet my family was expelled for being German....It was the culture, that was the problem, not the fact if they were native or not.
Drang nach Osten was absolutely real, but just the most logical thing to happen. In the medieval times, people did not give a fuck about "unlawful invasion" or whatever. Expanding the territory, was just a normal thing, the impressive Roman Empire would not have reached it's glory if it stayed in Rome. In the case of the Germans, you have the sea in the north and the mountains in the south. In the East the French Empire was a highly developed and powerful empire. That German Knights and Realms would expand to the East was the logical result of the situation, so this is how we ended up with things like the Teutonic order... This is what Drang nach Osten means, but some of you absolutely brain-dead idiots, think it is some kind of conspiracy
In a alternative scenario, if Russia would be very powerful much earlier and Poland would be stronger, we would talk about the polonisation of eastern Germany.
@@tzarcoal1018 I find the name teutonige order a bit misleading, it was funded during the crusades in the holy land to protect a hospital and was founded by German knights. Later, when the holy land was reconquered by the Muslims it went back to Europe. At that time the polish kingdom was divided in dynastic struggles. One part of this Poland asked the teutonic order to come and protect them from their non Christian neighbour's, the Prussians, who seemed to be a military threat for this Christian part of poland, that's how the teutonic order got there, on invitation from Poland. I think that Silesia became German was connected with a dynastic marriage or so, which made it part of the holy Roman empire and caused a connection with Germany which in the long run had a germanizing effect, off course coupled with migration, which was often welcomed as they usually where skilled people with new tools and techniques who came, also from the Netherlands and Belgium, which at that point was already very well developed areas with partly Roman history.
Timeline of Gdańsk (Danzig)
Historical affiliations
Kingdom of Poland 997-1227
Duchy of Pomerelia 1227-1282
Kingdom of Poland 1282-1308
Teutonic Order 1308-1410
Kingdom of Poland 1410-1411
Teutonic Order 1411-1454
Kingdom of Poland 1454-1569
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth 1569-1793
Kingdom of Prussia 1793-1807
Free City of Danzig 1807-1814
Kingdom of Prussia 1814-1871
German Empire 1871-1918
Weimar Germany 1918-1920
Free City of Danzig 1920-1939
Nazi Germany 1939-1945
People's Republic of Poland 1945-1989
Republic of Poland 1989-present
One of my best friends here in Germany is of Danziger descent :D
The real reason was Kelly didn't think Danzig was a Moneymaker, hence her absence in mentions this time.
Danzig independence: *exists*
Hitler: *let me introduce myself*
An indenpendent danzig struggled.. it is Part of Germany
Stupid comment for stupid clickers
Poland:I'm gonna stop you right there!
How free was the city of Danzig?
The answer is no
You should do an episode on the Free State of Jones
Man I love that band!
Sorry I just wanted to make the joke
Why wasn't some border area of East Prussia granted to Poland for sea access instead of an area that would make Germany angry at having their land cut in two?
Because in East Prussia the germans were before WW2 in the Majority and königsberg was a important Metropol for Germany. Excuse the language.
The only viable ports in Prussia were Elbing, Königsberg and Memel, all majority German cities.
All valid points. It just seems ridiculous that a peace treaty would carve up a country in such a detrimental way that any person looking at a map could look at and say "these territories need to be joined up"
@@mattc9998 But then again, the borders looked exactly like that before the Partitions of Poland. The idea of the Polish Corridor wasn't anything new, border looked like this for centuries before Poland dissapeared from the map.
@@mattc9998 Exactly as Vitalis pointed out, this was mostly due to historic reasons. Danzig used to be in possesion of Polish princes and kings for a few centuries overall (except about 200 years when it was owned by Teutonic Knights and 123 years when Poland did not exist). Its just that Prussia formed around it due to fusion of Prussia and Brandenburg. The same Prussia that was formerly a Polish vassal and was expected to be eventually annexed by Poland. Yet it grew independent and eventually took part in partitions of Poland. Oh the irony.
interesting topic
Has anyone else noticed that at the end of these shorts they ALWAYS have a link to the Grenada short? All the others change, but they must really want us to watch that one. Footnote: I did.
Every peak into Polish history ends up being a peak into inspiration for The Witcher.
A bit glossed over. But the topic was a bit too specific. My taste. Love your vids anyway❤️
Make a video about the Paris Commune
"Danzigers" almost made me spit out my coffee
Well, they finally settled it, now it's Polish, it's called Gdansk, and there are no Germans left there! Ahh, Danzig was a dry run for Singapore.
I used to think that the heavy-metal band Danzig was named for the city because it was a flashpoint of World War II. It turns out that band was named for its leader - Glenn Danzig!
Many people here (including myself) have German surnames though, and my great grandfather didn't even speak polish from what i know, so not all Germans were actually expelled.