Danzig: Führer durch Stadt und Umgebung, mit Stadtplan und Abbildungen
Dantzig: Dantziger Verlags-Gesellschaft m. b. h. (Paul Rosenberg), 1936. First edition. Softcover. 16mo. 64pp. Original illustrated wrappers. This scarce 1936 travel guide of the Free City of Danzig introduces us to a place which will trigger WWII! The Free City of Danzig was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) and nearly 200 towns in the surrounding areas. It was created on 15 November 1920 in accordance with the terms of Article 100 of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. The Free City included the city of Danzig and other nearby towns, villages, and settlements that had been primarily inhabited by ethnic Germans. As the Treaty stated, the region was to remain separated from post-World War I Germany (the Weimar Republic) and from the newly independent nation of the Second Polish Republic ("interwar Poland"), but it was not an independent state. The Free City was under League of Nations protection and put into a binding customs union with Poland. Poland was given full rights to develop and maintain transportation, communication, and port facilities in the city. The Free City was created in order to give Poland access to a well-sized seaport. While the city's population was majority-German, it had a significant Polish minority as well. The German population deeply resented being separated from Germany, and subjected the Polish minority to discrimination and ethnically based harassment. This was especially true after the Nazi Party gained political control in 1935-36. In 1933, the City's government was taken over by the local Nazi Party which suppressed the democratic opposition. Due to anti-Semitic persecution and oppression, many Jews fled. After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the Nazis abolished the Free City and incorporated the area into the newly formed Reichsgau of Danzig-West Prussia. The Nazis classified the Poles and Jews living in the city as 'subjects of the state', subjecting them to discrimination, forced labor, and expulsions. Many were sent to Nazi concentration camps, including nearby Stutthof (now Sztutowo, Poland). During the city's conquest by the Soviet Army in the early months of 1945, many citizens fled or were killed. After the war, many surviving ethnic Germans were expelled and deported to the West when members of the pre-war Polish minority started returning. The city subsequently became part of Poland, as a consequence of the Potsdam Agreement. Polish settlers replaced the German population. This guide is profusely illustrated throughout with numerous b/w photographic reproductions of views and monuments, and is complete with its large folded map of the city. Wrappers partly and slightly creased. Folded map detached but present. Text in German, gothic script. Wrappers in overall good, interior in very good condition. g to vg. Item #39224
Price: $250.00