Die „polnische Frage“ im Umbruch? Innenpolitische Debatten im Deutschen Reich und in Österreich-Ungarn in den Jahren 1917/18 (original) (raw)

Die „polnische Frage“ im Umbruch? Innenpolitische Debatten im Deutschen Reich und in Österreich-Ungarn in den Jahren 1917/18

2020, Krieg und Frieden. Folgen der Russischen Revolution. Nordost-Archiv XXVII (2018), 193-212

Following the start of the First World War the German Empire as well as Austria-Hungary pushed for settlement of differences on the domestic political front. However unresolved conflicts erupted all the more violently during the last years of the war. Likewise, discussions regarding the so-called Polish question intensified. On the one hand the discussions were characterised by the individual domestic political situations whereby the war experiences also played a vital role. Whereas in the German Empire the debates focused mainly on continued legal discrimination and on equal civic rights, in the Habsburg Monarchy it was questions regarding national autonomy and in Austria complaints took centre stage, which concerned the infringements of rights committed by the government and the army during the war. On the other hand the changed constellation in foreign political issues had a fundamental impact. The courtship of the partitioning powers for Polish support had raised hopes amongst the Polish people for an improvement of their domestic political situation, but it had also opened up perspectives for a re-unification of Poland. Political reforms, however, were long in coming. The risk of centrifugal trends was used as an argument to block reforms. The willingness of the political players to compromise was reduced in the face of alternative political options. Whilst in 1917 discussions about the Polish question were still mostly centred around domestic political reform, in 1918 the domestic political demands of the Polish gave way increasingly to preparations to connect to an independent Regency Kingdom of Poland.