Established on 26 October 1939 as the Reichsgau Danzig, and renamed the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia on 2 November 1939.

The largest river was the Vistula, which flowed from south to north through the eastern part of Danzig-West Prussia. The Reichsgau was predominantly characterised by lowland, lying at an altitude of around 80 to 100 metres above sea level. The highest point was the 331-metre-high Turmberg near Karthaus. Around one-fifth of Danzig-West Prussia was covered in forest.

For the history up to autumn 1939, see West Prussia/Pomerelia and Danzig/Gdańsk.

Following Poland’s military defeat in October 1939, the Nazi German Reich annexed Western Poland and large parts of Central Poland as incorporated eastern territories. The Reichsgau of Danzig-West Prussia was formed from the greater part of the Polish Pomerelia Voivodeship, the former Free City of Danzig, and the districts of Marienburg, Marienwerder, Rosenberg, Stuhm, the rural and urban districts of Elbing. Danzig became the Gau capital. Adolf Hitler appointed Albert Forster (1902–1952) as Gauleiter and Reich Governor; he held these offices until the end of the war.

Germanisation was at the heart of the National Socialist occupation policy in the annexed eastern territories. Hitler entrusted this task to Heinrich Himmler (1900–1945), as well as to the Gauleiters of the eastern territories. Differences between Himmler and Forster had already emerged as early as 1939–40, yet the administration and the police carried out the mass crimes in the region jointly. Forster regarded the murder of the Polish intelligentsia as an essential prerequisite for ‘Germanisation’. For the Security Police, the murder of Polish intellectuals, politicians and clergy served a preventive purpose: the aim was to weaken any anticipated Polish resistance to the German occupation from the outset and to deprive it of its potential leaders. In addition, other groups – including patients in psychiatric hospitals, ‘asocials’ and children in care – fell victim to the mass crimes perpetrated by SS units, Einsatzgruppen and the ‘Selbstschutz’, a militia of local ‘ethnic Germans’, committed in September and October 1939. In total, around 30,000 people fell victim to the shootings in the autumn of 1939, in which the Wehrmacht also took part.^[1] After the spring of 1940, mass executions occurred only sporadically.

The murder of the Polish leadership, population transfers and the terror of the occupation stifled the resistance, which remained limited compared to that in the General Government. Nevertheless, expropriations and forced Germanisation led to an influx of recruits into the Polish underground organisations.

As the front line drew nearer, the administration began drawing up plans in early September 1944 for the evacuation of the German population from the eastern Gau territory. When the Red Army launched its offensive in early January 1945 and the German front collapsed within a few days, these plans quickly proved useless. The evacuation turned into a chaotic exodus, with streams of refugees from East Prussia further exacerbating the chaos.^[2]

The concept of the Reichsgau, which was also implemented in a similar form in the Reichsgau Sudetenland, the Reichsgau Wartheland and in , provided for the entire administration – including the judicial and financial systems – to be placed under the authority of the Reich Governor. The railways and postal service, however, remained under the authority of the Berlin headquarters. The Reich Governor had no influence over the police, particularly the Gestapo, or over the Germanisation authorities of the ‘Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German National Character’ (Himmler). The Reich Governor was empowered to issue decrees.

The Reichsgau had a Gau self-administration which took on tasks for which the material resources of the municipalities and districts were insufficient. However, there was no clear demarcation of responsibilities. Both the Gau self-government and the municipal and district administrations were responsible, amongst other things, for healthcare, youth welfare and local public transport.

In December 1939, a Higher Regional Court was established in Danzig, which had jurisdiction over the former Free City and the annexed territory. A second Higher Regional Court was situated in Marienwerder/Kwidzyn, covering the former East Prussian districts. With the abolition of this court on 1 January 1943, the Danzig Higher Regional Court assumed jurisdiction over the entire Reichsgau. In total, there were six district courts in Danzig-West Prussia – seven from 1943 onwards – and several dozen local courts. As in the ‘Altreich’, a special jurisdiction existed, which was progressively expanded until 1942. Special courts were established in Bromberg/Bydgoszcz, Danzig, Graudenz/Grudziądz, Elbing/Elbląg, Konitz/Chojnice and Thorn/Toruń.

The economic structure of the Reichsgau of Danzig-West Prussia changed compared with the pre-war period, primarily as a result of the expropriation of Polish and Jewish real estate and movable property, which was to be transferred to ‘ethnic German’ resettlers. In reality, it was the Reich treasury that benefited most of all. The expropriations fostered corruption, as many officials and the ‘provisional administrators’ of the confiscated assets helped themselves to Polish and Jewish property with relative ease and largely without fear of criminal consequences.‘Ethnic German’ competitors also benefited from the seizure of Polish and Jewish businesses.

Expropriations, corruption, expulsions and the recruitment of Poles as forced labourers for the “Altreich” had a negative impact on economic strength.

Forestry and agriculture were significant sectors, with arable farming dominating. Livestock farming existed on a large scale only in the Vistula lowlands. With the exception of the shipyards in Danzig and Gdingen/Gdynia (1939–1945: Gotenhafen), which mainly worked for the navy, there were hardly any significant industrial enterprises. As a result of the bombing campaign, from 1942/43 onwards, businesses from the German Reich were relocated to the Reichsgau.

The Reichsgau of Danzig-West Prussia was conveniently situated on the Vistula. ‘Gotenhafen’ was home to the most modern port on the Baltic Sea; however, it lost its significance due to the war and served primarily the navy. There were railway lines to Königsberg/Kaliningrad and Insterburg/Černjachovsk, continuing on towards the Baltic states, as well as towards Stettin/Szczecin and Berlin. Two motorways were planned: one from Stettin via Danzig to Königsberg, and another from Danzig towards Bromberg, Posen/Poznań and on to Breslau/Wrocław.

In December 1939, Danzig-West Prussia had a population of approximately 2.287 million, of whom around 1.5 million lived in the annexed territory, 302,000 in the former East Prussian districts and 408,000 in the former Free City of Danzig.^[3] Only in the former Free City of Danzig and in the former East Prussian districts was there a German majority, whilst in the annexed part, Poles constituted the majority in 1939, accounting for more than two-thirds of the population.

The ethnic composition of the annexed territory changed considerably by the end of the war. Between 41,000 and 91,000 Poles were deported to the General Government by March 1941.^[4] Almost 58,000 Poles were deported to the heartland of the German Reich for forced labour by the end of the war.^[5] However, the most significant development was the mass registration in the German National Register. In 1942, the inhabitants of entire villages were forcibly ‘Germanised’ in this way. By the end of 1942, a total of 1,153,000 people had been included in the four groups of the Volksliste, 870,000 of whom were in Group 3, into which mainly (forcibly) ‘Germanised’ Poles were registered. In addition, there were around 50,000 ‘Reich Germans’ who had immigrated to the Reichsgau, and 51,000 German-Baltic ‘resettlers’.^[6] In 1942, Poles accounted for less than a third of the total population of the annexed territory.

The Jewish population, which had numbered around 15,000 before 1939, had for the most part been deported to the General Government or had already been murdered by the autumn of 1939. By February 1940, only 1,800 Jews remained in the Reichsgau, most of them in the city of Danzig.^[7] Some of the Jews from Danzig managed to emigrate before 1 May 1941. The rest were deported to the Warsaw Ghetto, to Theresienstadt or ‘to the East’.^[8]

Around one million people lived in rural areas. The massacre of the Polish intelligentsia had an impact on the social composition of the Polish population, with the proportion of the lower classes rising sharply in relation to the total population. The Polish population was subjected to massive discrimination (including being subject to special laws, being disadvantaged in terms of food supplies, etc.). Even in the pre-war period, there had been considerable tensions between the German and Polish populations, which were fuelled by propaganda on both sides and escalated in September 1939.

There were also many divisions within the German population. ‘Reich Germans’, who made up the majority of civil servants and the provisional administrators of confiscated property, often treated the local Germans and the‘resettlers’ with condescension. The “ethnic Germans” felt disadvantaged compared to the “resettlers”, who were given priority in the distribution of the confiscated property. Germanised Poles were regarded as “second-class” Germans and were discriminated against.

Cultural policy in the Reichsgau of Danzig-West Prussia was primarily aimed at cultural ‘Germanisation’. Traces of Polish culture, Polish monuments and cemeteries were removed; Polish archives and libraries were confiscated and closed; and Polish newspapers were shut down. Cultural policy was directed exclusively at the German population. Poles were forbidden from attending theatres, cinemas or other places of entertainment, and were not permitted to own radio sets.

As early as the autumn of 1939, the Danzig Regional Chamber of Culture had registered all ‘cultural workers’ in the Reichsgau. On 1 January 1940, the Reich Chamber of Culture Act was introduced in Danzig-West Prussia. Anyone wishing to work in journalism or the arts was now required to become a member of the Chamber of Culture; Jews, Poles and political opponents of the Nazi regime were barred from doing so and were banned from practising their professions.

In 1939, the Reich Radio Station Danzig began broadcasting. It reported on visits by Hitler, Goebbels (1897–1945) and other senior Nazi officials to the Reichsgau, had its own orchestra and broadcast radio plays produced in-house. A key focus of cultural policy was the medium of film, which was of great importance for propaganda. In 1940, there were 20 cinemas in Danzig-West Prussia. Theatres performed in Danzig, Elbing, Graudenz, Bromberg and Thorn, whilst a travelling theatre company toured the smaller towns. The ‘Danzig-West Prussia Exhibition Association’ organised propaganda exhibitions on Germanisation and art from the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia that conformed to the regime’s ideology. To foster ‘folk culture’, music commissioners appointed by the Reich Music Chamber established music associations and choirs, which also performed at NSDAP celebrations.^[9]

In the autumn of 1939, the Catholic Church faced widespread persecution. Numerous Polish priests were arrested, deported and shot, and church property was expropriated. Polish-language church services and the administration of the sacraments in Polish were banned. However, the Church’s organisational structure was left largely intact. From the spring of 1940 onwards, ‘Reich German’ clergy were sent in to take over pastoral care for the Polish and German populations. Polish parish priests were also reinstated if they allowed themselves to be included in the ‘Volksliste’ (list of citizens).^[10]

The role of the German minority during the occupation is the subject of heated debate amongst researchers. Whilst some historians assume that the Germans were collectively complicit in Nazi rule, others emphasise that only a section of the minority was won over to National Socialism.^[11] The number of Germans killed by Poles whilst repelling German raids during the German–Polish War has also long been a matter of dispute.^[12] Today, estimates range between 4,000 and 5,437. Both lines of argument concern not only the Reichsgau Danzig-Westprussia, but the whole of Poland, which was occupied by the Germans in September 1939. However, they are of particular relevance to the history of the Reichsgau of Danzig-West Prussia, as this was where the largest German minority lived in 1939.

• Bogdan Chrzanowski, Andrzej Gąsiorowski, Krzysztof Steyer: Polska Podziemna na Pomorzu w latach 1939–1945 [The Polish Underground in Pomerania 1939–1945]. Gdańsk 2005.
• Christian Jansen, Arno Weckbecker: The ‘Volksdeutsche Selbstschutz’ in Poland 1939/40. Munich 1992 (Series of the Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 64).
• Włodzimierz Jastrzębski: Nationality Policy in the Gdańsk-West Prussia Reich District (1939–1945) [Nationality Policy in the Reichsgau Gdańsk-West Prussia (1939–1945)]. Bydgoszcz 1977.
• Włodzimierz Jastrzębski, Jan Sziling: The Nazi Occupation of Gdańsk Pomerania, 1939–1945 [The Nazi Occupation in Gdańsk Pomerania, 1939–1945]. Gdańsk 1979.
• Herbert S. Levine: Local Authority and the SS State: The Conflict over Population Policy in Danzig-West Prussia, 1939–1945. In: Central European History 2 (1969), pp. 331–355.
• Katarzyna Minczykowska, Jan Sziling (eds.): The Third Reich’s Germanisation Policy in Gdańsk Pomerania, 1939–1945. Proceedings of a public science conference held in Toruń on 18 November 2006 [The Germanisation Policy of the Third Reich in Gdańsk Pomerania 1939–1945. Papers from a popular science conference held in Toruń on 18 November 2006]. Toruń 2007 (Library of the ‘Archiwum Pomorskie Armii Krajowej’ Foundation in Toruń 51).
• Dieter Pohl: The Reich Gaus of Danzig-West Prussia and Wartheland: Colonial Administration or a Model for Future Gau Administration? In: Jürgen John, Horst Möller, Thomas Schaarschmidt (eds.): The Nazi Gaus. Regional Intermediate Authorities in the Centralised ‘Führer State’. Munich 2007 (Series of the Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, special issue), pp. 395–405.

[1] Klaus-Michael Mallmann, Jochen Böhler, Jürgen Matthäus: Einsatzgruppen in Poland. An Account and Documentation. Darmstadt 2008 (Publications of the Ludwigsburg Research Centre of the University of Stuttgart 12), p. 88.

[2] Blanka Meissner: The Evacuation of the German Administrative Authorities and the German Population from the Occupied Polish Territories in 1944–1945 [The evacuation of the German administration and the German population from the occupied Polish territories in the years 1944–1945]. Warsaw 1987, pp. 86ff.

[3] Berlin-Dahlem Publications Office (ed.): The Eastern Territories of the German Reich and the General Government of the Occupied Polish Territories in Statistical Figures. Berlin 1940, pp. 23–30; Handbook of Judicial Administration. Berlin 1942, pp. 74, 186.

[4] Forced Resettlement, Flight and Expulsion 1939–1959. Atlas of the History of East-Central Europe. Bonn 2009 (Publication Series/Federal Agency for Civic Education 1015), p. 65. Maria Rutowska: Wysiedlenia ludności polskiej z Kraju Warty do Generalnego Gubernatorstwa 1939–1941 [The Expulsion of the Polish Population from the Wartheland to the General Government 1939–1941]. Poznań 2003, p. 37.

[5] Czesław Łuczak: Polish Workers in Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Development and Tasks of Research. In: Ulrich Herbert (ed.): Europe and the ‘Reichseinsatz’. Foreign Civilian Workers, Prisoners of War and Concentration Camp Inmates in Germany 1938–1945. Essen 1991, pp. 90–105, here p. 98.

[6] Ryszard Kaczmarek: German Nationality Policy in the Gau of West Prussia and in the Province of Upper Silesia. In: Minczykowska, Sziling (eds.): Germanisation Policy, pp. 23–40, here p. 32.

[7] Forced Resettlement, Flight and Expulsion 1939–1959. Atlas of the History of East-Central Europe, licensed edition, Bonn 2009, p. 112.

[8] Sophia Kemlein: On the History of the Jews in West Prussia and Danzig (up to 1943), in: Danzig Gdańsk. German–Polish History, Politics and Literature, Dillingen 1996, pp. 94–109, here pp. 106, 108; Erwin Lichtenstein: The Jews of the Free City of Danzig under National Socialist Rule, Tübingen 1973, pp. 119, 135–141.

[9] Wolfgang Diewerge: The New Reichsgau of Danzig-West Prussia. A Report on the Reconstruction Efforts in the German East. Berlin 1940 (The German Gaue since the Seizure of Power), pp. 86–90.

[10] Stefan Samerski: Priests in Annexed Poland. The Pastoral Care of German Clergy in the Polish Territories Annexed to the German Reich, 1939–1945. Bonn 1997 (Historical Research), pp. 19–21.

[11] E.g.: Barbara Bojarska: The German Minority’s Role in the Extermination of the Polish Population of Wąbrzeźno District in 1939 [The German Minority’s Role in the Extermination of the Polish Population in Briesen (Wąbryeźno) in 1939], in: Zapiski historyczne 36 (1971) 2, pp. 89–103; Chinciński, Tomasz: Hitler’s Outpost. German Diversionary Operations in Poland in 1939 [Hitler’s Outpost. German Sabotage in Poland in 1939], Warsaw 2010, p. 390; Łuczak, Czesław: The behaviour of Germans towards Poles in the Reichsgau Wartheland (1939 to 1945). In: Helga Schultz (ed.): Prussia’s East – Poland’s West; The Breakdown of a Neighbourhood (Frankfurt Studies on the Border Region, Vol. 7), Berlin 2001, pp. 217–226.

[12] Karol Marian Pospieszalski: The Case of the 58,000 ‘Volksdeutsch’. A rebuttal of Nazi slanders regarding the losses suffered by the German minority in Poland in the final months before the outbreak of war and during the September Campaign (= Documenta occupationis, Vol. 7), 2nd ed., Poznań 1981, put the number of Ethnic Germans killed at 2,000. Gotthold Rhode, on the other hand, estimated the death toll at 12,857 in the 1950s, a figure derived from Nazi propaganda. Later, Rhode wrote of 4,500 killed. (Gotthold Rhode: Poland from the Restoration of Independence to the Era of the People’s Republic 1918–1970, in: Theodor Schieder (ed.) Handbook of European History, Vol. 7/2, Stuttgart 1979, p. 1038, note 11).

Maximilian Becker: Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia. In: Online Encyclopaedia on the Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe, 2012. URL: ome-lexikon.uni-oldenburg.de/54147.html (as at 7 October 2021).