The German People’s List (DVL) regulated matters of citizenship in the Polish territories which the German Reich had annexed on 26 October 1939.^[1] Initially, Nazi decision-makers intended to resettle the Polish and Jewish populations into the General Government and grant German citizenship only to the remaining population of ‘German descent’. This idea proved unworkable because the areas were predominantly inhabited by Poles.^[2]

Arthur Greiser (1897–1946), as Reich Governor in Posen/Poznań, introduced a ‘people’s register’ system as early as 28 October 1939.^[3] Only Germans who were active in minority organisations (Group A) or who could at least – according to Nazi criteria – be ‘unequivocally’ identified as Germans (Group B) were registered; In 1940 and early 1941, Greiser added Groups C and D for ‘people of German descent eligible for re-Germanisation’.^[4] The system applied only within the Reichsgau Wartheland.

The introduction of the German National Register was announced in the Reich Law Gazette on 4 March 1941. It was aimed at former Polish and Danzig nationals. In the affected provinces of Wartheland, Danzig-West Prussia, Upper Silesia and East Prussia, a central office was established in each, along with branch offices at the lower administrative levels. A ‘Supreme Audit Office’, with Heinrich Himmler (1900–1945), the ‘Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German National Character’, at the chair, served as the highest appellate authority.^[5]

A separate decree issued by the Reich Minister of the Interior on 13 March 1941 regulated the division of the DVL into four groups:

• Group I: Germans “who, prior to 1 September 1939, actively championed German identity in the struggle for national identity”,
• Group II: Germans “who, whilst not having actively championed German identity during the Polish period, have nevertheless demonstrably preserved their German identity”,
• Group III: ‘persons of German descent who, over the years, have formed ties with Polish identity’, as well as ‘members of population groups whose ethnic affiliation is not clearly definable, but who, in terms of blood and culture, lean towards German identity and whose home language is Slavic’, whereby it is explicitly stated that this refers to the Kashubians, Masurians, ‘Water Poles’, Silesians (Upper Silesians) and 100,000 Poles in Danzig-West Prussia who “lean towards German identity”,
• Group IV: ‘persons of German descent […], who have become politically assimilated into Polish society’.^[6]

All other Poles in the annexed territories were regarded as ‘protected subjects’ of the German Empire.^[7]

Members of Groups I and II were granted German citizenship; those in Groups III and IV could acquire it upon proposal through naturalisation, though in the case of Group IV this was to be subject to revocation. Members of Groups III and IV, the so-called ‘Germanised’, could have their German citizenship revoked within ten years.^[8] In accordance with the ‘Second Ordinance on the German National Register’ of 31 January 1942, Group III also automatically acquired German citizenship.^[9]

For the purposes of the procedure, the Reich Ministry of the Interior had issued the ‘Questionnaire for determining the acquisition of German citizenship in the incorporated eastern territories’^[10] and the ‘Supplementary questionnaire for determining German ethnicity’^[11]. In the individual provinces, the procedure was handled very differently depending on the political views of the respective Gauleiters: In Upper Silesia and Danzig-West Prussia, from 1942 onwards, the population was enrolled en masse in the German National Register, primarily in Group III. In Upper Silesia, pragmatic reasons were decisive in this regard: In this industrial region, there was an urgent need for all available labour, and the aim was to bind them to the German Reich. The Gauleiter of Danzig-West Prussia, Albert Forster (1902–1952), attributed largely medieval German roots to the long-established population, including the Polish inhabitants, and sought to carry out a comprehensive ‘Germanisation’; the Gau was to become ‘free of Poles’. Many Poles were forced to submit applications, on pain of expropriation, internment in camps or other penalties. In the Wartheland and the Polish territories that had been incorporated into East Prussia, however, the Gauleiters Arthur Greiser and Erich Koch (1896–1986) endeavoured not to grant German citizenship to Poles; this ‘privilege’ was to be reserved solely for those of supposed German descent. Here, the application process was primarily voluntary.^[12]

By January 1944, 2.75 million people were registered with the DVL, of whom 1.6 million were in Group III in West Prussia and Upper Silesia.^[13] They were able to retain or reclaim their property, received better ration cards than the Polish population, were entitled to German social benefits, and their children were able to attend school. Members of Group III were subject to compulsory military service, whereas those in Group IV were not. In Upper Silesia and West Prussia, particularly from 1943 onwards, many Poles were classified as Group III – mostly under duress – in order to recruit new soldiers.^[14] Approximately 250,000 Poles joined the Wehrmacht as members of the DVL, although many soldiers used their home leave to join the partisans. Many evaded conscription.^[15]

Population of the incorporated eastern territories (January 1944)^[16]

The issue of the ‘Volkslisten’ was one of the most difficult topics in Poland’s process of coming to terms with the Nazi era, as it directly affected relations between neighbours. Those listed in the ‘Volksliste’ were regarded as collaborators; the term ‘Volksdeutsch’ (folksdojcz) still carries a pejorative connotation in Poland today.^[17]

Those on the ‘Volksliste’ who wished to remain in Poland had to undergo a rehabilitation process, which took place in court for Group II and before a commission for Groups III and IV. Members of Groups I and II mostly left Poland voluntarily or through expulsion, whilst those in Groups III and IV largely wished to remain in Poland and, despite certain difficulties, were able to do so.^[18]

The citizenship law of the Federal Republic of Germany regarded DVL members and their descendants as German citizens. In this way, many Polish citizens immigrated to the Federal Republic as ‘Spätaussiedler’ (late repatriates) right up until the 1990s, although no statistics were kept on who invoked the DVL.^[19]

• Martin Broszat: Nazi Policy towards Poland 1939–1945. Stuttgart 1961.
• Sylwia Bykowska: Rehabilitation and Verification of the Nationality of the Polish Population in the Gdańsk Voivodeship after the Second World War. Gdańsk 2012.
• Johannes Frackowiak: The ‘German People’s List’ as an Instrument of Nazi Germanisation Policy in the Annexed Territories of Poland 1939–1945. In: Ibid. (ed.): Nationalist Politics and Resentment. Germans and Poles from 1871 to the Present. Göttingen 2013 (Reports and Studies. Hannah Arendt Institute for the Study of Totalitarianism at Dresden University of Technology 64), pp. 181–220.
• Isabel Heinemann: The ‘Germanisation’ of the annexed territories of western Poland. Jews, Poles and ethnic Germans. In: Ibid.: ‘Race, Settlement, German Blood’. The SS Main Office for Race and Resettlement and the Racial Reorganisation of Europe. Göttingen 2003, pp. 187–303.
• Ryszard Kaczmarek: Upper Silesia during the Second World War. Katowice 2006.
• Ryszard Kaczmarek: Polacy w Wehrmachcie [Poles in the Wehrmacht]. Kraków 2010.
• Jerzy Kochanowski: Traitors or Fellow Citizens? State and Society in Poland on the Issue of the ‘Ethnic Germans’ before and after 1945. In: Ibid., Maike Sach (ed.): The ‘Ethnic Germans’ in Poland, France, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Myth and Reality. Osnabrück 2006 (Individual Publications of the German Historical Institute in Warsaw 12), pp. 333–352.
• Christoph Pallaske (ed.): Migration from Poland to Germany. On the History and Present of a European Migration System. Baden-Baden 2001.
• Krzysztof Stryjkowski: The Situation of Persons Registered in Greater Poland on the German Nationality List in the Years 1945–1950. Poznań 2004.

• [First] Ordinance on the German Population Register and German Nationality in the Annexed Eastern Territories of 4 March 1941 (RGBl I, 1941, pp. 118–120): alex.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/alex?aid=dra&datum=1941&page=146&size=45 (accessed: 11 January 2021)
• Second Ordinance on the German National Register and German citizenship in the incorporated eastern territories of 31 January 1942 (RGBl I, 1942, p. 51ff.): alex.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/alex?aid=dra&datum=1942&page=153&size=45 (accessed: 11 January 2021)
• Response by the Federal Government to the written question tabled by the SPD parliamentary group, German Bundestag, Parliamentary Paper 12/2680 of 16 June 1992: dip21.bundestag.de/dip21/btd/12/028/1202816.pdf (Accessed: 11 January 2021)

[1] This entry deals with the German Ethnic Register in the Polish territories that were incorporated into the German Reich on 26 October 1939. For the territory of the General Government, the ‘Ordinance on the Introduction of an Identification Card for Persons of German Ethnic Origin’ was issued on 26 January 1940, and the ‘Ordinance on the Introduction of an Identity Card for Persons of German Descent’ on 29 October 1941. In some cases, these regulations are also referred to as the ‘Volksliste’, but they are not the subject of this text. Both decrees and other related legislative acts can be found in: Karol Marian Pospieszalski (ed.): Hitler’s ‘Occupation Law’ in Poland. Part II: General Government [Nazi Occupation Law in Poland. Part 2: General Government]. Poznań 1958 (Documenta occupationis 6/2), pp. 174–208.

[2] Broszat: Polenpolitik, pp. 118ff.; Christopher Browning: The Unleashing of the ‘Final Solution’. Nazi Policy towards the Jews 1939–1942. Munich 2003, pp. 30–64.

[3] Order No. 6 of the Head of the Civil Administration under the Military Commander of Poznań, reprinted in: Karol Marian Pospieszalski (ed.): The German National List in the ‘Warta Region’. A Selection of Documents [The German National List in the ‘Warta Region’. Documents]. Poznań 1949 (Documenta occupationis teutonicae 4), p. 46.

[4] For a detailed account of the system in Poznań, see the so-called Strickner Report of 1942 or 1943. Herbert Strickner: The ‘German National Register’ in Poznań, reprinted in: Pospieszalski: Niemiecka lista narodowa [The German People’s List] (note 3), pp. 19–130; Broszat: Polenpolitik, pp. 122ff.

[5] [First] Ordinance on the German National List and German citizenship in the incorporated eastern territories of 4 March 1941. In: Reichsgesetzblatt, 1941, Part 1, pp. 118ff., §§ 1–2.

[6] Acquisition of German citizenship by former Polish and Danzig nationals, reprinted in: Karol Marian Pospieszalski (ed.): Hitler’s ‘Occupation Law’ in Poland. Part I: ‘Incorporated’ Territories [Nazi Occupation Law in Poland. Part I: ‘Incorporated’ Territories]. Poznań 1952 (Documenta occupationis 6/1), pp. 122–139, here pp. 125–129.

[7] [First] Ordinance (note 5), p. 119, § 7.

[8] [First] Ordinance (note 5), p. 119, §§ 3–6. Citizens of Danzig were granted German citizenship directly, bypassing the DVL, unless they did not meet the requirements for Groups I and II. The DVL was primarily aimed at those who had previously been Polish citizens.

[9] Second Ordinance on the German National Register and German citizenship in the incorporated eastern territories of 31 January 1942. In: Reich Law Gazette, 1942, Class 1, pp. 51ff., § 5.

[10] This questionnaire had already been issued by the Reich Minister of the Interior on 25 November 1939 in a decree: Questionnaire for determining the acquisition of German nationality in the incorporated eastern territories, reprinted in: Pospieszalski (ed.): Hitler’s ‘Occupation Law’ (note 6), pp. 112–114.

[11] Supplementary questionnaire for determining German ethnicity, in: Pospieszalski, Hitlerowskie ‘prawo’ okupacyjne [Nazi Occupation Law] (note 6), pp. 136ff.

[12] Broszat: Polenpolitik, pp. 126–131; Kaczmarek: Górny Śląsk [Upper Silesia], pp. 192–194; Dieter Schenk: Hitler’s Man in Danzig. Albert Forster and the Nazi Crimes in Danzig-West Prussia. Bonn 2000, pp. 205–212.

[13] Broszat: Policy towards Poland, p. 133.

[14] Kaczmarek: Górny Śląsk [Upper Silesia], pp. 184ff.

[15] Kaczmarek: Polacy w Wehrmachcie [Poles in the Wehrmacht], pp. 173–178.

[16] From: Broszat: National Socialist Policy towards Poland, p. 134.

[17] Stryjkowski: Położenie osób wpisanych [The Situation of Registered Persons], p. 687.

[18] Kaczmarek: Polacy w Wehrmachcie [Poles in the Wehrmacht], pp. 377ff.; cf. Bykowska: Rehabilitacja i weryfikacja [Rehabilitation and Verification].

[19] ‘The mass naturalisations, in particular those carried out under the “Ordinance on the German National Register and German Citizenship in the Incorporated Eastern Territories of 4 March 1941, as amended by the Second Ordinance on the German National List and German citizenship in the incorporated eastern territories of 31 January 1942’ have been recognised under Section 1(1)(d) of the Act on the Regulation of Questions of Citizenship (StARegG) of 22 February 1955 (Federal Law Gazette I, p. 65) for persons of German ethnicity, provided that they have not renounced German nationality by means of an explicit declaration.” Response by the Federal Government to the minor parliamentary question from the SPD parliamentary group, German Bundestag, Parliamentary Paper 12/2680 of 16 June 1992.

Roland Borchers: Deutsche Volksliste. In: Online Encyclopaedia on the Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe, 2014. URL: ome-lexikon.uni-oldenburg.de/p32838 (accessed 11 January 2021).