Government General of Warsaw
General Governorate of Warsaw | |||||||||||
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1915–1918 | |||||||||||
Capital | Warsaw | ||||||||||
Common languages | German, Polish | ||||||||||
Government | Occupation authority | ||||||||||
History | |||||||||||
• Established | 18 October 1915 | ||||||||||
• Armistice, withdrawal of German forces | 11 November 1918 | ||||||||||
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Today part of | Poland |
The General Government of Warsaw (German: Generalgouvernement Warschau) was an administrative civil district created by the German Empire in World War I.[1] It encompassed the north-western half of the former Russian-ruled Congress Poland.[1]
Although the territory initially formed a part of the
To the south of the General Government lay an Austro-Hungarian-controlled counterpart called the Military Government of Lublin.[1]
On 18 October 1916 a joint administration was introduced[by whom?] for both districts of the former Congress Poland, with a German civil-servant, Wolfgang von Kries , appointed as the first chief of the intended administration. On 9 December, Kries founded a Polish central bank, which issued a new currency, the Polish marka (Marka polska).
During the occupation, German authorities drafted Poles into forced labor to replace German workers drafted into the army.
Governors-General
Portrait | Name (Birth–Death) |
Term | Notes | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Took office | Left office | Duration | |||
Hans Hartwig von Beseler (1850–1921) |
26 August 1915 | 12 November 1918 | 2–3 years | Also the titular commander of the Polska Siła Zbrojna, or "Polnische Wehrmacht". With the Polish declaration of independence and Germany's surrender, Beseler escaped from Warsaw to Berlin disguised as a worker. Reviled in both Germany and Poland, he died in 1921.[3]
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Chiefs of Joint Administration:
- Wolfgang von Kries (18 October 1915 – 26 November 1917)
- Otto von Steinmeister (26 November 1917 – 6 October 1918)
See also
- Ober Ost
- Kingdom of Poland (1917–1918)
- Polish Border Strip
- Eastern Front (WWI)
- General Governorate of Belgium
Sources
References
- ^ a b c d Liulevicius, Vejas G. (2000). War Land on the Eastern Front: Culture, Identity, and German Occupation in World War I. Cambridge University Press, p. 54. [1]
- ISBN 83-217-2814-6
- ISBN 9780521013246. Retrieved 2021-08-07.