History

The victory of a just cause.

"Marshal Foch, at a single stroke of his pen, caused the frustration of all the ambitious and dangerous German plans with the categoric statement: that's it, no more!”– wrote a journalist from the ”Dziennik Poznański” in February 1919. One hundred years ago, the armistice which ended the Greater Poland uprising was signed in Trier.

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All these issues described above made the eyes of all of the fighting Greater Poland inhabitants turn towards Trier, where yet another meeting of the Armistice Commission was being held without Polish participation. The tension during the negotiations and its very large stake, i.e. the end of the Uprising in the Poznań region and the “legalisation” of its territorial possessions were all clearly felt in Poznań at that time (”Critical days!”– wrote the ”Dziennik” on its first page). The threat of a breakdown in the talks and the very real outbreak of an open conflict between the Entente states and Germany were more probable at that time than ever before. Ultimately, the German diplomats gave way under the pressure of an ultimatum given to them by the main architect of the allied negotiation strategy – Marshal F. Foch. In fact he threatened to leave Trier on 16 February 1919 in the evening, which, in the face of expiry of the existing armistice on the following day (at 5.00 a.m.) would have meant the resumption of military operations. Finally, the Germans gave up and even on that same day, a document which prolonged the armistice from Compiègne was signed for an indefinite period of time, including a key paragraph for the fighting Greater Poland insurgents, according to which the Reich was supposed to “abandon immediately all steps against the Poles in the Poznań region”; the forces which were subordinated to it, were not allowed to pass the demarcation line delimited along the German-Greater Poland Front. Essentially, this meant the formal recognition of the result of the Greater Poland Uprising and the exclusion of the Poznań region from German authority, it also opened the road to the Homeland awaited by all Poznań inhabitants.

 

Piotr Grzelczak

 

VZwycięstwo słusznej sprawy. Rozejm w Trewirze, „Poznański Informator Kulturalny, Sportowy i Turystyczny IKS” 2019, No. 2, pp. 34–35

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