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• Regained independence was the result of years of Polish endeavours (...)
• The smooth course of the meetings (...)
• There were statements during discussions (...)
• The commissariat, taking over the leadership (...)
• The matter of the affiliation of the Polish territories (...)

The smooth course of the meetings was ensured by earlier preparations and arrangements. If we also take into account the intention of the uniform demonstration of the Poles, they were simply necessary. Before commencement of the sessions, some unofficial talks were held. They resulted, among other things, from the necessity to explain such issues as the number of assigned mandates, and reservations as to the method of conducting elections, and also the distribution of seats in the sejm’s authorities. The female delegates who arrived in Poznań met in the day-care centre of the Female Landowner Society in the Bazar Hotel on the eve of the sessions. Intense debates probably also took place in Zielona Kawiarnia on Wrocławska Street, where delegates from Westphalia and Rhineland as well as representatives of the organisers of the Sejm gathered. Here, the accusation of electing too many delegates in certain districts was considered too. However, it was agreed that the number intended for the exiles was not globally exceeded. As a result of a compromise there was an arrangement that member of parliament Stanisław Nowicki, an activist of the National Workers Party would become the marshal, while a delegate from Westphalia would be the vice-marshal and the delegate from Berlin - the secretary (no names were mentioned). And this is in fact what happened, Nowicki became the marshal, Stanisław Piecha from Westphalia was the vice-marshal and Feliks Kosztuski from Berlin was proposed as the secretary. Furthermore, other vice-marshals were as follows: Józef Rymer from Silesia, Stefan Łaszewski, a member of parliament from Grudziądz, and parish priest Walenty Barczewski from Royal Prussia. The secretaries were as follows: Antoni Wierusz Ph.D. from Dolsk, Countess Maria Potocka from Piątkowo, Szczepan Gracz from Lębork, Franciszek Kurpierz from Opole and Dobrogost Lossow from Grabonog.

For the time of the Sejm’s sessions, Poznań was decorated with national symbols. The streets through which the march of the delegates passed were decorated with particular splendour. Busts of national heroes were placed in windows, simply ”the city was flooded with  red and white banners as well as standards with a white eagle against a red background”. Near St. Martin’s Church, a garland with the image of a White Eagle with wings rising to fly was hung over the street, then slightly further away, over Piekary Street, just at the entrance to the session room, a garland with the inscription “Welcome” was also hung. As Bohdan Hulewicz mentioned after some years, Helmut von Gerlach, a state under-secretary in the Prussian Ministry of Interior Affairs, who observed the proceedings of the Sejm, said: ”There is no point in fooling ourselves. The Poznań region is completely lost to us”. 

Before the beginning of the sessions, the delegates got together in the parish church, where Primate Edmund Dolbor celebrated a holy mass, and a solemn sermon was delivered by Priest Antoni Stychel, also a parliament member. The great march through the city, which was in the form of a demonstration, brought the delegates to the Apollo room. There, three plenary sessions of the parliament were held, one on each day. 

The room space was divided into two sections. The podium, which we know from illustrations, was occupied by the praesidium of the parliament, and the delegates and guests were seated in the auditorium. Behind the praesidium’s table, there was a decoration, on top of which an eagle with wings spread rising to fly was located. Underneath, on four pilasters, there were eagles which symbolised the four districts that took part in the parliamentary sessions: Poznań, Pomerania, Silesia and Warmia and Masuria. On the ramp of the stage, four shields with eagles were placed, and in between them, there was an emblem which was the symbol of emigration - swallows in a nest. 

Suitable prints containing drafts of legal acts which were to be adopted by the parliament were prepared for the delegates. They were compiled in the form of a booklet: ”Presentations for the Partition Sejm of Poznań in the year 1918”, and in the form of a large sheet: ”Resolutions to be sent to coalition states handed over to the Polish National Committee in Paris” (the print which bore this title also included ”General Resolutions”). The course of the sessions was covered in a bulletin entitled ”Parliamentary journal summary of the course of the sessions of the Partition Sejm of Poznań”. Four issues of this bulletin were published and when the sessions came to an end, their descriptions, including long quotations from the respective speeches, were published in the form of a brochure. All this proved that the Partition Sejm of Poznań was prepared with particular care, whereby the intention was to give it a parliamentary dimension. 

The foundation for all deliberations and postulates during the Sejm’s meetings, was the assumption that the peace congress would determine the future of the Polish state and the territories of the Prussian partition. National solidarity and the introduction of changes by way of evolution were the two important cornerstones of the arrangements. Not everyone agreed to this, therefore, some protests were expressed also after the sessions had come to an end.