Free City of Danzig Government in Exile


The Free City of Danzig Government in Exile or the Free State of Danzig, is a self-declared government in exile which claims sovereignty over the territory of the defunct Free City of Danzig.

Background

The Free City of Danzig was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig and nearly 200 towns in the surrounding areas. It was created on 15 November 1920 in accordance with the 1919 Treaty of Versailles after the end of World War I and was under League of Nations protection. The Free City was primarily inhabited by ethnic Germans but the majority fled or were expelled when the territory was incorporated into Poland at the conclusion of World War II.

History

On 13 November 1947, W. Richter, the chairman of the Association of Nationals of Danzig Free State, announced the formation of a government-in-exile for the Free City of Danzig. The government made pleas to the United Nations, calling for official recognition, the deportation of Poles from its claimed territory, and assistance in reestablishing the Free City. Richter also announced that the association would accept a settlement from the international community that would grant them an alternative territory in a center of commerce. The legislative body of the government in exile, the Rat der Danziger, was established that year. In 1951 and 1961, it was supposedly recognized in secret by Danzig expatriates as the "legal successor of the Senate of the Free City of Danzig."

Government

The Free State of Danzig government is based in Berlin, Germany. It respects the original Constitution of the Free City of Danzig. The official government website is run by the incumbent Head of Foreign Affairs, Senator Ernst F. Kriesner. The government's legislature takes the form of a parliament, the Rat der Danziger, which has 36 members and claims to represent the interests of German Danzigers. Members of the council are elected by Danzig expatriates and their descendants by a mailed-in ballot.

Recognition and relations

A formal letter was sent to the United Nations in 1998 by Senator Kriesner requesting official recognition.
Writing on the lack of official German recognition of the Free City of Danzig Government in Exile, Polish Foreign Minister Władysław Bartoszewski stated that the organization and like-minded Danzig cultural associations were seen in the eyes of the German public as revanchist and politically aligned with the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany.

Claims

The government lays claims to the entire territory once possessed by the Free City of Danzig. It bases the legitimacy of its assertion upon the notion that the Free City of Danzig was a neutral state and that its annexation by Germany in 1939 was illegal; as such, the Allies had no authority in incorporating the city into Poland after World War II. In addition to this, no formal treaty has ever altered the status of the Free City of Danzig, and its incorporation into Poland has rested upon the general acquiescence of the international community.