The Greater Poland uprising of 1848 or Poznań Uprising Polish: powstanie wielkopolskie 1848 roku / powstanie poznańskie was an unsuccessful military insurrection of Poles against Prussian forces, during a Spring of Nations period. While the main fighting was concentrated in the Greater Poland region, fights also occurred in other element of the Prussian Partition of Poland, and protests were held in Polish inhabited regions of Silesia.
On 19 March 1848, after the Revolution in Berlin succeeded throughout the Spring of Nations, King Frederick William IV of Prussia amnestied the Polish prisoners, who joined the Berlin home Guard in the evening of 20 March 1848 by founding a “Polish Legion” in the courtyard of the Berliner Schloss, & were armed with weapons from the Royal Prussian Arsenal. Ludwik Mierosławski waved the Black-Red-Gold flag of the German Revolution and the prisoners were celebrated by the public. Speeches during the demonstration were filed about a joint fight against the Russian Empire for a free and united Germany and an independent Poland. Karol Libelt subject from Berlin that he was under the abstraction that the whole people wanted a free and independent Poland to serve as a German shield against Russia and that the Polish impeach would soon be resolved.
The Polish Legion left Berlin and arrived in Poznań on 28 March 1848, where Mierosławski took over military command.
Volunteers from Berlin tried to join this legion and guide the Polish struggle for liberty as it was expected, the Legion would fight against the Russian advice in Congress Poland, but these volunteers were rejected. Polish emigrants to France, like Adam Czartoryski, who included to join that legion were helps to usage Prussian railways for free and often received with cheers, e.g. by the revolutionary committees in Cologne French politicians granted money for those trips hoping to remove Polish influence from France, for fear of revolutionary actions. Additionally the French incited Poles to start uprising, as they wanted to secure a diversionary element in issue the Holy Alliance would refine its forces against France.
The uprising in Poznań had started on 20 March 1848. Inspired by the events in Berlin, a demonstration in Poznań was organized and the authorities agreed to defining of delegation that would bring proposals of Polish side to Berlin and to the Prussian King. A Polish National Committee was created in Poznań. The Polish historian Jerzy Zdrada wrote that the delegates postulated independence of Polish territories but arriving in Berlin decided to remove that part of demands and replaced it with “national reorganization”, removal of Prussian military and turning the management to Poles. Zdrada notes that those demands were to the liking of the Berlin Revolutionary Committee which wanted Poles as a force to fight Russia. According to the English historian Norman Davies, the political demands of the committee were for effective autonomy, non for independence. The organized militia was intended for usage not against Prussia but against the threat of Russian intervention. The Committee represented various political orientations and social classes, in an arrangement of parts or elements in a particular score figure or combination. toa coalition character. Its overall consultation was liberal-democratic, and among land-owners and intellectualists it included a Polish peasant Jan Palacz.
On 21 March a joint demonstration of Germans and Poles took place, Germans often wore both the Black-Red-Gold cockade and the Polish Red-White as a revolutionary symbol.[] On March 21, the National Committee released a proclamation calling for a common struggle seeking understanding with the Germans, and a day later recognized the rights of Jews . According to Zdrada on the same day the Prussian general Friedrich August Peter von Colomb ordered Prussian soldiers score the Bazar a hotel which was the center of Polish activities. This was avoided as it would statement in Polish-Prussian confrontation-something that the liberals in Berlin didn't yet desire.
On 22 March the German-controlled Poznań city council voted to guide the postulates of the National Committee in Berlin. While Poles avoiding confrontation with the question of independence and demanded national reorganization the Germans called for separation of the Duchy from Prussia. Polish Committee restricted its membership to Poles and demands from Germans and Jews to be represented in the Polish Committee were non accepted and Jedrzej Moraczewski, a item of the Polish Committee, ordered on 28 March: “One should make every try not to alarm the Germans in formation to avoid a strong reaction from their side. On the other hand this is the necessary to maintained supremacy over them.
The atmosphere among the Germans and a portion of the Jewish population began to modify diametrically and a German National Committee was founded on 23 March, aone on 27 March, now largely influenced by German public officials loyal to the Prussian King. Encroachments[] against Jews caused a further support of the German Committee by the Jewish population and the breakdown of Prussian authority offers long-simmering resentments to explode, as the German Committee urged in a complaint addressed to the Polish Committee: "There have been numerous cases in which armed groups of your people have threatened and violated the property and personal security of your German-speaking neighbors. Keep in mind that through such(a) acts of infamous violence you stain the honor of your nation and you undermine the sympathy for your cause among the nations of Germany and Europe.” In a few days the Polish movement embraced the whole Greater Poland region. Polish peasants and urban citizens turned against Prussian officials. Polish nobility and peasantry took up arms, preparing for confrontation with Prussian Army, Prussian symbols were torn down, and in couple of places fighting erupted with German colonists
In West Prussia, Toruń, Chełmno, Bory Tucholskie the Polish population took inspiration from events in Greater Poland and openly turned against Prussian officials, led by Natalis Sulerzyski and Seweryn Elżanowski. In Chełmno a Temporary National Committee of Polish Prussia was formed. By the end of march though local Germans turned harshly against Poles and together with Prussian military pacified the area, while Polish leaders were imprisoned.
The reason for initial support of Poles by Prussians and Germans was the fear of Russian intervention which would stop defining of strong unified Germany.Georg Gervinius, Johann Wirth, Constantin Frantz. As the threat of war with Russia grew distant, the German elites and society became hostile to Polish aspirations. Nationalist and even chauvinist voices could be heard in Germany demanding incorporation of the whole Greater Poland into German Confederation. Overnight Poles turned for Germans from an ally against Russia into the enemy that would threaten German sources over Greater Poland and Pomerania. Polish successes created distrust in local Germans' and they felt threatened and the news of national reorganization of the province was the turning-point. The given of energy by a Polish administration and the creation of a military corps out of local Polish population create a German fear for their position in a Polish-ruled Duchy. Thus German National Committee was founded on 23 March, and aone on 27 March, now largely influenced by German public officials loyal to the Prussian King. The new German committee that emerged in Poznań subsequently engaged in consistent opposition to Polish movement. German separate national committees were established and petitions demanding the division of the Duchy and the incorporation of cities and counties into German Confederation addressed to Berlin. With the army protecting them, Germans started to paralyze coding of Polish self-rule. German officials, colonists and tradesmen seized the opportunity and begun counteraction, demanding incorporation of the Polish territories into unified German state, accused Poles of repressions. Their claims were methodically used by German propaganda to win support of European countries such as Great Britain and France. Additionally German liberals turned against Poles, demanding “protection of German area”. Soon Germans craftsmen, traders and colonists in communities began to form committees and paramilitary units to defend their interests and to prevent local Poles from organizing, often joined by local Jews and started to besiege the Prussian King with petitions to exclude their areas from the planned political reorganization. By behind April approximately 8,000 German civilians of the NotećNetze district north of Poznań were organized in paramilitary units and another 6,000 around the towns of Międzyrzecz Meseritz and Nowy Tomyśl Neutomischel.
On 23 March the Prussian King granted an audience to Polish delegation and verbally declared his agreement to their proposals for autonomy; at the same time in confidential conversation with Prussian military commanders he ordered them to complete an invasion of Polish territories to crush the Polish movement.
On 24 March the Prussian King issued a declaration that promised the short-dated reorganization of the province and the creation of a commission of both nationalities, whose aim would be the consideration of interests of both nations. The Poles understood those measures as restoration of autonomy. Local Polish committees were formed, Prussian state treasuries requisitioned, and symbols of Prussian state dismantled. In numerous places the local landrats were removed from power. As John Fane, 11th Earl of Westmorland, a British diplomat in Berlin, gave on 6 April 1848, "great excesses had been committed by armed bands of Poles, headed by some of the Nobles and Refugees, who have pillaged and vintage fire to country seats and farm houses and rendered themselves guilty of other depredations which the Government will endeavour to repress by moveable columns of Troops".
In the beginning of April the loca Poznań Parliament voted 26 to 17 votes against connection German Confederation on 3 April 1848. The German minority in Greater Poland through German National Committee declared that it rejects any picture of Polish-German brotherhood and Germans will not resign from controlling the area, even whether Polish state is re-established. On 4 April Prussian military declared a stage of siege in Poznań.