How Prussians/Pruzes Lost Their Land

 

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Copyright © 2004 Klaus-Peter Jurkat / As of December 31, 2004

Recently I found a French map drawn in 1994, which shows Europe in the year 1000. The Oder-Neisse border is already drawn there, and Usedom and Szczecin are in the Kingdom of Poland. The Prussians inhabit the area north of the Kingdom of Poland. To the Pruß territory belongs the Kulmer Land.

A look at the “Atlas zur Geschichte”, Gotha 1989, also shows on page 23 a map of Europe from the end of the 9th to the beginning of the 11th century. There Poland is marked as a principality and since 1025 as a kingdom. Usedom and Stettin are in Poland, the western border even more west.

The great Universal Encyclopedia states: “With Duke Mieszko I (around 960-992) from the house of the Piast, Poland enters the light of history. Mieszko’s expansionism brought him into conflict with Otto the Great’s eastern policy. He had to recognize Otto’s sovereignty and be baptized in 966. In 990 he subordinated his country to the See of Peter in order to remove it from German influence. His son Boleslaw I Chrobry (992-1025) formed for the first time a Greater Polish Empire and was able to extend his rule over Lusatia and temporarily over Bohemia and Moravia. With the establishment of the archbishopric of Gniezno (1000) with the suffragan dioceses of Kolberg, Wroclaw, and Krakow (later also Poznan), the Polish church got its own center, which prevented the further advance of Magdeburg to the east and decisively promoted the development of Polish statehood. At the end of his life, Boleslaw was even able to win the royal crown.

Otto I, the Great (936-973), in the course of the German colonization of the East in the northern and central East, advanced the imperial borders approximately to the course of Oder- Bober- Queis.”

There was still a lack of people for a German settlement of the territories. The goal of Otto I was rather to Christianize the Slavic population and thus to include them into the occidental cultural sphere. (Herzfeld).

On his second Italian campaign (961-965) Otto I. acquired the imperial crown in Rome (2.2.962). His third campaign in Italy (966-972) brought papal approval for the establishment of the archbishopric of Magdeburg as a missionary center of the Slavic lands (realized in 968); suffragans became the Mainz bishoprics of Brandenburg and Havelberg and the newly established bishoprics of Merseburg, Meissen and Zeitz (Universal Lexicon).

German eastern colonization in the Middle Ages was the expansion of the German sphere of power, cultural influence and settlement in the east from the Saale/Elbe to the Vistula and in the northeast to the coasts of the Baltic Sea to the Gulf of Finland (Lexikon der Weltgeschichte).

At the beginning of the 13th century, the Curia intensified its missionary attempts in East-Central Europe. Both the Archbishop of Gniezno and the Abbot of Lekno, who was consecrated a missionary bishop in Rome in 1215, were to bring Christianity to Prussia, and in 1217 Pope Honorius III called for a crusade against the Prussians. But all these efforts were in vain. When another military attempt of Mazovian princes to subjugate the region failed, Conrad of Mazovia decided in 1226 to call the Teutonic Order to his aid. The Teutonic Order was supposed to pacify and Christianize the northern neighbor according to Western Christian understanding (Kossert).

In the often mentioned Gold Bull of Rimini, the document of Emperor Frederick II, which authorized the Order to begin its war of conquest in 1226, the land to be conquered is called the territory of the Prussians (confinia Prutenorum) and the Prussian region (partes Pruscie).

Participation in the crusade seemed to promise the surest way to eternal bliss. The reward of the crusade was a plenary indulgence. The conditions for indulgence were confession of sins and repentance, as well as a material or immaterial service to the Church, in this case participation in the Crusade.

The request of Duke Konrad of Mazovia is known only from the often mentioned document of Emperor Frederick II from 1226 , the Gold Bull of Rimini. The document says that Duke Konrad of Mazovia offered to the Teutonic Order the land of Kulm and a neighboring area, so that the Order would take it upon itself to attack and conquer the land of Prussia. The Teutonic Order, it is said, did not accept the offer, but first asked the Emperor to lend it these lands. This the Emperor now did, at least with regard to the Prussia to be conquered, but not for the Kulm lands, which, since they belonged to the Duke of Masovia, he could hardly lend to anyone else. But why could Frederick II lend the Prussian land to be conquered to the Order?

The war lasted 13 years. It brought great destruction and untold misery to the population and has gone down in history as “the dirty war”.

On October 19, 1466, the infamous Second Peace of Thorn was concluded. With this, not the entire territory of the Order’s state came to Poland, as it had been transferred by the Prussian Confederation in 1454, but only the western part: the area west of the Vistula (Pomerelia with Gdansk), but also a part east of the Vistula, namely the Kulm Land, Warmia and another strip along the Vistula with Elbing and Marienburg, altogether an area that roughly corresponded to the later Royal Prussian province of West Prussia.

The bishop of Warmia had joined the Prussian Confederation in 1464 and used all his influence to ensure that this area became part of Poland.

The eastern part remained with the Order, but under Polish sovereignty. The territory was to be firmly connected with the Polish state as well, forming with it “one indivisible body, one people”. The Grand Master had to recognize the Polish King as “Lord and Superior” and to swear a personal oath of allegiance to him at the latest six months after his elevation. On the other hand, the Grand Master should henceforth sit in the Polish Diet as “Prince and Councilor of the Empire of Poland” . In the guild hall in Thorn the Grand Master Ludwig von Erlichshausen took the oath of allegiance to the Polish King Kasimir IV (Sonthofen).

The Grand Master Albrecht von Hohenzollern Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach converted to Protestantism in 1525 and transformed the state of the Order into a secular duchy subject to the Crown of Poland. On April 10, 1525, Duke Albrecht swore the oath of fealty to the Polish king in Cracow and was enfeoffed with the Duchy of Prussia. Albrecht became hereditary duke.

The succession proved to be extremely difficult. Albrecht’s only surviving male descendant, his son Albrecht Friedrich, proved incapable of ruling. Although Albrecht Friedrich took the oath of fealty to the Polish king at the Imperial Diet in Lublin in 1569, his cousin Georg Friedrich of Ansbach and the Elector Joachim II of Brandenburg were enfeoffed to further secure his rule. With the support of the Polish King Stefan Bathory, however, the last of the Hohenzollern line of Ansbach, Margrave Georg Friedrich, finally succeeded in taking over the guardianship of the duchy. In 1578 the official confirmation of his enfeoffment with the Prussian ducal title took place. The Polish king was thus directly involved in securing the rule of the House of Hohenzollern.

George Frederick ruled the country until his death in 1603, while Albrecht’s feeble-minded son Albrecht Frederick was still alive. Only when Albrecht Friedrich died in 1618 did the Duchy of Prussia fall to the Brandenburg line of the Hohenzollerns. Georg Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg (1619-1640), became the first hereditary duke in Prussia. His enfeoffment by the Polish king took place two years later.

The next Elector of Brandenburg on the Prussian ducal chair was Frederick William (1640-1688), the Great Elector, who tried to limit the influence of Polish feudal rule. The Elector intervened in the Swedish-Polish war for the Baltic Sea dominion (1655-1660) in order to be able to shake off the Polish feudal rule in alliance with the Swedes. To do this, he first had to accept Swedish feudal sovereignty, but this was dissolved in the Treaty of Labiau on November 20, 1656. Afterwards Frederick William fought on the Polish side against the Swedes and achieved the release of Prussia from the Polish feudal sovereignty in the Peace of Oliva in 1660. Since the Duchy of Prussia was outside the imperial union, the Great Elector joined the ranks of the sovereign princes of Europe.

Frederick William’s policies reveal that he did not pursue a clear German tradition in Prussia, for he applied for the crown of Poland in 1661/62 and was even willing to give up Brandenburg-Prussia for it (Kossert).

His successor on the Prussian ducal chair was the Elector of Brandenburg Frederick III. (1688-1713), who was crowned King Frederick I of Prussia in 1701.

Frederick William I (1713-1740) endeavored to compensate for the population losses in East Prussia caused by the Great Plague (1709-1711) by taking in settlers. The Kleiner Brockhaus of 1950 mentions that Frederick William I settled about 29000 settlers, especially expelled Salzburg Protestants, in East Prussia from 1722-1740. A more recent Brockhaus Encyclopedia mentions that the new tribe of East Prussians was formed from Pruzes, Lithuanians, Masurians and Germans. According to my calculations, the share of the Pruzes in the forming new tribe of East Prussians in 1740 was 38.5%. Together with 12.2% Lithuanians, the Baltic component made up 50.7%. The proportion of Germans and foreigners was 30.5%, while the Masurians reached 18.8%.

Frederick William I avoided warlike conflicts. His son Frederick II (1740-1786), on the other hand, pursued a different policy. He laid claim to Silesia. When Maria Theresa rejected them, he invaded the claimed land without declaring war. Maria Theresa had to renounce Silesia in the Peace of Breslau in 1742. Frederick II broke the peace with Austria and in the Peace of Dresden in 1745 obtained that Maria Theresa confirmed the renunciation of Silesia.

After 1745, Frederick tried to keep the peace in order to let his acquisition merge with his state in peace. But Austria succeeded in gaining allies against Prussia: Elizabeth of Russia, who had felt Frederick’s ridicule and was promised East Prussia; Saxony, Prussia’s perennial rival, willingly sided with its opponents. Finally, a coalition was formed between Austria, France, Saxony, Russia and Spain, later joined by Sweden and the German Empire. The Prussian king believed that he would be attacked in 1757 and therefore decided to wage a preventive war the year before. He invaded Saxony without a declaration of war. For East Prussia, Frederick II’s policy brought disaster: During the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763), the entire province was under Russian sovereignty from 1758 until the end of the war.

In 1772, under Frederick II’s leadership, the first partition of Poland resulted in the annexation of Warmia and West Prussia by Prussia, but without Gdansk and Thorn, which remained with Poland.

Compared to his strong predecessors, Frederick William II (1786-1797) cut an unconvincing political figure. Annexing neighboring Polish territories, he expanded Prussia through the second and third partitions of Poland in 1793 and 1795. In addition to Danzig and Thorn, Frederick William II also annexed Greater Poland and the old Mazovian territories south of the Masurian border. Thus the original homeland of the Masurians was in Prussian hands as the province of New East Prussia (Kossert). Of course, this also meant that Warsaw, the capital of Poland since the middle of the 16th century, had fallen to Prussia from 1795. The three partitions of Poland were blatant violations of the age-old legal principle: “Nemo plus iuris transferre potest quam ipse habet.”

His successor Frederick William III. (1797-1840) declared war on Napoleon , leading to the Prussian defeat at Jena and Auerstedt in 1807 and the occupation of East Prussia.

In the Peace of Tilsit in 1807 Prussia lost all the territories obtained in the second and third partition of Poland.

According to statistics, more than 739,000 East Prussians left the land of their fathers in the years 1840-1910. They sought better earning opportunities in the Ruhr and Berlin, were lost to the East Prussian tribe and became, if not they, then their children, Rhinelanders, Westphalians or Berliners.

In World War I, the Russian Northern Army pushed the weak German defenses of East Prussia back to the Königsberg area. In the military planning, the securing of East Prussia was neglected (as in the Seven Years’ War). Only the destruction of the Narew Army at Tannenberg (August 23-31, 1914) and the victory over the Nyemen Army at the Masurian Lakes (early September 1914) freed the East Prussian population from the occupiers.

The Treaty of Versailles came into force on January 10, 1920. The main part of the provinces of Posen and West Prussia fell to Poland. This created the “Polish Corridor”, and East Prussia was cut off from direct connection with the motherland. Poland regained access to the Baltic Sea, which it had lost in 1772.

East Prussia lost the Soldau area to Poland under the Treaty of Versailles, while the Memel area, which had been placed under the administration of the Allied principal powers, was later occupied by Lithuanian freedmen and united with Lithuania (1923). Referendums were provided for the East and West Prussian districts of Allenstein and Marienwerder and for Upper Silesia (Art. 88). Danzig was placed under the protection of the League of Nations as a Free City. Its representation in foreign affairs was transferred to Poland. The Free City was incorporated into the Polish Customs Territory (Art. 100 et seq.).

Since the Treaty of Versailles came into force, East Prussia had to struggle with a particular locational disadvantage: expensive transportation through the Polish corridor caused East Prussian sales prices to rise above those of suppliers in the West and Central German sales areas, despite transportation subsidies, and the import of agricultural industrial products from the Reich also became considerably more expensive. Many farmers fell into debt. Since net yields dropped sharply after 1918, financial liabilities soon could no longer be covered from yields (Kossert).

Polish attacks on Ukraine (capture of Kiev) lead to the open outbreak of a Russian-Polish war in 1920. The Red Army reaches the gates of Warsaw in a stormy offensive. With the help of French officers (former Chief of Staff Foch and General Weygand), credits and material supplies, Marshal Pilsudski achieves a victory in the Battle of Warsaw (August 1920), which forces the Russian army to retreat in flight. The Peace of Riga (March 1921) leaves Russia in possession of Ukraine, but pushes the Polish eastern border 150 km across the Curzon Line, (provided for in the Versailles Treaty !) into White Russian territory (Herzfeld).

The referendum in Masuria on July 11, 1920 resulted in 99.32% votes for “East Prussia” and 0.68% votes for “Poland”. In the district of Oletzko only two votes were counted for Poland.

After the fall of the Hohenzollerns in 1918, the revolutionary “provisional government supported by the confidence of the soldiers’ councils” initially called for Prussia to be absorbed into the Reich, but the will for statehood prevailed in the Prussian state assembly elected in 1919, in which the SPD was the strongest party. After lively debates, the assembly adopted the constitution of the Free State of Prussia in 1920. While the government of the Reich was subsequently supported by frequently changing coalitions of predominantly bourgeois parties, in Prussia the SPD had a firm position with Minister President Braun and Interior Minister Severing. After the NSDAP’s election victory in April 1932, the Braun cabinet remained in office as the caretaker Prussian government. In July 1932, however, Reich Chancellor v. Papen was appointed Reich Commissioner for Prussia and the previous ministers were dismissed. In April 1933, Göring became Prussian prime minister. In October 1933, the Prussian parliament was dissolved in execution of the Gleichschaltung of the Länder. With the exception of the Ministry of Finance, the Prussian ministries were merged with the Reich ministries (Universal Lexikon).

On January 26, 1934, Poland and the German Reich concluded a non-aggression agreement for 10 years. Hitler thus abandoned the policy of good understanding with the Soviet Union that had been followed during the Weimar Republic. As a result, the Soviet Union moved closer to the Western powers out of distrust of Germany and Poland.

A non-aggression pact was concluded between the German Reich and the Soviet Union on August 23, 1939. In a secret additional protocol, the contracting parties agreed on their spheres of interest in the East, with Polish territories east of the Narew, Vistula, and San rivers being granted to the Soviet Union.

Beginning on September 17, 1939, the Soviet Union began its invasion of eastern Poland after German troops crossed the Polish border on September 1, 1939. In addition to the non-aggression pact of August 23, the Soviet Union was also granted Lithuania as a sphere of interest, while the German Reich received the area between the Vistula and the western Bug. On October 8, 1939, the provinces ceded in the Treaty of Versailles were reincorporated into the Reich. The rest of Poland, insofar as it was not annexed to the Soviet Union, was established as the General Government on October 25, 1939.

Without a declaration of war, German troops invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941.

At the Crimea Conference in Yalta in February 1945, Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill met to agree on the postwar reorganization of Europe in view of Germany’s imminent collapse. The Allies decide that Poland’s eastern border should follow the Curzon Line proposed in 1919. No final agreement is reached on the western border. Churchill and Roosevelt think of the Oder, Stalin wants the Oder-Nisa line as the border. The provisional Polish government also claims the Oder-Nisa line as its western border and in March 1945 establishes the five voivodeships of Masuria, Upper Silesia, Lower Silesia, Pomerania and Gdansk. Churchill had already more or less approved of the associated expulsion of the German population on December 15, 1944, when he spoke in the House of Commons about “clearing the air” in Poland.

At the Potsdam Conference of July 17-August 2, 1945, Stalin, Truman and Churchill met. Churchill was replaced by the new prime minister Clement Attlee on July 26 after the defeat in the elections. The various interests of the Allies come to the fore. Most of the issues remain unresolved and are referred to a council of foreign ministers. Among other things, it is to draft a peace treaty for Germany. At the conference, the Western Allies recognize the Polish administration of the former German eastern territories up to the Oder-Neisse line and agree to the expulsion of about 5.6 million remaining Germans from the eastern territories. However, the final determination of the German-Polish border is reserved for a peace treaty. Since the German eastern territories are no longer considered a Soviet occupation zone but Polish territory, they are removed from the jurisdiction of the Control Council. Northern East Prussia and Königsberg are promised to the Soviet Union in a future peace treaty.

The expulsion of the new tribes of Pomeranians, Silesians and East Prussians from the Eastern territories turned back the German colonization of the East to the time “at the beginning of the 13th century” at the Potsdam Conference. The new tribe of East Prussians thereby lost the homeland of the Prußen, its original population.

The Council of Foreign Ministers meets at the conference in Moscow from March 10-April 24, 1947. The Western Allies consider the Oder-Nisa line as a provisional one, although they recognize that Poland should receive compensation for its territorial cessions to the USSR.

On May 26, 1952, the Treaty of Germany was signed in Bonn between the Western Allies and the Federal Republic of Germany. The border issue, including the Oder-Neisse line, is kept open until it is settled by a peace treaty.

In the London Debt Agreement of February 27, 1953, the Federal Republic of Germany assumes the foreign debts of the German Reich as well as the costs incurred by the Allies in their zone of occupation. It undertakes to repay a total of DM 14.3 billion in annual installments.

On September 9, 1955, Chancellor Adenauer travels to Moscow at the invitation of the Soviet government. The Federal Republic insists that the establishment of diplomatic relations with the USSR and Soviet recognition of the Federal Republic’s sovereignty do not imply recognition of its existing borders. Germany’s borders would be finally determined only in a peace treaty. At the same time, it emphasizes its claim to sole representation for all Germans.

On December 7, 1970, Chancellor Brandt and Polish Prime Minister Cyriankiewicz sign the German-Polish treaty in which the Federal Republic recognizes the Oder-Neisse border.

On May 17, 1972, the German Bundestag approves the treaties with the East by a simple majority in the third reading. Only 248 deputies voted for both the German-Soviet and the German-Polish treaties. The total number of deputies was 496. One day before the vote on the treaties, the SPD/FDP coalition had lost its majority in parliament with the departure of SPD deputy Günther Müller from the party. Almost all members of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group abstained from voting on both treaties. On May 19, the treaties are approved by the Bundesrat with the CDU/CSU-governed states abstaining.

The treaty between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Poland of November 14, 1990, confirming the existing borders between them, and the Two-plus-Four Treaty (Federal Republic of Germany/German Democratic Republic plus four occupying powers) establish the full state sovereignty of the enlarged Federal Republic of Germany. At the same time, a later inclusion of the territories of East Germany beyond the Oder and Neisse rivers is renounced. The German-Polish border treaty of November 14, 1990 is confirmed by a large majority in the German Bundestag on October 17, 1991.

According to a dpa report, the recognition of the Oder-Neisse border in the German-Polish border treaty of November 1990 is considered constitutional in July 1992. According to a decision of the Federal Constitutional Court, the treaty does not violate the fundamental rights of those expelled after 1945 on the other side of the Oder-Neisse border. Rather, it merely “confirms the border between Germany and Poland, which has existed for a long time, at least in fact”. The treaty was merely a determination under international law of the “territorial allocation of an area to a state”, not a sovereign disposal of private property (Case No.: BVR 1613/91).

On August 5, 1950, the elected representatives of millions of expellees adopted the Charter of the German Expellees and renounced revenge and retaliation. “We will participate in the reconstruction of Germany and Europe through hard, untiring work.”

The charter contains, among other things, the demands: Meaningful incorporation of all occupational groups of the expellees into the life of the German people. Active involvement of the German expellees in the reconstruction of Europe.

The situation of the expellees is described in the “Grundriss der Geschichte” by Prof. Dr. Hans Herzfeld, Stuttgart 1954: “One of the heaviest burdens on German life after the end of the war was created in Potsdam by the allies’ decision to resettle the German population from Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary to Germany. This gigantic forced resettlement gives rise to the refugee problem of the present day. The number of Reich Germans expelled from East Prussia, Silesia and Pomerania amounts to 5.5 million, that of ethnic Germans to 3.9, that is a total of 9.4 million refugees. In 1950, 6.7 million of the 47.7 million inhabitants in the three western occupation zones were expellees and immigrants. By the end of 1951, another 1.7 million people had either not returned to the eastern zone or had fled it. The integration of these people into the economic life of West Germany is immensely difficult and will remain a stopgap measure despite all efforts.”

However, the Adenauer government felt it had to draw a positive balance in 1957: “Only 2.8% of the refugees and expellees were still unemployed on December 31, 1956. More than DM 22 billion had been paid out from the equalization of burdens and emergency aid by March 31, 1957. More than 47% of the total federal social benefits in the last seven years were paid to displaced persons and refugees.”

However, the equalization of burdens was not only a benefit of the federal government for the expellees. According to statistics published by the Federal Equalization Office in the Official Gazette of April 8, 1960, 9,528,300 claims were filed throughout Germany. Of these, 5,145,300 were victims displaced from their homeland, but the remaining 4,383,000 were war victims and victims of the East.

The equalization of burdens was intended to compensate those who had lost particularly much or even everything as a result of the war. Those who were able to survive the war years without major material losses were to pay. Most important was the so-called “property levy”: every citizen had to pay 50% of his assets to the state. The cut-off date was the day of the currency reform, June 21, 1948, and the levy had to be paid over 30 years. For example, anyone who owned assets of DM 100,000 on June 21, 48 had to pay a total of DM 50,000 in quarterly installments by March 31, 1979 (the legally stipulated closing date). Because of the unusually long period, the levy could usually be paid from the increase in assets.

The millions of expellees and refugees who, according to the theory of economics, had to leave behind the factors of production capital and land (nature), depended exclusively on the factor of production labor (mental and physical labor) to earn their living in their new economic area. Their labor contributed decisively to the economic upswing of the Federal Republic. In the process, the badly damaged West German economy was largely built up by self-financing after the currency reform of 1948. Business economist Dr. Josef Löffelholz wrote on this subject: “The proceeds from the sale of the large stocks of goods hoarded before the currency reform were invested to a very considerable extent. The inflated price level also provided great opportunities for self-financing. Prices were continually lowered, but not in line with falling costs. Legislation also greatly encouraged self-financing by providing numerous opportunities for tax breaks. The disadvantages were obvious. Entrepreneurs tried to cover their urgent capital needs as quickly and directly as possible from sales. This presupposed inflated prices and the loading of the calculation with fictitious costs. Such a pricing policy was made possible by the very high consumer demand for all essential consumer goods. Prices were thus given a “savings rate”, sometimes quite substantial, which enabled the economy to finance itself. It was a kind of forced saving: The economy forced consumers to pay a non-interest-bearing, non-repayable “savings quota” to it in prices.”

The expellees and refugees, like the other workers in the Federal Republic, did not participate sufficiently in the accumulation of productive assets in the hands of employees. The development of the past two decades – stagnating purchasing power from dependent employment with strongly bubbling property income – was foreseeable for a long time. In DIE WOCHE of August 15, 1997, Herbert Ehrenberg, Federal Minister of Labor and Social Affairs from 1976 to 1982, wrote: “From 1980 to 1995, reproducible tangible assets increased by 286 percent, private financial assets by 213 percent, net income from entrepreneurial activity and assets by 209 percent, while net wage and salary income increased by only 92 percent. The figures show that wealth distribution has not improved since 1963. At that time, Professor Föhl found that 17 percent of households accounted for 75 percent of private wealth.” Those who have nothing to offer but their labor are increasingly on the losing side. On the other hand, those who can productively use knowledge and/or capital usually participate disproportionately in the growth of the economy.

53 years have passed since the adoption of the Charter of the German Expellees, a period of time that the Teutonic Order needed to subjugate and forcibly Christianize the Prussians in a war of land seizure. The new tribe of East Prussians, which originated primarily on a Prussian basis, has peacefully participated in the reconstruction of Germany for 53 years. Instead of “German colonization of the East” there is now the European Union. Instead of seeking settlement space from the Saale/Elbe to the Vistula and in the northeast on the coasts of the Baltic Sea to the Gulf of Finland, the new tribes of Pomeranians and Silesians (originated on a Slavic basis) and the new tribe of East Prussians (originated mainly on a Prussian basis) are confined to the territory of the partially united Federal Republic of Germany. From here they can observe how the EU accession candidates on the coasts of the Baltic Sea to the Gulf of Finland, namely Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia want to join the EU on May 1, 2004. In particular, the circles of those affected by property losses will be watching to see how the accession countries will regulate them before the EU subsidy distribution wells begin to bubble up. Also, the issues of free movement and free circulation of capital in the new common economic space are likely to be of special interest to them.

Literature:

• Atlas of History, VEB Hermann Haack, Gotha 1989
• Boockmann, Hartmut, German History in Eastern Europe, East Prussia and West Prussia, Berlin 1992
• The great universal encyclopedia, Munich 1974
• Herzfeld, Hans, outline of history, Stuttgart 1954
• Kossert, Andreas, Masuria East Prussia forgotten south, Siedler publishing house, Berlin 2001
• Encyclopedia of world history, Gondrom Verlag, Bindlach 1985
• Löffelholz, Josef, Repetitorium of Business Administration, Wiesbaden 1967
• Müller, Otto Heinrich, German History in Brief, Frankfurt 1950
• Sonthofen, Wolfgang, The German Order, Weltbild Verlag, Augsburg 1995
• Straub, Eberhard, World History in the 20th Century, Munich 1985

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