The Free City of Danzig (German: Freie Stadt Danzig; Polish: Wolne Miasto Gdańsk) was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (today Gdańsk) and surrounding areas. It was created on 15 November 1920 in accordance with the terms of Part III, Section XI of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, without a referendum.
The Free City included the city of Danzig and over two hundred nearby towns, villages, and settlements. As the League of Nations decreed, the region was to remain separated from the nation of Germany and from the newly resurrected nation of Poland, but it was not an independent state; the Free City was under League of Nations protection and put into a binding customs union with Poland. Poland was also given full rights to develop and maintain transportation, communication, and port facilities in the city. The Free City was created in order to give Poland access to a well-sized seaport while respecting the fact that the city's population was roughly ninety-five percent German.
Following the 1932 coup in Prussia, the Nazi Party came to power. Due to anti-Semitic persecution and oppression, many Jews fled. After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the Free City was abolished and incorporated into the newly formed Reichsgau of Danzig-West Prussia. Anti-Polish measures followed.
During the city's conquest by the Soviet Army in the early months of 1945, many citizens fled or were killed. After the war, a number of remaining ethnic Germans were expelled. The city was subsequently put under Polish administration by the Allied Potsdam Agreement, and Polish settlers were brought in to replace the German population.
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“Think of what our Nation stands for,
Books from Boots’ and country lanes,
Free speech, free passes, class distinction,
Democracy and proper drains.”
—Sir John Betjeman (1906–1984)
“A sturdy lad from New Hampshire or Vermont who in turn tries all the professions, who teams it, farms it, peddles, keeps a school, preaches, edits a newspaper, goes to Congress, buys a township, and so forth, in successive years, and always like a cat falls on his feet, is worth a hundred of these city dolls. He walks abreast with his days and feels no shame in not “studying a profession,” for he does not postpone his life, but lives already.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“He’s leaving Germany by special request of the Nazi government. First he sends a dispatch about Danzig and how 10,000 German tourists are pouring into the city every day with butterfly nets in their hands and submachine guns in their knapsacks. They warn him right then. What does he do next? Goes to a reception at von Ribbentropf’s and keeps yelling for gefilte fish!”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)