Greater Poland Uprising (1848) - Start of The Uprising

Start of The Uprising

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, and 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 made about joint fight against Russian Empire for free and united Germany and independent Poland. Karol Libelt noted from Berlin that he was under impression that the whole people want free and independent Poland to serve as German shield against Russia and it Polish question will 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 support the Polish struggle for liberty as it was expected, the Legion would fight against the Russian rule in Congress Poland, but these volunteers were rejected. Polish emigrants to France, like Adam Czartoryski, who returned to join that legion were allowed to use 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 case the Holy Alliance would turn 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 creation 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 administration to Poles. Zdrada notes that those demands were to the liking of Berlin Revolutionary Committee which wanted Poles as force to fight Russia. According to the English historian Richard Davies the political demands of the committee were for effective autonomy, not for independence. The organized militia was intended for use not against Prussia but against the threat of Russian intervention. The Committee represented various political orientations and social classes, in order to have achieve a coalition character. Its overall character 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 take the Bazar a hotel which was the center of Polish activities. This was avoided as it would result 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 support 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 not accepted and Jedrzej Moraczewski, a member of the Polish Committee, ordered on 28 March: “One should make every effort not to alarm the Germans in order to avoid a strong reaction from their side. On the other hand it is necessary to maintain supremacy over them.