History of Warsaw - World War I

World War I

On 1 August 1915 the German army entered Warsaw. The Russians, while retreating, demolished all of the Warsovian bridges – along with the Poniatowski Bridge, opened 18 months earlier – and took with themselves the equipment of the factories, what made the situation in Warsaw much more difficult. The German authorities, headed by gen. Hans von Beseler, needed the Polish support in the war against Russia, therefore took steps proving its friendly attitude to Poles – for example, reintroduced the possibility to teach in Polish: in 1915 they opened the Technical University, Warsaw School of Economics and Warsaw University of Life Sciences.

However, the most important decision for a city development was to incorporate the suburbs. The Russian authority hadn't allowed to extend the Warsaw’s area, because it was forbidden to cross the double line of forts, surrounding the city. By this reason, at the beginning of World War I on the area of today's Śródmieście and the old part of Praga (ca. 33 square kilometres (13 sq mi) 750,000 people lived. In April 1916, the Warsaw territory extended to 115 square kilometres (44 sq mi).

In autumn of 1918, the revolution broke up in Germany. On 8 November, the German authorities left Warsaw. On 10 November Józef Piłsudski came at the Warsaw-Vienna Station. On 11 November the Regency Council passed him all military authority, whereas on 14 November – all civil authority. By this reason, the 11 November 1918 is celebrated as the beginning of the Poland’s independence. Warsaw became the capital of the Poland.