Debating National Interest in the Expulsions of Poles and Jews, 1885-86

Introduction

In 1885–86, more than 30,000 Polish immigrants, including some 10,000 Jews, were deported from the Prussian borderlands. (Many of the deportees had lived in Prussia for years but had not become German citizens.) The deportations were a response to the perceived flood of Slavic migrants coming into Prussia from the Russian Empire. This action was fiercely debated over several days in 1886 in both the Reichstag and Prussian state parliament, leading to the first and only interpellation against Bismarck. Following on Bismarck’s Kulturkampf, the deportations increasingly ostracized the largely Catholic and Polish-speaking minority in Prussia’s eastern provinces. Although Germanization policies increased, Germanness in the borderlands would remain open and contested.

Contents

  1. Reichstag Speech by Wilhelm Liebknecht (January 15, 1886)
  2. Reichstag Speech by Dr. Ludwik von Jazdzewski (January 15, 1886)
  3. Bismarck’s Speech to the Prussian House of Deputies on the “Polish Question” (January 28, 1886)
  4. The Reaction of the Austrian Liberal Press to Bismarck’s Policies (1886)
  1. < German Culture, Jewish Culture: Interwovenness and Demarcation in the Nineteenth Century
  2. Made in Germany >