Opinion: Germany had a legitimate claim on Danzig.

[Meursault]

It's sort of funny to me that, of all Hitler's landgrabs, it was the most legitimate one that started the War. Course, that claim didn't include all of Poland...

[CatoMinor]

Considering Poland was like 49% Polish at the time, a lot of groups had legitimate claims to make, however that hardly excuses invasion.

[H. Ross Peron]

Objectively speaking, Germany also had a legitimate claim on Austria (most Austrians would still probably still have voted for Anschluss in a free and fair plebiscite), Sudetenland, and Memel.

[CatoMinor]

Objectively speaking, Germany also had a legitimate claim on Austria (most Austrians would still probably still have voted for Anschluss in a free and fair plebiscite), Sudetenland, and Memel.

I think a lot would vote for that, but I doubt a majority would.

[H. Ross Peron]

Objectively speaking, Germany also had a legitimate claim on Austria (most Austrians would still probably still have voted for Anschluss in a free and fair plebiscite), Sudetenland, and Memel.

I think a lot would vote for that, but I doubt a majority would.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anschluss#Timeline_after_World_War_I

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[Antonio the Sixth]

lol

[Hifly]

If pro-Palestine activists and their allies can also start advocating for the reunification of Danzig and Territories in the East that were forcibly taken from Germany after 1945, it will make me very happy.

[Mopsus]

IMO, returning the Polish-Prussian border to the lines that it exhibited at the height of the Duchy of Warsaw would have been the most logical course of action following World War I.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

oh good lord

[minionofmidas]

In 1939? Germany had signed the Versailles Treaty, so no. Anyways Danzig did not cause the German attack on Poland in any way or form whatsoever - and they were governing Danzig already, and had banned all other parties except the Polish minority organization. (Poland's and the League's letting that happen were violations of the Versailles Treaty, of course.)

In 1919? Yes, I suppose so.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Considering Poland was like 49% Polish at the time, a lot of groups had legitimate claims to make, however that hardly excuses invasion.

Actually, here are numbers per 1931 census:

Polish: 68.9%
Ukrainian: 13.9%
Jewish: 10%
Belarusian: 3.1%
German: 2.3%
Others (including Lithuanians): 2.8%

[PiMp DaDdy FitzGerald]

While Danzig was ethnically German, Poland needed a free port early on before they constructed Gdynia to have access to the sea. The problem was that most German parties wanted the entire corridor, and with that they could turn Poland into an economic colony.
It's complicated.

[The Mikado]

The German government specifically signed away its claims on the West Prussian regions lost in the First World War, so no, they didn't unless you somehow think that the government that signed the Versailles Treaty wasn't legitimate (the SPD regime was totally legitimate by right of revolution...the overthrow of the Kaiser in the days leading up to the end of the war was an established fact).  It bears pointing out that even Ludendorff, the politician of the Old Order most associated with the cause of revision of the Treaty, didn't lay into the treaty's territorial concessions until well after the war.

EDIT: Also worth pointing out that Germany's 1919 borders were still far more generous than (West) Germany's 1948 or Germany's 1991 borders.  Sometimes the cause of revising the treaty like Hitler advanced can eventually result in a revision even more contrary to your liking...

[ingemann]

Did Germany have a legitimate claim to Danzig, Sudetenland and Austria? By any standard of the will of the people, national determination and those other thing people held holy at the time; Yes.

By the standard of modern international legal practices; Maybe (Danzig), No (Sudetenland) and Yes (Austria).

Of course the biggest reason all this does not matter, is because Germany lost the War and the winner decides what's right and wrong.

[CatoMinor]

Considering Poland was like 49% Polish at the time, a lot of groups had legitimate claims to make, however that hardly excuses invasion.

Actually, here are numbers per 1931 census:

Polish: 68.9%
Ukrainian: 13.9%
Jewish: 10%
Belarusian: 3.1%
German: 2.3%
Others (including Lithuanians): 2.8%

Hmm what I read before showed slightly under half Polish.

[Cory]

In 1939? Germany had signed the Versailles Treaty, so no. Anyways Danzig did not cause the German attack on Poland in any way or form whatsoever - and they were governing Danzig already, and had banned all other parties except the Polish minority organization. (Poland's and the League's letting that happen were violations of the Versailles Treaty, of course.)

In 1919? Yes, I suppose so.

That hardly counts.

[The Mikado]

In 1939? Germany had signed the Versailles Treaty, so no. Anyways Danzig did not cause the German attack on Poland in any way or form whatsoever - and they were governing Danzig already, and had banned all other parties except the Polish minority organization. (Poland's and the League's letting that happen were violations of the Versailles Treaty, of course.)

In 1919? Yes, I suppose so.

That hardly counts.

Well, the German people had overthrown the Kaiser and demanded an immediate end of the war, and the German military leaders signed an armistice while agreeing to follow the eventual peace treaty, and then Ebert's government signed the Versailles Treaty six months later.  I'm not sure what's so out of order about the process here.