Battle of Annaberg - Germany and Poland Fight Over Silesia I THE GREAT WAR 1921

The question of the allegiance of the ethnically mixed region of Silesia had already caused heated diplomatic arguments between Germany, Poland and the Allies after the First World War. After a divisive plebiscite the situation escalated into violence. Neither Germany nor Poland could officially send troops, but German Freikorps and Pro-Polish militias fought it out.

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» SOURCES
Boehler, Jochen. Civil War in Central Europe 1918-1921 (OUP, 2018)

Campbell, F. Gregory: The Struggle for Upper Silesia, 1919-1922. In: The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 42, 1970.

Lesniewski, Peter: Britain and Upper Silesia 1919-1922. 2000.

Michalczyk, Andrezej: Celebrating the nation: the case of Upper Silesia after the plebiscite in 1921.

Hitze, Guido: Die oberschlesische Frage im Jahre 1921. In: Die Politische Meinung 12/02.

Hitze, Guido: Oberschlesien als internationaler Streitfall. In: PAN 20/01.

Hoefer, Karl: Oberschlesien in der Aufstandszeit 1918-1921. Erinnerungen und Dokumente, 1938.

Tooley, T. Hunt: German Political Violence and the Border Plebiscite in Upper Silesia, 1919-1921. 2008.

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»CREDITS
Presented by: Jesse Alexander
Written by: Jesse Alexander
Director: Toni Steller & Florian Wittig
Director of Photography: Toni Steller
Sound: Toni Steller
Editing: José Gamez
Motion Design: Philipp Appelt
Research by: Markus Linke, Jesse Alexander
Fact checking: Florian Wittig

Channel Design: Yves Thimian

Contains licensed material by getty images
All rights reserved - Real Time History GmbH 2021

[sahrazad]

This period 1919-1921 has to be the most interesting and rare this channel has covered so far

[strzelba]

I'm impressed by your pronunciation of either polish or german names. Well done Jesse, sign of great professionalism.

[jayg]

I love the lesser known topics that shaped things in the interwar period as a result of the Post WWI map making. Thank you for covering this is a thorough and unbiased way.

[MartinCHorowitz]

I don't believe you are the ONLY YouTube channel that wants a plebiscite on the YT algorithm.

[SirWilliamKidney]

This many years in who would have thought that a Great War upload still makes my day?

[Britishwolf]

This channel continues to be excellent quality. Thanks for everything Jesse and keep up the awesome work. Many of us very much appreciate the work you put into this channel to keep it alive.

[benstewart]

This is what I hate about the British education system we were never told about these important post war events happening all over europe, apparently the guns fell silent on the 11th Nov 1918 and the world was once again at peace. Thankfully there are fantastic channels like this one to help us understand the consequences of a flawed peace treaty for ordinary people

[MarxAnt]

Thank you for sharing that story. As an upper-silesian I appreciate your work even more.

[fredlange]

The Picture at 15:17 dosn't show Annaberg in Silesia it's a Picture of Annaberg in Saxony.
Still extremly well made Video, thanks.

[emil]

I'm german but this is the first time I heard about this. In school I never heard about this and in another video I saw, they said based on elections of the people living there it was divided. I think it would be important enoughto teach us in school

[cow]

I would have thought I knew a lot about history, but I absolutely never heard of this before, thank you for teaching us about subjects that aren't discussed :)

[fraso]

Part of my family comes from Upper Silesia. I never heard of this conflict. Thank you very much!

[Achin_Jain]

Brilliant episode. I hope someday we will have something much bigger and better than YouTube which will help thrive creators such as TGW without all this stress. 😞

[truemonsterhunter]

Love how I still see new videos of the great war

[marektomczak]

Hello,
I am one of the enthusiasts of your channels both on a YouTube and on Nebula as well. I am Pole as an origin, born in Poznan and I am happy to see, you can avoid single sided (Polish and/or German) point of view on this very complexed problem. Simply: thank you. However, I have one favour to ask, you continuously exceed your 100th anniversary formula in both directions. Maybe you can find interest and time to present the Polish Greater Poland uprising of December 27th 1918, which is significant for me (but not only for me), because is one and only major polish uprising which has prevailed to this very day.
Best Regards
Marek Tomczak

[srelma]

Amazing video. I thought I was pretty knowledgeable with European history, but had to admit that I had never heard of the upper-silesian dispute ever before. thanks for making me learn.

[michaelcaffery]

A well made podcast with an objective view on little known (if at all in the UK) example of post Great War problems. I am a big fan of the series.

[seidenstickerj]

Mad props for releasing such a professional and well-made video. It's always especially impressive to hear people pronouncing German words so well. Much love from Germany, and may Europe always have peace!

[andymark]

You must know how the fate of Silesia was confused. See my grandmother as an example. A husband in the German Afrika Korps, he was captured and until 1947 in a POW camp in the USA.
The first brother was in the Wehrmacht in tanks, he was killed by a Russian bullet in captivity because he had sugar. My grandmother's second brother got into the KZ Theresienstadt for not showing up in the Wehrmacht unit. The third brother was an officer in the Polish army, took part in the Warsaw Uprising and died there, hit in the back by a sniper bullet. Only one brother survived, the one who did not agree to military service.

[theodoreroosevelt]

Yaaaay, very specific episode for me, i'm from the Polish town of Katowice from Silesia region