Upper Silesia plebiscite
Division of : Area in 1910 in km Share of territory Population in 1910 After WW1 part of :
Lower Silesia 27,105 km 100% 3.017.981 Divided between :
to Poland 526 km 2% 1% Poznań Voivodeship ( Niederschlesiens Ostmark )
to Germany 26,579 km 98% 99% Province of Lower Silesia
Upper Silesia 13,230 km 100% 2.207.981 Divided between :
to Poland 3,225 km 25% 41% Silesian Voivodeship
to Czechoslovakia 325 km 2% 2% Hlučín Region
to Germany 9,680 km 73% 57% Province of Upper Silesia
Division of the region after the plebiscite
The Upper Silesia plebiscite was a plebiscite mandated by the Versailles Treaty and carried out on 20 March 1921 to determine a section of the border between Weimar Germany and Poland. The region was ethnically mixed with both Germans and Poles; according to prewar statistics, ethnic Poles formed 60 percent of the population. Under the previous rule by the German Empire, Poles claimed they had faced discrimination, making them effectively second class citizens. The period of the plebiscite campaign and inter-Allied occupation was marked by violence. There were three Polish uprisings, and German volunteer paramilitary units came to the region as well. The area was policed by French, British, and Italian troops, and overseen by an Inter-Allied Commission. The Allies planned a partition of the region, but a Polish insurgency took control of over half the area. The Germans responded with volunteer paramilitary units from all over Germany, which fought the Polish units. In the end, after renewed Allied military intervention, the final position of the opposing forces became, roughly, the new border. The decision was handed over to the League of Nations, which confirmed this border, and Poland received roughly one third of the plebiscite zone by area, including the greater part of the industrial region. After the referendum, on 20 October 1921, an ambassadors conference in Paris decided to divide the region. Consequently, the German-Polish Accord on East Silesia (Geneva Convention), a minority treaty was concluded on 15 May 1922 which dealt with the constitutional and legal future of Upper Silesia which has partly became Polish territory.