„To dla nas katastrofalna reforma”. Projekt w sprawie podziału administracyjnego państwa na województwa z 1931 roku i jego odbiór wśród niemieckiej dyplomacji
"This is a disastrous reform for us." A project on the administrative division of the state into voivodeships from 1931 and its reception among German diplomacy

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the study is to analyze the draft reform of the territorial division of the state into voivodeships of 1931 and its assessment among German diplomats. The planned reform aroused interest and serious concerns on the part of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs due to its effects on the German minority. One of the assumptions of the changes was to shift the borders of the western provinces to the east, i.e. to ethnically Polish territories, which was to lead to a decrease in the share of Germans among the population of the new provinces. I discussed the division into voivodeships adopted at the threshold of the Second Polish Republic, which was to be temporary. Then I presented the activities of the committees appointed by individual governments that worked on the new shape of the territorial division of the state. Among them, the work of the Commission for the Improvement of Public Administration at the Prime Minister was the most fruitful. I discussed the 1931 reform project presented by the committee and the deliberations of the representatives of legal science concerning the relationship between the administrative division and the policy towards minorities. Then I presented the content of the documentation produced at the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs in connection with the Polish reform project, which was assessed there as disastrous for the German minority in Poland. On the basis of statistical data, simulations were made indicating a significant decrease in German in the planned voivodeships. As part of the summary, an attempt was made to answer the question why the draft reform was not passed, although it was in line with the Polish raison d'état.

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