page_title: Masuria
section_title: Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany
hierarchical_section_title: Masuria / History / Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany
caption_attribution_description: Dampferfahrt des Corps Masovia in Masuren beim 99. Stiftungsfest
context_page_description: Masuria is a region in northeastern Poland, famous for its 2,000 lakes. Masuria occupies much of the Masurian Lake District. Administratively, it is part of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship. Its biggest city, often regarded as its capital, is Ełk. The region covers a territory of some 10,000 km² and had a population in 2013 of 59,790.
context_section_description: Masuria was the only region of Germany directly affected by the battles of World War I. Damaged towns and villages were reconstructed with the aid of several twin towns from western Germany like Cologne to Neidenburg, Frankfurt to Lötzen and even Vienna to Ortelsburg. The architecture still is surprisingly distinct, being of modern Central European character. However Masuria was still largely agrarian-oriented and suffered from the economic decline after World War I, additionally badly affected by the creation of the Polish Corridor, which raised freight costs to the traditional markets in Germany.
  The later implemented Osthilfe had only a minor influence on Masuria as it privileged larger estates, while Masurian farms were generally small.
  The interwar period was characterised by ongoing Germanisation policies, intensified especially under the Nazis.
  In the 1920s Masuria remained a heartland of conservatism with the German National People's Party as strongest party. The Nazi Party, having absorbed the conservative one, became the strongest party already in the Masurian constituencies in the elections of 1930 and received its best results in the poorest areas of Masuria with the highest rate of Polish speakers. Especially in the elections of 1932 and 1933 they reached up to 81 percent of votes in the district of Neidenburg and 80 percent in the district of Lyck. The Nazis used the economic crisis, which had significant effects in far-off Masuria, as well as traditional anti-Polish sentiments while at the same time Nazi political rallies were organised in the Masurian dialect during the campaigning.
  In 1938, the Nazi government (1933–1945) changed thousands of still existing toponyms (especially names of cities and villages) of Old Prussian, Lithuanian and Polish origin to newly created German names; six thousand, that meant about 50% of the existing names were changed, but the countryside population stuck to their traditional names. Within six years a new renaming would take place after Poland annexed Masuria in 1945. 
  According to German author Andreas Kossert, Polish parties were financed and aided by the Polish government in Warsaw, and remained splintergroups without any political influence, e.g. in the 1932 elections the Polish Party received 147 votes in Masuria proper. According to Wojciech Wrzesiński (1963), the Polish organisations in Masuria had decided to lower their activity in order to escape acts of terror performed against Polish minority activists and organisations by Nazi activists. Jerzy Lanc, a teacher and Polish national who had moved to Masuria in 1931 to establish a Polish school in Piassutten (Piasutno), died in his home of carbon monoxide poisoning, most likely murdered by local German nationalists.
  Before the war the Nazi German state sent undercover operatives to spy on Polish organisations and created lists of people that were to be executed or sent to concentration camps. This mainly took place in Silesia and only according to the few catholic schools in Masuria. Information was gathered on who sent children to Polish schools, bought Polish press or took part in Polish ceremonies and organised repressions against these people were executed by Nazi militias. Polish schools, printing presses and headquarters of Polish institutions were attacked as well as homes of the most active Poles; shops owned by Poles were vandalised or demolished. Polish masses were dispersed, and Polish teachers were intimidated as members of the SS gathered under their locals performing songs like "Wenn das Polenblut vom Messer spritzt, dann geht's noch mal so gut" ("When Polish blood spurts from the knife, everything will be better").
  The anti-Polish activities intensified in 1939. Those Poles were most active in politics were evicted from their own homes, while Polish newspapers and cultural houses were closed down in the region. Polish masses were banned between June and July in Warmia and Mazury.
  In the final moments of August 1939 all remains of political and cultural life of Polish minority was eradicated by the N
caption: German tourists sailing near Angerburg (now Węgorzewo), 1929
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