Oberschlesien als internationaler Streitfall

The question of the state affiliation of Upper Silesia which arose after WWI has been treated and perceived by today’s historians, if at all, as a typical German-Polish border conflict. Really however, it was both a European and an international problem of utmost significance. In it, French hegemonic and safety efforts, accumulated in and collided with Britain‘s classic policy of continental equilibrium. Both, Poland with its territorial claim on Upper Silesia and Germany in its struggle to preserve its territorial integrity, thus were not only players of political, diplomatic and military struggles for the second most important European industrial region, but rather objects of the interests of European great powers. This applied even more to the population which was actually to vote in the referendum on Upper Silesia affiliation. However, in its effort to weaken Germany and simultaneously gain control over the Ruhr, France favoured its ally Poland, to a much greater extent than Britain could in respect of Germany.