Poles in the soldiers' councils in Poznań

On the afternoon of 13 November 1918 a group of Polish conspirators, backed by several dozen armed members of the Polish Military Organisation of the Prussian Partition (PL), burst into a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Workers’ and Soldiers’ Council in Poznań. Under the threat of force, the German-dominated council admitted four Poles to its leadership. The action, later called the “assault on the town hall”, gave the Poles the upper hand in the most important organ of revolutionary authority in the capital of the Province of Posen and an insight into the affairs of the German army in the city.

The revolution, which had begun with the sailors’ mutiny in Kiel and on 9 November overthrew the empire in Berlin, quickly reached Greater Poland. In Poznań a Soldiers’ Council was formed as early as 9 November, at first made up of Germans. Alongside it there was a workers’ council, in which Poles linked to the Poznań Citizens’ Committee had the upper hand. Between 9 and 13 November workers’ and soldiers’ councils were formed in most districts of the province. The new government in Berlin recognised them as legitimate organs of authority, but left the old Prussian administration in place. The Soldiers’ Council in Poznań, which held the key to control of the garrison and the headquarters of V Corps, remained in German hands.

A group of young officers and soldiers who had deserted from the German army and returned to Poznań decided to change this. It was led by Bohdan Hulewicz (PL) and Mieczysław Paluch (PL), who were active in a Military Commission set up in agreement with the Poznań Citizens’ Committee. Paluch recalled years later that they used a unit of the Polish Military Organisation, at that moment the only Polish armed force in the city that could be mobilised within a few hours. According to him they acted “against the will of the Citizens’ Committee”, which was wary of armed action. The participants also included Stanisław Nogaj, Zygmunt Wiza (PL), Henryk Śniegocki and Mieczysław Andrzejewski, while the unit of the Polish Military Organisation was commanded by Wincenty Wierzejewski (PL).

The Poles entered the meeting of the Executive Committee in the town hall. According to some accounts shots were fired nearby and even a grenade exploded. The frightened delegates gave way: four Germans left the Committee and their places were taken by Hulewicz, Paluch, Śniegocki and Wiza. Hulewicz became deputy to the Committee’s chairman, August Twachtmann, and Paluch the council’s delegate to the headquarters of V Corps. The same day the council issued a notice in which it recognised the Polish People’s Council as “the authorised representation of the Polish people” and announced that all resolutions would be adopted in agreement with it. It also stated that, at the request of the Polish soldiers, it had admitted four further representatives of the Poles to its ranks, and it called on the inhabitants to remain calm.

The effects were immediate. The Poznań historian Stanisław Kubiak regarded the events of 13 November as the turning point from which the powers of the councils began to pass into the hands of the Polish people’s councils. Poles began to fill official posts, and the military activists, making use of a Prussian decree on the formation of security guards attached to the army corps, set about forming the Guard and Security Service, paid for by the Prussian state, officially Polish-German but in reality almost entirely Polish. According to the Poznań branch of the Institute of National Remembrance, by the end of December it numbered about 2,000 soldiers. In Berlin it was quickly noticed what had happened. On 18 November the Deutsche Tageszeitung wrote with alarm that in Poznań, thanks to the Polish majority in the Workers’ and Soldiers’ Council, power had apparently passed into Polish hands. In West Prussia, East Prussia and Upper Silesia, however, the Germans kept the upper hand in the councils.