The General Government of Warsaw (german: Generalgouvernement Warschau) was an administrative civil district created by the

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

.Liulevicius, Vejas G. (2000). ''War Land on the Eastern Front: Culture, Identity, and German Occupation in World War I''.

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

, p. 54

It encompassed the north-western half of the former Russian Empire, Russian-ruled

Congress Poland Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It w ...

. Although the territory initially formed a part of the

Ober Ost , short for ( "Supreme Commander of All German Forces in the East"), was both a high-ranking position in the armed forces of the German Empire as well as the name given to the occupied territories on the German section of the Eastern Front of ...

military command under the authority of general

Erich Ludendorff Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff (9 April 1865 – 20 December 1937) was a German general, politician and military theorist. He achieved fame during World War I for his central role in the German victories at Liège and Tannenberg in 1914. ...

, after the military advances of the Central Powers in the fall offensive of 1915 the territory came under a separate administration in October. It continued to exist even after the later establishment of a

rump Rump may refer to: * Rump (animal) ** Buttocks * Rump steak, slightly different cuts of meat in Britain and America * Rump kernel, software run in userspace that offers kernel functionality in NetBSD Politics *Rump cabinet * Rump legislature * Ru ...

Kingdom of Poland The Kingdom of Poland ( pl, Królestwo Polskie; Latin: ''Regnum Poloniae'') was a state in Central Europe. It may refer to: Historical political entities *Kingdom of Poland, a kingdom existing from 1025 to 1031 *Kingdom of Poland, a kingdom exist ...

, a

Central Powers The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,german: Mittelmächte; hu, Központi hatalmak; tr, İttifak Devletleri / ; bg, Централни сили, translit=Tsentralni sili was one of the two main coalitions that fought in ...

puppet state A puppet state, puppet régime, puppet government or dummy government, is a State (polity), state that is ''de jure'' independent but ''de facto'' completely dependent upon an outside Power (international relations), power and subject to its o ...

. Its governor-general,

Hans Hartwig von Beseler Hans Hartwig von Beseler (27 April 1850 – 20 December 1921) was a German colonel general. Biography Beseler was born in Greifswald, Province of Pomerania (1815–1945), Pomerania. His father Georg Beseler, was a law professor at the Univers ...

, held his office for the entire duration of the region's existence. The headquarters of the General Government operated in the

Royal Castle, Warsaw The Royal Castle in Warsaw ( pl, Zamek Królewski w Warszawie) is a state museum and a national historical monument, which formerly served as the official royal residence of several Polish monarchs. The personal offices of the king and the adm ...

, while the governor-general's seat was in the

Belvedere Belvedere (from Italian, meaning "beautiful sight") may refer to: Places Australia *Belvedere, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region Africa *Belvedere (Casablanca), a neighborhood in Casablanca, Morocco *Belvedere, Harare, Zim ...

palace, Warsaw.W. Głębocki, ''Pałace Warszawy'', Warszawa 1991, s. 8. To the south of the General Government lay an

Austro-Hungarian Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

-controlled counterpart called the

Military Government of Lublin The Military Government of Poland, also known as the Military Government of Lublin, was a military administration of an area of the Russian Empire under the occupation of Austria-Hungary, during the World War I, that existed from 1915 to 1917. It w ...

. On 18 October 1916 a joint administration was introduced for both districts of the former Congress Poland, with a German civil-servant,

Wolfgang von Kries Wolfgang is a German male given name traditionally popular in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The name is a combination of the Old High German words ''wolf'', meaning "wolf", and ''gang'', meaning "path", "journey", "travel". Besides the regula ...

, appointed as the first chief of the intended administration. On 9 December, Kries founded a Polish central bank, which issued a new currency, the

Polish mark The mark ( pl, marka polska, abbreviated ''Mp'', Polish-language plural declensions: ''marki, marek'') was the currency of the Kingdom of Poland and of the Republic of Poland between 1917 and 1924. It was subdivided into 100 ''fenigs'' (phon ...

(''Marka polska''). During the occupation, German authorities drafted Poles into forced labor to replace German workers drafted into the army.

Governors-General

Chiefs of Joint Administration: * (18 October 1915 – 26 November 1917) * (26 November 1917 – 6 October 1918) Polish banknote from 1917 - 10 Marek Polskich

Sources

''Pro memoria. Prusak w Polsce''
by

Józef Rapacki Józef Rapacki (19 March 1871, Warsaw – 31 January 1929, Olszanka) was a Polish painter, watercolorist and graphic designer; best known for his nostalgic landscapes of Mazovia. Biography He was born to a theatrical family; son of the actor, ...

References

{{Authority control Poland in World War I States and territories established in 1915 German Empire in World War I Politics of World War I Military occupations of Poland 1915 establishments in Poland 1918 disestablishments in Poland Former countries

Governors-General

See also

Sources

References