The district of Allenstein was a

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was '' de facto'' dissolved by an ...

n district in

East Prussia East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label=Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871 ...

, which existed from 1818 to 1945.

History

The area of the Allenstein district historically belonged to the

Prince-Bishopric of Warmia The Prince-Bishopric of Warmia ( pl, Biskupie Księstwo Warmińskie; german: Fürstbistum Ermland) was a semi-independent ecclesiastical state, ruled by the incumbent ordinary of the Warmia see and comprising one third of the then diocesan area ...

, which fell to the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918. Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. ...

with the First Partition of Poland in 1772. After the incorporation of Warmia into Prussia, the districts of Braunsberg and Heilsberg were set up in 1773, both of which were assigned to the Königsberg War and Domain Chamber. As part of the Prussian administrative reforms, a comprehensive district reform in all of

was necessary, as the districts established in 1752 and 1773 had proven to be inexpedient and too large. In Warmia, the new Allenstein district was formed from the southwestern part of the old Heilsberg district on February 1, 1818. The Allenstein district was assigned to Regierungsbezirk Königsberg, which emerged in 1808 from the old Königsberg War and Domain Chamber. Since 1871, the district belonged to 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 hereditar ...

. On November 1, 1905, the Allenstein district was assigned to the new Regierungsbezirk Allenstein. On April 1, 1910, the city of Allenstein left the district and formed its own urban district, known as ''Stadtkreis Allenstein''. The remainder of the Allenstein district has since been referred to as ''Landkreis Allenstein.'' In the

1920 East Prussian plebiscite The East Prussian plebiscite (german: Abstimmung in Ostpreußen), also known as the Allenstein and Marienwerder plebiscite or Warmia, Masuria and Powiśle plebiscite ( pl, Plebiscyt na Warmii, Mazurach i Powiślu), was a plebiscite organised in a ...

, the Allenstein district belonged to the Allenstein voting area, the residents of which were to vote on whether they wished to join

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

or remain in Germany, in accordance with the provisions of the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...

. In the plebiscite, 86.53% of the votes were in favor of Germany and 13.47% were in favour of Poland, due to which it remained in Germany. Towards the end of World War II in January 1945, the district was occupied by the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...

and placed under Polish administration, in accordance with the

Potsdam Agreement The Potsdam Agreement (german: Potsdamer Abkommen) was the agreement between three of the Allies of World War II: the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union on 1 August 1945. A product of the Potsdam Conference, it concerned th ...

. The German residents of the district were expelled and only about 7% of the inhabitants, classified as "autochthonous Poles" were allowed to remain.

Demographics

According to the Prussian census of 1861, the Allenstein district, which then also included the city of Allenstein, had a population of 47,901, of which 12,510 (26.1%) were

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

and 35,391 (73.9%) were

Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in Cen ...

External links

Kreisgemeinschaft Allenstein-Land e.V.

References

1818 establishments in Prussia 1945 disestablishments in Germany Allenstein {{Germany-geo-stub