The League of East European States or Federation of East European States (german: osteuropäischer Staatenbund) was a 1914 proposal by the

German Committee for Freeing of Russian Jews The German Committee for the Freeing of Russian Jews (German, 'Deutsches Komitee zur Befreiung der russischen Juden') was created in August 1914 by Max Bodenheimer with Franz Oppenheimer, Adolf Friedman and Leo Motzkin to lobby for the socio-poli ...

for a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

-dominated consociational

buffer state A buffer state is a country geographically lying between two rival or potentially hostile great powers. Its existence can sometimes be thought to prevent conflict between them. A buffer state is sometimes a mutually agreed upon area lying between ...

to be established in the

Russian Partition The Russian Partition ( pl, zabór rosyjski), sometimes called Russian Poland, constituted the former territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that were annexed by the Russian Empire in the course of late-18th-century Partitions of Po ...

of the multi-ethnic territory of the former

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi- confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Poland and Lithuania ru ...

Bodenheimer plan

The idea was conceived by prominent

Zionist Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after '' Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...

Max Bodenheimer Max Isidor Bodenheimer ( he, מקס בודנהיימר; 12 March 1865 in Stuttgart – 19 July, 1940 in Jerusalem) was a lawyer and one of the main figures in German Zionism. An associate of Theodor Herzl, he was the first president of the Zioni ...

, in the context of

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 ...

and longstanding German

Mitteleuropa (), meaning Middle Europe, is one of the German terms for Central Europe. The term has acquired diverse cultural, political and historical connotations. University of Warsaw, Johnson, Lonnie (1996) ''Central Europe: Enemies, Neighbors, Friends'p ...

ambitions, utilizing the concept of

national personal autonomy The Austromarxist principle of national personal autonomy ("personal principle"), developed by Otto Bauer in his 1907 book ''Die Nationalitätenfrage und die Sozialdemokratie'' (The Nationalities Question and Social Democracy) was seen by him a wa ...

or national curiae, which would allow Jewish representation in the government alongside other groups despite their

Pale of Settlement The Pale of Settlement (russian: Черта́ осе́длости, '; yi, דער תּחום-המושבֿ, '; he, תְּחוּם הַמּוֹשָב, ') was a western region of the Russian Empire with varying borders that existed from 1791 to 19 ...

dispersion.Bodenheimer, Henriette Hannah ''Max Bodenheimer 1865-1940 : political genius for Zionism'' Pentland Press, (1990) p73 Bodenheimer was a founder of the

. The Committee drew up a plan to establish a buffer state between Germany and Russia, created from territory to be taken from Imperial Russia. The biography by his daughter describes a

divide and rule Divide and rule policy ( la, divide et impera), or divide and conquer, in politics and sociology is gaining and maintaining power divisively. Historically, this strategy was used in many different ways by empires seeking to expand their ter ...

strategy to the benefit of Germany: "In this Federation Ukrainians, White Russians, Lithuanians, Esthonians and Latvians would together serve as a counterbalance to the Poles, and the Germans, and Jews would hold the balance of power between the two groupings."

German reaction

Bodenheimer submitted a Memorandum with the proposal to the German Foreign Office in 1914, where it and the Committee received the support of

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 ...

and then

Paul von Hindenburg Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg (; abbreviated ; 2 October 1847 – 2 August 1934) was a German field marshal and statesman who led the Imperial German Army during World War I and later became President of Germany fr ...

, as he made the case to them that eastern Jews could be

Germanised Germanisation, or Germanization, is the spread of the German language, people and culture. It was a central idea of German conservative thought in the 19th and the 20th centuries, when conservatism and ethnic nationalism went hand in hand. In ling ...

. The plan soon proved unpopular with other German officials and Bodenheimer's Zionist colleagues, and was dead by the following year. The only tangible result was an August 1914 military propaganda leaflet targeting the Jews of Poland, the final text of which greatly disappointed Bodenheimer. The Poles were not very keen on the plan either.Bodenheimer, Henriette Hannah ''Max Bodenheimer 1865-1940 : political genius for Zionism'' Pentland Press, (1990) p77 The idea was criticized by various

leaders as impractical and dangerous, and eventually was given up after

Wilhelm II of Germany , house = Hohenzollern , father = Frederick III, German Emperor , mother = Victoria, Princess Royal , religion = Lutheranism (Prussian United) , signature = Wilhelm II, German Emperor Signature-.svg Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor ...

and Franz Joseph of Austria issued the Act of November 5th 1916 in which they proclaimed the creation of the

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 exi ...

Conspiracy theory

The Bodenheimer plan was cited by the author Andrzej Leszek Szcześniak as an example of "

Judeopolonia Judeopolonia, also Judeo-Polonia, is an antisemitic conspiracy theory positing future Jewish domination of Poland.Michlic, Joanna Beata (2006). ''Poland's Threatening Other: The Image of the Jew from 1880 to the Present'', pp. 48, 55–56. Univers ...

" in his 2001 book of the same name, echoing the anti-Semitic conspiracy theory positing a future Jewish domination of Poland that arose in the late nineteenth century.Michlic, Joanna Beata (2006). ''Poland's Threatening Other: The Image of the Jew from 1880 to the Present'', pp. 48, 55-56. University of Nebraska Press. .Blobaum, Robert (2005). ''Antisemitism and Its Opponents in Modern Poland'', p. 61. Cornell University Press. .

Footnotes

References

* Zosa Szajkowski ''Demands for Complete Emancipation of German Jewry during World War I'', in: The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Ser., Vol. 55, No. 4 (Apr., 1965), pp 350–363. * Zosa Szajkowski ''The German Appeal to the Jews of Poland, August 1914'', in: The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Ser., Vol. 59, No. 4 (Apr., 1969), pp 311–320. * Andrzej Leszek Szcześniak ''Judeopolonia - żydowskie państwo w państwie polskim'' 2004 {{Authority control 1914 in Poland Jewish Polish history Zionism in Europe Proposed countries 1914 in Germany

Bodenheimer plan

German reaction

Conspiracy theory

See also

Footnotes

References