Greater Poland uprising (1918–1919)

Greater Poland uprising
Part of the aftermath of World War I and Revolutions of 1917–1923

Polish soldiers in trenches on the Polish-German front, January 1919
Date27 December 1918 – 28 June 1919
(6 months and 1 day)
Location
Result Polish victory
Territorial
changes
Per Treaty of Versailles: most of Prussian provinces of Posen and West Prussia, eastern Upper Silesia and the area of Działdowo
Belligerents

Polish Insurgents


Supported by:
 Poland
 Germany
Commanders and leaders
Stanisław Taczak
Józef Dowbor-Muśnicki
Friedrich Polach
Units involved
People's Guard
P.M.O
Greater Poland Army
Freikorps
Strength
Before the uprising: 10,000
Beginning of January 1919: 27,000
End of the uprising: 100,000
Beginning of the uprising: 2,500–4,500
End of the uprising: 20,000–30,000
Casualties and losses
~2,000 killed
6,000 wounded
1,500–3,500 killed
2,500–5,000 wounded

The Greater Poland uprising of 1918–1919, or Wielkopolska uprising of 1918–1919 (Polish: powstanie wielkopolskie 1918–1919 roku; German: Großpolnischer Aufstand) or Poznań War was a military insurrection of Poles in the Greater Poland region (German: Grand Duchy of Posen or Provinz Posen) against German rule. The uprising had a significant effect on the Treaty of Versailles, which granted a reconstituted Second Polish Republic the area won by the Polish insurrectionists. The region had been part of the Kingdom of Poland and then Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth before the 1793 Second Partition of Poland when it was annexed by the German Kingdom of Prussia. It had also, following the 1806 Greater Poland uprising, been part of the Duchy of Warsaw (1807–1815), a French client state during the Napoleonic Wars.