Was the eastern part of the former German Empire always poor, or are they only poor today because of communism?
Reminder that Versailles treaty was to lenient for Germany
Communism.
>>842175
>because of communism?
Partially the answer, but Eastern Germany was always less urban and less populated, with the exceptions of Danzig and Konigsberg
They're poor because they're a Slavic wasteland.
>>842216
>Posen
>Stettin
>Memel
>>842220
DDR was not Slavic you mong.
>>842175
it varied from region to region. On average, Polish speaking areas of eastern German Empire were better off than German ones,which was a cause of great embarrassment for the government in light of its anti Polish policies.
Posen and Upper Silesia were on par or at least approaching the level of western Europe, while Eastern Prussia was a shithole with massive internal emigration (the Ostflucht).
>>842251
That's bullshit. Except for Posen there weren't any larger quantities of Poland. The majority of Poles in Imperial Germany in fact lived in the Rhineland where they've been moving in order to work in the montane industry.
After WWI, the whole East was still suffering from the Russian invasion and the lack of trade with Russia.
>>842516
Upper Silesia, West Prussia were also settled by Poles. Upper Silesia in fact experienced an explosive growth of Polish nationalism in decades preceding WW1.
East Prussia was like the antebellum Southern United States. The majority of the land was divided between large estates owned by the nobility of Prussia, and the people who worked on the farms were probably poor and/or Polish.
>>842223
>all not Gayman anymore
>>842226
>implying
>>842251
>The Polonization took place in the early years of the Prussian partition, where, as a reaction to the persecution of Roman catholicism during the Kulturkampf, German catholics living in areas with a Polish majority voluntarily integrated themselves within Polish society, affecting approximately 100,000 Germans in the eastern provinces of Prussia.[
bismarck was such cuck
>>842175
Silesia was economically equal to the Rhine Province.
The other lands east of the Oder-Neisse line (Brandenburgian Neumark, Farther Pomerania, Posen, West and East Prussia) were very rural as fuck, had close to no mining and industry and were even agriculturally behind Silesia.
>>843529
It went even further. Before Bismarck Silesians are just Polish speaking Germans. Due to his failed policies, Silesians rallied behind Polish nationalism.
Pretty the same happened with Kashubians, the Slavic ethnic group that lives in what later became the Polish Corridor.
>>843582
Posen was partially industrial (much of heavy industry was there, especially suppliers for shipbuilding, like manufacturers of ship engines) partially highly mechanized (for that time) agricultural.
Posen was above German average.
>>843491
Nice meme.
>>842889
>still thinking the antebellum southern peasants cosplaying as Victorian gentlemen were "aristocracy"
>>842175
My family didn't migrate to America until Ospreußen was taken by the commies, they moved to East Germany and then left. They were well off in Konigsberg prior to that.
>>842889
Except not.
Most of it was poor villages in the boonies populated with smallholders by 1848. Koenigsburg was a writer's and thinker's town with an industry of skilled labor and commodities trade.
It was sparse, but somewhat idyllic by contemporary eyes.
>>843782
>Polish speaking Germans
German speaking Poles would be more correct, but still vastly uniformed
Silesia was the central European crossroads, filled with a tiny majority of German speaking Germans by the time Friedrich the Opportunist came about. German and Polish speaking Poles forming the largest minority until 1945 and Hungarians, Czechs, Russians, Ukrainians, etc. all having sizable and native speaking populations until Bismarck.
It **was** incredibly diverse.
>>844076
>It was sparse, but somewhat idyllic by contemporary eyes.
East Prussia was about as idyllic as Appalachia.
>>844204
Appalachia is pretty idyllic.
>>842516
Bro, for a large part of history many eastern Germans emigtated to poland lithuania for work when circumstances were better there, that's you've had such weird germanic enclaves in the east.
>>842175
Communism, and that goes for all countries under the iron curtain. Imagine 50 years from now the glory and splendor of Europe. We already have more GDP than US. Lets just hope the Brits doesn't fuck up.
>>845384
That's only true for Czecho-Slovakia and the Baltics. Most of the eastern European countries had fallen behind western Europe long before communism.
