As a result of hostilities during World War I, part of the Polish lands, including the Kingdom of Poland, fell under occupation. Most of Austrian Galicia was under Russian occupation from 1914 to 1915. From 1915 to 1918, Russian Poland (the Kingdom of Poland) was occupied by Germany and Austria-Hungary. The two Central Powers divided the territory. The Germans established the General Government of Warsaw in Warsaw, while the Austro-Hungarians established the General Military Governorate in Lublin (Militär Generalgouvernement Lublin – MGGL).

The aim of this project is to study the functioning of the latter administrative unit. The MGGL covered the southern areas of the Polish Kingdom (45,000 sq. km), including two major cities, namely Lublin and Kielce. In addition to Poles, these predominantly agricultural areas, partially devastated by the hostilities, devoid of major industrial centers, were also inhabited by Jews, and in small numbers, on the eastern outskirts, by Ukrainians and Byelorussians, a total of about 3.5 million people. The primary task of the occupation authorities was to maintain law and order at the rear of front and maximize the economic utilization (mainly through the export of food and raw materials) of the lands under their administration for the war effort of the Danube monarchy. At the same time, by various methods, the occupiers tried to curry favor with the locals. Under the mask of supposed allied unity, a hidden rivalry arose between Germany and Austria-Hungary to win the favor of the Poles.

This involved discussion of the post-war order and the need for the victors to regulate the Polish issue. The dissatisfaction of the civilian population caused by the prolonged war, the uncertain future, but above all the decline in living standards and problems with provisions, the occupiers tried to alleviate with concessions to Polish cultural and political life, e.g. by introducing the Polish language in administration, education and the judiciary, or municipal self-government. This policy culminated in the proclamation of the Kingdom of Poland by Kaiser Wilhelm II and Franz Joseph I on November 5. Nevertheless, until October 1918, real power and control was in the hands of the occupation authorities. Only then, facing defeat in war and the apparent disintegration of the Danube monarchy, did the occupation authorities rapidly collapse, giving way to the emerging centers of Polish power. During the project, the organizational structures and composition of the occupation authorities will be analyzed. The latter included many Poles from Galicia, which raises the question of whether they tried to alleviate the ailments of the occupation policy towards them. In addition, the submission, evolution and implementation of occupation policies (especially in the economic sphere), attempts to adapt these policies to prevailing realities, the impact of the human factor on the implementation of occupation laws, relations between the occupied population and the occupiers (including mutual perceptions of these groups), the occupiers’ management of nationality conflicts, political life, and daily life in the occupied territories, political and criminal violence, corruption, the black market, and the evaluation of Austro-Hungarian occupation policies by Polish public opinion and German authorities will be examined. The project’s primary source base consists of Polish, Austrian and German archives, legal and illegal press, journalism and diaries.

OPUS 29 Nr rej. 2025/57/B/HS3/03655