Jungdeutsche Partei

Jungdeutsche Partei in Polen (JDP), or the Young German Party in Poland (Polish: Partia Młodoniemiecka w Polsce), was a Nazi German extreme right-wing political party founded in 1931 by members of the ethnic German minority residing in the Second Polish Republic.^[1]

Jungdeutsche Partei in Polen

Young German Party in Poland
Volksdeutsches decorated with the Golden Party Badge by Adolf Hitler in Berlin after Invasion of Poland in 1939. From left: Ludwig Wolff of Deutscher Volksverband, Otto Ulitz, Wagner, Rudolf Wiesner from Bielsko-Biała, Obergruppenführer Werner Lorenz, Erwin Hasbach from Ciechocinek, Gero von Gersdorff from Wielkopolska, and Weiss from Jarocin
Established	1931 (1931)
Type	Nazism
Headquarters	Bielsko-Biała, Poland
Leader	Rudolf Wiesner, Obersturmführer Max Wambeck (1938)
Affiliations	Nazi Germany
Remarks	Far-right politics

The party was opposed not only to collaboration with Poland, but also, with other German organizations in Poland.^[2] Its leader was Rudolf Wiesner (pictured, fourth from the left), a committed Nazi.^[3] He was replaced by Max Wambeck from NSDAP on 22 November 1938.^[4] After the invasion of Poland Wambeck (fluent in Polish, known as Maksymilian Wambeck locally)^[5] served as SS-Obersturmführer in Chodzież in the Gnesen Gau (Polish Gniezno County) interrogating and torturing Armia Krajowa resistance members.^[4]

Activities

Sponsored financially by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nazi Germany, the Jungdeutsche Partei members trained in propaganda, sabotage and espionage activities against the Polish state,^[6] smuggled military weapons,^[7] and waged a campaign of intimidating other members of the community to leave for Nazi Germany, with tangible incentives.^[6] A considerable number of young Polish Germans joined the rank-and-file of the Party during the mid-1930s as a result of Nazi indoctrination and aggressive recruitment.^[8] The party had its own flag with JdP symbol in it, celebrated anniversaries (Heldengedenktag), a hymn sung at gatherings (Jungdeutsche marschiert) with a Nazi salute, and its own red armbands similar to NSDAP.^[9]

The Jungdeutsche Partei was formed originally in 1921 in Bielsko-Biała as the Deutscher Nationalsozialistischer Verein in Polen. Renamed in 1931 the party gradually expanded its activities to cover most of Upper Silesia with 1,200 members,^[10] and other regions such as Greater Poland (since 1934) as well as Pomerania and Volhynia in the following years.^[11][12] The public rallies held by the party were aggressively anti-Polish, rabidly racist, and anti-Jewish; while proclaiming to the world: "We want to be Germans, and nothing but Germans."^[13] JDP was dissolved by Adolf Hitler after the invasion of Poland with transfer of its membership to Germany.^[14]

See also

• Deutscher Volksverband, the German People's Union in interwar Poland
• Deutsche Vereinigung, the German minority organization from northern Poland
• Sonderdienst, Nazi German paramilitary formations created after the invasion