Prussian deportations

The Prussian deportations, also known as the Prussian expulsions of Poles (Polish: rugi pruskie; German: Polenausweisungen), were the mass expulsions of Poles from Prussia between 1885 and 1890. More than 30,000 Poles who had immigrated to Prussia from the Polish regions of the Russian Empire and Austria and did not obtain a German citizenship, were deported back to their country of origin. The county-wide expulsion was condemned by the Polish public as well as the federal German parliament. The expulsion also contributed to the worsening of Russo-German relations. In the aftermath, Poles without German citizenship were again allowed to work and reside in the German Empire in all seasons but winter. The Prussian deportations have been described as an example of ethnic cleansing. Agriculture in the eastern provinces of Prussia was to a high degree based on large-area manors and run by German junkers, who employed thousands of migrating Poles from the Russian and Austrian part of partitioned Poland. Also, the growing industrial region of Upper Silesia attracted workers from economically backward areas. At the same time, parts of the local German and Polish population migrated in search of work to more industrialized western areas of Germany (Ostflucht). Although no anti-German political activity among the Polish migrants was ever noted, the resulting increase of the Polish population alarmed nationalist German circles, including Germany's chancellor Otto von Bismarck.