“Here at the Bleeding Eastern Border, One Could See the Injustice”

In 1937, in the Ordensburg (fortress) ¹ of Marienwerder (Kwidzyn), information was being shared dramatically about the new border with Poland, which ran along the Vistula River: “One stood here on the bleeding eastern border and saw the injustice that had been inflicted on old West Prussia with the drawing of the border. In the great dining hall of Marienwerder’s Ordensburg, the Regierungspräsident (president of the district administration), Otto v. Keudell, came right to the point regarding the political reality. Prof. Walther Schulz made a vow on behalf of everyone present to never forget the harrowing borderland experience.” ² What do we learn from these few lines? In 1920, after the First World War, the demarcation of the border along the Vistula due to the plebiscite was both a trauma and a myth, linked to the medieval history of the Teutonic Order. It became a ritualized event 17 years later, led by the Regierungspräsident of the district of Marienwerder.