| Danzig crisis | ||||||||
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 Danzig policemen on foot patrol | ||||||||
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Supported by:  France United Kingdom |
 Free City of Danzig |
 Nazi Germany | ||||||
| Events leading to World War II |
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The Danzig crisis was an important prelude to World War II. The crisis lasted from March 1939 until the outbreak of war on 1 September 1939. The crisis began when tensions escalated between Nazi Germany and the Second Polish Republic Poland over the Free City of Danzig (modern-day Gdańsk, Poland). The city, at the time of the crisis largely German-speaking, had been ruled variously by Polish and Germanic authorities in its long history. After the Partition of Poland, it had been ruled by Prussia from 1793 and the German Empire from 1871.
At the end of World War I the city came under the governance of the League of Nations (via the Treaty of Versailles) but was politically aligned with Poland, which controlled its external affairs. As part of his agressive foreign policy after the Nazi rise to power, Adolf Hitler sought to bring Danzig back under German control, and also wished Poland to sign the Anti-Comintern Pact. Poland refused these initial demands, and Hitler began to plan a full-scale invasion, informing his subordinates that he was no longer interested in a peaceful settlement.
Despite Britain and France guaranteeing Poland's territorial integrity, key German officials such as Joachim von Ribbentrop were convinced that Britain and France would not go to war over Poland. The crisis reached its peak when Germany, on September 1, 1939, invaded Poland in the planned Fall Weiss, triggering the start of World War II. Following the invasion Britain and France declared war on Germany. The Danzig issue, therefore, was central to the breakdown of diplomacy and the onset of the war in Europe.