The Greater Poland Uprising () was a planned military insurrection by

Poles Pole or poles may refer to: People *Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland * Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name * Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist ...

in the land of

Greater Poland Greater Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska (; ), is a Polish Polish historical regions, historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief and largest city is Poznań followed by Kalisz, the oldest city in Poland. The bound ...

against the

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

n forces, designed to be part of a general Polish uprising in all three partitions of Poland, against the Russians, Austrians and Prussians.

Plans

Plans to start an uprising across all parts of the partitioned Poland simultaneously on 21 February 1846 were made by several Polish organisations.Norman Davies, "God's playground"
/ref> In the Prussian

Grand Duchy of Posen The Grand Duchy of Posen (; ) was part of the Kingdom of Prussia, created from Prussian Partition, territories annexed by Prussia after the Partitions of Poland, and formally established following the Congress of Vienna in 1815. On 9 February 1 ...

, Ludwik Mierosławski, who had recently arrived in

Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...

out of French exile, was supposed to lead the military operations. While the

Kraków Uprising The Kraków Uprising ( Polish: ''powstanie krakowskie'', ''rewolucja krakowska''; German: ''Krakauer Aufstand''; Russian: ''краковское восстание'') of 1846 was an attempt, led by Polish insurgents such as Jan Tyssowski and ...

in the Austrian partition was started but failed, the insurgents in Poznań were betrayed by a conspirator and the leaders of the organization were arrested by Prussian authorities two weeks before actions were supposed to start.Thomas Urban, Von Krakau bis Danzig, Munich 2000
No serious hostilities occurred that year.

Aftermath

254 insurgents were charged with high treason at the

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Kammergericht. The trial was the first one after a new criminal trial law was invented in Prussia. The hearing was now publicly accessible and caused a large interest among the populace of Berlin and Prussia in sympathy with the defendants.Saar/Roth/Hattenhauer "Recht als Erbe und Aufgabe: Heinz Holzhauer zum 21. April 2005"
/ref> The trial ended on 2 December 1847, when 134 of the defendants were acquitted and returned to the

. 8 defendants, including Mierosławski, who had written his book "Débat en la révolution et la contrerévolution en Pologne" throughout his custody, were sentenced to death, the rest to prison in the

Moabit Moabit () is an inner city locality in the boroughs of Berlin, borough of Mitte, Berlin, Germany. As of 2022, about 84,000 people lived in Moabit. First inhabited in 1685 and incorporated into Berlin in 1861, the former industrial sector, industr ...

prison. The death sentences were not enforced and all convicts were amnestied by King

Frederick William IV of Prussia Frederick William IV (; 15 October 1795 – 2 January 1861), the eldest son and successor of Frederick William III of Prussia, was King of Prussia from 7 June 1840 until his death on 2 January 1861. Also referred to as the "romanticist on the th ...

on the demand of the revolutionary populace of Berlin in the Spring of Nations in March 1848. They immediately joined the Greater Poland Uprising of 1848.

Famous insurgents

* Karol Libelt (1807–1875) * Ludwik Mierosławski (1814–1878) * Władysław Niegolewski (1819–1885) was a Polish liberal politician and member of parliament, an

insurgent An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare against a larger authority. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric nature: small irregular forces face a large, well ...

in the 1846 Wielkopolska Uprising, the 1848 Wielkopolska Uprising and the

1863 Uprising The January Uprising was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at putting an end to Russian occupation of part of Poland and regaining independence. It began on 22 January 1863 and continued until the last in ...

, and a cofounder (1861) of the

Central Economic Society Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

(''TCL'') and (1880) of the

People's Libraries Society People's Libraries Society ( (TCL)) was an educational society established in 1880 for the Prussian partition of Poland (active in the regions of Greater Poland or the Grand Duchy of Poznan, Pomerania, West Prussia, Kashubia and Silesia). Its ma ...

(''CTG''). * Edmund Taczanowski (1822–1879) was a Prussian-Polish general, noble and Lord of Choryn who led a revolt in 1843 and participated in the 1846 Wielkopolska Uprising. He later served with

Giuseppe Garibaldi Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi ( , ;In his native Ligurian language, he is known as (). In his particular Niçard dialect of Ligurian, he was known as () or (). 4 July 1807 – 2 June 1882) was an Italian general, revolutionary and republican. H ...

in the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

Risorgimento The unification of Italy ( ), also known as the Risorgimento (; ), was the 19th century political and social movement that in 1861 ended in the annexation of various states of the Italian peninsula and its outlying isles to the Kingdom of ...

. *

Włodzimierz Krzyżanowski Włodzimierz Bonawentura Krzyżanowski (; in some sources, misspelled Wladimir Krzyzanowski; 8 July 1824 – 31 January 1887) was a Polish-American engineer, politician, and brigadier general in the Union Army. A Polish noble, he took par ...

(1824–1887) was an important brigade commander during the American Civil War.

References

{{Authority control 1846 in Poland Conflicts in 1846 19th-century rebellions Rebellions in Poland Grand Duchy of Posen Polish nationalism (1795–1918) Prussian Partition Frederick William IV of Prussia 19th-century military history of Poland