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Józef Piłsudski in German prisons

Magdeburg is known in Poland above all as the place where Józef Piłsudski was interned. The fortress there is a frequent reminder of the imprisonment of the leader of the Polish legions and one of the fathers of Polish independence. But the city was not the only one where Piłsudski was held prisoner. Most of the buildings in which Piłsudski was imprisoned no longer exist today. The fortresses in Wesel and Magdeburg were destroyed years ago. The small wooden house in which Piłsudski was interned during his time in Magdeburg, also fell into disrepair before it was handed over to Poland in the 1930s and finally rebuilt near the Belvedere in Warsaw as a precious historical testimony to the work of the man who was already revered as a cult figure during his lifetime. The future Marshal of Poland was detained for almost one and a half years from 22nd July 1917 to 8th November 1918.

Piłsudski and Sosnkowski during their internment in the Magdeburg Fortress, 1918

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Berlin-Spandau, 30th July to 6th August 1917

After their brief stay in Gdansk, Piłsudski and Sosnkowski were individually transferred to Berlin, where their paths now diverged for over a year. They were sent to the prison in Wilhelmstrasse in Spandau near Berlin (now a district included in the capital). The prison was built between 1877 and 1881 and during the First World War around 400 inmates were sentenced here by military courts. After the Second World War the Nazi criminal Rudolf Hess served his sentence here and when he died in 1987 the building was demolished.

The conditions in this prison were considerably worse and the regulations much more rigorous than in Gdansk. It was not allowed to bring in food from the city. In the morning, the prisoners were served thin coffee and a slice of black bread, a lousy soup at noon and the morning menu was repeated in the evening. Germany was experiencing food shortages at the time and the “turnip winter” had only ended a few months earlier. Against this background there was no good reason to supply the Polish prisoners with special food despite their high rank. They were also forbidden to read books and daily newspapers, which was a sensitive issue given their monotonous existence. The lights were switched off at 7.30 in the evening (to save energy!), and they were woken at 5.00 in the morning. The hygienic conditions were catastrophic and the cells were full of bugs. Fortunately, their stay in Spandau was short.

Recalling Piłsudski many years later, the prison warden Oskar Kempe said:

“He was a distinguished gentleman! He was proud, he spoke little, he never asked for anything, he never complained about anything, he just came to Oskar Kempe's office from time to time for cigarettes: I no longer know who sent them to him.”