Ethnic Trust and Emotional Statelessness: Frustration among "Ruhrpolen" with the Polish Second Republic

This paper investigates responses among the so-called Ruhrpolen to the post-WWI creation of the Polish Second Republic. It contends that a feeling of "emotional statelessness" afflicted many of those Ruhrpolen who had, during the preceding era of the Polish partitions, trusted in the redemptive potential of Polish statehood. Many Ruhrpolen came to attribute perceived disorder in Poland to dispositional or cultural defects among its government and citizenry. Yet due to prejudice many Ruhrpolen continued to face in Germany, this alienation often did not translate to a concomitant identification with the Weimar state, instead leading to a sense of emotional statelessness.