Page "Greater Poland Uprising (1848)" Paragraph 51

On 5 April the new " Royal Civil Commissioner for the Province Posen ", Karl Wilhelm von Willisen, a figure claiming to be sympathetic to the Polish cause, arrived at Poznań and his early actions disappointed the Germans greatly.

Willisen soon came in conflict with the military commander of Poznań, general Friedrich August Peter von Colomb, who opposed any kind of Polish independence efforts.

Willisen declared that Poles will be granted autonomy but they have to reduce their forces, which on beginning of April counted 7, 000 people.

A compromise was reached on 11 April in Jarosławiec, when Willisen permitted Poles to have four military camps counting 720 people each ( In the end the number of people in the camps was around 4, 000 ).

Willisen himself left Poznań on 20 April, blamed for treason and having " betrayed the German cause " and as a contemporary eyewitness wrote " Willisen was exposed to personal insults or even danger from the infuriated German and Jewish mobs of Posen ”