# "12 cities lost by Germany in Versailles Treaty"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-cities-lost-by-germany-in-versailles-treaty/843633>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 19, 2019, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-cities-lost-by-germany-in-versailles-treaty/843633 "2019-11-19T00:33:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-cities-lost-by-germany-in-versailles-treaty/843633/1 "2019-11-19T00:33:18Z")

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So I read somewhere that Germany lost 12 cities as part of the Versailles Treaty, but on the map only three of them seem to be clear and obvious: Danzig, Konigsberg, and Breslau. Can anyone help me scout out the other nine? They must be smaller towns or something no so prominent.

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**Author:** ![yo\_han\_go](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yo_han_go/32/130_2.png) [@yo\_han\_go](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yo_han_go)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-cities-lost-by-germany-in-versailles-treaty/843633/2 "2019-11-19T00:50:04Z")

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You mixed it up. Versailles treaty was WWI event and you are mentioning cities lost in after WWII. I’d really like to see source, else I can only speculate that it were Alsace Lorraine cities here in mind.

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**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-cities-lost-by-germany-in-versailles-treaty/843633/3 "2019-11-19T00:51:01Z")

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What do you define as a “city”? Danzig alone was surrounded by hundreds of towns that were surrendered as well, and that’s the case for the other two cities as well. What was the source for the 12 figure? Context is probably the only way we could figure out what was meant by “city”.

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**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-cities-lost-by-germany-in-versailles-treaty/843633/4 "2019-11-19T01:23:03Z")

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theres nothing that names all 12 cities but heres something from [answers.com](http://answers.com)  
Germany ceded the towns of Eupen and Malmedy to Belgium, Alsace-Lorraine to France, had to give up parts of Westprussia and Posen as well as East Prussia to the newly created country of Poland and in the case of East Prussia, Lithuania. It also had to give back the northern part of Schleswig-Holstein to Denmark.  
i think according to a map i found some of the lost towns were occupied  
heres various maps :[12 cities lost by germany in versailles treaty - Bing](https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&id=63C403D60A6639BD1AF391A8314CF25E7EDD14E5&thid=OIP.Jgk7aUKh9Ah7u288eaandwHaFj&mediaurl=https%3A%2F%2Fimage.slidesharecdn.com%2Ftreatyofversaillesrussianrevolutiondepression-130411220110-phpapp01%2F95%2Ftreaty-of-versailles-russian-revolution-depression-11-638.jpg%3Fcb%3D1382297132&exph=479&expw=638&q=12+cities+lost+by+germany+in+versailles+treaty&selectedindex=9&qpvt=12+cities+lost+by+germany+in+versailles+treaty&ajaxhist=0&vt=0&eim=0)  
Try the second one on the page

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**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-cities-lost-by-germany-in-versailles-treaty/843633/5 "2019-11-19T01:35:10Z")

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> [@Babale](#):
>
> What do you define as a “city”? Danzig alone was surrounded by hundreds of towns that were surrendered as well, and that’s the case for the other two cities as well. What was the source for the 12 figure? Context is probably the only way we could figure out what was meant by “city”.

Exactly what I came in to say.

I mean Strasbourg, Metz and Mulhouse( Mülhausen )are obvious examples. So is Posen( Poznań ). But what about Soldau? Too small or does it count? Saarbrücken was technically lost until 1935, until restored by plebiscite - does it count?