The League of East European States was a political idea conceived during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 for the establishment of a buffer state

Buffer state

A buffer state is a country lying between two rival or potentially hostile greater powers, which by its sheer existence is thought to prevent conflict between them. Buffer states, when authentically independent, typically pursue a neutralist foreign policy, which distinguishes them from satellite...

 (Pufferstaat) within the Jewish Pale of Settlement

Pale of Settlement

The Pale of Settlement was the term given to a region of Imperial Russia, in which permanent residency by Jews was allowed, and beyond which Jewish permanent residency was generally prohibited...

 of Russia

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

, composed of the former Polish provinces annexed by Russia

Partitions of Poland

The Partitions of Poland or Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in the second half of the 18th century and ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland for 123 years...

, which would be a de facto protectorate

Protectorate

In history, the term protectorate has two different meanings. In its earliest inception, which has been adopted by modern international law, it is an autonomous territory that is protected diplomatically or militarily against third parties by a stronger state or entity...

 of the German Empire

German Empire

The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...

 in Mitteleuropa

Mitteleuropa

Mitteleuropa is the German term equal to Central Europe. The word has political, geographic and cultural meaning. While it describes a geographical location, it also is the word denoting a political concept of a German-dominated and exploited Central European union that was put into motion during...

. The plan soon proved unpopular with both German officials and Bodenheimer's colleagues, and was dead by the following year.

In 1902, prominent Zionist

Zionism

Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...

 Max Bodenheimer

Max Bodenheimer

----Max Isidor Bodenheimer was a lawyer and one of the main figures in German Zionism.In 1914, he was one of co-founders of German Committee for Freeing of Russian Jews, and seems to be an author of conception of establishment League of East European States-German client state with autonomous...

 wrote a memorandum to the German Foreign Ministry in which he claimed that Yiddish, the common language of East European Jewry who lived in the provinces annexed from Poland by Russia and Austria

Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...

, was "a popular German dialect", and that these Jews were mentally well disposed to Germany by linguistic affinity and hence could be an instrument of German imperial policy in the East.
In August 1914, a German Committee for Freeing of Russian Jews

German Committee for Freeing of Russian Jews

The German Committee for the Freeing of Russian Jews was created in August, 1914 by Franz Oppenheimer, Adolf Friedman and Leo Motzkin to lobby for the socio-political liberation of Jewish people living in the Russian Empire and ensuring their protection from pogroms...

 (Deutsches Komitee zur Befreiung der Russischen Juden) was founded by German Zionists, including Bodenheimer, Franz Oppenheimer

Franz Oppenheimer

Franz Oppenheimer was a German-Jewish sociologist and political economist, who published also in the area of the fundamental sociology of the state.-Personal life:...

 and Adolf Friedmann, and Russian Zionist Leo Motzkin

Leo Motzkin

Leo Motzkin was a Russian Zionist leader. A leader of the World Zionist Congress and numerous Jewish and Zionist organizations, Motzkin was a key organizer of the Jewish delegation to the 1919 Paris Peace Conference and one of the first Jewish leaders to organize opposition to the Nazi Party in...

.

According to this plan, the new state should be a monarchy ruled by the Hohenzollern dynasty.

The population of some 30 million of this state would be composed of 6 million Jews, 8 million Poles

Poles

thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...

, 11 million Ukrainians

Ukrainians

Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...

 and Belarusians

Belarusians

Belarusians ; are an East Slavic ethnic group who populate the majority of the Republic of Belarus. Introduced to the world as a new state in the early 1990s, the Republic of Belarus brought with it the notion of a re-emerging Belarusian ethnicity, drawn upon the lines of the Old Belarusian...

, 3.5 million Lithuanians

Lithuanians

Lithuanians are the Baltic ethnic group native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,765,600 people. Another million or more make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the United States, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Russia, United Kingdom and Ireland. Their native language...

 and Latvians

Latvians

Latvians or Letts are the indigenous Baltic people of Latvia.-History:Latvians occasionally refer to themselves by the ancient name of Latvji, which may have originated from the word Latve which is a name of the river that presumably flowed through what is now eastern Latvia...

, 1 million Romanians

Romanians

The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....

 and under 0.5 million Baltic Germans. Isaiah Friedman in the book Germany, Turkey, and Zionism 1897-1918 on page 231 gives the following number of nationalities: Poles, 8 million; Ukrainians, 5 million; Belarusians, 4 million; Lithuanians, Estonians, and Latvians, 3 to 5 million; Jews, 6 million; and Germans, 1.8 million. While in theory all the groups were to enjoy national autonomy, the Poles were to be "counterbalanced" and Jews and Germans were to "tip the scales" in the proposed state. Isaiah Friedman notes that such a collection of nationalities had merits for German war aims, as it would be dependent on Germany, while a separate Polish state spelled danger.

This concept was criticized by various Zionist leaders as impractical and dangerous, and eventually was given up after Wilhelm II of Germany and Franz Joseph of Austria issued the Act of November 5th

Act of November 5th

The Act of 5th November of 1916 was a declaration of Emperors Wilhelm II of Germany and Franz Joseph of Austria. This act promised the creation of the Kingdom of Poland, envisioned by its authors as a puppet state allied to and controlled by the Central Powers...

 1916 in which they proclaimed the creation of the Kingdom of Poland.

The Bodenheimer plan was cited by the author Andrzej Leszek Szczes´niak as an example of "Judeopolonia

Judeopolonia

Judeopolonia - theory positing an alleged future Jewish domination of Poland. The idea had its roots in an 1858 book by Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, but did not gain currency in anti-semitic tracts until around the turn of the century...

" in his 2001 book of the same name, echoing the anti-semitic conspiracy theory positing a future Jewish domination of Poland that arose in the late nineteenth century.