History of Germans in Poland

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

German-language use in the Second Polish Republic based on the 1931 census

The history of Germans in Poland dates back almost a millennium. Poland was at one point Europe's most multiethnic state during the medieval period. Its territory covered an immense plain with no natural boundaries, with a thinly scattered population of many ethnic groups, including the Poles themselves, Germans in the cities of West Prussia, and Ruthenians in Lithuania. 5 to 10% of immigrants were German settlers.[1] (In the Middle Ages, there was no homogeneous German state; the label "German" generally refers to German-speaking people, including Germanized Polabian Slavs and Lusatian Sorbs.[1][2])

The

western Polish cities were German-speaking, and some municipal documents were written partly in German (until the transition to Latin, and later to Polish[4]
).

History

Stages of German eastern settlement, 700-1400

The 13th century brought fundamental changes to the structure of Polish society and its political system. Because of the fragmentation and constant internal conflicts, the

Bolesław II the Bald granted Lubusz Land to the Margraviate, which made possible the creation of the Neumark and had far reaching negative consequences for the integrity of the western border.[5]

The civil strife and foreign invasions, such as the

Mongol invasions in 1241, 1259 and 1287, weakened and depopulated the many small Polish principalities, as the country was becoming progressively more subdivided. The depopulation and the increasing demand for labor in the developing economy caused a massive immigration of West European peasants, mostly German settlers, into Poland (early waves from Germany and Flanders in the 1220s).[6] The German, Polish and other new rural settlements were a form of feudal tenancy with immunity, and German town laws were often used as its legal basis. German immigrants were also important in the rise of the cities and the establishment of the Polish burgher (city-dwelling merchant) class; they brought with them West European laws (Magdeburg rights) and customs which the Poles adopted. From that time the Germans, who created early strong establishments (led by patriciates) especially in the urban centers of Silesia and other regions of western Poland, had been an increasingly influential minority in Poland.[5][7][8]

In 1228, the Acts of Cienia were signed into law by

Duke of Poland promised to provide a "just and noble law according to the council of bishops and barons". Such legal guarantees and privileges included the lower level landowners—knights, who were evolving into the class of lower and middle nobility known later as szlachta. The fragmentation period weakened the rulers and established a permanent trend in Polish history, whereby the rights and role of the nobility were expanded at the monarch's expense.[5]

Statue of Martin Luther in Bielsko-Biała (left) and St. Mary's Basilica (Kraków); in XV century, church was the subject of dispute between Polish and German community.[9] (right)

Eastward settlement

The settlements involved internal colonization, associated with rural-urban migration by natives, and many of the Polish cities adopted laws based on those of the German towns of Lübeck and Magdeburg. Some economic methods were likewise imported from Germany.

Since the beginning of the

Magdeburg law
).

The 1257 foundation decree issued by Bolesław V the Chaste for Kraków was unusual insofar as it explicitly separated the local Polish population who already lived in the city,[10] in order to avoid depopulation of already existing settlements, leading to loss of taxes.[11] Often, the Ostsiedlung settlement was founded near a pre-existing fortress that was within the existing town, as for example with Poznań (Posen) and Kraków.[12]

Saxon atmosphere.[13]

Silesia

The

Benedictines. The Cistercian abbey, its domain and the German settlers were excluded from local legislation, and subsequently the monks founded several German villages on their soil. During Henry I's reign, systematic settlement began. In a complex system a network of towns was founded in the western and southwestern parts of Silesia. These towns, economic and judicial centers, were surrounded by standardized built villages[clarification needed] which were often constructed in a clearing in the forest. The earliest German land clearing area in Silesia appeared from 1147 until 1200 in the area of Goldberg and Löwenberg
, two settlements founded by German miners. Goldberg and Löwenberg were also the first Silesian cities to receive German town law, in 1211 and 1217. This pattern of colonization was soon adopted in all other, already populated, parts of Silesia, were cities with German town law were often founded beside Slavic settlements.

In the early 14th century Silesia had about 150 towns, and the population more than quintupled. The townspeople were Germans, who now formed the majority of the overall population, while the Slavs usually lived outside the cities. In a process of peaceful assimilation, Lower and Middle Silesia became organically[clarification needed] Germanized on the West bank of Oder. Upper Silesia retained a Slavic majority, but even there German villages and towns were established and there was increasing German agricultural cultivation of barren lands[clarification needed].

Kaczyce,
Śląsk

(1447) c. 1620)
Dębno, (
Spisz
)
(c. 1450)
Blizne, Podkarpacie (Red Ruthenia)
(c. 1450)
Haczów, Podkarpacie (Red Ruthenia)
(1388) c. 1624
Binarowa, Podkarpacie
(1400) c. 1500
Examples of German "Baukultur" church architecture in the Subcarpathian region, same like the wooden churches in Silesia and North Moravia.

Lesser Poland

As late as the end of the Middle Ages, the original forest areas, especially the northern ones, lying in the fork of the Vistula, Wisłoka, and San were barely accessible for settlement due to the land's marshy nature. The area was intensively settled during the 13th to 15th centuries. The settlements were located according to the German Law within an area flanked by the Wisłok and Wisłoka rivers. On the northern and southern edges of the Carpathian Mountains German colonization had reached the Dunajec before 1300, whilst it filled wide mountain regions in upper Hungary. There were probably some isolated settlers in the area of Krosno, Sanok, Łańcut, Biecz and Rzeszów earlier. The Germans were usually attracted by kings seeking specialists in various trades, such as craftsmen and miners. They usually settled in newer market and mining settlements. The main settlement areas were in the vicinity of Krosno and some language islands in the Pits and Rzeszów regions. The settlers in the Pits region were known as Uplander Saxons. Until about the 15th century, the ruling classes of most cities in present-day Beskidian Piedmont consisted almost exclusively of Germans. The term

San River
part of West Carpathians Plateau and Central Beskidian Piedmont in Poland.

German settlement in the Galician times (end of the 18th century), forced by the invading Austrian Habsburg.

Henry IV of Wrocław of the Silesian branch of the royal Polish Piast dynasty, Codex Manesse
, about 1300. (right)

Pomerelia

In Pomerelia, Ostsiedlung was started by the Pomerelian dukes[16] and focussed on the towns, whereas much of the countryside remained Slavic (Kashubians).An exception was the German settled Vistula delta(Vistula Germans), the coastal regions, and the Vistula valley.

Mestwin II in 1271 referred to the inhabitants of the "civitas" (town) of Danzig (Gdansk) as "burgensibus theutonicis fidelibus" (to the faithful German burghers).[17]

The settlers came from Low German areas like Holstein, the Low Countries, Flanders, Lower Saxony, Westphalia and Mecklenburg, but a few also from the Middle German Thuringia region.

Teutonic Knights

In 1226

fief and protected by the Popes and Holy Roman Emperors.[5][18]

Vilamovians are an ethnic minority of Flemish descent in Wilamowice, Bielsko County (left), and Golonka/Eisbein traditional Silesian cooking, with dishes from both the Polish and German traditions. (right)

Cultural heritage

In terms of cultural heritage, Silesia was more under German and Protestant influences than Moravia; and Catholicism has deeper roots in Moravia than in Bohemia and Silesia.[citation needed] Silesia is one of the current Polish provinces where Polish, Czech and German cultural influences have competed and coexisted for many hundreds of years. Historically speaking, the national differences in this area were connected with the question of social and religious identity. The organic unity between the towns and the countryside, typical of Silesia in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, was progressively replaced by marked social differences.[19]

Breslau, the principal Silesian city, became Wrocław.[20] Today, according to the Polish-German good-neighbor treaty, the two countries are obliged to assume joint responsibility for goods representing cultural heritage.[21][clarification needed
]

Marklowice dolne, Moravia
(1360 - 1739)
Hrabova, Moravia
(14th - 1564)
Hervartov (Bardiów)
(c. 1500)
Chlastawa (north. Śląsk)
c. 1637)
Zamarski, Śląsk
(c. 1731)
Examples of German "Bauerkulture" church architecture in the Subcarpathian region, same like the wooden churches in Silesia and North Moravia.

The remaining German minority in Poland (152,897 people were registered in the 2002 census) enjoys minority rights according to Polish minority law. There are German speakers throughout Poland, and most of the Germans live in the

. Bilingual signs are posted in some towns of the region. In addition, there are bilingual schools and German can be used instead of Polish in dealings with officials in several towns.

References

  1. ^ a b c d Bogucka M., Samsonowicz H., Dzieje miast i mieszczaństwa w Polsce przedrozbiorowej, Wrocław 1986 p.22-56
  2. ^ Wickham Ch., Medieval Europe, Yale University Press
  3. ^ Tkaczyński J., Prawo ustrojowe Niemiec, Kraków 2015 UJ
  4. ^ "Dopiero w połowie XVI wieku zaczęto pisać po polsku, Górnicki, Bielscy, Cyprian Bazylik, Budny, Wujek i Skarga, a przyczynił się do tego znany pisarz –
    Mikołaj Rey z Nagłowic, który w 1562 r. w utworze „Zwierzyniec” napisał: „A niechaj narodowie wżdy postronni znają, iż Polacy nie gęsi, iż swój język mają!”, [in:] Urbańczyk. Dwieście lat polskiego językoznawstwa: 1751-1950. 1993; "dopiero w roku 1600, zniosła rada miejska zagajanie sądów ławniczych po niemiecku; tak uporczywa była tradycja tu, w Poznaniu, Bieczu, i in. [in] Aleksander Brückner
    . Encyklopedia staropolska.
  5. ^ a b c d Wyrozumski Historia Polski. 116-128
  6. , p. 260
  7. ^ Jerzy Lukowski and Hubert Zawadzki, A Concise History of Poland, p. 14-16
  8. ^ Norman Davies, Europe: A History , p. 366
  9. ^ Aleksander Brückner. Encyklopedia staropolska, tom II. str. 12, Niemcy.
  10. ^ Kancelaria miasta Krakowa w średniowieczu Uniwersytet Jagielloński, 1995, page 15
  11. ^ The Historiography of the So-called "East Colonisation" and the Current State of Research, w: B. Nagy, M. Sebők (red.), The Man of Many Devices, Who Wandered Full Many Ways... Festschrift in Honour of Janos Bak, Budapest 1999, s. 654-667
  12. .
  13. ^ Franciszek Kotula. Pochodzenie domów przysłupowych w Rzeszowskiem. "Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej" Jahr. V., Nr. 3/4, 1957, S. 557
  14. ^ Marcin Bielski or Martin Bielski; "Kronika wszystkiego swiata" (1551; "Chronicle of the Whole World"), the first general history in Polish of both Poland and the rest of the world.
  15. ^ Ignacy Krasicki [in:] Kasper Niesiecki Herbarz [...] (1839-1846) tom. IX, page. 11.
  16. ^ Howard B. Clarke, Anngret Simms, The Comparative History of Urban Origins in Non-Roman Europe: Ireland, Wales, Denmark, Germany, Poland, and Russia from the Ninth to the Thirteenth Century B.A.R., p.690, 1985
  17. ^ John Radzilowski, A Traveller's History of Poland, p. 39-41
  18. ^ Anna Czekanowska. Polish Folk Music: Slavonic Heritage - Polish Tradition 2006. p. 73
  19. ^ Concise Encyclopaedia of World History, 2007
  20. ^ Daily report: East Europe: United States. Foreign Broadcast Information Service, edit. 94, 1994