Poles in Germany
Poles in the United States |
Poles in Germany (
History
Since the Partitions of Poland in 1772, 1793 and 1795 and Poland's partial incorporation into Prussia, a large Polish ethnic group existed inside Prussia's borders, especially in the new provinces of Posen and West Prussia. Poles also settled in present-day Germany during the 18th century e.g. in Dresden and Leipzig.[6] Dresden was named Royal-Polish Residential City after Augustus II the Strong became King of Poland in 1697.[citation needed]
During the late 19th century rapid industrialisation in the
After 1870, the Poles were under an increasing pressure of Germanisation, and the Kulturkampf attacked their Catholic Church. Most Catholic bishops were imprisoned or exiled. The teaching language which had previously been Polish in the predominantly Polish-speaking areas in Prussia was replaced by German as teaching language, even in religious education where Polish priests were replaced by German teachers. However, these Germanisation policies were not at all successful. In contrast, it led to the political awakening of many Poles and to the establishment of a wealth of Polish economic, political and cultural associations which were aimed at preserving Polish culture and Polish interests, especially in the Province of Posen and in the Ruhr area. The policy of forced cultural Germanisation alienated large parts of the Polish-speaking population against the German authorities and produced nationalistic sentiments on both sides.
After the
Today
Today the German government does not recognise German nationals of Polish ethnicity as a national minority. As a result, according to Polish agencies, Germany is not recognising the
The position of the German government is that after the German territorial losses after World War II, the current Polish minority has no century-old roots in the remaining German territory, because Germany lost all the territories where people of German and Polish ethnicity overlapped. Since they are therefore only recent immigrants, they do not fulfill the requirements of a national minority according to the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and the Treaty of Good Neighbourship. Being German citizens, they still retain all civil and political rights every German citizen possesses, and therefore can voice their will in the political system.[10]
About 10,000 Polish citizens have recently moved to German localities along the Polish-German border, depopulated after the unification of Germany.[11][12]
Population distribution
Data of 2011:[13]
State | Number of Poles | % of State population | % of Poles in Germany |
---|---|---|---|
North Rhine-Westphalia | 786,480
|
4.5
|
39.2
|
Bavaria | 202,220
|
1.6
|
10.1
|
Baden-Württemberg | 202,210
|
1.9
|
10.1
|
Lower Saxony | 201,620
|
2.6
|
10.1
|
Hessen
|
163,200
|
2.7
|
8.1
|
Berlin | 101,080
|
3.1
|
5.0
|
Rhineland-Palatinate | 88,860
|
2.2
|
4.4
|
Hamburg | 71,260
|
4.2
|
3.6
|
Schleswig-Holstein | 55,510
|
2.0
|
2.8
|
Brandenburg | 27,940
|
1.1
|
1.4
|
Bremen | 26,270
|
4.0
|
1.3
|
Saxony | 25,700
|
0.6
|
1.3
|
Saarland | 19,870
|
2.0
|
1.0
|
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern | 13,250
|
0.8
|
0.7
|
Saxony-Anhalt | 10,790
|
0.5
|
0.5
|
Thuringia | 10,140
|
0.5
|
0.5
|
Total | 2,006,410 | 2.52 | 100.0 |
Number of Poles in larger cities | |||||||||
# | City | People | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. | Berlin | 56,573 | |||||||
2. | Hamburg | 23,310 | |||||||
3. | Munich | 18,639 | |||||||
4. | Frankfurt | 12,174 | |||||||
5. | Dortmund | 10,138 | |||||||
6. | Cologne | 9,766 | |||||||
7. | Bremen | 9,455 | |||||||
8. | Düsseldorf | 9,316 | |||||||
9. | Hanover | 8,259 | |||||||
10. | Essen | 6,952 | |||||||
11. | Bonn | 6,879 | |||||||
12. | Nuremberg | 6,670 | |||||||
13. | Mannheim | 6,595 | |||||||
14. | Wuppertal | 5,870 | |||||||
15. | Duisburg | 5,423 | |||||||
16. | Leipzig | 5,219 | |||||||
17. | Wiesbaden | 4,648 | |||||||
18. | Gelsenkirchen | 4,517 | |||||||
19. | Krefeld | 4,473 | |||||||
20. | Offenbach | 4,112 |
Image gallery
-
Old Catholic Cemetery in Dresden
-
Old inscription for the Polish Workers' Bank in Bochum
-
Kraszewski-Museum in Dresden
-
Polish Soldiers' Quarter of the Ohlsdorf Cemetery in Hamburg
-
Klub Polskich Nieudaczników in Berlin
-
Monument to Polish soldiers in Crostwitz
-
Polish Consulate in Munich
-
Polish Embassy in Berlin
-
Polish Shop in Berlin
-
German-Polish School in Löcknitz
-
Moszyńska Palace in Dresden
-
Potocki Palace in Hamburg
-
Jabłonowski Palace in Leipzig
-
Raczyński Palace in Berlin
Notable individuals
See also
- Germany–Poland relations
- German minority in Poland
- Union of Poles in Germany
- List of notable Germans of Polish origin
- Association of National Minorities in Germany
References
- ^ a b "Anzahl der Ausländer in Deutschland nach Herkunftsland in den Jahren 2015 und 2016". statista (in German).
- ^ "Zensusdatenbank – Ergebnisse des Zensus 2011". Retrieved 25 April 2015.
- ^ "Zensusdatenbank – Ergebnisse des Zensus 2011". Retrieved 25 April 2015.
- ^ Wspólnota Polska. "Stowarzyszenie Wspólnota Polska". Archived from the original on 9 May 2015. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
- ^ "Raport o sytuacji Polonii i Polaków za granicą 2012". Ministerstwo Spraw Zagranicznych. 2013. p. 177. Retrieved 27 November 2013.
- ^ "Muzeum Emigracji w Gdyni". Retrieved 26 November 2014.
- ^ Cf. "Deutsch-polnisches Abkommen über Oberschlesien“ (Oberschlesien-Abkommen, OSA) of 15 May 1922, in: Reichsgesetzblatt, 1922, part II, pp. 238ff.
- ^ Rak, Krzysztof (2010). "Sytuacja polskiej mniejszości narodowej w Niemczech" (PDF). p. 36. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 June 2014. Retrieved 27 November 2013.
- ^ Rak, Krzysztof (2010). "Sytuacja polskiej mniejszości narodowej w Niemczech" (PDF). pp. 34–38. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 June 2014. Retrieved 27 November 2013.
- ^ Answer to Small inquiry to the German Government by MP Ulla Jelpke and the PDS, 9 September 2000, German Federal Government
- ^ Tysiące Polaków przenosi się na niemiecką stronę Odry
- ^ Neues Leben für die Uckermark
- ^ "Zensusdatenbank – Ergebnisse des Zensus 2011". Retrieved 25 April 2015.
Further reading
- Cyganski, Miroslaw. "Nazi Persecutions of Polish National Minorities in the Rhineland-Westphalia Provinces in the Years 1933–1945," Polish Western Affairs (1976) 17#12 pp 115–138
- Fink, Carole. " Stresemann's Minority Policies, 1924–29," Journal of Contemporary History (1979) 14#3 pp. 403–422 in JSTOR
- Kulczycki, John J. School Strikes in Prussian Poland 1901–1907: The Struggle over Bilingual Education (1981)
- Kulczycki, John J. The Polish Coal Miners' Union and the German Labor Movement in the Ruhr, 1902–1934: National and Social Solidarity (1997)
- Kulczycki, John J. The Foreign Worker and the German Labor Movement: Xenophobia and Solidarity in the Coal Fields of the Ruhr, 1871–1914 (1994)
- Riekhoff, Harald von. German-Polish Relations, 1918–1933 (1971).
- Sobczak, Janusz. "The Centenary of Polish Emigration To Rhineland-Westphalia," Polish Western Affairs (1970) 11#1 pp 193–198.
- Wynot, Edward D. "The Poles in Germany, 1919-139," East European Quarterly, 1996 30#2 pp 171+ online broad overview