Vistula Germans
Vistula Germans (
Migration history
The Vistula River flows south to north in a broad easterly loop that extends from the Carpathian Mountains to its mouth on the Baltic Sea near Gdańsk (Danzig). Many were invited in by German and Polish nobility but most settled in cities and large towns which were often governed under a form known as German town law.
German settlement on abandoned or empty land in
In spite of the brief liberation of Polish territories by Napoleon (when the region was known as the Duchy of Warsaw) and in spite of the takeover by Russia following the Treaty of Paris (1815), German migration continued into the region throughout the 19th century. They often settled in existing communities but also established many new ones so that, by World War I, well over 3000 villages with German inhabitants can be documented.[2]
Some German villages in the area were identified by the adjective Niemiecki, which means "German" in Polish (e.g., Kępa Niemiecka). This differentiated a German village from another in the same immediate area where Poles lived (the Polish village might have the adjective Polski (e.g., Kępa Polska). After World War II, due to anti-German feelings, the adjective was commonly dropped or replaced by a term like Nowe (new). However, some villages even today still retain the old identifier.
The vast majority of Germans in this region were
Significant numbers of these Vistula Germans (including many who had spent a generation or more in the Black Sea, Bessarabia, and Volhynia regions) migrated to North America in the latter part of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Since most were farmers, they tended to head for opportunities of inexpensive or virtually free homestead land in the Midwestern and Plains States and Canadian prairies. They are of course scattered about in other regions as well.
Those who remained in this area through World War II were expelled to German territory in accord with the post-war agreements between the Allied Powers of Britain, Russia, and the United States. In a few cases, ethnic Germans who had been detained by Communist Polish authorities for forced labor remained in Poland, as did some ethnic Germans who had family ties with ethnic Poles. Some ethnic Germans were captured by Soviet troops, and were forced east to settle in Kazakhstan and Siberia. They were never repatriated.
Dutch influences
In the 16th and 17th centuries, settlers from the Netherlands and Friesland, often
Genealogy
Records for Lutheran Churches (as well as some Baptist and Moravian Brethren), many of them dating back to the late 18th century, can be found in Warsaw Archives and were microfilmed by the LDS Family History Library. Known available Lutheran records are listed on the website of the Society for German Genealogy in Eastern Europe.[6] In some places few if any records exist, primarily because of their destruction in World War II. Where Lutheran Churches did not exist, or in times before their existence, the Germans would have been obliged to register at a Roman Catholic church.
See also
- Olędrzy
- History of Germans in Russia and the Soviet Union
- Nazi-Soviet population transfers
- Flight and expulsion of Germans from Poland during and after World War II
- German minority in Poland
- German American
References
- ^ Karol Ciesielski, Osadnictwo "Olęderskie" w Prusach Królewskich i na Kujawach w świetle Kontraktów Osadniczych Studia i Materiały do Dziejów Wielkopolski i Pomorza, vol. IV, Issue 2 (1958), p. 226
- ^ Kolonizacja Niemiecka w Poludniowo-Wschodniej Czesci Krolestwa Polskiego w Latach 1815-1915; Wieslaw Sladkowski, Wydawnictwo Lubelskie
- ^ See There were no Mixed Marriages? at Upstream Vistula
- ^ For example, in 1715-1716, parish records for Płonkowo referred to Lutheran Germans from villages in the manor of Kaczkowo, Inowrocław County as being from "Olęndrów Rojewskich", "Olęndrów Kaczkowskich", "Glinskich Olęndrów" or "Jezuickich Holęndrów." See Family History Library Microfilm No. 2256803, Item 1, Frames 5-26.
- Olęderinto English as "Dutch." This sometimes creates the impression in the English-language text that the author meant persons descended from settlers from the Netherlands or Friesland, when he actually meant persons (most often ethnic Germans) living in villages organized under the Olęder law. Despite this translation problem, Szałygin's work is an excellent source of information for numerous villages in the subject region.
- ^ Society for German Genealogy in Eastern Europe - Lutheran Records
External links
- Vistula Germans History and map settlements by region
- The Breyer Map of the German settlements in central Poland
- Society for German Genealogy in Eastern Europe - with focus on Russian Poland and Volhynia
- Germans From Russia Heritage Society Focus is on Black Sea and Bessarabia regions but some limited help available for Vistula Germans as well.
- German-Russian Settlement Map
- JewishGen's Gazetteer Not just for Jewish villages.