fbpx
Wikipedia

German minority in Poland

October 17, 2023

The registered German minority in Poland (Polish: Niemcy w Polsce) at the Polish census of 2021 were 140,000.[1]

Germans in Poland
Total population
140,000[1]
Regions with significant populations
south central region near Opole
Languages
German, Polish
Religion
Related ethnic groups
other German diaspora
Example of bilingual labeling in German and Polish on the town hall of the Polish village of Cisek.

The German language is spoken in certain areas in Opole Voivodeship, where most of the minority resides, and in Silesian Voivodeship. German speakers first came to these regions (present-day Opole and Silesian Voivodeships) during the late Middle Ages.[2] However, there are no localities in either Upper Silesia or Poland as a whole where German could be considered a language of everyday communication.[3] The predominant home or family language of Poland's German minority in Upper Silesia used to be the Silesian German language (mainly Oberschlesisch (Upper Silesian dialect), but also Mundart des Brieg-Grottkauer Landes (dialect of the land of Brieg-Grottkau) was used west of Opole), but since 1945 Standard German replaced it as these Silesian German dialects went generally out of use except among the oldest generations which have by now completely died off.[4] The German Minority electoral list currently has one seat in the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (there were four from 1993 to 1997), benefiting from the current provision in Polish election law which exempts national minorities from the 5% national threshold.

In the school year of 2014/15 there were 387 elementary schools in Poland (all in Upper Silesia), with over 37,000 students, in which German was taught as a minority language (that is, at least for three periods of 45 minutes in a week), hence de facto as a subject.[5] There were no minority schools with German as the language of instruction, though there were three asymmetrically bilingual (Polish–German) schools, where most subjects were taught through the medium of Polish.[6] Most members of the German minority are Roman Catholic, while some are Lutheran Protestants (the Evangelical-Augsburg Church).

Germans in Poland today Edit

See also: Bilingual communes in Poland
 
German minority in Upper Silesia: Opole Voivodeship (west) and Silesian Voivodeship (east).
 
German minority in Warmia and Masuria.

According to the 2002 census, most of the Germans in Poland (92.9%) live in Silesia: 104,399 in the Opole Voivodeship, i.e. 71.0% of all Germans in Poland and a share of 9.9% of the local population; 30,531 in the Silesian Voivodeship, i.e. 20.8% of all Germans in Poland and 0.6% of the local population; plus 1,792 in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship, i.e. 1.2% of all Germans in Poland, though only 0.06% of the local population. A second region with a notable German minority is Masuria, with 4,311 living in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, corresponding to 2.9% of all Germans in Poland, and 0.3% of the local population.

Towns with particularly high concentrations of German speakers in Opole Voivodeship include: Strzelce Opolskie; Dobrodzien; Prudnik; Głogówek; and Gogolin.[7]

In the remaining 12 voivodeships of Poland, the percentage of Germans in the population does not exceed 0.09%:

Region Population German % German
  Poland 38,557,984
  Opole Voivodeship 1,055,667 206,256 19.5
  Silesian Voivodeship 4,830,000 116,549 2.4
  Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship 1,428,552 19,614 1.4
  Pomeranian Voivodeship 2,192,000 35,870 1.6
  Lower Silesian Voivodeship 2,898,000 9,126 0.3
  West Pomeranian Voivodeship 1,694,865 31,557 1.9
  Greater Poland Voivodeship 3,365,283 5,779 0.2
  Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship 2,068,142 3,880 0.2
  Lubusz Voivodeship 1,009,005 3,158 0.3
  Masovian Voivodeship 5,136,000 6,163 0.1
  Łódź Voivodeship 2,597,000 6,668 0.3
Source (2002, diverging): Główny Urząd Statystyczny, Warsaw; Census results.[8]

Poland was the third most frequent destination for migrant Germans in 2009, after the United States and Switzerland,[9] dropping to 8th most frequent in 2015. [10]

History of Germans in Poland Edit

Main article: History of the Germans in Poland
 
German language frequency in Poland – based on the Polish census of 1931

German migration into areas that form part of present-day Poland began with the medieval Ostsiedlung (see also Walddeutsche in the Subcarpathian region). Regions which subsequently became part of the Kingdom of Prussia – Lower Silesia, East Brandenburg, Pomerania and East Prussia – were almost completely German by the High Middle Ages. In other areas of modern-day Poland there were substantial German populations, most notably in the historical regions of Pomerelia, Upper Silesia, and Posen or Greater Poland. Lutheran Germans settled numerous Olęder villages along the Vistula River and its tributaries during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. In the 19th century, Germans became actively involved in developing the clothmaking industry in what is now central Poland. Over 3,000 villages and towns within Russian Poland are recorded as having German residents. Many of these Germans remained east of the Curzon line after World War I ended in 1918, including a significant number in Volhynia. In the late 19th century, some Germans moved westward during the Ostflucht, while a Prussian Settlement Commission established others in Central Poland.

According to the 1931 census, around 740,000 German speakers lived in Poland (2.3% of the population). Their minority rights were protected by the Little Treaty of Versailles of 1919. The right to appeal to the League of Nations however was renounced by the League of Nations in 1934, officially due to Germany's withdrawal from the League (September 1933) after Adolf Hitler became German Chancellor in January 1933.

WWII Edit

Main article: Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz
 
Commanders of the Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz, a paramilitary organization composed of members of the German minority living in pre-war Poland, 1939

After Nazi Germany's invasion of the Second Polish Republic in September 1939, many members of the German minority (around 25%[11]) joined the ethnic German paramilitary organisation Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz. When the German occupation of Poland began, the Selbstschutz took an active part in Nazi crimes against ethnic Poles. Due to their pre-war interactions with the Polish majority, they were able to prepare lists of Polish intellectuals and civil servants whom the Nazis selected for extermination. The organisation actively participated and was responsible for the deaths of about 50,000 Poles.[12][full citation needed]

Following the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, the Soviets annexed a massive portion of the eastern part of Poland (November 1939) in the wake of an August 1939 agreement between the Reich and the USSR. During the German occupation of Poland during World War II (1939-1945), the Nazis forcibly resettled ethnic Germans from other areas of Central Europe (such as the Baltic states) in the pre-war territory of Poland. At the same time the Nazi authorities expelled, enslaved and killed Poles and Jews.

After the Nazis' defeat in 1945, Poland did not regain its Soviet-annexed territory;[13] instead, Polish communists, directed by the Soviets, expelled[14] the remaining Germans who had not been evacuated or fled before[15] from the areas of Lower Silesia, Upper Silesia, Farther Pomerania, East Brandenburg, and East Prussia and made Poles take their place, some of whom were expelled from Soviet-occupied areas that had previously formed part of Poland. About half of East Prussia became the newly created Soviet territory of Kaliningrad Oblast (officially established in 1946), where Soviet citizens replaced the former German residents. Claims to a border along the Oder-Neisse line were presented at the Potsdam Conference of August 1945 by a delegation of Polish politicians.[16] The Potsdam Conference's results eventually specified or endorsed the shifting of borders pending a later peace treaty.[17][16] In the following years, the communists and activists inspired by the Myśl zachodnia strived to "de-Germanize" and to "re-Polonize" the huge land, propagandistically termed Recovered Territories.[18]

Following the downfall of the Polish Communist regime in 1989, the German minorities' political situation in modern-day Poland has improved, and after Poland joined the European Union in the 2004 enlargement and was incorporated into the Schengen Area, German citizens are now allowed to buy land and property in the areas where they or their ancestors used to live, and can return there if they wish. However, none of their properties have been returned after being confiscated.

A possible demonstration[original research?] of the ambiguity of the Polish-German minority position[clarification needed] can be seen in the life and career of Waldemar Kraft, a minister without portfolio in the West German Bundestag during the 1950s. However, most of the German minority had not been as involved in the Nazi system as Kraft was.[19]

There is no clear-cut division in Poland between the Germans and some other minorities, whose heritage is similar in some respects due to centuries of assimilation, Germanisation and intermarriage, but differs in other respects due to either ancient regional West Slavic roots or Polonisation. Examples of such minorities include the Slovincians (Lebakaschuben), the Masurians and the Silesians of Upper Silesia. While in the past these people have been claimed[by whom?] for both Polish and German ethnicity, it really depends on their self-perception which they choose to belong to.

German Poles Edit

 
Communes in Poland in which additional minority names were introduced (as of 1 December 2009). In blue – German names in the Opole and Silesian Voivodeships (total of 238 German names in Silesia)

The term "German Poles" (German: Deutsche Polen, Polish: Polacy pochodzenia niemieckiego) may refer to either Poles of German descent or sometimes to Polish citizens whose ancestors held German citizenship before World War II, regardless of their ethnicity.

After the flight and expulsion of Germans from Poland, the largest of a series of flights and expulsions of Germans in Europe during and after World War II, over 1 million former citizens of Germany were naturalized and granted Polish citizenship. Some of them were forced to stay in Poland, while others wanted to stay because these territories were inhabited by their families for hundreds of years. The lowest estimate by West German Schieder commission of 1953, is that 910,000 former German citizens were granted Polish citizenship by 1950.[20] Higher estimates say that 1,043,550[21] or 1,165,000[22][23] were naturalized as Polish citizens by 1950.

Post-WWII Edit

Main article: Emigration from Poland to Germany after World War II

However, the vast majority of those people were the so-called "autochthons" who were allowed to stay in post-war Poland after declaring Polish ethnicity in a special verification process.[24] Therefore, most of them were inhabitants of Polish descent of the pre-war border regions of Upper Silesia and Warmia-Masuria. Sometimes they were called Wasserpolnisch or Wasserpolak. Despite their ethnic background, they were allowed to reclaim their former German citizenship on application and under German Basic Law were "considered as not having been deprived of their German citizenship if they have established their domicile in Germany after May 8, 1945, and have not expressed a contrary intention".[25] Because of this fact many of them left the People's Republic of Poland due to its undemocratic political system and economic problems.[26]

It is estimated that, in the Cold War era, hundreds of thousands of Polish citizens decided to emigrate to West Germany and, to a lesser extent, to East Germany.[27][28][29] Despite that, hundreds or tens of thousands of former German citizens remained in Poland. Some of them created families with other Poles, who, in the vast majority, were settlers from central Poland or were resettled from the former eastern territories of Poland by the Soviets to the Recovered Territories (Former eastern territories of Germany).

Education Edit

 
Willy-Brandt-Schule in Warsaw

There is one German international school in Poland, Willy-Brandt-Schule in Warsaw.

Notable Poles of German descent Edit

 
Jan Henryk Dąbrowski, the Polish national hero of German ancestry (mother of German descent).
 
Władysław Anders, a general in the Polish Army and prominent member of the Polish government-in-exile in London was of Baltic-German ancestry.

German media in Poland Edit

See also Edit

Notes Edit

  1. ^ a b GUS. "Tablice z ostatecznymi danymi w zakresie przynależności narodowo-etnicznej, języka używanego w domu oraz przynależności do wyznania religijnego". stat.gov.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 2023-10-07.
  2. ^ Weinhold, Karl (1887). Die Verbreitung und die Herkunft der Deutschen in Schlesien [The Spread and the Origin of Germans in Silesia] (in German). Stuttgart: J. Engelhorn.
  3. ^ Tomasz Kamusella. 2014. "A Language That Forgot Itself". Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe. Vol 13, No 4. pp. 129–138.
  4. ^ Niemcy w województwie opolskim w 2010 roku. Pytania i odpowiedzi. Badania socjologiczne członków Towarzystwa Społeczno-Kulturalnego Niemców na Śląsku Opolskim. Projekt zrealizowano na zlecenie Uniwersytetu Osaka w Japonii [Germans in Opole Province in 2010: Questions and Answers: The Sociological Poll Research on the Members of the Social-Cultural Society of Germans in Opole Silesia: The Project Was Carried Out on Behalf of Osaka University, Japan]. Opole and Gliwice: Dom Współpracy Polsko-Niemieckiej [House of Polish–German Cooperation], 2011.
  5. ^ Oświata i wychowanie w roku szkolnym 2014/2015 [Education in 2014/2015 School Year]. 2015. Warsaw: GUS. p. 101.
  6. ^ Tomasz Kamusella (2014). "A Language That Forgot Itself". Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe. Vol 13, No 4. 2015-01-02 at the Wayback Machine. pp. 129–138 (136).
  7. ^ Simonides, Dorota (10 December 1990). "Senator Favors Silesian Bridge-Building Role". Rzeczpospolita (Interview). Interviewed by Edward Klimczak. Warsaw. p. 3. Retrieved 30 January 2016 – via Pogląd.
  8. ^ [Results of national census regarding the self-declared nationality and language spoken at home] (in Polish). Poland: Central Statistical Office. 2002. Archived from the original on 2008-10-04. listing 152,897 Germans in total (row C54, compare with table).
  9. ^ "Arbeiten in Polen: Die deutschen Teuerlöhner kommen". Der Spiegel (in German). 11 January 2012. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
  10. ^ "Here are the top 10 countries Germans immigrate to". The Local. 17 August 2017. Retrieved 25 September 2023.
  11. ^ "Kampania Wrześniowa 1939.pl" 2006-12-17 at the Wayback Machine
  12. ^ "Portal". Retrieved 30 January 2016.
  13. ^ Watson pp. 695–722
  14. ^ Eberhardt, Piotr (2011). Political Migrations on Polish Territories (1939–1950) (PDF). Warsaw: Polish Academy of Sciences. ISBN 978-83-61590-46-0.
  15. ^ Eberhardt, Piotr (2006). (PDF). Warsaw: Didactica. ISBN 9781536110357. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-06-26.
  16. ^ a b Eberhardt, Piotr (2012). "The Curzon line as the eastern boundary of Poland. The origins and the political background". Geographia Polonica. 85 (1): 5–21. doi:10.7163/GPol.2012.1.1.
  17. ^ Eberhardt, Piotr (2015). "The Oder-Neisse Line as Poland's western border: As postulated and made a reality". Geographia Polonica. 88 (1): 77–105. doi:10.7163/GPol.0007.
  18. ^ Polak-Springer, Peter. Recovered Territory: A German-Polish Conflict over Land and Culture, 1919–1989. Berghahn. pp. 185, 191, 199, 205, 210.
  19. ^ Helga Hirsch. Die Rache der Opfer.[full citation needed] The author mentions the indiscriminate expulsions of most Germans from 1945 until the mid-1950s, regardless of their personal involvement or non-involvement in the Nazi dictatorship.
  20. ^ Dokumentation der Vertreibung der Deutschen aus Ost-Mitteleuropa, Theodor Schieder (compilator) in collaboration with A. Diestelkamp [et al.], Bonn, Bundesministerium für Vertriebene (ed.), 1953, pp. 78 and 155.
  21. ^ Gawryszewski, Andrzej (2005). [Population of Poland in the 20th century]. Monografie / Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania im. Stanisława Leszczyckiego PAN (in Polish). Vol. 5. Warsaw: Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania im. Stanisława Leszczyckiego PAN. ISBN 978-83-87954-66-6. OCLC 66381296. Archived from the original on 31 July 2017. Retrieved 11 June 2012. PDFs by chapter Archived 2013-04-16 at archive.today (see contents[dead link])
  22. ^ Kosiński, Leszek (1960). "Pochodzenie terytorialne ludności Ziem Zachodnich w 1950 r" [Territorial origins of inhabitants of the Western Lands in year 1950] (PDF). Dokumentacja Geograficzna (in Polish). Warsaw. 2.
  23. ^ Kosiński, Leszek (1963). "Demographic processes in the Recovered Territories from 1945 to 1960" (PDF). Geographical Studies (in Polish and English). 40.
  24. ^ Steffen Prauser, Steffen and Rees, Arfon. "The Expulsion of 'German' Communities from Eastern Europe at the end of the Second World War". 2009-10-01 at the Wayback Machine. Florence: European University Institute. HEC No. 2004/1. p.28
  25. ^ Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany
  26. ^ Belzyt, Leszek (1996). "Zur Frage des nationalen Bewußtseins der Masuren im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert (auf der Basis statistischer Angaben)". Journal of East Central European Studies (in German and English). 45 (1).
  27. ^ Gerhard Reichling, Die deutschen Vertriebenen in Zahlen, part 1, Bonn: 1995, p. 53.
  28. ^ Manfred Görtemaker (1999), Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland: Von der Gründung bis zur Gegenwart, Munich: C. H. Beck, p. 169, ISBN 3-406-44554-3
  29. ^ Levitin, Michael (February 26, 2009). "Germany provokes anger over museum to refugees who fled Poland during WWII". The Telegraph.
  30. ^ "Musimy podnieść głowy do góry i nie lękać się!". Miesięcznik WPIS - Wiara, Patriotyzm i Sztuka (in Polish). Retrieved 2019-01-31.
  31. ^ "Genealogia Janusza Korwin-Mikkego" [Genealogy of Janusz Korwin-Mikke]. moremaiorum. October 2015.
  32. ^ "Zmarła matka Donalda Tuska". Newsweek (in Polish). 2009-04-07. Retrieved 2017-10-31.

References Edit

  • Dual Citizenship in Opole Silesia in the Context of European Integration[permanent dead link], Tomasz Kamusella, Opole University, in Facta Universitatis, series Philosophy, Sociology and Psychology, Vol 2, No 10, 2003, pp. 699–716
  • Scholtz-Knobloch, Till (2002). Die deutsche Minderheit in Oberschlesien - Selbstreflexion und politisch-soziale Situation unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des so genannten "Oppelner Schlesiens (Westoberschlesien)" (in German). Goerlitz: Senfkorn-Verlag. ISBN 3-935330-02-2.
  • Zybura, Marek (2004). Niemcy w Polsce (in Polish). Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie. ISBN 83-7384-171-7.
  • Rabagliati, Alastair (2001). A Minority Vote. Participation of the German and Belarusian Minorities within the Polish Political System 1989-1999. Kraków: Zakład Wydawniczy NOMOS. ISBN 83-88508-18-0.

Further reading Edit

  • de Zayas, Alfred M.:[unreliable source] Die deutschen Vertriebenen. Graz, 2006. ISBN 3-902475-15-3.
  • de Zayas, Alfred M.: Heimatrecht ist Menschenrecht. München, 2001.ISBN 3-8004-1416-3.
  • de Zayas, Alfred M.: A terrible Revenge. New York, 1994. ISBN 1-4039-7308-3.
  • de Zayas, Alfred M.: Nemesis at Potsdam. London, 1977. ISBN 0-8032-4910-1.
  • de Zayas, Alfred M.: 50 Thesen zur Vertreibung. München, 2008. ISBN 978-3-9812110-0-9.
  • Douglas, R.M.: Orderly and Humane. The Expulsion of the Germans after the Second World War. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-30016-660-6.
  • Kleineberg A., Marx, Ch., Knobloch E., Lelgemann D.: Germania und die Insel Thule. Die Entschlüsselung vo Ptolemaios: "Atlas der Oikumene". Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2010.
  • Matelski Dariusz, Niemcy w Polsce w XX wieku (Deutschen in Polen im 20. Jahrhundert), Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, Warszawa-Poznań 1999.
  • Matelski Dariusz, Niemcy w II Rzeczypospolitej (1918-1939) [Die Deutschen in der Zweiten Republik Polen (1918-1939)], Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek, Toruń 2018 cz. 1 [Bd. 1] (ISBN 978-83-8019-905-7), ss. 611, il., mapy.
  • Matelski Dariusz, Niemcy w II Rzeczypospolitej (1918-1939[Die Deutschen in der Zweiten Republik Polen (1918-1939)]), Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek, Toruń 2018 cz. 2[Bd. 1] (ISBN 978-83-8019-906-4), ss. 624, Abstract (s. 264–274), Zusammenfassung (s. 275–400).
  • Naimark, Norman: Fires of Hatred. Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth-Century Europe. Cambridge Harvard Press, 2001.
  • Prauser, Steffen and Rees, Arfon: The Expulsion of the "German" Communities from Eastern Europe at the End of the Second World War. Florence, Italy, European University Institute, 2004.
  • Cordell, Karl (June 1996). "Politics and society in Upper Silesia today: The German minority since 1945". Nationalities Papers. 24 (2): 269–285. doi:10.1080/00905999608408441. S2CID 154554688.
  • Cordell, Karl; Stefan Wolff (June 2005). "Ethnic Germans in Poland and the Czech Republic: a comparative evaluation". Nationalities Papers. 33 (2): 255–276. doi:10.1080/00905990500088610. S2CID 73536305.
  • Dyboski, Roman (September 1923). "Poland and the Problem of National Minorities". Journal of the British Institute of International Affairs. Blackwell Publishing. 2 (5): 179–200. doi:10.2307/3014543. JSTOR 3014543.
  • Fleming, Michael (December 2003). "The Limits of the German Minority Project in Post-communist Poland: Scale, Space and Democratic Deliberation". Nationalities Papers. 31 (4): 391–411. doi:10.1080/0090599032000152915. S2CID 55549493.

October 17, 2023
german, minority, poland, registered, polish, niemcy, polsce, polish, census, 2021, were, germans, polandtotal, population140, regions, with, significant, populationssouth, central, region, near, opolelanguagesgerman, polishreligioncatholicismlutheranismrelate. The registered German minority in Poland Polish Niemcy w Polsce at the Polish census of 2021 were 140 000 1 Germans in PolandTotal population140 000 1 Regions with significant populationssouth central region near OpoleLanguagesGerman PolishReligionCatholicismLutheranismRelated ethnic groupsother German diasporaExample of bilingual labeling in German and Polish on the town hall of the Polish village of Cisek The German language is spoken in certain areas in Opole Voivodeship where most of the minority resides and in Silesian Voivodeship German speakers first came to these regions present day Opole and Silesian Voivodeships during the late Middle Ages 2 However there are no localities in either Upper Silesia or Poland as a whole where German could be considered a language of everyday communication 3 The predominant home or family language of Poland s German minority in Upper Silesia used to be the Silesian German language mainly Oberschlesisch Upper Silesian dialect but also Mundart des Brieg Grottkauer Landes dialect of the land of Brieg Grottkau was used west of Opole but since 1945 Standard German replaced it as these Silesian German dialects went generally out of use except among the oldest generations which have by now completely died off 4 The German Minority electoral list currently has one seat in the Sejm of the Republic of Poland there were four from 1993 to 1997 benefiting from the current provision in Polish election law which exempts national minorities from the 5 national threshold In the school year of 2014 15 there were 387 elementary schools in Poland all in Upper Silesia with over 37 000 students in which German was taught as a minority language that is at least for three periods of 45 minutes in a week hence de facto as a subject 5 There were no minority schools with German as the language of instruction though there were three asymmetrically bilingual Polish German schools where most subjects were taught through the medium of Polish 6 Most members of the German minority are Roman Catholic while some are Lutheran Protestants the Evangelical Augsburg Church Contents 1 Germans in Poland today 2 History of Germans in Poland 2 1 WWII 3 German Poles 3 1 Post WWII 4 Education 5 Notable Poles of German descent 6 German media in Poland 7 See also 8 Notes 9 References 10 Further readingGermans in Poland today EditSee also Bilingual communes in Poland nbsp German minority in Upper Silesia Opole Voivodeship west and Silesian Voivodeship east nbsp German minority in Warmia and Masuria According to the 2002 census most of the Germans in Poland 92 9 live in Silesia 104 399 in the Opole Voivodeship i e 71 0 of all Germans in Poland and a share of 9 9 of the local population 30 531 in the Silesian Voivodeship i e 20 8 of all Germans in Poland and 0 6 of the local population plus 1 792 in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship i e 1 2 of all Germans in Poland though only 0 06 of the local population A second region with a notable German minority is Masuria with 4 311 living in the Warmian Masurian Voivodeship corresponding to 2 9 of all Germans in Poland and 0 3 of the local population Towns with particularly high concentrations of German speakers in Opole Voivodeship include Strzelce Opolskie Dobrodzien Prudnik Glogowek and Gogolin 7 In the remaining 12 voivodeships of Poland the percentage of Germans in the population does not exceed 0 09 Region Population German German nbsp Poland 38 557 984 nbsp Opole Voivodeship 1 055 667 206 256 19 5 nbsp Silesian Voivodeship 4 830 000 116 549 2 4 nbsp Warmian Masurian Voivodeship 1 428 552 19 614 1 4 nbsp Pomeranian Voivodeship 2 192 000 35 870 1 6 nbsp Lower Silesian Voivodeship 2 898 000 9 126 0 3 nbsp West Pomeranian Voivodeship 1 694 865 31 557 1 9 nbsp Greater Poland Voivodeship 3 365 283 5 779 0 2 nbsp Kuyavian Pomeranian Voivodeship 2 068 142 3 880 0 2 nbsp Lubusz Voivodeship 1 009 005 3 158 0 3 nbsp Masovian Voivodeship 5 136 000 6 163 0 1 nbsp Lodz Voivodeship 2 597 000 6 668 0 3Source 2002 diverging Glowny Urzad Statystyczny Warsaw Census results 8 Poland was the third most frequent destination for migrant Germans in 2009 after the United States and Switzerland 9 dropping to 8th most frequent in 2015 10 History of Germans in Poland EditMain article History of the Germans in Poland nbsp German language frequency in Poland based on the Polish census of 1931German migration into areas that form part of present day Poland began with the medieval Ostsiedlung see also Walddeutsche in the Subcarpathian region Regions which subsequently became part of the Kingdom of Prussia Lower Silesia East Brandenburg Pomerania and East Prussia were almost completely German by the High Middle Ages In other areas of modern day Poland there were substantial German populations most notably in the historical regions of Pomerelia Upper Silesia and Posen or Greater Poland Lutheran Germans settled numerous Oleder villages along the Vistula River and its tributaries during the 17th 18th and 19th centuries In the 19th century Germans became actively involved in developing the clothmaking industry in what is now central Poland Over 3 000 villages and towns within Russian Poland are recorded as having German residents Many of these Germans remained east of the Curzon line after World War I ended in 1918 including a significant number in Volhynia In the late 19th century some Germans moved westward during the Ostflucht while a Prussian Settlement Commission established others in Central Poland According to the 1931 census around 740 000 German speakers lived in Poland 2 3 of the population Their minority rights were protected by the Little Treaty of Versailles of 1919 The right to appeal to the League of Nations however was renounced by the League of Nations in 1934 officially due to Germany s withdrawal from the League September 1933 after Adolf Hitler became German Chancellor in January 1933 WWII Edit Main article Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz nbsp Commanders of the Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz a paramilitary organization composed of members of the German minority living in pre war Poland 1939After Nazi Germany s invasion of the Second Polish Republic in September 1939 many members of the German minority around 25 11 joined the ethnic German paramilitary organisation Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz When the German occupation of Poland began the Selbstschutz took an active part in Nazi crimes against ethnic Poles Due to their pre war interactions with the Polish majority they were able to prepare lists of Polish intellectuals and civil servants whom the Nazis selected for extermination The organisation actively participated and was responsible for the deaths of about 50 000 Poles 12 full citation needed Following the outbreak of World War II in September 1939 the Soviets annexed a massive portion of the eastern part of Poland November 1939 in the wake of an August 1939 agreement between the Reich and the USSR During the German occupation of Poland during World War II 1939 1945 the Nazis forcibly resettled ethnic Germans from other areas of Central Europe such as the Baltic states in the pre war territory of Poland At the same time the Nazi authorities expelled enslaved and killed Poles and Jews After the Nazis defeat in 1945 Poland did not regain its Soviet annexed territory 13 instead Polish communists directed by the Soviets expelled 14 the remaining Germans who had not been evacuated or fled before 15 from the areas of Lower Silesia Upper Silesia Farther Pomerania East Brandenburg and East Prussia and made Poles take their place some of whom were expelled from Soviet occupied areas that had previously formed part of Poland About half of East Prussia became the newly created Soviet territory of Kaliningrad Oblast officially established in 1946 where Soviet citizens replaced the former German residents Claims to a border along the Oder Neisse line were presented at the Potsdam Conference of August 1945 by a delegation of Polish politicians 16 The Potsdam Conference s results eventually specified or endorsed the shifting of borders pending a later peace treaty 17 16 In the following years the communists and activists inspired by the Mysl zachodnia strived to de Germanize and to re Polonize the huge land propagandistically termed Recovered Territories 18 Following the downfall of the Polish Communist regime in 1989 the German minorities political situation in modern day Poland has improved and after Poland joined the European Union in the 2004 enlargement and was incorporated into the Schengen Area German citizens are now allowed to buy land and property in the areas where they or their ancestors used to live and can return there if they wish However none of their properties have been returned after being confiscated A possible demonstration original research of the ambiguity of the Polish German minority position clarification needed can be seen in the life and career of Waldemar Kraft a minister without portfolio in the West German Bundestag during the 1950s However most of the German minority had not been as involved in the Nazi system as Kraft was 19 There is no clear cut division in Poland between the Germans and some other minorities whose heritage is similar in some respects due to centuries of assimilation Germanisation and intermarriage but differs in other respects due to either ancient regional West Slavic roots or Polonisation Examples of such minorities include the Slovincians Lebakaschuben the Masurians and the Silesians of Upper Silesia While in the past these people have been claimed by whom for both Polish and German ethnicity it really depends on their self perception which they choose to belong to German Poles Edit nbsp Communes in Poland in which additional minority names were introduced as of 1 December 2009 In blue German names in the Opole and Silesian Voivodeships total of 238 German names in Silesia The term German Poles German Deutsche Polen Polish Polacy pochodzenia niemieckiego may refer to either Poles of German descent or sometimes to Polish citizens whose ancestors held German citizenship before World War II regardless of their ethnicity After the flight and expulsion of Germans from Poland the largest of a series of flights and expulsions of Germans in Europe during and after World War II over 1 million former citizens of Germany were naturalized and granted Polish citizenship Some of them were forced to stay in Poland while others wanted to stay because these territories were inhabited by their families for hundreds of years The lowest estimate by West German Schieder commission of 1953 is that 910 000 former German citizens were granted Polish citizenship by 1950 20 Higher estimates say that 1 043 550 21 or 1 165 000 22 23 were naturalized as Polish citizens by 1950 Post WWII Edit Main article Emigration from Poland to Germany after World War II However the vast majority of those people were the so called autochthons who were allowed to stay in post war Poland after declaring Polish ethnicity in a special verification process 24 Therefore most of them were inhabitants of Polish descent of the pre war border regions of Upper Silesia and Warmia Masuria Sometimes they were called Wasserpolnisch or Wasserpolak Despite their ethnic background they were allowed to reclaim their former German citizenship on application and under German Basic Law were considered as not having been deprived of their German citizenship if they have established their domicile in Germany after May 8 1945 and have not expressed a contrary intention 25 Because of this fact many of them left the People s Republic of Poland due to its undemocratic political system and economic problems 26 It is estimated that in the Cold War era hundreds of thousands of Polish citizens decided to emigrate to West Germany and to a lesser extent to East Germany 27 28 29 Despite that hundreds or tens of thousands of former German citizens remained in Poland Some of them created families with other Poles who in the vast majority were settlers from central Poland or were resettled from the former eastern territories of Poland by the Soviets to the Recovered Territories Former eastern territories of Germany Education Edit nbsp Willy Brandt Schule in WarsawThere is one German international school in Poland Willy Brandt Schule in Warsaw Notable Poles of German descent Edit nbsp Jan Henryk Dabrowski the Polish national hero of German ancestry mother of German descent nbsp Wladyslaw Anders a general in the Polish Army and prominent member of the Polish government in exile in London was of Baltic German ancestry Wladyslaw Anders 1892 1970 general leader of the Polish 2nd Corps during World War II and prominent member of the Polish government in exile in London Grzegorz Braun born 1967 journalist academic lecturer movie director screenwriter and far right politician Izabela Czartoryska 1746 1835 noblewoman nee Flemming writer art collector and founder of the first Polish museum the Czartoryski Museum in Krakow Jan Henryk Dabrowski 1755 1818 general and Polish national hero Stanislaw Ernest Denhoff 1673 1728 noble politician and military leader Karol Estreicher senior 1827 1908 father of Polish bibliography and a founder of the Polish Academy of Learning Adam Fastnacht 1913 1987 historian and member of Armia Krajowa Jan Fethke 1903 1980 film director author and famous proponent of Esperanto language Emil August Fieldorf 1895 1953 Polish general during World War I and World War II Franciszek Fiszer 1860 1937 author bon vivant and philosopher Mark Forster born 1983 singer songwriter and TV personality Anna German 1936 1982 popular singer Malgorzata Gersdorf born 1952 lawyer judge Head of Supreme Court of Poland Wanda Gertz 1896 1958 decorated officer in the Polish Army during World War II Roman Giertych born 1971 lawyer advocate former Deputy Prime Minister Kamil Glik born 1988 professional footballer who plays for Serie A club Torino and the Poland national football team Henryk Grohman 1862 1939 industrialist Jozef Haller 1873 1960 Polish general political and social activist Marek Jedraszewski born 1949 Archbishop of Krakow since 2016 his mother was connected with Bambers 30 Miroslav Klose born 1978 professional footballer Germany national football team and FIFA World Cup all time top goalscorer and former striker for Italian football club S S Lazio Maximilian Kolbe 1894 1941 Polish Conventual Franciscan friar murdered in Auschwitz and subsequently canonised Henryk Korowicz 1888 1941 professor economist and rector of Academy of Foreign Trade in Lwow murdered by the Gestapo Slawomir Mentzen born 1986 Polish right wing libertarian politician Janusz Korwin Mikke born 1942 controversial politician and writer 31 Gustaf Kossinna 1858 1931 linguist and archaeologist Juliusz Karol Kunitzer 1843 1905 industrialist economic activist and industrial magnate in Congress Poland Karolina Lanckoronska 1898 2002 like her father Count Karol Lanckoronski an art collector and philanthropist Joachim Lelewel 1786 1861 Polish historian and politician Samuel Linde 1771 1847 linguist librarian and lexicographer of the Polish language Tadeusz Manteuffel 1902 1970 historian Suzanna von Nathusius born 2000 child actor Wilhelm Orlik Ruckemann 1894 1986 Polish general and military commander Emilia Plater 1806 1831 noblewoman and revolutionary Lukas Podolski born 1985 German professional footballer who plays for Gornik Zabrze Nelli Rokita born 1957 politician of Law and Justice party in Poland Piotr Steinkeller 1799 1854 early industrialist and banker Jerzy Stuhr born 1947 film actor and director Romuald Traugutt 1826 1864 dictator of the January Uprising Donald Tusk born 1957 former Prime Minister of Poland former President of the European Council 32 Jozef Unrug 1884 1973 Prussian born Polish admiral who helped to form the Polish Navy in independent Poland inmate of Colditz Karol Ernest Wedel 1813 1902 notable confectioner Edward Werner 1878 1945 economist judge and politician in the Second Polish RepublicGerman media in Poland EditSchlesisches Wochenblatt Polen Rundschau Schlesien Aktuell a German language radio station from Opole Polskie Radio public service radio with online German edition Deutsche Redaktion as well as broadcasts in German Polen am Morgen online newspaper published daily since 1998See also Edit nbsp Germany portal nbsp Poland portalWaldemar Kraft Bilingual communes in Poland German Minority political party Germans in the Czech Republic Polish minority in Germany Oledrzy Vistula Germans in Russian Poland Bambrzy VolksdeutscheNotes Edit a b GUS Tablice z ostatecznymi danymi w zakresie przynaleznosci narodowo etnicznej jezyka uzywanego w domu oraz przynaleznosci do wyznania religijnego stat gov pl in Polish Retrieved 2023 10 07 Weinhold Karl 1887 Die Verbreitung und die Herkunft der Deutschen in Schlesien The Spread and the Origin of Germans in Silesia in German Stuttgart J Engelhorn Tomasz Kamusella 2014 A Language That Forgot Itself Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe Vol 13 No 4 pp 129 138 Niemcy w wojewodztwie opolskim w 2010 roku Pytania i odpowiedzi Badania socjologiczne czlonkow Towarzystwa Spoleczno Kulturalnego Niemcow na Slasku Opolskim Projekt zrealizowano na zlecenie Uniwersytetu Osaka w Japonii Germans in Opole Province in 2010 Questions and Answers The Sociological Poll Research on the Members of the Social Cultural Society of Germans in Opole Silesia The Project Was Carried Out on Behalf of Osaka University Japan Opole and Gliwice Dom Wspolpracy Polsko Niemieckiej House of Polish German Cooperation 2011 Oswiata i wychowanie w roku szkolnym 2014 2015 Education in 2014 2015 School Year 2015 Warsaw GUS p 101 Tomasz Kamusella 2014 A Language That Forgot Itself Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe Vol 13 No 4 Archived 2015 01 02 at the Wayback Machine pp 129 138 136 Simonides Dorota 10 December 1990 Senator Favors Silesian Bridge Building Role Rzeczpospolita Interview Interviewed by Edward Klimczak Warsaw p 3 Retrieved 30 January 2016 via Poglad Wyniki Narodowego Spisu Powszechnego Ludnosci i Mieszkan 2002 w zakresie deklarowanej narodowosci oraz jezyka uzywanego w domu Results of national census regarding the self declared nationality and language spoken at home in Polish Poland Central Statistical Office 2002 Archived from the original on 2008 10 04 Supplementary table in Microsoft Excel format listing 152 897 Germans in total row C54 compare with table Arbeiten in Polen Die deutschen Teuerlohner kommen Der Spiegel in German 11 January 2012 Retrieved 30 January 2016 Here are the top 10 countries Germans immigrate to The Local 17 August 2017 Retrieved 25 September 2023 Kampania Wrzesniowa 1939 pl Archived 2006 12 17 at the Wayback Machine Portal Retrieved 30 January 2016 Watson pp 695 722 Eberhardt Piotr 2011 Political Migrations on Polish Territories 1939 1950 PDF Warsaw Polish Academy of Sciences ISBN 978 83 61590 46 0 Eberhardt Piotr 2006 Political Migrations in Poland 1939 1948 8 Evacuation and flight of the German population to the Potsdam Germany PDF Warsaw Didactica ISBN 9781536110357 Archived from the original PDF on 2015 06 26 a b Eberhardt Piotr 2012 The Curzon line as the eastern boundary of Poland The origins and the political background Geographia Polonica 85 1 5 21 doi 10 7163 GPol 2012 1 1 Eberhardt Piotr 2015 The Oder Neisse Line as Poland s western border As postulated and made a reality Geographia Polonica 88 1 77 105 doi 10 7163 GPol 0007 Polak Springer Peter Recovered Territory A German Polish Conflict over Land and Culture 1919 1989 Berghahn pp 185 191 199 205 210 Helga Hirsch Die Rache der Opfer full citation needed The author mentions the indiscriminate expulsions of most Germans from 1945 until the mid 1950s regardless of their personal involvement or non involvement in the Nazi dictatorship Dokumentation der Vertreibung der Deutschen aus Ost Mitteleuropa Theodor Schieder compilator in collaboration with A Diestelkamp et al Bonn Bundesministerium fur Vertriebene ed 1953 pp 78 and 155 Gawryszewski Andrzej 2005 Ludnosc Polski w XX wieku Population of Poland in the 20th century Monografie Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania im Stanislawa Leszczyckiego PAN in Polish Vol 5 Warsaw Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania im Stanislawa Leszczyckiego PAN ISBN 978 83 87954 66 6 OCLC 66381296 Archived from the original on 31 July 2017 Retrieved 11 June 2012 PDFs by chapter Archived 2013 04 16 at archive today see contents dead link Kosinski Leszek 1960 Pochodzenie terytorialne ludnosci Ziem Zachodnich w 1950 r Territorial origins of inhabitants of the Western Lands in year 1950 PDF Dokumentacja Geograficzna in Polish Warsaw 2 Kosinski Leszek 1963 Demographic processes in the Recovered Territories from 1945 to 1960 PDF Geographical Studies in Polish and English 40 Steffen Prauser Steffen and Rees Arfon The Expulsion of German Communities from Eastern Europe at the end of the Second World War Archived 2009 10 01 at the Wayback Machine Florence European University Institute HEC No 2004 1 p 28 Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany Belzyt Leszek 1996 Zur Frage des nationalen Bewusstseins der Masuren im 19 und 20 Jahrhundert auf der Basis statistischer Angaben Journal of East Central European Studies in German and English 45 1 Gerhard Reichling Die deutschen Vertriebenen in Zahlen part 1 Bonn 1995 p 53 Manfred Gortemaker 1999 Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland Von der Grundung bis zur Gegenwart Munich C H Beck p 169 ISBN 3 406 44554 3 Levitin Michael February 26 2009 Germany provokes anger over museum to refugees who fled Poland during WWII The Telegraph Musimy podniesc glowy do gory i nie lekac sie Miesiecznik WPIS Wiara Patriotyzm i Sztuka in Polish Retrieved 2019 01 31 Genealogia Janusza Korwin Mikkego Genealogy of Janusz Korwin Mikke moremaiorum October 2015 Zmarla matka Donalda Tuska Newsweek in Polish 2009 04 07 Retrieved 2017 10 31 References EditDual Citizenship in Opole Silesia in the Context of European Integration permanent dead link Tomasz Kamusella Opole University in Facta Universitatis series Philosophy Sociology and Psychology Vol 2 No 10 2003 pp 699 716 Scholtz Knobloch Till 2002 Die deutsche Minderheit in Oberschlesien Selbstreflexion und politisch soziale Situation unter besonderer Berucksichtigung des so genannten Oppelner Schlesiens Westoberschlesien in German Goerlitz Senfkorn Verlag ISBN 3 935330 02 2 Zybura Marek 2004 Niemcy w Polsce in Polish Wroclaw Wydawnictwo Dolnoslaskie ISBN 83 7384 171 7 Rabagliati Alastair 2001 A Minority Vote Participation of the German and Belarusian Minorities within the Polish Political System 1989 1999 Krakow Zaklad Wydawniczy NOMOS ISBN 83 88508 18 0 Further reading Editde Zayas Alfred M unreliable source Die deutschen Vertriebenen Graz 2006 ISBN 3 902475 15 3 de Zayas Alfred M Heimatrecht ist Menschenrecht Munchen 2001 ISBN 3 8004 1416 3 de Zayas Alfred M A terrible Revenge New York 1994 ISBN 1 4039 7308 3 de Zayas Alfred M Nemesis at Potsdam London 1977 ISBN 0 8032 4910 1 de Zayas Alfred M 50 Thesen zur Vertreibung Munchen 2008 ISBN 978 3 9812110 0 9 Douglas R M Orderly and Humane The Expulsion of the Germans after the Second World War Yale University Press ISBN 978 0 30016 660 6 Kleineberg A Marx Ch Knobloch E Lelgemann D Germania und die Insel Thule Die Entschlusselung vo Ptolemaios Atlas der Oikumene Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft 2010 Matelski Dariusz Niemcy w Polsce w XX wieku Deutschen in Polen im 20 Jahrhundert Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN Warszawa Poznan 1999 Matelski Dariusz Niemcy w II Rzeczypospolitej 1918 1939 Die Deutschen in der Zweiten Republik Polen 1918 1939 Wydawnictwo Adam Marszalek Torun 2018 cz 1 Bd 1 ISBN 978 83 8019 905 7 ss 611 il mapy Matelski Dariusz Niemcy w II Rzeczypospolitej 1918 1939 Die Deutschen in der Zweiten Republik Polen 1918 1939 Wydawnictwo Adam Marszalek Torun 2018 cz 2 Bd 1 ISBN 978 83 8019 906 4 ss 624 Abstract s 264 274 Zusammenfassung s 275 400 Naimark Norman Fires of Hatred Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth Century Europe Cambridge Harvard Press 2001 Prauser Steffen and Rees Arfon The Expulsion of the German Communities from Eastern Europe at the End of the Second World War Florence Italy European University Institute 2004 Cordell Karl June 1996 Politics and society in Upper Silesia today The German minority since 1945 Nationalities Papers 24 2 269 285 doi 10 1080 00905999608408441 S2CID 154554688 Cordell Karl Stefan Wolff June 2005 Ethnic Germans in Poland and the Czech Republic a comparative evaluation Nationalities Papers 33 2 255 276 doi 10 1080 00905990500088610 S2CID 73536305 Dyboski Roman September 1923 Poland and the Problem of National Minorities Journal of the British Institute of International Affairs Blackwell Publishing 2 5 179 200 doi 10 2307 3014543 JSTOR 3014543 Fleming Michael December 2003 The Limits of the German Minority Project in Post communist Poland Scale Space and Democratic Deliberation Nationalities Papers 31 4 391 411 doi 10 1080 0090599032000152915 S2CID 55549493 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title German minority in Poland amp oldid 1179024944, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.