Głuchoniemcy, Taubdeutsche, Walddeutsche – przyczynek do biografii pojęcia

Abstract

he concept of „Deaf/Forest Germans” developed on the basis of cultural processes taking place in the Carpathian Foothills in the period from the 14th to the 19th/20th century. The purpose of the article is to reconstruct the biography of this concept and to conduct its etymological analysis based on its oldest known records, mainly from Old Polish manuscripts and old prints. Above all, the authors focus on the source by the 18th-century encyclopedist Benedykt Chmielowski who formulated four definitions of this term. Based on it and other records, and some analogies from the territory of Poland and Slovakia as well, the authors try to answer the question about the nature of the settlement processes taking place in the Carpathian Foothills. Finally, they look at the concept through the prism of its German substitutes (Taubdeutsche and Walddeutsche).