Kierunki działalności edukacyjnej organizacji polskich w Prusach Zachodnich na przełomie XIX i XX wieku

Abstract

The development of the Polish national movement in West Prussia began with the Spring of Nations. In the face of the Germanization policy of the authorities, Prussian Poles began to create their own organizations designed to maintain Polish identity and the realization of economic and social objectives. The Polish population in West Prussia which set up Polish organizations used German solutions, patterns elaborated in other regions and created their own, adapting them to the conditions prevailing in the Prussian state. At the turn of the century, the following different Polish organizations were in operation: the People’s Society, the Society of People’s Libraries, the “Guard” Society, the Society of Aid Science, the Scientific Society in Torun, the “Deliverance” Society, the Gym Society “Falcon”, the people’s banks, commercial companies, cooperatives etc. At that time, operating in West Prussia Polish organizations showed the different profiles of educational activities. Most of them were realizing the ideas of patriotic and religious education. The multifaceted activities of Polish organizations in West Prussia seem to be a phenomenon at situation in which the Poles were a minority in the said region and the realization of the initiatives undertaken by them were hampered and limited by the occupying power. In this article I made an attempt to present the main lines of the educational activities of Polish organizations in West Prussia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. It was thanks to their activity that the modernization of Polish society took place. Besides a patriotic and religious upbringing, the most important directions of this activity were: basic education, civic education, economic education, cultural education, sports education, pro-health education and moral education.