German-Polish Borderland Research Articles

So near yet so far: blocked networks, global links and multiple exclusion in the German-Polish borderlands

Abstract The building blocks of global society are conventionally thought of in terms of ‘flows’, ‘scapes’, ‘key nodes’, and ‘global cities’, to name a few. We rarely consider borders and border regions. However, state borders provide a crucial component of a globalizing society in transition. Exhibiting a structural ambivalence, borders can be seedbeds of cosmopolitanism, sites of cultural closure, or often both simultaneously. To understand cross-border interaction we have to engage with a complex configuration of global and sub-global dynamics. In this article I argue that borders are revealing analytical tools that must be included in any grounded theory of global change. I draw on fieldwork conducted in the German-Polish border region, mostly in the German-Polish twin city Guben/Gubin. Here we are confronted with the simultaneous processes of globalization, European integration and post-socialist transformation.

Ghost Provinces, Mislaid Minorities: the Experience of Southern Ireland and Prussian Poland Compared, 1918–23

In the years 1918-23 the Protestant minority in Southern Ireland and the German one in Prussian Poland both underwent a traumatic loss of status. Their conflicts with the majority Irish/Polish nationalisms that engulfed them may be fruitfully compared as belonging to the same species of conflict involving the mass mobilisation of ethnic groups. Nonetheless, the Polish-German conflict was clearly the more extreme. I argue here, firstly, that because of the closer geographical relationship of Prussian Poland to the German state than of Ireland to Great Britain, disturbances there were likely to invoke a stronger response. Ireland's being an island also served to mitigate the conflict there in important ways. Secondly, the collapse of order in Germany itself essentially left German minorities on the frontier to fend for themselves. This volatile situation was at times further exacerbated by Allied involvement. In contrast, Britain was able to isolate Ireland from outside interference. Lastly, for all these similarities, the minorities' subsequent experiences have been radically different. Protestants in Southern Ireland were, in the end, successfully assimilated. German communities in Poland were totally destroyed in the 1940s. This contrast alone highlights the importance of the international context in studying ethnic conflicts. A NOTE ON NOMENCLATURE Since the case studies under scrutiny involve changing sovereignties, the question of what to call places that changed their names overnight becomes potentially problematic. This is most marked in the German-Polish borderlands. Here, in the interests of consistency, I have broken with the convention of closely following contemporary official usage and used the German names throughout, as this seems the simplest way of keeping the non-specialist reader on board. Thus, the city known today as 'Bydgoszcz' is 'Bromberg', and 'Poznan' is 'Posen'. Similarly, the region Author's e-mail: timothy.wilson@ st-peters.oxford.ac.uk Irish Studies in International Affairs, Vol. 13 (2002), 61-86. This content downloaded from 207.46.13.176 on Mon, 20 Jun 2016 05:56:37 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 62 Irish Studies in International Affairs of 'Poznania' is still 'Posen'-the German name could refer to either the province or the capital, as context should make clear-and the Polish region of 'Pomorze', which constituted 66% of the old province of West Prussia, is referred to as 'exGerman West Prussia'. My apologies to any purists who are offended. Needless to say, these are stylistic preferences and not political ones. As a useful shorthand, I refer frequently to 'Prussian Poland'. Strictly speaking, this could mean only the provinces of Posen and West Prussia, but I use it as an umbrella term to include Upper Silesia as well. Hence it refers to all provinces of the German Reich that underwent major territorial losses to the new Polish state after 1919 (see Fig. 1). Similarly, 'Southern Ireland' refers to all 26 counties that became the Free State, including the three Ulster counties of Monaghan, Cavan and Donegal. Finally, all translations from the German are my own unless otherwise acknowledged.

“Polish-Speaking Germans?” Language and National Identity Among the Masurians

Before 1945, Masuria was part of Germany and known primarily as the scene of the 1914 Battle of Tannenberg and as an attractive summer vacationland of numerous lakes, extensive forests, and villages of characteristic wooden houses. Since 1945, Masuria has belonged to Poland, where it is known as the scene of the 1410 Battle of Tannenberg/Grunwald, and as an attractive summer vacationland. To students of nationalism and national identity, however, Masuria is interesting primarily because its predominately Polish-speaking population seems to present the clearest and best-documented example anywhere in Europe of national identity developing counter to native language. Although most Masurians spoke Polish and lived adjacent to Poland, they gave every indication over quite a long period of time of voluntary and virtually unanimous identification with the Prusso-German state and nation. They did so at a time when most of the rest of eastern Europe was increasingly subject to the influence of ethnolinguistic nationalism and the rest of the German–Polish borderlands were witness to one of Europe's classic ethnic-national rivalries. (see Maps 1 and 2)

Before the "Final Solution": Toward a Comparative Analysis of Political Anti-Semitism in Interwar Germany and Poland

Previous articleNext article No AccessBefore the "Final Solution": Toward a Comparative Analysis of Political Anti-Semitism in Interwar Germany and PolandWilliam W. HagenWilliam W. Hagen Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Modern History Volume 68, Number 2Jun., 1996 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/600769 Views: 168Total views on this site Citations: 17Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1996 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:W. Raymond Palmer Senator Elbert D. Thomas and the Fate of European Jewry, Utah Historical Quarterly 89, no.44 (Oct 2021): 276–290.https://doi.org/10.5406/utahhistquar.89.4.0276 Literaturverzeichnis, (Oct 2019): 637–672.https://doi.org/10.13109/9783666367434.637Brendan Karch Nation and Loyalty in a German-Polish Borderland, 3 (Sep 2018).https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108560955Janine Holc Memory Activism Challenging the Reconciliation Paradigm, (Aug 2017): 21–36.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63339-8_2Volha Charnysh Historical Legacies of Interethnic Competition, Comparative Political Studies 48, no.1313 (Nov 2015): 1711–1745.https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414015598921Kenneth B. Moss Thinking with restriction: immigration restriction and Polish Jewish accounts of the post-liberal state, empire, race, and political reason 1926–39, East European Jewish Affairs 44, no.2-32-3 (Dec 2014): 205–224.https://doi.org/10.1080/13501674.2014.942147Brendan Karch A Jewish “Nature Preserve”: League of Nations Minority Protections in Nazi Upper Silesia, 1933–1937, Central European History 46, no.11 (Apr 2013): 124–160.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008938913000058Jennifer Kimberly Jackson Introduction: Creating the ‘Other’ in Germany and Britain - A Comparison of Discourses from the Interwar and Contemporary Periods, Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism 12, no.22 (Oct 2012): 363–365.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-9469.2012.01164.x By Omer Bartov Eastern Europe as the Site of Genocide Bartov, The Journal of Modern History 80, no.33 (Jul 2015): 557–593.https://doi.org/10.1086/589591RYAN D. KING, WILLIAM I. BRUSTEIN A POLITICAL THREAT MODEL OF INTERGROUP VIOLENCE: JEWS IN PRE?WORLD WAR II GERMANY, Criminology 44, no.44 (Nov 2006): 867–891.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2006.00066.xPeter A. Blitstein Cultural Diversity and the Interwar Conjuncture: Soviet Nationality Policy in Its Comparative Context, Slavic Review 65, no.22 (May 2017): 273–293.https://doi.org/10.2307/4148593Michael Mann The Dark Side of Democracy, 109 (Jun 2012).https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511817274William I. Brustein Roots of Hate, 8 (Jun 2009).https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511499425Eric D. Weitz Racial Politics without the Concept of Race: Reevaluating Soviet Ethnic and National Purges, Slavic Review 61, no.11 (Jan 2017): 1–29.https://doi.org/10.2307/2696978William W. Hagen A “Potent, Devilish Mixture” of Motives: Explanatory Strategy and Assignment of Meaning in Jan Gross's Neighbors, Slavic Review 61, no.33 (Jan 2017): 466–475.https://doi.org/10.2307/3090296William W. Hagen Murder in the East: German-Jewish Liberal Reactions to Anti-Jewish Violence in Poland and Other East European Lands, 1918–1920, Central European History 34, no.0101 (Dec 2008): 1–30.https://doi.org/10.1163/156916101750149112William W. Hagen Mord Im Osten, (Jun 2018): 135–146.https://doi.org/10.7788/boehlau.9783412319687.135

Piety and Politics: Recent Work on German Catholicism

Previous articleNext article No AccessReview ArticlePiety and Politics: Recent Work on German CatholicismMargaret Lavinia AndersonMargaret Lavinia Anderson Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Modern History Volume 63, Number 4Dec., 1991 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/244385 Views: 8Total views on this site Citations: 13Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1991 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article: Quellen- und Literaturverzeichnis, (Jul 2022): 550–609.https://doi.org/10.13109/9783666371011.550Jeffrey von Arx Engaging the liberal state: Cardinal Manning and Irish home rule, British Catholic History 35, no.11 (Apr 2020): 25–54.https://doi.org/10.1017/bch.2020.2Michael E. O'Sullivan Religion, Modernity, and Democracy in Central Europe: Toward a Gendered History of Twentieth-Century Catholicism, Central European History 52, no.44 (Jan 2020): 713–730.https://doi.org/10.1017/S000893891900102XBrendan Karch Nation and Loyalty in a German-Polish Borderland, 3 (Sep 2018).https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108560955Jasper M. Heinzen Nursing the Fatherland? Hohenzollern State Building and the Hidden Transcript of Political Resistance in Hanoverian Female Charity during the Second German Empire, Central European History 44, no.44 (Dec 2011): 595–623.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008938911000653 By Oliver Zimmer Beneath the “Culture War”: Corpus Christi Processions and Mutual Accommodation in the Second German Empire Zimmer, The Journal of Modern History 82, no.22 (Jul 2015): 288–334.https://doi.org/10.1086/651612Michael E. O'Sullivan From Catholic Milieu to Lived Religion: The Social and Cultural History of Modern German Catholicism 1, History Compass 7, no.33 (May 2009): 837–861.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1478-0542.2009.00589.xGeorge S. Williamson A Religious Sonderweg? Reflections on the Sacred and the Secular in the Historiography of Modern Germany, Church History 75, no.11 (Jul 2009): 139–156.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009640700088375Hans-Ulrich Wehler A Guide to Future Research on the Kaiserreich?, Central European History 29, no.44 (Dec 2008): 541–572.https://doi.org/10.1017/S000893890001428XStathis N. Kalyvas, Alessandro Chiaramonte LA FORMAZIONE DEI PARTITI CONFESSIONALI IN EUROPA, Italian Political Science Review/Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica 26, no.22 (Jul 2018): 317–363.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0048840200024254Oded Heilbronner In Search of the (Rural) Catholic Bourgeoisie: The Bürgertum of South Germany, Central European History 29, no.22 (Dec 2008): 175–200.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008938900013005Helmut Walser Smith The Learned and the Popular Discourse of Anti-Semitism in the Catholic Milieu of the Kaiserreich, Central European History 27, no.33 (Dec 2008): 315–328.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008938900010244James F. Harris Rethinking the Categories of the German Revolution of 1848: The Emergence of Popular Conservatism in Bavaria, Central European History 25, no.22 (Dec 2008): 123–148.https://doi.org/10.1017/S000893890002029X

The Peace Settlement, 19191

HistoryVolume 26, Issue 101 p. 60-69 The Peace Settlement, 19191 W. O. Henderson, W. O. HendersonSearch for more papers by this author W. O. Henderson, W. O. HendersonSearch for more papers by this author First published: June 1941 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-229X.1941.tb00786.x 1 Bibliographical Note.—A collection of documents on the Versailles Treaty has been compiled by F. Berber, Das Diktat von Versailles (2 vols., 1939). A full contemporary account of the Settlement was given by H. W. V. Temperley (editor) in A History of the Peace Conference in Paris (6 vols., 1920–4). Arnold J. Toynbee's penetrating essay on The World after the Peace Conference (second impression, 1926) deserves careful study. Brief impartial surveys of the Settlement and its consequences: Ramsay Muir, Political Consequences of the Great War (1930), A. L. Bowley, Some Economic Consequences of the Great War (1930), E. H. Carr, International Relations since the Peace Treaties (new edition, 1940), and E. Bernadotte Schmitt, From Versailles to Munich 1918–38 (1939). A comprehensive study by an eminent American geographer is The New World (fourth edition, 1928) by I. Bowman. The following indictments of the Settlement deserve mention: J. M. Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919), H. A. Gibbons, Europe since 1918 (1923), W. Vogel, Das neue Euro-pa (1925), Count Apponyi (and others), Justice for Hungary (1928) and W. H. Dawson, Germany under the Treaty (1933). Monographs on special topics: Ian F. D. Morrow, The Peace Settlement in the German-Polish Borderlands (1936), Elizabeth Wiskemann, Ozechs and Germans (1938), M. Margaret Ball, Post-War German-Austrian Relations (1937), R. Albrecht-Carrie, Italy at the Peace Conference (1938), C. A. Macartney, Hungary and her Successors. The Treaty of Trianon and its Consequences 1919–37 (1937), J. W. Wheeler Bennett, The Wreck of Reparations (1933), Sir Alfred Zimmern, The League of Nations and the Rule of Law (1936). I have discussed aspects of the German colonial question in articles in History (September 1935), German Life and Letters (July 1937), and The Highway (February 1939 and February 1940). For further works—particularly memoirs of leading statesmen who helped to make and carry out the Settlement—see G. P. Gooch, Bibliography of European History 1918–39 (Historical Association Pamphlet, No. 117 (1940)). Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume26, Issue101June 1941Pages 60-69 RelatedInformation

The peace settlement in the German-Polish Borderlands. A study of conditions today in the pre-war Prussian provinces of East and West Prussia. Ian F. D. Morrow

<i>The peace settlement in the German-Polish Borderlands. A study of conditions today in the pre-war Prussian provinces of East and West Prussia</i>. Ian F. D. Morrow

The Peace Settlement in the German Polish Borderlands: A Study of Conditions To-Day in the Pre-War Prussian Provinces of East and West Prussia

The Peace Settlement in the German Polish Borderlands: A Study of Conditions To-Day in the Pre-War Prussian Provinces of East and West Prussia

The Peace Settlement in the German-Polish Borderlands. A Study of Conditions Today in the Pre-War Prussian Provinces of East and West Prussia. (Royal Institute of International Affairs.) By Ian F. D. Morrow. New York: Oxford University Press; London: Humphrey Milford, 1936. pp. xiv, 558. Index. $10.00.

The Peace Settlement in the German-Polish Borderlands. A Study of Conditions Today in the Pre-War Prussian Provinces of East and West Prussia. (Royal Institute of International Affairs.) By Ian F. D. Morrow. New York: Oxford University Press; London: Humphrey Milford, 1936. pp. xiv, 558. Index. $10.00. - Volume 30 Issue 4

The Peace Settlement In The German-Polish Borderlands: a Study of Conditions To-day in the pre-War Prussian Provinces of East and West Prussia

The Peace Settlement In The German-Polish Borderlands: a Study of Conditions To-day in the pre-War Prussian Provinces of East and West Prussia

German-Polish Borderlands

German-Polish Borderlands