Prussian Province Research Articles

Niemieckie „dzieci państwowe” (Staatskinder) wyznania ewangelickiego w kolonizacji wschodnich prowincji państwa pruskiego. Sierociniec w Ruchocinie/Mielżynie 1899–1918

The article presents the mechanism of the Prussian authorities using „state children” [Staatskinder] in the process of colonization of the eastern Prussian provinces, and combining charity activity with the program of Germanization of the area in question. The actions taken by the Prussian authorities in the late 19 and the early 20th century were in reaction to the internal migration movements, which directly affected the eastern Prussian provinces, from Berlins perspective negatively influencing their national structure. In 1895, Ernst Hasse presented a plan to colonize the eastern Prussian provinces by bringing „state children”, i.e. orphans and illegitimate children from the metropolitan areas of central and western Germany, and placing them in orphanages established in the East. The article describes, among others, one of such orphanages which operated between 1899 and 1918 and was supervised by the Protestant Association for the Care of Orphans in the Province of Poznań [Evangelischer Verein für Waisenpflege in der Provinz Posen].

Капповский путч в Восточной Пруссии: политические последствия

Based on archival documents, materials from regional and national German press, and personal sources, the article examines the reactions in East Prussia to the Kapp Putsch of 1920, which aimed to overthrow the legitimate government of the Weimar Republic. Unlike most other German territories, the putschists in East Prussia were supported by many representatives of the regional political elite and bureaucracy. The article attempts to explain the reasons for this anomaly and to identify the consequences of the support for the putsch by part of the local political actors on the further development of the province. The article concludes that the putsch had a significant impact on East Prussia, serving as a manifestation of the growing conflict between the regional elite and the central authorities in Berlin. The defeat of the putschists and the changes in the composition of the East Prussian bureaucracy made by the republican government marked the beginning of a new phase in the relations between the state capital and the East Prussian province.

Restoration of administrative justice in the French occupation zone of Germany and the western sectors of Berlin after 1945: historical and legal aspects

The article is devoted to the problem of restoring administrative justice in the French occupation zone of Germany and the western sectors of Berlin after 1945. In each of the four occupation zones, this process took place with its own characteristics. But in each case, the restoration of administrative justice in various occupation zones was facilitated by previous historical and legal experience. Even before the Weimar period, administrative courts actually existed in most of the lands of the German Reich, but administrative legal protection at that time was not guided by any single concept, but rather offered a mixed system of administrative justice. The subject of disputes was the problem of subordinating administrative justice to the current administration or the courts. Depending on the solution of this problem, the administrative justice of each of the lands showed certain features. On the basis of this experience, administrative justice was restored in the respective occupation zones of Germany after the seizure of power by the National Socialists on January 30, 1933 and their defeat in the Second World War.
 The French occupation zone was formed from parts of the American and British occupation zones, which included heterogeneous administrative units - the southern part of the former Prussian Rhineland, part of the Prussian province of Nassau, Rheinhessen, the Saar region, the former Bavarian Palatinate, Southern Baden, Southern Württemberg, Hohenzollern and of the Bavarian district of Lindau. The states of Rhineland-Palatinate, Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern were formed from them, and the Saar region, later Saarland, began to develop independently. The Bavarian district of Lindau, which rejoined Bavaria on September 1, 1955, was at that time autonomous and under the guardianship of Württemberg-Hohenzollern.
 The order of the General Administrator on the restoration of administrative justice in the French zone of July 23, 1946 provided for the restoration of the administrative courts of the states of Baden, Württemberg, Hesse-Pfalz and Rhineland-Hessen-Nassau. Regarding the composition of the courts, their jurisdiction and procedure, the provisions that were in force until January 30, 1935 were applied. In Saar, the creation of administrative courts was provided for by a separate order.

Heimat and Nation: Jewish Historians and the Construction of Regional Identities in Posen and Alsace-Lorraine during the German Empire

Abstract The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw a wave of interest in history among Jews in Germany. The popularity of the subject extended to those who lived at the geographic margins of the German Empire, in the Prussian Province of Posen and the Reichsland of Alsace-Lorraine. Living in borderlands in which national identities were contested, Jewish historians established and joined regional historical societies that looked to the local and regional past to construct identities. While Jewish historians in the German east worked alongside non-Jewish colleagues to create a German Heimat against the backdrop of ethnic strife between Germans and Poles, their co-religionists in Alsace-Lorraine tried to maintain a regional identity which preserved the cultural and historical uniqueness of the Franco-German borderland. These different visions of regional history and identity surfaced again in the responses to the establishment of a central German-Jewish archive in Berlin. Jews from Posen were instrumental in integrating the local Jewish past into a national German-Jewish narrative. However, in the Franco-German borderland, Jews were opposed to the idea of a national archive, which they saw as a challenge to their Alsace-Lorrainian Jewish identity. This article argues that Jewish historians engaged with and were part of the wider German discourses on Heimat, regionalism and localness. Although Jewish historians in Posen and Alsace-Lorraine differed in their understanding of these concepts, they used them as markers of identity which allowed Jews to define their position towards notions of Germanness and the idea of a German-Jewish community.

Robert Koch as a young rural doctor in Brandenburg and the Poznan region (1868-1880)

The bacteriologist and Nobel Prize winner Robert Koch (1843-1910) is one of the most important and best-known scientists in German history. Many people associate him not only with the institute named after him (today the Robert Koch Institute is Germany's National Public Health Institute), but above all, with his work as a "microbe hunter". Koch achieved world fame with the discovery of the tuberculosis pathogen in 1882. To research and combat infectious diseases, he undertook expeditions to foreign countries. This article deals with a lesser-known episode in Robert Koch's life - his years as a young rural doctor in the then Prussian provinces of Brandenburg and Posen. After a chronological description of Robert Koch's "wandering years", the focus is directed to today's culture of remembrance. The question is discussed in which way, if at all, the memory of Robert Koch is maintained at the authentic places.

Sytuacja edukacyjna, społeczna i ekonomiczna Żydówek w powiecie wałeckim (Prusy Zachodnie) w okresie od XVIII do początków XX wieku

In this article, I analyze the functioning of women in Jewish communities in the Wałcz County (Kreis Deutsch Krone), which was part of West Prussia until the end of 1945. This area, located initially between West Prussia and Pomerania and later between several Prussian provinces, was particularly conducive to Jewish settlement. As a result, for example in Miroslawiec (Märkisch Friedland), located in the Wałcz district, at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, the Jewish population constituted as much as 55%. So far, few publications have been written about the Jewish communities functioning in that area. The text is of a historical nature; in the course of its preparation, I have made use of archival materials, the Jewish press of the time, and I have also referred to Prussian legal regulations. As a result, I have analysed the economic, legal and, in particular, educational situation of Jewish women living in the area, taking into account two types of factors that conditioned it – religious orders and Prussian legislation. I also discuss the changes and their causes, to which the functioning of women in these communities was subjected in the period from the 18th to the beginning of the 20th century, as well as the gradual assimilation of the Jewish population, progressing until World War II, which put an end to the presence of Jews in this area.

W cieniu szlacheckich konserwatystów. Agrarny ruch kobiecy we wschodnich prowincjach Prus w latach 1912–1914. Przypadek prowincji Pomorze

The article describes the circumstances in which a part of the nobility from the Prussian Province of Pomerania agreed to support Agricultural Housewives’ Associations. That new type of women’s organisations propagated a moderate version of emancipation of women in rural areas and was initiated in East Prussia in the 1890s by Elisabet Boehm. The organisations were first established in Pomerania in 1912. They received support from some influential agrarians led by Conrad von Wangenheim. Nobility wanted to use Agricultural Housewives’ Associations to strengthen their influences in rural areas and renew the old patriarchal hierarchies. Noblewomen were meant to lead the associations and promote scientific and technical progress in rural households. This was the way nobility wanted to use to include women in the program of improving living conditions in the countryside. They agreed to broaden the scope of women’s independent activities. However, supporting emancipation of women was not their true objective. In reality, they aimed at using associations to slow down the migration of people from the countryside to the cities (Landflucht) since depopulation of the countryside was a serious issue in the eastern provinces of Prussia from the end of the nineteenth century, which caused a permanent shortage of labor in land estates.

THE CASE OF THE COUNTERFEITER ADAM BOGUSZ (1868‒1870)

Summary. The purpose of the research is to introduce into the scientific circulation the history of the activity of the counterfeiter Adam Bogusz, who played a significant role in the financial sabotage of the British against Russian Empire during the second half of the XIX century. The research methodology is defined by a set of general scientific methods, citations of the archival materials are given in the original language. The scientific novelty is that for the first time the main stages and the result of the activity of the counterfeiter Adam Bogusz are fully covered. Conclusion. In the first quarter of the XIX century the increase of the number of detected counterfeit credit notes brought to the Russian Empire from Kingdom of Great Britain has seriously alarmed the authorities. The investigation has gradually gained a national level of importance. In the 1820s, the Russian authorities resorted to careful tracking of all Jews who went through the Kingdom of Poland and could potentially carrycounterfeit credit notes for spending them in Russia. Attempts to transport so-called "English" counterfeiting in Poland were also recorded across the border with Prussia, the appearance of such citizens with a high degree of authority and trust them fake Prussian documents. In October 28, 1868 the Governor of Warsaw received the report from the Chief of the Radzewski County on available credible records of a salesman who fabricated in London as early as 1864 fake ten Russian ruble credit notes by a Polish-born owner of an estate in Olganowo, Włocław County of Warsaw – Adam Bogusz, who was selling them in the Prussian province – the Grand Duchy of Poznan to the sheep traders. On January 11, 1870, the Warsaw Penitentiary Court sentenced the seller of the counterfeit banknotes – Adam Bogusz – to deprivation of all rights and freedoms and exile to Siberia for six years of hard labor. But he was not the only one whose case was notorious for investigating a financial subversive activity from London.

Regional identity and national identity. Provincial museums in Prussia at the turn of the twentieth century

ABSTRACT In European countries at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, there was a trend to create regional museums. In Prussia they were opened in the capitals of twelve Prussian provinces, and they had an important role in shaping the regional identity of the province. In three German regions, the situation was more complicated, as they were inhabited by representatives of another nation: the Province of Posen with a Polish population and Schleswig-Holstein with a Danish population, and Alsace inhabited by the Alsatians, a region situated within the Empire but strongly influenced by Prussia. In these regions, museums operated against the complex historical background and collecting conditions, and their functions and goals were often viewed with indifference or hostility by the local non-German population. In Schleswig-Holstein, the point of contention were prehistoric relics, including the famous Flensburg collection, created by Danes and taken over by Prussians. In Poznań, the German museum ignored the Polish audience, following a policy that aimed at strengthening the local identity of German residents. The museum in Strasbourg tried to exert similar influence, focusing on the historical and artistic ties between Alsace and Germany. However, the Alsatians themselves already sought their own, separate local identity.

Formowanie landwery podczas pruskiej wojny wyzwoleńczej 1813 roku na przykładzie Śląska

After the defeat of the Napoleonic army in the Russian campaign in 1812–1813, Prussia renounced the alliance with France and entered the war known as the “liberation war”. The King of Prussia, Frederick William III, addressed his subjects with an appeal “An mein Volk” (“To my people”), calling for a fight against Napoleon. One of the pillars of this struggle was the creation of units of a voluntary military formation composed of the "people" - the landwehr. After defeating Napoleon landwehr became part of the legend of the Prussian army's strength, which was to cover the ignominious defeat of the Prussian army during the autumn campaign of 1806. Formations like the landwehr were known as early as the 18th century, but their formation was forbidden because of the fear of violating the prevailing social relations. In the end, however, in the spring of 1813, in the spring of 1813, it was decided to establish a landwehr. Despite the initial optimism, its creation encountered numerous difficulties, including the lack of willing recruits, the widespread phenomenon of desertion and problems with weapons. These problems were obvious in the Prussian province of Silesia. The article presents the genesis of this formation, the uniforms and equipment of the landwehr, problems related to recruiting soldiers to the landwehr in Lower and Upper Silesia, and the final division of the landwehr into military units.

The Confessing Church (Bekennende Kirche) in Western Pomerania in Light of the Activity of St. Mary’s Parish in Koszalin (Köslin) and the Rev. Friedrich Onnasch (1881–1945)

The article deals with issues related to the history of the relations between churches as institutions, and their individual clergymen, and the Nazi state. The source referred to in this article is the intimate journal of Minister Friedrich Onnasch (1881–1945), the superintendent of the Koszalin Church District and parish priest of Saint Mary’s Church in Koszalin, murdered by Soviet troops in Barlinek in February 1945. A document written on a regular basis, never published, is a detailed account (though coded, due to censorship), showing the experience of the clerical office in a time of totalitarian oppression. It shows the situation in the Evangelical Church after 1933 and the commitment of Minister Friedrich Onnasch and others, among them Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945), associated with Pomerania, in the movement of the Confessing Church. It explores the areas of Christian religion in its Evangelical topography, limited to the space of the former Prussian province of Pommern (Provinz Pommern) and Western Pomerania after 1945.

Dobroczynność względem sierot na ziemiach polskich do 1918 roku

Since the baptism of Poland up to 1918, the social care of orphans was diversified. Until the annexations, the care of parentless children in the Polish territories had been environmental and stemmed from voluntary and charitable actions taken up mostly by the Church. The creation of children wards in hospitals and shelters, and the establishment of children’s households in Warsaw as a result of father G. Baudounin’s initiative, might be considered as prototype actions in the complete institutional care of orphaned children. However, during the time of annexations, the situation of orphans became significantly diversified because it depended on the invaders’ policy and the citizens’ activity. Thus, on the one hand, it was created by the occupying country, on the other, it was shaped by tradition. In the territories of each of the conquerors there were periods of liberalization of law, which rendered it possible, at least to some degree, to follow Polish concepts. These were mostly based on philanthropy, charity religious groups, associations and individuals. It needs to be stated that at the beginning of the 21st century, in all of the partitioned territories, the orphanages were governed by obsolete regulations although tried out in other countries. In each of the annexed parts of Poland, the educational and caring actions stemmed from the acquired legislative system. Under the Austrian occupation it was the commune that had the duty of taking care of the parentless children as it was stated in the act passed on 3rd December 1863. In the Prussian part of Poland, the commune’s duty of taking care of the orphans was stated in the act passed in July 1870. It is worth mentioning that the legislative in Prussia was very similar to the Austrian one. The only difference between them was their effectiveness – it was far more efficient in the Prussian province. Under the Russian invasion the regulations concerning the orphanages were quite different. Since the resolution from 1817, the public care of orphans relied on the good will of the society. It was not until the ruling from 1870 that the city councils of public philanthropy, supervising such institutions, were brought to life. At the turn of the 19th century in Poland, especially among social and educational activists, the problem of children’s care became more popular. The necessity of providing care through social actions based on the law was discerned. During World War I, the problem of orphanhood achieved a new dimension, the so-called war orphanhood. It was not effectively taken care of until the end of the war.

Rosa Vogelstein and her work: in search of the sources of success of the Stettin Women’s Association (Stettiner Frauenverein) at the turn of the twentieth century

ABSTRACTAt the turn of the twentieth century, Stettin, the major city of the Prussian Province of Pomerania, was the home of the Stettin Women’s Association (Stettiner Frauenverein). It engaged in welfare work as well as educational activity using modern forms of social work focused mostly on supporting lower-class women and children. This article presents the results of research into the sources of success of this organisation. It is worth attention because the organisation was established in a city where, similarly to the entire province, women’s movement demanding changes to behaviour patterns attributed to sex and background did not attract much support. In the light of preserved archives, it was Rosa Vogelstein, the wife of a local rabbi, who wielded decisive influence on this and who with full awareness resigned from exposing her role in the establishment and operations of the association which led to the memory of her achievements gradually fading.

“Die Russen in Ostpreussen“: Images of Russia and Russians in the memoirs on the Great War in East Prussia, published in Germany from

“Die Russen in Ostpreussen“: Images of Russia and Russians in the memoirs on the Great War in East Prussia, published in Germany from

Sejm prowincjonalny na Śląsku (1824–1848) na tle innych podobnych instytucji w Prusach

The author presents the evolution of the authority established in Prussia in 1824, within the polity boundaries of the country, following the defeat suffered by Prussia in the war with Napoleon. The presentation of Landtag which was functioning in Silesia is the starting point to make a comparison between this institution and others which were established on the parallel basis in other Prussian provinces. Differences and similarities between them are shown.

City meets Country: Recycling ideas and realities on German sewage farms

From the end of the nineteenth century, sewage farms were designed to clean urban waste water and thus improve water quality for residents downstream. From a rural perspective, they were a place where a flow of nutrients from the city could serve to boost agricultural production. Using the capacity of certain soils to filter pollutants, sewage farms sent waste water into designated fields and then waited until the water had trickled down into the ground; in many cases, drainage pipes helped to siphon away the cleaned water. Theoretically, they were a prime spot for waste recycling avant la lettre. However, the reality was more complicated: the recycling utopia became entangled in the tensions between city and country, severely curtailing its potential. By 1910, 49 German cities had sewer networks leading to a sewage farm; all in all, some five million people were feeding their liquid wastes into such systems. The geographic distribution was highly uneven. There were almost no sewage farms in Bavaria, Saxony, and Württemberg. Most of them were in the Eastern part of Prussia; the Prussian province of Hanover and the Rhine Province were almost free of sewage farms. The political debates, the public health debate, the development of urban waste water technology, as well as the tensions between cities and countryside are discussed to explain the short-term success of the system, as well as its decline, which had already taken place during the first decades of the twentieth century before the full force of the wastefulness of modern consumerism was felt.

Stosunek carskiej cenzury zagranicznej do twórczości Juliusza Słowackiego w latach 1865–1914

The aim of the article is to analyze the attitude of tsarist foreign censorship towards the editions of Juliusz Slowacki’s works which some people tried to import to the Russian Empire in the years 1865–1914. The article consists of three parts. Firstly, the author reconstructs the magnitude, geography, chronology and pace of import. Secondly, she discusses the decisions of tsarist foreign censorship concerning the imported editions. In the third and the most comprehensive part, she characterizes the attitude of control officers towards the poet’s particular works. It is indicated which ones were questioned as a whole and which were undermined only partly. It can be assumed that in the years 1830–1914 there were 282 editions of Slowacki’s works in 401 volumes, including at least 194 in 288 volumes that were published outside the Russian rule. The vast majority of the imported books appeared in Galicia (75 editions in 119 volumes). They came from two central cities: Lviv and Krakow, and four provincial places: Zloczow, Brody, Stanislawowo i Kolomyja. Other books were imported from abroad (7 editions in 5 volumes) – Paris, Leipzig, Saint Petersburg, and from Prussian provinces (2 editions in 5 volumes) – Poznan and Mikolow. The largest part of the imported editions of Slowacki’s writing was represented by separate editions of particular works (45), slightly smaller – collective editions with works representing different literary genres (36, including 24 single- volume and 12 multivolume editions), the smallest – collections of letters written by the poet. Out of 84 editions of the poet’s works (in 134 volumes), which were analysed by Russian foreign censors, 28 were published without changes (39 volumes) – 4 of them (in 9 volumes) the publishers adjusted to the censorial demands in the Russian Empire. In the case of 15 editions (30 volumes) the officials ordered to remove some works – or at least their excerpts – and 40 editions (65 volumes) remained unchanged. In other words, at least half of editions and volumes with Slowacki’s texts imported to the Kingdom of Poland never went on sale. In the territories under Russian rule only some literary works written by Slowacki could be released, e.g. dramas Balladyna , Maria Stuart , Mazepa and poems Hugo , Arab , Mnich , Ojciec zadzumionych , W Szwajcarii , Godzina myśli . Other significant literary works – Beniowski , Anhelli , Horsztynski , Fantazy – were published in a modified form in the Russian Partition after the Revolution of 1905. Moreover, Kordian , Rozmowa z Makryną Mieczyslawską , Glos z wygnania do braci w kraju and revolutionary lyrics from the period of the November Uprising, i.e. Hymn [ Bogarodzico! Dziewico! ], Kulik , Pieśn legionu litewskiego , Oda do wolności , and Śmierc, co trzynaście lat stala kolo mnie… were perpetually removed from the imported editions. Although the works became known to Slowacki’s readers only in the second half of 1914, in a plebiscite announced by “Kurier Warszawski” the writer was ranked as the second most prominent Polish poet. Furthermore, Slowacki won in the category “dramatic literature”, defeating Mickiewicz and Krasinski, and Mazepa was named the most outstanding Polish dramatic work of the nineteenth century.

Typification of the names and taxonomic status of selected vascular plant taxa described by Max Eugen Heinrich Grütter

Max Eugen Heinrich Grütter (30 March 1865–31 March 1897) was a German botanist interested in floristics and taxonomy of vascular plants and mosses (Abromeit 1897). He conducted intensive floristic studies on the territory of the former West and East Prussia, especially in the former West Prussian Province Schwetz (now north-central Poland) where he lived in the small village of Luschkowko (Grütter 1892, 1895a, 1895b, 1895c, 1897). His numerous findings had been frequently cited in “Flora von Ost‑ und Westpreussen” by Abromeit et al. (1898–1940). In 1890–1891, in the course of the floristic expeditions in the former West Prussian Province Schwetz, Grütter found interesting vascular plants which he deemed as new to science. The names of these taxa were validly published in Deutsche botanische Monatsschrift (Grütter 1892).

Les guerres du Schleswig-Holstein, lieu de mémoire nationaliste dans l’Allemagne wilhelminienne

The present paper deals with German nationalist “lieux de mémoire” (sites of memory) related to the Schleswig-Holstein wars (1848-1851 and 1864) in the German Empire. Eight historical novels, published between 1881 and 1914, were used as primary sources for this article. These books played an important part in the popularization of the historical arguments justifying the annexation of both duchies by Prussia. Most novels were written either while Köller was Oberpräsident of the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein, or a little later, and they can only be understood in the light of the Germanization policy which was carried out in this province. In the case of Northern Schleswig, nationalist intellectuals were confronted with two difficulties. Firstly, even the champions of the German cause in Northern Schleswig spoke a Danish dialect as their mother tongue. Secondly, individual members of one and the same family sometimes declared their support for different national camps. So neither the mother tongue and the national-political opinions, nor the “lineage” and the national-political opinions could be automatically equated. Most authors payed attention to the national peculiarities of Northern Schleswig in their work, whilst at the same time supporting the Germanization policy. The detour via the German history allowed a legitimation of the Köllerian politics. Some radical völkisch novelists apparently promoted a German-Danish reconciliation. But this was not aimed at the “real” Danish speakers. An imagined union of all Germanic peoples was at stake, not the political rights of an ethnic minority.

Paving the way to modernity: Prussian roads and grain market integration in Westphalia, 1821–1855

This study investigates the relation of pre-railroad transport infrastructure on Westphalian grain market integration in the early nineteenth century. It is motivated by recently found indications of macroeconomic change in Prussia such as increased demand for labour, disappearance of positive Malthusian shocks and grain market integration. These coincide and correspond well with a number of institutional breaks such as border changes and state creation after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, liberal political reforms such as the abandoning of corporatist regulations in Prussia and substantial public investment in paved roads in a number of Prussian provinces. In this study, we show that (1) paved road connections mattered economically and statistically for bilateral rye and wheat price differences, (2) the usual dummy-variable approach to measure the effect of transport infrastructures proves to be unreliable and we propose a new indicator that takes into account the effects of the transport network, (3) the role of the early railroad connections is not robust. In this pilot study, we for the first time establish the correlation between economic development and pre-railroad transport infrastructure for a Prussian province, and thus call for more research on the causes of macroeconomic change in early nineteenth century Prussia.