West Prussia Research Articles

Vita Communis Taking a More Secular Shape: Samuel Pufendorf’s Concept of Community Applied by Ernst König to Civic Education in West (Royal) Prussia

Abstract The concept of community formulated by Samuel Pufendorf, Protestant philosopher and civil servant, in the 17th century, on the one hand, drew upon the Reformation legacy, and on the other hand, explored a more secular and less confessional approach to this issue. The present paper examines how Ernst König, Protestant scholar and President of the Academic Gymnasia in Thorn and in Elbing, applied Pufendorf’s concept of community to civic education in West Prussia (Royal Prussia). König was diligent in applying Pufendorf’s concept of community to civic education (philosophia / doctrina civilis) as cultivated at the Academic Gymnasia in Thorn and in Elbing where he served as President. He also promoted the idea of civic education in all his ethical writings and made use of Pufendorf’s De officio hominis et civis, working with his students. Likewise, supervising works submitted by his students, König made them familiar with Pufendorf’s thought.

East German-Jewish spaces in Berlin: Jewish heritage societies (Heimatvereine) and their diasporic milieu during the 1920s and 1930s

ABSTRACT Following the First World War and the loss of German territories in Posen, West Prussia and Silesia, many German Jews from those areas left their homes and settled either in Germany or moved to the USA, Latin America or Palestine. Quite a few of them came to Berlin. There and in other German cities as well they founded so called Heimatvereine, Jewish Heritage Societies. This article analyses the spaces those societies created – concrete spaces, in which people met, but also metaphorical spaces, in which a specific East-German-Jewish diasporic milieu was created and maintained that also transcended the borders of the Weimar Republic.

Cultural Conditions of Constructing Hegemonic Masculinity in the Polish Environment of West Prussia in the in the Mid-19th Century

The article presents cultural factors contributing to hegemonic masculinity in the Polish community of West Prussia in the mid-19th century. Starting from the perspective of social constructionism, Raewyn Connell’s theory of hegemonic masculinity was used in the research process to reveal the dominant discourse of masculinity in the studied milieu. The source base for the research was the Polish journalism of the region in question (predominantly the local press), mainly from the late 1840s and 1850s, less frequently from later periods. The contextual analysis of the research material made it possible to identify five basic, cultural determinants cultivating hegemonic masculinity in the Polish community of West Prussia in the period studied, analysed in detail (in separate parts) in the present article. These determinants include: the dominant narrative on the role of the male in the family, the position of the male in social structure, the role of the insurrectionary and organic work ethos, the influence of professed faith, including the views proclaimed by Catholic moralists, and the resulting beliefs about male sexuality. The research has shown the significant influence of Catholic ethics and national ideas derived from the nobility on the creation of a hegemonic image of masculinity in the Polish community of the studied region. This discourse was explicitly conservative and essentialist in nature. It also played an important role in maintaining and developing Polish identity in the absence of the Polish statehood.

Poles in the Border March (Grenzmark Posen West Prussia) in the face of the Nazi seizure and consolidation of power from 1933 to 1939

Poles in the Border March (Grenzmark Posen West Prussia) in the face of the Nazi seizure and consolidation of power from 1933 to 1939

Hegemonic childhood in the Polish community of West Prussia in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries

In this article, I present the hegemonic concept of childhood in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries among the Polish community of West Prussia. The subject of the analyses was the content of articles dealing with children’s issues, published in the local Polish press. The essential feature of the hegemonic discourse of childhood for the Polish community in the analysed region was that it was clearly based on the Catholic religion and national ideas, as well as on a strong relationship with the conservative and post-feudal image of family relations. The conducted research made possible the identification of seven basic categories of the hegemonic understanding of childhood in the Polish environment of West Prussia, which are: Polish and Catholic childhood, childhood sensitive to the needs of others, heroic childhood, tidy and pupil childhood, neat and orderly childhood, childhood based on obedience and subordination, sexual purity childhood.

“Slavic” or “Germanic Spirit”? Examples of the Ideologisation of Arcades in Research on Architecture in the 19th and 20th centuries

Travelling across present-day Poland, it is only exceptionally possible to come across a specific type of historic urban and rural houses with a ground-level section open on three sides and supported on columns or posts. Yet still in the first half of the 20th century, in some areas of Europe this type of a house was commonly found, and already a century earlier it had intrigued researchers investigating among other things, its origins of development. Within the current borders of Poland, arcaded houses are found in greater concentration in territories that in the past belonged to different political organisms and thus their research was conducted with the adoption of different optics. It is noteworthy that arcades were easily subjected to various more or less conscious manipulations in order to justify their native character, sometimes understood as belonging to particular peoples, regions, nations or even races. The paper provides hypothesis that arcades are a construction element extremely liable to ideologisation. In order to illustrate this problem, the paper presents methods of interpreting the origin of arcades in former East and West Prussia, Silesia, Lesser Poland and Lublin Province in the period from almost the beginning of the 19th century, when researchers started to be interested in this element, until 1939 when Erich Kulke’s book was published, which was the clearest result of arcades’ ideologisation. These interpretations were divided into a few main groups, which made it possible to compare the narratives and to show how the same arguments could lead to different conclusions. Unique issues, characteristic only of particular regions, were also identified. Ultimately, an attempt was made to answer the question of what influenced the liablity of arcades to ideologisation. Since the authors of the research, often architects, promoted the preservation and use of arcades referring to old patterns in new developments, the question was also asked whether such developments actually occurred.

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.

Gmach Gdańskiej Biblioteki Miejskiej przy ulicy Wałowej

Following Germany’s unification in 1871, Gdansk was a major municipal centre and a port on the Empire’s map, however it was well past its heyday. In the Gründerzeit, it could not reach as quick a pace of development as other cities of the Reich, and by the late 19th century it did not boast any university. The attempt to catch up on the substantial delay in creating modern public architecture in Gdansk was only made after the fortifications had been dismantled (1895–97). A triangular plot close to St James’s Gate was reserved for the purpose of education and science. It was there that a seat of the city archive and the building of the Secondary School of SS Peter and Paul (Oberrealschule St. Petri und Pauli) were raised. The third edifice was planned as the new home for the Gdansk Library. The precious book collection, whose core was formed by the collection bequeathed by Joannes Bernardinus Bonifacius d’Oria of Naples in 1596, was kept in a former Franciscan monastery, and later in St James’s Church. Attempts to raise a new building to house the collection in the 1820s as designed by Carl Samuel Held failed. Neither was the plan to erect the new library building as an extension of the Dungeon and Prison Gate Complex implemented. It was only Karl Kleefeld’s design from 1901–1902 planning to raise an impressive Gothic Revival complex that finally came to life. Completed in January 1905, the Library welcomed the first readers already on 16 February.
 Kleefeld designed the building’s mass on the L -plan layout with a truncated corner and wings. The main reading room boasted elegant, sumptuous, and coherent wooden furnishing, and the gallery’s centrepiece was a ledge decorated with 14 panels featuring bas -relief cartouches with the emblems of the cities of West Prussia. Differing in size, the edifices, were given red -brick elevations with plastered details and glazed green filling, with a sgraffito frieze on the reading room elevation between the ground and first floors. It was the Gdansk Renaissance that dominated in public buildings’ architecture of the city in the last quarter of the 19th century. The resumed popularity of Gothic Revival in its local forms in Gdansk public buildings’ architecture, such as those in the afore - -described Kleefeld’s designs, resulted undoubtedly from a rapid growth of research into historic structures, yet on the other hand it reflected the return to the local tradition (Heimatschutz), which could be observed in the architecture of the German Reich at the time.
 Judged in the context of an extremely modest programme of public projects in Gdansk of the period, the creation of the Bildungsdreick with the edifices of the archive, library, and secondary school is to be regarded as a major event in the history of creating public architecture of the city.
 As seen against other projects of the time in other Reich cities, the Gdansk City Library stood out neither with its scale, nor innovatory character of the layout solutions. What, however, makes it a special facility are architectural forms that reveal its contribution to the search for the expression of the local tradition. This kind of an archaeological approach to the past and a compilatory additive method of juxtaposing quotes from various buildings, which may have also arisen from the lack of talent of the architect, were undoubtedly in decline in the early 20th century.

Spatio-temporal analysis of place-naming dynamics in former West Prussia from 1772 to 2020

Spatio-temporal analysis of place-naming dynamics in former West Prussia from 1772 to 2020

Diligent Bureaucrats and the Expulsion of Jews from West Prussia, 1772–1786

Abstract Historiography has repeatedly highlighted the mitigating influence of the Prussian administration on Frederick the Great’s oppressive policies toward the Jews. Scholars have argued that officials frequently opposed the king’s discriminatory legislation and intentionally delayed its implementation. These actions, they claimed, were influenced by the Enlightenment humanism of the Prussian administrators and their training in natural law theories and mercantilist economics, both taught at German universities at the time. Such descriptions are central in the influential narrative of late eighteenth-century Prussia as a remarkably tolerant state that developed relatively lenient policies towards the Jews. This article challenges the traditional portrayal of the Prussian administration by examining the actions of three officials involved in the expulsion of several thousand Jews from the province of West Prussia between 1772 and 1786. It argues that the remarkably positive assessment of the Prussian bureaucrats and their role in the Jewish policies of the time needs significant revision. First, previous historiography has overstated the extent to which Prussian officials objected to the king’s discriminatory policies. Secondly, occasional instances of resistance from within the administration were mainly motivated by political, economic and demographic objectives or even careerist pursuits that had little to do with the Jewish communities. Lastly, the Prussian administrators did not merely adhere to economic principles or even to ideals of tolerance and humanity. To a significant extent, their actions were also influenced by anti-Jewish sentiment.

Edition der Kulmer Stadtbücher

The strategic plan of the Copernicus-Vereinigung, a scholarly organisation devoted to the regional history of West Prussia, to edit the four yet unpublished civic registers (Stadtbuch) out of a total of ten surviving from late-medieval Kulm (Chełmno), was motivated to no small degree by the intention of demonstrating that Prussia constituted an integral part of the Hanse. However, the editorial principles employed by the editors of the six volumes which have appeared hitherto were anything but unitary. Hence, it is greatly to be desired that future editors orient themselves according to modern editorial guidelines. Moreover, there is much work to be done on standardizing seemingly minor technical matters: the capitalization of words, the typographical representation of Siamese-twin letters (when to transcribe a scribal mark as ‘sz’ and when as ‘ß’), superimposed letters (ue) and redundant double consonants, on the abbreviations for various currencies and the description of the scribal hands. This article is intended as a contribution towards generating a common set of principles – a standard tool-kit, if you will – for editing Hanseatic civic registers.

The Polish Minority in the German Empire — the Agrarian Aspect of Government Policy and the Opposition of the Polish Population in the Late 19th — Early 20th Centuries

The purpose of this article is to examine the agrarian aspect of the opposition to the Prussian policy of Germanization of the Polish population of the provinces of Poznań and West Prussia from a historical perspective, with the main focus on the 1880s — 1900s. The publication of the Colonization Law in 1886 and the creation of the Colonization Commission marked the beginning of attempts by the Prussian government to change the ratio of the Polish and German population of the provinces in favour of the latter. The German side in 1886—1902 acted exclusively through centralized budget financing of the colonization structures, which increased from year to year. However, this did not lead to the achievement of the goals set. To counteract the Prussian activities, the Poles set up a system of credit institutions, the main role in which belonged to the Land Bank. These financial institutions took over the crediting of land deals and the support of Polish landowners and farmers. The Polish side chose a much more effective method, which allowed it to gain the upper hand over the German strategy. The process of Germanization in the agricultural sector in the late 19th and early 20th centuries went through several stages, always being a direct reflection of the general direction of German government policy: from the creation of internal unity under Bismarck, through Caprivi’s “Era of reconciliation”, to the “Weltpolitik” of Bulow, when Polish policy became a part of the common colonial trend.

Niezrealizowane projekty odbudowy kościoła w Oruni autorstwa gdańskiego architekta miejskiego Carla Samuela Helda

This article discusses widely unknown designs of the Evangelical church in the village of Orunia near Gdańsk from 1816–1819. The concepts preserved in the State Archive in Gdańsk contain as many as eight variants of the reconstruction of the meeting house destroyed during a siege in 1813. The author of these concepts was the contemporary city architect Carl Samuel Held. As a student of Carl Gotthard Langhans (1732–1808), one of the greatest Prussian architects of that time, Held consistently used classicist forms throughout his body of work. His first two designs for the reconstruction of the church in question were in line with the so-called revolutionary classicism. The following six neo-Gothic variants constituted a formal exception in his oeuvre. Moreover, the case of the Orunia church was the only time he ever attempted to design a sacral building. The clumsiness in the use of neo-Gothic forms, as well as the inability to fit into the assumed financial framework contributed to the rejection of Held’s designs. Eventually, the project by August von Gersdorff verified by the head of the Higher Construction Deputy Karl Friedrich Schinkel was the one that was implemented. The construction was completed in 1823. The forms used in the building exhibit inspiration drawn from the Teutonic castle in Malbork. The prime mover behind their use was the Oberpräsident of the Province of West Prussia Theodor von Schön, promoter of the restoration work at the castle. The church in Orunia is the first case of a building with neo-Gothic features in Gdańsk and its area, as well as the first construction with forms intentionally referring to the Malbork Castle, a landmark symbolizing the essence of Germanity.

«Для вас и эти условия хороши, вы не забывайте кто вы такой и откуда вы приехали сюда!»: трудовая повинность немецких переселенцев из СССР в оборонном производстве на территории «старого рейха» в конце Второй мировой войны

Between autumn 1943 and spring 1944 the German authorities were carrying out a phased evacuation of the ethnic Germans from the occupied territories of the USSR. The total number of this contingent in mid – 1944 was about 350 000 people. A significant number of the former Soviet German refugees was taken to Warthegau, West Prussia, Silesia, Oberdonau, Niederdonau and some other regions of Germany. According to worked out procedure, all evacuees were the subjects to temporary maintenance in the camps of the Ethnic German Liaison Office for registration procedures and naturalization.
 Under the conditions of total mobilization, many ethnic Germans became the part of Germany’s labor force. At the beginning of 1944 some of the higher officials of the NSDAP began to appeal to the leadership of the SS with a request to allow the mass recruitment of this contingent for employment in various regions of the Reich. However, such initiatives were rejected by H. Himmler because they were in conflict with the key principles of the resettlement policy. Recruiting of the German resettlers for the German military complex located in the so-called «Old Reich» (country in borders until March 1938) was of particular interest. As a result, most Soviet Germans were employed in factories producing for the Luftwaffe after finishing the registration in those camps. Labor recruitment of German resettlers continued until the end of 1944. Despite the growing demand for workers, some regions were no longer able to receive additional working contingents due to the influx of refugees from the western and then eastern territories of the Reich.
 The article reveals the mechanisms and characteristics of the involving of this category of German resettlers into forced labor service in the field of military production of Germany at the final stage of World War II.

Księgozbiory klasztorów franciszkańskich w Prusach Zachodnich w okresie ich kastaty

At the turn of the 19th century, the Prussian state began the dissolution of the religious houses, including in West Prussia. Of the 28 monasteries existing in this area before the dissolution, 15 were part of the Franciscan religious family: six Bernardine monasteries (Kadyny, Lubawa, Nowe, Świecie, Torun, Zamarte), six monasteries of the Reformed Franciscans (Brodnica, Dzierzgon, Gdansk Chelm, Grudziądz, Łąki Bratianskie, Wejherowo), two monasteries of the Conventual Franciscans (Chelmno, Chelmza), and one monastery of the Capuchins (Rywald). After 1840 only two monasteries survived, in Wejherowo and Łąki Bratianskie near Nowe Miasto Lubawskie. During the dissolution of the monasteries, the monastic book collections and archives were secured and translocated by Prussian officials. Using the surviving archival material, the author presents the holdings of the individual monastic libraries and their history.

Dr Jerzy Teofil Szews (1925–2016) nauczyciel akademicki, biografista, badacz dziejów oświaty i wychowania Pomorza Gdańskiego

Jerzy Teofil Szews, Ph.D. (1925-2016): a university professor, a biographer, a historian studying education and upbringing in Gdansk Pomerania Jerzy Teofil Szews, Ph.D., was born in Gniezno in 1925. After studies at the Poznań University he worked as a teacher in secondary pedagogical schools in Szklarska Poreba, Lebork, and Wejherowo. Following his academic degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1967 from the Pedagogical University in Gdansk, he was a professor at the Pedagogical University and the University of Gdansk. He was an eminent biographer, a researcher of ‘the unknown history’ concerning Germanisation of the Polish youth in West Prussia’s secondary schools. He also studied the history of the Philomath Society (a secret Polish student organization operating in the early 19th century in Vilnius under Russian occupation), the beginnings of the secret scouting movement in the Pomerania-upon-Vistula Region (an area south of Gdansk, including Bydgoszcz and Torun), and the history of education and upbringing in Gdansk Pomerania. He wrote 11 books and hundreds of articles.

Tatarisch-preußische Interferenzen im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert: Eine Beziehungsgeschichte

The history of the Tatar soldiers in the armies of Prussia and Saxony has hitherto only rarely been the subject of scholarly publications, but it offers a useful starting point for illuminating Christian-Islamic relations in the 17th and 18th centuries. Tatar soldiers were to be found in the Bosniak, Hussar, Cossack and Towarczys units of the Prussian and Saxon Army as well as in the short-lived Tatar Pulk of the Prussian army. At the same time diplomatic exchanges took place between Lipka Tatars, Crimean Tatars, Prussians and Saxons, beginning in the 15th century and lasting until 1786. A Tatar Muslim population has resided in the geographic center of Europe – in Lithuania and Poland – for more than 600 years. Its presence probably also shaped the distinctive collective image of this ethnic group formed by its German neighbors, the inhabitants of the former East Prussia, Masovia, Kujawia, Silesia and West Prussia.

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

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.

Dyslokacja i skład niemieckiego XVII Korpusu Armijnego w latach 1890–1900

Dislocation and composition of XVII German Army Corps in the years 1890–1900 The creation process of German XVII Army Corps began in 1980, when its area was set. It consisted of West Prussia and the western part of East Prussia. The first commander of that military unit was infantry General August von Lentze, who held that position between 1890 and 1902. Headquarters of the Corps, divisions and brigades were located in major cities: Gdansk, Torun, Grudziądz. Only headquarters of 72 Infantry Brigade were located in a little town of Ilawa. Most units stationed in towns close to the Vistula river, which was the most significant natural obstacle in that part of Reich. At the end of the 19th century around Gdansk, Grudziądz and Torun modern fortifications were built. Their objective was to safeguard river crossings. However, most units were designed for actions outside the fortifications. In 1980 XVII Army Corps consisted of eight infantry regiments, one independent battalion, four cavalry regiments, two regiments of field artillery, one regiment of infantry artillery and minor engineering and auxiliary units. In 1900 it consisted of eleven infantry regiments, one independent battalion, four cavalry regiments, one independent squadron of cavalry, four regiments of field artillery and two regiments of infantry artillery.

Powstanie i organizacja pruskiego więzienia w Sztumie

In 1911 started a construction of Central and Youth Prison in Sztum (Zentral und Jugendgefängnis) for East and West Prussia. This was the result of efforts of local authorities of the city and a favorable decision of the Prisons Management in Berlin. The construction of prision complex, which consisted of a settlement for prision officials and walled prision buildings with building of prison board, was completed in 1915. The prison was considered to be modern, because of its amiliesion of watter supply, sewerage, central heating and lighting. The right numer of prison cells, created residential pavilion for quarantine purposes, bath, infirmary, class and workshop rooms, provide persons deprived of liberty, not just good social conditions, but also creates opportunities for the educational function of prison. The prision was provided for 400 juvenile criminals. Next to the prison was located a settlement for prision officials amilies, which provided a very good social conditions. Staff consisted of 50 people, headed by a Director. The prison in Sztum was subjected to the prosecutor of the Court of Appeal, and indirectly to the Prison Management in Berlin. It should be noted that the Prussian prison in Sztum was a modern prison facility, well-protected, providing good living conditions to prisoners and adapted to implement cel system already declining and introduced progressive system of serving a penalty in prison.