Poles in Germany - History

History

Since the Partitions of Poland in 1772, 1793 and 1795 and Poland's partial incorporation into Prussia, a large Polish ethnic group existed inside Prussia's borders, especially in the new provinces of Posen and West Prussia. During the transformation of Germany from an agrarian to an industrial society, many Poles, alongside Silesians, Kashubians and Masurians migrated to the rapidly transforming areas around the Ruhr river. The expansion of the coal mining industry of the area required manpower which could not be supplied from the nearby regions. The workforces had to be recruited from other regions and thus, beginning in the 1870s, a large migration wave of the aforementioned groups started to settle in the Ruhr area. Participants in this migration are called the Ruhrpolen. Since the establishment of the German Reich in 1871, the Poles were under an increasing pressure of Germanization. The teaching language which had previously been Polish in the predominantly Polish-speaking areas in Prussia was replaced by German as teaching language, even in religious education where Polish priests were replaced by German teachers. However, these Germanization policies were not at all successful. In contrast, it led to the political awakening of many Poles and to the establishment of a wealth of Polish economic, political and cultural associations which were aimed at preserving Polish culture and Polish interests, especially in the Province of Posen and in the Ruhr area. The policy of forced cultural Germanization alienated large parts of the Polish-speaking population against the German authorities and produced nationalistic sentiments on both sides. After the First World War, the predominantly Polish provinces had to be ceded to the newly created Polish Republic. Polish-speaking minorities remained especially in Upper Silesia and parts of East Prussia. During Weimar Republic, Poles had the judicial status as a national minority in Upper Silesia under the auspices of the League of Nations (likewise the German minority in the Polish Silesian Voivodeship. After the rise of the Nazis, all Polish activities were systematically constrained. However, in August 1939, the leadership of the Polish community was arrested and interned in the Nazi concentration camps of Sachsenhausen and Buchenwald. On 7 September 1939, shortly after the outbreak of World War II, the Nazi government of the 3rd Reich stripped the Polish community in Germany of its minority status. This was formally confirmed by Hermann Göring's decree of 27 February 1940. Since then, the German government still does not recognize the national minority status of the Poles in Germany, claiming their recent origin due to immigration within the past two centuries and denying the minority its right of self-determination. After Poland joined the European Union, several organisations of Poles in Germany attempted to restore the pre-war official minority status, particularly claiming voidness of the Nazi decree. While the initial memorandum to the Bundestag remained unanswered, in December 2009 the Minority Commission of the Council of Europe obliged the German government to formally respond to the demands within four months.