"Germanness" in 19th century German history

This is discussion about Germanness, not about Germany - in case if you did not notice.

If Polish people (who speak Polish as their first language) vote for Germany in a plebiscite, it suggests they have some level of "Germanness".

Be it - for example - "economic Germanness", which tells them: "stay in Germany - here you can earn more money than in Bolshevik-devastated Poland".

Do we know the demographic breakdown of those votes, or how Polish the Polish-speakers actually were? Even then, I'm not sure that I'd equate a judgement of self-interest with German identity. It's conceivable that the most radically Scottish shipyard worker might vote for Union because he fears that independence will cost him his job, despite feeling not one jot British or - taking the argument along the lines that we have here - English.
 
Flying Pig said:
Do we know the demographic breakdown of those votes

No, but I would assume that only a few Germans voted for Poland. So most of votes for Poland would be from Polish-speaking people.

Flying Pig said:
or how Polish the Polish-speakers actually were?

But what does it mean "how Polish" ??? Can Polishness be measured in percentages? For example a person who is 68% Polish or 47% Polish? :)

If a person speaks Polish or one of its regional dialects as first language (mother tongue), then this person is ethnically Polish.

Also people who don't speak Polish but identify themselves as Polish people can be called nationally Polish. These kinds of definitions are a bit blurred.

Indeed, a guy with Polish ethnicity is not necessarily the same as a guy with Polish nationality. Even though these 2 groups largely overlap each other.

Flying Pig said:
Even then, I'm not sure that I'd equate a judgement of self-interest with German identity.

Indeed. Political choices are not ethnic choices.

Flying Pig said:
It's conceivable that the most radically Scottish shipyard worker might vote for Union because he fears that independence will cost him his job, despite feeling not one jot British or - taking the argument along the lines that we have here - English.

Well, we have several Scottish users on this forum, no of them are Scottish nationalists, yet all of them declared they will vote for independence.

So just as we wrote above, political choices are not ethnic choices. Traitorfish wrote he will vote for independence for political and economic reasons.

Cheezy the Wiz wrote that he will also vote for independence (even though he is an ethnic American living in Scotland, not a native Scottish guy).

Domen said:
Majority of Lutheran Kashubs underwent linguistic Germanisation during the 19th century.

When it comes to the progress of Germanization in the region of Pomerania during the 1800s:

Here is an example - Lutheran parish Główczyce (Kashubian: Główczëce, German: Glowitz), 28 km from Słupsk (Kashubian: Słëpsk, German: Stolp):

Year (total population) - number of Polish/Kashubian-speakers (%), number of German-speakers (%) in this parish:

1829 census (total population: 4848) - 3297 Polish-speakers (68%), 1551 German-speakers (32%)
1850 census (total population: 5122) - 1370 Polish-speakers (27%), 3752 German-speakers (73%)
1879 census (total population: 5381) - 125 Polish/Kashubian-speakers (2%), 5256 German-speakers (98%)

This is how they were "keeping their identity alive" when subjected to forced Germanization policies of Prussian government...

These two maps illustrate the progress of Germanization in Pomerania (legend to both maps in map No 2):

http://s17.postimg.org/yqawdplfh/Germ_Kash_1.png

http://s1.postimg.org/p21g0fqkd/Germ_Kash_2.png

============================================

Let me add that Germans started to count Kashubians as a separate language group only after year 1860:

But even after they already started to count Kashubians, they were still manipulating their population censuses:

(...) The interest regarding the number of Kashubian population dates back to the middle of the 19th century. Numbers given at that time have only an estimated character. For example according to Russian scholar Alexander Hilferding, who in 1856 visited the region of Kashubia, in his work "Remnants of Slavs along the Baltic Sea coast" , wrote that there were around 200,000 Kashubians at that time, maybe slightly more - as he added.

In Prussian statistics Kashubians as a separate linguistic group were counted for the first time only in the 1861 census. Before that they were counted as Polish-speaking people in all censuses. However, in officially published results of the 1861 census the column for Kashubian-speakers was not included. Instead of that, there was another column, named "other people who don't speak German". It has to be assumed, that vast majority of people in that column were Kashubians. Only the 1890 census included Kashubian population in its officially published results. According to official data from that census, the number of Kashubians at that time was over 53,000. However, the results of that census were heavily criticized by a Kashubian scholar Stefan Ramułt. In his "Statistics on Kashubian population", published in Cracow in 1899, Ramułt concluded, that the results of the German 1890 census were basically falsified and were showing a false picture of real linguistic structure of the region. He illustrated his conclusion with several examples. It is worth to quote them:

"For example in village Parchowo, numbering 640 inhabitants, 6 people were reported as Polish-speakers, and 466 people as Kashubian-speakers (the rest of them were Germans and Jews). Also in Prokowo among 543 people there were reported 7 people who spoke Polish as their mother tongue, and 518 with Kashubian mother tongue. Similar situation was in Dzierżążno (Seeresen), where among 318 inhabitants 4 people were written down into the column for Polish language and 268 people into the column for Kashubian language. But on the other hand, in Żuromin from among 231 inhabitants, 230 were included in the column for Polish-speakers and nobody was reported as a Kashubian-speaker. In Skorzewo among 749 inhabitants only 1 person was reported as a Kashubian-speaker, while 697 as Polish-speakers. In Mściszewice among 768 people as many as 709 were included in the column for Polish language and only 5 in the column for Kashubian."

Author of "Statistics on Kashubian population" summarized those numbers as follows:

"But nobody should even think, that Slavic population living in Parchowo, Prokowo and Dzierżążno is speaking a different language, or even a different dialect, than inhabitants of Żuromin, Skorzewo and Mściszewice. (...) All of them (...) speak one and the same Kashubian dialect. (...) Because the number of people, whose mother tongue is literary Polish in that area, was in reality not even 100 individuals, compared to over 45,000 speakers of native Kashubian dialect, while according to the falsified official Prussian data there were 22,309 Polish-speakers and only 16,964 Kashubian-speakers."

That scholar also heavily criticized the Prussian category of "bilingual people". He considered that so called "bilingual people" should in fact be counted among the Kashubians, who speak also German as their second language, and are too timid to admit their full "Kashubianness". (...)

For area of 11 counties, German 1890 census had: 53,359 Kashubian-speakers, 125,889 Polish-speakers and 6,903 bilinguals (total: 186,151).

According to S. Ramułt that was falsified, and the reality in those 11 counties in 1890 was: 174,831 Kashubians and 19,942 Poles (total: 194,773).

Source: article "Historió Kaszebów", topic 19: "Kashubians in statistics", published on the website of "Kaszëbskô Jednota" - Association of Kashubian People:

https://www.facebook.com/Kaszebi

The excerpt from the article that I quoted above, shows how German censuses manipulated numbers of Kashubians.

They divided people for Poles and Kashubians completely arbitrarily - despite the lack of real linguistic differences.

Not to mention, that before 1890 they did not even include such category like "Kashubians" in officially published data.

And before 1861, they counted all Kashubians as "Poles". Later between 1861 and 1890 they counted them as "other non-Germans".

========================================



========================================

Another example of manipulations in German censuses:

Subkowy Municipality in Tczew County (Kreis Dirschau) - censuses of 1905, 1910 and 1921:

1905 (population: 1180) - 935 Polish-speakers, 238 German-speakers, 7 other language
1910 (population: 1249) - 751 "Bilinguals", 273 Polish-speakers, 225 German-speakers

And now according to Polish census (question about nationality, not language):

1921 (population: 1342) - 1262 Polish, 72 German, 8 other nationality

==================================

I usually call them Slovincians, as Ceynowa and Hilferding named them (see the video):

Well, here I was wrong.

In fact they were called Slovincians for the first time by Karl Gottlob von Anton already in 1783 - he wrote:

"So nennen sich die so genannten Kassuben in Pommern Słowienci."

On the other hand, the first reference to Kashubs (regarding the duke of Kashubs) is much older - from 1238:

"Duce Cassubie" was mentioned by the Pope on 12.03.1238 regarding the Duke of Szczecin - Bogislaw II - who died in 1220.
 
But what does it mean "how Polish" ??? Can Polishness be measured in percentages? For example a person who is 68% Polish or 47% Polish? :)

There's clearly a difference, I think, between somebody who speaks Polish as a first language because he lives in a majority-Polish area, though he has two German parents a name like Hans Mueller; somebody who speaks Polish because his father is Polish, but his mother German, and has a name like Hans Kowalski, and somebody who speaks Polish because his family have spoken Polish for centuries. This is particularly pertinent when discussing how friendly these people might be towards union with Germany.
 
Flying Pig said:
a name like Hans Mueller;

Well, this is almost exactly (only 1 letter is wrong) the surname of my maternal grandfather (and the maiden name of my mother).

However, I don't know when exactly they got Polonized (perhaps at least several generations ago).

Also the first name of my maternal grandfather beginned with "H" - it was not Hans, though, but Henry (Polish: Henryk / German: Heinrich).

But I have a friend whose ancestor in 1848 was a general in the Prussian army and fought against Polish insurgents in the battle of Sokołowo.

Of course this friend is Polish (but his surname is still German, the same as the surname of that 1848 general - Hirschfeld).

I know also examples when people Polonized their surnames. For example many members of Wirstlein family changed their surnames to Wierzyński.

This also worked the other way around. Angela Merkel's father was born Kazmierczak but he Germanized his surname to Kasner.

This is particularly pertinent when discussing how friendly these people might be towards union with Germany.

Probably in some (or even many) cases, but rather not as a rule.

One can have no German ancestry at all and be very pro-German, another person can have 100% German ancestry and be loyal to Poland.

Of course family connections can often play a significant role - you are right here.

I know example of a family (Bach-Zelewski family) in which one guy was in SS and NSDAP, and his distant relative was in the Polish Home Army.

Or General Erwin Rommel in the German Army in WW2, and General Juliusz Rómmel in the Polish Army in WW2. They were related, albeit very distantly.

===============================================

A very hilarious "event" took place on 27 - 28 February 1929 - a meeting of the delegation of Poland and the delegation of Free City Danzig.

Here is the list of members of those delegations:

1) Delegation of Poland (and they were not Polish Jews, but Christian Poles):

- prime minister Kazimierz Bartel
- minister of communication Alfons Kühn
- general commissioner of Poland in Danzig Henryk Leon Strasburger
- correspondent of Polish Telegraphic Agency, editor Henryk Sonnenburg
- worker of Commissariat, Dr Weyers

2) Delegation of Freie Stadt Danzig (the Free City of Danzig):

- vice-president of the Danzig Senate Willibald Wiercinski-Keiser
- senator of internal affairs Franz Arczynski
- senator of trade affairs Salomon Julius Jewelowski
- head of press bureau in the Senate Lubiansky
- representative of Danzig Police Presidium Pokrzynski

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Note - this is not a joke, those delegations really had such members!

I'm not sure if there was some "selection" of people to those delegations based on their surnames, or did that happen totally by accident... :)
 
In mixed German-Polish / Polish-German areas often Macaronic (mixed) languages / dialects emerged.

One example of such Macaronic (mixed) language is Wilamowski / Wilmesauisch, which today is spoken only by 70 or 80 people:

Some 50 - 60 years ago hundreds of people (at least hundreds) spoke this dialect, but today only old people remember it:

They are called the Vilamovians / Wilmesauers / Wymysiöejyn people:

The Vilamovians, despite being ethnic Germans, were very loyal to Poland:

Today they are all fully Polonized, except for 70 - 80 old people who still remember how to speak in Wilmesauisch dialect:

A few people are recording discussions with these old people, in order to preserve this dialect for future generations:


Link to video.

===========================================

Edit:

BTW - I wrote:

another person can have 100% German ancestry and be loyal to Poland.

Here is a good example:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archduke_Karl_Albrecht_of_Austria

Archduke Karl Albrecht of Austria-Teschen (Karl Albrecht Nikolaus Leo Gratianus von Österreich, later Karl Albrecht Habsburg-Lothringen, since 1919 – Karol Olbracht Habsburg-Lotaryński; (Pula, 18 December 1888 – Östervik, nr. Stockholm, 17 March 1951).

He was an Austrian Archduke, the oldest son of Archduke Charles Stephen and Archduchess Maria Theresia, Princess of Tuscany.

He was Żywiec landowner, Officer Colonel of Artillery of both the Imperial (k.u.k.) Austro-Hungarian Army (on Horse) and the Polish Army, and the 1,175th Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1910, etc.[1]

In 1918 and again in 1939 he volunteered to the Polish Army. He fought in Polish–Soviet War.[2] In 1920 he commanded the Grudziądz Fortress. During German occupation of Poland, he declared Polish identity and refused to sign the Volksliste. He was imprisoned[2] in November 1939, kept in Cieszyn and tortured by Gestapo.[2] His wife was interned in Wisła. He left prison blind in one eye and half-paralyzed. In October 1942, Albrecht and his family were sent to a labor camp in Strausberg.[2] After liberation, he moved to Kraków and then to Sweden. His estate was confiscated in 1939 by the Nazis, and again in 1945 by the communists.[2]

A Polish patriot with no Polish ancestry (probably). Another similar example was Friedrich Nietzsche (but he also claimed Polish ancestry).

Also commander of the defence of Hel Peninsula in 1939 was Admiral Unrug:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Józef_Unrug

Józef Michał Hubert Unrug (German: Joseph von Unruh; 6 October 1884 – 28 February 1973) was a German-born Polish vice admiral who helped reestablish Poland's navy after World War I. During the opening stages of World War II, he served as the Polish Navy's commander.
 
In mixed Polish-German areas, first language of a person not always corresponded to his or her national identity.

Many German-speakers identified as Poles or identified as Germans but loyal to Poland. Example is Mrs Elżbieta Zawacka, who was born in 1909 and in childhood - until she was 11 years old (1920 - when her city became part of Poland) - she spoke almost exclusively in German.

Of course she was a person with Polish ancestry, but a heavily Germanized one.

Mrs Zawacka still barely spoke any Polish when she was 11. In her memoirs she wrote, that she became Polish only at school:

"Teachers really could influence the young people. In fact, only during my school years I truly became Polish."

On the other hand, example of a person with German ancestry but Polish national identity in Toruń was Dr Otton Steinborn. He was Polonized already in his childhood by his Polish school classmates. Together with them he became member of "Filomaci" - a local top-secret association which was preparing to fight for independent Poland (that was in early 1900s). Later when he studied abroad in Berlin, he belonged to local Towarzystwo Naukowe Polaków.

Here is what Leon Janta-Połczyński wrote about Otton Steinborn, at that time still a student:

"Steinborn is a son of a German teacher, who is friendly towards Polish people and is upbringing his children in Polish patriotic spirit. Otton speaks Polish with perfect fluency and he wants to be a Pole. (...) a young force, which from foreign ranks wants to join our ranks."

Both examples quoted above - Zawacka and Steinborn - were people who lived in the city of Toruń (Thorn), which was heavily mixed.
 
The Warmiaks and Masurians in East Prussia were an example of this mixed German identity, right?
 
Mostly Masurians, because they were Protestants (majority of Warmiaks were Catholics, on the other hand).

Today Scottish Protestants (fans of Glasgow Rangers, etc.) are mostly against independence, am I right ???

======================================

This is what this documentary (link below) says (Glasgow Rangers = Protestants = pro-British; Glasgow Celtic = Catholics = pro-independence):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1l3F6n8i-A#t=540

Watch the fragment between 09:00 and 11:00, which is about these Protestant fans of Glasgow Rangers.

Indeed - we can compare these Scottish Protestants to our Masurians after WW1.
 
I must say, these Protestant fans of Rangers are 100% like Masurians. This is 100% the same mentality, 100% the same identity.

This is the Scottish equivalent of Masurians. Just replace Kaiser with Queen, Germany with Britain and Heimat with Country.
 
Mostly Masurians, because they were Protestants (majority of Warmiaks were Catholics, on the other hand).

Today Scottish Protestants (fans of Glasgow Rangers, etc.) are mostly against independence, am I right ???

Almost all Scots are what would be identified in Ireland or Germany as 'Protestants' - the hardline 'loyalists' are quite a different kettle of fish.
 
Rangers, originally Glasgow Argyll: founded by a group of Gaelic-speaking Highlanders, one of the groups most devastated by the British state and most alien to it, ends up being the symbol of Scottish loyalists. There's an irony, though in some ways not, with Argyll being a historic bastion of crown loyalty.
 
Well, I am not so much into Scottish modern history and politics.

I just compared what I saw and heard in that documentary, with what I know about Masurians.

Rangers, originally Glasgow Argyll: founded by a group of Gaelic-speaking Highlanders, one of the groups most devastated by the British state and most alien to it, ends up being the symbol of Scottish loyalists. There's an irony, though in some ways not, with Argyll being a historic bastion of crown loyalty.

Polish-speaking Masurians, loyalists to their Prussian Heimat and Kaiser (many also supported Hitler), ended up as one of groups most devastated by WW2.

And in 1945, when the Red Army came, Masurians started to remember about their Polishness, about which they had forgotten in the 1920 plebiscite:

"Allenstein has just been taken.
An hour ago, a sudden strike
Of tanks and cavalry overwhelmed it...
Now the night flares. Burning sugar.
It flames with violet-coloured fire
Over the earth. It seems to simmer,
A trmbling blaze, a lilac shimmer...
Knocks. Rings. A tumult. Then we hear
A moment later, the cry of a girl,
Somewhere from behind a wall,
"I'm not German. I'm not a German.
No. I'm Polish, I'm a Pole!"

Grabbing what comes handy, those
Like-minded lads get in and start-
And oh, what heart
Could well oppose?"

Source: "Prussian Nights", Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
 
As an aside, lots of Rangers fans are nationalists; but the vocal and dominant fan group are a bunch of hard-core sectarian bigots, as often from Northern Ireland as Scotland.
 
Flying Pig said:
There's clearly a difference, I think, between somebody who speaks Polish as a first language because he lives in a majority-Polish area, though he has two German parents a name like Hans Mueller; somebody who speaks Polish because his father is Polish, but his mother German, and has a name like Hans Kowalski, and somebody who speaks Polish because his family have spoken Polish for centuries. This is particularly pertinent when discussing how friendly these people might be towards union with Germany.

On Polish historycy.org history forum, there are several users who often write things which are more or less "anti-Polish", if I can call them like this. I have never been wondering about who these people are (i.e. I always considered them simply as just as Polish as anyone else who posts there in Polish language), but recently in a thread about Italian Campaign in WW2 one of them (he had been denying that Luftwaffe deliberately bombed civilians during the invasions of Poland and France in another thread before) posted this - translated to English:

My father, Erich, in early 1944 came to Italy with his 94. Inf.Div., reconstructed after being destroyed at Stalingrad, because its commander managed to fly away from the pocket. They were defending the right wing of the Monte Cassino area, in the Liri Valley, kicking the asses of Americans and Moroccans (my father got a Spange zum EK II for that - later he traded it in captivity in Texas for 200 Lucky Strike cigarettes). He witnessed the bombing of the abbey and the 1944 eruption of Vesuvius.

And in another thread, the very same user whose father - Erich - fought in the Wehrmacht, wrote about Claus von Stauffenberg:

I disapprove his action, he violated an oath and nothing can justify that, even modern "rubbish" of political correctness can't.

:eek:

I wonder if he declares his nationality as German in population censuses in Poland (for example during the last 2011 census).

He lives in the region of Silesia in the city of Bytom (before 1945: Beuthen) according to his profile info.
 
This is what user Phouty from the USA wrote (in Polish of course) on Polish historycy.org forum:

In translation from Polish to English:



Phouty said:
I will describe my own national case. Both the family of my mother and the family of my father, originally came from the region of Pomerania, so from the Kingdom of Prussia. Father's family from area of modern Koszalin (in Western Pomerania), mother's family from area of modern Bydgoszcz / Toruń.

My paternal great-grandfather emigrated in the 19th century to the USA. My grandfather was born in American in 1895, and my father was also born here in 1920, as de facto 3rd generation American person. But in 1922 my grandfather to return to the country of "origins" (my father was 2 years old then) and after returning he settled near Stettin (so we know, what country of "origins" I am talking about). But in 1928 grandfather bought an estate near Wegrów in the vicinity of Warsaw and moved there together with his family (I don't know what were the reasons of that international migration fro the USA to Weimar Germany and several years later to Poland). The family of my father (including his "American" siblings), lives near Warsaw until today, and they consider themselves as "pure Poles".

Family of my mother also consider themselves "purely Polish".

When it comes to me, on the other hand, even though I was born in Poland, I have always considered myself American and during the first occasion (and in Communist Poland those occasions were not so frequent), I returned to the country of my ancestors - to the USA.

But let me complicate the case even more! My present wife comes from Rybnik... She is an American citizen today, obviously, but she considers herself Polish. And this is despite the fact that parents of my wife lived for many years in Munich, because they had emigrated to Germany as "Germans". What is even funnier - grandfathers of my wife considered themselves as ethnic Polish Silesians, but her great-grandfathers considered themselves as "ethnically pure Germans"!
Paranoia!

But let me continue...

Adult daughter of my wife has lived for years in Great Britain (she has British citizenship), but she is married to an American citizen, so I have no idea, who my 6 years old grand daughter is going to be...

Son of my wife lives in Poland in Rybnik, and if you call him "Silesian", he is going to kick you out of his house! According to him, he is "totally Polish".

But this is not all!

My adult son - from my first marriage... also with a Polish woman, because we had emigrated together to the USA (...) lives in the USA, but he was born in... Hamburg!

(...)

My son considers himself American, just like me!

I have a sentiment for Poland, as a country of my childhood and youth, but I do not consider myself Polish.

However, my older sister who lives in Poland is totally Polish and doesn't want to visit the USA... but her brother lives here and considers himself Polish-American (he has double American and Polish citizenship, I have only American).

My paternal grandmother, never learned to speak Polish properly and I remember that when I was a small child, I was "afraid" of her, because it was hard to understand her (I talked to her later in English). She was native American, even though her roots were from England, specifically from Kent.

In my home, as children we talked to each other in Polish, even though parents demanded from us to "officially" talk in English from time to time.

Everyone will admit, that it would be hard to find a more complicated situation!

(...)

As you can see from my own example, issues concerning national identification, as well as issues of "ancestry", are more complicated in reality, than one would think.
 
Well that polscalated quickly
 
"Rally of autochthons of the Regained Lands" - 23.10.1946:

http://www.repozytorium.fn.org.pl/?q=pl/node/5980

Translation of what narrator says in that video:

"(...) The issue of regulating coexistence between settlers and autochthonous Poles of the Regained Lands is an object of special efforts of our young statehood. After first misunderstandings, this coexistence is becoming increasingly more and more successful. This manifestation has demonstrated an unbreakable attitude of Polish people who during centuries of German occupation managed to preserve their greatest treasure - mother tongue and attachment to native culture. (...)"

This can be seen also here (Newsreel 36 / 1946) since 08:33 of the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ht2cfvYmZEs#t=08m33s

The total number of those so called nationally verified autochthons was over 1,1 million.

The largest group of them - over 0,4 million - lived in Opole Voivodeship:

Autochthons in Opole Voivodeship (Woj. Opolskie) in 1950:

County - autochthons / total population (% of autochthons):



Location of Woj. Opolskie in 1950 - 1975 administrative division of Poland:



Woj. Opolskie is located entirely outside of pre-war borders of Poland:

 
German history was made not by Germans, but by a people called "German."
 
I decided to post this here instead of the more general thread (link):

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=13623242#post13623242

Excerpts from the book "Under the Map of Germany: Nationalism and Propaganda" by Guntram Henrik Herb (this book is about how Germany pursued its territorial claims from the 19th century until 1945, using maps which showed the extend of German language usage, as their propaganda tools):











However, I disagree with the following statement from last page of this excerpt:

"(...) voelkisch activists did not exaggerate the presence of Germans in these areas (...)"

Even if they did not exaggerate the number of German-speakers directly, then they did that indirectly through their use of census figures. Censuses did attempt to exaggerate the number of German-speakers and to diminish the number of Polish-speakers in eastern provinces of the Empire. Authors of Polish ethnographic scientific studies had pointed that out already at the time when those censuses were being taken, that is before WW1, in the second half of the 19th century and in the first decade of the 20th century. Such falsifications occured for example during the last census before WW1, which took place in 1910. Authors such as Ramułt or Parczewski (and several others) pointed out numerous examples of villages and communities in which for many generations there undeniably and evidentially lived large Polish-speaking people, while according to the census of 1910 only a few individuals in each of those settlements spoke Polish, and in several examples census data even "missed" those Polish-speakers completely. In several communes in Pomerelia also the number of German-speaking Catholics were overstated - parts of Polish-speaking population were counted as "German-speakers" in that census. This becomes evident in at least several cases when one compares the results of 1910 census to those of 1905 census. The number of inhabitants of communes (municipalities) is similar, numbers of Catholics and Protestants are similar, but number of German-speakers is much greater in 1910 census than in 1905 census, while number of Polish-speakers is much lower in 1910 than in 1905. Over such a short period of time this change cannot be explained otherwise than by census falsifications, aimed at reducing the size of Polish population. This took place for example in Kreis Flatow (Złotów County). This is also confirmed for example by memoirs of local teachers and activists of the Association of Poles (ZP).

Such falsifications were frequent in West Prussia (Pomerelia), but even more frequent in Silesia and East Prussia. Local Polish newspapers of that time also wrote about those census falsifications - for example newspaper "Kwartalnik Opolski" wrote how in the 1910 census Polish-speakers were "erased with a rubber" from municipality Sporok Opolski, near Opole. Another example of falsification was from a certain village in Lower Silesia, where nearly all Polish-speakers - in total over 100 persons - were reported as "Bilinguals". And later that village was marked as purely German on a map depicting ethnic groups in Central Europe, made by certain Jakob Spett. So a gradual transformation from Poles, through Bilinguals, to Germans took place - but only on paper, thanks to falsification. In reality the village remained Polish-speaking. Similar Polish-speaking villages which were "Germanized on paper" existed also in Mazuria. In all majority Protestant counties where inhabitants were mixed (partially German-speaking and partially Polish-speaking), the percent of German-speakers was inflated. But whether Polish-speaking people were reported as German-speakers under the pressure of pastors, teachers and policemen - or due to subsequent falsifications of census data - is uncertain. In the region of Kashubia census results were also being manipulated, according to prof. Obracht-Prądzynski. Mentioned above Jakob Spett also painted Sąpolno municipality in Człuchów County (Kreis Schlochau) as a German-speaking commune, while in reality it had a Polish-speaking majority.

In addition to some rural regions, also in nearly all cities and towns percent of Polish-speakers was consistently being understated in censuses (not that much, but to a certain degree in almost every case), perhaps they were counting some of self-reported Polish-speakers as Bilinguals, and some of self-reported Bilinguals as German-speakers. When we compare census data - especially that of 1910 - to the school census (data about children taking lessons in Polish language), as well as to church statistics (parish records, "Allgemeine Kirchenzeitung", etc.), then understating the number of Polish-speakers by censuses is also evident.

Among large amount of evidence that in census data numbers of Polish-speakers were being falsified (understated) are also the results of elections, including elections to city councils, in which Polish parties and Polish candidates were getting more votes than they should according to census data on numbers of Polish-speakers (unless we believe that German-speakers who did not speak Polish, were voting for Polish candidates belonging to Polish parties).

========================================

Edit:

Polish pupils as percent of all pupils in Prussian schools by region in years ca. 1905 - 1914:

 

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