Yeah, changing place names by Germans during WW2 was
"so funny" (Oświęcim changed to Auschwitz; Brzezinka changed to Birkenau, etc.).
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Top German archaeologist of the Inter-War period - Gustaf Kossinna - was a Germanized Protestant Pole from Masuria:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustaf_Kossinna
Gustaf Kossinna (28 September 1858 in Tilsit – 20 December 1931 in Berlin) was a linguist and professor of German archaeology at the University of Berlin. Along with Carl Schuchhardt he was the most influential German prehistorian of his day, and was creator of the techniques of Siedlungsarchaeologie, or "settlement archaeology."[1] His nationalistic theories about the origins of the Germanic peoples influenced aspects of Nazi ideology (...)
(...)
Kossinna was a Germanized Mazur. He was born in Tilsit, East Prussia, Kingdom of Prussia.
"Distribution of Protestant Poles in Masuria" (Masuria = southern part of East Prussia), map by Ernst Zimmerriemer (ca. year 1900):
Mazur people (Polish ethnographic group from Masuria, who were in vast majority Protestants) is an example of how politics can alter ethnography:
1) Before ca. 1917 Germans had no problems with calling those people ethnic Poles (as the map above also shows).
2) Since ca. 1917 Germans called them Mazurs, claiming that "Mazurs are Slavs but they are ABSOLUTELY not Poles".
The reason for that 180 degrees change was Germany's concern that reborn, independent Poland would try to annex Polish-majority areas in East Prussia. So it was politically-motivated altering of scientific consensus (German ethnographs considered those people Poles prior to 1917 and Non-Poles after 1917).
The same thing was with Kashubs. In German 19th century censuses and maps, there was no such name "Kashubs". There were only "Poles".
Name "Kashubs" appeared on German-made maps and in German population censuses around the turns of the 19th / 20th centuries. But Kashubs at least have their own dialects, while Mazurs in Prussia spoke the same dialect as original Mazurs (that is, Mazovians - people from the region around Warsaw).
