Zyklop
01-25-2010, 12:05 PM
The Image of the Germans in Polish Literature
By Else Loeser
Translated by Carlos W. Porter
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Dedicated to the memory of the ethnic researcher Dr. Kurt Lueck, Posen, in gratitude for his scientific research into the German ethnic national areas of Poland.
FOREWORD
When I was asked about a year and a half ago whether or not I would consider giving a talk on the subject of Poland -- in view of the considerable interest in Poland on the part of the German people and the extent of German assistance programmes to that country -- I began to research the "Polish problem" in greater detail than had hitherto been the case. It was not difficult for me to write recollections from my own experience, extending as far back as my earliest childhood and school days, while simultaneously discussing the findings of literature and history. At the request of the listeners, a printed text of my first talk was prepared, followed, some time later, by a further revised and expanded second edition, which has now been superceded by a third.
My first talk was followed by many others. Many questions were raised and innumerable letters received, expressing gratitude for my work of enlightenment, with the request that I publish other information, unknown in Germany, which might contribute to a more accurate appraisal of the Polish national character. I wish to comply with that request on the part of interested readers by writing a second part on falsifications of Polish history.
The enormous quantity of available materials made selection difficult; I had only intended to write a brochure enabling the German reader to see and understand the development of the Polish nation from its earliest Germanic racial origins to its chauvinistic hatred of everything German. In so doing, I made plentiful use of documentation prepared by scientific researchers and historians of an earlier era, as well as of materials dating from more recent research.
At this point, I should like to thank all those who have written to me enclosing clippings, etc. from the various news media, or who have alerted me to certain matters, thus helping me to clarify the topic of a falsified historical past in relation to falsifications of the present day.
It is not the case that the falsification process has come to an end. Quite the contrary: it is now, as in the past, being given continued life not only by foreigners, but by German writers and journalists, whether out of ignorance, carelessness, or deliberate malice, we may not say. It is the fashion -- indeed, the fad -- to write about Poland, since Poland is headline news in the world press; the subject must therefore be dealt with. The following pages are intended to reveal another aspect of Poland: the Poland of Polish literature, to which all Poles, and many Germans, make reference.
At the immediate moment, for example, the Hoffman and Campe Publishing Company is offering a large-format MERIAN book on glossy paper, advertised as follows:
"POLAND - a passion. Poland, the eternal. What kind of land is it, what kind of people? ... We know too little about the history of Poland, writes the author Karl Dedecius. Yet Polish history is made especially clear to us precisely by Polish literature. Polish history and literature complement each other perfectly, since Polish literature has at all times been nationally and historically conscious, and therefore representative of the Polish people. The selection of texts is unusual. Poetry and prose are presented alongside historical documents and many journalistic texts. Bruno Barbey's photos provide atmosphere, depicting everyday occurrences, unique qualities, and historical events. Barbey's photographs reveal the Polish people and their surroundings with unreserved sympathy."
That Polish literature was, and is, very nationalistic, is already well known. How historically accurate it may be, has been discussed by someone more competent than the writer discussed above. The second authority is the Pole, Prof. Markiewicz, head of the Polish School Book Commission, who, speaking on German television, described the kind of historical consciousness which is representative of the Polish people. His statements are as follows:
"We should not forget that the historical consciousness of a people was, and still is, influenced not so much by professional historians and their work, but rather -- and to a much greater degree -- by novelists and their works. I would like to remind you of our great writers Adam Mickiewicz, particularly his two novels 'Drazyna', and 'Konrad Wallenrod'; Henryk Sienkiwicz, whose novel 'The Knights' was filmed a few years ago; and Boleslaw Prus, with his work entitled "The Watch Posts".
When the publisher of the Merian Book says that we know too little about Polish history, we can only agree with him. But he offers only an "unusual selection of texts", and, in addition to historical and political documents, a number of more journalistic writings and topics photographed with "unreserved sympathy". This means that the reader can renounce all hope of learning the truth about Poland and its history. I should like to provide some assistance in ameliorating this lack of knowledge with regards to the works of the great Polish poets referred to by Prof. Markiewicz, who were responsible for "forming the historical consciousness of the Polish people", as Prof. Markiewicz expressly admits; but I fear that I will not concur with the "passionate author", Karl Dedecius, and his 60 books on Poland -- which he would like to expand to 100, according to page 37 of the "Darmstadter Echo" of 18 September 1982. The manner in which the writer's output is praised to the book purchaser is highly peculiar. This clever fellow possesses an inimitable method of production, described as follows:
"Every morning -- at least this is the impression he gives the reader -- he takes one, two, three, Polish poems and translates them, much as another man might munch upon one, two, three English muffins. For a mid-morning snack, he treats himself to a couple of letters, which he translates; at noon, he relaxes with a few aphorisms, which he translates; in the afternoon, he writes a little essay or two -- sometimes short, sometimes long -- on translation work. In the evening, he attends a colloqium on Polish literature, or holds a meeting or two with a few experts on Poland. One may admire the quantity of work tossed off per annum by the 61-year old translator, but the quality can only be wondered at. So far, he has written, translated, or published approximately 60 books, testifying to his passion for Poland."
I shall not attempt to compete with this mass producer as regards sheer quantity; but perhaps I can come closer where quality and truth about Poland are concerned. His connections -- such as the Robert-Bosch Foundation -- are not available to me, but I hope to offer my readers a closer acquaintance with the Polish literature mentioned by Prof. Markiewicz so as to provide them with a clearer image of the land and people of Poland.
There is also a study group called "Poland Writings in the German Language", led by a certain Udo Kuehn of Wiesbaden, of whom I wish to speak, since he has also attempted to "fill the German information gap on Poland". According to the advertising blurb, however, he is apparently attempting to do so in the interests of the Poles and their country, rather than in German interests. The wares offered therein will therefore rather resemble the merchandise purveyed by Prof. Markiewicz where the historical consciousness of the Polish people is concerned, i.e., a product based on anything but reality and truth. German interests cannot, however, be served by whitewashing Polish literature and rendering it innocuous through deceptive translations, but rather, solely and finally, through the truth. I therefore agree with all those who say that the information gap on Poland must be filled, but please, let it not be filled not by persons who know neither the land nor the people, who have no idea of the conditions there, or who have only permitted themselves to be filled with one-sided information from Poles, i.e, those who accept the Polish image of themselves. Rather, I am in favour of permitting an expert with the highest qualications to speak on the subject.
My compatriot from the German East, the ethnic and national researcher Dr. Kurt Lueck, of Posen, provides information on the Polish national character and way of thinking in his very extensive works "The Myth of the German in the Polish Tradition and Literature", and "German Construction Forces in the Development of Poland". It is regrettable that these works can only be consulted in the Eastern Studies Departments of universities. They really belong in every German home, so that the unrealistic delusion of a proud and noble Poland -- standing as high as the heavens above German barbarism -- might finally be dispelled here in Germany, and facts be taken into account. Kurt Lueck's research has done us a magnificent service through his sifting of Polish literature; I wish to rescue that work from obscurity.
It is only natural for screams of "incitement to racial hatred" to be raised whenever the coddled, pampered Polish child receives a scolding. In reply, let it be said that I cite exclusively texts originating in Polish literature or history, that is, admissions made by the Poles themselves, for which they alone are responsible. To us Germans, it is more important -- in fact, a vital necessity -- to learn the whole truth about the systematically engendered and pressure-packed Polish hatred of everything German, i.e, that we recognize the extent and origins of Polish chauvinism, as we ourselves experienced it in the 1920s and 30s, and are still experiencing it today.
Contemporary research has dealt with the question of the Eastern German settlement areas with typically German thoroughness, and in so doing it has reached findings which can no longer be thoughtlessly ignored. Even the Poles will be compelled to recognize these truths, if genuine reconcilation between both peoples is to become a reality.
The history of the settlement of an area is determinative for all time. Culture is not created by force or by lies, but only by intellectual work on the part of the elite of a people. Rights and ownership arise only by reason of the achievements of a people brought into fullness in a geographical area. There is no culture of weapons, no culture of lies. Only history provides an insight into the identity of the real founders of an ethnic culture.
I described the origins of the Polish nationality in my previous text, "Falsifications of Polish History", in which I limited myself to the briefest possible discussion. Here again, I must return to the beginnings of Polish historical writings in the briefest manner possible.
All Polish history books, indeed all Polish literature, including the so-called "Letter of Reconciliation" from the Polish bishops Stefan Wyszynski and Karol Woytyla to the German bishops in 1956, refer to Miseszko I as the "first Polish Duke", who took the Holy Sacrament of baptism in the year 966.
Of course, at the same time, this constitutes proof that no Polish empire existed in 966, since Miezszko was the "first"; furthermore, he was not a Pole, but rather, a Norman named "Dago-Mesico", from the Norwegian family line of the Daglingers, who migrated into lands settled by the Germans on the Weichsel and Warthe. His baptism proves nothing at all -- certainly not that he was a Pole, or that he ever became a Pole: it only proves that Dago accepted Christianity. There are no records -- as scholars confirm today -- which ever mention -- even once -- a people bearing the name "Poles" or "Slavs" "in the area" at that time. The only tribes which were native to the area were Germanic, and the founders of the Polish empire were also German. But Polish history has to begin somewhere; it was therefore logical to take this Christian baptism as the point of departure.
The falsifiers of history, who came along very much later, were simple men who lived mostly for the present, as is the case at all times. They lacked experience in falsification, and failed to realize that their falsifications would be recognized as such, even centuries later. They could hardly imagine that research into the truth would ever begin, even after a thousand years.
They falsified for the present and the immediate future; they encouraged belief for the present, and they knew how to compel this belief, just as they had known how to compel baptism at an earlier time. Baptism or death -- thus was the conversion to Christianity achieved. The new "Polish" language, which was only invented much later, could hardly be imposed by force in the same way, since nobody would have understood it. The transformation of an entire people into a previously non-existent ethnic group could hardly occur overnight; long periods of time were required for this purpose, as well as stubborn, deliberately conscious work. First to be effaced was human memory, relegated to oblivion. The re-writing of the cloister chronicles dating back to the year 966 -- the time of the first Christian baptism in the area -- was only completed at the expense of great time and effort. It was, after all, necessary to take the name of every well-known person, every village, every ordinary object, and give it a new name, while concealing one's objective.
Artificial languages are not as difficult to devise or as unusual as one might at first imagine. Synthtetic languages are created with specific objectives and propagated in books and groups even today, such as Esperanto, for example. *
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* "Translator's note: The 1911 Encyclopaedia (Poland) remarks: "The first press from which books in the Polish language appeared was that of Hieronymus Wietor, a Silesian, who commenced publishing in 1515... the first complete work in the Polish language appeared from the press of this printer at Cracow in 1521...".
Polish belongs to the West Slavonic group of languages, several of which acquired written form, with many German loan words, only in the 19th century.
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Today, we are in a position to see how our own experience of the very recent past is falsified on a daily basis. Since 1945, the German past -- not just the National Socialist period but even the Weimar Republic and the Empire of the Kaisers -- has been re-written according to the requirements of the victors and the ruling hierarchy. The newspapers are simply not allowed to say how it really was. And the further removed we become from personal experience, the more susceptible we become to a history bespattered with lies and filth; all efforts to clear our name are either ignored or subject to legal prosecution. Yet this is the case in an "enlightened age", a "democratic state", a "state of law". The same certainly cannot be said of the period during which the Polish falsifications were devised. The invention of the "new" Polish artificial language by the German bishop Wolf Gottlobonis -- later name-changed into Wincent Kadlubek -- began in 1218, at the cloister of Klein-Morimund, near Cracow. Just as, today, all sorts of attempts are made, with recourse to every conceivable variety of manipulation, to turn the German people into a race of mongrels, doomed to renounce their traditions and their ability to recall, to make them easier to rule and to exploit, in the same manner, an effort was begun to dissolve the connections between the peoples of the Eastern German settlement areas and their Germanic origins. The new language was also given a new past. For simplicity's sake, the date of the origins of the Polish state was deemed to coincide with the first Christian baptism.
For that particular period of history, this may have been enough: ordinary people had no idea what the falsifiers were getting up to in their ecclestiastical and municipal chronicles. If a "Polish people" really existed from a racial point of view, then it must have fallen down out of the sky, without any racial ancestors. A Polish miracle without parallel.
Ordinary people didn't accept the new artificial language for a long time. It took almost 300 years for a so-called Polish conversational language to arise from the glagolitic church Latin of the monks. The city of Cracow, which according to the statements of Polish historians remained German until the late 15th century, held out the longest. But as it was impossible to cause the German chronicles to disappear, they continue to provide mute evidence, even today.
That the German inhabitants of the city Cracow resisted for so long, is food for thought. It cannot have been due to their religious belief, since all men were of the same faith. But the seat of the bishop falsifier Kadlubek, who would today be called a "collaborateur", was located in the city of Cracow. We may presume that the reason why a knowledge of the altered form of the language and ethnic identity of the people was retained for so long, was precisely because people had acquired a first awareness of the basic objective. Their ideological teachings obviously aroused resistance, which lasted until the final eradication of tradition, as people fell gradually victim to compulsion.
The manner in which Germans are transformed into Poles is described very exactly on pages 240-276 ff. of "Ostgermanien" by Franz Wolff. I know from personal experience how German names became Polish, how German names were changed in the 1920s and 30s, how personal identity documents were issued bearing Polish names only. Thus, Else became Elzbieta; Eugen became Eugeniusz; Albert or Albrecht became Wojciech; Nickolaus became Mikolaj; Lorenz became Wawrzyniak; Mathias became Maciej. And if there wasn't any translation for a name -- Hildegard, for example -- then the person was simply called Elzbieta, i.e., Elizabeth. Protests were a waste of time. The Nuremberg sculptor Veit Stoss became "Wit Stwosz". The German, Nikolaus Kopernikus, from Thorn, became "Mikolaj Kopernik". The last two could hardly protest, since they had already been dead for centuries. Yet top-ranking officials of the Polish Catholic Church, Cardinals Wyszynski and Wojtyla, in their so-called "Letter of Reconciliation" in 1965, claimed that the Germans were permitted to retain their names, that nothing was taken from them. How credible, then, are the other statements made by the same men in their attempt to excuse themselves? Do the stones of Breslau really "speak Polish", as the Primate Cardinal Wyszynski claimed in Breslau Cathedral? If the Cardinal Primate personally lies in solemn ceremonies in the Cathedral, then what can one expect from his colleagues in the education of a people? Ordinary people are not responsible for the lies contained in Polish history -- the Polish clergy, the intellectuals, the writers, and the press are responsible. They are the educators of the people, as everywhere in the world. When these educators are dishonest and filled with hate, then the people will be, too. The seeds sown by chauvinistic educators produce cruel fruit. I should like to describe this "seed" to the German reader. In my view, this is absolutely necessary, because only a recognition of the causes can lead to a remediation of the effects. Light must be shed one of the most shameful chapters in Polish history.
In his incomparably exhaustive work, Dr. Kurt Lueck of Posen has researched and established the traditional conceptions of the Polish people from German traditions. In the introduction to his "Myth of the German in Polish Popular Traditions and Literature", he mentions the peculiarly Polish manner of viewing identical matters in a different light; for example, the "winning" of the originally German -- but later Western Slavonic -- areas between the Oder and the Elbe by Boleslaus the Brave is called a "State programme" by Polish historians, who, in the same breath, call it "lust for plunder" when the same areas are settled by the German Empire. These contradictory value judgments on all aspects of national and popular life, to their own advantage and according to the needs of the moment, were, and still are, the mainspring of Polish actions and the Polish character.
Lueck then continues: "The sociological roots of the Polish anti-German hatred and antipathy may be illustrated by a few additional examples. The religious division was decisive. The abyss which first separated Christian Germans from pagan Poles in the early Middle Ages was not overcome without great pressure upon converts. As a result of paganism's defensive anti-Christian attitudes, the new religion was called "the German Faith". But even the still unified world of the Western churches was not free from disputes. In 1248, for the first time, we hear bitter complaints from the Poles regarding foreign colonists who failed to keep the fasts as strictly as themselves; or, later, of serious conflicts within the nationally mixed clergy itself over benefices, rights, and the language of sermonizing and educational work. Stubbornly, but finally in vain, the German bourgeousie of the end of the 15th and 16th centuries in Cracow, Lemberg, Krossen, and Weislok, in Bietsch and other localities struggled to retain their mother tongue in religious services. But nothing brought religious temperaments to a boil with greater heat than the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. Once again, the Polish people called the faith of which they wished to know nothing, "the German Faith". As in the Middle Ages, awakening nationalism implied that the struggle against Lutheranism was now to became the chief source for a renewal of Polish Catholicism. Hatred of dissidents grew to a mass psychosis, exploding in the numerous persecutions of Protestants over the centuries which have cast their dark shadow over the history of the country. Protestantism is described in Polish writings, even today, as the 'eternal enemy of Poland'".
This is the key to all later developments in Poland. It can hardly be assumed that the new converts complained so bitterly of the failure of old believers to keep fasts -- believers who had been invited into the area from the German Empire by Polish counts and priests to develop the land -- as to be the cause of the ensuing conflicts. Rather, the serious conflicts among the nationally mixed clergy over benefices, rights, and the language of sermonizing and educational work sowed the initial seeds of the hatred which was to become so pervasive among the common people of later times. There are so many indications of this clerical hatred that it is impossible to mention them all. The following is therefore a mere selection from Kurt Lueck's compendium:
Page 34: "From the 17th century, there are so many such statements that we can only list a few of them:
'The Bishop Pawel Piasecki explains in one of his chronicles: 'The Poles, and all the Slavic peoples, have always felt a national abhorrence of everything that smelt of Germany. Anything that originated in Germany, regardless of value, everything except the works of mechanics, is considered pernicious, and is rejected with suspicion.' Or: 'The name of the Germans is hateful to the Poles, inherently arousing an inexorable Slavic tribal hatred in their hearts'. Piasecki viewed the Reformation as the mortal enemy, calling it the 'German poison', which the Poles were to reject at all costs."
Page 84: "The Dominican Fabian Birkowski writes: 'Your corrupt religion arose through false prophets, and was created by the Devil, who wanted to be equal to God... Your leader is the Angel of Hell, that is, the Devil'".
Page 269: "The Gneneser Archbishop, Jakob Swinka, around the turn of the 13th century, habitually called the Germans 'dog's heads'. Thus he said of a bishop at Brixen that he would have been an excellent preacher, had he not been a 'dog's head' and a German."
The term "dog's head" is also referred to in the "Koenigsaaler Chronicle". King Wenzel is said to have been displeased by the expression, his reply being noted in the chronicle: 'He who spake thus, showed that he possessed a worse tongue than a dog; since a dog's tongue promotes healing, while the tongue of the speaker, on the contrary, injects the poison of slander.'"
This "poison of slander", originally invented and expressed by an Archbishop, has been passed down for centuries. Not only has this poison passed into the language of the people, vilifying the Germans in every manner possible, but "aesthetic" and "spiritual" writings, even paintings, have used this disgusting manner of expression. The frequency of vilification, the constant recurrence of insults in all possible contexts and variations, reveals a deliberate intent and, finally, a popular conviction that there had to be a justification for such slander, or else literature and even the clergy would not have produced it. The term "dog" is considered by Poles to be the worst insult applicable to anyone. Polish collections of popular sayings include the following:
"Co Niemiec, to pies"
Whoever is a German, is a dog.
"Zdechly Niemiec, zdechly pies, mala to roznica jest"
A dead German is a dead dog, there's not much difference.
"A wy Niemcy nic nie wiecie, wasza mowa to psie wycie. W naszej wsi, jak psy zawyly, wsystkich Szwabow diabli wzieli."
And you Germans don't know anything, your language is pure dogs' barking. When the dogs howled in the villages, the devils took away all the Germans.
For the corresponding results in the plastic arts, one need only mention a painting by W. Brotanski: "Psie Pole pod Wroclawem", i.e.,"Dog's Field by Breslau", in relation to which Kurt Lueck remarks: "The battle after which the bodies of the German knights were eaten by dogs before the very eyes of the victorious Polish King Boleslaus 'Crooked Mouth', is well known never to have taken place; rather it is an invention. Brotanski's painting is distributed as an 'art postcard' by the 'Exposition of Polish painters in Cracow', entitled, in Polish: "Dogs Field in Breslau. Boleslaus 'Crooked Mouth' on the Battlefield after the Glorious Victory over Henry V, the German Emperor, in 1109". We wonder whether it ever dawns upon the Polish admirers of this work -- as it does to us -- if they were to reflect a bit, with how little dignity, how tastelessly, a Polish king is depicted here? What it is supposed to prove, if Boleslaus allowed the corpses of enemy knights to be eaten by dogs? It is certainly no proof of historical greatness. We Germans would never distribute such postcards; we would be too ashamed of them."
Let us consider a few more examples of Polish "literary" writings. Even their greatest and best-known novelists, such as Adam Mikiewicz and Henryk Sienkeiwicz, use these insulting terms. Yet it is precisely in reference to them that Professor Markiewicz says, in his discussion of the film "Scars":
"We should not forget that the historical consciousness of a people was, and still is, influenced not so much by professional historians and their work, but rather -- and to a much greater degree -- by novelists and their works. I would like to remind you of our great writers Adam Mickiewicz, particularly his two novels 'Drazyna', and 'Konrad Wallenrod'; Henryk Sienkiwicz, whose novel 'The Knights' was filmed a few years ago; and Boleslaw Prus, with his work entitled "The Watch Posts".
Now, let us look at Lueck for Adam Mickiewicz's statements on the Teutonic Knights "invited into Poland to protect the Poles against the Lithuanians; the Poles later combined with the Lithuanians against the Teutonic Knights -- Translator's note" in his novel "Grazyna", to see just what Professor Markiewicz is so proud of today. Mickiewicz uses expressions such as "psiarnia Krzyzakow"- "the dog scum of the Knightly order"; or, "such a damned fellow from the dog scum of the Crusaders". And this in the edition intended for Polish school children! The same writer, in his novel "Pan Tadeusz", speaks of "all state counsellors, court counsellors, commissars, and all dog scum". His novel "Tzech Budrysow" refers to "Krzyzacy psubraty" -- "the Knights, the scum of dogs".
Henryk Sienkiewicz uses the insult "scum of dogs" several times in his novel "Krzyzacy" (the Knights).
Lueck discusses several other writers who speak of Germans as "scum of dogs", "Saxon vile dogs", "bloody German dogs", "rabid German dogs", "barking German dogs", etc.
The very well known Polish writer W. Reymont, in his peasant novel "Chlopi", speaks of "dog heretics" and "dog rabble".
Jan Kochanowski, in "Proporzec" (1569) calls the Order of the Teutonic Knights "pies niepocigniony" -- "unexcelled dogs".
R.W. Berwinski, in "Powiesci Wielko-Polskie" (Tales of Greater Poland) 1844, speaks of "the Germans, the damned race of dogs."
Jozef Szujski, in his play "Krolowa Jadwiga" (Queen Hedwig) (1866), act II, scene 2, says: "A Teutonic dog sank down from his horse."
Adolf Dygasinski, in his novel "Demon" (1866), says: "psy szwabscie "German dogs", and, at another point, exclaims, "and who brought you to Poland, you dogs?"
K. Przerwa-Tetmajer, in his novel "Nefzowkie", speaks of a German manufacturer who is called "rudy pies" -- "red haired dog" -- by his Polish workermen.
Lucjan Rydel -- Polonized form of the German name Riedel -- in "Jency" (The Prisoners), speaks of "the German enemy dogs".
Maria Konopnicka, in "Pan Balcer w Brazyliji", speaks of "the German packs of dogs". Jadwiga Luszczweska, in "Panienka z Obienka" (3rd edition, 1927, p. 17), says "co pol Niemiec i pies luter" -- "half a German is also half a Lutheran dog".
J. Weyssenhoff's "Woz Drzymaly", in which a German official is called "brother to the dogs" was compulsory reading in German classical secondary schools (for example, in Posen). In Gustow Morcinek's novel "Wyrabany Chodnik" (1931, volume 1, p. 309, 310, 312), which won a prize in 1931 and was republished in 1936, a dog with the name "Bismarck" appears several times.
As we shall see, it is not just abstract theory when Polish writers speak and write of "bloody German dogs". The first month of the war proved that, in September 1939. According to Lueck, p. 271: "the Poles threw dead dogs into many of the graves of murdered ethnic Germans. Near Neustadt in West Prussia, the Poles cut open a captured German Luftwaffe officer's abdomen, rippped out his intestines, and packed a dead dog inside. This report has been reliably established."
Where is the dignity of a people which can sink so low? They may believe themselves to be expressing hatred for their neighbour, but in reality they are only revealing their own soul. Do they think it is a sign of culture when German-speaking human beings are referred to as "tam sczczekaja po neimiecku" -- "there, they're barking German"? Or when a dog is called by the name of a great German statesman, or is called "Prusak", "Krzyzak", "Szwab", or "Niemiec"? This lack of dignity is neither a unique phenomenon nor a momentary aberration. It is a systematic denigration of a neighbouring people, with the unrelenting object of education in hatred and contempt.
It is precisely this which reveals the Polish lack of that culture which they claim to possess in such great measure. Culture is not expressed by the spewing forth of hatred, insults, lies, and distortions in all aspects of life. On the contrary, such actions simply express a painful inferiority complex festering in the soul of the writer or painter. Painting has not been used just occasionally to make the Germans appear contemptible: it has been used systematically in this education in hatred. Lueck reproduces illustrations of a variety of paintings, for example, "Zamordowanie Przemyslawa w Rogoznie przez Margrabiow brandenburskich" (1296). ("The Murder of Premeyslaus in Rogasen by the Count of Brandenburg"). This is the title of a colour postcard reproduction of a painting by Jan Matejko, published by the "Exposition of Polish Painters in Cracow". The painting shows one the murderers with a dagger clutched between his teeth. His helmet bears the Black Eagle of Brandenburg. In reality, this is just another atrocity legend. Premyslaus -- as serious Polish historians have established -- was killed by Polish irregulars. Even the insinuation of the Polish text -- irresponsibly presented as fact -- that the Brandenburgers were the instigators, lacks convincing evidence. It is part of the psychosis of border dwellers to blame their neighbours for wind, rain, illness, and accidents. Art and science should be freed from this psychosis."
Another painting in the service of hatred is "Lowy na ludzi" ("Manhunt"), by Wojciech Kossak. The picture depicts flaming huts and fleeing peasants, while Teutonic Knights discharge firearms from horseback.
Regarding this painting, Lueck remarks:
"Polish painting never depicts Teutonic Knights except as burning villages, ravishing women, and butchering the male population. The comments of a POLISH HISTORIAN -- Tadeusz Ladenberger -- regarding this painting, should also be quoted:
'Study has convinced us that two factors have had a decisive influence on the distribution of population in Poland: the soil, and German colonization. In the north, the pioneers of this movement were the Teutonic Knights. The Order succeeded, over a 100 year-period, in establishing populous cities and villages in the region of Chelm -- instead of a thinly populated wilderness -- and in making the land productive. A century was all it took to give this region -- with by no means the best soil -- mostly clay -- the highest population density in Poland.'"
The Poles have repaid this achievement of the Teutonic Knights with libels and hatred, as in the painting by Wojciech Kossak, "Napad Kryzapkow" -- "The Attack of the Knights".
The scene shows a Polish village population being murdered. The settlement is being set on fire, while a young girl is ravished despite the pleadings of her mother.
This painting was sold in both black and white and colour reproduction as an "art post card" in every stationery shop in Poland, and was published by the "Exposition of Polish Painters in Cracow". The great masses of the Polish people had no idea that this was just a shameless piece of atrocity propaganda."
On Polish songs, Lueck writes:
"Even 'History in the Songs of the Polish People' is not characterized by love for truth. Sobieski's forward movement to Vienna (1683) has long been celebrated by Polish tradition. The songs tell how the city was conquered by the Turks, the houses of worship desecrated, the monks and nuns tortured and killed. Parts of the song consist of confused phrases taken from a song about Turkish battles in the vicinity of Podolisch-Kamentz. But the verses fit the legend of Polish assistance and German ingratitude, for example: 'The Poles beat the Turks at Vienna, but the German thieves did nothing, and didn't even say "'thank you"'. Even today, whenever someone generously sets off on a thankless errand, he is warned 'it's worth about as much as fighting for Vienna.'"
Here I must recall Brigette Pohl's description, published in the "Deutsche Wochen Zeitung" no. 9 of 2 March 1979, of the noble Polish chronicle of Jan Sobieski and his movement to Vienna. It is worth recalling, even if only in excerpts, since it shows why the Poles always blame the Germans in connection with the battles against the Turks at Vienna, saying "the thieves didn't even say 'thank you'". The Poles always reveal their own character defects in attempting to accuse the Germans.
The "brave Polish king" remained behind with his comrades, far removed from the blood of battle at all times, at a safe distance from the battlefield. He knew just where to hide -- in the Vienna woods, at Dreimarkstein, where no Turk was to be seen or could even be expected for miles around...
Far behind the front line, the noble Sobieski was right up front: on Bald Mountain, ministering to the Papal nuntio Marco D'Aviano and reading Mass. Then he once again withdrew, leaving it to the Germans to defeat the Turks. He must have been about as peace-loving as the Soviet Union today. Again and again, the Germans attempted to pursuade the Polish nobleman to move forward to intervene. But in vain. He had letters to write to his noble wife, who wanted to know how much loot he would bring back. He replied that he and his son Jakob would quite certain to run no risk of danger.
This was while the Germans fought and died in fierce combats around Heiligenstadt, in Nussdorf, and Grinzing. The generals were wounded, the brothers Moritz of Duke Croy fell at Nudsdorf, the Duke himself was severely wounded. Prince Eugene, later to become famous, won his first laurels here, in the service of Germany; none spared himself. Streams of blood flowed over the famous wine region of Grinzing. Only the Poles held back, "biding their time...
But when they considered the battle safely won, oh, then they broke cover, since of course they wanted to be the first to divide the spoils. But they failed to reckon with the Pascha of Ofen, Ibrahim, who broke forth upon the Poles at the edge of the city of Dornbach, so that the Poles, crying for help -- this is reported by the chronlicler Diani, who is very well disposed towards Sobieski -- ran away in large numbers. Count Ludwig of Baden then attacked with two of his Imperial dragoon regiments, and succeeded in rolling back the Turkish line of battle. Duke Charles of Lorraine gained the victory by undertaking a daring wheeling movement with doubling and flanking movements. The road to the surrounded city of Vienna now lay open. The chronicler reports: "Our cavalry was too heavy to keep on their "the Turks'" heels. That of the king "Sobieski" was, of course, lighter; he, however, abandoned the attempt at pursuit due to other considerations" (!) For the Poles, in particular, their greatest hour had come: while the Germans buried their dead, cared for their wounded, comforted distraught and desperate refugees from the burning outlying villages of Vienna, and sought in vain to pursue the Turks with their heavy cavalry, the good Sobieski made himself at home in the tent of the Great Vizier and "gave his Polish army and accompanying hordes the order to plunder."
Thus the legend of "the brave King Sobieski" and his equally brave army is disproven on the basis of historical fact.
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Translator's note: The 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica disputes this, but depicts Sobieski as a traitor in the pay of Louis XIV: "He died a broken-hearted man, prophecying the inevitable ruin of a nation which he himself had done so much to demoralize."
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Sobieski's behaviour is strikingly similar to that of the Polish Marshal in the last war, Rydz-Smigly, who naturally wished to be depicted in an equestrian victor's pose before the wings of the Brandenburg Gate in the summer of 1939, but who, when the war which he demanded actually came about, rapidly left his troops in the lurch and fled to a foreign country (Roumainia). Polish bravery was -- and is -- simply a legend, just like their honesty. Why would they need to call the Germans robbers and plunderers at all times if they didn't need to distract attention from their own misdeeds? Plundering the treasures of the Great Vizier Kara Mustafa at Vienna can hardly have been so unprofitable as not to be worth fighting for. But this must not be admitted; attention must therefore be diverted towards the ungrateful Germans.
There are a few Polish historians and writers who recognize the constructive achievements of the Germans, and have openly confirmed it. But the overwhelming majority dispute everything, twisting even the arduous task of clearing the land and making it arable into its very opposite: they call it "plundering the Polish peasant". At this point, I would like to include a few remarks by Polish scholars as quoted by Kurt Lueck in his extensive work "German Construction Work in the Development of Poland". The following comments were made by one of the most respected Polish scholars of his time, Alexander Brueckner (despite his German name, he considered himself ethnically Polish), Professor at the University of Berlin until WWII:
"German settlement, especially in the cities, was beneficial to both sides. The Germans provided the standard of living, the Poles provided order. The role of the cities was truly educational. The two peoples learned to respect each other; to live together; to respect the law; "German" urban legal proceedings (law and procedure) was progressive compared to "Polish" domestic procedures. The cities created trades and professions, which had hitherto existed only as a potential. The cities contributed to the wealth of the whole country, as well as to the general standard of living. They created the basis for schools and universities, which could only function in a well-managed city."
The history of German immigration in Poland is known to most people only in its general outlines. In my first publication, "Poland and Falsifications of History", I stated that the regions of Weichsel and Warthe at the time of the introduction of Christianity were not even inhabited by Poles, and that the newly founded cloisters were forced to recruit German peasants and artisans from the German Reich. In this connection, Professor Grabski of the University of Warsaw writes as follows (p. 54):
"The cloisters founded by the Germans in Poland began to draw emigrants from Germany, Flanders, and other areas, as early as the 12th century, in order to achieve more efficient land management. Polish peasants were very unreliable as settlers."
The Pole Dabrowski described the activity of German farmers in the following manner:
"The Germans lived in closed cities and open villages, in village farmhouses and manors, occupying themselves with artisanship, trade, farming, soldiering, and the word of God. Since they were hardworking, peaceful and economical, they were a socially creative element representing a model for the domestic population."
The Poles always brag that Casimir the Great took over a "wooden Poland", and left it a "Poland made of stone". Lueck gives the Polish historian Bruecker an opportunity to express himself in the following terms (p. 23):
"It was not Casimir the Great who changed 'wooden Poland' into a 'Poland of masonry and stone': it was the cities that accomplished this. There was a tremendous difference between the German Cracow of 1300 and the Bishop's Cracow of 1200 -- and this applies not just to Cracow, but to every other city."
The Pole Czeckanowski confirms German research on "Polish" racial and biological descendance from the Germans in the following two sentences (p. 103):
"In the rise of our city population, German immigrants played a very great role. Their descendants today form part of the highest strata of the Polish patriciandom."
Another Polish historian has also concerned himself with the significance of the German city founders and citizens; he is the very respected and serious cultural historian Ptasnik (p. 131).
"It is uncomfortable to write about the history of trade and professions in Poland, and even sadder to describe the magnificent men who rendered service in this connection. Certainly, there was Polish trade, in the sense that it took place on Polish soil, importing goods from abroad, selling them to the Polish population, and exporting domestic raw products to foreign countries. But who were the merchants and tradesmen, who carried on the trade? Germans mostly -- Poles only came along at the end."
What Ptasnik (p. 22) as well as Grodecki (p. 23) were compelled to admit with regards to earlier times also applies, with some reservations, to Poland during the 17th century. Ptasnik writes:
"Insofar as it applies to earlier times, that is, around the 13th and 14th centuries, those who immigrated into the newly founded cities were primarily German population groups; at least, the strata that gave the city its national character, namely, the tradesmen and artisans, were German. The name of the citizens who took part in city government, whose names are recorded in the archives even today, testify expressly to this fact."
Another Polish testimony to the value of German work of construction is given by Sokolowski (p. 136):
"Honour must be paid to these careful, assiduous, hardworking, and energetic descendants who, though they came from foreign lands, acquired a liking for their new homeland, were loyal to their King and city; who brought culture to the rough soil of our earth, uniting us with the world of the West and sealing our link to Latin culture. In the tops of the Cracow towers, in the bastions surrounding the city, in the construction of houses, in commercial and art objects, in everything that is dear to us, everything which forms the pride of our city, we may perceive traces of the influence of the Franks, which, together with the influence of the Italian Renaissance, created the Golden Age of our history."
On page 330 of his work "German Construction Work in the Development of Poland", Lueck quotes the Pole Tadeusz Smarzewski, in the agricultural newspaper "Kraj" in January 1901: "...Only those who are unaquainted with history due to the present circumstances of nationalities in the Prussian part of the territory could be depressed by this picture "of German construction work". Those who, by contrast, possess a more exact knowledge of history from childhood on, and who know what to expect in Greater Poland, will feel differently. Anyone who knows that these provinces had already long reflected a land with a mixed population, that the cities of West Prussia bore a German character even during the ancient Republic of the Nobles, and that the great Polish cities possessed an overwhelmingly German middle class, will be far less disappointed."
In like manner, an equally, extraordinarily positive view of the Germans and the value of their construction work, published in the "Gazeta Polska" in 1901, is quoted by Lueck on pages 451-2. It confirms that not all Poles have adopted the so-called "traditional hostility" as the sole basis of their dealings with Germany: many excellent historians have shown a dedication to the truth, and have also attempted to do justice to the truth. But they were the minority, and are ignored by their ill-willed brethren. Here is the translation of a note published in the Polish original text of Prus-Glowacki:
"We always had the best possible relations with the German people. From them, we acquired the Gothic style in building, wood cutting, numerous mechanical devices, vessels, and tools, a great deal of scientific knowledge, trades and textiles, trade, many customs, and many forms of organization... We have no fear of the truth: to this noble people we owe the greater part of our civilization."
These Poles have done their fatherland a greater service than those who, dripping with envy and hatred caused by their feelings of inferiority, describe the Germans as the progeny of Hell. The German Polish border was at peace for more than 300 years.
During this period, the Germans achieved incomparable feats of culture which benefitted the country. Of course, they didn't do so for the country's sake alone; they did it for their own well-being as well -- it could hardly be otherwise -- but the greatest beneficiary was the country itself. Allegations to the contrary notwithstanding, the Germans did not engage in compulsory "Germanization"; on the contrary, they were often forced to resist an extremely violent "Polonization". They were compelled to defend themselves against the forced assimilation of German Catholics as Poles. The excessively emotional, egotistical Poles only acknowledge measures taken in their favour; they are not objective. The Poles always consider their "Polonization" programmes to be justified, no matter how violent they may be; measures taken by others in self-defence, on the other hand, are considered an injustice committed against themselves.
At this point, I should like to reproduce part of a history by a German writer which is relevant to the Pole Czckanowski's remark that the descendants of German immigrants formed part of the highest strata of Polish patriciandom. The information is derived from an East Prussian family chronicle, which we owe to a fortunate accident. It was written after WWII in book form as the story of the history of a distinguished family, from which the author was descended. The book is entitled "Names None Dare to Mention", and the author is Marion Graf Doenhoff. At the beginning, we learn how the Countess Doenhoff came to occupy herself with the history of her family, which had not interested her when she was younger. Upon concluding her studies at Basel, the professor assigned her the dissertation topic of "The Rise of the Landed Estates of the Doenhoffs in East Prussia". She agreed to the topic, after some initial hesitation, and got down to work. In so doing, she had to consult many cubic metres of official documents and private papers, which she had to sort, label, catalogue, and classify. After 12 months of preparatory work, she was finally ready to begin her dissertation. This family chronicle is extraordinarily interesting: it is probably the most revealing chronicle in existence of over 700 years of German history in East Prussia.
By Else Loeser
Translated by Carlos W. Porter
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Dedicated to the memory of the ethnic researcher Dr. Kurt Lueck, Posen, in gratitude for his scientific research into the German ethnic national areas of Poland.
FOREWORD
When I was asked about a year and a half ago whether or not I would consider giving a talk on the subject of Poland -- in view of the considerable interest in Poland on the part of the German people and the extent of German assistance programmes to that country -- I began to research the "Polish problem" in greater detail than had hitherto been the case. It was not difficult for me to write recollections from my own experience, extending as far back as my earliest childhood and school days, while simultaneously discussing the findings of literature and history. At the request of the listeners, a printed text of my first talk was prepared, followed, some time later, by a further revised and expanded second edition, which has now been superceded by a third.
My first talk was followed by many others. Many questions were raised and innumerable letters received, expressing gratitude for my work of enlightenment, with the request that I publish other information, unknown in Germany, which might contribute to a more accurate appraisal of the Polish national character. I wish to comply with that request on the part of interested readers by writing a second part on falsifications of Polish history.
The enormous quantity of available materials made selection difficult; I had only intended to write a brochure enabling the German reader to see and understand the development of the Polish nation from its earliest Germanic racial origins to its chauvinistic hatred of everything German. In so doing, I made plentiful use of documentation prepared by scientific researchers and historians of an earlier era, as well as of materials dating from more recent research.
At this point, I should like to thank all those who have written to me enclosing clippings, etc. from the various news media, or who have alerted me to certain matters, thus helping me to clarify the topic of a falsified historical past in relation to falsifications of the present day.
It is not the case that the falsification process has come to an end. Quite the contrary: it is now, as in the past, being given continued life not only by foreigners, but by German writers and journalists, whether out of ignorance, carelessness, or deliberate malice, we may not say. It is the fashion -- indeed, the fad -- to write about Poland, since Poland is headline news in the world press; the subject must therefore be dealt with. The following pages are intended to reveal another aspect of Poland: the Poland of Polish literature, to which all Poles, and many Germans, make reference.
At the immediate moment, for example, the Hoffman and Campe Publishing Company is offering a large-format MERIAN book on glossy paper, advertised as follows:
"POLAND - a passion. Poland, the eternal. What kind of land is it, what kind of people? ... We know too little about the history of Poland, writes the author Karl Dedecius. Yet Polish history is made especially clear to us precisely by Polish literature. Polish history and literature complement each other perfectly, since Polish literature has at all times been nationally and historically conscious, and therefore representative of the Polish people. The selection of texts is unusual. Poetry and prose are presented alongside historical documents and many journalistic texts. Bruno Barbey's photos provide atmosphere, depicting everyday occurrences, unique qualities, and historical events. Barbey's photographs reveal the Polish people and their surroundings with unreserved sympathy."
That Polish literature was, and is, very nationalistic, is already well known. How historically accurate it may be, has been discussed by someone more competent than the writer discussed above. The second authority is the Pole, Prof. Markiewicz, head of the Polish School Book Commission, who, speaking on German television, described the kind of historical consciousness which is representative of the Polish people. His statements are as follows:
"We should not forget that the historical consciousness of a people was, and still is, influenced not so much by professional historians and their work, but rather -- and to a much greater degree -- by novelists and their works. I would like to remind you of our great writers Adam Mickiewicz, particularly his two novels 'Drazyna', and 'Konrad Wallenrod'; Henryk Sienkiwicz, whose novel 'The Knights' was filmed a few years ago; and Boleslaw Prus, with his work entitled "The Watch Posts".
When the publisher of the Merian Book says that we know too little about Polish history, we can only agree with him. But he offers only an "unusual selection of texts", and, in addition to historical and political documents, a number of more journalistic writings and topics photographed with "unreserved sympathy". This means that the reader can renounce all hope of learning the truth about Poland and its history. I should like to provide some assistance in ameliorating this lack of knowledge with regards to the works of the great Polish poets referred to by Prof. Markiewicz, who were responsible for "forming the historical consciousness of the Polish people", as Prof. Markiewicz expressly admits; but I fear that I will not concur with the "passionate author", Karl Dedecius, and his 60 books on Poland -- which he would like to expand to 100, according to page 37 of the "Darmstadter Echo" of 18 September 1982. The manner in which the writer's output is praised to the book purchaser is highly peculiar. This clever fellow possesses an inimitable method of production, described as follows:
"Every morning -- at least this is the impression he gives the reader -- he takes one, two, three, Polish poems and translates them, much as another man might munch upon one, two, three English muffins. For a mid-morning snack, he treats himself to a couple of letters, which he translates; at noon, he relaxes with a few aphorisms, which he translates; in the afternoon, he writes a little essay or two -- sometimes short, sometimes long -- on translation work. In the evening, he attends a colloqium on Polish literature, or holds a meeting or two with a few experts on Poland. One may admire the quantity of work tossed off per annum by the 61-year old translator, but the quality can only be wondered at. So far, he has written, translated, or published approximately 60 books, testifying to his passion for Poland."
I shall not attempt to compete with this mass producer as regards sheer quantity; but perhaps I can come closer where quality and truth about Poland are concerned. His connections -- such as the Robert-Bosch Foundation -- are not available to me, but I hope to offer my readers a closer acquaintance with the Polish literature mentioned by Prof. Markiewicz so as to provide them with a clearer image of the land and people of Poland.
There is also a study group called "Poland Writings in the German Language", led by a certain Udo Kuehn of Wiesbaden, of whom I wish to speak, since he has also attempted to "fill the German information gap on Poland". According to the advertising blurb, however, he is apparently attempting to do so in the interests of the Poles and their country, rather than in German interests. The wares offered therein will therefore rather resemble the merchandise purveyed by Prof. Markiewicz where the historical consciousness of the Polish people is concerned, i.e., a product based on anything but reality and truth. German interests cannot, however, be served by whitewashing Polish literature and rendering it innocuous through deceptive translations, but rather, solely and finally, through the truth. I therefore agree with all those who say that the information gap on Poland must be filled, but please, let it not be filled not by persons who know neither the land nor the people, who have no idea of the conditions there, or who have only permitted themselves to be filled with one-sided information from Poles, i.e, those who accept the Polish image of themselves. Rather, I am in favour of permitting an expert with the highest qualications to speak on the subject.
My compatriot from the German East, the ethnic and national researcher Dr. Kurt Lueck, of Posen, provides information on the Polish national character and way of thinking in his very extensive works "The Myth of the German in the Polish Tradition and Literature", and "German Construction Forces in the Development of Poland". It is regrettable that these works can only be consulted in the Eastern Studies Departments of universities. They really belong in every German home, so that the unrealistic delusion of a proud and noble Poland -- standing as high as the heavens above German barbarism -- might finally be dispelled here in Germany, and facts be taken into account. Kurt Lueck's research has done us a magnificent service through his sifting of Polish literature; I wish to rescue that work from obscurity.
It is only natural for screams of "incitement to racial hatred" to be raised whenever the coddled, pampered Polish child receives a scolding. In reply, let it be said that I cite exclusively texts originating in Polish literature or history, that is, admissions made by the Poles themselves, for which they alone are responsible. To us Germans, it is more important -- in fact, a vital necessity -- to learn the whole truth about the systematically engendered and pressure-packed Polish hatred of everything German, i.e, that we recognize the extent and origins of Polish chauvinism, as we ourselves experienced it in the 1920s and 30s, and are still experiencing it today.
Contemporary research has dealt with the question of the Eastern German settlement areas with typically German thoroughness, and in so doing it has reached findings which can no longer be thoughtlessly ignored. Even the Poles will be compelled to recognize these truths, if genuine reconcilation between both peoples is to become a reality.
The history of the settlement of an area is determinative for all time. Culture is not created by force or by lies, but only by intellectual work on the part of the elite of a people. Rights and ownership arise only by reason of the achievements of a people brought into fullness in a geographical area. There is no culture of weapons, no culture of lies. Only history provides an insight into the identity of the real founders of an ethnic culture.
I described the origins of the Polish nationality in my previous text, "Falsifications of Polish History", in which I limited myself to the briefest possible discussion. Here again, I must return to the beginnings of Polish historical writings in the briefest manner possible.
All Polish history books, indeed all Polish literature, including the so-called "Letter of Reconciliation" from the Polish bishops Stefan Wyszynski and Karol Woytyla to the German bishops in 1956, refer to Miseszko I as the "first Polish Duke", who took the Holy Sacrament of baptism in the year 966.
Of course, at the same time, this constitutes proof that no Polish empire existed in 966, since Miezszko was the "first"; furthermore, he was not a Pole, but rather, a Norman named "Dago-Mesico", from the Norwegian family line of the Daglingers, who migrated into lands settled by the Germans on the Weichsel and Warthe. His baptism proves nothing at all -- certainly not that he was a Pole, or that he ever became a Pole: it only proves that Dago accepted Christianity. There are no records -- as scholars confirm today -- which ever mention -- even once -- a people bearing the name "Poles" or "Slavs" "in the area" at that time. The only tribes which were native to the area were Germanic, and the founders of the Polish empire were also German. But Polish history has to begin somewhere; it was therefore logical to take this Christian baptism as the point of departure.
The falsifiers of history, who came along very much later, were simple men who lived mostly for the present, as is the case at all times. They lacked experience in falsification, and failed to realize that their falsifications would be recognized as such, even centuries later. They could hardly imagine that research into the truth would ever begin, even after a thousand years.
They falsified for the present and the immediate future; they encouraged belief for the present, and they knew how to compel this belief, just as they had known how to compel baptism at an earlier time. Baptism or death -- thus was the conversion to Christianity achieved. The new "Polish" language, which was only invented much later, could hardly be imposed by force in the same way, since nobody would have understood it. The transformation of an entire people into a previously non-existent ethnic group could hardly occur overnight; long periods of time were required for this purpose, as well as stubborn, deliberately conscious work. First to be effaced was human memory, relegated to oblivion. The re-writing of the cloister chronicles dating back to the year 966 -- the time of the first Christian baptism in the area -- was only completed at the expense of great time and effort. It was, after all, necessary to take the name of every well-known person, every village, every ordinary object, and give it a new name, while concealing one's objective.
Artificial languages are not as difficult to devise or as unusual as one might at first imagine. Synthtetic languages are created with specific objectives and propagated in books and groups even today, such as Esperanto, for example. *
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* "Translator's note: The 1911 Encyclopaedia (Poland) remarks: "The first press from which books in the Polish language appeared was that of Hieronymus Wietor, a Silesian, who commenced publishing in 1515... the first complete work in the Polish language appeared from the press of this printer at Cracow in 1521...".
Polish belongs to the West Slavonic group of languages, several of which acquired written form, with many German loan words, only in the 19th century.
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Today, we are in a position to see how our own experience of the very recent past is falsified on a daily basis. Since 1945, the German past -- not just the National Socialist period but even the Weimar Republic and the Empire of the Kaisers -- has been re-written according to the requirements of the victors and the ruling hierarchy. The newspapers are simply not allowed to say how it really was. And the further removed we become from personal experience, the more susceptible we become to a history bespattered with lies and filth; all efforts to clear our name are either ignored or subject to legal prosecution. Yet this is the case in an "enlightened age", a "democratic state", a "state of law". The same certainly cannot be said of the period during which the Polish falsifications were devised. The invention of the "new" Polish artificial language by the German bishop Wolf Gottlobonis -- later name-changed into Wincent Kadlubek -- began in 1218, at the cloister of Klein-Morimund, near Cracow. Just as, today, all sorts of attempts are made, with recourse to every conceivable variety of manipulation, to turn the German people into a race of mongrels, doomed to renounce their traditions and their ability to recall, to make them easier to rule and to exploit, in the same manner, an effort was begun to dissolve the connections between the peoples of the Eastern German settlement areas and their Germanic origins. The new language was also given a new past. For simplicity's sake, the date of the origins of the Polish state was deemed to coincide with the first Christian baptism.
For that particular period of history, this may have been enough: ordinary people had no idea what the falsifiers were getting up to in their ecclestiastical and municipal chronicles. If a "Polish people" really existed from a racial point of view, then it must have fallen down out of the sky, without any racial ancestors. A Polish miracle without parallel.
Ordinary people didn't accept the new artificial language for a long time. It took almost 300 years for a so-called Polish conversational language to arise from the glagolitic church Latin of the monks. The city of Cracow, which according to the statements of Polish historians remained German until the late 15th century, held out the longest. But as it was impossible to cause the German chronicles to disappear, they continue to provide mute evidence, even today.
That the German inhabitants of the city Cracow resisted for so long, is food for thought. It cannot have been due to their religious belief, since all men were of the same faith. But the seat of the bishop falsifier Kadlubek, who would today be called a "collaborateur", was located in the city of Cracow. We may presume that the reason why a knowledge of the altered form of the language and ethnic identity of the people was retained for so long, was precisely because people had acquired a first awareness of the basic objective. Their ideological teachings obviously aroused resistance, which lasted until the final eradication of tradition, as people fell gradually victim to compulsion.
The manner in which Germans are transformed into Poles is described very exactly on pages 240-276 ff. of "Ostgermanien" by Franz Wolff. I know from personal experience how German names became Polish, how German names were changed in the 1920s and 30s, how personal identity documents were issued bearing Polish names only. Thus, Else became Elzbieta; Eugen became Eugeniusz; Albert or Albrecht became Wojciech; Nickolaus became Mikolaj; Lorenz became Wawrzyniak; Mathias became Maciej. And if there wasn't any translation for a name -- Hildegard, for example -- then the person was simply called Elzbieta, i.e., Elizabeth. Protests were a waste of time. The Nuremberg sculptor Veit Stoss became "Wit Stwosz". The German, Nikolaus Kopernikus, from Thorn, became "Mikolaj Kopernik". The last two could hardly protest, since they had already been dead for centuries. Yet top-ranking officials of the Polish Catholic Church, Cardinals Wyszynski and Wojtyla, in their so-called "Letter of Reconciliation" in 1965, claimed that the Germans were permitted to retain their names, that nothing was taken from them. How credible, then, are the other statements made by the same men in their attempt to excuse themselves? Do the stones of Breslau really "speak Polish", as the Primate Cardinal Wyszynski claimed in Breslau Cathedral? If the Cardinal Primate personally lies in solemn ceremonies in the Cathedral, then what can one expect from his colleagues in the education of a people? Ordinary people are not responsible for the lies contained in Polish history -- the Polish clergy, the intellectuals, the writers, and the press are responsible. They are the educators of the people, as everywhere in the world. When these educators are dishonest and filled with hate, then the people will be, too. The seeds sown by chauvinistic educators produce cruel fruit. I should like to describe this "seed" to the German reader. In my view, this is absolutely necessary, because only a recognition of the causes can lead to a remediation of the effects. Light must be shed one of the most shameful chapters in Polish history.
In his incomparably exhaustive work, Dr. Kurt Lueck of Posen has researched and established the traditional conceptions of the Polish people from German traditions. In the introduction to his "Myth of the German in Polish Popular Traditions and Literature", he mentions the peculiarly Polish manner of viewing identical matters in a different light; for example, the "winning" of the originally German -- but later Western Slavonic -- areas between the Oder and the Elbe by Boleslaus the Brave is called a "State programme" by Polish historians, who, in the same breath, call it "lust for plunder" when the same areas are settled by the German Empire. These contradictory value judgments on all aspects of national and popular life, to their own advantage and according to the needs of the moment, were, and still are, the mainspring of Polish actions and the Polish character.
Lueck then continues: "The sociological roots of the Polish anti-German hatred and antipathy may be illustrated by a few additional examples. The religious division was decisive. The abyss which first separated Christian Germans from pagan Poles in the early Middle Ages was not overcome without great pressure upon converts. As a result of paganism's defensive anti-Christian attitudes, the new religion was called "the German Faith". But even the still unified world of the Western churches was not free from disputes. In 1248, for the first time, we hear bitter complaints from the Poles regarding foreign colonists who failed to keep the fasts as strictly as themselves; or, later, of serious conflicts within the nationally mixed clergy itself over benefices, rights, and the language of sermonizing and educational work. Stubbornly, but finally in vain, the German bourgeousie of the end of the 15th and 16th centuries in Cracow, Lemberg, Krossen, and Weislok, in Bietsch and other localities struggled to retain their mother tongue in religious services. But nothing brought religious temperaments to a boil with greater heat than the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. Once again, the Polish people called the faith of which they wished to know nothing, "the German Faith". As in the Middle Ages, awakening nationalism implied that the struggle against Lutheranism was now to became the chief source for a renewal of Polish Catholicism. Hatred of dissidents grew to a mass psychosis, exploding in the numerous persecutions of Protestants over the centuries which have cast their dark shadow over the history of the country. Protestantism is described in Polish writings, even today, as the 'eternal enemy of Poland'".
This is the key to all later developments in Poland. It can hardly be assumed that the new converts complained so bitterly of the failure of old believers to keep fasts -- believers who had been invited into the area from the German Empire by Polish counts and priests to develop the land -- as to be the cause of the ensuing conflicts. Rather, the serious conflicts among the nationally mixed clergy over benefices, rights, and the language of sermonizing and educational work sowed the initial seeds of the hatred which was to become so pervasive among the common people of later times. There are so many indications of this clerical hatred that it is impossible to mention them all. The following is therefore a mere selection from Kurt Lueck's compendium:
Page 34: "From the 17th century, there are so many such statements that we can only list a few of them:
'The Bishop Pawel Piasecki explains in one of his chronicles: 'The Poles, and all the Slavic peoples, have always felt a national abhorrence of everything that smelt of Germany. Anything that originated in Germany, regardless of value, everything except the works of mechanics, is considered pernicious, and is rejected with suspicion.' Or: 'The name of the Germans is hateful to the Poles, inherently arousing an inexorable Slavic tribal hatred in their hearts'. Piasecki viewed the Reformation as the mortal enemy, calling it the 'German poison', which the Poles were to reject at all costs."
Page 84: "The Dominican Fabian Birkowski writes: 'Your corrupt religion arose through false prophets, and was created by the Devil, who wanted to be equal to God... Your leader is the Angel of Hell, that is, the Devil'".
Page 269: "The Gneneser Archbishop, Jakob Swinka, around the turn of the 13th century, habitually called the Germans 'dog's heads'. Thus he said of a bishop at Brixen that he would have been an excellent preacher, had he not been a 'dog's head' and a German."
The term "dog's head" is also referred to in the "Koenigsaaler Chronicle". King Wenzel is said to have been displeased by the expression, his reply being noted in the chronicle: 'He who spake thus, showed that he possessed a worse tongue than a dog; since a dog's tongue promotes healing, while the tongue of the speaker, on the contrary, injects the poison of slander.'"
This "poison of slander", originally invented and expressed by an Archbishop, has been passed down for centuries. Not only has this poison passed into the language of the people, vilifying the Germans in every manner possible, but "aesthetic" and "spiritual" writings, even paintings, have used this disgusting manner of expression. The frequency of vilification, the constant recurrence of insults in all possible contexts and variations, reveals a deliberate intent and, finally, a popular conviction that there had to be a justification for such slander, or else literature and even the clergy would not have produced it. The term "dog" is considered by Poles to be the worst insult applicable to anyone. Polish collections of popular sayings include the following:
"Co Niemiec, to pies"
Whoever is a German, is a dog.
"Zdechly Niemiec, zdechly pies, mala to roznica jest"
A dead German is a dead dog, there's not much difference.
"A wy Niemcy nic nie wiecie, wasza mowa to psie wycie. W naszej wsi, jak psy zawyly, wsystkich Szwabow diabli wzieli."
And you Germans don't know anything, your language is pure dogs' barking. When the dogs howled in the villages, the devils took away all the Germans.
For the corresponding results in the plastic arts, one need only mention a painting by W. Brotanski: "Psie Pole pod Wroclawem", i.e.,"Dog's Field by Breslau", in relation to which Kurt Lueck remarks: "The battle after which the bodies of the German knights were eaten by dogs before the very eyes of the victorious Polish King Boleslaus 'Crooked Mouth', is well known never to have taken place; rather it is an invention. Brotanski's painting is distributed as an 'art postcard' by the 'Exposition of Polish painters in Cracow', entitled, in Polish: "Dogs Field in Breslau. Boleslaus 'Crooked Mouth' on the Battlefield after the Glorious Victory over Henry V, the German Emperor, in 1109". We wonder whether it ever dawns upon the Polish admirers of this work -- as it does to us -- if they were to reflect a bit, with how little dignity, how tastelessly, a Polish king is depicted here? What it is supposed to prove, if Boleslaus allowed the corpses of enemy knights to be eaten by dogs? It is certainly no proof of historical greatness. We Germans would never distribute such postcards; we would be too ashamed of them."
Let us consider a few more examples of Polish "literary" writings. Even their greatest and best-known novelists, such as Adam Mikiewicz and Henryk Sienkeiwicz, use these insulting terms. Yet it is precisely in reference to them that Professor Markiewicz says, in his discussion of the film "Scars":
"We should not forget that the historical consciousness of a people was, and still is, influenced not so much by professional historians and their work, but rather -- and to a much greater degree -- by novelists and their works. I would like to remind you of our great writers Adam Mickiewicz, particularly his two novels 'Drazyna', and 'Konrad Wallenrod'; Henryk Sienkiwicz, whose novel 'The Knights' was filmed a few years ago; and Boleslaw Prus, with his work entitled "The Watch Posts".
Now, let us look at Lueck for Adam Mickiewicz's statements on the Teutonic Knights "invited into Poland to protect the Poles against the Lithuanians; the Poles later combined with the Lithuanians against the Teutonic Knights -- Translator's note" in his novel "Grazyna", to see just what Professor Markiewicz is so proud of today. Mickiewicz uses expressions such as "psiarnia Krzyzakow"- "the dog scum of the Knightly order"; or, "such a damned fellow from the dog scum of the Crusaders". And this in the edition intended for Polish school children! The same writer, in his novel "Pan Tadeusz", speaks of "all state counsellors, court counsellors, commissars, and all dog scum". His novel "Tzech Budrysow" refers to "Krzyzacy psubraty" -- "the Knights, the scum of dogs".
Henryk Sienkiewicz uses the insult "scum of dogs" several times in his novel "Krzyzacy" (the Knights).
Lueck discusses several other writers who speak of Germans as "scum of dogs", "Saxon vile dogs", "bloody German dogs", "rabid German dogs", "barking German dogs", etc.
The very well known Polish writer W. Reymont, in his peasant novel "Chlopi", speaks of "dog heretics" and "dog rabble".
Jan Kochanowski, in "Proporzec" (1569) calls the Order of the Teutonic Knights "pies niepocigniony" -- "unexcelled dogs".
R.W. Berwinski, in "Powiesci Wielko-Polskie" (Tales of Greater Poland) 1844, speaks of "the Germans, the damned race of dogs."
Jozef Szujski, in his play "Krolowa Jadwiga" (Queen Hedwig) (1866), act II, scene 2, says: "A Teutonic dog sank down from his horse."
Adolf Dygasinski, in his novel "Demon" (1866), says: "psy szwabscie "German dogs", and, at another point, exclaims, "and who brought you to Poland, you dogs?"
K. Przerwa-Tetmajer, in his novel "Nefzowkie", speaks of a German manufacturer who is called "rudy pies" -- "red haired dog" -- by his Polish workermen.
Lucjan Rydel -- Polonized form of the German name Riedel -- in "Jency" (The Prisoners), speaks of "the German enemy dogs".
Maria Konopnicka, in "Pan Balcer w Brazyliji", speaks of "the German packs of dogs". Jadwiga Luszczweska, in "Panienka z Obienka" (3rd edition, 1927, p. 17), says "co pol Niemiec i pies luter" -- "half a German is also half a Lutheran dog".
J. Weyssenhoff's "Woz Drzymaly", in which a German official is called "brother to the dogs" was compulsory reading in German classical secondary schools (for example, in Posen). In Gustow Morcinek's novel "Wyrabany Chodnik" (1931, volume 1, p. 309, 310, 312), which won a prize in 1931 and was republished in 1936, a dog with the name "Bismarck" appears several times.
As we shall see, it is not just abstract theory when Polish writers speak and write of "bloody German dogs". The first month of the war proved that, in September 1939. According to Lueck, p. 271: "the Poles threw dead dogs into many of the graves of murdered ethnic Germans. Near Neustadt in West Prussia, the Poles cut open a captured German Luftwaffe officer's abdomen, rippped out his intestines, and packed a dead dog inside. This report has been reliably established."
Where is the dignity of a people which can sink so low? They may believe themselves to be expressing hatred for their neighbour, but in reality they are only revealing their own soul. Do they think it is a sign of culture when German-speaking human beings are referred to as "tam sczczekaja po neimiecku" -- "there, they're barking German"? Or when a dog is called by the name of a great German statesman, or is called "Prusak", "Krzyzak", "Szwab", or "Niemiec"? This lack of dignity is neither a unique phenomenon nor a momentary aberration. It is a systematic denigration of a neighbouring people, with the unrelenting object of education in hatred and contempt.
It is precisely this which reveals the Polish lack of that culture which they claim to possess in such great measure. Culture is not expressed by the spewing forth of hatred, insults, lies, and distortions in all aspects of life. On the contrary, such actions simply express a painful inferiority complex festering in the soul of the writer or painter. Painting has not been used just occasionally to make the Germans appear contemptible: it has been used systematically in this education in hatred. Lueck reproduces illustrations of a variety of paintings, for example, "Zamordowanie Przemyslawa w Rogoznie przez Margrabiow brandenburskich" (1296). ("The Murder of Premeyslaus in Rogasen by the Count of Brandenburg"). This is the title of a colour postcard reproduction of a painting by Jan Matejko, published by the "Exposition of Polish Painters in Cracow". The painting shows one the murderers with a dagger clutched between his teeth. His helmet bears the Black Eagle of Brandenburg. In reality, this is just another atrocity legend. Premyslaus -- as serious Polish historians have established -- was killed by Polish irregulars. Even the insinuation of the Polish text -- irresponsibly presented as fact -- that the Brandenburgers were the instigators, lacks convincing evidence. It is part of the psychosis of border dwellers to blame their neighbours for wind, rain, illness, and accidents. Art and science should be freed from this psychosis."
Another painting in the service of hatred is "Lowy na ludzi" ("Manhunt"), by Wojciech Kossak. The picture depicts flaming huts and fleeing peasants, while Teutonic Knights discharge firearms from horseback.
Regarding this painting, Lueck remarks:
"Polish painting never depicts Teutonic Knights except as burning villages, ravishing women, and butchering the male population. The comments of a POLISH HISTORIAN -- Tadeusz Ladenberger -- regarding this painting, should also be quoted:
'Study has convinced us that two factors have had a decisive influence on the distribution of population in Poland: the soil, and German colonization. In the north, the pioneers of this movement were the Teutonic Knights. The Order succeeded, over a 100 year-period, in establishing populous cities and villages in the region of Chelm -- instead of a thinly populated wilderness -- and in making the land productive. A century was all it took to give this region -- with by no means the best soil -- mostly clay -- the highest population density in Poland.'"
The Poles have repaid this achievement of the Teutonic Knights with libels and hatred, as in the painting by Wojciech Kossak, "Napad Kryzapkow" -- "The Attack of the Knights".
The scene shows a Polish village population being murdered. The settlement is being set on fire, while a young girl is ravished despite the pleadings of her mother.
This painting was sold in both black and white and colour reproduction as an "art post card" in every stationery shop in Poland, and was published by the "Exposition of Polish Painters in Cracow". The great masses of the Polish people had no idea that this was just a shameless piece of atrocity propaganda."
On Polish songs, Lueck writes:
"Even 'History in the Songs of the Polish People' is not characterized by love for truth. Sobieski's forward movement to Vienna (1683) has long been celebrated by Polish tradition. The songs tell how the city was conquered by the Turks, the houses of worship desecrated, the monks and nuns tortured and killed. Parts of the song consist of confused phrases taken from a song about Turkish battles in the vicinity of Podolisch-Kamentz. But the verses fit the legend of Polish assistance and German ingratitude, for example: 'The Poles beat the Turks at Vienna, but the German thieves did nothing, and didn't even say "'thank you"'. Even today, whenever someone generously sets off on a thankless errand, he is warned 'it's worth about as much as fighting for Vienna.'"
Here I must recall Brigette Pohl's description, published in the "Deutsche Wochen Zeitung" no. 9 of 2 March 1979, of the noble Polish chronicle of Jan Sobieski and his movement to Vienna. It is worth recalling, even if only in excerpts, since it shows why the Poles always blame the Germans in connection with the battles against the Turks at Vienna, saying "the thieves didn't even say 'thank you'". The Poles always reveal their own character defects in attempting to accuse the Germans.
The "brave Polish king" remained behind with his comrades, far removed from the blood of battle at all times, at a safe distance from the battlefield. He knew just where to hide -- in the Vienna woods, at Dreimarkstein, where no Turk was to be seen or could even be expected for miles around...
Far behind the front line, the noble Sobieski was right up front: on Bald Mountain, ministering to the Papal nuntio Marco D'Aviano and reading Mass. Then he once again withdrew, leaving it to the Germans to defeat the Turks. He must have been about as peace-loving as the Soviet Union today. Again and again, the Germans attempted to pursuade the Polish nobleman to move forward to intervene. But in vain. He had letters to write to his noble wife, who wanted to know how much loot he would bring back. He replied that he and his son Jakob would quite certain to run no risk of danger.
This was while the Germans fought and died in fierce combats around Heiligenstadt, in Nussdorf, and Grinzing. The generals were wounded, the brothers Moritz of Duke Croy fell at Nudsdorf, the Duke himself was severely wounded. Prince Eugene, later to become famous, won his first laurels here, in the service of Germany; none spared himself. Streams of blood flowed over the famous wine region of Grinzing. Only the Poles held back, "biding their time...
But when they considered the battle safely won, oh, then they broke cover, since of course they wanted to be the first to divide the spoils. But they failed to reckon with the Pascha of Ofen, Ibrahim, who broke forth upon the Poles at the edge of the city of Dornbach, so that the Poles, crying for help -- this is reported by the chronlicler Diani, who is very well disposed towards Sobieski -- ran away in large numbers. Count Ludwig of Baden then attacked with two of his Imperial dragoon regiments, and succeeded in rolling back the Turkish line of battle. Duke Charles of Lorraine gained the victory by undertaking a daring wheeling movement with doubling and flanking movements. The road to the surrounded city of Vienna now lay open. The chronicler reports: "Our cavalry was too heavy to keep on their "the Turks'" heels. That of the king "Sobieski" was, of course, lighter; he, however, abandoned the attempt at pursuit due to other considerations" (!) For the Poles, in particular, their greatest hour had come: while the Germans buried their dead, cared for their wounded, comforted distraught and desperate refugees from the burning outlying villages of Vienna, and sought in vain to pursue the Turks with their heavy cavalry, the good Sobieski made himself at home in the tent of the Great Vizier and "gave his Polish army and accompanying hordes the order to plunder."
Thus the legend of "the brave King Sobieski" and his equally brave army is disproven on the basis of historical fact.
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Translator's note: The 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica disputes this, but depicts Sobieski as a traitor in the pay of Louis XIV: "He died a broken-hearted man, prophecying the inevitable ruin of a nation which he himself had done so much to demoralize."
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Sobieski's behaviour is strikingly similar to that of the Polish Marshal in the last war, Rydz-Smigly, who naturally wished to be depicted in an equestrian victor's pose before the wings of the Brandenburg Gate in the summer of 1939, but who, when the war which he demanded actually came about, rapidly left his troops in the lurch and fled to a foreign country (Roumainia). Polish bravery was -- and is -- simply a legend, just like their honesty. Why would they need to call the Germans robbers and plunderers at all times if they didn't need to distract attention from their own misdeeds? Plundering the treasures of the Great Vizier Kara Mustafa at Vienna can hardly have been so unprofitable as not to be worth fighting for. But this must not be admitted; attention must therefore be diverted towards the ungrateful Germans.
There are a few Polish historians and writers who recognize the constructive achievements of the Germans, and have openly confirmed it. But the overwhelming majority dispute everything, twisting even the arduous task of clearing the land and making it arable into its very opposite: they call it "plundering the Polish peasant". At this point, I would like to include a few remarks by Polish scholars as quoted by Kurt Lueck in his extensive work "German Construction Work in the Development of Poland". The following comments were made by one of the most respected Polish scholars of his time, Alexander Brueckner (despite his German name, he considered himself ethnically Polish), Professor at the University of Berlin until WWII:
"German settlement, especially in the cities, was beneficial to both sides. The Germans provided the standard of living, the Poles provided order. The role of the cities was truly educational. The two peoples learned to respect each other; to live together; to respect the law; "German" urban legal proceedings (law and procedure) was progressive compared to "Polish" domestic procedures. The cities created trades and professions, which had hitherto existed only as a potential. The cities contributed to the wealth of the whole country, as well as to the general standard of living. They created the basis for schools and universities, which could only function in a well-managed city."
The history of German immigration in Poland is known to most people only in its general outlines. In my first publication, "Poland and Falsifications of History", I stated that the regions of Weichsel and Warthe at the time of the introduction of Christianity were not even inhabited by Poles, and that the newly founded cloisters were forced to recruit German peasants and artisans from the German Reich. In this connection, Professor Grabski of the University of Warsaw writes as follows (p. 54):
"The cloisters founded by the Germans in Poland began to draw emigrants from Germany, Flanders, and other areas, as early as the 12th century, in order to achieve more efficient land management. Polish peasants were very unreliable as settlers."
The Pole Dabrowski described the activity of German farmers in the following manner:
"The Germans lived in closed cities and open villages, in village farmhouses and manors, occupying themselves with artisanship, trade, farming, soldiering, and the word of God. Since they were hardworking, peaceful and economical, they were a socially creative element representing a model for the domestic population."
The Poles always brag that Casimir the Great took over a "wooden Poland", and left it a "Poland made of stone". Lueck gives the Polish historian Bruecker an opportunity to express himself in the following terms (p. 23):
"It was not Casimir the Great who changed 'wooden Poland' into a 'Poland of masonry and stone': it was the cities that accomplished this. There was a tremendous difference between the German Cracow of 1300 and the Bishop's Cracow of 1200 -- and this applies not just to Cracow, but to every other city."
The Pole Czeckanowski confirms German research on "Polish" racial and biological descendance from the Germans in the following two sentences (p. 103):
"In the rise of our city population, German immigrants played a very great role. Their descendants today form part of the highest strata of the Polish patriciandom."
Another Polish historian has also concerned himself with the significance of the German city founders and citizens; he is the very respected and serious cultural historian Ptasnik (p. 131).
"It is uncomfortable to write about the history of trade and professions in Poland, and even sadder to describe the magnificent men who rendered service in this connection. Certainly, there was Polish trade, in the sense that it took place on Polish soil, importing goods from abroad, selling them to the Polish population, and exporting domestic raw products to foreign countries. But who were the merchants and tradesmen, who carried on the trade? Germans mostly -- Poles only came along at the end."
What Ptasnik (p. 22) as well as Grodecki (p. 23) were compelled to admit with regards to earlier times also applies, with some reservations, to Poland during the 17th century. Ptasnik writes:
"Insofar as it applies to earlier times, that is, around the 13th and 14th centuries, those who immigrated into the newly founded cities were primarily German population groups; at least, the strata that gave the city its national character, namely, the tradesmen and artisans, were German. The name of the citizens who took part in city government, whose names are recorded in the archives even today, testify expressly to this fact."
Another Polish testimony to the value of German work of construction is given by Sokolowski (p. 136):
"Honour must be paid to these careful, assiduous, hardworking, and energetic descendants who, though they came from foreign lands, acquired a liking for their new homeland, were loyal to their King and city; who brought culture to the rough soil of our earth, uniting us with the world of the West and sealing our link to Latin culture. In the tops of the Cracow towers, in the bastions surrounding the city, in the construction of houses, in commercial and art objects, in everything that is dear to us, everything which forms the pride of our city, we may perceive traces of the influence of the Franks, which, together with the influence of the Italian Renaissance, created the Golden Age of our history."
On page 330 of his work "German Construction Work in the Development of Poland", Lueck quotes the Pole Tadeusz Smarzewski, in the agricultural newspaper "Kraj" in January 1901: "...Only those who are unaquainted with history due to the present circumstances of nationalities in the Prussian part of the territory could be depressed by this picture "of German construction work". Those who, by contrast, possess a more exact knowledge of history from childhood on, and who know what to expect in Greater Poland, will feel differently. Anyone who knows that these provinces had already long reflected a land with a mixed population, that the cities of West Prussia bore a German character even during the ancient Republic of the Nobles, and that the great Polish cities possessed an overwhelmingly German middle class, will be far less disappointed."
In like manner, an equally, extraordinarily positive view of the Germans and the value of their construction work, published in the "Gazeta Polska" in 1901, is quoted by Lueck on pages 451-2. It confirms that not all Poles have adopted the so-called "traditional hostility" as the sole basis of their dealings with Germany: many excellent historians have shown a dedication to the truth, and have also attempted to do justice to the truth. But they were the minority, and are ignored by their ill-willed brethren. Here is the translation of a note published in the Polish original text of Prus-Glowacki:
"We always had the best possible relations with the German people. From them, we acquired the Gothic style in building, wood cutting, numerous mechanical devices, vessels, and tools, a great deal of scientific knowledge, trades and textiles, trade, many customs, and many forms of organization... We have no fear of the truth: to this noble people we owe the greater part of our civilization."
These Poles have done their fatherland a greater service than those who, dripping with envy and hatred caused by their feelings of inferiority, describe the Germans as the progeny of Hell. The German Polish border was at peace for more than 300 years.
During this period, the Germans achieved incomparable feats of culture which benefitted the country. Of course, they didn't do so for the country's sake alone; they did it for their own well-being as well -- it could hardly be otherwise -- but the greatest beneficiary was the country itself. Allegations to the contrary notwithstanding, the Germans did not engage in compulsory "Germanization"; on the contrary, they were often forced to resist an extremely violent "Polonization". They were compelled to defend themselves against the forced assimilation of German Catholics as Poles. The excessively emotional, egotistical Poles only acknowledge measures taken in their favour; they are not objective. The Poles always consider their "Polonization" programmes to be justified, no matter how violent they may be; measures taken by others in self-defence, on the other hand, are considered an injustice committed against themselves.
At this point, I should like to reproduce part of a history by a German writer which is relevant to the Pole Czckanowski's remark that the descendants of German immigrants formed part of the highest strata of Polish patriciandom. The information is derived from an East Prussian family chronicle, which we owe to a fortunate accident. It was written after WWII in book form as the story of the history of a distinguished family, from which the author was descended. The book is entitled "Names None Dare to Mention", and the author is Marion Graf Doenhoff. At the beginning, we learn how the Countess Doenhoff came to occupy herself with the history of her family, which had not interested her when she was younger. Upon concluding her studies at Basel, the professor assigned her the dissertation topic of "The Rise of the Landed Estates of the Doenhoffs in East Prussia". She agreed to the topic, after some initial hesitation, and got down to work. In so doing, she had to consult many cubic metres of official documents and private papers, which she had to sort, label, catalogue, and classify. After 12 months of preparatory work, she was finally ready to begin her dissertation. This family chronicle is extraordinarily interesting: it is probably the most revealing chronicle in existence of over 700 years of German history in East Prussia.