[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Why Germans in Poland

[Jerry Frank]

Virginia,

Some of the previous discussion has been about Poland in general and reflects the Prussian regions to the north and Silesia to the southwest.  Your posting relates more to the region of Russian Poland.

When Poland was taken over by the three major powers in the late 1700s, Prussia expanded the Posen region eastward to include the Lodz and Warsaw areas.  This region was known as South Prussia.  Many Germans moved into this region upon occupation by Prussia.  In particular, many of these Germans came to support the cloth making industry in the region of Lodz, including Nowo Solna.  My Hemminger family were cloth makers in Wuerttemberg for several hundred years before migrating to the Lodz area c.1803.  We will be having a special presentation at this year's convention about the impact of the cloth making industry on German migration.

In 1806, Napoleon marched through and "liberated" central Poland including most of South Prussia and created the Duchy of Warsaw.  After the defeat of Napoleon and the subsequent Congress of Vienna in 1815, the eastern part of South Prussia was turned over to Russia.  The Germans who lived there stayed rather than returning to their native land.

Previous occupation by Napoleon on the eastern frontier of France could also have influenced the migration but I know less about that.

You are correct in stating that many Germans went to work as farmers for Polish nobility land owners at this time as well.  The regions of Lodz (which was only a small village at the time) and Zyrardow in particular supported the cloth making industry.


Jerry




----- Original Message -----
From: GVLESS at aol.com
Date: Thursday, April 19, 2007 10:40 am
Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Why Germans in Poland

> Gunther and others on this list - did not some of the Germans come 
> into  
> Poland because of some of the large estate owners at the time 
> needing workers  for 
> the farms?  And the Germans leaving their homes in western areas  
> because of 
> the devastation of the area by Napoleon?  In our research of my  
> husband's 
> Bergstrasser  families they arrived in Poland at the turn of the  
> 19th century 
> (about 1801 etc) settling in NowoSolna (Neu Sulzfeld) east of  
> Lodz  and it 
> seems to us that in the history of the time  that  could have been 
> their reason 
> for leaving the Rhine river area  around Worms was because of 
> Napoleon's thrust 
> he had made into this area.   Did we make the correct assumption 
> here?  The 
> Bergstrasser family were  not from an urban area or craftsmen as 
> such.  What 
> about these estates that  were not in cities in Poland thus 
> needing workers to 
> work the land?
> What percentage might that have been?  Just wondering.  Would  
> like to see 
> more discussion on this subject I guess.
> 
> Sincerely,
> Virginia Less
> 
> 
> 
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