[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] More on Germans in Poland

[PnSWork at aol.com]

Yes, there is quite a bit of material out there in German on this  subject.  
I have several books that cover the topic and several  self-published extracts 
as well (published by other people, not me).   Several date back to the 1940s 
and the motivations of the authors may be a  little suspect.  However, there 
is agreement in general on the  basics.
 
Yes, there was a small movement of Germanic people into the area we know as  
Poland today from early on.  However, this movement was centered around the  
Vistula River or close to the borders with the German principalities and rarely 
 strayed far from it.  There was also some immigration in the middle 1800's  
as some new village were founded, but the majority of the immigrants came in 
two  waves.  These waves coincided with the First and Third Partitions of 
Poland  and were strongly encouraged by the Prussian government.  In fact, it is  
highly likely that the Prussian government's sponsorship of these migrations is 
 what caused them to grow so large.
 
The first migration began shortly after the First Partition of  Poland.  In 
this action, Prussia, Russia, and Austria carved out large  sections of Poland. 
 They didn't get all of it in this first partition, and  the Russians (under 
Catherine the Great) had already been recruiting  Germans for several years to 
settle the areas near the Volga River.   However, that is a different story, 
so we'll leave that for another time.
 
The Prussian government set up an ambitious emigration program and  sent 
recruiters out to all areas of Germany, seeking settlers to come and  populate the 
land they had just acquired.  In addition, many ethnic  Polish people were 
displaced when they protested the annexation by  Prussia.  The Prussian 
recruiters were very persuasive, and the Prussian  government assisted prospective 
travelers with relocation expenses, a per diem  for food and expenses, free land 
and building materials once they arrived, and  free livestock.
 
At the same time, many people in Wuerttemberg were feeling oppressed by  high 
taxes and poor economic conditions, so they were open to the idea of  
emigrating to a new area.  During the short time period of 1775 to 1782, it  is 
estimated that over 100,000 people emigrated to the Posen and West Prussia  areas.  
New villages were founded all over the place and the Prussians kept  very 
good records of all of them.  The archives in Berlin still hold the  original 
documents showing who arrived from where, how much travel and  relocation money 
they were paid, and where they were settled.  Several of  my ancestors took 
part in this first migration.  In some cases, the amount  of travel money paid to 
settlers was in excess of their annual income.   That's how attractive it was.
 
The second major migration took place after the Third Partition of  Poland.  
The Second Partition covered a relatively small area compared to  the first 
and third, and no official recruitment program was in place for that  one.  
After the Third Partition, Prussia again embarked on an ambitious  recruiting 
campaign.  Again, they offered generous stipends for settlers,  free land, 
building materials, and livestock.  Again settlers came  primarily from Wuerttemberg, 
but a sizable number also came from  Mecklenburg.  More settlers streamed 
into the newly acquired areas which  were later to be known as Central Poland.  
Again, the Prussians kept  excellent documents for all the settlers, and I have 
copies of some of these  papers showing how much land my ancestors were 
given, how much they were paid  for the journey, how large the families were, and 
so forth.  Virtually  every village in Wuerttemberg lost people to this 
settlement, and one in  particular lost 10% of its population in one year.  The 
church records for  these villages are filled with references like "moved to 
Poland."
 
Again, the number of ethnic Germans who immigrated was quite large.   This 
migration began in earnest in 1798 and reached its peak in 1802-1803.   
Napoleon's victories over Prussia in 1806 brought it to a screeching halt.   Even 
though the Polish government installed by Napoleon tried to encourage  further 
settlement, their incentives fell far short of the assistance the  Prussians had 
offered, and the numbers dropped dramatically.  A few  additional villages 
were founded during the middle 1800s, but nothing like the  hundreds of villages 
founded between 1798 and 1803.
 
In my opinion, it was the aggressive recruiting and generous incentives  that 
the Prussian government offered that caused such large numbers to immigrate  
to the area we know today as Poland.  Without those two factors, it is  
doubtful that one tenth of the number would have made the transition.  It  was a 
friendly Germanic government offering generous incentives that convinced  people 
to move.
 
Take care,
 
    -Paul
 
References available upon request. :-)



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