[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Germans and Poland

[Marlo50]

I have been following this subject and am totally confused.  I am not German, my husband is.  His ancestry is actually Pommern and that is my question.  His grandparents were from the areas of Stolp, 
Rummelsburg, Lauenburg, and who knows where else.  If Germany was not unified until 1871 into one country and his ancestors lived in the area now Poland what were they in the early years?  I can 
only go back to births in the early 1800's but it was in Pommern.  What were these
people?  German?  Wasn't this area part
of what was Poland and partitioned several times to give to other countries?  The ancestors who were born in the 1700's and the 1600's, are what I am curious about.  I
will never get that far back but I am still curious. What nationality would they have been? The names are Loroff/Lohroff and Schwochow and Villwock. Do they sound German?  The other thing is there are so many villages with the same name.  My husbands maternal grandparents moved to Volhynia from someplace in Rummelsburg (I think) and that only adds
to the confusion.  Please forgive my ignorance, but it is really a mystery. I wish I could read and speak German, I am sure
that would make it much easier.
(Now ask me about Hungary and all their history and appropriating land and losing land and I am pretty well versed, especially the eastern part where my ancestors are from.)
Margaret