(Redirected from Germanization)
'Germanisation' (also spelled 'Germanization'; German ''Germanisierung'') is either the spread of the
German language,
people and
culture either by force or assimilation, or the adaptation of a foreign word to the
German language in linguistics, much like the
Romanisation of many languages which do not use the
Latin alphabet. It was a central plank of German liberal thinking in the early nineteenth century, at a period when liberalism and nationalism went hand in hand.
There are historically very different forms and degrees of adopting German language and elements of German culture. Besides eclectic adoptions there are also examples of complete "melting" into the German culture, as it happened with the pagan Slavs in the diocese of
Bamberg in the 11th century. A perfect example of eclectic adoption of German culture is the field of law in Imperial and present day Japan, which is organised very much to the model of the
German Empire. Germanisation took place by cultural contact, by political decision of the adopting side (e.g. in the case of Japan) or (especially in the case of Imperial and Nazi Germany) by force.
In Slavic countries the term Germanisation often is understood solely as the process of acculturation of
Slavic and
Baltic speakers, after the conquests or by cultural contact in the early
dark ages, areas of the modern Eastern Germany to the line of
Elbe. In
East Prussia, extermination, enslavement and forced resettlement of the
Prussian people by the Teutonic Order and the Prussian state, as well as acculturation from immigrants of various European countries (Poles, French, Germans) contributed to the eventual extinction of the
Prussian language in the 17th century.
Historical Germanisation
A complex process of Germanisation took place in
Bohemia after the
1620 defeat of Bohemian
Protestants. The Protestant Bohemian king elected against the Habsburgs by the Bohemian estates in 1619, the German prince
Frederick V, Elector Palatine, was defeated in 1620 by Catholic forces loyal to the
Habsburg Emperor,
Ferdinand II. Among the Bohemian Lords being punished and expropriated after Frederick's defeat in 1620 were German- and Czech-speaking landowners as well. Thus this conflict was by far an internal conflict resulting from the
feudal system than a clash of different nations. Although the Czech language lost its significance (as a written language) in the aftermath of the events, it is questionable whether this was primarily intended by the Habsburg rulers, whose intentions were in religious and feudal categories.
Countermeasures to Germanisation did not arise until the 19th century. The rise of nationalism that occurred in the late 18th and 19th centuries in
Bohemia,
Moravia,
Silesia,
Pomerania,
Lusatia and
Slovenia led to an increased sense of "pride" in national cultures during this time. However, centuries of German dominance left the German mark on many societies; for instance the first modern grammar of the Czech language by
Josef Dobrovský (1753-1829) – "Ausführliches Lehrgebäude der böhmischen Sprache" (1809) – was published in German because Czech language was not custom in academic scholarship.
In the
German colonies, the policy of having German as official language led to the forming of
German-based pidgins and
German-based creole languages, such as
Unserdeutsch.
Germanisation in Prussia occurred in several stages:
★
Germanisation attempts pursued by
Frederick the Great in
Silesia, later extended to territories of
Partitioned Poland
★ Easing of Germanisation policy in the period 1815–30
★ Intensification of Germanisation and persecution of Poles in the Grand Duch of Posen by E.Flotwell in 1830-1841
★ The process of Germanisation is stopped during the period of 1841-1849
★ Again restarted during years of 1849-1870
★ Intensified by Bismarck during his
Kulturkampf
★ Slight easing of the persecution of Poles during 1890-1894
★ Continuation and intensification of activity aiming at destroying Polish nation restarted in 1894 and pursued till the end of First World War
State legislation and government policies of Germanisation in the
Kingdom of Prussia,
Imperial Germany and
Nazi Germany aimed to expand the German language and culture in areas populated by non-Germans, the eradication of their national identity, and the integration of conquered territories into German states.
[1]
Another example of Germanisation was aimed at national minorities in the Prussian state. Polish language was persecuted in Prussia.
[2] Frederick the Great started Germanisation efforts in territories of Silesia acquired in 1740-1745.
[3] Germanisation efforts were later extended to territories gained by Prussia in the
Partitions of Poland: Danzig, Pomerania, Warmia, and certain regions of Greater Poland.
Prussian authorities settled German speaking ethnic groups in Polish territories after the
partitions of Poland. A similar policy was pursued by Austria in Galicia, until 1867 when Galicia gained autonomy. Later, the means of the policy was the elimination of non-German languages from public life and from academic settings (such as schools). Later in the
German Empire, Poles were (together with Danes, Alsatians, German Catholics and Socialists) portrayed as "Reichsfeinde" ("foes to the empire").
[4] In addition, in
1885, the Prussian
Settlement Commission financed from the national government's budget was set up to buy land from non-German hands and distribute it among German farmers.
[5] From
1908 the committee was entitled to force the landowners to sell the land. Other means included
Prussian deportations 1888: deportation of non-Prussian nationals who had lived in Prussia for substantial time periods (mostly Poles and Jews) and the ban on the building of houses by non-Germans (see
Drzymała's van). Germanisation policy in schools also took the form of abuse of Polish children by Prussian officials (see
Września). Germanisation unintentionally stimulated resistance, usually in the form of home schooling and tighter unity in the minority groups.
In 1910 Maria Konopnicka responded to the increasing persecution of
Polish people by Germans by writing her famous song called
Rota, that instantly became a national symbol for Poles, with its sentence known to many Poles:''The German will not spit in our face, nor will he Germanise our children''. Thus, the German efforts to eradicate Polish culture, language and people met not only with failure, but managed to reinforce the Polish national identity and strengthened efforts of Poles to re-establish a Polish state.
An international meeting of socialists held in Brussels in 1902 condemned the Germanisation of Poles in Prussia, calling it "barbarous".
[6]
Similar Germanisation also happened for the Lithuanians (
Lietuvininks) living in East Prussia, numbers of whom, once making up a majority of population in large areas of East Prussia (these areas are referred to as
Lithuania Minor), decreased by much during 16th-20th centuries; policy of Germanisation was tightened during the 19th century; in the early 20th century Lithuanian majority remained only in the northernmost parts of the province (
Memelland and some areas south of it).
Similar development happened with
Courlanders, but this ethnic group never had a large population.
Another form of Germanisation was the relation between the German state and Polish coal miners in the
Ruhr area. Due to migration within the
German Empire, an enormous stream of Polish nationals (as many as 350,000) made their way to the Ruhr in the late 19th century, where they worked in the coal and iron industries. German authorities viewed them as potential danger and a threat and as a "suspected political and national" element. All Polish workers had special cards and were under constant observation by German authorities. In addition, anti-Polish stereotypes were promoted, such as postcards with jokes about Poles, presenting them as irresponsible people, similar to the treatment of the
Irish in
New England around the same time. Many Polish traditional and religious songs were forbidden by Prussian authorities.
[7] Their citizens' rights were also limited by German state.
[8]
In response to these policies, the Polish formed their own organisations to defend their interests and ethnic identity. The
Sokól sports clubs and the workers' union Zjednoczenie Zawodowe Polskie (ZZP), Wiarus Polski (press) and Bank Robotnikow were among the best known such organisations near the Ruhr. At first the Polish workers, ostracised by their German counterparts, had supported the Catholic centre party.
[9] Since the beginning of the 20th century their support more and more shifted towards the social democrats.
[10] In 1905 Polish and German workers organised their first common strike.
[10] Under the ''Namensänderungsgesetz''
[10] (law of changing surnames) a significant number of "Ruhr-Poles" change their surnames and Christian names to "Germanised" forms, in order to evade ethnic discrimination. As the Prussian authorities during the
Kulturkampf suppressed Catholic services in Polish language by Polish priests, the Poles had to rely on German
Catholic priests. Increasing intermarriage between Germans and Poles contributed much to the Germanisation of ethnic Poles in the Ruhr area.
During the
Weimar Republic Poles first were recognised as minority only in Upper Silesia. The peace treaties after the First World War did contain an obligation for Poland to protect her national minorities (Germans, Ukrainians and other), whereas no such clause was introduced in retorsion by the victors in the peace
treaty of Versailles with Germany. In 1928 the "Minderheitenschulgesetz" (minorities school act) regulated education of children form minorities in their native tongue.
[13] From 1930 on Poland and Germany agreed to treat their minorities vice versa.
[14]
Germanisation during the Second World War
In the
Nazi era, the days of certain minorities in Germany were numbered. "Racially acceptable" children were taken from their families, in order to be brought up as Germans.
[15] In German occupied Poland it's estimated that a number ranging from 50,000 to 200,000 children were deprived of their families in order to be Germanised.
[16] It's estimated that at least 10,000 of them were murdered in the process as they were determined unfit and sent to concentration camps faced brutal treatment or perished in the harsh conditions during their transport in cattle wagons, and only 10-15% returned to their families after the war.
[17] Obligatory
Hitlerjugend membership made dialogue between old and young next to impossible, as use of languages other than German was discouraged by officials. Members of minority organisations were sent to
concentration camps by German authorities or have been executed.
Under ''Generalplan Ost'', a percentage of Slavs in the conquered territories were to be Germanised. Those unfit for Germanisation were to be expelled from the areas marked out for German settlement. In considering the fate of the individual nations, the architects of the Plan decided that it would be possible to Germanise about 50 per cent of the
Czechs, 35 per cent of the
Ukrainians and 25 per cent of the
Belorussians. The remainder would have had to be deported to western Siberia and other regions.
Specific examples
Oletzko County was a historic
East Prussian county with its capital at
Oletzko.
The county was populated by
Mazurs, a
Polish ethnic group. In the process of Germanisation, the proportion of
Polish-speaking people declined steadily:
1818 - over 90% of population
1852 - 65%
1861 - 58%
1890 - 46%
1900 - 33.5% (Prussian census)
Current state
In modern Germany
Danes,
Frisians and the Slavic
Sorbs are classified as traditional ethnic minorities and are guaranteed
cultural autonomy. Concerning the Danes, there is a treaty between Denmark and Germany from 1955 regulating the status of the German minority in Denmark and vice versa. Concerning the
Frisians, the
land Schleswig-Holstein passed a special law for preserving the language.
[18] The cultural autonomy of the Sorbs is a matter of the constitutions of
Saxony and
Brandenburg. Nevertheless most of the Sorbs are bilingual and the
Lower Sorbian language is regarded as endangered, as the number of native speakers is dwindling.
Descendants of Polish migrant workers and miners have mingled with the local population by intermarriage and are culturally much less identifiable as Poles. It's different with modern and present day immigration from Poland to Germany after the fall of the
iron curtain. These immigrants usually are Polish citizens and live as foreigners in Germany. Some of them believe that to reveal Polish identity in Germany is dangerous for social status, as cases of hostility and discrimination against Poles exist. For many immigrant Poles, Polish ethnicity is not the prime category through which they wish to characterise themselves or want to be evaluated by others
[19] as it could impact their lives in negative way. Representatives from organisations of Poles living in Germany, complain about unfair treatment compared to the benefits German minority receives in Poland. This point is disputable, as the ethnic
Germans in Poland are Polish citizens, whereas the Poles that lately migrated to Germany usually stay Polish citizens and as such are treated as other foreigners by the
EU.
Linguistic Germanisation
In linguistics Germanisation usually means the
change in spelling of loanwords to the rules of the German language — for example the change from the imported word ''bureau'' to ''Büro''.
The local dialect of the
Ruhr Area still contains words derived from the Polish language, which have been Germanised in the linguistic sense.
See also
★
Africanisation
★
Arabisation
★
Polonophobia
★
Pan-Germanism
★
Germanism
★
Germanistics
★
Cultural imperialism
★
Cultural assimilation
★
German Eastern Marches Society
★
Kulturkampf
★
Masurians
★
Russification
★
Polonisation
★
Potulice concentration camp
★
Ruhrpolen
★
Sinicisation
References
1. http://encyklopedia.pwn.pl/24222_1.html
2. http://www.wspolnota-polska.org.pl/index.php?id=pwko19
3. http://www.chorzow-online.pl/reprint/reprint2.htm
4. http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0415077818&id=NMiI9NR5VLEC&pg=PA24&lpg=PA24&dq=reichsfeinde+Poles&sig=vAKcRAVU4OG1CSEM8KQzyQqU_Yw
5. http://encyklopedia.pwn.pl/36449_1.html
6. http://www.echoed.com.au/chronicle/1902/jan-feb/world.htm
7. http://serwisy.gazeta.pl/swiat/1,34239,2978729.html
8. http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&vid=ISBN1571814078&id=5sUdzh98A44C&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=ruhr+poles&prev=http://books.google.com/books%3Fq%3Druhr%2Bpoles&sig=b2ImFDrsl5Oc9YTMq_3VAeqeIBU
9. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zentrumspartei
10. http://www.deutsche-und-polen.de/_/ereignisse/frames/content_lang_jsp/key=ruhrpolen_1880.html
11. http://www.deutsche-und-polen.de/_/ereignisse/frames/content_lang_jsp/key=ruhrpolen_1880.html
12. http://www.deutsche-und-polen.de/_/ereignisse/frames/content_lang_jsp/key=ruhrpolen_1880.html
13. http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/tagungsberichte/id=352
14. http://www.tcm-kp.de/geschichtliches/johannziesch/
15. http://www.shoaheducation.com/aryan.html
16. http://www.dac.neu.edu/holocaust/Hitlers_Plans.htm#GERMANIZATION%20OF%20POLISH%20CHILDREN
17. http://roztocze.net/newsroom.php/13293
18. http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Friesisch-Gesetz
19. http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~sarmatia/401/212schlott.html
External links
★
Germanisation of the land between the Elbe-Saale and the Oder rivers: Colonisation or assimilation?
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