Province of Posen
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The Province of Posen (German: Provinz Posen, Polish: Prowincja Poznańska) was a province of Prussia from 1848-1918 and as such part of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918; the whole area is now part of Poland. Its capital was Poznań (German: Posen). The province replaced the Grand Duchy of Posen.
Known as the "cradle of the Polish nation", this region was the home to Poles, Germans, some Jews and a smattering of other peoples. Almost all the Poles were Roman Catholic, and about 90% of the Germans were Protestant. The small numbers of Jews were primarily to be found in the larger communities, mostly in skilled crafts, local commerce and regional trading. The smaller the community, the more likely it was to be either Polish or German. These "pockets of ethnicity" existed side by side, with German villages being the most dense in the northwestern areas. With Germanization policies, the population became more German until the end of the 19th century, when the trend reversed (in the Ostflucht). This was despite efforts of the government in Berlin, which established the Settlement Commission to buy land from Poles and make it available only to Germans.
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[edit] Characteristics
The land is mostly flat, drained by two major watershed systems; the Noteć (German: Netze) in the north and the Warta (German: Warthe) in the center. Ice Age glaciers left moraine deposits and the land is speckled with hundreds of "finger lakes", streams flowing in and out on their way to one of the two rivers.
Agriculture was the primary industry, as one would expect for the 1800s. The three-field system was used to grow a variety of crops, primarily rye, sugar beets, potatoes, other grains, and some tobacco and hops. Significant parcels of wooded land provided building materials and firewood. Small numbers of livestock existed, including geese, but a fair amount of sheep were herded.
When this area came under Prussian control, the feudal system was still in force. It was officially ended in Prussia (see Freiherr vom Stein) in 1810 (1864 in Congress Poland), but lingered in some practices until the late 1800s. The situation was thus that (primarily) Polish serfs lived and worked side by side with (predominantly) free German settlers. Though the settlers were given initial advantages, in time their lots were not much different. Serfs worked for the noble lord, who took care of them. Settlers worked for themselves and took care of themselves, but paid taxes to the lord.
Typically, an estate would have its manor and farm buildings, and a village nearby for the Polish laborers. Near that village, there might be a German settlement. And in the woods, there would be a forester's dwelling. The estate owners, usually of the nobility, owned the local grist mill, and often other types of mills or perhaps a distillery. In many places, windmills dotted the landscape, reminding one of the earliest settlers, the Dutch, who began the process of turning unproductive river marshes into fields. This process was finished by the German settlers who were used to reclaim unproductive lands (not only marshland) for the host estate owners.
[edit] History
The Kingdom of Prussia had annexed the later territory of the Province of Posen during the 18th century Partitions of Poland. It was part of the Duchy of Warsaw during the Napoleonic Wars, but was restored to Prussia in 1815 as the Grand Duchy of Posen.
During the Revolutions of 1848, the Frankfurt Parliament attempted to divide the duchy into two parts: the Province of Poznań, which would have been given to the Germans and annexed to a newly-created German Empire, and the Province of Gniezno, which would have been given to the Poles and held outside Germany. Because of the protest of Polish parliamentarians, these plans failed and the integrity of the duchy was preserved. On February 9, 1849, after a series of broken assurances, the Prussian administration renamed the duchy to the province of Posen. However, "Grand Duke of Posen" remained a title of the Hohenzollern dynasty and the name remained in official use until 1918.
With the unification of Germany after the Franco-Prussian War of 1871, the province of Posen became part of the German Empire (1871-1918) and the city of Posen was officially named an imperial residence city.
In the 1880s, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck started Germanisation policies, such as an increase of police forces, a colonization commission, the German Society for the Eastern Borders (Hakata), and the Kulturkampf. In 1904, special legislation was passed against the Polish population. The legislation of 1908 allowed the confiscation of Polish landed property. The Prussian authorities did not allow the development of industries, so the duchy's economy was dominated by high-level agriculture.
After World War I, the fate of the province was undecided. The Poles demanded that the region be included in the newly independent Second Polish Republic, while the Germans refused any territorial concessions. The Greater Poland Uprising broke out on 27 December 1918, a day after the speech of Ignacy Jan Paderewski. The uprising received little support from the Polish government established in Warsaw at that time. After the success of the uprising the Posen province was briefly (until mid-1919) an independent state with its own government, currency and military force.
With the signing of the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War I, most of the province, primarily the areas with a Polish majority, was returned to Poland and reformed as the Poznań Voivodship. The remaining German part of the province was reformed as Posen-West Prussia with Schneidemühl (Piła) as its capital, until 1938, when it was divided between Silesia, Pomerania and Brandenburg.
[edit] Ethnic conflict
Due to the large number of resident Germans (the first Germans coming as settlers) and the presence of powerful, warring nations on all sides and the internal strife between three major religious faiths, the area was often a battleground of ethnic conflicts.
The 1700s saw the Jesuit-led Counter-Reformation enact severe restrictions on the remaining German Protestants. The end of the century turned the tables as Prussia seized the area during the Partitions of Poland.
During the first half of the 1800s, the German population grew due to state sponsored colonisation. In the second half, the Polish population grew gradually due to the Ostflucht and a higher birth-rate among the Poles. The clash peaked during the Kulturkampf, when many Catholic Germans in Posen joined with ethnic Poles in opposition to the Protestant Prussian government.
The Polish language was eventually banned from schools and government offices as part of the Germanisation policies.
In World War II, part of the German minority living in the territory of the former Posen province formed Selbstschutz units, which assisted in the Nazi assault on Poland and the subsequent atrocities against Poles and Jews.
[edit] Statistics
Area: 28,970 km²
- Regierungsbezirk Posen 17,503 km²
- Regierungsbezirk Bromberg 11,448 km²
Population
- 1816: 820,176
- 1868: 1,537,300 (Bromberg 550,900 - Posen 986,400)
- 1871: 1,583,843
- Religion: 1871
- Catholics 1,009,885
- Protestants 511,429
- Jews 61,982
- others 547
- Religion: 1871
- 1875: 1,606,084
- 1880: 1,703,397
- 1900: 1,887,275
- 1905: 1,986,267
- 1910: 2,099,831 (Bromberg 763,900 - Posen 1,335,900)
[edit] Divisions
Note: Prussian provinces were subdivided into government regions (Regierungsbezirke), which were subdivided into districts called Kreise. Cities would have their own "Stadtkreis" (urban district) and the surrounding rural area would be named for the city, but referred to as a "Landkreis" (rural district). In the case of Posen, the Landkreis was split into two: Landkreis Posen West, and Landkreis Posen East.
Data is from Prussian censuses, during a period of state-sponsored Germanization, and includes military garrisons. It is commonly criticized for being falsified.[citation needed]
| Kreis ("County") | Polish spelling | 1905 Pop | Polish speakers | German speakers1 | Jewish2 | Origin |
| Regierunsbezirk Posen (southern) | ||||||
| City of Posen | Poznań | 55% | 45% | |||
| Adelnau | Odolanów | 90% | 10% | |||
| Birnbaum | Miedzychód | 51% | 49% | |||
| Bomst | Babimost | 49% | 51% | |||
| Fraustadt | Wschowa | 27% | 73% | |||
| Gostyn | Gostyn | 87% | 13% | Kröben | ||
| Grätz | Grodzisk | 82% | 18% | Buk | ||
| Jarotschin | Jarocin | 83% | 17% | Pleschen | ||
| Kempen | Kępno | 84% | 16% | Schildberg | ||
| Koschmin | Koźmin | 83% | 17% | Krotoschin | ||
| Kosten | Kościan | 89% | 11% | |||
| Krotoschin | Krotoszyn | 70% | 30% | |||
| Lissa | Leszno | 36% | 64% | Fraustadt | ||
| Meseritz | Międzyrzecz | 20% | 80% | |||
| Neutomischel | Nowy Tomyśl | 51% | 49% | Buk | ||
| Obornik | Oborniki | 61% | 39% | |||
| Ostrowo | Ostrów | 80% | 20% | ?Adelnau? | ||
| Pleschen | Pleszew | 85% | 15% | |||
| Posen Ost | Poznań, Wsch. | 72% | 28% | Posen | ||
| Posen West | Poznań, Zach. | 87% | 13% | Posen | ||
| Rawitsch | Rawicz | 55% | 45% | Kröben | ||
| Samter | Szamotuły | 73% | 27% | |||
| Schildberg | Ostrzeszów | 90% | 10% | |||
| Schmiegel | Śmigiel | 82% | 18% | Kosten | ||
| Schrimm | Śrem | 82% | 18% | |||
| Schroda | Środa | 88% | 12% | |||
| Schwerin | Skwierzyna | 5% | 95% | Birnbaum - 1877 | ||
| Wreschen | Września | 84% | 16% | |||
| Regierungsbezirk Bromberg (northern) | ||||||
| City of Bromberg | Bydgoszcz | 16% | 84% | |||
| Bromberg | Bydgoszcz | 38% | 62% | |||
| Czarnikau | Czarników | 27% | 73% | |||
| Filehne | Wieleń | 28% | 72% | Czarnikau | ||
| Gnesen | Gniezno | 67% | 33% | |||
| Hohensalza | Inowrocław | 64% | 36% | |||
| Kolmar | Chodzież | 18% | 82% | |||
| Mogilno | Mogilno | 76% | 24% | |||
| Schubin | Szubin | 56% | 44% | |||
| Strelno | Strzelno | 82% | 18% | ?? | ||
| Wirsitz | Wyrzysk | 47% | 53% | |||
| Witkowo | Witkowo | 83% | 17% | ?Gnesen? | ||
| Wongrowitz | Wągrowiec | 77% | 23% | |||
| Znin | Żnin | 77% | 23% | ?? | ||
1 includes bilingual speakers
2 only religious Jews, without regard of their native language
[edit] Presidents
The province was headed by presidents (German: Oberpräsidenten).
| Time in Office | Name |
| 1815 - 1824 | Joseph Zerboni de Sposetti 1760 - 1831 |
| 1825 - 1830 | Johann Friedrich Theodor von Baumann 1768 - 1830 |
| 1830 - 1840 | Eduard Heinrich Flottwell 1786 - 1865 |
| 1840 - 1842 | Adolf Heinrich Graf von Arnim-Boitzenburg 1803 - 1868 |
| 1843 - 1850 | Carl Moritz von Beurmann 1802 - 1870 |
| 1850 - 1851 | Gustav Carl Gisbert Heinrich Wilhelm Gebhard von Bonin (1.time in office) 1797 - 1878 |
| 1851 - 1860 | Eugen von Puttkamer 1800 - 1874 |
| 1860 - 1862 | Gustav Carl Gisbert Heinrich Wilhelm Gebhard von Bonin (2.time in office) 1797 - 1878 |
| 1862 - 1869 | Carl Wilhelm Heinrich Georg von Horn 1807 - 1889 |
| 1869 - 1873 | Otto Graf von Königsmarck 1815 - 1889 |
| 1873 - 1886 | William Barstow von Guenther 1815 - 1892 |
| 1886 - 1890 | Robert Graf von Zedtlitz-Trützschler 1837 - 1914 |
| 1890 - 1899 | Hugo Freiherr von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff 1840-1905 |
| 1899 - 1903 | Karl Julius Rudolf von Bitter 1846 - 1914 |
| 1903 - 1911 | Wilhelm August Hans von Waldow-Reitzenstein 1856 - 1937 |
| 1911 - 1914 | Philipp Schwartzkopf ? |
| 1914 - 1918 | Joh. Karl Friedr. Moritz Ferd. v. Eisenhart-Rothe 1862-1942 |
[edit] External links
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