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Revision as of 19:09, 15 July 2011 by MyMoloboaccount (talk | contribs) (double naming is used only in historical context, not when naming current main towns in the region, add population)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) "Mazury" redirects here. For other uses, see Mazury (disambiguation).
Sailing on Lake Mikołajki.
Aerial view of the region near Łupstych
Kayaking on the Krutynia River

Masuria (Template:Lang-pl; Template:Audio-de) is an area in northeastern Poland famous for its 2,000 lakes. Geographically, Masuria is part of two adjacent lakeland districts, the Masurian Lake District (Template:Lang-pl) and the Iława Lake District (Pojezierze Iławskie). Administratively, it belongs to the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship (Template:Lang-pl).

The landscape of the region was formed by the last ice age around 14,000 - 15,000 years ago in Pleistocene. The terrain is mostly hilly, with connecting lakes, rivers and streams. Forests account for about 30% of the area. The northern part of Masuria is covered mostly by the broadleaved forest, while the southern part is dominated by pine and mixed forests.

The region's economy relies largely on eco-tourism and agriculture. The lakes for which the region is best known offer varieties of water sports, recreation and vacation activities.

History

Old Prussians

Further information: Old Prussians

In the 11th–13th century, the territory was inhabited by the Old Prussians also called Baltic Prussians, a Baltic ethnic group that inhabited Prussia in the lands of Pomesania, Pogesania, Galindia, Bartia, and Sudovia, and in the lands of the southeastern coastal region of the Baltic Sea around the Vistula Lagoon and the Curonian Lagoon. They spoke a language now known as Old Prussian and followed pagan Prussian mythology. Although they bore the name of a 19th century German political entity, they were not "Germans." They were converted to Catholicism in the late 13th and 14th centuries, after conquest by the Knights of the Teutonic Order, and then to Protestantism in the early 16th century.

It is estimated that around 220,000 Old Prussians lived in this territory in 1200. The wilderness was their natural barrier against the attacks by would-be invaders. During the Northern Crusades of the early 13th century, the Old Prussians used this thick forest as a line of defense. They did it again against the Knights of the Teutonic Order invited to Poland by Konrad Mazowiecki in 1226. The order's goal was to convert the native population to Christianity and baptize it by force if necessary. In the subsequent conquest which lasted over 50 years, the original population was nearly exterminated especially during the major Prussian rebellion of 1261–83. By the years 1278–1283 the eradication of the local culture was complete, even though its remnants survived in the forest for decades to come.

After the Order's acquisition of the area, Poles began to settle in the south-east part of the conquered region. German, French, Flemish, Danish, Dutch, and Norwegian colonists entered the area shortly afterward. The number of Polish settlers grew significantly again in the beginning of 15th century, especially after the first and the second treaties of Thorn, in 1411 and 1466 respectively, following the Thirteen Years’ War and the final defeat of the order. Later assimilation of the German settlers as well as the Polish immigrants and all others created the new Prussian identity. The grand master became a vassal of Polish crown and was obliged to welcome ethnically Polish members to the congregation.

Ducal Prussia

With the Second Peace of Thorn in 1466, the Teutonic Order came under the rule of the Polish crown. The conversion of Albert of Prussia to Lutheranism in 1525 brought all of ducal Prussia and Masuria to Protestantism. The Polish language predominated due to the many settlers from Masovia. While much of the countryside was populated by Polish-speakers, the cities constituted German mixed with Polish population. The ancient Old Prussian language survived in parts of the countryside until the early 18th century. Areas that had many Polish-language speakers were known as the Polish departments.

Sanctuary of St. Mary in Święta Lipka consecrated by Jesuits in 1619

In 1656, during the Battle of Prostki, the forces of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth destroyed the allied Swedish and Brandenburg army capturing Prince Bogusław Radziwiłł. The 2,000 Tatar raiders who fought on the Polish side – before their return to Crimea – demolished most townships and caused the death of over 50% of the population of southern Prussian region (later Masuria) within the years 1656–1657, taking 3,400 people into slavery. From 1708–1711, approximately 50 percent of the inhabitants of the newly rebuilt villages died from the Black Death. Losses in population were partly compensated by migration of Protestant settlers or refugees from Scotland, Salzburg (expulsion of Protestants 1731), France (Huguenot refugees after the Edict of Fontainebleau in 1685), and especially from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, including Polish brethren expelled from Poland in 1657. The last group of refugees to immigrate to Masuria were the Russian Philipons in 1830, when King Frederick William III of Prussia granted them asylum.

Kingdom of Prussia and the German Empire

After the death of Albert Frederick, Duke of Prussia in 1618, his son-in-law John Sigismund, Margrave of Brandenburg, inherited the duchy, including the lake-region (later Masuria), combining the two territories under a single dynasty and forming Brandenburg-Prussia. The still remaining nominal sovereignty of the King of Poland was revoked by the Treaty of Wehlau in 1657. The region became part of the Kingdom of Prussia after the coronation of King Frederick I of Prussia. The lake-region (Masuria) became part of the newly-created administrative province of East Prussia upon its creation in 1773. The name Masuria began to be used officially after new administrative reforms in the Kingdom after 1818.

Germanisation was slow and mainly done through the educational system: After the Unification of Germany into the German Empire in 1871, the Polish language was removed from schools in 1872, as part of Otto von Bismarck's Culture War. He also sought to limit the use of the Polish language in the new German empire. Despite this policy, such Polish-language newspapers as the Pruski Przyjaciel Ludu (Prussian People's Friend) or the Kalendarz Królewsko-Pruski Ewangelicki (Royal Prussian Evangelical Calendar) or bilingual journals like the Oletzkoer Kreisblatt - Tygodnik Obwodu Oleckiego continued to be published in Masuria. In contrast to the Prussian-oriented periodicals, in the late 19th century such newspapers as Przyjaciel Ludu Łecki and Mazur were founded by members of the Warsaw-based Komitet Centralny dla Slaska, Kaszub i Mazur (Central Committee for Silesia, Kashubia and Masuria), influenced by Polish politicians like Antoni Osuchowski or Juliusz Bursche, to strengthen a Polish identity in Masuria. The Gazeta Ludowa was published in Lyck in 1896–1902, with 2,500 copies in 1897 and the Mazur in Ortelsburg after 1906 with 500 copies in 1908 and 2,000 prior to World War I.

A Polish-oriented party, the Mazurska Partia Ludowa ("Mazur People's Party"), was founded in 1897. However the great majority regarded themselves as Prussians and were loyal to the government and Polish parties never gained a significant percentage of votes in Masuria in the Reichstag elections, while candidates of the German Conservative Party were usually elected with a significant majority (94,6 % at Lötzen in 1907, 93,1 % at Lyck in 1907.)

Of the Masurian population in 1890, 143,397 gave German as their language (either primary or secondary), 152,186 Polish, and 94,961 Masurian. In 1910, the German language was given by 197,060, Polish by 30,121, and Masurian by 171,413. In 1925, 40,869 people gave Masurian as their native tongue and 2,297 gave Polish. However, the last result may have been a result of politics at the time and a desire to present the province as purely German; in reality the Masurian dialect was still in use.

Throughout industrialization in the late 19th century about 10 percent of the Masurian populace emigrated to the Ruhr Area, where about 180,000 Masurians lived in 1914. Wattenscheid, Wanne and Gelsenkirchen were the centers of Masurian emigration and Gelsenkirchen-Schalke was even called Klein(little)-Ortelsburg before 1914. Masurian newspapers like the Przyjaciel Ewangeliczny and the Gazeta Polska dla Ludu staropruskiego w Westfalii i na Mazurach but also the German-language Altpreußische Zeitung were published.

During World War I, the Battle of Tannenberg and the First and Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes between Imperial Germany and the Russian Empire took place within the borders of Masuria in 1914. After the war, the League of Nations held the East Prussian plebiscite on 11 July 1920 to determine if the people of the southern districts of East Prussia wanted to remain within East Prussia or to join the Second Polish Republic. The referendum determined that 99.32% of the voters in Masuria proper (without the Ermlanddistricts) chose to remain with East Prussia. However, the contemporary Polish ethnographer Adam Chętnik accused the German authorities of abuses and falsifications during the plebiscite. Moreover, the plebiscite took place during the time when Polish-Soviet War threatened to erase the Polish state. After 1933, the National Socialists conducted a systematic oppression of the Polish minority.

Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany

East Prussia, 1931: Ethnic Masurian children and Masurian farmhouse near a lake.

Masuria was the only region of Germany directly affected by the battles of World War I. Damaged towns and villages were reconstructed with the aid of several twin towns from western Germany like Cologne to Neidenburg, Frankfurt to Lötzen and even Vienna to Ortelsburg. However Masuria was still largely agrarian-oriented and suffered from the economical decline after World War I, additionally badly affected by the creation of the Polish Corridor, which raised freight costs to the traditional markets in Germany. The later implemented Osthilfe had only a minor influence on Masuria as it privileged larger estates, while Masurian farms were generally small.

The interwar period was characterised by ongoing Germanisation policies, intensified especially under the Nazis

Politically Masuria was still a heartland of Conservatism with the German National People's Party as strongest party. In the regional elections Polish Parties received usually about 5,000 votes in all of East Prussia, In the 1932 elections the Polish Party received 147 votes in Masuria proper. According to Wojciech Wrzesiński (1963), the Polish organisations in Masuria had decided to lower their activity in order to escape acts of terror performed against Polish minority activists and organisations by Nazi activists, Jerzy Lanc, a teacher and Polish national who had moved to Masuria in 1931 to establish a Polish school in Piasutno, was murdeded by Nazis on 29 February 1932.

While the Nazi Party initially had only small success in Masuria, the Nazis succeeded especially in the elections of 1932 and 1933 with up to 81 percent of votes in the district of Neidenburg and 80 percent in the district of Lyck. The Nazis used the economical crisis, which had significant effects in far-off Masuria, as well as traditional anti-Polish sentiments while at the same time Nazi political rallies were organized in the Masurian dialect during the campaigning.

In 1938, the Nazi government (1933–1945) changed thousands of toponyms (especially names of cities and villages) of Old Prussian and Polish origin to newly-created German names; about 50% of the existing names were changed in 1938 alone, despite resistance by the Prussian people, who continued to use their traditional place names.

The Nazis believed that in future the Masurs as separate non-German entity, would disappear, while those who would cling to their "foreigness" as one Nazi report mentioned, would be deported

Nazi authorities mass murdered Polish activists in Masuria, those who weren't killed were arrested and sent to concentration camps, while Masurs were forcefully placed on Volksliste

Masuria was the location of Soldau concentration camp, where 13,000 people have been murdered by German state during the war, more famous victims include bishops Antoni Julian Nowowiejski and Leon Wetmański and the nun Mieczysława Kowalska.

During World War II, Masuria was partially devastated by the retreating German and advancing Soviet armies during the Vistula-Oder Offensive. The region came under Polish rule at war's end in the Potsdam Conference. Most of the population fled to Germany or was killed during or after the war, while the rest was subject to a "nationality verification", often based only on the origin of surnames, organized by the communist government of Poland. As a result, the number of native Masurians remaining in Masuria was initially relatively high, while most of the population was subsequently expelled. Poles from Central Poland and the Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union as well as Ukrainians expelled from Southern Poland throughout the Operation Vistula, were resettled in Masuria.

Masuria after World War II

In October 1946 37,736 persons were "verified" as Polish citizens while 30,804 remained "unverified". A center of such "unverified" Masurians was the district of Mragowo (Sensburg), where in early 1946 out of 28,280 persons 20,580 were "unverified", while in October 16,385 still refused to adopt Polish citizenship. However even those who complied with the often used pressure by Polish authorities were in fact treated as Germans because of their Lutheran faith and their often rudimentary knowledge of Polish. Names were "polonized" and the usage of German language in public was forbidden. In the late 1940s the pressure to sign the "verification documents" grew and in February 1949 the former chief of the stalinist secret Police (UB) of Lodz, Mieczyslaw Moczar, started the "Great verification" campaign. Many unverified Masurians were imprisoned and accused of pro-Nazi or pro-American propaganda, even former pro-Polish activists and inmates of Nazi concentration camps were jailed and tortured. After the end of this campaign in the district of Mragowo (Sensburg) only 166 Masurians were still "unverified".

In 1950 1,600 Masurians left the country and in 1951, 35,000 people from Masuria and Warmia managed to obtain a declaration of their German nationality by the embassies of the US and Great Britain in Warsaw. Sixty-three percent of the Masurians in the district of Mragowo (Sensburg) received such a document. Soon after the political reforms of 1956, Masurians were given the opportunity to join their families in West Germany. The majority (over 100 thousand) gradually left and after the improvement of German-Polish relations by the German Ostpolitik of the 1970s 55,227 persons from Warmia and Masuria moved to Western Germany in between 1971 and 1988., today approximately 5,000 Masurians still live in the area, many of them as members of the German minority As the Polish journalist Andrzej K. Wróblewski stated, the Polish post-war policy succeeded in what the Prussian state never managed: the creation of a German national consciousness among the Masurians.

However Mazur remains the 14th most common surname in Poland with almost 67,000 people bearing the name.

Most of the originally Protestant churches in Masuria are now used by the Polish Roman Catholic Church as the number of Lutherans in Masuria declined from 68,500 in 1950 to 21,174 in 1961 and further to 3,536 in 1981. Sometimes, like on 23 September 1979 in the village of Spychowo (Puppen), the Lutheran Parish was even forcefully driven out of their Church while liturgy was held.

Masuria was incorporated into the voivodeship system of administration in 1945. In 1999 Masuria was constituted with neighbouring Warmia as a single administrative province through the creation of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship.

Landscape

Lakes

Masuria and the Masurian Lake District are known in Polish as Kraina Tysiąca Jezior and in German as Land der Tausend Seen, meaning "land of a thousand lakes." These lakes were ground out of the land by glaciers during the Pleistocene ice age, when ice covered northeastern Europe. From that period originates the horn of a reindeer found in the vicinity of Giżycko. By 10,000 BC this ice started to melt. Great geological changes took place and even in the last 500 years the maps showing the lagoons and peninsulas on the Baltic Sea have greatly altered in appearance. As in other parts of northern Poland, such as from Pomerania on the Oder River to the Vistula River, this continuous stretch of lakes is popular among tourists.

Main towns and population

Famous people from Masuria

Notes

  1. Template:Pl icon Mazury, at www.strefamazury.pl
  2. Template:Pl icon Charakterystyka Pojezierza Mazurskiego, at www.bryk.pl
  3. ^ "Teutonic Order." Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 2011
  4. "Dzieje osadnictwa Suwalszczyzny" (The History of the settling of Masovia), at www.mem.net.pl Template:Pl icon
  5. Mazury jakich nie znałeś: ZABYTKI I HISTORIA (Masuria You Didn't Know), at www.emazury.com Template:Pl icon
  6. ^ Andreas Kossert, Masuren. Ostpreussens vergessener Süden. Berlin 2001, ISBN 3886806960
  7. Sławomir Augusiewicz, Prostki 1656, Bellona Publishing, Warsaw 2001. ISBN 978-83-11-09323-2
    ^ Jacek Płosiński, Potop szwedzki na Podlasiu 1655-1657, Inforteditions Publishing, 2006. ISBN 83-89943-07-7
  8. Lesser, Gabriele. "Begegnungen am grünen Fluss" (in German). Die Tageszeitung.
  9. Results of the elections at Lötzen
  10. Results of the elections at Lyck
  11. Andreas Kossert: "Grenzlandpolitik" und Ostforschung an der Peripherie des Reiches, p. 124
  12. Związek Kurpiów - Adam Chętnik
  13. ^ Andreas Kossert, Ostpreussen, Geschichte und Mythos, Siedler Verlag 2005, ISBN 3-88680-808-4
  14. Ethnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth-Century Central-Eastern Europe: History, Data, and Analysis. Piotr Eberhardt,page 166, 2003 M E Sharpe Inc
  15. e.g. Provincial elections of 1925
  16. e.g. 5.308 votes or 0,58 % in 1929 (the results include all East Prussia i.e. Warmia)
  17. Ingrao, Charles W.; Szabo, Franz A.J. (2008). The Germans and the East. Purdue University Press. p. 265. ISBN 978-1-55753-443-9.
  18. Wrzesiński, Wojciech (1963). Ruch polski na Warmii, Mazurach i Powiślu w latach 1920-1939 (in Polish). Western Institute. p. 202.
  19. J. Golec, S. Bojda, Słownik biograficzny ziemi cieszyńskiej, t. 1, Cieszyn 1993, s. 173: Wszystko wskazywało na to, że był to mord z premedytacją. K. Kajzer, Zginął jak bohater, "Kalendarz Cieszyński 2001", Cieszyn 2000, s. 249: Okoliczności świadczyły o morderstwie.
  20. ^ Clark, p. 640
  21. Bernd Martin, p. 55
  22. Germany Turns Eastwards: A Study of Ostforschung in the Third Reich by Michael Burleigh, page 209, 1988, Cambridge University Press
  23. Słownik geograficzno-krajoznawczy Polski Iwona Swenson, Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, page 440, 1998
  24. Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide in the Second Republic, 1918-1947 by Tadeusz Piotrowski, page 83 2007,McFarland & Company, Inc.
  25. Andreas Kossert, Ostpreussen, Geschichte und Mythos p. 352; Kossert gives 35 % from Central Poland, 22.6 % from Eastern Poland, 10 % victims of Op. Vistula, 18.5 % Natives in 1950
  26. Ethnic groups and population changes in twentieth-century Central-Eastern Europe: history, data, analysis. Piotr Eberhardt, Jan Owsinski. 2003. Retrieved 2009-10-08.
  27. Frequency and geographic distribution of the surname Mazur in Poland
  28. Studien zur osteuropäischen Kirchengeschichte und Kirchenkunde (in German). Peter Hauptmann. 1984. Retrieved 2009-07-27.
  29. Template:Pl icon Krajobraz kulturowy powiatu gołdapskiego, at www.dkgoldap.fr.pl

References

External links

53°52′02″N 20°42′10″E / 53.86711°N 20.70279°E / 53.86711; 20.70279

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