Fw: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Reasons for migration; Was Re: the lost guard

[bfand]

Something else that may enter into this is that in central Poland
many of the larger land barons or landholders were not Polish
but actually Lithuanians who were granted these lands for their
participation in the wars against the Teutonic Knights. The marriage
between the Lithuanian and Polish prince and princess put the Lithuanian
prince on the throne as King of Poland.

The Radzevills are an example of one of the many Lithuanians who gained
 huge areas of land in Poland
I once read that many of these had  much contempt for the Catholic religion
because of the Teutonic Knights and that most of them were actually
or secretly Protestant and therefore didnt have the religious difference
with the German farmers that the Polish people had.

It also appears that the Wurtemburgers were brought in by the Prussian
government, but im not so sure that this was the case for those migrating
from Posen and Brandenburg. Besides Germanizing the area they also had
the goal of enlarging the taxable population without just shifting it from
one part
of their kingdom to another.

I'm curious whether any of the land barons were removed or replaced or had
their
lands taken away when Poland was divided ?

Bob


----- Original Message -----
From: Jerry Frank <jkfrank at shaw.ca>
To: JUSTIN L DINGMAN <jld4321 at juno.com>;
<ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2003 11:16 AM
Subject: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Reasons for migration; Was Re: the lost guard


> I am glad that you clearly understand that, unlike Russia and the
Catherine
> the Great invitations, the presence of Germans in Russian Poland (and
> Volhynia) occurred under different circumstances.
>
> As you stated, in many parts of Russian Poland, Germans were already
living
> there at the time of occupation because the territory (South Prussia and
> parts of East Prussia) had previously been under Prussian rule.  In many
> cases, the Germans were invited to these areas by invitation, not of
> royalty, but rather the landowning nobility.  Although there was often
> conflict between Germans and Poles at the peasant level, the Polish
> landlords were inviting Germans to settle on their lands to help them
> develop and farm it.  Depending on time and location, this was done under
a
> variety of contract forms including rentals, lease, and purchase.
>
> Watch in the next SGGEE Journal for an article about the migration from
> Russian Poland to Volhynia to see how much of this migration was
> economically motivated.
>
>
>
>
> At 01:51 PM 07/01/2003 -0800, JUSTIN L DINGMAN wrote:
>
> >In regard to the text, I vaguely remember hearing that Germans were
> >invited in to farm Polish territory after Napoleon was defeated
> >(particularly in the area that had been under Prussian control, a process
> >referred to as the 'Germanization of Poland'), when Russia assumed
> >control of what was called "The Kingdom of Poland."  I am not sure why
> >Germans would have come, however, as they were not friendly to Russia at
> >that time.  The Poles rebelled on several occasions, but any successes
> >against the Russians were temporary.  I had never heard that Germans were
> >invited into Russia itself,
> >but I suppose anything is possible.  I am not sure what the motivation
> >was, but in Poland it was something to the effect that bringing in German
> >farmers would make the Poles less nationalistic.  However, the section in
> >which grandfather's family was living had been part of the Prussian
> >territory before Napoleon and probably had a great many Germans living
> >there already.
>
> Jerry Frank - Calgary, Alberta
> jkfrank at shaw.ca
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