[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Why Germans in Poland

[Ed Sonnenburg]

Western Poland and East Prussia were what you could call the main linen,
clothes and shoe production area of Europe from about 1805 to 1865. For many
years Poland didn't even exist.
People came there from different areas to work.  By 1865 the Poles didn't
like so many foreigners and rebelled.   Since the Mennonites were being
forced to chose to assimilate or get out, many of those being pushed from
Poland bought the Mennonite farms in Russia.  The Mennonites then left en
masse to Manitoba/Canada.  Many of those being pushed from Poland also ended
up in Manitoba, but many also came to southern Ontario which then also
became a manufacturing area.  What also attracted people to this area was
the large number of Germanic people already here including the Pennsylvania
Dutch that came around 1812.
Berlin Ontario became a very productive manufacturing area.  Berlin changed
their name in 1816 only because of WW1.  Nobody wanted to buy goods that
said "Made in Berlin" so the name was changed to Kitchener.  
Lord Kitchener was a high ranking English official in India.  He is known as
the inventor of concentration camps, later copied by you know who.