[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Why Germans in Poland

[Günther Böhm]

j burns schrieb:

>There is quite a bit of information about why Germans ended up in Russia-Catherine II and Alexander I invited them, the partition of Poland threatened their military exemptions, Polish insurrection, abolishment of serfdom, etc. but I can find any information on why there were so many Germans in Poland in the first place. Can someone clue me in please?
>John
>
Hello John,
complex reasons require complex answers.
Otto mentioned the mediaval colonization. But why did Germans settle in 
Poland for centuries and not Poles in Germany? I think the reason can be 
found in the relations of production. Initial bourgeois social relations 
were much earlier in the cities of the German Empire (which were founded 
and equipped with a special urban law in the tradition of the Roman 
Empire) than in Poland. They produced goods and developed international 
trade (think of the 'Hanse'). Thus the empire could feed more 
inhabitants per square mile than Bohemia and Poland. Of course Bohemian 
and Polish kings and nobles wanted to participate in the increasing 
wealth and called for specialized German craftsmen and miners to found 
cities with German urban law on their territories.

Later settlements had other complex reasons like the Napoleonic 
'Continental System' which forced the European continental countries to 
embargo British goods. Thus it became profitable to establish mechanic 
weaveries in Poland.

Günther