Masuria (, german: Masuren,
Masurian: ''Mazurÿ'') is a ethnographic and geographic
region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...
in northern and northeastern
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
, known for its 2,000 lakes. Masuria occupies much of the
Masurian Lake District
The Masurian Lake District or Masurian Lakeland ( pl, Pojezierze Mazurskie; german: Masurische Seenplatte) is a lake district in northeastern Poland within the geographical region of Masuria, in the past inhabited by Masurians who spoke the Masuri ...
. Administratively, it is part of the
Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship
Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship or Warmia-Masuria Province or Warmia-Mazury Province (in pl, Województwo warmińsko-mazurskie, is a voivodeship (province) in northeastern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Olsztyn. The voivodeship has an are ...
(administrative area/province). Its biggest city, often regarded as its capital, is
Ełk
Ełk (; former pl, Łek; german: Lyck; Old Prussian: ''Luks''; lt, Lukas), also spelled Elk in English, is a small city in northeastern Poland with 61,677 inhabitants as of December 2021. It was assigned to Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship in 1999, ...
(Elk). The region covers a territory of some 10,000 km
2 which is inhabited by approximately 500,000 people.
History
East Germanic tribes
The first known people in today's Mazuria were
East Germanic tribes
The Germanic peoples were historical groups of people that once occupied Central Europe and Scandinavia during antiquity and into the early Middle Ages. Since the 19th century, they have traditionally been defined by the use of ancient and ear ...
, such as the
Sciri. Ptolemy mentioned Galindians (Koine Greek: Galindoi – Γαλίνδοι) in the 2nd century AD. From the 6th/7th century until the 17th century the former central part of the Galindian tribe continued to exist as the Old Prussian clan of *Galindis. The language of the Old Prussians in Galindia became extinct by 17th century, mainly because of the 16th centuries influx of Protestants seeking refuge from Catholic Poland into the Galindian area and German-language administration of Prussia.
Old Prussians
Before the 13th century, the territory was inhabited by the
Old Prussians
Old Prussians, Baltic Prussians or simply Prussians (Old Prussian: ''prūsai''; german: Pruzzen or ''Prußen''; la, Pruteni; lv, prūši; lt, prūsai; pl, Prusowie; csb, Prësowié) were an indigenous tribe among the Baltic peoples that in ...
also called
Baltic Prussians, a Baltic
ethnic group
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
that lived in Prussia (the area of the southeastern coastal region of the Baltic Sea neighbouring of the Baltic Sea around the
Vistula Lagoon
The Vistula Lagoon ( pl, Zalew Wiślany; russian: Калининградский залив, transliterated: ''Kaliningradskiy Zaliv''; german: Frisches Haff; lt, Aistmarės) is a brackish water lagoon on the Baltic Sea roughly 56 miles (90  ...
and the
Curonian Lagoon
The Curonian Lagoon (or Bay, Gulf; russian: Куршский залив, lt, Kuršių marios, pl, Zalew Kuroński, german: Kurisches Haff, lv, Kuršu joma) is a freshwater lagoon separated from the Baltic Sea by the Curonian Spit. Its surfac ...
). The territory later called Masuria was then known as
Galindia
Galindians were two distinct, and now extinct, tribes of the Balts. Most commonly, Galindians refers to the Western Galindians who lived in the southeast part of Prussia. Less commonly, it is used for a tribe that lived in the area of what is tod ...
and was probably a peripheral, deeply forested and lightly populated area. Its inhabitants spoke a language now known as
Galindian language (close to
Lithuanian language
Lithuanian ( ) is an Eastern Baltic language belonging to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is the official language of Lithuania and one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.8 millio ...
) and had their own
mythology
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...
. Although a 19th-century German political entity bore their name – Prussians, Old Prussians were not Germans, but
Balts
The Balts or Baltic peoples ( lt, baltai, lv, balti) are an ethno-linguistic group of peoples who speak the Baltic languages of the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages.
One of the features of Baltic languages is the number ...
. They were converted to
Roman Catholicism
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...
in the 13th century, after
conquest
Conquest is the act of military subjugation of an enemy by force of arms.
Military history provides many examples of conquest: the Roman conquest of Britain, the Mauryan conquest of Afghanistan and of vast areas of the Indian subcontinent, t ...
by the
Knights of the Teutonic Order.
Estimates range from about 170,000 to 220,000 Old Prussians living in the whole of Prussia around 1200. The wilderness was their natural barrier against attack by would-be invaders. During the
Northern Crusades
The Northern Crusades or Baltic Crusades were Christianity and colonialism, Christian colonization and Christianization campaigns undertaken by Catholic Church, Catholic Christian Military order (society), military orders and kingdoms, primarily ...
of the early 13th century, the Old Prussians used this wide forest as a broad zone of defence. They did so again against the Knights of the
Teutonic Order
The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians on ...
, who had been invited to Poland by
Konrad I of Masovia
Konrad I of Masovia (ca. 1187/88 – 31 August 1247), from the Polish Piast dynasty, was the sixth Duke of Masovia and Kuyavia from 1194 until his death as well as High Duke of Poland from 1229 to 1232 and again from 1241 to 1243.
Life
Konrad was ...
in 1226.
The order's goal was to grab the land, convert the native population to
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
and baptise it by force if necessary. In the subsequent conquest, which lasted over 50 years, the original population was partly exterminated, particularly during the major Prussian rebellion of 1261–83. But several Prussian noble families also accommodated to the Knights in order to hold their power and possessions.
Teutonic Order
![Ketrzyn, Poland - panoramio](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Ketrzyn%2C_Poland_-_panoramio.jpg)
After the Order's acquisition of Prussia, Poles (or more specifically,
Mazurs, that is inhabitants of the adjacent region of
Mazovia
Mazovia or Masovia ( pl, Mazowsze) is a historical region in mid-north-eastern Poland. It spans the North European Plain, roughly between Łódź and Białystok, with Warsaw being the unofficial capital and largest city. Throughout the centurie ...
) began to settle in the southeastern part of the conquered region.
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
,
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
,
Flemish
Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...
, and
Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...
colonists entered the area afterward, from the northwest. The number of
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
settlers grew significantly again in the beginning of the 15th century, especially after the
first
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
and the
second
The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...
treaties of Thorn (
Toruń
)''
, image_skyline =
, image_caption =
, image_flag = POL Toruń flag.svg
, image_shield = POL Toruń COA.svg
, nickname = City of Angels, Gingerbread city, Copernicus Town
, pushpin_map = Kuyavian-Pom ...
), in 1411 and 1466 respectively, following the
Thirteen Years' War and the final defeat of the order.
The
Battle of Grunwald
The Battle of Grunwald, Battle of Žalgiris or First Battle of Tannenberg was fought on 15 July 1410 during the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War. The alliance of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, led respec ...
took place in western Masuria in 1410. It was one of the largest battles of
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...
Europe, and ended in a Polish-Lithuanian victory over the Teutonic Knights. In 1440 the anti-Teutonic
Prussian Confederation
The Prussian Confederation (german: Preußischer Bund, pl, Związek Pruski) was an organization formed on 21 February 1440 at Kwidzyn (then officially ''Marienwerder'') by a group of 53 nobles and clergy and 19 cities in Prussia (region), Prussi ...
was founded, and various towns of Masuria joined it. In 1454 upon the Confederation's request King
Casimir IV of Poland
Casimir is classically an English, French and Latin form of the Polish name Kazimierz. Feminine forms are Casimira and Kazimiera. It means "proclaimer (from ''kazać'' to preach) of peace (''mir'')."
List of variations
*Belarusian: Казі ...
signed the act of incorporation of the entire region including Masuria to
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
and after the subsequent Thirteen Years' War Masuria became a part of Poland as a
fief
A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an Lord, overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a for ...
held by the
Grand Master of the Teutonic Order
The Grand Master of the Teutonic Order (german: Hochmeister des Deutschen Ordens; la, Magister generalis Ordo Teutonicus) is the supreme head of the Teutonic Order. It is equivalent to the grand master of other military orders and the superi ...
. Later assimilation of the German settlers as well as the Polish immigrants and native Prussian inhabitants created the new Prussian identity, although the subregional difference between the German- and Polish-speaking part remained.
Ducal Prussia
The
secularization
In sociology, secularization (or secularisation) is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions. The ''secularization thesis'' expresses the ...
of the
Teutonic Order
The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians on ...
in Prussia and the conversion of
Albert of Prussia
Albert of Prussia (german: Albrecht von Preussen; 17 May 149020 March 1568) was a German prince who was the 37th Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, who after converting to Lutheranism, became the first ruler of the Duchy of Prussia, the s ...
to
Lutheranism
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...
in 1525 brought Prussia including the area later called Masuria to
Protestantism
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
. The Knights untied their bonds to the Catholic Church and became land owning nobleman and the
Duchy of Prussia
The Duchy of Prussia (german: Herzogtum Preußen, pl, Księstwo Pruskie, lt, Prūsijos kunigaikštystė) or Ducal Prussia (german: Herzogliches Preußen, link=no; pl, Prusy Książęce, link=no) was a duchy in the Prussia (region), region of P ...
was established as a vassal state of Poland. The
Polish language
Polish (Polish: ''język polski'', , ''polszczyzna'' or simply ''polski'', ) is a West Slavic language of the Lechitic group written in the Latin script. It is spoken primarily in Poland and serves as the native language of the Poles. In a ...
predominated due to the many immigrants from
Mazovia
Mazovia or Masovia ( pl, Mazowsze) is a historical region in mid-north-eastern Poland. It spans the North European Plain, roughly between Łódź and Białystok, with Warsaw being the unofficial capital and largest city. Throughout the centurie ...
, who additionally settled the southern parts of Ducal Prussia, till then virgin part of (later Masuria) in the 16th century. While the southern countryside was inhabited by these - meanwhile Protestant - Polish-speakers, the very small southern towns constituted a mixed Polish and German-speaking population. The ancient
Old Prussian language
Old Prussian was a Western Baltic language belonging to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European languages, which was once spoken by the Old Prussians, the Baltic peoples of the Prussian region. The language is called Old Prussian to avoid con ...
survived in parts of the countryside in the northern and central parts of Ducal Prussia until the early 18th century. At that time they proved to be assimilated in the mass of German speaking villagers and farmers. Areas that had many Polish language speakers were known as the Polish Departments.
Masuria became one of the leading centers of Polish
Protestantism
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
. In the mid-16th century
Lyck (Ełk) and
Angerburg (Węgorzewo) became significant Polish printing centers. A renowned Polish high school, which attracted Polish students from different regions, was founded in Ełk in eastern Masuria in 1546 by
Hieronim Malecki
Hieronim Malecki (also ''Hieronymus Maeletius'' or ''Meletius'') (1527, most likely in Kraków – 1583 or 1584 in Lyck, Ducal Prussia (now Ełk) was a Polish, Prussian Lutheran pastor and theologian, as well as a translator, publisher, writer and ...
, Polish translator and publisher, who contributed to the creation of the standards and patterns of the Polish literary language. The westernmost part of Masuria, the
Osterode (Ostróda) county, in 1633 came under the administration of one of the last dukes of the
Piast dynasty
The House of Piast was the first historical ruling dynasty of Poland. The first documented Polish monarch was Duke Mieszko I (c. 930–992). The Piasts' royal rule in Poland ended in 1370 with the death of king Casimir III the Great.
Branch ...
,
John Christian of Brieg
John Christian of Brieg ( pl, Jan Chrystian; german: Johann Christian; Ohlau, 28 August 1591 – Osterode in Ostpreußen (today Ostróda), 25 December 1639), was a Duke of Brzeg–Legnica–Wołów (since 1602; with his brother as co-ruler in Leg ...
.
In 1656, during the
Battle of Prostki
The Battle of ProstkI was fought near Prostki (German: ''Prostken''), Duchy of Prussia (today in Ełk County, Poland) on October 8, 1656, between forces of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and allied Crimean Tatars commanded by hetman Wince ...
, the forces of
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi-confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Crown of the Kingdom of ...
, including 2,000
Tatar raiders, beat the allied
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
and
Brandenburg
Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a states of Germany, state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an ar ...
army capturing
Bogusław Radziwiłł
Bogusław Radziwiłł ( lt, Boguslavas Radvila; 3 May 1620 – 31 December 1669) was a Poles, Polish princely magnate and a member of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Polish-Lithuanian ''szlachta'', or nobility. He was of the Radziwił ...
. The war resulted in the destruction of most towns, 249 villages and settlements, and 37 churches were destroyed. Over 50% of the population of Masuria died within the years 1656–1657, 23,000 were killed, another 80,000 died of diseases and famine, 3,400 people were enslaved and deported to Russia.
[Sławomir Augusiewicz, ''Prostki 1656'', ]Bellona Bellona may refer to:
Places
*Bellona, Campania, a ''comune'' in the Province of Caserta, Italy
*Bellona Reef, a reef in New Caledonia
*Bellona Island, an island in Rennell and Bellona Province, Solomon Islands
Ships
* HMS ''Bellona'' (1760), a 74 ...
Publishing, Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
2001.
^ Jacek Płosiński, ''Potop szwedzki na Podlasiu 1655-1657'', Inforteditions Publishing, 2006. From 1709–1711, in all of Ducal Prussia between 200,000 and 245,000 out of 600,000 inhabitants died from the
Black Death
The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...
. In Masuria the death toll varied regionally; while 6,789 people died in the district of
Rhein (Ryn) only 677 died in Seehesten (
Szestno
Szestno (german: Seehesten) is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Mrągowo, within Mrągowo County, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. It lies approximately north of Mrągowo and east of the regional capital Olszt ...
). In Lötzen (
Giżycko
Giżycko (former pl, Lec or ''Łuczany''; ; lt, Leičių pilis) is a town in northeastern Poland with 28,597 inhabitants as of December 2021. It is situated between Lake Kisajno and Lake Niegocin in the region of Masuria, and has been withi ...
) 800 out of 919 people died. Losses in population were compensated by migration of Protestant settlers or refugees from
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
,
Salzburg
Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian) is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872.
The town is on the site of the ...
(
expulsion of Protestants 1731),
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
(
Huguenot
The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...
refugees after the
Edict of Fontainebleau
The Edict of Fontainebleau (22 October 1685) was an edict issued by French King Louis XIV and is also known as the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The Edict of Nantes (1598) had granted Huguenots the right to practice their religion without s ...
in 1685), and especially from the counterreformed
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi-confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Crown of the Kingdom of ...
, including
Polish brethren
The Polish Brethren (Polish: ''Bracia Polscy'') were members of the Minor Reformed Church of Poland, a Nontrinitarian Protestant church that existed in Poland from 1565 to 1658. By those on the outside, they were called " Arians" or " Socinians" ( ...
expelled from Poland in 1657. The last group of refugees to emigrate to Masuria were the
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
n
Philipons
Old Believers or Old Ritualists, ''starovery'' or ''staroobryadtsy'' are Eastern Orthodox Christians who maintain the liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian Orthodox Church as they were before the reforms of Patriarch Nikon of Moscow bet ...
(as 'Old Believers' opposed to the State Church) in 1830, when King
Frederick William III of Prussia
Frederick William III (german: Friedrich Wilhelm III.; 3 August 1770 – 7 June 1840) was King of Prussia from 16 November 1797 until his death in 1840. He was concurrently Elector of Brandenburg in the Holy Roman Empire until 6 August 1806, wh ...
granted them asylum.
![Wegorzewo Hartknoch 1684](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Wegorzewo_Hartknoch_1684.jpg)
After the death of
Albert Frederick, Duke of Prussia
Albert Frederick (german: Albrecht Friedrich; pl, Albrecht Fryderyk; 7 May 1553 – 27 August 1618) was the Duke of Prussia, from 1568 until his death. He was a son of Albert of Prussia and Anna Marie of Brunswick-Lüneburg. He was the secon ...
in 1618, his son-in-law
John Sigismund, Margrave of Brandenburg
John Sigismund (german: Johann Sigismund; 8 November 1572 – 23 December 1619) was a Prince-elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg from the House of Hohenzollern. He became the Duke of Prussia through his marriage to Duchess Anna, the eldes ...
, inherited the duchy (including Masuria), combining the two territories under a single dynasty and forming
Brandenburg-Prussia
Brandenburg-Prussia (german: Brandenburg-Preußen; ) is the historiographic denomination for the early modern realm of the Brandenburgian Hohenzollerns between 1618 and 1701. Based in the Electorate of Brandenburg, the main branch of the Hohenz ...
. The
Treaty of Wehlau
The Treaty of Bromberg (, Latin: Pacta Bydgostensia) or Treaty of Bydgoszcz was a treaty between John II Casimir of Poland and Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg-Prussia that was ratified at Bromberg (Bydgoszcz) on 6 November 1657. The tr ...
revoked the sovereignty of the King of Poland in 1657.
Kingdom of Prussia
The region became part of the
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Re ...
with the coronation of King
Frederick I of Prussia
Frederick I (german: Friedrich I.; 11 July 1657 – 25 February 1713), of the Hohenzollern dynasty, was (as Frederick III) Elector of Brandenburg (1688–1713) and Duke of Prussia in personal union ( Brandenburg-Prussia). The latter function h ...
in 1701 in
Königsberg
Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was named ...
. Masuria became part of a newly created administrative province of
East Prussia
East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label=Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 187 ...
upon its creation in 1773. The name ''Masuria'' began to be used officially after new administrative reforms in Prussia after 1818. Masurians referred to themselves during that period as "Polish Prussians" or as "Staroprusaki" (Old Prussians)
During the
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
and
Polish national liberation struggles, in 1807, several towns of northern and eastern Masuria were taken over by Polish troops under the command of generals
Jan Henryk Dąbrowski
Jan Henryk Dąbrowski (; also known as Johann Heinrich Dąbrowski (Dombrowski) in German and Jean Henri Dombrowski in French; 2 August 1755 – 6 June 1818) was a Polish general and statesman, widely respected after his death for his patri ...
and
Józef Zajączek
Prince Józef Zajączek (; 1 November 1752 – 28 August 1826) was a Polish general and politician.
Zajączek started his career in the Army of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, an aide-de-camp to hetman Franciszek Ksawery Branicki. He ...
. Some Masurians showed considerable support for the
Polish uprising
This is a chronological list of military conflicts in which Polish armed forces fought or took place on Polish territory from the reign of Mieszko I (960–992) to the ongoing military operations.
This list does not include peacekeeping operation ...
in 1831, and maintained many contacts with
Russian-held areas of Poland beyond the border of Prussia, the areas being connected by common culture and language; before the uprising people visited each other's country fairs and much trade took place, with smuggling also widespread.
[ Nevertheless, their Lutheran belief and a traditional adherence to the Prussian royal family kept Masurians and Poles separated. Some early writers about Masurians - like Max Toeppen - postulated Masurians in general as mediators between German and Slav cultures.][
]Germanisation
Germanisation, or Germanization, is the spread of the German language, German people, people and German culture, culture. It was a central idea of German conservative thought in the 19th and the 20th centuries, when conservatism and ethnic nationa ...
policies in Masuria included various strategies, first and foremost they included attempts to propagate the German language
German ( ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and Official language, official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Ita ...
and to eradicate the Polish (Masurian) language as much as possible; German became the obligatory language in schools from 1834 on. The Lutheran churches and their vicars principally exerted their spiritual care in Masurian as concerned to Masurian mother tongue parishioners.
Ethno-linguistic structure
Mother tongue of the inhabitants of Masuria, by county, during the first half of the 19th century:
The Darkehmen/Darkiejmy (now Ozyorsk) and Gołdap
Gołdap ( or variant ''Goldapp''; lt, Geldupė, Geldapė, Galdapė) is a town in northeastern Poland, in the region of Masuria, seat of Gołdap County in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship. It is located on the Gołdapa River, between the Szeskie ...
counties, as transitional counties between Masuria and the Lithuania Minor
Lithuania Minor ( lt, Mažoji Lietuva; german: Kleinlitauen; pl, Litwa Mniejsza; russian: Ма́лая Литва́), or Prussian Lithuania ( lt, Prūsų Lietuva; german: Preußisch-Litauen, pl, Litwa Pruska), is a historical ethnographic re ...
region to the north, were inhabited by notable numbers of both ethnic Poles and Lithuanians.[
]
German Empire
After the Unification of Germany
The unification of Germany (, ) was the process of building the modern German nation state with federalism, federal features based on the concept of Lesser Germany (one without multinational Austria), which commenced on 18 August 1866 with ad ...
into the German Empire
The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...
in 1871, the last lessons that made use of the Polish language were removed from schools in 1872. Masurians who expressed sympathy for Poland were deemed "national traitors" by German public opinion, especially after 1918 when the new Polish republic laid claims to, up to then German, areas inhabited by Polish speakers. According to Stefan Berger, after 1871 the Masurians in the German Empire were seen in a view that while acknowledging their "objective" Polishness (in terms of culture and language) they felt "subjectively" German and thus should be tightly integrated into the German nation-state; Berger concludes that such arguments of German nationalists were aimed at integrating Masurian (and Silesian) territory firmly into the German Reich.
During the period of the German Empire, the Germanisation policies in Masuria became more widespread; children using Polish in playgrounds and classrooms were widely punished by corporal punishment, and authorities tried to appoint Protestant pastors who would use only German instead of bilinguality and this resulted in protests of local parishioners.[ According to Jerzy Mazurek, the native Polish-speaking population, like in other areas with Polish inhabitants, faced discrimination of Polish language activities from Germanised local administration. In this climate a first resistance defending the rights of rural population was organized, according to Jerzy Mazurek usually by some teachers engaged in publishing Polish language newspapers.
Despite anti-Polish policies, such Polish language newspapers as the ''Pruski Przyjaciel Ludu'' (Prussian Friend of People) 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
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
-based ''Komitet Centralny dla Śląska, Kaszub i Mazur'' (Central Committee for Silesia, Kashubia pl, Kaszuby
, native_name_lang = csb, de, csb
, settlement_type = Historical region
, anthem = Zemia Rodnô
, image_map = Kashubians in Poland.png
, image_flag ...
and Masuria), influenced by Polish politicians like Antoni Osuchowski or Juliusz Bursche
Juliusz Bursche (September 19, 1862 in Kalisz – February 20, 1942?) was a bishop of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church in Poland. A vocal opponent of Nazi Germany, after the German invasion of Poland in 1939, he was arrested by the Germans, tort ...
, to strengthen the Polish identity in Masuria. The ''Gazeta Ludowa'' (The Folk's Newspaper) was published in Lyck in 1896–1902, with 2,500 copies in 1897 and the ''Mazur'' in Ortelsburg
Szczytno (german: Ortelsburg) is a town in northeastern Poland with 27,970 inhabitants (2004). Szczytno is situated in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodship (since 1999), but was previously in Olsztyn Voivodship (1975-1998). It is located within the ...
(Szczytno) after 1906 with 500 copies in 1908 and 2,000 prior to World War I.
Polish activists started to regard Masurians as "Polish brothers" after Wojciech Kętrzyński
Wojciech Kętrzyński (born Adalbert von Winkler; 11 July 1838 – 15 January 1918), was a Polish historian and the director of the Ossolineum Library in Lemberg, then the capital of Galicia, Austrian Empire. He focused on Polish history at a ...
had published his pamphlet ''O Mazurach'' in 1872 and Polish activists engaged in active self-help against repressions by the German state Kętrzyński fought against attempts to Germanise Masuria
However, the attempts to create a Masurian Polish national consciousness, largely originating from nationalist circles of Province of Posen (Poznań) in the Prussian Partition
The Prussian Partition ( pl, Zabór pruski), or Prussian Poland, is the former territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth acquired during the Partitions of Poland, in the late 18th century by the Kingdom of Prussia. The Prussian acquis ...
of Poland, faced the resistance of the Masurians, who, despite having similar folk traditions and linguistics to Poles, regarded themselves as Prussians and later Germans. and were loyal to the Hohenzollern dynasty, the Prussian and German state.[ After World War I the editor of the Polish language ''Mazur'' described the Masurians as "not nationally conscious, on the contrary, the most loyal subjects of the Prussian king". However, a minority of Masurians did exist who expressed Polish identity][
After 1871 there appeared resistance among the Masurians towards Germanisation efforts, the so-called Gromadki movement was formed which supported use of Polish language and came into conflict with German authorities; while most of its members viewed themselves as loyal to the Prussian state, a part of them joined the Pro-Polish faction of Masurians.][ The programme of Germanisation started to unite and mobilise Polish people in Polish-inhabited territories held by Germany including Masuria A Polish-oriented party, the '' Mazurska Partia Ludowa'' ("People's Party of Masuria"), was founded in 1897. The eastern areas of the German Empire were systematically Germanised with changing of names and public signs, and the German state fostered cultural imperialism, in addition to giving financial and other support to German farmers, officials, and teachers to settle in the east.
The German authorities in their efforts of Germanisation tried to claim the Masurian language separate from Polish by classifying it as a non-]Slav
Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...
ic language different from Polish one, this was reflected in official census Thus the Masurian population in 1890, 143,397 was reported to the Prussian census as having German as their language (either primary or secondary), 152,186 Polish and 94,961 Masurian. In 1910, the German language was reported by German authorities as used by 197,060, Polish by 30,121 and Masurian by 171,413. Roman Catholics generally opted for the Polish language, Protestants appreciated Masurian. In 1925, German authorities reported 40,869 inhabitants as having declared Masurian as their native tongue and 2,297 as Polish. However, the last result may have been a result of politics at the time, the desire of the population to be German after the trauma evoked by the 1920 plebiscite. So the province could be presented as - so-called - 'purely German'; in reality, the Masurian dialect was still in use among bilinguals.
Throughout industrialisation
Industrialisation ( alternatively spelled industrialization) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive re-organisation of an econo ...
in the late 19th century about 10 percent of the Masurian populace emigrated to the Ruhr Area
The Ruhr ( ; german: Ruhrgebiet , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr area, sometimes Ruhr district, Ruhr region, or Ruhr valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 2,800/km ...
, where about 180,000 Masurians lived in 1914. Wattenscheid
Wattenscheid () is a Stadtbezirk of the city of Bochum. Until 1975, it was a separate town in the Ruhr area of North Rhine-Westphalia. Wattenscheid has a population of about 80,000 citizens. Some notable firms have their headquarters in there ...
, Wanne and Gelsenkirchen
Gelsenkirchen (, , ; wep, Gelsenkiärken) is the 25th most populous city of Germany and the 11th most populous in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with 262,528 (2016) inhabitants. On the Emscher River (a tributary of the Rhine), it lies ...
were the centers of Masurian emigration and Gelsenkirchen-Schalke
Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as FC Schalke 04 (), Schalke 04 (), or abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional German football and multi-sports club originally from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rh ...
was even called Klein (little)-Ortelsburg
Szczytno (german: Ortelsburg) is a town in northeastern Poland with 27,970 inhabitants (2004). Szczytno is situated in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodship (since 1999), but was previously in Olsztyn Voivodship (1975-1998). It is located within the ...
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
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, the Battle of Tannenberg
The Battle of Tannenberg, also known as the Second Battle of Tannenberg, was fought between Russia and Germany between 26 and 30 August 1914, the first month of World War I. The battle resulted in the almost complete destruction of the Russi ...
and the First
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
and Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes
The Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes, also known as the Winter Battle of the Masurian Lakes, was the northern part of the Central Powers' offensive on the Eastern Front in the winter of 1915. The offensive was intended to advance beyond the V ...
between Imperial Germany and the Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
took place within the borders of Masuria in 1914. After the war, the League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...
held the East Prussian plebiscite
The East Prussian plebiscite (german: Abstimmung in Ostpreußen), also known as the Allenstein and Marienwerder plebiscite or Warmia, Masuria and Powiśle plebiscite ( pl, Plebiscyt na Warmii, Mazurach i Powiślu), was a plebiscite organised in a ...
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 Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...
. The German side terrorised the local population before the plebiscite using violence, Polish organisations and activists were harassed by German militias, and those actions included attacks and some supposed murders of Polish activists; Masurs who supported voting for Poland were singled out and subjected to terror and repressions.
Names of those Masurs supporting the Polish side were published in German newspapers, and their photos presented in German shops; afterwards regular hunts were organised after them by German militias terrorizing the Polish minded population. At least 3,000 Warmian and Masurian activists who were engaged for the Polish side decided to flee the region. At the same time also local police officials were engaged in active surveillance of the Polish minority and attacks against Polish activists. Before the plebiscite Poles started to flee the region to escape the German harassment and Germanisation policies.
The results determined that 99.32% of the voters in Masuria proper chose to remain with the province of East Prussia
East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label=Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 187 ...
. Notwithstanding national German agitation and intimidation, these results reflect that majority Masurians had adopted a German national identity next to a regional identity. Their traditional religious belief in Lutheranism
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...
kept them away from Polish national consciousness, dominated by Roman Catholicism
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...
. In fact almost only Catholics voted for Poland in the plebiscite. They were to be found as a majority in the villages around the capital Allenstein (Olsztyn
Olsztyn ( , ; german: Allenstein ; Old Prussian: ''Alnāsteini''
* Latin: ''Allenstenium'', ''Holstin'') is a city on the Łyna River in northern Poland. It is the capital of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, and is a city with county rights. ...
) in Warmia, the same were Polish cultural activism got hold between 1919 and 1932. 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
The Polish–Soviet War (Polish–Bolshevik War, Polish–Soviet War, Polish–Russian War 1919–1921)
* russian: Советско-польская война (''Sovetsko-polskaya voyna'', Soviet-Polish War), Польский фронт (' ...
threatened to erase the Polish state. As a result, even many Poles of the region voted for Germany out of fear that if the area was allocated to Poland it would fall under Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
rule. After the plebiscite in German areas of Masuria attacks on Polish population commenced by German mobs, and Polish priests and politicians were driven from their homes After the plebiscite at least 10,000 Poles had to flee German held Masuria to Poland.
Interbellum
Polish Masuria — the Działdowo county
The region of Działdowo
Działdowo (german: Soldau) (Old Prussian: Saldawa) is a town in northern Poland with 20,935 inhabitants as of December 2021, the capital of Działdowo County. As part of Masuria, it is situated in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship (since 1999), D ...
(Soldau), where according to the official German census of 1910 ethnic Germans formed a minority of 37.3%, was excluded from the plebiscite and became part of Poland. This was reasoned with placing the railway connection between Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
and Danzig (Gdańsk), of vital importance to Poland as it connected central Poland with its recently obtained seacoast, completely under Polish sovereignty. Działdowo itself counted about 24,000 people of which 18,000 were Masurians.
According to the municipal administration of Rybno, after World War I Poles in Działdowo believed that they will be quickly joined with Poland,[Plan odnowy miejscowości Koszelewy, Rys historyczny, page 5 Załącznik do Uchwały Nr XLII/9 /10 Rady Gminy Rybno z dnia 23 lutego 2010 r.] they organised secret gatherings during which the issue of rejoining Polish state with help of Polish military was discussed. According to the Rybno administration, most active Poles in that subregion included Jóżwiakowscy, Wojnowscy, Grzeszczowscy families working under the guidance of politician Leon Wojnowski who protested German attempts to remain Działdowo a part of Germany after the war; other local pro-Polish activists were Alfred Wellenger, Paczyński, Tadeusz Bogdański, Jóźwiakowski.
The historian Andreas Kossert describes that the incorporation happened despite protests of the local populace, the municipal authorities and the German Government, According to Kossert, 6,000 inhabitants of the region soon left the area.
In 1920, the candidate of the German Party in Poland, Ernst Barczewski, was elected to the Sejm
The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland.
The Sejm has been the highest governing body of t ...
with 74.6 percent of votes and to the Polish Senate
The Senate ( pl, Senat) is the upper house of the Polish parliament, the lower house being the Sejm. The history of the Polish Senate stretches back over 500 years; it was one of the first constituent bodies of a bicameral parliament in Europe ...
with 34.6% of votes for the Bloc of National Minorities
The Bloc of National Minorities ( pl, Blok Mniejszości Narodowych, (, BMN; be, Блёк нацыянальных меньшасьцяў, ; uk, Блок національних меншин, ; german: Block der Nationalen Minderheiten; yi, ב ...
in 1928. During the Polish–Soviet War
The Polish–Soviet War (Polish–Bolshevik War, Polish–Soviet War, Polish–Russian War 1919–1921)
* russian: Советско-польская война (''Sovetsko-polskaya voyna'', Soviet-Polish War), Польский фронт (' ...
Działdowo was briefly occupied by the Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...
regarded as liberator from the Polish authority by the local German population, which hoisted the German flag, but it was soon recovered by the Polish Army
The Land Forces () are the land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 62,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military history stret ...
.
During the interwar period many native inhabitants of Działdowo subregion left and migrated to Germany.
Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany
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
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
to Neidenburg
Nidzica (former pl, Nibork; ) (Old Prussian: Nīdaspils) is a town in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship of Poland, lying between Olsztyn and Mława, in Masuria. The capital of Nidzica County, it had a population in 2017 of 13,872.
History
T ...
(Nidzica), Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
to Lötzen (Giżycko) and even Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
to Ortelsburg
Szczytno (german: Ortelsburg) is a town in northeastern Poland with 27,970 inhabitants (2004). Szczytno is situated in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodship (since 1999), but was previously in Olsztyn Voivodship (1975-1998). It is located within the ...
(Szczytno). The architecture still is surprisingly distinct, being of modern Central European character. However, Masuria was still largely agrarian-oriented and suffered from the economic decline after World War I, additionally badly affected by the creation of the so-called Polish Corridor
The Polish Corridor (german: Polnischer Korridor; pl, Pomorze, Polski Korytarz), also known as the Danzig Corridor, Corridor to the Sea or Gdańsk Corridor, was a territory located in the region of Pomerelia (Pomeranian Voivodeship, eastern ...
, which raised freight costs to the traditional markets in Germany. The later implemented Osthilfe Eastern Aid (''Osthilfe'') was a policy of the German Government of the Weimar Republic (1919–33) to give financial support from Government funds to bankrupt estates in East Prussia.
The policy was implemented beginning in 1929–1930, in spite ...
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.
In the 1920s Masuria remained a heartland of conservatism with the German National People's Party
The German National People's Party (german: Deutschnationale Volkspartei, DNVP) was a national-conservative party in Germany during the Weimar Republic. Before the rise of the Nazi Party, it was the major conservative and nationalist party in Wei ...
as strongest party.[ The ]Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
, having absorbed the conservative one, became the strongest party already in the Masurian constituencies in the elections of 1930 and received its best results in the poorest areas of Masuria with the highest rate of Polish speakers. Especially in the elections of 1932 and 1933 they reached up to 81 percent of votes in the district of Neidenburg
Nidzica (former pl, Nibork; ) (Old Prussian: Nīdaspils) is a town in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship of Poland, lying between Olsztyn and Mława, in Masuria. The capital of Nidzica County, it had a population in 2017 of 13,872.
History
T ...
and 80 percent in the district of Lyck.[Clark, p. 640] The Nazis used the economic 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 organised in the Masurian dialect
The Masurian ethnolect (Masurian: ''mazurská gádkä''; pl, mazurski; german: Masurisch), according to some linguists, is a dialect group of the Polish language; others consider Masurian to be a separate language, spoken by the Masurian people ...
during the campaigning.
In 1938, the Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
government (1933–1945) changed thousands of still existing toponyms (especially names of cities and villages) of Old Prussian, Lithuanian and Polish origin to newly created German names; six thousand, that meant about 50% of the existing names were changed, but the countryside population stuck to their traditional names. Another renaming would take place after Masuria passed to Poland in 1945, with the bulk of the historic Polish names restored.
According to German author Andreas Kossert, Polish parties were financed and aided by the Polish government in Warsaw, and remained splintergroups without any political influence, e.g. 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 Piassutten (Piasutno), died in his home of carbon monoxide poisoning, most likely murdered by local German nationalists.
Due to severe persecution, from 1936 Polish organizations carried out their activities partly in conspiracy. Before the war the Nazi German state sent undercover operatives to spy on Polish organisations and created lists of people that were to be executed or sent to concentration camps
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...
. Information was gathered on who sent children to Polish schools, bought Polish press or took part in Polish ceremonies and organised repressions against these people were executed by Nazi militias. Polish schools, printing presses and headquarters of Polish institutions were attacked as well as homes of the most active Poles; shops owned by Poles were vandalised or demolished. Polish masses were dispersed, and Polish teachers were intimidated as members of the SS gathered under their locals performing songs like "Wenn das Polenblut vom Messer spritzt, dann geht's noch mal so gut" ("When Polish blood spurts from the knife, everything will be better").
The Nazi anti-Polish activities further intensified in 1939. Those Poles who were most active in politics were evicted from their own homes, while Polish newspapers and cultural houses were closed down in the region. In an attempt to rig the results of an upcoming census and understate the number of Poles in the region, the Germans terrorized the Polish population and attacked Polish organizations. In summer 1939 the German terror against the Poles even exceeded the terror from the period of the 1920 plebiscite.[Cygański, p. 40] Polish church masses were banned between June and July in Warmia
Warmia ( pl, Warmia; Latin: ''Varmia'', ''Warmia''; ; Warmian: ''Warńija''; lt, Varmė; Old Prussian: ''Wārmi'') is both a historical and an ethnographic region in northern Poland, forming part of historical Prussia. Its historic capitals ...
and Masuria. In August 1939, Germany introduced martial law
Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory.
Use
Marti ...
in the region, which allowed for even more blatant persecution of Poles.[
In the final moments of August 1939 all remains of political and cultural life of Polish minority was eradicated by the Nazis, with imprisonment of Polish activists and liquidation of Polish institutions.] Seweryn Pieniężny, the chief editor of ''Gazeta Olsztyńska
''Gazeta Olsztyńska'' (English: ''Olsztyn Daily'') is a Polish language newspaper, published in Olsztyn.
The newspaper was first published in the years 1886–1939, in what was then East Prussia. Its first editor in chief was an ethnic Warmiak ...
'', who opposed Germanisation of Masuria, was interned, and other Polish activists in Masuria were also arrested.
Directors of Polish schools and teachers were imprisoned, as was the staff of Polish pre-schools in the Masuria region. They were often forced to destroy Polish signs, emblems and symbols of Polish institutions.
World War II
With the start of the German invasion of Poland
The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...
and World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
on 1 September 1939, the German minority in the parts of Masuria attached to Poland after World War I organised themselves in paramilitary formations called ''Selbstschutz
''Selbstschutz'' (German for "self-protection") is the name given to different iterations of ethnic-German self-protection units formed both after the First World War and in the lead-up to the Second World War.
The first incarnation of the ''Selb ...
'' (selfdefense) and begun to engage in massacres of local Polish population; Poles were imprisoned, tortured and murdered while Masurians were sometimes forcefully placed on Volksliste
The Deutsche Volksliste (German People's List), a Nazi Party institution, aimed to classify inhabitants of Nazi-occupied territories (1939-1945) into categories of desirability according to criteria systematised by ''Reichsführer-SS'' Heinrich H ...
.
From now on conscripted Masurians had to serve without exception in the German army
The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the ''Luftwaf ...
invading Poland, and Russia two years later on. In addition, the '' Einsatzgruppe V'' Nazi paramilitary death squads entered German-occupied Dziadowo to commit crimes against the Polish population. Only some of the Polish activists from Działdowo County were caught by the Germans, as most managed to flee and hide under assumed names in the General Government
The General Government (german: Generalgouvernement, pl, Generalne Gubernatorstwo, uk, Генеральна губернія), also referred to as the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region (german: Generalgouvernement für die be ...
(German-occupied central Poland). Arrested Polish activists from the pre-war German part of Masuria were mostly deported to concentration camps, incl. , Soldau, Stutthof
Stutthof was a Nazi concentration camp established by Nazi Germany in a secluded, marshy, and wooded area near the village of Stutthof (now Sztutowo) 34 km (21 mi) east of the city of Danzig ( Gdańsk) in the territory of the Germ ...
, Sachsenhausen
Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners ...
, Gusen and Ravensbrück.
In 1939, the German occupiers established a prisoner-of-war camp
A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured by a belligerent power in time of war.
There are significant differences among POW camps, internment camps, and military prisons. P ...
for captured Polish soldiers in Działdowo. In December 1939 it was converted into a camp for Polish civilians arrested during the ''Intelligenzaktion
The ''Intelligenzaktion'' (), or the Intelligentsia mass shootings, was a series of mass murders which was committed against the Polish intelligentsia (teachers, priests, physicians, and other prominent members of Polish society) early in the ...
'', and afterwards converted into the Soldau concentration camp
The Soldau concentration camp established by Nazi Germany during World War II was a concentration camp for Polish and Jewish prisoners. It was located in Działdowo (german: Soldau), a town in north-eastern Poland, which after the Nazi-Soviet inva ...
, where 13,000 people were murdered by the Nazi German state during the war. Notable victims included the Polish bishops Antoni Julian Nowowiejski
Antoni Julian Nowowiejski (11 February 1858 – 28 May 1941) was a Polish bishop of Płock (1908–1941), titular archbishop of Silyum, first secretary of Polish Episcopal Conference (1918–1919), honorary citizen of Płock and historian. He ...
and Leon Wetmański Leon Wetmański (10 April 1886 - 1941) was a Polish Catholic auxiliary Bishop of the Płock diocese who was killed in Soldau concentration camp. He was beatified in 1999 as one of the 108 Blessed Polish Martyrs.
Education
He was born in 1886 to a ...
, as well as the nun Mieczysława Kowalska. Additionally, almost 1,900 mentally ill patients from East Prussia and annexed areas of Poland were murdered there as well, in what was known as Action T4
(German, ) was a campaign of mass murder by involuntary euthanasia in Nazi Germany. The term was first used in post-war trials against doctors who had been involved in the killings. The name T4 is an abbreviation of 4, a street address of ...
. Polish resistance in Masuria was organised by Paweł Nowakowski "Leśnik" commander of the Home Army
The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) esta ...
's Działdowo district.
The Nazis believed that in future, the Masurians, as a separate non-German entity, would 'naturally' disappear in the end, while those who would cling to their "foreigness" as one Nazi report mentioned, would be deported. Local Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
were considered by the Nazis to be subhuman
''SubHuman'' is the sixth studio album by Recoil. Alan Wilder stated in a YouTube greeting that there would be a new album coming in spring or early summer 2007. On 23 April 2007, he released information regarding the album via Myspace and hi ...
and were to be exterminated. The Nazi authorities also executed Polish activists in Masuria and those who remained alive were sent to concentration camps.
In Masuria, Germany also established and operated the Stalag I-B
Stalag I-B Hohenstein was a German World War II prisoner-of-war camp located west of Hohenstein, East Prussia (now Olsztynek, Poland).
The camp was partially located on the grounds of the Tannenberg Memorial and initially included a set of woode ...
prisoner-of-war camp for Polish, Belgian, French, Italian, Serbian and Soviet POWs, and built the Wolf's Lair
The ''Wolf's Lair'' (german: Wolfsschanze; pl, Wilczy Szaniec) served as Adolf Hitler's first Eastern Front military headquarters in World War II.
The headquarters was located in the Masurian woods, near the small village of Görlitz in Ostp ...
, Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
's first Eastern Front military headquarters where the 20 July assassination attempt occurred in 1944. In August 1943 the Uderzeniowe Bataliony Kadrowe attacked the village of Mittenheide (Turośl) in southern Masuria.
In 1943 ,"Związek Mazurski" was reactivated secretly by Masurian activists of the Polish Underground State in Warsaw and led by Karol Małłek. Związek Mazurski opposed Nazi Germany and asked Polish authorities during the war to liquidate German large landowners after the victory over Nazi Germany to help in agricultural reform and settlement of Masurian population, Masurian iconoclasts opposed to Nazi Germany requested to remove German heritage sites "regardless of their cultural value". Additionally a Masurian Institute was founded by Masurian activists in Radość near Warsaw in 1943.[O nas](_blank)
Ośrodek Badań Naukowych imienia Wojciecha Kętrzyńskiego w Olsztynie
In the final stages of World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Masuria was partially devastated by the retreating German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
and advancing Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
armies during the Vistula-Oder Offensive. Already on May 23, 1945, the Soviets granted that a Polish administration be established in the region, which aroused British and American protest.
However, per the decisions made at the earlier Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference (codenamed Argonaut), also known as the Crimea Conference, held 4–11 February 1945, was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union to discuss the post ...
and the Potsdam Conference
The Potsdam Conference (german: Potsdamer Konferenz) was held at Potsdam in the Soviet occupation zone from July 17 to August 2, 1945, to allow the three leading Allies to plan the postwar peace, while avoiding the mistakes of the Paris Pe ...
the region passed to Poland, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime, pending a final peace conference with Germany. Most of the population fled to Germany or was killed during or after the war, while those which stayed were subject to a "nationality verification", organised by the communist government
A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Cominte ...
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
Seventeen days after the German invasion of Poland in 1939, which marked the beginning of the Second World War, the Soviet Union entered the eastern regions of Poland (known as the ''Kresy'') and annexed territories totalling with a population o ...
as well as Ukrainians
Ukrainians ( uk, Українці, Ukraintsi, ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. They are the seventh-largest nation in Europe. The native language of the Ukrainians is Ukrainian language, Ukrainian. The majority ...
expelled from southern Poland throughout the Operation Vistula
Operation Vistula ( pl, Akcja Wisła; uk, Опера́ція «Ві́сла») was a codename for the 1947 forced resettlement of 150,000 Ukrainians (Boykos and Lemkos) from the south-eastern provinces of post-war Poland, to the Recovered Te ...
, were resettled in Masuria.
Masuria after World War II
According to the Masurian Institute, the Masurian members of resistance against Nazi Germany who survived the war became active in 1945 in the region, working in Olsztyn
Olsztyn ( , ; german: Allenstein ; Old Prussian: ''Alnāsteini''
* Latin: ''Allenstenium'', ''Holstin'') is a city on the Łyna River in northern Poland. It is the capital of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, and is a city with county rights. ...
in cooperation with new state authorities in administration, education and cultural affairs. Historic Polish names for most of towns of Masuria were restored, but for some places new names were determined even if there were historic Polish names.
German author Andreas Kossert describes the post-war process of "national verification" as based on an ethnic racism which categorised the local populace according to their alleged ethnic background. A Polish-sounding last name or a Polish-speaking ancestor was sufficient to be regarded as "autochthonous" Polish.
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 Mrągowo
Mrągowo (until 1947 pl, Ządźbork ; ) is a resort town in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship of northeastern Poland, with 21,889 inhabitants (2019). It is the capital of Mrągowo County and the seat (though not part of) the Gmina Mrągowo. ...
, 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 "Polonised" and the usage of the 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 Łódź
Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of canti ...
, Mieczysław Moczar
Mieczysław Moczar (; birth name Mikołaj Diomko, pseudonym ''Mietek'', 23 December 1913 in – 1 November 1986) was a Polish communist politician who played a prominent role in the history of the Polish People's Republic. He is most known for hi ...
, 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 Mrągowo only 166 Masurians were still "unverified".
In 1950, 1,600 Masurians left the country and in 1951, 35,000 people from Masuria and Warmia
Warmia ( pl, Warmia; Latin: ''Varmia'', ''Warmia''; ; Warmian: ''Warńija''; lt, Varmė; Old Prussian: ''Wārmi'') is both a historical and an ethnographic region in northern Poland, forming part of historical Prussia. Its historic capitals ...
managed to obtain a declaration of their German nationality by the embassies of the United States and Great Britain in Warsaw. Sixty-three percent of the Masurians in the district of Mrągowo received such a document. In December 1956, Masurian pro-Polish activists signed a memorandum to the Communist Party leadership:
"The history of the people of Warmia and Masuria is full of tragedy and suffering. Injustice, hardship and pain often pressed on the shoulders of Warmians and Masurians... Dislike, injustice and violence surrounds us...They (Warmians and Masurians) demand respect for their differentness, grown in the course of seven centuries and for freedom to maintain their traditions".
Soon after the political reforms of 1956, Masurians were given the opportunity to join their families in West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
. The majority (over 100 thousand) gradually left, and after the improvement of Germano-Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
relations by the German Ostpolitik
''Neue Ostpolitik'' (German for "new eastern policy"), or ''Ostpolitik'' for short, was the normalization of relations between the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, or West Germany) and
Eastern Europe, particularly the German Democratic Republ ...
of the 1970s, 55,227 persons from Warmia and Masuria moved to West Germany in between 1971 and 1988. Today, between 5,000 and 6,000 Masurians
The Masurians or Mazurs ( pl, Mazurzy; german: Masuren; Masurian: ''Mazurÿ''), historically also known as Prussian Masurians (Polish: ''Mazurzy pruscy''), is an ethnographic group of Polish people, that originate from the region of Masuria, ...
still live in the area, about 50 percent of them members of the German minority in Poland
The registered German minority in Poland at the 2011 national census consisted of 148,000 people, of whom 64,000 declared both German and Polish ethnicities and 45,000 solely German ethnicity.Przynależność narodowo-etniczna ludności – wyni ...
; the remaining half is ethnic Polish. 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.[
Most of the originally ]Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
churches in Masuria are now used by the Polish Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
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
Spychowo (german: Puppen) is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Świętajno, Szczytno County, Gmina Świętajno, within Szczytno County, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. It lies approximately north-east of Święta ...
, the Lutheran Parish was even forcefully driven out of their church while liturgy was held.[
]
Modern Masuria
In modern Masuria the native population has virtually disappeared.[ Masuria was incorporated into the voivodeship system of administration in 1945. In 1999 Masuria was constituted with neighbouring ]Warmia
Warmia ( pl, Warmia; Latin: ''Varmia'', ''Warmia''; ; Warmian: ''Warńija''; lt, Varmė; Old Prussian: ''Wārmi'') is both a historical and an ethnographic region in northern Poland, forming part of historical Prussia. Its historic capitals ...
as a single administrative province through the creation of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship
Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship or Warmia-Masuria Province or Warmia-Mazury Province (in pl, Województwo warmińsko-mazurskie, is a voivodeship (province) in northeastern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Olsztyn. The voivodeship has an are ...
.
Today, numerous summer music festivals take place in Masuria, including the largest reggae
Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...
festival in Poland in Ostróda, the largest country music festival in Poland in Mrągowo
Mrągowo (until 1947 pl, Ządźbork ; ) is a resort town in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship of northeastern Poland, with 21,889 inhabitants (2019). It is the capital of Mrągowo County and the seat (though not part of) the Gmina Mrągowo. ...
, and one of Poland's largest hip hop music festivals in Giżycko
Giżycko (former pl, Lec or ''Łuczany''; ; lt, Leičių pilis) is a town in northeastern Poland with 28,597 inhabitants as of December 2021. It is situated between Lake Kisajno and Lake Niegocin in the region of Masuria, and has been withi ...
and Ełk
Ełk (; former pl, Łek; german: Lyck; Old Prussian: ''Luks''; lt, Lukas), also spelled Elk in English, is a small city in northeastern Poland with 61,677 inhabitants as of December 2021. It was assigned to Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship in 1999, ...
.
The Masurian Szczytno-Szymany International Airport
Olsztyn-Mazury Airport ( pl, Port lotniczy Olsztyn-Mazury) is an international passenger airport in the North-East of Poland, branded as the gateway to the Masurian Lake District. It is located near Szymany, some 10 km from the centre of ...
gained international attention as press reports alleged the airport to be a so-called ''"black site
In military terminology, a black site is a location at which an unacknowledged black operation or black project is conducted. According to the Associated Press, "Black sites are clandestine jails where prisoners generally are not charged with ...
"'' involved in the CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
's network of extraordinary renditions
Extraordinary rendition is a euphemism for state-sponsored forcible abduction in another jurisdiction and transfer to a third state. The phrase usually refers to a United States-led program used during the War on Terror, which had the purpose ...
.
Landscape
Masuria and the Masurian Lake District
The Masurian Lake District or Masurian Lakeland ( pl, Pojezierze Mazurskie; german: Masurische Seenplatte) is a lake district in northeastern Poland within the geographical region of Masuria, in the past inhabited by Masurians who spoke the Masuri ...
are known in Polish as ''Kraina Tysiąca Jezior'', meaning "land of a thousand lakes." These lakes were ground out of the land by glaciers during the Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
ice age
An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...
around 14,000 - 15,000 years ago, when ice covered northeastern Europe. From that period originates the horn of a reindeer found in the vicinity of Giżycko
Giżycko (former pl, Lec or ''Łuczany''; ; lt, Leičių pilis) is a town in northeastern Poland with 28,597 inhabitants as of December 2021. It is situated between Lake Kisajno and Lake Niegocin in the region of Masuria, and has been withi ...
.[Krajobraz kulturowy powiatu gołdapskiego, at www.dkgoldap.fr.pl]
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
The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain.
The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...
have greatly altered in appearance. More than in other parts of northern Poland, such as from Pomerania
Pomerania ( pl, Pomorze; german: Pommern; Kashubian: ''Pòmòrskô''; sv, Pommern) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The western part of Pomerania belongs to ...
(from the River Oder to the River Vistula
The Vistula (; pl, Wisła, ) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest river in Europe, at in length. The drainage basin, reaching into three other nations, covers , of which is in Poland.
The Vistula rises at Barania Góra in t ...
), this continuous stretch of lakes is popular among tourists. The terrain is rather 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
A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accep ...
and mixed forests
Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest is a temperate climate terrestrial habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature, with broadleaf tree ecoregions, and with conifer and broadleaf tree mixed coniferous forest ecoregions.
These fo ...
.
Two largest lakes of Poland, Śniardwy
Śniardwy () is a lake in the Masurian Lake District of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland.
At , Śniardwy is the largest lake in Poland. It was also the largest lake in Prussia, when Warmia-Masuria was under German rule. It is long and w ...
and Mamry, are located in Masuria.
Main towns
Notable people from Masuria
*Richard Altmann
Richard Altmann (12 March 1852 – 8 December 1900) was a German pathologist and histologist from Deutsch Eylau in the Province of Prussia.
Altmann studied medicine in Greifswald, Königsberg, Marburg, and Giessen, obtaining a doctorate at t ...
(1852–1900), pathologist
* Leszek Błażyński (1949–1992), boxer
*Kurt Blumenfeld
Kurt Blumenfeld (May 29, 1884 – May 21, 1963) was a German-born Zionist from Marggrabowa, East Prussia. He was the secretary general of the World Zionist Organization from 1911 to 1914. He died in Jerusalem.
He had served as secretary of ...
(1884–1963), politician
*Abraham Calovius
Abraham Calovius (also Abraham Calov or Abraham Kalau; 16 April 161225 February 1686) was a Lutheran theologian, and was one of the champions of Lutheran orthodoxy in the 17th century.
Biography
He was born in Mohrungen (Morąg), Ducal Prussia ...
(1612–1686), Lutheran theologian
*Roman Czepe
Roman Czepe (born 15 December 1956 in Ełk) is a Polish politician. He was elected to the Sejm
The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland ( Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lowe ...
(born 1956), politician
*Lucas David
Lucas (or Lukas) David (1503 - April 1583) was a German historian, who from ca. 1550 on compiled extensive volumes on Prussian history.
Life
David was born in Allenstein (Olsztyn), Royal Prussia, Poland, to Gerhard Dönhoff. He studied at the ...
(1503–1583), historian
* Ferdinand Gregorovius (1821–1891), historian
*Lothar Gall
Lothar Gall (born 3 December 1936 in Lötzen, East Prussia, present day Poland) is a German historian known as "one of German liberalism's primary historians". He was professor of history at Goethe University Frankfurt from 1975 until his reti ...
(born 1936) historian
*Gustaw Gizewiusz
Gustaw Herman Marcin Gizewiusz, or Gustav Gisevius (May 21, 1810 – May 7, 1848) was a Polish political figure, folklorist, and translator. He was married to a Mazur Polish woman, who encouraged him to become a political figure. He was born i ...
(1810–1848), Protestant pastor, supporter of Polish language teaching and resistance against Germanisation
*Georg Andreas Helwing
Georg Andreas Helwing ( pl, Jerzy Andrzej Helwing) (14 December 1666 – 3 January 1748) was a botanist and Lutheran pastor.
Helwing was born in Angerburg (Węgorzewo) in Brandenburg-Prussia's Duchy of Prussia. He became a "remote member" of t ...
(1666–1748), botanist
*Paul Hensel
Paul Hugo Wilhelm Hensel (17 May 1860, Groß-Barthen near Königsberg – 11 November 1930, Erlangen) was a German philosopher.
Biography
Hensel was born in Groß-Barten near Königsberg, Prussia. He was the son of the landowner and entrep ...
(1867–1944), politician
*Andreas Hillgruber
Andreas Fritz Hillgruber (18 January 1925 – 8 May 1989) was a conservative German historian who was influential as a military and diplomatic historian who played a leading role in the ''Historikerstreit'' of the 1980s. In his controversial book ...
(1925–1989), historian
*Wojciech Kętrzyński
Wojciech Kętrzyński (born Adalbert von Winkler; 11 July 1838 – 15 January 1918), was a Polish historian and the director of the Ossolineum Library in Lemberg, then the capital of Galicia, Austrian Empire. He focused on Polish history at a ...
(1838–1918), activist and historian
*Hans Hellmut Kirst
Hans Hellmut Kirst (5 December 1914 – 13 February 1989) was a German novelist and the author of 46 books, many of which were translated into English. Kirst is best remembered as the creator of the "Gunner Asch" series which detailed the ongoin ...
(1914–1989), author
*Georg Klebs
Georg Albrecht Klebs (23 October 1857 – 15 October 1918) was a German botanist from Neidenburg (Nidzica), Prussia. His brother was the historian Elimar Klebs.
Life
Klebs studied chemistry, philosophy, and art history at the University of ...
(1857–1913), botanist
*Walter Kollo
Walter Kollo (28 January 1878 – 30 September 1940) was a German composer of operettas, Possen mit Gesang, and Singspiele as well as popular songs. He was also a conductor and a music publisher.
Kollo was born in Neidenburg, East Prussia. ...
(1878–1940), composer
*Horst Kopkow Horst Kopkow (29 November 1910, Ortelsburg, East Prussia, Germany (now Szczytno, Poland) – 13 October 1996, Gelsenkirchen, Germany) was a Nazi German SS major who worked for German Security police and, after the war, was concealed by Briti ...
(1910–1996), spy
*Udo Lattek
Udo Lattek (16 January 1935 – 31 January 2015) was a German professional football player and coach.
Lattek is one of the most successful coaches in the history of the game, having won 15 major titles, most famously with Bayern Munich. He also ...
(1935-2015), football coach
*Siegfried Lenz
Siegfried Lenz (; 17 March 19267 October 2014) was a German writer of novels, short stories and essays, as well as dramas for radio and the theatre. In 2000 he received the Goethe Prize on the 250th Anniversary of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's bi ...
(1926-2014), author
* Wolf Lepenies (born 1941), political scientist
* Johannes von Leysen (1310–1388), founder and first mayor of Allenstein
*Albert Lieven
Albert Lieven (born Albert Fritz Liévin; 22 June 1906 – 22 December 1971) was a German actor.
Early life
Lieven was born in Hohenstein, East Prussia (Olszynek, Poland). His father was the head physician of the Tuberculosis sanatorium Ho ...
(1906–1971), actor
*Krzysztof Celestyn Mrongovius
Krzysztof Celestyn Mrongovius (german: Christoph Cölestin Mrongovius; pl, Krzysztof Celestyn Mrongowiusz) (July 19, 1764 – June 3, 1855) was a Protestant pastor, writer, philosopher, distinguished linguist, and translator. Mrongovius wa ...
(1764–1855), Protestant pastor and philosopher
*Celestyn Myślenta
Celestyn Myślenta (also ''Mislenski''; 27 March 1588 in Kuty (Kutten), Ducal Prussia – 20 April 1653 in Königsberg (Królewiec)) was a Polish Lutheran theologian and rector of the University of Königsberg. Celestyn was the son of Mateusz Myś ...
(1588–1653), Lutheran theologian and rector of the University of Königsberg
The University of Königsberg (german: Albertus-Universität Königsberg) was the university of Königsberg in East Prussia. It was founded in 1544 as the world's second Protestant academy (after the University of Marburg) by Duke Albert of Prussi ...
*Rodolphe Radau
Jean Charles Rodolphe Radau (22 January 1835 – 21 December 1911) was an astronomer and mathematician who worked in Paris at the ''Revue des deux Mondes'' for most of his life. He was the co-founder of the Bulletin Astronomique.
Radau was bor ...
(1835–1911), astronomer
*Karl Bogislaus Reichert
Karl Bogislaus Reichert (20 December 1811 – 21 December 1883) was a German anatomist, embryologist and histologist.
Biography
Reichert was born in Rastenburg (Kętrzyn), East Prussia. From 1831 he studied at the University of Konigsberg, wh ...
(1811–1883), anatomist
*Nicholas von Renys Nicholas von Renys (german: Nikolaus von Renys; pl, Mikołaj z Ryńska) (1360–1411) was a secular member of the Teutonic Knights and a participant in the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War (1409–1411). The Knights blamed him as a scapegoat for ...
(1360-1411), knight
*Fritz Richard Schaudinn
Fritz Richard Schaudinn (19 September 1871 – 22 June 1906) was a German zoologist.
Born in Röseningken, East Prussia, he co-discovered, with Erich Hoffmann in 1905, the causative agent of syphilis, ''Spirochaeta pallida'' (also known as ''Trep ...
(1871–1906), zoologist
* Paweł Sobolewski (born 1979), footballer
*Helmuth Stieff
Hellmuth Stieff (6 June 1901 – 8 August 1944) was a German general and a member of the OKH (German Army Headquarters) during World War II. He took part in attempts by the German resistance to assassinate Adolf Hitler on 7 and 20 July 1944.
C ...
(1901–1944), general
*Bethel Henry Strousberg
Bethel Henry Strousberg (20 November 1823 – 31 May 1884) was a German Jewish industrialist and railway entrepreneur during Germany's rapid industrial expansion in the 19th century. He cemented his social standing with the construction of the ...
(1823–1884), industrialist
*Arno Surminski
Arno Surminski (born 20 August 1934 in Jäglack, East Prussia) is a German writer, living in Hamburg, a father of three and a grandfather of 8.
After growing up in East Prussia, his parents were deported to the Soviet Union, while he was expell ...
(born 1934), writer
*Kurt Symanzik Kurt Symanzik (November 23, 1923 – October 25, 1983) was a German physicist working in quantum field theory.
Life
Symanzik was born in Lyck (Ełk), East Prussia, and spent his childhood in Königsberg. He started studying physics in 1946 a ...
(1923–1983), physicist
*August Trunz The Prussica-Sammlung Trunz (the formal title can be informally translated as the "Prussianica Collection elonging to or assembled byTrunz") is a collection of over 40,000 books about former German territories in Eastern and Central Europe, mainly ...
(1875–1963), founder of the Prussica-Sammlung Trunz
*Ernst Wiechert
Ernst Wiechert (18 May 1887 – 24 August 1950) was a German teacher, poet and writer.
Biography
Wiechert was born in the village of Kleinort, East Prussia, (now Piersławek, Poland).
He was one of the most widely read novelists in Germany ...
(1887–1950), poet and writer
*Wilhelm Wien
Wilhelm Carl Werner Otto Fritz Franz Wien (; 13 January 1864 – 30 August 1928) was a German physicist who, in 1893, used theories about heat and electromagnetism to deduce Wien's displacement law, which calculates the emission of a blackbody ...
(1864–1928), physicist, Nobel Prize winner
See also
* Masurians
The Masurians or Mazurs ( pl, Mazurzy; german: Masuren; Masurian: ''Mazurÿ''), historically also known as Prussian Masurians (Polish: ''Mazurzy pruscy''), is an ethnographic group of Polish people, that originate from the region of Masuria, ...
*Masurian dialect
The Masurian ethnolect (Masurian: ''mazurská gádkä''; pl, mazurski; german: Masurisch), according to some linguists, is a dialect group of the Polish language; others consider Masurian to be a separate language, spoken by the Masurian people ...
* Śniardwy Lake
* Dylewska Góra
Notes
References
*
Mazury
Entry on the region in Polish PWN Encyclopedia.
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External links
Tourist information
(Polish)
Mazury
(Polish)
Mazury
(Polish)
Masuren
(German)
Natural tourism (birdwatching) in NE Poland
Topographical maps 1:50 000
Mazury
- Poland - canoeing information (Polish)
Masuren
- Poland - canoeing information (German)
Masuren
- canoeing (German)
Masuria
- Poland - canoeing information (English)
Mazury
(Polish)
{{Authority control
Regions of Poland
Geography of Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship
Natural regions
Historical regions in Poland