Michał Drzymała (; 13 September 1857 – 25 April 1937) was a
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 ...
peasant living in the
Greater Poland region (or the
Grand Duchy of Posen
The Grand Duchy of Posen (german: Großherzogtum Posen; pl, Wielkie Księstwo Poznańskie) was part of the Kingdom of Prussia, created from territories annexed by Prussia after the Partitions of Poland, and formally established following the ...
) under Prussian rule. He is a Polish
folk hero
A folk hero or national hero is a type of hero – real, fictional or mythological – with their name, personality and deeds embedded in the popular consciousness of a people, mentioned frequently in folk songs, folk tales and other folklore; a ...
because, after he was denied permission to build a house on his own land (he was Polish and opposed to Germanization) by the Prussian authorities in the village of
Kaisertreu, he bought a circus wagon and turned it into his home. At the time, Prussian law considered any dwelling a house if it remained stationary for more than 24 hours. Drzymała used the mobility of the wagon to exploit the law and to avoid the negative consequences by moving the wagon each day and thus preventing the Prussians the ability to penalize him. His dwelling became known as
Drzymała's wagon
Drzymała's wagon ( pl, wóz Drzymały) was a house on wheels built by peasant Michał Drzymała (1857-1937) as a protest against Imperial Germany's policy of Germanization in its Polish territories. Drzymała was not only able to circumvent Ge ...
(''Wóz Drzymały''), and gained notoriety when this case was described by the Polish and European newspapers, making fun of the Prussian state, and energizing the Poles living under the Prussian authority against it.
External links
Michał Drzymała : A Bibliography byLitDok East-Central Europe / Herder-Institut (Marburg)
19th-century Polish people
20th-century Polish people
Polish independence activists
People from the Province of Posen
People from Grodzisk Wielkopolski
1857 births
1937 deaths
Serfs
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