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Wasserpolak ("Watered-down Pole") was the name used for people living in
Wasserpolak ("Watered-down Pole") was the name used for people living in Silesia
Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...
who spoke Silesian dialect''.''
Background
In Silesia, the Polish, German and Czech languages and cultures influenced one another for centuries. Since the 18th century, the German language became more important, starting to penetrate Slavic dialects. Many times families were mixed of different nations over centuries and they could not be treated as entirely Polish, German or Czech. They identified themselves as a regional community with regional language. The term ''Wasserpolak'' appears in the 17th century and was used for Poles living in Lower and Upper Silesia and also in other places where languages and nations were mixed over centuries. Later its referent expanded to all Slavic people ofSilesia
Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...
and the Polish-German border areas.
Use until World War II
Since the 19th century the name started to be used as apejorative
A pejorative or slur is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative or a disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward someone or something. It is also used to express criticism, hostility, or disregard. Sometimes, a ...
term. It was used in this sense e.g. by the historian Friedrich Christoph Förster
Friedrich Christoph Förster (24 September 1791 in Münchengosserstädt on the Saale – 8 November 1868 in Berlin) was a German historian and poet.
Biography
He was the second son of Karl Christoph Förster (1751-1811), and consequently an olde ...
who claimed that the poor "verschnappste Wasserpolacken" were evading the German army draft. During 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 ...
the occupant German Nazis used this term to divide Poles by micronationalities.
After World War II
AlongsideGerman
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
**Ger ...
and Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
*Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
, many citizens of Opole/Oppeln before 1945 used a strongly German-influenced Silesian dialect (sometimes called ''wasserpolnisch'' or ''wasserpolak''). Because of this, the post-war Polish state
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is ...
administration after the annexation of Silesia in 1945 did not initiate a general expulsion of all former inhabitants of Opole, as was done in Lower Silesia, for instance, where the population almost exclusively spoke the German language. Because they were considered "autochthonous
Autochthon, autochthons or autochthonous may refer to:
Fiction
* Autochthon (Atlantis), a character in Plato's myth of Atlantis
* Autochthons, characters in the novel ''The Divine Invasion'' by Philip K. Dick
* Autochthon, a Primordial in the ' ...
" (Polish), the Wasserpolak-speakers instead received the right to remain in their homeland after declaring themselves as Poles. Some German speakers took advantage of this decision, allowing them to remain in Oppeln, even when they considered themselves to be of German nationality. The city outlying areas currently contain the largest German and Upper Silesian minorities in Poland.
Since the 1950s the term became archaic, and it has fallen out of use by now, apart from polemical political texts.
See also
* Opole#German minority *Germans of 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 ...
References
History of Silesia Opole Voivodeship {{Poland-stub