Dąbrówka Wielkopolska is a
village
A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...
in the administrative district of
Gmina ZbÄ…szynek __NOTOC__
Gmina Zbąszynek is an urban-rural gmina (administrative district) in Świebodzin County, Lubusz Voivodeship, in western Poland. Its seat is the town of Zbąszynek, which lies approximately east of Świebodzin, north-east of Zielona Gór ...
, within
Åšwiebodzin County
__NOTOC__
Åšwiebodzin County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Lubusz Voivodeship, western Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. I ...
,
Lubusz Voivodeship
Lubusz Voivodeship ( ) is a voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship (province) in western Poland with a population of 972,140. Its regional capitals are Gorzów Wielkopolski and Zielona Góra. The region is characterized by a landscape of forests, lake ...
, in western Poland. It lies approximately north of
ZbÄ…szynek
ZbÄ…szynek (; ) is a town in western Poland, in Lubusz Voivodeship, in Åšwiebodzin County. As of 2019, it has 5,020 inhabitants. It is located within the historic region of Greater Poland.
History
The territory became a part of the emerging Polis ...
, east of
Åšwiebodzin
Åšwiebodzin (; ) is a town in western Poland with 20,744 inhabitants (2024). It is the capital of Åšwiebodzin County in Lubusz Voivodeship.
Åšwiebodzin is an important transportation hub, lying at the crossroads of the Polish National roads in P ...
, north-east of
Zielona Góra
Zielona Góra (; ''Green Mountain''; ) is the largest city in Lubusz Voivodeship, located in western Poland, with 140,403 inhabitants (). The region is closely associated with vineyards and holds an annual Zielona Góra Wine Fest, Wine Fest. Zie ...
, and south-east of
Gorzów Wielkopolski
Gorzów Wielkopolski (), often abbreviated to Gorzów Wlkp. or simply Gorzów (formerly ), is a city in Geography of Poland, western Poland, located on the Warta, Warta River. It is one of the two principal cities and seats of the Lubusz Voivodes ...
.
History
As part of the region of
Greater Poland
Greater Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska (; ), is a Polish Polish historical regions, historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief and largest city is Poznań followed by Kalisz, the oldest city in Poland.
The bound ...
, i.e. the cradle of the Polish state, the area formed part of Poland since its establishment in the 10th century. Dąbrówka was a private village of
Polish nobility
The ''szlachta'' (; ; ) were the nobility, noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Depending on the definition, they were either a warrior "caste" or a social ...
, administratively located in the Kościan County in the
Poznań Voivodeship
Poznań Voivodeship was the name of several former administrative regions (''województwo'', rendered as ''voivodeship'' and usually translated as "province") in Poland, centered on the city of Poznań, although the exact boundaries changed over t ...
in the
Greater Poland Province.
From 1871 to 1945, the village was part of
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
. Despite being located in the heavily
Germanized
Germanisation, or Germanization, is the spread of the German language, people, and culture. It was a central idea of German conservative thought in the 19th and the 20th centuries, when conservatism and ethnic nationalism went hand in hand. In l ...
western borderland of the
Province of Posen
The Province of Posen (; ) was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1848 to 1920, occupying most of the historical Greater Poland. The province was established following the Greater Poland Uprising (1848), Poznań Uprisi ...
, it always had an ethnic Polish majority population. In 1905, 1,038 people lived in the village, of which 90.1% were
Poles
Pole or poles may refer to:
People
*Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland
* Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name
* Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist
...
and 9.7% were
Germans
Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, constitution of Germany, imple ...
. Despite the protests of the Polish population, in 1919 it remained within Germany by the decision of the inter-Allied commission and was part of
Kreis Meseritz
Kreis Meseritz (''Landkreis Meseritz'' from 1939; ) was a district in Prussia, first in the southern administrative Region of Posen within the Grand Duchy of Posen (till 1848), then the Province of Posen (till 1920), then within the Province o ...
.
In 1929–1939, there was a Polish school in the village, where 3 teachers taught and 140 children attended. There was also a Polish kindergarten established in the village in 1935 with 70 children. In 1931, the Polish ''Bank Ludowy'' was founded in the village. In 1939, out of 1,287 inhabitants of the village, 986 (76.6%) were Poles. In June 1939, the
Gestapo
The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...
carried out an anti-Polish operation in the village, closing down local Polish organizations, confiscating their files and funds, and expelling four leading Polish activists. On 11 September 1939, the Germans imprisoned 29 local prominent Poles, who were afterwards deported to
concentration camps
A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploit ...
.
[Cygański, p. 49] Several young Poles, wanting to avoid being drafted into the ''
Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...
'' and fighting against Poland, fled the village.
[ They were later caught and executed by the Germans in occupied Poland.][Cygański, p. 50] The Germans also carried out further expulsions of Poles.[ With the defeat of ]Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
in World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, the village became again part of Poland.
Transport
There is a train station in the village.
References
{{Authority control
Villages in Åšwiebodzin County