A vicinity with disrespect

In Polish historiography, as well as to a greater degree in politics and general consciousness, there is simply a constant thought that a modus vivendi between Germany and Poland based on mutually recognised neighbourhood principles based on equivalent aspirations to co-existence, cooperation and resignation of any hegemony.

On the Polish side it is pium desiderium built, unfortunately, forced on Germans in the last 100 years to review their relation with Poland without affecting the interior transformation of their reasoning about Poland. This can be said present in an interview with the average German who is guided only by the circulation courts about Poland. It can be seen that Poland was rebuilt in 1918, and even more in 1945, taking over after planet War I, in the opinion of many Germans, German provinces of Wielkopolska and Western Prussia, and after planet War II German territories east of Odra. It's not just the average Pole who has a problem with these things. Germany, much more so. And it starts from the minute erstwhile in the Reich the kingdom of Prussia with the merger under the power of the Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg and the Princes Prussia, the second until 1657 being the Polish lenna. In this way, the Prusai hoard of 1525 resulted in 2 and a half centuries of conflict between Poland and what may not have precisely gained the name Drang nach Osten. To add here that in the past of Prussia it was besides Drang nach Westen, due to the fact that Frederick I, for the minute not yet König von Preußen, but only in Preußen until 1772, until the Polish territory was taken under the name Netzedistrikt (Notecki district), which started the partitions of Poland. In the 18th century Prussia seized more and more territories besides belonging to the Reich states, including the Habsburg Silesia.

The Kingdom of Prussia was so created from a robbery which had a diverse pedigree, but in full it was always done through annexations. The permanent form of Prussia was given to business in the First Partition of the alleged Notetic District, which made the territory of Prussia extend from Klaipeda to Brandenburg. In the Second Partition of Poland, Prussia took Wielkopolska, which resulted in the formation of the east border Prussia moving on the line from north to Silesia. In this way, the Vienna legislature decided on the final liquidation of Poland, creating 2 substitutes: the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Poznań, liquidated in 1849 after the Spring of the Peoples. Provinz Posen was already treated as an indivisible part of Prussia.

The characteristics of Poles by Frederick II became a model of their assessment for the generations of Prussian officials, including those who regulation on Polish lands plundered by Prussia. This is how the Prussian king sees Poles: “This kingdom is in eternal anarchy, diverging interests separate all the magnate families. They carry their own advantage over the public good and unite only erstwhile they usage cruel, harsh means to oppress their subjects, with which they treat as cattle. Poles are vain and haughty in happiness, demeaning in misery; capable of the top wickedness erstwhile it comes to gaining money, and erstwhile they receive it, they immediately throw them out the windows; reckless, have neither a court nor a sentence, able without justification to join the organization and leave them, can, as a consequence of inconsistency in their conduct, mingle in the worst cases. They have rights, but no 1 respects them due to deficiency of executive power.” Reason in this kingdom has become dependent on women; women intrigue and decide everything while their husbands worship drunkenness.”

The bright exaggeration and bias of this assessment ignores the fact that in many German and Western countries, akin faults could be noticed, and in Poland the era of Saxon and Russian interference in the interior affairs of Poland contributed to their expansion. Prussia to the defeat experienced by Napoleon were 1 of the most backward countries in Europe. Only that held by the gendarme hand of the monarch, by War Cameras and Domains. The Prussian regulation of a strong hand differed from the Polish disorder, although 1 must besides admit compliance with the law, which was frequently lacking in Poland. In Prussia, social discipline went so far that the view of the ruler was taken as his own without reservation. Thus, the assessment of Poles in Frederick is repeated mutatis mutandis in many Prussian statesmen. This is the case in the memorial characterizing Poland Justus Grüner, another prominent politician and reformer of Prussia. The hate-filled image of the backward society, based on the power of the clergy and nobles, and the oppression of the lower layers... strikes with the exclusive focus of the darkest colors. General Karl von Grolman, who was celebrated for his cooperation with the Russians in the fight against the November uprising, mentioned by Frederick the real and imputable disadvantages of Poles in specified a plastic way that it was possible to believe that Polish lands lived only degenerates. Grolman, however, trusts that under appropriate direction and discipline it can be utilized [people-ZZZ] for everything, but he is himself incapable of any progress.

These primitive and testifying to the complete ignorance of the Polish society, the courts could not stand as the basis of Prusai's policy towards Poles. Therefore, the next Chief President, until the Grand Duchy of Poznań, Eduard Flotwell focuses on the individual layer of the Polish population, mainly in terms of Germanization policy. The clergy have an crucial function to play. He admits that among the clergy there are individuals of advanced value, of a actual Christian disposition, they do not affect the clergy in general, who deficiency both social and deeper education. The low intellectual level and the low uplifting life make the clergy unrespected among the masses; that is why it cultivates passionate political agitation, in order to strengthen its position by not appreciating opposition sentiments and identifying with the Polish issue. These qualities of the clergy make it fight with all the fierceness of Germanism, identifying it as a origin of progress, freedom of spirit, education.

In turn Ernst Moritz Arndt literate and politician, 1 of the architects of the revival of Prussia after the Napoleonic defeat, laments the destiny of Poland, but in his eyes Pole remained an eternally large, chaotic appendix... and the Polish nation is underage. He regrets that the Polish learned nothing from their neighbors. However, Arndt concludes with the want to resurrect Poland as an independent state, intended to service as a shield for Germany. Hypocrisy, stereotype of accusations against Poles, and indeed hatred and later formulated Ausrottungspolitik manifested most prominently Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein, a crucial Prussian politician who, after the defeat experienced by Napoleon, created actually modern Prussian statehood. In 1807 he spoke of Poles: "The partition of Poland showed a sad image of a nation tamed by abroad violence, which was interrupted by the self-determination of its individuality, which was torn out by the benefits of utilizing the free constitution given to itself, and in this place was imposed abroad bureaucracy". “With all his mistakes, this nation has noble pride, activity, energy, courage, nobility, and readiness to sacrifice for homeland and freedom.” erstwhile the Vienna legislature outlined the anticipation of any restoration of the Polish kingdom “Stein, in a memorial of October 6, 1814, spelled the Tsar before attempting to introduce constitutional devices in Poland. He warned that in the event of the implementation of this task not only the unity of the Romanov monarchy will be threatened, but besides the peace of Europe. Stein felt that the anarchist and revolutionary Polish nation had not yet matured into a constitutional system. Furthermore, the fresh author of the celebrated “Nassausian Memorial” from 1807, worshiping the advantages of Poles, now denied the existence of the Polish nation in general, arguing that alongside feudal nobility and slave peasants, in Poland the deficiency of a 3rd state that replaces abroad Jews.

Thus, in order to destruct (Ausrottumg) the Polish people, possibly to make them Preussen Slavischer Zunge, which, in the second half of the 19th century, even in the church and in school lost its current status, was simply violence. Prussia Rechtsstaatlichkeit (the regulation of law) which was opposed to the Polish "instrument" proved to be yet the same story as the image of Poles drawn by Prussia. The Prussian propaganda of Bismarck's times, Bülow, Hakaty, Kulturkampfu was based on the opinion cited above about the Poles of Frederick II, and repeated by all without tiny Prussian politicians for the full century. And the 3rd Reich and, to a large extent, the post-war Germans have not given up on this legacy.

Hostility of the Prussian kind towards Poles may not have survived. besides large a lesson was planet War II and occupation. However, there is simply a feeling of disregard or specified a "good" way of not taking Poles für voll, as I have heard. I was amazed to hear in the 1990s in Bad Sarrow a lecture by prof. Georg Waldemar Strobel, a distinguished expert of Vincent Pol, a note of half Polish origin devoted to Polish culture in contact with German. You could say Frederick II redivivus. Strobel raised at the Polish university, in Polish language, friends with many Poles, abruptly showed all his contempt for everything Polish. And here, unfortunately, there are many followers.

As an illustration from the last minute, I quote information for Independent.pl:

Germany stands firm on the side of Poland; we request strong Poland as an equal partner - said Chancellor Friedrich Merz during a joint press conference with the Polish Prime Minister. Shortly after the assurances about an "equal partnership", he recalled the common position presented at the fresh gathering of the coalitions willing in Geneva. Problem is, Donald Tusk did not even receive an invitation to this meeting.

So something has changed since the 19th century. dictionary and rhetoric of German statements. The remainder remained, though not as carded as in Prussia. A Pole in the reasoning of many, not all, Germans is seen as Untermensch.

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