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Revision as of 15:27, 15 February 2009 editMolobo (talk | contribs)13,968 edits undue weight, this isn't history about German colonization of pomerania, Germanization is to be mentioned but this part is too big for this article← Previous edit Revision as of 15:43, 15 February 2009 edit undoMolobo (talk | contribs)13,968 edits expanding historyNext edit →
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Pomerelia since the Middle Ages was assigned to the ]n ] and s retained ] as the church language. Only the ] in 1534 adopted Lutheranism after the ] had reached the ],<ref name="Buchholz pp.205-220">Werner Buchholz, Pommern, Siedler, 1999, pp.205-212, ISBN 3886802728</ref><ref>Richard du Moulin Eckart, ''Geschichte der deutschen Universitäten'', Georg Olms Verlag, 1976, pp.111,112, ISBN 3487060787</ref><ref name="Realenzyklopädie, p.43ff">Gerhard Krause, Horst Robert Balz, Gerhard Müller, ''Theologische Realenzyklopädie'', Walter de Gruyter, 1997, pp.43ff, ISBN 3110154358</ref> while the ] in ] remained ]. The ]n parliament ('']'') in ] changed the official church language from Polish to ] in 1843, but this decision was soon repealed{{fact}}. Pomerelia since the Middle Ages was assigned to the ]n ] and s retained ] as the church language. Only the ] in 1534 adopted Lutheranism after the ] had reached the ],<ref name="Buchholz pp.205-220">Werner Buchholz, Pommern, Siedler, 1999, pp.205-212, ISBN 3886802728</ref><ref>Richard du Moulin Eckart, ''Geschichte der deutschen Universitäten'', Georg Olms Verlag, 1976, pp.111,112, ISBN 3487060787</ref><ref name="Realenzyklopädie, p.43ff">Gerhard Krause, Horst Robert Balz, Gerhard Müller, ''Theologische Realenzyklopädie'', Walter de Gruyter, 1997, pp.43ff, ISBN 3110154358</ref> while the ] in ] remained ]. The ]n parliament ('']'') in ] changed the official church language from Polish to ] in 1843, but this decision was soon repealed{{fact}}.


In XIX century the Kashubian activist ] undertook efforts to identitfy Kashubian language, culture and traditions. He awakened Kashubian self-identity, that was opposed to Germanisation. While believing in seperate Kashubian identity he considered Poles "born brothers"<ref>''Historia Polski 1795-1918'' Andrzej Chwalba page 439</ref>. Later Kashubian activists rejected the idea of seperate Kashub nation and considered themselfs a unique branch of Polish nation, manifested in the words of Kashubian journalist and activist ] "There is no Cassubia without Poland, and no Poland without Cassubia" (''Nie ma Kaszeb bez Polski a bez Kaszeb Polski''")<ref>''Historia Polski 1795-1918'' Andrzej Chwalba page 439</ref>. The Young Kashubs movement has decided to follow in this way, and while they the strenghtened and workded to create a strong Kashubian identity, at the same time saw in Kashubs "One branch, of many, of the great Polish nation"<ref>''Historia Polski 1795-1918'' Andrzej Chwalba page 439</ref>. The leader of the movement was Aleksander Majkowski, a doctor educated in ] thanks to Society of Educational Help. In ] he founded Towarzystwo Młodokaszubskie and started the newspaper "Gryf". Kashubs voted for Polish lists in elections, which strenghtened the representation of Poles in Pomerania region<ref>''Historia Polski 1795-1918'' Andrzej Chwalba page 439</ref><ref>''Gdańskie Zeszyty Humanistyczne: Seria pomorzoznawcza'' Page 17, Wyższa Szkoła Pedagogiczna (Gdańsk). Wydział Humanistyczny, Instytut Bałtycki, Instytut Bałtycki (Poland) - 1967</ref><ref>''Położenie mniejszości niemieckiej w Polsce 1918-1938'' Page 183, Stanisław Potocki - 1969 </ref><ref> Rocznik gdański organ Towarzystwa Przyjaciół Nauki i Sztuki w Gdańsku - page 100, 1983</ref><ref>''Do niepodległości 1918, 1944/45, 1989: wizje, drogi, spełnienie'' page 43, Wojciech Wrzesiński - 1998</ref>). The Kashubians faced Germanization efforts, including those by Evangelic priests. Some German propagandist went as far to claim, that those who do not use German and only Polish are "half-human"<ref>''Historia Polski 1795-1918'' Andrzej Chwalba page 440</ref>. Germanization efforts were succesfull in regions of Lębork and Łeba where the local population was influenced by Evangelic pastors and used Gothic alphabet.<ref>''Historia Polski 1795-1918'' Andrzej Chwalba page 439</ref




During the drafting of ], Kaszub activist ] promoted Cassubia's integration into ] by famously saying "There is no Cassubia without Poland, and no Poland without Cassubia" (''Nie ma Kaszub bez Polonii a bez Kaszub Polski''"). During the drafting of ], Kaszub activist ] promoted Cassubia's integration into ] by famously repeating the saying saying "There is no Cassubia without Poland, and no Poland without Cassubia" (''Nie ma Kaszub bez Polonii a bez Kaszub Polski''").


During the ], Kashubians were considered by the ] as being either of "German stock" or "extraction", or "inclined toward Germanness" and "capable of Germanisation", and thus classified third category of ] (German ethnic classification list) if possible ties to the Polish nation could be dissolved.<ref>Diemut Majer, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, ''"Non-Germans" Under the Third Reich: The Nazi Judicial and Administrative System in Germany and Occupied Eastern Europe with Special Regard to Occupied Poland, 1939-1945 During the ], Kashubians were considered by the ] as being either of "German stock" or "extraction", or "inclined toward Germanness" and "capable of Germanisation", and thus classified third category of ] (German ethnic classification list) if possible ties to the Polish nation could be dissolved.<ref>Diemut Majer, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, ''"Non-Germans" Under the Third Reich: The Nazi Judicial and Administrative System in Germany and Occupied Eastern Europe with Special Regard to Occupied Poland, 1939-1945

Revision as of 15:43, 15 February 2009

Ethnic group
Kashubians/Kaszubian
Kaszëbi
Kashubian flag
Total population
50,000 to 500,000
Regions with significant populations
 Poland
Languages
Kashubian, Polish, among emigrés German
Religion
Catholicism (majority), Evangelical Lutheran (minority)
Related ethnic groups
Poles  · Germans  · Slovincians  · Sorbs

Kashubians (Template:Lang-csb, Template:Lang-pl, Template:Lang-de), also called Kashubs, Kaszubians, Kassubians or Cassubians, are a West Slavic ethnic group in Pomerelia, north-central Poland. Their settlement area is referred to as Kashubia (Template:Lang-pl, Template:Lang-de). They speak Kashubian, classified either as a language or a Polish dialect. In analogy to the linguistic classification, Kashubians are considered either an ethnic or a linguistic group. Slovincians are grouped with the Kashubians as Pomeranians, similarily Slovincian and Kashubian are grouped as Pomeranian, with Slovincian being either a closely related language or a Kashubian dialect.

Modern Kashubia

File:Kaszuby-eng.png
Kashubian ethnic territory at the end of the twentieth century.

The Kashubian unofficial capital is Kartuzy (Kartuzë). Among larger cities, Gdynia (Gdiniô) contains the largest proportion of people declaring Kashubian origin. However, the biggest city of Cassubia region is Gdańsk (Gduńsk), the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. The traditional occupations of the Kashubians were agriculture and fishing; today these are joined by the service and hospitality industry, and agrotourism.

The main organization that maintains the Kashubian identity is the Kashubian-Pomeranian Association. The recently formed "Odroda" is also dedicated to the renewal of Kashubian culture.

Population

Kashubian regional dress

The total number of Kashubians varies depending on one's definition. A common estimate is that over 300,000 people in Poland are of the Kashubian ethnicity. The most extreme estimates are as low as 50,000 or as high as 500,000.

In the Polish census of 2002, only 5,100 people declared Kashubian nationality, although 51,000 declared Kashubian as their native language. Most Kashubians declare Polish nationality and Kashubian ethnicity, and are considered both Polish and Kashubian. However, on the 2002 census there was no option to declare one nationality and a different ethnicity, or more than one nationality.

History

Further information: Pomerania during the Early Middle Ages, Pomerania during the High Middle Ages, Pomerania during the Late Middle Ages, Pomerania during the Early Modern Age, History of Pomerania (1806-1933), History of Pomerania (1933-1945), and History of Pomerania (1945-present)
Flag
File:Gryf pomorsko kaszubski.jpg
Coat of Arms

Origin

Kashubians are descendants of the Slavic Pomeranian tribes, who had settled between the Oder and Vistula Rivers after the Migration Period, at times Polish and Danish vassals. While most Slavic Pomeranians were assimilated during the medieval German settlement of Pomerania (Ostsiedlung), especially in the Pomeranian Southeast (Pomerelia) some kept and developed their customs and became known as Kashubians or Wends. The oldest known mention of "Kashubia(ns)" dates from the 13th century (a seal of Barnim I from the House of Pomerania, Duke of Pomerania-Stettin). The Dukes of Pomerania hence used "Duke of (the) Kashubia(ns)" in their titles, passing it to the Swedish Crown who succeeded in Swedish Pomerania when the House of Pomerania became extinct.

Administrative history of Kashubia

The westernmost (Slovincian) parts of Kashubia, located in the medieval Lands of Schlawe and Stolp and Lauenburg and Bütow Land, were part of Polish state in Early Middle Ages until they were integrated into the Duchy of Pomerania in 1317 and 1455, respectively, and stayed with its successors (Brandenburgian Pomerania and Prussian Pomerania)until 1945, when the was restored to Poland once again. The bulk of Kashubia since the 12th century was within the medieval Pomerelian duchies, since 1308 in the Monastic state of the Teutonic Knights, since 1466 within Royal Prussia, an autonomous territory of the Polish Crown, since 1772 within West Prussia, a Prussian province, since 1920 within the Polish Corridor of the Second Polish Republic, since 1939 within the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia of Nazi Germany, and since 1945 within the People's Republic of Poland.

History

German authors claim that that Kashubians were mostly rural dwellers while Germans inhabited the towns In XIX century Aleksander Hilferding (1862) and Parczewski (1896) confirmed a language shift in the Kashubian population from their Slavonic vernacular to the local German dialect (Low German Ostpommersch, Low German Low Prussian, or High German).

Pomerelia since the Middle Ages was assigned to the Kuyavian Roman Catholic Diocese of Włocławek and s retained Polish as the church language. Only the Slovincians in 1534 adopted Lutheranism after the Protestant Reformation had reached the Duchy of Pomerania, while the Kashubes in Pomerelia remained Roman Catholic. The Prussian parliament (Landtag) in Königsberg changed the official church language from Polish to German in 1843, but this decision was soon repealed.

In XIX century the Kashubian activist Florian Ceynowa undertook efforts to identitfy Kashubian language, culture and traditions. He awakened Kashubian self-identity, that was opposed to Germanisation. While believing in seperate Kashubian identity he considered Poles "born brothers". Later Kashubian activists rejected the idea of seperate Kashub nation and considered themselfs a unique branch of Polish nation, manifested in the words of Kashubian journalist and activist Hieronim Derdowski "There is no Cassubia without Poland, and no Poland without Cassubia" (Nie ma Kaszeb bez Polski a bez Kaszeb Polski"). The Young Kashubs movement has decided to follow in this way, and while they the strenghtened and workded to create a strong Kashubian identity, at the same time saw in Kashubs "One branch, of many, of the great Polish nation". The leader of the movement was Aleksander Majkowski, a doctor educated in Chełmno thanks to Society of Educational Help. In 1912 he founded Towarzystwo Młodokaszubskie and started the newspaper "Gryf". Kashubs voted for Polish lists in elections, which strenghtened the representation of Poles in Pomerania region). The Kashubians faced Germanization efforts, including those by Evangelic priests. Some German propagandist went as far to claim, that those who do not use German and only Polish are "half-human". Germanization efforts were succesfull in regions of Lębork and Łeba where the local population was influenced by Evangelic pastors and used Gothic alphabet.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page). Kashubian intellectualists were arrested and mass murdered, the main place of executions being Piaśnica (Groß Plaßnitz). According to Kashubian sources, the Germans mass murdered around 12,000 people there

Language

Main article: Kashubian language

About 50,000 Kashubians speak Kashubian.

The classification as a language or dialect has been controversial. From a diachronic point of view of historical linguistics, Kashubian like Slovincian, Polabian and Polish is a Lechitic West Slavic language, while from a synchronic point of view it is a variety of Polish dialects. Given the past nationalist interests of Germans and Poles in Kashubia, Barbour and Carmichel state: "As is always the case with the division of a dialect continuum into separate languages, there is scope here for manipulation".

A "Standard" Kashubian langauge does not exist despite attempts to create one, rather a variety of dialects are spoken that significantly differ from each other. The vocabulary is influenced by both German and Polish.

There are other traditional Slavic ethnic groups inhabiting Pomerania, such as the Kociewiacy, Borowiacy, Krajniacy and others. These dialects tend to fall between Kashubian and the Polish dialects of Greater Poland and Mazovia. This might indicate that they are not only descendants of ancient Pomeranians, but also of settlers who arrived to Pomerania from Greater Poland and Masovia in the Middle Ages. However, this is only one possible explanation.

In the 16th and 17th century Michael Brüggemann (also known as Pontanus or Michał Mostnik), Simon Krofey (Szimon Krofej) and J.M. Sporgius introduced Kashubian into the Lutheran Church. Krofey, pastor in Bütow (Bytow), published a religious song book in 1586, written in Polish but also containing some Kashubian words. Brüggemann, pastor in Schmolsin, published a Polish translation of some works of Martin Luther (catechism) and biblical texts, also containing Kashubian elements. Other biblical texts were published in 1700 by Sporgius, pastor in Schmolsin. His "Schmolsiner Perikopen", most of which is written in the same Polish-Kashubian style of Krofey's and Brüggemann's books, also contain small passages ("6th Sunday after Epiphanias") written in pure Kashubian. Scientific interest in the Kashubian language was sparked by Mrongovius (publications in 1823, 1828) and the Russian linguist Hilferding (1859, 1862), later followed by Biskupski (1883, 1891), Bronisch (1896, 1898), Mikkola (1897), Nitsch (1903). Important works are S. Ramult's, Słownik jezyka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego, 1893, and Friedrich Lorentz, Slovinzische Grammatik, 1903, Slovinzische Texte, 1905, and Slovinzisches Wörterbuch, 1908.

The first activist of the Kashubian national movement was Florian Ceynowa. Among his accomplishments, he documented the Kashubian alphabet and grammar by 1879 and published a collection of ethnographic-historic stories of the life of the Kashubians (Skórb kaszébsko-slovjnckjé mòvé, 1866-1868). Another early writer in Kashubian was Hieronim Derdowski. The Young Kashubian movement followed, led by author Aleksander Majkowski, who wrote for the paper "Zrzësz Kaszëbskô" as part of the "Zrzëszincë" group. The group would contribute significantly to the development of the Kashubian literary language.

Today

In 2005, Kashubian was for the first time made an official subject on the Polish matura exam (roughly equivalent to the English A-Level and French Baccalaureat). Despite an initial uptake of only 23 students, this development was seen as an important step in the official recognition and establishment of the language.

Today, in some towns and villages in northern Poland Kashubian is the second language spoken after Polish, and it is taught in regional schools.

Kashubian presently enjoys legal protection in Poland as an official minority language.

Diaspora

In 1858 Kashubians emigrated to Upper Canada and created the settlement of Wilno, in Renfrew County, Ontario, which still exists today. Kaszub immigrants founded St. Josaphat parish in Chicago's Lincoln Park community in the late 19th century. In the 1870s a fishing village was established in Jones Island in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, by Kashubian and German immigrants. The two groups did not hold deeds to the land, however, and the government of Milwaukee evicted them as squatters in the 1940s, with the area soon after turned into industrial park.

Kashubian Landscape Park, View from Tamowa Mountain, near Kartuzy and Lakes Kłodno, Białe, and Rekowo.

Notable Kashubians

See also

References

  1. Harry Hulst, Georg Bossong, Eurotyp, Walter de Gruyter, 1999, p.837, ISBN 3110157500
  2. ^ Stephen Barbour, Cathie Carmichael, Language and Nationalism in Europe, Oxford University Press, 2000, p.199, ISBN 0198236719
  3. ^ Dicky Gilbers, John A. Nerbonne, J. Schaeken, Languages in Contact, Rodopi, 2000, p.329, ISBN 9042013222
  4. Christina Yurkiw Bethin, Slavic Prosody: Language Change and Phonological Theory, pp.160ff, Cambridge University Press, 1998, ISBN 0521591481
  5. Edward Stankiewicz, The Accentual Patterns of the Slavic Languages, Stanford University Press, 1993, p.291, ISBN 0804720290
  6. Klaus Herbers, Nikolas Jaspert, Grenzräume und Grenzüberschreitungen im Vergleich: Der Osten und der Westen des mittelalterlichen Lateineuropa, 2007, pp. 76ff, ISBN 3050041552
  7. Werner Buchholz, Pommern, Siedler, 1999, pp.205-212, ISBN 3886802728
  8. Richard du Moulin Eckart, Geschichte der deutschen Universitäten, Georg Olms Verlag, 1976, pp.111,112, ISBN 3487060787
  9. Gerhard Krause, Horst Robert Balz, Gerhard Müller, Theologische Realenzyklopädie, Walter de Gruyter, 1997, pp.43ff, ISBN 3110154358
  10. Historia Polski 1795-1918 Andrzej Chwalba page 439
  11. Historia Polski 1795-1918 Andrzej Chwalba page 439
  12. Historia Polski 1795-1918 Andrzej Chwalba page 439
  13. Historia Polski 1795-1918 Andrzej Chwalba page 439
  14. Gdańskie Zeszyty Humanistyczne: Seria pomorzoznawcza Page 17, Wyższa Szkoła Pedagogiczna (Gdańsk). Wydział Humanistyczny, Instytut Bałtycki, Instytut Bałtycki (Poland) - 1967
  15. Położenie mniejszości niemieckiej w Polsce 1918-1938 Page 183, Stanisław Potocki - 1969
  16. Rocznik gdański organ Towarzystwa Przyjaciół Nauki i Sztuki w Gdańsku - page 100, 1983
  17. Do niepodległości 1918, 1944/45, 1989: wizje, drogi, spełnienie page 43, Wojciech Wrzesiński - 1998
  18. Historia Polski 1795-1918 Andrzej Chwalba page 440
  19. Official Polish Senate (Senát) website
  20. http://www.naszekaszuby.pl/modules/news/article.php?storyid=997
  21. ^ Peter Hauptmann, Günther Schulz, Kirche im Osten: Studien zur osteuropäischen Kirchengeschichte und Kirchenkunde, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2000, pp.44ff, ISBN 3525563930

Further reading

  • Synak, Brunon (1997). "The Kashubes during the post-communist transformation in Poland". Nationalities Papers. 25 (4): 715–728. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |laydate=, |laysource=, |quotes=, |laysummary=, and |coauthors= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  • "The Kashubian Polish Community of Southeastern Minnesota (MN) (Images of America)". 2001. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

External links

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