Mazurs
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The Mazurs or Masurs (Polish: Mazurzy) are a Lechitic sub-ethnic group in the Masovian and Warmian-Masurian Voivodeships in Poland. Mazurs from Masovia are known as Masovians (Polish: Mazowszanie; German: Masowier). A numerous minority of them moved to Prussia especially during and after the Protestant Reformation and in the 1800s the Masuria region of East Prussia was named after these Protestant Masurians (Polish: Mazurzy; German: Masuren).
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[edit] History
In the Middle Ages, the inhabitants of the northern Duchy of Masovia were called Mazury in Polish. Between the 15th and 17th centuries, Polish-speaking settlers from northern Masovia moved to the southern territories of the Duchy of Prussia and later Kingdom of Prussia, the land of the Baltic Old Prussians following their conquest by the Germanic Teutonic Knights.
Because of the influx of Masovians into the southern lakeland, the area started to be known as "Masuria". During the Protestant Reformation, Masurians, like most inhabitants of Ducal Prussia, became Lutheran Protestants, while the neighboring Masovians remained Roman Catholic. The small minority of Protestant Masovians in southern Catholic Masovia inside Poland emigrated to Prussian Masuria. Masuria became part of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701 and the Prussian-led German Empire in 1871.
During the 1840s, the folklorist Gustaw Gizewiusz collected Masurian folk songs which were later included in Oskar Kolberg's compilation Dzieła Wszystkie.[1]
Beginning in the 1870s, Imperial German officials restricted the usage of languages other than German in Prussia's eastern provinces, due to increasing Slavic nationalist tensions in the region.[2] The German authorities undertook several measures to Germanise the Masurians or separate them culturally from neighboring Poles by creating a separate identity.[3] Many Masurians emigrated to the Ruhr Area, especially to Gelsenkirchen.
Support for Germany was strong amongst the Masurians during World War I.[4] In 1920, the East Prussian plebiscite was held to determine the new border between the Second Polish Republic and German East Prussia. Although a small group of Masurians did vote for Poland, the vast majority (97.9%) opted to remain in Prussia.[5]
Support for the Nazi Party was high in Masuria, especially in elections in 1932 and 1933.[6] Nazi political rallies were organized in the Masurian dialect during the campaigning.[6] Several Masurian towns and villages had their original Slavic or sometimes still Baltic Prussian names changed to new German names by Nazi Germany in 1938. During World War Two, Polish speakers were prosecuted and killed by the Nazis in Masuria.[7]Along with the majority of ethnic German East Prussians, many Masurians fled to western Germany as the Soviet Red Army approached East Prussia in 1945 during World War II. The post-war Potsdam Conference placed Masuria - and the rest of southern East Prussia - under Polish administration. Many Masurians who were classified as Germans were expelled with military force. After 1956 many Masurians who had remained in Poland emigrated to West Germany, due to economic and political reasons.[citation needed] However, Mazur remains the 14th most common surname in Poland with almost 67,000 people bearing the name.[8]
The Kurpie speak a dialect that is closely related to the classical Masurian dialect. However, they are generally considered a separate subethnic group because of their distinct traditions and regional culture.
The Masurians have been studied by the sociologist Andrzej Sakson.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ Kolberg, Oskar. Dzieła Wszystkie
- ^ Clark, p. 580
- ^ Becoming German: Lessons from the Past for the Present Brian McCook in Leitkultur and Nationalstolz-Tabu -German Phenomena? Bonn, April 2002 Alexander von Humboldt Foundation pages 33-42
- ^ Clark, p. 608
- ^ Rocznik statystyki Rzczypospolitej Polskiej/Annuaire statistique de la République Polonaise 1 (1920/22), Teil 2, Warszawa 1923, S. 358.
- ^ a b Clark, p. 640
- ^ Q. Edward Wang, Franz L. Fillafer, Georg G. Iggers, "The many faces of Clio: cross-cultural approaches to historiography, essays in honor of Georg G. Iggers", Berghahn Books, 2007 [1]
- ^ Frequency and geographic distribution of the surname Mazur in Poland
[edit] References
- Clark, Christopher (2006). Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia 1600–1947. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard. pp. 776. ISBN 067402385-4.
- This article incorporates information from the revision as of 11 September 2006 of the equivalent article on the German Wikipedia.
