The location of the two recognizable language islands aroundŁańcut andKrosno of the Forest Germans in the 16th century relative to the Holy Roman Empire (yellow)
Walddeutsche (lit. "Forest Germans" orTaubdeutsche – "Deaf Germans";Polish:Głuchoniemcy – "deaf Germans") was the name for a group ofGerman-speaking people, originally used in the 16th century for twolanguage islands aroundŁańcut andKrosno, in southeasternPoland. Both of them were fullypolonised before the 18th century, the term, however, survived up to the early 20th century as the designationna Głuchoniemcach, broadly and vaguely referring to the territory of present-daySanockie Pits, which has seen a partial German settlement since the 14th century, mostlySlavicised long before the term was coined.
The Polish termGłuchoniemcy is a sort of pun; it means "deaf-mutes", but sounds like "forest Germans":Niemcy, Polish for "Germans", is derived fromniemy ("mute", unable to talk comprehensibly, i.e. in aSlavic language), andgłuchy ("deaf",[3] i.e. "unable to communicate") sounds similar togłusz meaning "wood".[4]
In the 14th century a German settlement called Hanshof existed in the area. The Church of the Assumption of Holy Mary and St. Michael's Archangel inHaczów (Poland), the oldest wooden Gothic temple in Europe, was erected in the 14th century and was added to theUNESCO list ofWorld Heritage Sites in 2003.
Some Germans were attracted by kings seeking specialists in various trades, such as craftsmen and miners. They usually settled in newer market and mining settlements. The main settlement areas were in the vicinity ofKrosno and some language islands in thePits and theRzeszów regions. The settlers in the Pits region were known asUplander Saxons.[6] Until approximately the 15th century, the ruling classes of most cities in present-day Beskidian Piedmont consisted almost exclusively of Germans.
The Beskidian Germans underwentPolonization in the latter half of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century.[8]
According toWacław Maciejowski, writing in 1858, the people did not understand German but called themselvesGłuchoniemcy.[9]Wincenty Pol wrote in 1869 that their attire was similar to that of the Hungarian and Transylvanian Germans and that their main occupations were farming and weaving. He stated that in some areas the people were ofSwedish origin; however, they all spoke flawlessly in aLesser Poland dialect of Polish.[10] In 1885,Józef Szujski wrote that theGluchoniemcy spoke only Polish, but there were traces of a variety of original languages which showed that, when they arrived, the termNiemiec was applied to "everyone".[11] In the modern Polish language,Niemiec refers to Germans, but in earlier centuries it was sometimes also used in reference to Hungarians, possibly due to similarity with the wordniemy or pluralniemi for "mute" or "dumb".[12]
Józef Szujski. Die Polen und Ruthenen in Galizien. Kraków. 1896 (Głuchoniemcy/Walddeutsche S. 17.)
Aleksander Świętochowski. Grundriß der Geschichte der polnischen Bauern, Bd. 1, Lwów-Poznań, 1925; (Głuchoniemcy/Sachsen) S. 498
Die deutschen Vertreibungsverluste. Bevölkerungsbilanzen für die deutschen Vertreibungsgebiete 1939/50, hrsg. vom Statistischen Bundesamt, Wiesbaden 1958, pages: 275–276 bis 281 "schlesisch- deutscher Gruppe bzw. die Głuchoniemców (Walddeutsche), zwischen Dunajez und San, Entnationalisierung im 16 Jh. und 18 Jh."
Wojciech Blajer: Bemerkungen zum Stand der Forschungen uber die Enklawen der mittelalterlichen deutschen Besiedlung zwischen Wisłoka und San. [in:] Późne średniowiecze w Karpatach polskich. red. Prof. Jan Gancarski. Krosno, 2007.ISBN978-83-60545-57-7
^Marcin Bielski or Martin Bielski; "Kronika wszystkiego swiata" (1551; "Chronicle of the Whole World"), the first general history in Polish of both Poland and the rest of the world.
^"Tatra Mountains, betweenMoravia and the main range of theCarpathians. This population approaches theSlovaks in physical type, as they do geographically. They are said to be in part ofGermanblood, like their neighbors, the Gluchoniemcy, or " Deaf Germans," who also speakPolish. " [in:] William Paul Dillingham. Reports of the Immigration Commission. United States. Immigration Commission (1907–1910). Washington : G.P.O., 1911. p. 260.
^Ut testatMetrika Koronna, 1658, "quod Saxones alias Głuszy Niemcy około Krosna i Łańcuta osadzeni są iure feudali alias libertate saxonica" [in:] drHenryk Borcz. ParafiaMarkowa w okresie staropolskim.Markowa sześć wieków. 2005 pp. 72–189
^Władysław Sarna. Opis powiatu krośnieńskiego pod względem geograficzno-historycznym. Przemyśl. 1898. str. 26. Quote: "A dlatego je (Niemców) Bolesław tam osadzał, aby bronili granic od Węgier i Rusi; ale że był lud gruby, niewaleczny, obrócono je do roli i do krów, bo sery dobrze czynią, zwłacza wSpiżu i na Pogórzu, drudzy też kądziel dobrze przędą i przetoż płócien z Pogórza u nas bywa najwięcej"
'^[1]Głuchoniemcy (Taubdeutsche) [in:]en.Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland and other Slavic Lands,ger. Geographisches Ortsnamenlexikon des Polnischen Königreiches. Band II. p. 612Warsaw. 1889 (Eine Bilddatenbank zur polnischen Geschichte)
^Franciszek Kotula. Pochodzenie domów przysłupowych w Rzeszowskiem. "Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej" Jahr. V., Nr. 3/4, 1957, S. 557
^"Całkowita polonizacja ludności w omawianym regionach nastąpiła najźniej w XVIII w.[...]" p. 98, and "Eine völlige Polonisierung der Nachkommen der deutschen Ansiedler erfolgte im 18. Jahrhundert und trug zur Verstärkung des Polentums in dem polnisch-ruthenischen Grenzbereich bei. [...]" [in:] Prof. drJan Gancarski. Późne średniowiecze w Karpatach polskich.op. cit. Wojciech Blajer: Bemerkungen zum Stand der Forschungen uber die Enklawen der mittelalterlichen deutschen Besiedlung zwischenWisłoka und San. Edit.Krosno. 2007.ISBN978-83-60545-57-7 pp. 57–105
^Wacław Aleksander Maciejowski. Historya prawodawstw słowiańskich. 1858. str. 357.
^Wincenty Pol. Historyczny obszar Polski rzecz o dijalektach mowy polskiej. Kraków 1869.
^Józef Szujski. Pisma polityczne. Druk. W.L. Anczyca, Kraków 1885; Józef Szujski. Polacy i Rusini w Galicyi (Die Polen und Ruthenen in Galizien). Druk. W.L. Anczyc, 1896 str. 17. "... od średniego biegu Wisłoka, od Pilzna w górę po Łańcut, szczep zwany Głuchoniemcami, powstały przez osadnictwo XIII i XIV stulecia. Głuchoniemcy mówią tylko po polsku, a resztki rozmaitych ich pierwotnych języków ojczystych świadczą, że za czasów ich przybycia zwano Niemcem każdego ..."
