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|
 | |
| Total population | |
| 5,000–15,000 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Poland (Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship) Germany | |
| Languages | |
| Polish (Masurian dialects),German (High German dialects) | |
| Religion | |
| Lutheranism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Poles,Masovians,Kurpies |
TheMasurians orMazurs (Polish:Mazurzy;German:Masuren;Masurian:Mazurÿ), historically also known asPrussian Masurians (Polish:Mazurzy pruscy), are anethnic group originating from the region ofMasuria, within theWarmian-Masurian Voivodeship,Poland.[1] They number around 5,000–15,000 people. In the 2011 Polish census, 1,376 individuals declared themselves to be Masurian as either a first or a secondary identification. BeforeWorld War II and itspost-war expulsions, Masurians used to be a more numerous ethnic group found in the southern parts ofEast Prussia for centuries following the 16th centuryProtestant Reformation. Today, most Masurians live in what is nowGermany and elsewhere.
Masurians are mostly descendants of colonists fromMazovia, but many of them have their roots inGermany,Lithuania,France,Austria,Scotland, theNetherlands andRussia. Some research also indicate the admixture of the remains of theOld Prussians.[2] These settlers moved to theDuchy of Prussia during and after theProtestant Reformation. They spoke theMasurian dialects. Since the mid-19th century,High German was increasingly used among Masurians as opposed toLow German used by most of East Prussia's German population. Many Masurians were oftenbilingual in German and Polish languages. In the 19th century, theMasuria region ofEast Prussia was named after the Masurians.
Like most of the East Prussian population, they favoredProtestantism and adoptedLutheranism in 1525 whenAlbert, Duke of Prussia secularized the duchy and converted.Roman CatholicWarmiaks andMasovians were not affected, as they inhabited parts that formally belonged to theKingdom of Poland.
AfterWorld War II, many Masurians were classified asGermans and thereforemostly expelled along with them oremigrated after 1956 from what was now Poland topost-war Germany. Although most of them left for theWest, some also ended up inEast Germany. Conclusion of the war and ensuing resettlements saw an ethnic conflict between leaving Masurians and incomingKurpie mainly on religious (Protestant–Catholic) grounds.
In theMiddle Ages, the inhabitants of theDuchy of Masovia were calledMazur(z)y in Polish. Between the 14th and 17th centuries,[3] Polish settlers from northern Masovia moved to the southern territories of theMonastic State of the Teutonic Knights (these lands had previously belonged to theBalticOld Prussians, whom theTeutonic Knights had conquered in the 13th and 14th centuries). The northern part of this state was soon settled by settlers from Germany and thus became Germanised. On the other hand, Protestants coming from theDuchy of Masovia, which was independent until 1526, partially Polonised a southern part of theDuchy of Prussia, laterKingdom of Prussia. Only in Allenstein, nowOlsztyn, Catholics remained, because it belonged to thePrince-Bishopric of Ermland orWarmia.
Because of the influx of Masovians into thesouthern lakeland, the area started to be known as "Masuria" from the 18th century. During theProtestant Reformation, the Masurians, like most inhabitants of Ducal Prussia, becameLutheranProtestant, while the neighboring Masovians remainedRoman Catholic. In 1525, theDuchy of Prussia, a Polish fief until 1657, was founded from the secularized order's territory and became the first ever officially Protestant state. The small minority of Protestant Masovians in southern Catholic Masovia inside Poland emigrated later to Prussian Masuria. Masuria became part of theKingdom of Prussia at the Kingdom's founding in 1701, and part of the Prussian-ledGerman Empire at the Empire's founding in 1871.
Masurians referred to themselves in the 19th century as "Polish Prussians" or as "Staroprusaki" (Old Prussians).[4]Masurians showed considerable support for the Polish uprising in 1831, and maintained many contacts with Russian-held areas of Poland beyond the border of Prussia, the areas being connected by common culture and language; before the uprising people visited each other's country fairs and much trade took place, with smuggling also widespread.[4] Some early writers about Masurians – likeMax Toeppen – postulated them as mediators between German and Slav cultures.[4]
During the 1840s, the folkloristGustaw Gizewiusz (Gustav Gisevius) collected Masurian folk songs which were later included inOskar Kolberg's compilationDzieła Wszystkie.[5]
According to Andrzej Chwalba or Henryk Samsonowicz, Polish national activists and Masurians already were engaged in cooperation in 1848 when Poles from Pomerania supported Masurian attempts to elect their representative Gustaw Gizewiusz who defended the use of Polish language and traditions.[6][7] For Piotr Wandycz the events of 1848 led to Polish national awakening in Masuria.[8] By contrast, Andreas Kossert writes that Polish interest in Masuria was inspired by a single poem published in 1872, "O Mazurach" byWojciech Kętrzyński and that the unsuccessful attempts to create a Polish national spirit in Masuria were financed by Polish Nationalists from Posen (Poznan), Lemberg (Lviv) and Warsaw.[9][10]
Beginning in the 1870s,Imperial German officials restricted the usage of languages other than German in Prussia's eastern provinces.[11] The German authorities undertook several measures to Germanise the Masurians or to separate them culturally from neighboring Poles by creating a separate identity.[12] After 1871 Masurians who expressed sympathy for Poland were deemed "national traitors" by German nationalists (this increased especially after 1918).[4] According to Wojciech Wrzesinki, Masurians did not receive any assistance or help from Polish movements at the time.[13] According to Stefan Berger, after 1871 the Masurians in the German Empire were seen in a view that while acknowledging their "objective" Polishness (in terms of culture and language) they felt "subjectively" German and thus should be tightly integrated into the German nation-state; to Berger this argument went directly against the German nationalist demands in Alsace where Alsacians were declared German despite their "subjective" choice. Berger concludes that such the arguments of German nationalists were simply aimed at gathering as much territory as possible into the German Reich.[4]
Mother tongue of the inhabitants ofMasuria, by county, during the first half of the 19th century:
| County (German name) | Year | Polish-speakers | % | German-speakers | % | Lithuanian-speakers | % | Total population |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gołdap (Goldap) | 1831 | 5845 | 19% | 21463 | 69% | 3614 | 12% | 30922 |
| Olecko (Oletzko) | 1832 | 23302 | 84% | 4328 | 16% | 22 | 0% | 27652 |
| Ełk (Lyck) | 1832 | 29246 | 90% | 3413 | 10% | 4 | 0% | 32663 |
| Węgorzewo (Angerburg) | 1825 | 12535 | 52% | 11756 | 48% | 66 | 0% | 24357 |
| Giżycko (Lötzen) | 1832 | 20434 | 89% | 2528 | 11% | 25 | 0% | 22987 |
| Pisz (Johannisburg) | 1825 | 28552 | 93% | 2146 | 7% | 0 | 0% | 30698 |
| Mrągowo (Sensburg) | 1831 | 28753 | 90% | 3209 | 10% | 0 | 0% | 31962 |
| Szczytno (Ortelsburg) | 1825 | 34928 | 92% | 3100 | 8% | 0 | 0% | 38028 |
| Nidzica (Neidenburg) | 1825 | 27467 | 93% | 2149 | 7% | 1 | 0% | 29617 |
| Ostróda (Osterode) | 1828 | 23577 | 72% | 9268 | 28% | 0 | 0% | 32845 |
| Total | 1825/32 | 234,639 | 78% | 63,360 | 21% | 3,732 | 1% | 301,731 |
Before World War I many Masurians emigrated to theRuhr Area, especially toGelsenkirchen. Here, Masurians were not distinguished apart from the Poles and both groups were seen as inferior to Germans, culturally or even racially.[17] Despite those official efforts, German scholars usually considered Masurians as a group of Poles. In all German geographical atlases published at the beginning of the 20th century, the southern part of East Prussia was marked as an ethnically Polish area, with the number of Poles estimated at 300,000.[18]
There was resistance among the Masurians towards Germanization efforts, the so-called Gromadki movement was formed which supported use of Polish language and came into conflict with German authorities; while most of its members viewed themselves as loyal to the Prussian state, some of them joined the Pro-Polish faction of Masurians.[19] In general, popular resistance against linguistic Germanisation cannot be easily equated with anti-German sentiment or a strong attachment to the Polish national movement. Most of Masuria's small Polish-speaking intelligentsia remained decisively pro-Prussian, often adhering to an older, multi-ethnic model of Prussian identity, centred on loyalty to their king, not so much on the German language.[20][21][22] This ethnically, but not nationally Polish identity was a repeated source of consternation for Polish national activists,[23] and decidedly pro-Polish political parties and press never gained widespread influence among the general populace.[24] Richard Blanke summarised this long-standing attachment, going back to the late Middle Ages, as "Masurians became Prussian, in other words, before the Bretons (not to mention the Alsatians) became French."[25]
The Masurians evinced strong support for Germany duringWorld War I.[26] In 1920, theLeague of Nations supervised theEast Prussian plebiscite – with British, French and Italian troops stationed in Masuria – to determine the new border between theSecond Polish Republic and GermanEast Prussia. The plebiscite was organized by the local German authorities.[27] Polish ethnographer Adam Chętnik stated that the German authorities performed abuses and falsifications during the plebiscite,[28] and Stefan Berger writes that the Masurians were subjected to huge psychological pressure and physical violence by German side to vote for Germany.[29] Kossert admits irregularities during the referendum, but asserts that in general, its results truthfully reflected the overwhelmingly pro-German sentiment in southern East Prussia.[30] In Masuria proper the vast majority (99.32%) opted to remain inPrussia.[31][32] Attempts to create schools teaching Polish in interwar Germany were met with terror and violence.[33]
The time of the liberal Weimar republic saw a strong trend of conversion from the Polish language to the German language among the Masurians.[34]
Support for theNazi Party was high in Masuria, especially in elections in 1932 and 1933.[35] Nazis used theMasurian dialect for their political rallies during the campaigning.[35] The government ofNazi Germany changed the names of several Masurian towns and villages from their original Slavic or Baltic Prussian names to new German names in 1938. During World War II the Nazis persecuted and killed Polish speakers in Masuria and imprisoned Polish teachers as well as children who learned Polish.[36][37][need quotation to verify] The Nazis believed that in future, the Masurians as a separate non-German entity would disappear, while those who would cling to their "foreignness", as one Nazi report mentioned, would be deported.[38] Poles and Jews were considered by Nazis to be "untermenschen", subject to slavery and extermination, and Nazi authorities murdered Polish activists in Masuria. Those who were not killed were arrested and sent to concentration camps.[39]
In 1943, "Związek Mazurski" was reactivated secretly by Masurian activists of thePolish Underground State in Warsaw and led by Karol Małłek.[40] Związek Mazurski opposed Nazi Germany and asked Polish authorities during the war to liquidate German property after victory over Nazi Germany to help in agricultural reform and settlement of Masurian population, Masurians opposed to Nazi Germany requested to remove German heritage sites "regardless of their cultural value".[41] Additionally aMasurian Institute was founded by Masurian activists in Radość near Warsaw in 1943.[42] Andreas Kossert regards these claims as a presumption completely disregarding the actual conditions of the Masurian people.[43]
Along with the majority of ethnic German East Prussians, many Masuriansfled to western Germany as theSovietRed Armyapproached East Prussia in 1945 in the final European campaigns ofWorld War II. The post-warPotsdam Conference placed Masuria – and the rest of southernEast Prussia – under Polish administration. Many Masurians who were classified as Germans wereexpelled with military force. After 1956, many who had remained in Poland emigrated toWest Germany. As of 2003, approximately 5,000 Masurians still lived in the area, many of them as members of theGerman minority.[18] Speculations about the reasons of this emigration vary, from the economic situation and the undemocratic – communist – system in Poland[18] to the shrinking prospect of a return of Masuria to Germany.[44]
Mazur remains the 14th most commonsurname inPoland, with almost 67,000 people bearing the name.[45] According to ethnographerAdam Chętnik, the Masurians were most closely related to theKurpie branch of the Poles.[28] A group of Masurians migrated south and became one of the main components of theLasowiacy, who live in the northern part of theSubcarpathian Voivodeship.[46][47]
| District | 1861 (census) | 1861 (estimate) | 1890 (Census) | 1890 (estimate) | 1910 (census) | 1910 (estimate) | 1925 (census) | 1925 (estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Johannisburg (Pisz) | 82,4% | (90%) | 78,8% | (83%) | 68% | (77,9%) | 20,4% | (60–80%) |
| Lötzen (Giżycko) | 64,5% | (80%) | 50,6% | (65%) | 35,9% | (58,9%) | 4,4% | (25–40%) |
| Lyck (Ełk) | 78,6% | (85%) | 66,6% | (73%) | 51% | (68,9%) | 11,3% | (45–70%) |
| Neidenburg (Nidzica) | 81,6% | (87%) | 75,6% | (84%) | 66,6% | (80%) | 23,1% | (50–65%) |
| Oletzko (Olecko) | 57,7% | (75%) | 47,7% | (57%) | 29,6% | (51%) | 8% | (25–60%) |
| Ortelsburg (Szczytno) | 87,9% | (92%) | 78,1% | (85%) | 70,1% | (82,9%) | 30,4% | (65–75%) |
| Osterode (Ostróda) | 63,1% | (67%) | 54,3% | (63%) | 41,2% | (55,9%) | 11,7% | (25–45%) |
| Sensburg (Mrągowo) | 74,7% | (87%) | 62,2% | (72%) | 49,6% | (67,5%) | 12,8% | (40–50%) |
| Total | 74,4% | (83%) | 65,3% | (73,4%) | 52,4% | (69%) | 16,3% | (?) |
| East Slavs | .svg) | |
|---|---|---|
| West Slavs | ||
| South Slavs | ||
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