Masurians in the nineteenth century

Language according to 1910 Prussian census and results of 1920 referendum in southern parts of East Prussia

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.^[5][6] For Piotr Wandycz the events of 1848 led to Polish national awakening in Masuria.^[7] By contrast, Andreas Kossert writes that Polish interest in Masuria was inspired by a single poem published in 1872, "O Mazurach" by Wojciech 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.^[8][9]

Beginning in the 1870s, Imperial German officials restricted the usage of languages other than German in Prussia's eastern provinces.^[10] The German authorities undertook several measures to Germanise the Masurians or to separate them culturally from neighboring Poles by creating a separate identity.^[11] After 1871 Masurians who expressed sympathy for Poland were deemed "national traitors" by German nationalists (this increased especially after 1918).^[3] According to Wojciech Wrzesinki, Masurians did not receive any assistance or help from Polish movements at the time.^[12] 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.^[3]

Masurians in the twentieth century

Before World War I many Masurians emigrated to the Ruhr Area, especially to Gelsenkirchen. Here, Masurians were not distinguished apart from the Poles and both groups were seen as inferior to Germans, culturally or even racially.^[16] 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.^[17]

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.^[18] 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.^[19][20][21] This ethnically, but not nationally Polish identity was a repeated source of consternation for Polish national activists,^[22] and decidedly pro-Polish political parties and press never gained widespread influence among the general populace.^[23] 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."^[24]

The Masurians evinced strong support for Germany during World War I.^[25] In 1920, the League of Nations supervised the East Prussian plebiscite – with British, French and Italian troops stationed in Masuria – to determine the new border between the Second Polish Republic and German East Prussia. The plebiscite was organized by the local German authorities.^[26] Polish ethnographer Adam Chętnik stated that the German authorities performed abuses and falsifications during the plebiscite,^[27] and Stefan Berger writes that the Masurians were subjected to huge psychological pressure and physical violence by German side to vote for Germany.^[28] Kossert admits irregularities during the referendum, but asserts that in general, its results truthfully reflected the overwhelmingly pro-German sentiment in southern East Prussia.^[29] In Masuria proper the vast majority (99.32%) opted to remain in Prussia.^[30][31] Attempts to create schools teaching Polish in interwar Germany were met with terror and violence.^[32]

The time of the liberal Weimar republic saw a strong trend of conversion from the Polish language to the German language among the Masurians.^[33]

Support for the Nazi Party was high in Masuria, especially in elections in 1932 and 1933.^[34] Nazis used the Masurian dialect for their political rallies during the campaigning.^[34] The government of Nazi 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.^[35][36] 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.^[37] 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.^[38]

In 1943, "Związek Mazurski" was reactivated secretly by Masurian activists of the Polish Underground State in Warsaw and led by Karol Małłek.^[39] 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".^[40] Additionally a Masurian Institute was founded by Masurian activists in Radość near Warsaw in 1943.^[41] Andreas Kossert regards these claims as a presumption completely disregarding the actual conditions of the Masurian people.^[42]

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 in the final European campaigns of 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 who had remained in Poland emigrated to West Germany. As of 2003, approximately 5,000 Masurians still lived in the area, many of them as members of the German minority.^[17] Speculations about the reasons of this emigration vary, from the economic situation and the undemocratic – communist – system in Poland^[17] to the shrinking prospect of a return of Masuria to Germany.^[43]

Mazur remains the 14th most common surname in Poland, with almost 67,000 people bearing the name.^[44] According to ethnographer Adam Chętnik, the Masurians were most closely related to the Kurpie branch of the Poles.^[27] A group of Masurians migrated south and became one of the main components of the Lasowiacy, who live in the northern part of the Subcarpathian Voivodeship.^[45][46]

Notes