The Masurians or Mazurs (; ; Masurian: Mazurÿ), historically also known as Prussian Masurians (Polish: Mazurzy pruscy), are a Polish ethnic group originating from the region of Masuria, within the modern-day Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland. They number around 5,000 to 15,000 people. In the 2011 Polish census, 1,376 individuals declared themselves to be Masurian as either a first or a secondary identification. Before World War II and its post-war expulsions, Masurians used to be a more numerous ethnic group found in the southern parts of East Prussia for centuries. Today, most Masurians live in what is now modern-day Germany and elsewhere.
Masurians are mostly descendants of colonists from Mazovia who moved north. Some research also indicate the admixture of the remains of the Old Prussians.Piotr Szatkowski: Masurians – the disappearing testimony of the linguistic past of the Polish-German borderland. The contemporary language practices of descendants of the native population of Masuria These settlers moved during the State of the Teutonic Order and the Duchy of Prussia in the midst of the Protestant Reformation. They spoke the Masurian dialects. Since the mid-19th century, High German was increasingly used among Masurians as opposed to Low German used by most of East Prussia's German population. Many Masurians were often bilingual in German and Polish languages. In the 19th century, the Masuria region of East Prussia was named after the Masurians.
Like most of the East Prussian population, they favored Protestantism and adopted Lutheranism in 1525 when Albert, Duke of Prussia secularized the duchy and converted. Roman Catholic Warmiaks and the original Masovians were not affected, as they inhabited parts that formally belonged to the Kingdom of Poland. After World War II, many Masurians were classified as "Germans" and therefore mostly expelled along with them or emigrated after 1956 from what was now Poland to post-war Germany. Although most of them left for the West, some also ended up in East Germany. Conclusion of the war and ensuing resettlements also saw an ethnic conflict between leaving Masurians and incoming Kurpie mainly on religious (Protestant–Catholic) grounds.
History
In the Middle Ages, the inhabitants of the Duchy of Masovia were called Mazur(z)y in Polish. Between the 14th and 17th centuries,Jerzy Jan Lerski, Piotr Wróbel, Richard J. Kozicki, Historical dictionary of Poland, 966–1945, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996, p. 346, Google Books Polish settlers from northern Masovia moved to the southern territories of the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights (these lands had previously belonged to the Baltic Old Prussians, whom the Teutonic 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 the Duchy of Masovia, which was independent until 1526, partially Polonised a southern part of the Duchy of Prussia, later Kingdom of Prussia. Only in Allenstein, now Olsztyn, Catholics remained, because it belonged to the Prince-Bishopric of Ermland or Warmia.
Because of the influx of Masovians into the southern lakeland, the area started to be known as "Masuria" from the 18th century. During the Protestant Reformation, the Masurians, like most inhabitants of Ducal Prussia, became Lutheran Protestant, while the neighboring Masovians remained Roman Catholic. In 1525, the Duchy 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 the Kingdom of Prussia at the Kingdom's founding in 1701, and part of the Prussian-led German Empire at the Empire's founding in 1871.
Masurians referred to themselves in the 19th century as "Polish Prussians" or as "Staroprusaki" (Old Prussians). 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. Some early writers about Masurians – like Max Toeppen – postulated them as mediators between Germanic and Slavic cultures.
During the 1840s, the folklorist Gustaw Gizewiusz (Gustav Gisevius) collected Masurian folk songs which were later included in Oskar Kolberg's compilation Dzieła Wszystkie.Kolberg, Oskar. Dzieła Wszystkie
Masurians in the nineteenth century
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.Historia Polski: 1795–1918 – Page 311 Andrzej Chwalba – 2005 Wiosną 1848 r. polscy działacze narodowi z Pomorza nawiązali kontakty z Mazurami.Polska, losy państwa i narodu Henryk Samsonowicz Iskry, 1992, page 349 For Piotr Wandycz the events of 1848 led to Polish national awakening in Masuria.The Lands of Partitioned Poland, 1795–1918 – Strona 149 Piotr Stefan Wandycz – 1974 In some cases these new developments operated to the advantage of the Poles. The year 1848 marked a Polish awakening in Silesia (Austrian and Prussian) and in the Masurian area, 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.
Beginning in the 1870s, Imperial German officials restricted the usage of languages other than German in Prussia's eastern provinces.Clark, p. 580. The German authorities undertook several measures to Germanise the Masurians or to separate them culturally from neighboring Poles by creating a separate identity.McCook, B. (2002) "Becoming German: Lessons from the Past for the Present", in Leitkultur and Nationalstolz-Tabu – German Phenomena? Bonn, April 2002, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation pp. 33–42. After 1871 Masurians who expressed sympathy for Poland were deemed "national traitors" by German nationalists (this increased especially after 1918). According to Wojciech Wrzesinki, Masurians did not receive any assistance or help from Polish movements at the time.Z księgi pieśni człowieka niemczonego Wojciech Kętrzyński Pojezierze, 1968, page 111 - 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.
Population size Mother tongue of the inhabitants of Masuria, by county, during the first half of the 19th century: +Ethno-linguistic structure of Masurian counties in the first half of the 19th century, according to German dataCounty (German name)YearPolish-speakers%German-speakers%Lithuanian-speakers%Total populationGołdap (Goldap)1831584519%2146369%361412%30922Olecko (Oletzko)18322330284%432816%220%27652Ełk (Lyck)18322924690%341310%40%32663Węgorzewo (Angerburg)18251253552%1175648%660%24357Giżycko (Lötzen)18322043489%252811%250%22987Pisz (Johannisburg)18252855293%21467%00%30698Mrągowo (Sensburg)18312875390%320910%00%31962Szczytno (Ortelsburg)18253492892%31008%00%38028Nidzica (Neidenburg)18252746793%21497%10%29617Ostróda (Osterode)18282357772%926828%00%32845Total1825/32234,63978%63,36021%3,7321%301,731
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.Lucassen, Leo The Immigrant Threat: The Integration of Old and New Migrants in Western Europe since 1850 (Studies of World Migrations) p. 71. 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.Piotr Eberhardt, Jan Owsinski, Ethnic groups and population changes in 20th-century Central-Eastern Europe: history, data, analysis, M.E. Sharpe, 2003, p. 166, Google Books
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. 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.Kossert (2001), p. 44.Blanke, pp. 45–47. This ethnically, but not nationally Polish identity was a repeated source of consternation for Polish national activists,Blanke, pp. 58–59. and decidedly pro-Polish political parties and press never gained widespread influence among the general populace.Kossert (2001), pp. 73–80. 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."Blanke, p. 15.
The Masurians evinced strong support for Germany during World War I.Clark, p. 608. 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.Ethnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth-century Central-Eastern Europe: History, Data, and Analysis; Piotr Eberhardt, M.E. Sharpe, 2003, p. 166. "Although the plebiscite was carried out by the German administrative authorities" Polish ethnographer Adam Chętnik stated that the German authorities performed abuses and falsifications during the plebiscite, and Stefan Berger writes that the Masurians were subjected to huge psychological pressure and physical violence by German side to vote for Germany.Q. Edward Wang, Franz L. Fillafer, Georg G. Iggers Kossert admits irregularities during the referendum, but asserts that in general, its results truthfully reflected the overwhelmingly pro-German sentiment in southern East Prussia.Kossert (2001), p. 158. In Masuria proper the vast majority (99.32%) opted to remain in Prussia.Andreas Kossert: "Grenzlandpolitik" und Ostforschung an der Peripherie des Reiches, p. 124 Rocznik statystyki Rzczypospolitej Polskiej/Annuaire statistique de la République Polonaise 1 (1920/22), part 2, Warszawa 1923, S. 358. Attempts to create schools teaching Polish in interwar Germany were met with terror and violence.O polskości Warmii i Mazur w dawnych wiekach, Andrzej Wakar, Pojezierze, page 80, 1969