Province of Posen

The Province of Posen (, ) was a province of Prussia from 1846-1918. Its capital was Poznań (German: Posen). Known as the "cradle of the Polish nation", this region was the home to Poles, Germans, some Jews and a smattering of other peoples. Almost all the Poles were Roman Catholic, and about 90% of the Germans were Protestant. The small numbers of Jews were primarily to be found in the larger communities, mostly in skilled crafts, local commerce and regional trading. The smaller the community, the more likely it was to be either Polish or German. These "pockets of ethnicity" existed side by side, with more of them being German in the northwest, and more being Polish in the southeast. With Germanization policies, the population became more German until the end of the 19th century, when the trend reversed (so called Ostflucht). This was despite efforts of the government in Berlin, which established a resettlement program to buy land from Poles and make it available only to Germans.

Description

The land is mostly flat, drained by two major watershed systems; the Noteć (German: Netze) in the north and the Warta (German: Warthe) in the center. Ice Age glaciers left moraine deposits and the land is speckled with hundreds of "finger lakes", streams flowing in and out on their way to one of the two rivers.

Agriculture was the primary industry, as one would expect for the 1800s. The three-field system was used to grow a variety of crops, primarily rye, sugar beets, potatoes, other grains, and some tobacco and hops. Significant parcels of wooded land provided building materials and firewood. Small numbers of livestock existed, including geese, but a fair amount of sheep were herded.

When this area came under Prussian control, the feudal system was still in force. It was officially ended in Prussia (see Freiherr vom Stein) in 1810 (1864 in Congress Poland), but lingered in some practices until the late 1800s. The situation was thus that (primarily) Polish serfs lived and worked side by side with (predominantly) free German settlers. Though the settlers were given initial advantages, in time their lots were not much different. In simplistic terms, serfs worked for the lord and the lord took care of them. Settlers worked for themselves and took care of themselves, but paid taxes to the lord.

Typically, an estate would have its manor and farm buildings, and a village nearby for the Polish laborers. Near that village, there might be a German settlement. And in the woods, there would be a forester's dwelling. The estate owners, usually of the nobility, owned the local grist mill, and often other types of mills or perhaps a distillery. In many places, windmills dotted the landscape, reminding one of the earliest settlers, the Dutch, who began the process of turning unproductive river marshes into fields. This process was finished by the German settlers who were used to reclaim unproductive lands (not only marshland) for the host estate owners.

Changing hands

Originally part of the Kingdom of Poland, this area roughly coincided with the Polish region known as Greater Poland in the east. The eastern portions of Posen were taken by the Kingdom of Prussia during the Partitions of Poland; during the first Partition (1772), Prussia took just the portion north of the Noteć (German: Netze) river. Prussia added the remainder during the second Partition in 1793. Prussia briefly lost control during the Kościuszko Uprising in (1794).

It was initially called "South Prussia". Prussia (and later Germany) held control of the province until the end of World War I, with the exception of the period of time when Napoleon changed the landscape of Europe (1806-1815). After the defeat of Prussia by Napoleonic France, the Duchy of Warsaw was created with the Treaty of Tilsit. The Poles were the primary ally of Napoleon in Central Europe, participating in the Greater Poland Uprising of 1806 and supplying troops for his campaigns.

According to the Vienna peace congress, put into action after the fall of Napoleon in 1815, Posen was returned to Prussia, and became the Grand Duchy of Posen (1815-1846), a nominally autonomous province under Hohenzollern rule with the rights of "free development of Polish nation, culture and language", and was outside the German Confederation. At this time the city of Posen was the administrative center and the site of the "Prince Antoni Henryk Radziwiłł of Posen". Shortly after the outbreak of the November Uprising, Prussia revoked the autonomy of the province, in violation of the Vienna Peace Congress arrangements, and in 1846 the province was renamed the Province of Posen and brought to the same standing as other provinces such as West Prussia and Silesia. With the unification of Germany after the Franco-Prussian War of 1871, the province of Posen became part of the German Empire (1871-1918) and the city of Posen was officially named an imperial residence city.

With the signing of the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War I, most of the province, primarily the areas with a Polish majority, was returned to Poland and reformed as the Poznań Voivodship. (See also: Greater Poland Uprising.) The remaining German part of the province was reformed as Grenzmark Posen-Westpreussen with Schneidemühl (Piła) as its capital, until 1938, when it was divided between Silesia, Pomerania and Brandenburg. The remainder of Posen, which was primarily of German ethnicity but did have substantial Polish minorities, were placed under Polish administration by the Soviet forces in both Poland and Germany after World War II. During the Cold War, Posen, along with Silesia and Pomerania, were still claimed by West Germany as the German Eastern Territories under Polish Administration; during and after Ostpolitik, however, Germany formally rescinded their claims, acknowledging the facts on the ground in the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany.

Ethnic conflict

Due to the large number of resident Germans (first as settlers and then as occupiers) and the presence of powerful, warring nations on all sides and the internal strife between three major religious faiths, the area was often a battleground of ethnic conflicts.

During the first half of the 1800s, the German population grew due to state sponsored colonisation. In the second half, the Polish population grew gradually due to the Ostflucht and higher birth-rate. The clash peaked during the Kulturkampf, when many Catholics Germans in Posen joined with ethnic Poles in opposition to the Protestant Prussian government.

Polish language was eventually banned from schools and government offices as part of the Germanisation policies.

In WW2, a portion of the German minority living in the territory of the former the province formed Selbstschutz units, which assisted in the Nazi assault on Poland and the subsequent atrocities against Poles and Jews.

Statistics

Area: 28,970 km²

District Posen 17,503 km²
District Bromberg 11,448 km²

Population

1816: 820,176
1868: 1,537,300 (Bromberg 550,900 - Posen 986,400)
1871: 1,583,843
- Religion: 1871
  - Catholics 1,009,885
  - Protestants 511,429
  - Jews 61,982
  - others 547
1875: 1,606,084
1880: 1,703,397
1900: 1,887,275
1905: 1,986,267
1910: 2,099,831 (Bromberg 763,900 - Posen 1,335,900)

Divisions

Note: Prussian provinces were subdivided into units called "Kreise" (singular "Kreis", abbreviated "Kr.", English circle), which were similar to large counties in US terms. Cities would have their own "Stadtkreis" (English: municipal county) and the surrounding rural area would be named for the city, but referred to as a "Landkreis" (English: rural county). In the case of Posen, the Landkreis was split into two: Landkreis Posen West, and Landkreis Posen East.

Data is from Prussian censuses, during a period of state-sponsored germanization, and includes military garrisons. It is commonly criticized for being falsified.

Kreis ("County")	Polish spelling	1905 Pop	Polish speakers	German speakers¹	Jewish²	Origin
Posen district (southern)
City of Posen	Poznań		55%	45%
Adelnau	Odolanów		90%	10%
Birnbaum	Miedzychód		51%	49%
Bomst	Babimost		49%	51%
Fraustadt	Wschowa		27%	73%
Gostyn	Gostyn		87%	13%		Kröben
Grätz	Grodzisk		82%	18%		Buk
Jarotschin	Jarocin		83%	17%		Pleschen
Kempen	Kępno		84%	16%		Schildberg
Koschmin	Koźmin		83%	17%		Krotoschin
Kosten	Kościan		89%	11%
Krotoschin	Krotoszyn		70%	30%
Lissa	Leszno		36%	64%		Fraustadt
Meseritz	Międzyrzecz		20%	80%
Neutomischel	Nowy Tomyśl		51%	49%		Buk
Obornik	Oborniki		61%	39%
Ostrowo	Ostrów		80%	20%		?Adelnau?
Pleschen	Pleszew		85%	15%
Posen Ost	Poznań, Wsch.		72%	28%		Posen
Posen West	Poznań, Zach.		87%	13%		Posen
Rawitsch	Rawicz		55%	45%		Kröben
Samter	Szamotuły		73%	27%
Schildberg	Ostrzeszów		90%	10%
Schmiegel	Śmigiel		82%	18%		Kosten
Schrimm	Śrem		82%	18%
Schroda	Środa		88%	12%
Schwerin	Skwierzyna		5%	95%		Birnbaum - 1877
Wreschen	Września		84%	16%
Bromberg district (northern)
City of Bromberg	Bydgoszcz		16%	84%
Bromberg	Bydgoszcz		38%	62%
Czarnikau	Czarników		27%	73%
Filehne	Wieleń		28%	72%		Czarnikau
Gnesen	Gniezno		67%	33%
Hohensalza	Inowrocław		64%	36%
Kolmar	Chodzież		18%	82%
Mogilno	Mogilno		76%	24%
Schubin	Szubin		56%	44%
Strelno	Strzelno		82%	18%		??
Wirsitz	Wyrzysk		47%	53%
Witkowo	Witkowo		83%	17%		?Gnesen?
Wongrowitz	Wągrowiec		77%	23%
Znin	Żnin		77%	23%		??

¹ includes bilingual speakers
² only religious Jews, without regard of their native language

The Presidents (German: Oberpräsidenten) of Province of Posen

Time in Office	Name
1815 - 1824	Joseph Zerboni de Sposetti 1760 - 1831
1825 - 1830	Johann Friedrich Theodor von Baumann 1768 - 1830
1830 - 1840	Eduard Heinrich Flottwell 1786 - 1865
1840 - 1842	Adolf Heinrich Graf von Arnim-Boitzenburg 1803 - 1868
1843 - 1850	Carl Moritz von Beurmann 1802 - 1870
1850 - 1851	Gustav Carl Gisbert Heinrich Wilhelm Gebhard von Bonin (1.time in office) 1797 - 1878
1851 - 1860	Eugen von Puttkamer 1800 - 1874
1860 - 1862	Gustav Carl Gisbert Heinrich Wilhelm Gebhard von Bonin (2.time in office) 1797 - 1878
1862 - 1869	Carl Wilhelm Heinrich Georg von Horn 1807 - 1889
1869 - 1873	Otto Graf von Königsmarck 1815 - 1889
1873 - 1886	William Barstow von Guenther 1815 - 1892
1886 - 1890	Robert Graf von Zedtlitz-Trützschler 1837 - 1914
1890 - 1899	Hugo Freiherr von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff 1840-1905
1899 - 1903	Karl Julius Rudolf von Bitter 1846 - 1914
1903 - 1911	Wilhelm August Hans von Waldow-Reitzenstein 1856 - 1937
1911 - 1914	Philipp Schwartzkopf ?
1914 - 1918	Joh. Karl Friedr. Moritz Ferd. v. Eisenhart-Rothe 1862-1942

External links

Genealogy research

Provinces of Prussia | History of Poland (1795–1918)

Provinz Posen | Posen (provincie) | Prowincja Poznańska | 波森省

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