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Settlement Commission

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The Prussian Settlement Commission , officially known as the Royal Prussian Settlement Commission in the Provinces West Prussia and Posen ( German : Königlich Preußische Ansiedlungskommission in den Provinzen Westpreußen und Posen ; Polish : Królewska Komisja Osadnicza dla Prus Zachodnich i Poznańskiego ) was a Prussian government commission that operated between 1886 and 1924, but actively only until 1918. It was first up on the initiative of Otto von Bismarck to increase land ownership by ethnically German Germans at the expense of Poles in Germany , by economic and political means, in Prussia 's eastern provinces of West Prussia and the Posen as part of his larger efforts aiming at the end of Poles in Germany (especially as a distinctive, recognised and self-recognising group inhabiting a contiguous arena), the Germanisation of greater territories, in particular those under German rule and strengthening of and ascendancy of “Germandom” and the dominant German culture (in particular German Protestant culture) especially in the “East”, during the Kulturkampf though it survived it, and the end of the Bismarck-era generalised anti-Catholic government policy.

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59-576: (Redirected from Colonization Commission ) Settlement Commission or Colonization Commission may refer to: Royal Prussian Settlement Commission , in the provinces of Posen and West Prussia Foreign Claims Settlement Commission , USA Income Tax Settlement Commission , India Tidelands Settlement Commission (see Bill Dodd ) Greek Refugee Settlement Commission (see Henry Morgenthau, Sr. ) Soldier Settlement Commission , Australia South Australian Colonization Commission Topics referred to by

118-567: A Geographic Names Information System that defines three classes of human settlement: Populated places may be specifically defined in the context of censuses and be different from general-purpose administrative entities, such as "place" as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau or census-designated places . In the field of geospatial predictive modeling , a settlement is "a city, town, village, or other agglomeration of buildings where people live and work". The Global Human Settlement Layer ( GHSL ) framework produces global spatial information about

177-546: A "barrier" to Polishness. While the Commission bought mostly German land, this was not interfering with the goal of increase of German presence, and buying a large tract of land from a single German owner to distribute it among many German colonists was perceived as beneficial to the goal. Of the colonists, 96.9% were Protestants as the Prussian authorities believed that ‘the true German is a Protestant". The whole practice

236-512: A National Register of Populated places (NRPP). The Canadian government uses the term "populated place" in the Atlas of Canada , but does not define it. Statistics Canada uses the term localities for historically named locations. The Croatian Bureau of Statistics records population in units called settlements ( naselja ) . The Census Commission of India has a special definition of census towns . The Central Statistics Office (CSO) of

295-597: A leaflet in 1912 that warned "any Pole who buys from Jews and Germans undermines the existence of the Catholic Church and the Fatherland." Local newspapers attempted to intimidate residents who purchased goods from German and Jewish merchants by publishing their names in the paper and accusing them of "betray[ing]...their country." As a result, the German initiative created the very thing it tried to eliminate in

354-471: A majority in wide parts of Posen and West Prussia province, who founded the Prussian banks Bank Ziemski , Bank Związku Spółek Zarobkowych (Vereinsbank der Erwerbsgenossenschaften) and local land acquisition cooperatives (spółki ziemskie) which collected private funds and succeeded to buy more latifundia from defaulted owners and settle more ethnically Polish Germans as farmers on the parcelled land than their governmentally funded counter-party. A big success of

413-805: A minuscule number of dwellings grouped together to the largest of cities with surrounding urbanized areas . Settlements include hamlets , villages , towns and cities . A settlement may have known historical properties such as the date or era in which it was first settled, or first settled by particular people. The process of settlement involves human migration . In the field of geospatial predictive modeling , settlements are "a city, town, village or other agglomeration of buildings where people live and work". A settlement conventionally includes its constructed facilities such as roads , enclosures , field systems , boundary banks and ditches , ponds , parks and woodlands , wind and water mills , manor houses , moats and churches . An unincorporated area

472-743: A populated place as "a named settlement with a population of 200 or more persons". The Committee for Geographical Names in Australasia used the term localities for rural areas, while the Australian Bureau of Statistics uses the term "urban centres/localities" for urban areas. The Agency for Statistics in Bosnia and Herzegovina uses the term "populated place" / "settled place" for rural (or urban as an administrative center of some Municipality/City), and "Municipality" and "City" for urban areas. The Bulgarian Government publishes

531-432: A special type of cultural-historical landscape studies. Settlements can be ordered by size, centrality or other factors to define a settlement hierarchy . A settlement hierarchy can be used for classifying settlement all over the world, although a settlement called a "town" in one country might be a "village" in other countries; or a "large town" in some countries might be a "city" in others. Geoscience Australia defines

590-618: Is a related designation used in the United States. The earliest geographical evidence of a human settlement was Jebel Irhoud , where early modern human remains of eight individuals date back to the Middle Paleolithic around 300,000 years ago. The oldest remains that have been found of constructed dwellings are remains of huts that were made of mud and branches around 17,000 BC at the Ohalo site (now underwater) near

649-633: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Prussian Settlement Commission The commission was ideologically motivated by German racism. The commission was one of Prussia's prime instruments in the official policy of Germanization of the historically Polish lands of West Prussia (the former Royal Prussia ) and the dissolved Grand Duchy of Posen . The Commission ultimately purchased 613 estates from ethnic German owners and 214 from ethnic Poles, functioning to more often bail out German debtors rather than fulfilling its declared national mission. By

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708-509: Is more politically charged. The issue of translation is also connected to the fact that in 1904 the legal difference between settlement and colony was abolished in Prussia. The Kingdom of Prussia during the partitions of Poland acquired West Prussia ( German : Westpreußen , Polish : Prusy Zachodnie ) in 1772 and the later Province of Posen ( Provinz Posen , Prowincja Poznańska ) in 1793 and 1815. The Polish language

767-552: Is processed fully automatically and generates analytics and knowledge reporting objectively and systematically about the presence of population and built-up infrastructures. The GHSL operates in an open and free data and methods access policy (open input, open method, open output). The term "Abandoned populated places" is a Feature Designation Name in databases sourced by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and GeoNames . Sometimes

826-587: The Krupp family. The Settlement Commission's goal to Germanise Polish territories failed and with the fall of German Empire in 1918 (at the end of World War I), the Commission ceased to function by 1924. In 1919 its headquarters were taken over by Polish state as well as most of its territory. 3.9% (18,200 ha.) of all the land purchased remained in the hands of the Germans within the new borders of Germany. The Germanisation policies resulted in strong measures against

885-638: The Republic of Ireland has had a special definition of census towns . From the 2022 census of Ireland , the CSO introduced an urban geography unit called " Built Up Areas " (BUAs). The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics records population in units of settlements called Tehsil – an administrative unit derived from the Mughal era. There are various types of inhabited localities in Russia . Statistics Sweden uses

944-509: The Spring of Nations , however, stopped their execution. The Frankfurt Parliament showed that the German delegates refused to accept the rights of non-German peoples and, while the Prussian government declared itself ready to discuss Polish concerns, it soon ordered the Prussian military to crush the freedom movement of Polish activists and peasants. Afterwards, the victorious Prussian government retreated from its earlier declarations of autonomy in

1003-529: The German Empire and 20% from outside the empire, especially from Russia. One of the chief aims of the commission was to stop the restoration of Polish population in Germanised territories of Greater Poland which was restoring its numbers after drastic fall during initial Prussian takeover. While the Commission never fully realised its goals, it managed to weaken Polish influence. In Greater Poland

1062-465: The German minority in Poland, were active in a Nazi campaign of genocide against Poles during World War II. English translations include German Colonization Commission for Poznań , Prussian Colonization Commission The Royal Commission of Colonization for West Prussia and Posnania ). The majority of Polish sources translate the title as Colonization Commission rather than Settlement Commission, which

1121-638: The German settlers by the Polish state after World War I. The Polish state refused to recognize the ownership rights of most of the German settlers, about half of whom fled or were driven out of Poland. These actions of the Polish state were condemned by the Permanent Court of International Justice , ruling out in 1923 " that the position adopted by the Polish Government [...] was not in conformity with its international obligations. " By 1918,

1180-645: The Germanisation of their land. The efforts to Germanise the region in fact strengthened the Polish nationalist movement and united Polish nationalism, Catholicism and cultural resistance among the Poles in Pomerania, Masuria and Silesia. For the Settlement Commission, these countermeasures led to a decreasing availability of purchasable Polish-owned land, in 1895 and all years following 1898,

1239-662: The Greater Poland region. Prior to the Prussian Settlement Commission (established in 1886) the Kingdom of Prussia had made a number of attempts to settle ethnic Germans in regions inhabited by ethnic Poles. Frederick the Great , who treated Poles with contempt and called them 'slovenly Polish trash', settled around 300,000 colonists in the eastern provinces of Prussia and aimed at a removal of

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1298-487: The Polish nobility. Another colonization attempt aimed at Germanisation was pursued by Prussia after 1832. In 1871, the German Empire was founded with Prussia being the leading and dominating state. The advent of the Kulturkampf marked a period, when the Prussian government attempted to Germanise the Poles through language, schooling, and religious restrictions. Later, the increase in the sheer numbers of Poles led

1357-439: The Polish share of the population didn't reach its pre-1815 levels: According to Władysław Kulski the commission was only a part of the German efforts to eradicate Poles from territories conquered by Prussia from Poland;in addition to 154,000 colonists, Germany also settled 378,000 German military personnel and officials in Polish territories. As the economic approach showed to be a failure, various laws were enacted to promote

1416-473: The Prussian activists for the Polish nation. Nevertheless, this Polish success under difficult circumstances was little recognised, and after World War I , when the Second Polish Republic was established, new governmental Polish measures climaxed in the expropriation of Commission-owned lands and reversing Germanization. Some of the former colonists, then as ethnically German Poles part of

1475-781: The Settlement Commission's aims. Other measures in support of the Germanisation policy included: The creation of the Commission stimulated Poles to take countermeasures, that gradually turned into a competition of the Polish minority against the German state with Poles running their own settlement banks and settlement societies, resulting in a "battle for soil" ( Kampf um den Boden ). In 1888 Teodor Kalkstein founded Bank Ziemski, supported by Poles from Austrian Galicia region. 1894 saw Polish intellectuals in cooperation with Polish farmers founding Spólka Rolników Indywidualnych . Ignacy Sikorski founded Bank Parcelacyjny in 1896. From 1890 till 1912 Polish enterprises, banks and associations grew in number and strength providing Poles with defence against

1534-490: The colonizing actions between 1793 and 1806, in 1815 in Poznań only 11.1 per cent of the population was ethnically German. After 1832 Poles could no longer hold high posts at the local administrative level (landrat). At the same time the Prussian government and Prussian King pursued Germanization of the administrative and judicial systems, while local officials enforced Germanization of the educational system and tried to eradicate

1593-686: The commission planned to settle up to 40,000 families in Posen and West Prussia, it only managed to settle a total of 21,866 families until 1914, bringing the number of German colonists to 154,000. From 26 April 1886 until 1 January 1901, the Settlement Commission purchased 147,475 ha (3.64% of the Province of Posen and 1.65% of West Prussia), and settled 4,277 families (about 30,000 persons). A publication from German Empire named Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon claimed that in 1905-1906 that only 2,715 families were not native to these provinces. After this,

1652-495: The commission was able to buy 8% of the total land in Posen and West Prussia. Altogether, about 22,000 families were settled, bringing the number of German colonists to 154,000. 5,400 families were German arrivals taken from other parts of the partitioned Poland, Congress Poland ( Russian Empire province) and Galicia (Austrian province). Overall, the commission bought 828 estates (430,450 ha) for 443 million marks, 214 of those (115,525 ha) from Poles for 96,4 million marks, and

1711-408: The economic position of Polish nobility. The provincial parliament issued calls to ensure the right of use of the Polish language and called for the creation of Polish educational institutions as well as autonomy, but those requests were rejected by the Prussian state. In 1847, two hundred fifty seven Polish activists were imprisoned upon charges of conspiracy and eight of them were sentenced to death,

1770-577: The edge of the Sea of Galilee . The Natufians built houses, also in the Levant , around 10,000 BC. Remains of settlements such as villages become much more common after the invention of agriculture, The oldest of them is Jarmo , located in Iraq. Landscape history studies the form (morphology) of settlements – for example whether they are dispersed or nucleated . Urban morphology can thus be considered

1829-417: The end of its existence, a total of 21,886 German families (154,704 persons) out of a planned 40,000 had been settled. The commission's activities had a countereffect in Poles using what has been termed "defensive nationalism", unifying "Polish nationalism, Catholicism and cultural resistance" and triggered countermeasures by the Polish minority. Efforts of new private initiatives by the minority, but actually

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1888-431: The fight against the Polish clergy ( Kulturkampf ) was to achieve the elimination of a Polish national identity. Polish landowners were regarded by Bismarck as the principal agitators for Polish nationalism, purchasing their estates and parceling them out to Germans in family-sized farms was intended to both disestablish this group and significantly increase the numbers of Germans in these areas. The focus on land ownership

1947-465: The first place, a Polish national awakening in the Greater Poland region (Province of Posen) and feeling of Polish national unity. Thus, faced with the inability to Germanise the Polish provinces by economic means led the German leaders and thinkers to consider pursuing extraordinary means. Catherine Epstein named Polish resistance to German methods as strengthening Polish nationalism and notes

2006-564: The government to a direct anti-Polish demographic policy. The Polish population in the Province of Posen (Poznań) made up for nearly 60% (1,049,000 Poles vs 702,000 Germans in 1890), and in West Prussia for one third of the population (484,000 Poles vs 949,000 Germans in 1890). By 1885, Prussia still faced difficulties digesting her "Polish provinces", and the "Polish Question" was one of the Reich's most pressing problems. The state itself

2065-400: The human presence on the planet over time. This in the form of built up maps, population density maps and settlement maps. This information is generated with evidence-based analytics and knowledge using new spatial data mining technologies. The framework uses heterogeneous data including global archives of fine-scale satellite imagery, census data, and volunteered geographic information. The data

2124-493: The land purchased by Prussian Settlement Commission, Poles would be ethnically cleansed and murdered, and German colonists would occupy their place. The Nazis planned also to form a Reich Settlement Commission to coordinate all internal colonization within German Reich, which was to be based on Prussian Settlement Commission. The plan was laid out by Nazi official Curt von Gottberg , who presented it to Himmler, and as reward

2183-400: The newly formed Grand Duchy of Posen (created out of territories of Duchy of Warsaw) in regards to rights of the Polish language and cultural institutions. However, in practice, the right to use Polish in courts and institutions was respected only until 1830. While the Poles constituted the majority of population in the area, they held only 4 out of 21 official posts of high level. Despite

2242-476: The original budget of 100,000,000 marks was exhausted. By 1913, the SC had bought up about 5.4% of the land in West Prussia and 10.4% in Posen. By then, 450 new villages were founded, a total area of 438,560 ha was purchased, of which 124,903 ha were purchased from Poles. In 1914, Germans owned 59% of land in Province of Posen, while making up for about 40% of population in 1890. Throughout its 32 years of existence

2301-403: The other 614 (314,926 ha) from Germans for 346,7 million marks. Further the commission bought 631 peasant farms (30,434 ha) for 44,5 million marks, 274 of those (11,152 ha) from Poles for 16,6 million marks and the other 357 (19,282 ha) from Germans for 27,9 million marks. Of the total of 955 million marks spent, about half (488 million marks) was spent for the actual land purchase, while the rest

2360-416: The rich helped the poor to perform better in economy and were supported by the clergy in their actions. Rich nobility often sold their artistic heritage to invest in banking and financial enterprises, or to buy more land for Poles. This was viewed as moral and ethical behavior among the Polish population. Some Polish nationalists accused the Settlement Commission of being run by Germans and Jews, and distributed

2419-439: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Settlement Commission . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Settlement_Commission&oldid=1032741097 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

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2478-412: The settlers while the proportion of Germans from Russia was below 1%, however in the years 1902–1906, locals only made up for 17% and Germans from Russia for 29% of the settlers. Of those settled until the end of 1906, a quarter originated in Posen and West Prussia, another quarter in the neighboring provinces of East Prussia , Pomerania , Brandenburg , Saxony and Silesia , 30% from other parts of

2537-576: The similarity of Commission actions to the Nazis. Even before the First World War, some Germans, like Hans Delbrück or Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow , proposed expelling Poles from the eastern territories of Germany. With the coming of the war, those ideas began to take real and determined form in the shape of plans to be realised after German victory and, as a consequence, hegemony of Central and Eastern Europe. The idea of extraordinary measures

2596-408: The structures are still easily accessible, such as in a ghost town , and these may become tourist attractions. Some places that have the appearance of a ghost town, however, may still be defined as populated places by government entities. A town may become a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, because of a government action, such as the building of a dam that floods

2655-598: The term localities ( tätort ) for various densely populated places. The common English-language translation is urban areas . The UK Department for Communities and Local Government uses the term "urban settlement" to denote an urban area when analysing census information. The Registrar General for Scotland defines settlements as groups of one or more contiguous localities, which are determined according to population density and postcode areas. The Scottish settlements are used as one of several factors defining urban areas. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has

2714-484: The total ethnic Polish population was greater than when the commission began operations. Between 1918 and 1939, the German population in these areas declined by another 70%, and the land owned by Germans by 45%. Prussian policies of settlement and forced assimilation were an influence for German Nazi thinkers during their war in the East. Their plans were a renovation of the idea, this time however rather than colonize just

2773-443: The vast majority of estates was purchased from Germans instead of Poles, and since 1902, the commission was able to acquire land from Poles "only rarely and only through a middleman". Numerous initiatives proved to be more elastic and efficient than the large centralised German bureaucracy . A social understanding has risen among the Polish population that led to abandoning the class differences in order to defend national existence -

2832-499: The would-be annexed territories from Congress Poland , which would then become Germanised. The Poles remaining in Germany who would refuse to become Germanised were to be "encouraged" to move to a planned German-run Polish puppet state established from the remains of Congress Poland. Other notable names of Settlement Commission activists include Friedrich von Schwerin and industrialist Alfred Hugenberg who worked for and represented

2891-472: Was 955 million marks. Additional funds were awarded to assistance projects such crediting bankrupt German estates (125 million marks in 1908 ). Due to operations of the commission the price of land in Polish territories rose in response. The economical attempt to Germanise those areas failed and with the beginning of World War I, German authorities and leading members of Commission started to look for new ways to secure German foothold on Polish territory. While

2950-415: Was abolished as an official language and the German language was introduced. Frederick the Great hoped to replace Poles with Germans, placing Germans in most of the administration as well. Poles were portrayed as "backward Slavs" by Prussian officials who acted to spread the German language and culture. The lands of Polish nobility were confiscated and given to German nobles. The Prussian hold on Polish areas

3009-507: Was appointed as Land Registry Chief in Prague in June 1939. 52°24′34″N 16°55′09″E  /  52.40944°N 16.91917°E  / 52.40944; 16.91917 Human settlement In geography , statistics and archaeology , a settlement , locality or populated place is a community of people living in a particular place . The complexity of a settlement can range from

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3068-418: Was led by German nationalism and Bismarck viewed Poles as one of the chief threats to German power; as he declared The Polish question is to us a question of life and death and wanted Polish nation to disappear in private going as far as expressing his wish to exterminate Poles. As a result, the Polish population faced economic, religious and political discrimination as the Germanisation of their territories

3127-464: Was motived by the German " völkisch " idea that "where the German plough will plow, there German fatherland will arise". The settlement was to isolate Polish settlements in German inhabited areas by surrounding them with German settlements and spread German ones into Polish dominated areas to isolate specified Polish villages from the rest. The German settlements were to be always concentrated to provide

3186-461: Was new and unheard in Europe. Besides Ostflucht, the German government justified its action to the international community by labeling Poles as internal enemies of the state. Those attempts did not achieve much success. Bismarck himself said that the Poles who find themselves without land should "move to Morocco ". The funding for the commission was: By 1914 the overall funding for the commission

3245-407: Was promoted. In some places where Poles and Germans lived, it was a virtual apartheid state. In the late 19th century, an east-to west migration ( Ostflucht ) took place, in which parts of the population of the eastern provinces migrated to western, more prosperous territories. The German government was concerned that Ostflucht would lower the percentage of Germans in the eastern regions. This event

3304-541: Was somewhat weakened after 1807 when parts of its partition were restored to the Duchy of Warsaw . The power status of Prussia was dependent on hindering any form of Polish statehood and it didn't support Polish attempts at restoration of Poland during Congress of Vienna , when Prussia tried to obtain the Duchy of Warsaw or at least its western provinces. In 1815 the Prussian king made several guarantees in his speech to Poles in

3363-532: Was spent for administration, parcellisation, infrastructure etc. To Germanise the region predominantly German military units were sent and later included in the region's population figures. Germans from West Prussia and Greater Poland region who took part in the settlement process declined over time, while the number of Germans from the Russian Empire increased. In the first years (1886–90), locals from Greater Poland and West Prussia constituted 48% of

3422-418: Was the result of the failed economic attempt to Germanise Polish provinces. Heads of the Settlement Commission were among the architects and supporters of those plans. The president of the Settlement Commission, Gense, was one of the chief supporters and planners of the so-called " Polish Border Strip " that envisioned expelling circa 2 million non-Germans (chiefly Poles and Jews) from 30,000 square kilometers of

3481-422: Was used as pretext and justification presented to the international community for actions aiming at Germanisation of those provinces. In reality both Poles, Jews and Germans moved to richer western German provinces. The goals of the commission were the financial weakening of Polish landowners, and ensuring Germanisation of Polish cities as well as rural areas. The destruction of Polish landownership combined with

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