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92-500: The name Charenza (also spelt Karentia or Karenz ) may be derived from an old personal name, Chareta , or from the Rani word for "root", Koreta . In its original form, the name was Korenitsa . Charenza was not only the administrative hub of the Rani tribe , but also a religious centre with the temples of Rugievit , Porevit and Porenut . The main religious centre of the Rani, however,

184-683: A Germanization of the East, was unfortunately based on the same false inference. Here again it was thought that a Germanization of the Polish element could be brought about by a purely linguistic integration with the German element. Here again the result would have been catastrophic; a people of alien race expressing its alien ideas in the German language , compromising the lofty dignity of our own nationality by their own inferiority." The Nazis considered land to

276-436: A ban issued on the building of houses by non-Germans. (See Drzymała's van .) Germanisation in schools included the abuse of Polish children by Prussian officials . Germanisation stimulated resistance, usually in the form of home schooling and tighter unity in minority groups. There was a slight easing of the persecution of Poles during 1890–94. A continuation and intensification of measures restarted in 1894 and continued until

368-438: A constitution like the other provinces of my kingdom. Your religion will be upheld. [...] Your language shall be used like the German language in all public affairs and everyone of you with suitable capabilities shall get the opportunity to get an appointment to a public office. [...] As a result, there was an easing of Germanisation policy in the period 1815–30. The minister for Education Altenstein stated in 1823: Concerning

460-751: A fief. In 1234, when the Rugian prince Vitslav I granted Lübeck law to Stralsund , the document was signed in Charenza. The last record mentioning Charenza was in 1237. In the 14th century, "Gharense" was mentioned as belonging to the parish of Gingst . Older research located Charenza at Garz ( 54°18′51″N 13°20′50″E  /  54.31417°N 13.34722°E  / 54.31417; 13.34722  ( Garz ) ), while newer studies locate Charenza near Venz ( Trent community, 54°30′7″N 13°19′0″E  /  54.50194°N 13.31667°E  / 54.50194; 13.31667  ( Venz ) ),

552-546: A main, mixed Slavic and Viking, trading center in Ralswiek . In the 11th and 12th centuries, they also conducted Viking-style raids on their neighbors. The Rani spoke a West Lechitic language, one of the Lechitic group of West Slavic languages . In the course of the 12th to 15th centuries, it was replaced by Low German as politics and ethnic structure had changed due to Ostsiedlung . The Rani language went extinct when

644-555: A relatively short period. This event also produced the first historical record of a major German thinker openly calling for the genocide of the Polish people; the 14th-century German Dominican theologian Johannes von Falkenberg argued on behalf of the Teutonic Order not only that Polish pagans should be killed, but that all Poles should be subject to genocide on the grounds that Poles were an inherently heretical race and that even

736-491: A report of many well-fed Ukrainian children, he declared that the promotion of contraception and abortion was urgently needed, and neither medical care nor education was to be provided. When young women from the East were recruited to work as nannies in Germany , they were required to be suitable for Germanisation, both because they would work with German children, and because they might be sexually exploited . The programme

828-482: A top-secret memorandum, "The Treatment of Racial Aliens in the East", dated 25   May 1940, Himmler wrote "We need to divide Poland's different ethnic groups up into as many parts and splinter groups as possible". There were two Germanisation actions in occupied Poland realised in this way: Germanisation began with the classification of people as defined on the Nazi Volksliste . The Germans regarded

920-515: Is desirable for the Poles to understand the language of government. However, it is not necessary for them to give up or postpone their mother language. The possession of two languages shall not be seen as a disadvantage but as a benefit instead because it is usually associated with a higher flexibility of the mind. [..] Religion and language are the highest sanctuaries of a nation and all attitudes and perceptions are founded on them. A government that [...]

1012-463: Is indifferent or even hostile against them creates bitterness, debases the nation and generates disloyal subjects. Later the first half of the 19th century, Prussian policy towards Poles turned again to discrimination and Germanisation. From 1819 the state gradually reduced the role of the Polish language in schools, with German being introduced in its place. This policy was likely also inspired by English and French examples of using schools for asserting

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1104-798: Is often understood to mean the process of acculturation of Slavic - and Baltic -language speakers – after conquest by or cultural contact with Germans in the early Middle Ages ; especially the areas of modern southern Austria and extant part of German East Elbia . In East Prussia , decimation and forced resettlement of the original Baltic Old Prussians by the Teutonic Order as well as acculturation by immigrants from various European countries, primarily Germans, but also Poles (Catholic Warmians and Protestant Masurians who both descended from Masovians , as well as Catholic Powiślans who descended from Chełminians and Kociewians ), Lithuanians ( Prussian Lithuanians ) and Bohemians , contributed to

1196-494: The Baltic Germans as deeply persecuted in their native lands. Packed into camps for racial evaluation, they were divided into groups: A, Altreich , who were to be settled in Germany and allowed neither farms nor businesses (to allow close supervision); S Sonderfall , who were used as forced labour; and O Ost-Fälle , the best classification, to be settled in the occupied regions and allowed independence. This last group

1288-549: The German nobility . After the Napoleonic Wars, Austria remained in possession of parts of Lesser Poland , Galicia , Volhynia , as well as a minor share of Silesia . Prussia in turn not only retained the bulk of Upper Silesia but upon dissolution of the Duchy of Warsaw it also reclaimed the entire West Prussia (formed by Pomerelia , the northernmost part of Greater Poland and a strip of historical Prussia on

1380-505: The Iroquois . From the start of Prussian rule Poles were subject to a series of measures against their culture: the Polish language was replaced by German as the official language; most administrative positions were filled by Germans. Poles were portrayed as "backward Slavs" by Prussian officials who wanted to spread Protestantism in the German language. The estates of the Polish nobility were confiscated and given to Protestant members of

1472-615: The King of Poland , Jogaila , a Christian convert, ought to be murdered. The assertion that Poles were heretical was largely politically motivated as the Teutonic Order desired to conquer Polish lands despite Christianity having become the dominant religion in Poland centuries prior. Such views did not remain purely ideas but were also put into practice in the wake of events such as the Slaughter of Gdańsk whose German population only achieved

1564-853: The Kingdom of Hungary , triggering in Cisleithania the Czech National Revival and United Slovenia movements, in both parts of the Habsburg Monarchy the Croatian Illyrian movement , as well as in the Bosnia and Herzegovina condominium the Bosnian movement, some of them ultimately forming Yugoslavism , while the Polish and Ukrainian-speaking population of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria benefitted from

1656-768: The Late Middle Ages , the Silesian Piasts and Pomeranian Griffins invited German settlers to settle in many areas constituting the Kingdom of Poland prior to its fragmentation while the Santok Castellany was outright sold to Brandenburg by the Piast dukes of Greater Poland. As a result, Silesia , Pomerania (in the narrow sense) and Lubusz Land joined the Holy Roman Empire , as a natural consequence becoming gradually Germanised in

1748-619: The Namensänderungsgesetz (law of changing surnames), a significant number of "Ruhr-Poles" changed their surnames and Christian names to Germanised forms, in order to evade ethnic discrimination. As the Prussian authorities suppressed Catholic services in Polish by Polish priests during the Kulturkampf , the Poles had to rely on German Catholic priests. Increasing intermarriage between Germans and Poles contributed much to

1840-605: The Prussian Settlement Commission , financed by the national government, was set up to buy land from non-Germans and distribute it to German farmers. From 1908 the committee was entitled to force the landowners to sell the land. Other means of oppression included the Prussian deportations from 1885 to 1890, in which non-Prussian nationals who lived in Prussia, mostly Poles and Jews, were removed; and

1932-557: The Ruhr area in the late 19th century, where they largely worked in the coal and iron industries. German authorities viewed them as a potential danger as a "suspected political and national" element. All Polish workers had special cards and were under constant observation by German authorities. Their citizens' rights were also limited by the state. In response to these policies, the Polish formed their own organisations to maintain their interests and ethnic identity. The Sokol sports clubs,

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2024-596: The Slavic settlement of the region in the ninth century , and ranked among the most powerful of several small Slav tribes between the Elbe and lower Vistula rivers before the thirteenth century. They were among the last tribes to hold to Slavic paganism , and the influence of their religious center at Arkona reached far beyond their tribal borders. In 1168, the Rani were defeated by King Valdemar I of Denmark, and his adviser Absalon , Bishop of Roskilde , resulting in

2116-465: The conversion of the region to Christianity. In the course of the Ostsiedlung of the thirteenth century , the tribe was assimilated by German and Danish settlers and the Rani were gradually Germanised . The Principality of Rugia remained Danish until 1325. In the late migration period , areas that had previously been settled by Germanic tribes became settled by Slavs . In Rugia and

2208-400: The "Old Reich". Nazi authorities feared that these settlers would be tainted by their Polish neighbours and warned them not to let their "foreign and alien" surroundings have an impact on their Germanness. They were also settled in compact communities, which could be easily monitored by the police. Only families classified as "highly valuable" were kept together. For Poles who did not resist

2300-601: The 17th and 18th century in the Czech lands as the Dark Age. As a further step, Emperor Joseph II ( r.  1780–90 ) sought to consolidate the territories of Habsburg Monarchy within the Holy Roman Empire with those remaining outside of it, to centralise the government , and to implement Enlightenment principles through absolutism . He decreed that Austrian German was to replace Ecclesiastical Latin as

2392-554: The 18th century. The plague and subsequent immigration from Germany, notably from Salzburg, were the primary factors in this development. Germanisation policies were tightened during the 19th century, but even into the early 20th century the territories north, south and south-west of the Neman River contained a Lithuanian majority. Due to migration within the German Empire as many as 350,000 ethnic Poles made their way to

2484-852: The Austrian government, not only to divide and rule , but, more importantly, to create an alternative to the Tsarist-backed Galician Russophiles and to "return the favor" by similarly destabilizing the Russification of Ukraine . In defiance of the Valuev Circular , the Ems Ukaz , and censorship in the Russian Empire , Ukrainian-language literature was published in Galicia and smuggled across

2576-692: The Baltic States the Nazis initially encouraged the departure of ethnic Germans by the use of propaganda. This included using scare tactics about the Soviet Union, and led to tens of thousands leaving . Those who left were not referred to as "refugees", but were rather described as "answering the call of the Führer". German propaganda films such as The Red Terror and Frisians in Peril depicted

2668-471: The Czech population were not to be Germanised. Under Generalplan Ost , a percentage of Slavs in the conquered territories were to be Germanised. Gauleiters Albert Forster and Arthur Greiser reported to Hitler that 10 percent of the Polish population contained "Germanic blood", and were thus suitable for Germanisation. The Reichskommissars in northern and central Russia reported similar figures. Those unfit for Germanisation were to be expelled from

2760-594: The Danish Principality of Rugia . Reported names of Rani tribal leaders ("kings" or "princes") were: Germanisation Defunct Defunct Germanisation , or Germanization , is the spread of the German language , people , and culture . It was a central idea of German conservative thought in the 19th and the 20th centuries, when conservatism and ethnic nationalism went hand in hand. In linguistics , Germanisation of non-German languages also occurs when they adopt many German words. Under

2852-599: The East". On 6 April 1941 Yugoslavia was invaded by the Axis Powers. Part of the Slovene-settled territory was occupied by Nazi Germany. The Gestapo arrived on 16   April 1941 and were followed three days later by SS leader Heinrich Himmler, who inspected Stari Pisker Prison in Celje . On 26   April, Adolf Hitler , who encouraged his followers to "make this land German again", visited Maribor . Although

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2944-542: The Eastern Front. An unknown number of "stolen children" were taken to Nazi Germany for Germanisation. Ukraine was targeted for Germanisation. Thirty special SS squads took over villages where ethnic Germans predominated and expelled or shot Jews or Slavs living in them. The Hegewald colony was set up in Ukraine. Ukrainians were forcibly deported, and ethnic Germans forcibly relocated there. Racial assignment

3036-543: The Germanisation of Poles in Prussia, calling it "barbarous". Meanwhile, the Austrian-ruled Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria operated two Polish-speaking universities and in 1867 obtained even consent to adopt Polish as its official government language. The Galician Government also foolishly launched a Polonisation policy which triggered a Ukrainian language revival , which was encouraged by

3128-546: The Germanisation of ethnic Poles in the Ruhr area. Successive policies aimed at the elimination of non-German languages from public life and from academic settings, such as schools. For example, in the course of the second half of the 19th century, the Dutch language , historically spoken in what is now Cleves , Geldern and Emmerich , was banned from schools and the administration and ceased to be spoken in its standardised form by

3220-719: The Rani, who in turn had to promise to adopt Christian faith — yet returned to their pagan beliefs as the Danish headed back. A force of Rani attacked the Danish fleet during the 1147 Wendish Crusade . Saxon armies repeatedly managed to raid Rugia. The Danes, who had attacked the Rani already in 1136 and 1160, finally conquered the Rani stronghold of Arkona in 1168, forced the Slavs to become vassals of Denmark and to convert to Christianity. The wooden statues of their gods were burned and monasteries and churches were built throughout Rani territories. The former Rani realm henceforth became

3312-530: The Russian border with Austrian Government backing. Prussian Lithuanians experienced similar policies of Germanisation restarting from the 15th century. Although ethnic Lithuanians had constituted a majority in areas of East Prussia during the 15th and 16th centuries – from the early 16th century it was often referred to as Lithuania Minor  – the Lithuanian population shrank in

3404-594: The Slovenes had been deemed racially salvageable by the Nazis, the mainly Austrian authorities of the Carinthian and Styrian regions commenced a brutal campaign to destroy them as a nation. The Nazis started a policy of violent Germanisation on Slovene territory, attempting to either discourage or entirely suppress Slovene culture. Their main task in Slovenia was the removal of part of population and Germanisation of

3496-542: The Wendish tribes were made only with the approval of the Rani. The highest-ranking position was in fact that of the High Priest, who stood above the king. The oracle decided whether and where campaigns were to be mounted, and after a victory the money and precious metals of any bounty were given to the temple before the rest was partitioned. Subdued tribes were made subordinate to the temple. The Rani political capital

3588-503: The adjacent mainland, where the Rugii were recorded before the migration period, Slavs first appeared in the ninth century; continuous settlement from the pre-Slavic era is suggested based on pollen analyses and name transitions, so a Rugian remnant seems to have been assimilated. The tribal name of the former inhabitants, the Rugii, may be the root of both the medieval name of Rugia and

3680-724: The areas marked out for German settlement. In considering the fate of the individual nations, the architects of the Plan decided that it would be possible to Germanise about 50 percent of the Czechs , 35 percent of the Ukrainians and 25 percent of the Belarusians . The remainder would be deported to western Siberia and other regions. In 1941, it was decided that the Polish nation should be completely destroyed in about 10 to 20 years so that it could be re-settled by German colonists. In

3772-728: The broadening of Galician autonomy . During the 18th-century, a more harsh and brutal form of Germanisation efforts , initially practiced in Farther Pomerania and East Prussia and extended following the Silesian Wars also to Silesia and County of Kladsko gained from the Lands of the Bohemian Crown as well as later to the terrories of Lauenburg and Bütow Land and the Starostwo of Draheim pawned by Poland,

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3864-505: The capital, Charenza. Temples to other gods were found throughout Rani territories. After the forced Christianization , monasteries and churches replaced the temples. Built into the church of Altenkirchen is a large stone from Arkona with a relief showing a Svantevit priest. Medieval chronicler Helmold of Bosau described the Rani as the only Wendish tribe ruled by a king and reports them as having subdued many other tribes, while not tolerating subordinance themselves. Common decisions of

3956-464: The children of people executed for resisting Germanisation. If attempts to Germanise them failed, or they were determined to be unfit, they would be killed to eliminate their value to the opponents of the Reich. In German-occupied Poland, it is estimated that 50,000 to 200,000 children were removed from their families to be Germanised. The Kinder KZ was founded specifically to hold such children. It

4048-479: The course of which they sieged Liubice , a predecessor of modern Lübeck and then the major Obodrite stronghold. This attack was however repulsed. In 1123, the Rani struck again and killed Henry's son Waldemar. When in 1123/24 an Obodrite army led by Henry reached Rani territory, the Svantevit priests were forced to sue for peace. Henry's army consisted of 2,000–6,000 men, devastated the coastal settlements, and

4140-606: The current Austrian-Slovenian border. This linguistic border remained almost unchanged until the late 19th century, when the second process of Germanisation took place, mostly in Carinthia. Germanisation of the Ladino-Romantsch Venosta Valley in Tyrol was also undertaken by Austria in the 16th century. Following the 1620 Battle of White Mountain , the Lands of the Bohemian Crown , at the time one of

4232-567: The east – Poland , Ukraine , Belarus , Russia , and the Baltics  – to be Lebensraum (living space) and sought to populate it with Germans. Hitler, speaking with generals immediately prior to his chancellorship, declared that people could not be Germanised, only the soil could be. The policy of Germanisation in the Nazi period carried an explicitly ethno-racial rather than purely nationalist meaning, aiming for

4324-592: The elimination of non-German languages from public life and from academic settings, such as schools. Subsequently, there was an intensification of Germanisation and persecution of Poles in the Province of Prussia and the Grand Duchy of Posen in 1830–41. After a brief period of thaw in the years 1841–49, Bismarck intensified Germanisation again during 1849–70 as part of his Kulturkampf against Catholicism in general, but in particular against Polish Catholics. It

4416-424: The end of World War I . In 1910, the Polish poet Maria Konopnicka responded to the increasing persecution of Polish people by Germans by writing her famous poem entitled Rota ; it immediately became a national symbol for Poles, with its sentence known to many Poles: The German will not spit in our face, nor will he Germanise our children . An international meeting of socialists held in Brussels in 1902 condemned

4508-464: The end of and after World War II, however, these territories have been mostly degermanised. Early Germanisation went along with the Ostsiedlung during the Middle Ages in Hanoverian Wendland , Mecklenburg-Vorpommern , Lusatia , and other areas, formerly inhabited by Slavic tribes – Polabian Slavs such as Obotrites , Veleti and Sorbs . Early forms of Germanisation were recorded by German monks in manuscripts such as Chronicon Slavorum . Since

4600-445: The eventual extinction of the Prussian language in the 17th century. Germanisation in its modern form was conducted from the beginning of the 19th century as a set of Prussian/German and (to a lesser degree and for a shorter time) Austrian state policies of forceful imposition of German culture, language and people upon non-German people, Slavs in particular. Since the flight and expulsion of Germans from Central and Eastern Europe at

4692-474: The fact that Order's politics also resulted in Polonization in some areas of the Teutonic State, and Lithuanization in other areas. Correspondingly, even in villages under German right, there were Polish farmers and even a Polish Schultheiß is recorded. In respect to Austria, northern border of Slovene-speaking territory stabilised on a line from north of Klagenfurt to the south of Villach and east of Hermagor in Carinthia, while in Styria it closely followed

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4784-426: The film Heimkehr , depicted these ethnic Germans as persecuted, and the use of military force as necessary to protect them. The exploitation of ethnic Germans as forced labour and persecution of them were major themes of the anti-Polish propaganda campaign of 1939, prior to the invasion . The bloody Sunday incident during the invasion was widely exploited as depicting the Poles as murderous towards Germans. In

4876-466: The following centuries. Proto-Slovene was spoken in a much larger territory than modern Slovenia, which included most of the present-day Austrian states of Carinthia and Styria, as well as East Tyrol, the Val Pusteria in South Tyrol, and some parts of Upper and Lower Austria. By the 15th century, most of these areas had been gradually Germanised. Historians have also noted that Ostsiedlung did not include deliberate Germanization, which in pre-national times

4968-450: The holding of active leadership roles as an Aryan trait, whereas a tendency to avoid leadership and a perceived fatalism was associated by many Germans with Slavonic peoples. Adults who were selected for but resisted Germanisation were executed. Such execution was carried out on the grounds that German blood should not support non-Germanic people, and that killing them would deprive foreign nations of superior leaders. The intelligenzaktion

5060-690: The installation of the new gauleiter and reichsstatthalter of Carinthia and later they dropped the plan for an indefinite period because of Slovene partisans. Only the Meža Valley became part of Reichsgau Carinthia. Around 80,000 Slovenes were forcibly deported to Eastern Germany for potential Germanisation or forced labour. The deported Slovenes were taken to several camps in Saxony, where they were forced to work on German farms or in factories run by German industries from 1941 to 1945. The forced labourers were not always kept in formal concentration camps, but often vacant buildings. Nazi Germany also began mass expulsions of Slovenes to Serbia and Croatia. The basis for

5152-417: The lands of Our beloved son Wladislaw, duke of Cracow and Sandomierz, and in the town of Gdańsk killed more than ten thousand people with the sword, inflicting death on whining infants in cradles whom even the enemy of faith would have spared." The Teutonic Order did however not deliberately pursue Germanization. Germanization was rather the result of the colonial nature of the State. This is corroborated by

5244-408: The last Rujani-speaking woman died on the Jasmund peninsula in 1404. In 955, Rani took part in the Battle of Recknitz , assisting German Otto I in defeating the Obotrites at the Recknitz ( Raxa ) River. As the Obodrite state expanded in the late 11th century , the Rani were also pressed and in 1093 had to pay tribute to Obodrite prince Henry . They launched a naval expedition in 1100, in

5336-505: The last meaningful territories of the HRE not dominated yet by the German language, was subjected to two centuries of re catholicization of the Czech lands accompanied by growing influence of German-speaking elites, at the expense of declining the Czech-speaking aristocracy, elite Czech language usage in general. Despite the great importance to Czech literature of poets and writers of the era like Bedřich Bridel , Czech nationalist historians and writers such as Alois Jirásek have referred to

5428-431: The linguistic balance, but with varying degrees of success. In Nazi Germany , linguistic Germanisation was replaced by a policy of genocide against certain ethnic groups, even when they were already German-speaking. Historically there are different forms and degrees of the expansion of the German language and of elements of German culture. There are examples of complete assimilation into German culture, as happened with

5520-404: The majority after local Polish population was murdered and a new settlement was built by Teutonic Knights. The carnage was so extensive that it prompted the pope Clement V to condemn the Teutonic Knights in a bull which charged them with committing a massacre "Latest news were brought to my attention, that officials and brethren of the aforementioned Teutonic order have hostilely intruded

5612-435: The national language. In 1825 August Jacob, a politician hostile to Poles, gained power over the newly created Provincial Educational Collegium in Poznan. Across the Polish territories Polish teachers were removed, German educational programmes were introduced, and primary schooling was aimed at the creation of loyal Prussian citizens. In 1825 the teacher's seminary in Bydgoszcz was Germanised. Successive policies aimed at

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5704-459: The northernmost shore of Wittow , at that time still an island immediately to the north of Rügen. This temple was worshipped and collected tributes not only from the Rani, but from all Baltic Wends after their earlier main religious centre, Rethra , was destroyed in by Germanic raiders in 1068/9. Other gods were Tjarnaglofi , whose temple was on Jasmund near modern Sagard , and Rugievit , Porevit and Porenut , to whom there were temples in

5796-403: The number of Polish children found to exhibit "Nordic" traits, but assumed that all such children were genuinely German children, who had been Polonised . Hans Frank exhibited such views when he declared, "When we see a blue-eyed child we are surprised that she is speaking Polish." The term used for them was wiedereindeutschungsfähig —meaning capable of being re-Germanised. These might include

5888-565: The official language of Government. Hungarians , however, perceived Joseph's language reforms as an act of linguistic imperialism and cultural hegemony , and they responded by insisting on using their heritage language . As a result, the lower Hungarian nobility launched a literary renaissance of the Hungarian language and culture. These lesser nobles often questioned the loyalty of the magnates, less than half of whom were ethnic Hungarians , and many of these had become French- and German-speaking courtiers . The Hungarian national revival

5980-450: The opinion could then be heard that the Austrian-Germans, with the promotion and aid of the government , might well succeed in a Germanization of the Austrian Slavs; these circles never even began to realize that Germanization can only be applied to soil and never to people . ... Not only in Austria , but in Germany as well, so-called national circles were moved by similar false ideas. The Polish policy, demanded by so many, involving

6072-409: The pagan Slavs in the Diocese of Bamberg (Franconia) in the 11th century. An example of the eclectic adoption of German culture is the field of law in Imperial and present-day Japan , which is organised according to the model of the German Empire . Germanisation took place by cultural contact, by political decision of the adopting party, or by force. In Slavic countries, the term Germanisation

6164-400: The policies of states such as the Teutonic Order , Austria , the Kingdom of Prussia , and the German Empire , non-German minorities were often discouraged or even prohibited from using their native language, and had their traditions and culture suppressed in the name of linguistic imperialism . In addition, the Government also encouraged immigration from the Germanosphere to further upset

6256-402: The recognition of Slovenes as German nationals was the decision of the Imperial Ministry for the Interior from 14   April 1942. This was the basis for drafting Slovenes for the service in the German armed forces. The number of Slovenes conscripted to the German military and paramilitary formations has been estimated at 150,000 men and women. Almost a quarter of them lost their lives, mostly on

6348-495: The resettled ethnic Germans, Germanisation began. Militant party members were sent to teach them to be "true Germans". The Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls sent young people for "Eastern Service", which entailed assisting in Germanisation efforts. Germanisation included instruction in the German language, as many spoke only Polish or Russian. Goebbels and other propagandists worked to establish cultural centres and other means to create Volkstum or racial consciousness in

6440-401: The rest. Two organisations were instrumental in the Germanisation: the Styrian Homeland Union ( Steirischer Heimatbund – HS) and the Carinthian People's Union ( Kärtner Volksbund – KV). In Styria the Germanisation of Slovenes was controlled by SS-Sturmbannführer Franz Steindl. In Carinthia a similar policy was conducted by Wilhelm Schick, the gauleiter's close associate. Public use of Slovene

6532-500: The right bank of Vistula ) and, most importantly, obtained the bulk of Greater Poland where an autonomous polity was formed under the name of Grand Duchy of Posen with an officially stated purpose to provide its overwhelmingly Polish population a degree of autonomy; in May 1815 King Frederick William III issued a manifest to the Poles in Posen: You also have a Fatherland. [...] You will be incorporated into my monarchy without having to renounce your nationality. [...] You will receive

6624-408: The settlers. This was needed to perpetuate their work; only by effective Germanisation could mothers, in particular, create the German home. Goebbels was also the official patron of Deutsches Ordensland or Land of Germanic Order, an organisation to promote Germanisation. These efforts were used in propaganda in Germany, as when NS-Frauen-Warte ' s cover article was on "Germany is building in

6716-557: The spread of a "biologically superior" Aryan race rather than that of the German nation. This did not mean a total extermination of all people in eastern Europe, as it was regarded as having people of Aryan/Nordic descent, particularly among their ruling class. Himmler declared that no drop of German blood would be lost or left behind for an alien race. In Nazi documents even the term "German" can be problematic, since it could be used to refer to people classified as "ethnic Germans" who spoke no German. Inside Germany, propaganda , such

6808-443: The spread of the German language it is most important to get a clear understanding of the aims, whether it should be the aim to promote the understanding of German among Polish-speaking subjects or whether it should be the aim to gradually and slowly Germanise the Poles. According to the judgement of the minister only the first is necessary, advisable and possible, the second is not advisable and not accomplishable. To be good subjects it

6900-538: The supposed site of Gharense, which also fits the hints given in the Gesta Danorum of Saxo Grammaticus for Charenza's location. Rani (Slavic tribe) The Rani or Rujani ( German : Ranen , Rujanen ) were a West Slavic tribe based on the island of Rugia (Rügen) and the southwestern mainland across the Strelasund in what is today northeastern Germany . The Rani tribe emerged after

6992-462: The terms of the subsequent agreement were that the island would only be spared in return for an immense sum which had to be collected from the continental Slavs further east. Regrouping after Henry's death (1127), the Rani again assaulted and this time destroyed Liubice in 1128. At this time they seem to have been devoted pagans, with their priests holding theocratic powers. In 1136, the Danes defeated

7084-477: The tribal name of the Slavic R(uj)ani, though this hypothesis is not generally accepted. The Rani believed in multiple gods, all of which had several faces and were worshipped as tall wooden statues in their respective temples. They were worshipped in temples, holy groves, at home and in ritual meals. The most powerful of their gods was Svantevit , a four-headed god whose temple stood at Cape Arkona on

7176-707: The turn of the century. Later in the German Empire , in parallel with Poles, Danes , Dutch , Alsatians , German Catholics and Socialists , were portrayed as "Reichsfeinde" ("foes of the Empire"). During the Weimar Republic , Poles were recognised as a minority in Upper Silesia. The peace treaties after the First World War contained an obligation for Poland to protect its national minorities (Germans, Ukrainians and other), whereas no such clause

7268-506: The workers' union Zjednoczenie Zawodowe Polskie (ZZP), Wiarus Polski (press), and Bank Robotnikow were among the best-known such organisations in the Ruhr. At first, the Polish workers, ostracised by their German counterparts, had supported the Catholic centre party. During the early 20th century, their support shifted increasingly towards the social democrats. In 1905 Polish and German workers organised their first common strike. Under

7360-525: Was Arkona on Wittow . In 1168, King Valdemar I of Denmark and his archbishop Absalon captured Arkona . Charenza surrendered a few days later after negotiations with the Rugian princes Tetzlav and Jaromar I . The temples were destroyed, the princes agreed to become Danish vassals and the population adopted the Christian faith. In 1180, the administrative centre of the Principality of Rugia

7452-409: Was Charenza (then Korenitza, today an unsettled site called Venzer Burgwall ). Rani dukes also resided at Rugard castle, a precursor of the modern city of Bergen . Throughout the Rani lands there were castles ( burghs ), all having a ring-like wall of wood and clay, protecting villages and/or religious sites, and functioned as strategic strongholds or seats of the gentry. The Rani also established

7544-660: Was beyond imagination. Outside of the HRE, the Old Prussians , originally a Baltic ethnic group, were Germanised by the Teutonic Knights who adopted a very different approach. When the State of the Teutonic Order unexpectingly seized Polish Pomerelia by force and decimated its population , launching at the same time a massive campaign to attract and ressetle to these areas as many German colonists as possible within

7636-451: Was carried out in a confused manner: the Reich rule was three German grandparents, but some asserted that any person who acted like a German and evinced no "racial concerns" should be eligible. Plans to eliminate Slavs from Soviet territory to allow German settlement included starvation. Nazi leaders expected that millions would die after they removed food supplies . This was regarded as advantageous by Nazi officials. When Hitler received

7728-591: Was introduced by Frederick the Great as a result of the partitions of Poland to the newly gained Polish territories of Greater Poland , Pomerelia , Warmia and Malbork Land . The Prussian authorities settled German-speaking Protestants in these areas. Frederick the Great settled around 300,000 colonists in the eastern provinces of Prussia . He aimed at a removal of the Polish nobility, which he viewed with contempt, describing ethnic Poles in newly reconquered West Prussia as "slovenly Polish trash" and compared Poles to

7820-835: Was introduced by the victors in the Treaty of Versailles for Germany. In 1928 the Minderheitenschulgesetz (minorities school act) regulated the education of minority children in their native tongue. From 1930 onwards Poland and Germany agreed to treat their minorities fairly. Such position was officially maintained by Germany even for some time after the Nazi takeover, but ceased towards the end of 1937. The Nazi party advocated an explicitly ethno-racialist and bio-political concept of Germanization. Adolf Hitler wrote in " Mein Kampf ": "Even in Pan-German circles

7912-420: Was justified, even though these elites were regarded as likely to be of German blood, because such blood enabled them to provide leadership for the fatalistic Slavs. Germanising "racially valuable" elements would prevent any increase in the Polish intelligenstia, as the dynamic leadership would have to come from German blood. In 1940 Hitler made it clear that the Czech intelligentsia and the "mongoloid" types of

8004-463: Was moved to Rugard (today Bergen auf Rügen , just a few kilometres to the southeast). In the 12th century, Charenza was mentioned by Saxo Grammaticus and Helmold von Bosau . The last records are from the early 13th century. When the Danish king raised money to build 12 churches on Rügen , one of them was the capelle nostre in Charenz , which in 1232 was granted the village of Gagern as

8096-960: Was often given Polish homes where the families had been evicted so quickly that half-eaten meals were on tables and small children had clearly been taken from unmade beds. Members of the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls were assigned the task of overseeing such evictions and ensuring that the Poles left behind most of their belongings for the use of the settlers. The deportation orders required that enough Poles be removed to provide for every settler – that, for instance, if twenty German master bakers were sent, twenty Polish bakeries had to have their owners removed. This colonisation involved 350,000 such Baltic Germans and 1.7 million Poles deemed Germanisable, including between one and two hundred thousand children who had been taken from their parents, and about 400,000 German settlers from

8188-460: Was praised for not only allowing more women to have children as their new domestic servants were able to assist them, but for reclaiming German blood and giving opportunities to the women, who would work in Germany, and might marry there. "Racially acceptable" children were taken from their families in order to be brought up as Germans. Children were selected for "racially valuable traits" before being shipped to Germany. Many Nazis were astounded at

8280-433: Was prohibited, geographic and topographic names were changed and all Slovene associations were dissolved. Members of all professional and intellectual groups, including many clergymen, were expelled as they were seen as obstacles to Germanisation. As a reaction, a resistance movement developed. The Germans who wanted to proclaim their formal annexation to the "German Reich" on 1   October 1941, postponed it first because of

8372-807: Was so successful that the Government in Budapest did not learn anything from the failure of Emperor Joseph II's linguistic policies and, following the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 , unwisely launched a coercive Magyarization policy aimed at forcibly assimilating the many speakers of other minority languages within the Kingdom of Hungary , which ultimately triggered a domino effect . Anti-Hungarian and heritage language revival movements arose in Transleithania among Slovaks , Romanians , Serbians , and Croatians within

8464-538: Was the policy of the Kingdom of Prussia to seek a degree of linguistic and cultural Germanisation, while in Imperial Germany a more intense form of cultural Germanisation was pursued, often with explicit intention of reducing the influence of other cultures or institutions, such as the Catholic Church. In the German Empire , Poles were portrayed as " Reichsfeinde " ("foes of the Empire"). In 1885

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