Krakow uprising of Bailiff Albert

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In the so-called uprising of Bailiff Albert in Krakow in 1311/12, in which the allied cities of Sandomir and Wieliczka also took part, the city ​​of Krakow , which was re-established in accordance with Magdeburg law in 1257, tried, under the leadership of its bourgeoisie, to free itself from sovereign patronage. This was expressed, for example , in the case law exercised by the Vogt (Latin Advocatus, Polish Wójt) on the important Kraków salt pans ( Wieliczka and Bochnia salt mines ). However, not all patricians took part in the uprising.

prehistory

The uprising happened five years after years of disputes over the Polish throne due to the violent death of Wenceslas III. of Bohemia had come to an end. After the Mongol storm , the Polish rulers brought many German settlers into the country to rebuild the affected areas. Only Germans were allowed to acquire citizenship in the re-established Krakow . Silesia had turned to Bohemia and the Reich, in 1308 Danzig was taken over by the Teutonic Order .

Uprising and suppression

The uprising of the Kraków citizens was pro-German and anti-Polish, both politically and culturally. On the ecclesiastical side, Johann Muskata , the bishop of Kraków of German descent, as well as some monasteries in Lesser Poland dominated by German monks were involved. One of the supporters of the uprising was the Opole Duke Bolko I , who was appointed governor of Cracow in 1312 by the Bohemian King John of Luxembourg . The Duke of Krakow Ladislaus Ellenlang - (later King of Poland from 1320 ) - put down the uprising after a year-long siege with great severity, not least to prevent the city from turning west. The subsequent repression broke the political aspirations of the cities, especially Krakow, permanently.

Consequences for the Germans

The house of Bailiff Albert, who fled into exile in Bohemia and died there in 1317, was demolished. The loyalty of the citizens was checked by a simple Polish language test: anyone who could not repeat soczewica, koło, miele, młyn correctly was considered guilty. Many Germans were banished or victims of riots. De quodam advocate Cracoviensi Alberto, a “germanophobic” poem, was written about Vogt Albert . Jakub Świnka , the Archbishop of Gniezno, accused Bishop Johann Muskata of being an "enemy of the Polish people", pushed back the influence of foreign (especially German) clerics and promoted the filling of church offices with Poles. According to the British historian Norman Davies , the first signs of Polish chauvinism showed during this dispute . Nevertheless, Germans still held the office of mayor for the next few decades and held a majority in the city council. Furthermore, the council documents were written in German. The proportion of Germans in Krakow's citizenship remained at around 35 percent until the end of the 15th century. Polish historians estimated the number of Germans in Krakow at around 3,500 in the mid-14th century.

Krakow became a Hanseatic city for a while , and many German students also came to Krakow. In the year 1505 the laws of the craftsmen's guilds in Krakow were written in German, as can be read in the still existing Balthasar Behem Codex .

Literary processing

The historian Raimund Friedrich Kaindl dealt with the subject of the uprising in his first novel The Daughter of the Hereditary Bailiff in 1914 . Novel from Krakow's German period. The work of "quite simple quality" is in the tradition of German professorial poetry, such as Felix Dahn . The story is presented one-sidedly from the German point of view, he attributes the defeat to the internal "discord" among the Germans.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Georg Michels: Trade and handicraft in Krakow and Vienna in comparison. In:: Marina Dmitrieva, Karen Lambrecht: Krakow, Prague and Vienna. Functions of metropolises in the early modern state. (= Research on the history and culture of Eastern Central Europe. 10). Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-515-07792-8 , p. 80.
  2. ↑ Józef Piotrowicz: The supply of the Krakow saltworks ... from the 13th to the 16th century. In: Ekkehard Westermann : Mining areas as centers of consumption in pre-industrial Europe. Case studies on the procurement and consumption of food as well as raw and auxiliary materials (13th-18th centuries). (= Quarterly for social and economic history. Supplements 130). Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-515-07005-2 , p. 332.
  3. ^ Wilhelm Rausch (Ed.): City and city lord in the 14th century. Developments and functions. (= Contributions to the history of the cities of Central Europe. 2). Austrian Working Group for Urban History Research, Linz 1972.
  4. ↑ Only Germans could acquire citizenship in Krakow. In: Edith Ennen : The European city of the Middle Ages. (= Vandenhoeck Collection ). 4th, improved edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1987, ISBN 3-525-01341-8 , p. 196.
  5. ^ A b c Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. Vol. 120, no. 2, 1976, ISSN  0003-049X : " The second example of secular literature is the 126 Leonine verses in 21 stanzas which constitute the poem De quodam advocate Alberto (early fourteenth century, post 1311). Albert had been the civil administrator of Cracow under Duke W. Lokietek and had led an unsuccessful revolt against Piast leadership in conjunction with the bishop of Cracow, Jan Muskata. The orientation of this uprising was anti-Polish and pro-German, in both a cultural and a political sense, and it had been repressed with great severity. The poem itself, from the hand of an anonymous Pole whose Germanophobia prevades the text, is cast in the form of a posthumous confession by an Albert conjured from the grave. Its worth as a historical source is clearly limited, but as a literary endeavor it is a clever piece of satire and political propaganda. " [1]
  6. ↑ George J. Lerski : Historical dictionary of Poland. 966-1945. Greenwood Press, Westport CT et al. 1996, ISBN 0-313-26007-9 , [2]
  7. ↑ a b Slawomir Gawlas: The problems of feudalism and feudalism from a Polish perspective. In: Michael Borgolte , Ralf Lusiardi: The European Middle Ages in the arc of tension of comparison. (= Europe in the Middle Ages 1). Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-05-003663-X , p. 120.
  8. ^ Rudolf Žáček: Dějiny Slezska v datech . Libri, Praha 2004, ISBN 80-7277-172-8 , p. 62.
  9. ↑ a b c d "A revolt by the Germans of Cracow, headed by one Albert, and by Bishop Jan Muskata, who thought of returning to their earlier Bohemian allegiance, was suppressed after a year-long siege. In this struggle, the first signs of Polish chauvinism appear. The Czechs were denounced as foreigners, serving the 'German' Emperor, allies of the 'German' knights in Prussia, and of the 'German' Piasts of Silesia. The Archbishop of Gniezno, Jakub Swinka, brought Bishop Muskata, the 'enemy of the Polish people', before an ecclesiastical court. He excommunicated the princes of Glogau, who 'were turning Silesia into a new Saxony' and had resigned their claim to Pomerania in favor of the Teutonic Order. Investigations into the Cracovian revolt were assisted by a simple language test. Any suspect who could repeat and correctly pronounce soczewica, koło, miele, młyn was judged loyal; he who faltered was guilty. The knights who took to the field in Lokietek's cause, and were duly rewarded with g rants of land, developed the first hesitant notions of a corporate 'Polish' estate. " In: Norman Davies : God's Playground. Revised edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2005, ISBN 0-19-925339-0 , p. 77.
  10. ↑ Jerzy Jan Lerski, Piotr Wróbel, Richard J. Kozicki: Historical Dictionary of Poland, 966-1945 [3]
  11. ↑ The king took cruel vengeance: citizens accused of apostasy were dragged through the city behind horses and finally hanged on the gallows. A castle was built where Albert's house used to be, now the Hotel Grodek: “ The first unquestionable historic data come from the years 1311–1312 - the time of the mutiny of the German burghers of Krakow against King Władysław Łokietek (Ladislas the Short, also known as Ladislas the Elbow-High). It is believed that a large, brick-and-stone house existed on this spot. This belonged to Albert, the mayor of Krakow and leader of the mutiny. The King, having suppressed the revolt, took cruel revenge. Albert's seat was demolished and the disloyal burghers were dragged by horse hither and thither through the streets of the city. Finally they were relieved by the hangman's noose. Such was the ill fate of those who - due to their German origin - were unable to correctly pronounce the admittedly rather tricky Polish words: soczewica, koło, miele młyn. Following these dramatic events a small castle was constructed on the site of the mayor's house. “Piotr Duma, archived copy ( Memento of the original from May 11, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.donimirski.com
  12. ^ A b Thomas Urban : From Krakow to Danzig. A journey through German-Polish history. (= Beck series 1580). Beck, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-51082-5 , p. 22.
  13. ↑ German was certainly in common use in its two main dialects, Low and Upper German. The latter was not only used by entrepreneurs. It is assumed that in the years 1480–1489 in Kraków 36% of the population with municipal rights belonged to the German-speaking group, in the years 1490–1499 it was 34%, 1500/01 24% and in the years 1513–1602 22% ( overall in the years 1507–1611 an average of 23%). According to an approximate calculation, the German population in Krakow in the 14th century was about 3,500 (the Polish numbered about 5,000) and thus made up about 35% of the total population. The analysis of first names, which appear in the books of the city council at the beginning of the 16th century, leads to similar results. ... One used either the Latin (41% entries) or the German language (59% entries). - Henryk Samsonowicz : Social plurality and interaction in Krakow. In: Marina Dmitrieva, Karen Lambrecht (eds.): Krakow, Prague and Vienna. Functions of metropolises in the early modern state. (= Research on the history and culture of Eastern Central Europe. 10). Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-515-07792-8 , pages 121-122
  14. ↑ Baltasar Behem Codex, Code of Law ( Memento of the original from April 15, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bj.uj.edu.pl
  15. ^ Raimund Friedrich Kaindl : The daughter of the hereditary bailiff - novel from Krakow's German time. German publishing company. Stuttgart / Berlin 1914.
  16. ↑ Hartmut Merkt: Poetry in isolation. German-speaking Jewish poets in enclave and exile using the example of Bukovinian authors since the 19th century. On poems by Rose Ausländer, Paul Celan and Immanuel Weissglas. Harrassowitz, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-447-04174-9 , p. 51f.
  17. ↑ Isabel Röskau-Rydel (Ed.): Galizien. (= German history in Eastern Europe. Volume 8). Siedler, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-88680-206-0 , p. 443.