Bielitz-Biala language island

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The language island in Brockhaus (1894)

The Bielitz-Bialaer Sprachinsel (also Bielitz-Bialer Sprachinsel ) was a Silesian language island within the Polish- speaking areas on the border of Austrian Silesia and Galicia .

history

In the middle ages

Duchy of Teschen-Auschwitz under Mieszko I.             Border of the duchy             Boundaries between the castellans of Teschen and Auschwitz or the dioceses of Breslau and Krakow or the duchies of Teschen and Auschwitz after the death of Mieszko I.
  • Old Slavic settlement chambers
  • Areas of German colonization under Mieszko I.
    • Bielitz-Bialaer Sprachinsel and (possibly) German settlements in the area
  • “Maximalist” expansion of German settlement in the 15th century according to Kurt Lück

    • The linguistic island was created towards the end of the 13th century through a settlement campaign by Mesko I von Teschen along the Biała river in the area that was then sparsely populated by Slavs (e.g. Slavic ramparts in Altbielitz ). The settlers probably came from Franconia and other regions of the Holy Roman Empire . This was followed by other waves of eastern settlement , such as in the second quarter of the 15th century, when the colonies Konradiswalde (today Międzyrzecze Górne or Ober Kurzwald ) or Mazanczendorff (today Mazańcowice or Matzdorf ) emerged in the Slavic villages .

    The German settlement affected the whole duchy between the rivers Ostravitz in the west and Skawinka in the east, including on the Soła and Skawa . The expansion of the closed German settlement, especially in the east, was discussed controversially as early as the 19th century. Kurt Lück presented the "maximum" extent of the language island east of Bielitz in the 15th century in his work in 1934. But his criteria were very broad and tendentious. According to researcher Gerhard Wurbs, the closed linguistic island used to stretch from Jasienica (Heinzendorf), Rudzica (Riegersdorf) and Landek (Landeck) in the west to Kęty (Liebenwerde), Nowa Wieś (Neudorf) and Nidek (Niedeck) in the east.

    Politically, the language island originally belonged to the Duchy of Teschen , which existed from 1290 during the time of Polish particularism . In 1315 the Duchy of Teschen was divided along the river Biała, as was the linguistic island: the part on the left bank remained in the Duchy of Teschen, the part on the right bank became part of the Duchy of Auschwitz . Since 1327 both were under the feudal rule of the Kingdom of Bohemia .

    The course of the subsequent Polonization or the causes of the loss of the German population is difficult to determine in view of the scarce source base. The 15th century was very turbulent, especially after the outbreak of the Hussite Wars . The activity of the robber barons increased , which could lead to rural exodus. The Polish researcher from the interwar period, Józef Putek, tried to prove that the inhabitants of German descent, especially the knighthood, the clergy and the urban patriciate, were expelled or even murdered at that time. Under these circumstances, the Saybusch area was spun off from the Duchy of Auschwitz and the Duchies of Auschwitz (1457) and Zator (1494) were bought by Poland. After the death of King Ludwig II , on the other hand, the crown of Bohemia and thus also Silesia came to the Habsburgs in 1526 .

    1526 to 1772

    Duchy of Bielitz

    At the time of the Reformation , the German-speaking city of Bielitz was the first place in the entire Duchy of Teschen in which the teachings of Martin Luther spread, at the turn of the 1530s and 1540s, a few years before Duke Wenceslaus III came of age. Adam . In the middle of the 16th century, only German-speaking members were accepted into the city guilds of Bielitz and the citizens of Bielitz asked the Duke of Teschen for permission to change the official Czech language to German. Around the year 1560 the new place Biała in the Kingdom of Poland was founded by Bielitzer Lutherans, later elevated to a city. The villages of Straconka (Dresseldorf), Leszczyny (Nussdorf), Wapienica (Lobnitz), Olszówka , Landek , Bronów and Bystra were created in a similar way with different parts of the German settlers . Wilkowice (Wolffsdorf), which was depopulated in the 15th century , was also partially repopulated by Germans. Other places received new German-language surnames: Ernsdorf ( Jaworze ), Fischendorf ( Rybarzowice ), Targerstorff ( Ligota ?).

    In 1572 the minority rule Bielitz was spun off from the Duchy of Teschen, while on the Polish side in 1569 the Duchies of Auschwitz and Zator were merged with the Kingdom of Poland as a district of Silesia .

    The largest Lutheran congregation in the former Duchy of Auschwitz was established in Lipnik (German: Kunzendorf). In other parts of the language island on the Polish side, however, Calvinism prevailed . For example, in Kozy (Eng. Seiffersdorf) Jakub Gierałtowski introduced Calvinism in the local Catholic church in 1559. In 1658 the church was brought back to the Roman Catholic faith. Under the landlord Jordan, the population in Kozy, mostly German-speaking and Reformed, was suppressed by the Counter-Reformation . That is why more than 300 Seiffersdorfer settled on May 25, 1770 across the nearby Vistula border into the Prussian domain of Pless in order to found the small German-speaking island ( Hołdunów and Gać ) there.

    The episcopal visitations in the diocese of Breslau in the second half of the 17th century confirmed the dominance of the German language in Bielsko. This source is the first that made it possible to reconstruct the linguistic situation in the broader field. Most likely, Bertoldowice / Batzdorf and Wapienica were also mostly German speakers. Linguistically mixed were Bronów / Brauna, Komorowice bielskie / Mückendorf, Jasienica / Heinzendorf, Jaworze / Ernsdorf, Lande (c) k, Ligota / Elgot, Międzyrzecze / Kurzwald, Mikuszowice / Nikelsdorf, Rudzica / Riegersdorf, Mazańcowice / Matzdorf. Interestingly, Kamienica, as well as the small villages Olszówka Dolna and Olszówka Górna, were Polish-speaking.

    1772 to 1945

    The language island on the ethnographic map of the Austrian monarchy by Karl von Czoernig-Czernhausen (1855). With the exception of Old Bielitz, it is framed, which symbolizes a linguistically mixed, partly Polish population.

    During the first partition of Poland , the Polish part came to the new Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria of the Habsburg Empire in 1772 (from 1804). The language island was then only separated by the administrative border between the Teschner Kreis (from 1850 Bielitz district ) in the Crown Land of Silesia and the Biala district (from 1850 Biała district ) in Galicia and increasingly formed a common socio-economic unit. After 1772, the Polish language and culture was on the decline, especially in the Galician part of the language island. Industrialization and demographic development began in the early 19th century. Bielitz and Biala became the third center of the Austrian textile industry next to Brno and Reichenberg .

    In Reginald Kneifl's description of Teschener Silesia in 1804, Bielitz was the only city where German was spoken. In addition, the German language dominated in Old Bielitz, Batzdorf (but only Polish was spoken in Komorowice), Alexanderfeld, Kamitz and Lobnitz. Kurzwald, Franzfeld (a new colony between Nieder Kurzwald and Ligota), Nikelsdorf, both Ohlisch and Bistrai were linguistically mixed.

    From the rise of national movements in the 1848/49 revolution , Bielitz and Biala were bastions of the German Liberal Party thanks to their main charismatic activists Karl Samuel Schneider (1848 to 1870) and Theodor Karl Haase , who held the elections in the Bielitz electoral districts of the third curia (the curia of City citizenships in the then three-tier suffrage) dominated. Their dominance was never threatened in Bielitz and Biala, not even after the establishment of the German nationalist “German Association” in Bielitz (by Rudolf Blitzfeld ) and Biala in 1870 . However, this association found hundreds of followers (in Bielitz around 200) among the younger members of the intellectual elite of both cities and in the 1870s it formulated the demand for the mostly German-speaking Galician communities to be replaced from the autonomous Galicia from 1867 in order to incorporate them into Austrian Silesia and to strengthen the political dominance of the German population there.

    The proportion of "native" Bielitzers fell from 59.1% in 1880 to 31.6% in 1890, but the city administration successfully prevented the mass settlement of Polish workers, while at the same time encouraging the settlement of wealthy people from German-speaking countries. The immigrant Poles and Jews often assimilated into German culture, which they saw as a social advancement. The German language in Bielitz persisted in 4/5 of the residents in the censuses from 1880 to 1910. A dozen of the Polish-speaking residents came mainly from families who had lived there for generations.

    By the end of the 19th century, the political and national consciousness of all factions had already grown up and the language island consisted of thirteen communities:

  • Mostly German-speaking communities in 1910
    • Communities Share (%) of German-speaking residents or Germans (1921)
    Surname province 1880 1890 1900 1910 1921 1943
    City of Bielsko (Bielitz) Silesia 86.5 80.7 84.3 84.3 61.9 72
    City of Biała (Biala) Galicia 74.5 74.9 78.2 69.4 27.5 to Bielitz
    City of Wilamowice (Wilmesau) Galicia 67.0 66.0 1.4 74
    Aleksandrowice village Silesia 84.4 77.3 87.3 86.2 70.9 to Bielitz
    Village of Bystra Śląska (German Bistrai) Silesia 76.9 73.3 64.2 51.7 45.4 51
    Hałcnów village (Alzen) Galicia 74.4 77.0 66.3 74
    Kamienica village (Kamitz)
    with Olszówka Górna (Ober-Ohlisch)     		Silesia 90.0 89.5 87.1 92.3 76.4 no data
    Village Komorowice Śląskie (Batzdorf) Silesia 54.0 47.5 49.4 75.4 15.5 56
    Village Lipnik (Kunzendorf)
    with Leszczyny (Nussdorf)     		Galicia 67.7 57.0 29.9 46
    Międzyrzecze Górne village (Upper Short Forest) Silesia 62.0 64.8 62.4 66.5 68.7 67
    Village Mikuszowice Śląskie (Nickelsdorf)
    with Olszówka Dolna (Nieder-Ohlisch)     		Silesia 85.9 79.4 83.6 82.9 73.7 no data
    Stare Bielsko village (Old Bielsko) Silesia 86.2 84.7 89.4 91.9 81.3 81
    Wapienica village (Lobnitz) Silesia 90.2 66.1 75.1 77.6 82.3 82
    1. ↑ In addition, the majority of the Jews in Bielitz were German-speaking.

    Currently, with three exceptions ( Wilamowice , Międzyrzecze Górne and Bystra ) , all of them are districts of Bielsko-Biała. Three other districts on the right bank of the Biała River - Komorowice Krakowskie (Mückendorf) , Mikuszowice Krakowskie (Mikuschowitz) and Straconka (Drösseldorf) - were originally probably also German, but Polish in the 19th century. There were also larger German-speaking minorities in 1910 in the predominantly Polish villages of Jasienica (Heinzendorf) (22.8%), Dziedzice (Dziedzitz) (11.4%), Jaworze (Ernstdorf) (10.4%), Mazańcowice (Matzdorf) ) (9.1%) and Czechowice (Czechowitz) (9%).

    Linguistic relationships in what was then Biała (and Lipnik) were more complicated than in Bielitz, which was almost exclusively culturally German (including the predominantly German-speaking Jews). As a result of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise in 1867, she was also granted greater autonomy in Galicia. Polish was made the official language as early as 1866 , which caused some tension. At the end of the 19th century, about 1/3 of the inhabitants were consciously national German, 1/3 Polish, the rest, mainly of Slavic origin, declared their colloquial language and nationality alternately. The Poles, however, also liked to assimilate in Biala. B. Erwin Hanslik , born into a Polish family , whose identity became German, who wrote the famous book Biala, a German city in Galicia: Geographical investigation of the city problem in 1909 . The progressive polonization of the city that was now beginning moved the city administration to attempt to replace the German Galician communities in 1879 and 1916 in order to incorporate them into Austrian Silesia. In 1903 the German Museum in Biala was planned, among other things, to collect memories of the "large German-speaking island from Biała (Eng. Bialka) to Skawa". According to the city administration of Biala, the medieval linguistic island comprised 25 places, which were allegedly forcibly Polonized by the Polish administration of the Krakow diocese, which aroused great outrage in Polish newspapers. Because of the male suffrage, Germans made up at least 50% of the district council members in the Biala district and the district council advised in German. Polish council members only gained a slim majority in 1909. In 1916, Gerhard Seeliger published the book Das Deutschtum in den West Beskiden and the Duchies Auschwitz and Zator , which presented the thesis of the preservation of the “German character” of the former Silesian duchies in the 16th to 18th centuries. The next year the final attempt to prevent annexation of the area to Poland followed by asserting historical German dominance in the region by local nationalist Germans.

    The costume of the German Bielitzer around 1900

    At this time the folklore of the language island passed away. The traditional costume, which according to many researchers was a variant of the Lachian costume, withdrew in favor of general urban clothing in the early 20th century, and the traditional costume of the Cieszyn Wallachians became popular in the countryside , in the Silesian and Galician parts of the language island .

    The mixture of languages ​​in the Bielitz district was reflected among the members of the Silesian electoral districts. Eight German-speaking communities did not belong to the constituency of Silesia 14 , but to the constituency of Silesia 10 . The communities between Czechowice-Dziedzice and Brenna , ruled by the Union of Silesian Catholics, were often called the accursed Polish corner by Bielitz Germans because they separated the linguistic island from the Protestant and German-friendly area around Skoczów (Skotschau) and Strumień (Black Water). At the same time, the German residents of the cities of Skotschau, Schwarzwasser and Teschen, often of Slavic origin, were described as nationally unreliable .

    Gravestone in Międzyrzecze Górne (Upper Kurzwald)

    At the end of the First World War , the German population hoped to remain in German Austria , but became part of Poland. In the interwar period Bielitz remained an important center for Germans in Poland and was called little Berlin . The Polish-language street signs did not appear until 1929. A completely different mood prevailed in Wilamowice, where the residents often emphasized their independence. The research of the linguistic island's past continued, u. a. by Walter Kuhn , born in Bielitz , completed with the opening of the monograph History of the German Language Island Bielitz (Silesia) in 1981.

    During the Second World War, the border between Bielitz and Skawa was moved, an echo of the earlier draft. Bielsko and Biala were united for the first time as one city with about 54,000 inhabitants, which included almost the entire language island without Wilamowice.

    After the Second World War, the u. a. the flight and expulsion of Germans from Central and Eastern Europe in 1945–1950 resulted in the Bielitz-Biala language island perishing. The expelled Germans from Bielitz-Biala and the surrounding area have founded home associations in Lippstadt , Braunschweig , Hanover , Oldenburg and Donauwörth . Some of the Germans stayed in Poland, especially in Wilamowice, where Wilmesaurisch currently has around 100 native speakers, mostly older people.

    language

    The poem Der Liega-Jirg in the phonetic spelling by Friedrich Bock

    The Bielitz dialect was a Silesian-German dialect . The first description of the dialect was in 1860 by Biala doctor Jacob Bukowski in the collection of poems in the dialect of the German Silesian-Galician border residents, resp. published by Bielitz-Biala with a glossary of words. According to Bukowski, the dialect in Biala had these characteristics:

    • Suffix -a in the infinitive in place of -en , e.g. B. kajfa ( buy )
    • Suffix -la in the diminutive in place of -lein or -chen , e.g. B. Mäusla ( little mouse )
    • Double ei and ai were pronounced as aih and oih
    • Forms aa or oo , where au is in High German , e.g. B. bloo ( blue ), Baam ( tree )
    • Replace eu with ee , e.g. B. freen ( happy )

    Conjugation of to be , have and will in the Bielitzer dialect according to Bukowski:

    sen hon wada / warda sen hon wada / warda
    1. ech leg ho war / wad / ward 1. we / who sen hon wada / warda / wan
    2. du / de best host werst / west 2. her / him set hot wad't / ward't
    3. har / a, see / be, it / ice egg hot wet / will 3. be / se sen hon wan / warda / waba

    There were loan words from Polish such as: pailza ( little finger , Polish paluszek ), verzamekajn ( close , Polish zamknąć, zablokować ) and zofa-gratsch ( step backwards , Polish krok w tył , in the sense cofać się , to go back ).

    Friedrich Bock, the author of Der Liega-Jirg. Poem in the Bielitz dialect from 1916, using the example of the words, drew the eyes and the tree to the attention of great differences in individual places on the language island. In Ober-Kurzwald, Alt-Bielitz and Kamitz they became the Auga and the Baum , while in Ohlisch, Kunzendorf, Bielitz and Biala they became the Aaga and the Baam .

    In the twin cities, Bock distinguished the two forms of the dialect:

    • full - pauerisch ( rural ), then already in decline; seven was pronounced as seiwa ; Diminutive form: -a ; no - naj ;
    • semi -indirect between Pauerian and Standard German; seven was pronounced as seven ; Diminutive forms: -le , -el and -erle ; no - sew ;

    Old Bielsko (Stare Bielsko) was considered the village where the purest form of the dialect was spoken for the longest (see also the map by Karl Freiherr von Czörnig (1855), where Old Bielsko is the only place completely pink).

    Alzen and Wilmesaurisch

    The dialects of Galician Hałcnów (Alzenau) and Wilamowice (Wilmesau) should be treated separately. The lesser-known dialect of Alzenau was related to Wilmesaurisch , but was closer to the Bielitz dialect.

    Old nerdy Standard German
    Ech from ü Bülts-Biala. I live in Bielsko-Biala.
    'S ret scho nimant old nerdy. Nobody speaks alnery anymore.

    Web links

    literature

    • Gerhard Wurbs: The German language island Bielitz-Biala. A chronicle. In: Eckartschriften. Volume 79. Vienna 1981, ZDB -ID 26407-6 .
    • Walter Kuhn : History of the German language island Bielitz (Silesia). 1981.
    • Erwin Hanslik : Biala, a German city in Galicia: Geographical investigation of the city problem. 1909.
    • Grzegorz Wnętrzak: Stosunki polityczne i narodowościowe na pograniczu Śląska Cieszyńskiego i Galicji zachodniej w latach 1897–1920 [Political and national relations in the border area of ​​Teschner Silesia and Western Galicia in the years 1897–1920] . Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek, Toruń 2014, ISBN 978-83-7780-882-5 (Polish).
    • Grzegorz Chromik: History of the German-Slavic language contact in Teschener Silesia . Regensburg University Library , Regensburg 2018, ISBN 978-3-88246-398-9 ( uni-regensburg.de ).

    Individual evidence

    1. ↑ Bavarian Yearbook for Folklore . Kommissionsverlag K. Hart, 1963, p. 153.
    2. ↑ Krzysztof Koźbiał: Wadowice na tle osad starostwa zatorskiego. Zarys dziejów do 1772 roku . In: Wadoviana: przegląd historyczno-kulturalny . No. 3 , 1999, ISSN  1505-0181 , p. 39 (Polish, wadoviana.eu [PDF; 188 kB ]).
    3. ↑ Grzegorz Wnętrzak: Stosunki polityczne i narodowościowe na pograniczu Śląska Cieszyńskiego i Galicji zachodniej w latach 1897-1920 [Political and national relations in the border area of ​​Teschner Silesia and Western Galicia in the years 1897-1920] . Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek, Toruń 2014, ISBN 978-83-7780-882-5 , p. 187 (Polish).
    4. ↑ German settlement of Malopolska and Rotreussens in the 15th century. Edited and drawn by Kurt Lück, 1934. (map).
    5. ^ Wojciech Blajer: Uwagi o stanie badań nad enklawami średniowiecznego osadnictwa niemieckiego między Wisłoką i Sanem [comments on the state of research on the enclaves of medieval German settlement between Wisłoka and San]. In: Późne średniowiecze w Karpatach polskich. Rzeszów 2007, pp. 64–65.
    6. ^ Krzysztof Rafał Prokop: Księstwa oświęcimskie i zatorskie wobec Korony Polskiej w latach 1438-1513. Dzieje polityczne . Ed .: PAU . Kraków 2002, ISBN 83-8885731-2 , p. 80-81 (Polish).
    7. ↑ Józef Putek: O zbójnickich zamkach, heretyckich zborach, i oświęcimskiej Jerozolimie: szkice z dziejów pogranicza Śląsko-Polskiego . Drukarnia Przemysłowa, 1938, p. 44-47 .
    8. ↑ Idzi Panic: Śląsk Cieszyński w początkach czasów nowożytnych (1528–1653) [History of the Duchy of Cieszyn at the beginning of modern times (1528–1653)] . Starostwo Powiatowe w Cieszynie, Cieszyn 2011, ISBN 978-83-926929-1-1 , p. 262-264 (Polish).
    9. ↑ Idzi Panic: Śląsk Cieszyński w początkach czasów nowożytnych (1528–1653) [History of the Duchy of Cieszyn at the beginning of modern times (1528–1653)] . Starostwo Powiatowe w Cieszynie, Cieszyn 2011, ISBN 978-83-926929-1-1 , p. 185 (Polish).
    10. ^ I. Panic: Śląsk Cieszyński w początkach czasów nowożytnych…, 2011, pp. 194–195.
    11. ^ Condition and constitution, in particular of the Duchy of Teschen, the Principality of Bielitz and the free minority lords of Friedeck, Freystadt, Deutschleuten, Roy, Reichenwaldau and Oderberg. 2nd part, 1st volume. Joseph Georg Traßler, Brünn 1804, p. 133 ff., Bsd. P. ( Scan in Google book search).
    12. ^ Krzysztof Nowak, Idzi Panic: Śląsk Cieszyński od Wiosny Ludów do I Wojny Światowej (1848–1918) [Teschner Schlesien from the spring of nations to the First World War (1848–1918)] . Starostwo Powiatowe w Cieszynie, Cieszyn 2013, ISBN 978-83-935147-3-1 , p. 65 (Polish).
    13. ^ Idzi Panic (editor): Bielsko-Biała. Monografia miasta . 2nd Edition. tape III . Wydział Kultury i Sztuki Urzędu Miejskiego w Bielsku-Białej, Bielsko-Biała 2011, ISBN 978-83-60136-26-3 , p. 218-219 (Polish).
    14. ↑ Bielsko-Biała. Monografia miasta. Volume III. 2011, p. 140.
    15. ↑ a b c d Kazimierz Piątkowski: Stosunki narodowościowe w Księstwie Cieszyńskiem [National Relations in the Duchy of Teschen] . Macierz Szkolna Księstwa Cieszyńskiego, Cieszyn 1918, p. 276–277 (Polish, opole.pl ).
    16. ↑ Główny Urząd Statystyczny: Skorowidz miejscowości Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej. Województwo krakowskie i Śląsk Cieszyński . Warszawa 1925, p. 13 (Polish, online at Commons ).
    17. ↑ G. Wnętrzak, 2014, p. 169.
    18. ↑ G. Wnętrzak, 2014, pp. 241–255.
    19. ^ Kronika ( pl ) In: Wieniec-Pszczółka . P. 182, 1903.
    20. ↑ G. Wnętrzak, 2014, p. 184.
    21. ↑ G. Wnętrzak, 2014, p. 270.
    22. ↑ Janusz Gruchała, Krzysztof Nowak: Śląsk Cieszyński od Wiosny Ludów do I wojny światowej (1848–1918) . Starostwo Powiatowe w Cieszynie, Cieszyn 2013, ISBN 978-83-935147-3-1 , p. 291 (Polish).
    23. ↑ Branch Groups. Home group Bielitz-Biala e. V., accessed on March 12, 2020.
    24. ^ Jacob Bukowski: Poems in the dialect of the German Silesian-Galician border residents, resp. from Bielitz-Biala . Ludwig Zamarski, Bielitz 1860, p. 167 ( digital-sammlungen.de ).
    25. ^ Jacob Bukowski: Poems in the dialect of the German Silesian-Galician border residents, resp. from Bielitz-Biala . Ludwig Zamarski, Bielitz 1860, p. 168 ( digital-sammlungen.de ).
    26. ^ Jacob Bukowski: Poems in the dialect of the German Silesian-Galician border residents, resp. from Bielitz-Biala . Ludwig Zamarski, Bielitz 1860, p. 169–188 ( Digitale-sammlungen.de ).
    27. ↑ a b Friedrich Bock: The Liega-Jirg. Poem in the Bielitz dialect . Siebert (Reprint), Hanover 1982 (first edition: 1916).

    Remarks

    1. ↑ In Teschen, however, the guilds protested against German-language documents from Opava because they did not understand them.
    2. ↑ Without a new hamlet Muckendorf in Polish, in the 18th century Komorowice, a translation of the name Mückendorf .
    3. ↑ Including the then mostly Polish-speaking towns of Oświęcim, Zator, Kęty ( Liebeswerde ), Wadowice ( women's town ), Żywiec. Pietrzykowice (Petersdorf), Łodygowice (Ludwigsdorf), Straconka (Dresseldorf), Zebrzydowice (Siegfriedsdorf), Bestwina , Nidek , Dankowice , Pisarzowice , Piotrowice , Włosienica , Lanckorona .