Wreschener school strike
The Wreschen school strike was a teaching boycott of Polish-speaking students that was carried out in 1901 in the town of Wreschen , east of Poznan . The subsequent legal proceedings sparked criticism across Europe.
prehistory
Up until the middle of the 19th century there were hardly any problems in schools with the language of instruction in the Prussian province of Posen . The instruction of the minister of education dated May 24, 1842 stipulated that the children in all schools received instruction in their mother tongue and that German was only one subject for the Polish children .
The situation changed first in Upper Silesia , where the decree of February 14, 1863 introduced German as the language of instruction in elementary schools from the second year of school on, and then in West Prussia, where the Minister of Education's decree of October 25, 1865 “made a regulation which, from class to class, gave greater consideration to German as the language of instruction (in elementary schools) ... In the upper school, Polish should only be used to explain unknown expressions ”.
After the establishment of the Empire, German was introduced as the language of instruction in primary schools in Upper Silesia (September 20, 1872), East and West Prussia (July 24, 1873) and then Poznan (October 27, 1873). Only the subjects religion and church chant were excluded. From then on, Polish became a subject only. This was also abolished by decree of the Minister of Culture Gustav von Goßler on September 7, 1887.
“On April 11th, 1891, the Minister of Education ... ordered that the government in Poznan would allow private Polish lessons in the classrooms upon request. However, this was repealed by a decree of his successor ... on March 16, 1894 - private Polish lessons were forbidden in future. Instead, limited Polish literacy and reading lessons were introduced into the school. But this did not restore the status quo of 1873; because the lessons, which were limited to 1–2 hours per week and had to be requested separately, could only be used by Polish students who also received religious instruction in Polish ... It explains why the disputes arose in the period that followed concentrated the religious education that Poles so bitterly defended the Polish language there ”.
On July 16, 1900, German was introduced in religious education in the middle and upper grades of schools in the city of Poznan . There was no need for a law, because this option was already provided in the regulations of 1873 if children understood sufficient German. Little use was made of it beforehand. With the new regulation, teaching of Polish in the middle and upper grades, which was conditionally permitted in 1894, was canceled. It had two consequences. First, private Polish language instruction - banned in 1894 - was revived and authorities fined and jailed the teachers. Second, there was a boycott in the city of Wreschen, where in the spring of 1901 the German language was also introduced in religious education at the upper level of elementary school.
Language dispute
After the Prussian government had decreed on April 1, 1901 that in the city of Wreschen, which is mainly inhabited by Poles, religious instruction must now also take place exclusively in German, 118 pupils attended the Catholic elementary school on May 20, 1901 under the guidance of priest Jan Laskowski (1872–1939) went on a class strike. They refused to accept the catechism printed in German , they did not learn the religious texts and refused to answer any questions in German. School inspector Winter then ordered corporal punishment. Angry parents asked the inspector and the teachers to stop the flogging.
process
The trial against the parents in Gniezno caused a stir across Europe. The harsh verdict spoke of “serious crimes of rioting and breaking the peace ”. A total of 18 citizens of Wreschen were convicted. When the German language became compulsory in religious instruction for another 200 elementary schools in 1906, around 48,000 pupils at 755 schools went on strike. The Prussian administration reacted to this mass movement in the province of Posen with harsh disciplinary measures.
In the Reichstag , too , the Prussian government's approach was sharply criticized and viewed as a declaration of bankruptcy for German-Prussian cultural policy.
literature
- Norman Davies : In the heart of Europe - History of Poland , Munich 2000, ISBN 3-406-46709-1
- Peter Gatter: The white and red dream. Poland's path between freedom and foreign rule , Düsseldorf / Vienna 1983, ISBN 3-426-03724-6
- Rudolf Jaworski; Christian Lübke; Michael G. Müller: A Little History of Poland , Frankfurt / Main 2000, ISBN 3-518-12179-0 .
- Enno Meyer: Principles of the History of Poland , 3rd, exp. Edition, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft Darmstadt 1990, ISBN 3-534-04371-5 .
- Gotthold Rhode : History of Poland. An overview , Darmstadt 1980, ISBN 3-534-00763-8
- Rudolf Korth: The Prussian school policy and the Polish school strikes. A contribution to the Prussian Poland policy of the Bülow era , Phil. Diss., Würzburg 1963.
- Brigitte Balzer: The Prussian Poland Policy 1894–1908 and the attitude of the German conservative and liberal parties (with special consideration of the province of Posen) , 1990.
- Siegfried Baske: Practice and principles of the Prussian Poland policy from the beginning of the reaction time to the foundation of the German Reich, in: Research on Eastern European History 9 (1963), pp. 7-268 .