Youtor
Germans in Poland
>> YOUR LINK HERE: ___ http://youtube.com/watch?v=stLdXx4HqCI
______________________________SUBSCRIBE • ...... • http://commonwealth.pl/ • . • German migration into the area of modern Poland occurred since the medieval Ostsiedlung (see also:Walddeutsche). The historical regions of Lower Silesia, East Brandenburg, Pomerania and East Prussia were nearly completely German-settled by the High Middle Ages, while in the other areas there were substantial German populations, most notably in the historical regions of Pomerelia, Upper Silesia, and Posen or Greater Poland. During the 19th century, Germans were actively involved in developing the cloth making industry in what is now central Poland. Over 3000 villages / towns within Russian Poland are noted to have had German residents. Many of these Germans remained east of the Curzon line after World War I, including a significant number in Volhynia. In the late 19th century, some Germans moved westward during the Ostflucht, while others were settled in Central Poland by a Prussian Settlement Commission. After the creation of the Second Polish Republic, large numbers of Germans were forced to leave, especially in the Polish Corridor area. During the Nazi occupation of Poland during World War II, Germans from other areas of Eastern Europe were settled in Poland by the Nazis, who at the same time expelled, enslaved and killed Poles and Jews. With the Nazis' defeat and Poland recreated shifted west between the Oder Neisse and Curzon lines, the Germans who had not fled were expelled. Of those who remained, many chose to emigrate to post-war Germany. With the downfall of the Communist regime, the German minorities' political situation improved. Germans are allowed to acquire land and property in the areas where they, or their ancestors, used to live, and move there. • • There is no clear-cut border between the German and some other minorities, who in some aspects have a similar heritage due to centuries of assimilation, Germanisation and intermarriage, but in other aspects have a different heritage due to either ancient regional West Slavic roots or Polonisation. Examples for these minorities ar the so-called Slovincians (Lebakashuben), the Masurians or the Silesians of Upper Silesia. While in the past these people have been claimed for both the Polish and the German ethnicity, it depends on their self-perception to which group(s) they belong.
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