History of the Germans in Poland

The history of the Germans in Poland dates back over a millennium. Poland was at one point the largest kingdom in Europe; it was also Europe's most multi-ethnic state during the medieval period. It covered an immense plain with no natural boundaries and had a thinly scattered population including many different ethnic groups—besides the Poles themselves, there were Germans in the cities of West Prussia and Ruthenians in Lithuania (and others). The immigrants were largely German settlers. The Polish princes granted the Germans in the cities complete autonomy according to the "Teutonic right" (later, "Magdeburg right"), and in that way in Poland there emerged cities of the German medieval type. Before the 13th century was over, around one hundred Polish towns had Magdeburg-style municipal institutions. The governing classes in these towns were increasingly German and German-speaking. At the synod of Łęczyca in 1285, Archbishop Jakub Świnka of Gniezno warned that Poland might become a "new Saxony" if German negligence for Polish language, customs, clergy and ordinary people went unchecked. Toward the end of the Middle Ages the population in a number of Polish cities was mostly German-speaking and even municipal documents were partly written in German (until the transition to Latin and later to Polish).

The 13th century brought fundamental changes to the structure of Polish society and its political system. Because of the fragmentation and constant internal conflicts, the Piast dukes were unable to stabilize Poland's external borders of the early Piast rulers. Western Farther Pomerania broke its political ties with Poland in the second half of the 12th century and from 1231 became a fief of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which in 1307 extended its Pomeranian possessions even further east, taking over the Sławno and Słupsk areas. Pomerelia or Gdańsk Pomerania had been independent of the Polish dukes since 1227. In the mid-13th century, Bolesław II the Bald granted Lubusz Land to the Margraviate, which made possible the creation of the Neumark and had far reaching negative consequences for the integrity of the western border. In the south-east, Leszek the White was unable to preserve Poland's supremacy over the Halych area of Rus', a territory that had changed hands on a number of occasions.

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