Vistula Germans

Vistula Germans (German: Weichseldeutsche) are ethnic Germans who had settled in what became known after the 1863 Polish rebellion as the Vistula Territory. This territory, so designated by the ruling Russians of the time, encompassed most of the Vistula River (Weichsel in German, Wisła in Polish) watershed of central Poland up to just east of Toruń.

The Vistula River flows south to north in a broad easterly loop that extends from the Carpathian Mountains to its mouth on the Baltic Sea near Gdańsk (Danzig). Many were invited in by German and Polish nobility but most settled in cities and large towns which were often governed under a form known as German town law.

German settlement on abandoned or empty land in Kujawy and Royal Prussia increased as land owners sought to re-populate their lands after the losses of the Great Northern War (1700–1721). Migration up the Vistula River, to Płock, Wyszogród, and beyond, continued through the period of the Partitions of Poland by Prussia, Austria and Russia. Much of the Vistula River watershed region came under Prussian rule in 1793 and became the provinces of South Prussia and New East Prussia.

In spite of the brief liberation of Polish territories by Napoleon (when the region was known as the Duchy of Warsaw) and in spite of the takeover by Russia following the Treaty of Paris (1815), German migration continued into the region throughout the 19th century. They often settled in existing communities but also established many new ones so that, by World War I, well over 3000 villages with German inhabitants can be documented.

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Wikipedia