Bambrzy

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Fountain of Bamberka in a married woman's dress on Old Market in Poznań

Girls wearing unmarried women's dresses during a Corpus Christi procession in Poznań-Jeżyce, a borough of Poznań

Bambrzy (Poznańskie Bambry, German: Posener Bamberger) are the Poles of German origin, descendants of settlers, from area of the city of Bamberg, who settled in villages surrounding Poznań (now, except for Luboń, in Poznań). The villages were destroyed during the Great Northern War and subsequent epidemic of cholera. They were repopulated with Bambrzy in several major waves between 1719 and 1753:

1719 in Luboń
1730 in Dębiec, Jeżyce, Winiary and Bonin
1746 - 1747 in Rataje and Wilda
1750 - 1753 in Jeżyce and Górczyn

In total, approximately 450 to 500 men and women arrived in Poland. There was only one condition - according to order of king August II of 1710, all newly-arrived foreign settlers in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth had to be Catholics.

In fact the dress of "Bamberka" is from the area of Czarnków, but it looks very similar

The Polonisation of this group was a voluntary act and happened very quickly - the settlers refused to build their own churches, they prayed with Poles, and their children learned the Polish language. There were also many mixed marriages with Poles living there. At the end of the 19th century, during the Kulturkampf period, all Catholics in villages inhabitated by Bambrzy chose Polish nationality during Prussian and German censuses. In the late 19th century, the meaning of the word "Bamber" (singular form) became wider - it started to denote all people living in those villages, regardless of their ethnic or cultural background.

Many of them were soldiers of the Polish army fighting in Great Poland Uprising. During the German occupation of Poland most of them, just as most Poles, were persecuted for their Polishness. After WWII, for some time, they were suspected of collaboration with the Germans.

The advent of democracy in Poland in 1989 saw the beginning of a renaissance of the Bamber culture. The best-known aspect of this culture are the rich female dresses.