The registered German minority in Poland consists of 152,900 people, according to a 2002 census.[1][2][3]
The German language is used in certain areas in Opole Voivodeship (German: Oppeln), where most of the minority resides. The German minority electoral list currently has one seat in the Polish parliament (Sejm) benefiting from the provision in the current Polish Election Law which allows national minorities to be exempt from the 5 per cent national threshold (there were four from 1993 to 1997).
There are 325 Polish schools that use the German language as the first language of instruction, with over 37,000 students attending them. Most members of the German minority are Roman Catholic and only some of them are Protestants (the Evangelical-Augsburg Church). A number of German language newspapers and magazines are issued in Poland.
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Most of the Germans in Poland (92.9%) live in Silesia: 104,399 in the Opole Voivodeship, i.e. 71.0% of all Germans in Poland and a share of 9.9% of the local population; 30,531 in the Silesian Voivodeship, i.e. 20.8% of all Germans in Poland and 0.6% of the local population; plus 1,792 in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship, i.e. 1.2% of all Germans in Poland, though only 0.06% of the local population. A second region with a notable German minority is Masuria, with 4,311 living in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, corresponding to 2.9% of all Germans in Poland, and 0.3% of the local population.
Towns with particularly high concentrations of German speakers in Opole Voivodeship include: Strzelce Opolskie; Dobrodzien; Prudnik; Glogowek; and Gogolin.[4]
In the remaining 12 voivodeships of Poland, the percentage of Germans in the population lies between just 0.007-0.092%:
| Region | Population | German | % German |
|---|---|---|---|
| Poland | 38,557,984 | 147,094 | 0.381 |
| Opole Voivodeship | 1,055,667 | 104,399 | 9.889 |
| Silesian Voivodeship | 4,830,000 | 30,531 | 0.632 |
| Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship | 1,428,552 | 4,311 | 0.302 |
| Pomeranian Voivodeship | 2,192,000 | 2,016 | 0.092 |
| Lower Silesian Voivodeship | 2,898,000 | 1,792 | 0.062 |
| West Pomeranian Voivodeship | 1,694,865 | 1,014 | 0.060 |
| Greater Poland Voivodeship | 3,365,283 | 820 | 0.024 |
| Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship | 2,068,142 | 636 | 0.031 |
| Lubusz Voivodeship | 1,009,005 | 513 | 0.051 |
| Masovian Voivodeship | 5,136,000 | 351 | 0.007 |
| Łódź Voivodeship | 2,597,000 | 263 | 0.010 |
German migration into the area of modern Poland began with 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. Lutheran Germans settled numerous "Olęder" villages along the Vistula River and its tributaries during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. In the 19th century, Germans were actively involved in developing the cloth making industry in what is now central Poland. Over 3,000 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.
According to the 1931 census there were around 740 000 Germans living in Poland (2,3% of the whole population). The minority rights were protected by the Little Treaty of Versailles. The right to appeal to the League of Nations was however renounced in 1934, officially due to German withdrawal from the League in 1933.
After the German invasion of Poland in 1939 many members of the German minority (around 25%[5]) joined the ethnic German paramilitary organisation Selbstschutz. When the German occupation of Poland begun, Selbstschutz took active part in Nazi crimes against ethnic Poles. Due to their prewar interactions with the Polish majority, they were able to prepare lists of Polish intellectuals and civil servants who were selected for extermination. The organisation actively participated in this mass murder and was responsible for approximately 50 000 deaths of Poles.[6]
During the Nazi occupation of Poland during World War II, Germans from other areas of Eastern Europe were settled in (the pre-war area of) Poland by the Nazis, who at the same time expelled, enslaved and killed Poles and Jews.
With the Nazis' defeat and Poland's shift west between the Oder Neisse and Curzon lines, the Germans who had not fled were expelled or even killed. In the regions of pre-war Germany proper, Germans had formed up until then the vast majority of the population. After the expulsion from 1945 onward they were reduced to a small minortiy. A different case is Upper Silesia, where the population was more mixed and some Germans were allowed to stay. A possible demonstration of the ambiguity of the Polish German minority position can be seen in the life and career of Waldemar Kraft, a Minister without Portfolio in the West German Bundestag during the 1950s. However, parts of the German minority were not as involved in the Nazi system as Kraft was. [7]
The vast majority of the ethnic Germans east of the Oder-Neisse line were Protestants and were forced out, but a significant minority in Silesia were Roman Catholic, even speaking a partly Slavic dialect called Wasserpolak, and the Poles generally allowed them to stay if they wished. Of those who remained, many later chose to emigrate to post-war West Germany, fleeing Communist rule. With the downfall of the Communist regime, the German minorities' political situation improved. Germans are now allowed to acquire land and property in the areas where they, or their ancestors, used to live, and to 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 are the so-called Slovincians (Lebakaschuben), 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 which group(s) they choose to belong to.
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