Warmia is part of a larger historical region called Prussia, which was inhabited by the Old Prussians and later on was populated mainly by Germans and Poles.[1] Warmia has traditionally strong connections with neighbouring Masuria, but it remained Catholic and belonged directly to Poland between 1454/1466 and 1772, whereas Masuria was a part of Poland as a fief held by the Teutonic Order[2] and Ducal Prussia, which became predominantly Protestant. Warmia has been under the dominion of various states over the course of its history, most notably the Old Prussians, the Teutonic Knights, the Kingdom of Poland and the Kingdom of Prussia. The history of the region is closely connected to that of the Archbishopric of Warmia (formerly Prince-Bishopric of Warmia). The region is associated with the Prussian tribe, the Warmians,[3] who settled in an approximate area. According to folk etymology, Warmia is named after the legendary Prussian chief Warmo, and Ermland derives from his widow Erma.
Warmia occupies a 100 kilometer long strip of land along the right bank of the Pasłęka River (German: Passarge), approximately 20 kilometers wide in the north and increasing to over 70 kilometers wide in the south. The Łyna River (German: Alle) drains the southern portion of the region, flowing to the northeast to join with the Pregolya (German: Pregel). The terrain is composed of gentle hills and wide plains, and has a humid continental climate, with milder temperatures found at lower elevations in the north near the coast.
With the exception of the far northern and southern ends of the region, the Pasłęka constitutes its western border. That river flows into the Vistula Lagoon (German: Frisches Haff) just after passing the town of Braniewo (German: Braunsberg). The historically important port town of Frombork (German: Frauenberg) lies west of the Pasłęka, near the mouth of the Bauda River [pl]. Further south, the Pasłęka is joined by the tributaries Wałsza [pl] (German: Walsch) and Drwęca Warmińska (German: Drewenz), with the headwaters of the river located near the southern end of Warmia.
The source of the Łyna river is found just south of the southern tip of the region, near the eponymous town of Łyna. The river flows through several lakes on the western end of the Masurian Lake District, passing through the cities of Olsztyn (German: Allenstein) and Lidzbark Warmiński (German: Heilsberg) as it takes in numerous tributaries on its journey north. This southern portion of Warmia is more heavily forested and historically had many towns with Polish-speaking majorities, while the rest of the region was almost entirely German-speaking.
In the 13th century the area became a battleground in the Northern Crusades. Having failed to gather an expedition against Palestine, Pope Innocent III resolved in 1207 to organize a new crusade; beginning in 1209, he called for crusades against the Albigenses, against the Almohad dynasty of Spain (1213), and, also around that time, against the pagans of Prussia.[4] The first Bishop of Prussia, Christian of Oliva, was commissioned in 1209 to convert the Prussians, at the request of Konrad I of Masovia (duke from 1194 to 1247).
Teutonic Order
In 1226 Duke Konrad I of Masovia invited the Teutonic Knights to Christianize the pagan Prussians. He supplied the Teutonic Order and allowed the usage of Chełmno Land (Culmerland) as a base for the knights. They had the task of establishing secure borders between Masovia and the Prussians, with the assumption that conquered territories would become part of Masovia. The Order waited until they received official authorisation from the Empire, which Emperor Frederick II granted by issuing the Golden Bull of Rimini (March 1226). The papal Golden Bull of Rieti from Pope Gregory IX in 1234 confirmed the grant, although Konrad of Masovia never recognized the rights of the Order to rule Prussia. Later, the Knights were accused of forging these land grants.
By the end of the 13th century the Teutonic Order had conquered and Christianized most of the Prussian region, including Warmia. The Teutonic Order recruited mostly German-speaking settlers to develop the land. The new régime reduced many of the native Prussians to the status of serfs and gradually Germanized them. [citation needed]. Native Prussians were also reported as holders of estates. Over several centuries the colonists, native Prussians and immigrants gradually intermingled.[citation needed] Until the early 13th century, also the southern parts of Warmia were German-speaking. Polish settlers arrived later, particularly after 1410, mainly to southern Warmia, so that German was replaced by Polish in this area.[5]
Act of incorporation of the region into the Kingdom of Poland, 1454
In February 1440 the nobility of Warmia and the town of Braniewo (Braunsberg) co-founded the Prussian Confederation, which opposed Teutonic rule, and most towns of the Warmia joined the organization in May 1440.[7] In February 1454, the organization asked Polish King Casimir IV Jagiellon to incorporate the region to the Kingdom of Poland, to which the king agreed and signed the act of incorporation in Kraków on 6 March 1454,[8] and the Thirteen Years' War (1454–1466) broke out. During the war Warmia was recaptured by the Teutonic Knights, however, in 1464 Bishop Paweł Legendorf vel Mgowski sided with Poland and the Prince-Bishopric came again under the overlordship of the Polish King.[9] In the Second Peace of Thorn (1466) the Teutonic Knights renounced any claims to Warmia, and recognized Polish sovereignty over the region, which was confirmed to be part of Poland.[10] It was administratively remained a Prince-Bishopric with several privileges, part of the larger provinces of Royal Prussia and Greater Poland Province.
Soon after, in 1467, the Cathedral Chapter elected Nicolas von Tüngen against the wish of the Polish king. The Estates of Royal Prussia did not take the side of the Cathedral Chapter. Nicholas von Tüngen allied himself with the Teutonic Order and with King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary. The feud, known as the War of the Priests, was a low scale affair, affecting mainly Warmia. In 1478 Braniewo (Braunsberg) withstood a Polish siege which was ended in an agreement in which the Polish king recognized von Tüngen as bishop and the right of the Cathedral Chapter to elect future bishops, which however would have to be accepted by the king, and the bishop as well as Cathedral Chapter swore an oath to the Polish king. Later in the Treaty of Piotrków Trybunalski (7 December 1512), conceded to the king of Poland a limited right to determine the election of bishops by choosing four candidates from Royal Prussia.[11] The region retained autonomy, governing itself and maintaining its own laws, customs, rights and German language.[12]
Warmia was invaded by the Teutonic Knights during the Polish–Teutonic War of 1519–1521, however, the Poles, led by renown astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, repulsed the Teutonic siege of Olsztyn in 1521.[13] Copernicus spent more than half of his life in Warmia, where he wrote many of his groundbreaking works and conducted astronomical observations and mathematical calculations, which became the basis for his heliocentric model of the universe.[14] After the war of 1519–1521, he coordinated the reconstruction and resettlement of the devastated southern Warmia.[14]
In 1565, Cardinal Stanislaus Hosius founded the Collegium Hosianum in Braniewo, which became the leading institution of higher learning in the region.
After the Union of Lublin in 1569, the Prince-Bishopric of Warmia was integrated more directly into the Polish Crown within the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. At the same time, the territory continued to enjoy substantial autonomy, with many legal differences from neighbouring lands. For example, the bishops were by law members of PolishSenat and the land elected MP's to the Sejmik of Royal Prussia as well as MP's to the Sejm of Poland.
Warmia was under the Church jurisdiction of the Archbishopric of Riga until 1512, when Prince-BishopLucas Watzenrode received exempt status, placing Warmia directly under the authority of the Pope (in terms of church jurisdiction), which remained until the resolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806.
Prussia and Germany
By the First Partition of Poland in 1772, Warmia was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia; the properties of the Archbishopric of Warmia were secularized by the Prussian state. In 1773 Warmia was merged with the surrounding areas into the newly established province of East Prussia. Ignacy Krasicki, the last prince-bishop of Warmia as well as Enlightenment Polish poet, friend of Frederick the Great (whom he did not give homage as his new king), was nominated to the Archbishopric of Gniezno (and thus Primate of Poland) in 1795. After the last partition of Poland and during his tenure as Primate of Poland and Prussian subject he was ordered by Pope Pius VI to teach his Catholic Poles to 'stay obedient, faithful, and loving to their new kings', Papal brief of 1795. The Prussian census in 1772 showed a total population of 96,547, including an urban population of 24,612 in 12 towns. 17,749 houses were listed and the biggest city was Braunsberg (Braniewo).
Between 1773 and 1945 Warmia was part of the predominantly Lutheran province of East Prussia, with the exception that the people of Warmia remained largely Catholic. Most of the population of Warmia spoke High Prussian German, while a small area in the north spoke Low Prussian German; southern Warmia was populated by both Germans and Polish Warmiaks.[15] The Polish population was subjected to intense Germanisation policies. Warmia was divided into four districts (Kreise) - Allenstein (Olsztyn), Rössel (Reszel), Heilsberg (Lidzbark Warmiński) and Braunsberg (Braniewo). The city of Allenstein was separated from the Allenstein district in 1910 and became an independent city.
On 6 May 1863, the village of Bredynki was the site of a massacre of Polish inhabitants. Local farmers protested the taking of the lake from the village and handing it over to a local miller.[16] Prussian troops fired on the crowd, killing more than a dozen people, including women, and wounding 30.[16]
Mother tongues of Warmia, according to the 1905 Census
Ethnolinguistic structure of Southern Warmian districts (1825, 1910) [18][19]
Year
District
Population
German
Polish / Bilingual
Number
Percent
Number
Percent
1825
Allenstein (city)
2,637
1,371
52.0%
1,266
48.0%
Allenstein (district)
27,820
3,556
12.8%
24,264
87.2%
Rössel
30,705
23,927
77.9%
6,778
22.1%
Total
61,162
28,854
47.2%
32,308
52.8%
1910
Allenstein (city)
33,077
29,344
88.7%
3,683
11.1%
Allenstein (district)
57,919
22,825
39.4%
35,079
60.6%
Rössel
50,472
43,189
85.6%
7,283
14.4%
Total
141,468
95,358
67.4%
46,045
32.5%
Former headquarters of the pre-war Polish newspaper Gazeta Olsztyńska in Olsztyn, destroyed by the Germans in 1939,[20] rebuilt in 1989, now a museum
In 1871, along with the rest of East Prussia, Warmia became part of the German Empire. In 1873, according to a regulation of the Imperial German government, school lessons at public schools inside Germany had to be held in German, as a result the Polish language was forbidden in all schools in Warmia, including Polish schools already founded in the sixteenth century. In 1900 Warmia's population was 240,000. In the jingoistic climate after World War I, Warmian Poles were subject to persecution by the German government. Polish children speaking their language were punished in schools and often had to wear signs with insulting names, such as "Pollack".[21]
After the First World War, Poland regained independence, and a plebiscite was held to determine the future of Warmia. In February 1920, Poland opened a consulate in Olsztyn in 1920,[22] however, due to the German persecution of Poles and the advances of the Red Army towards Warsaw in the Polish–Soviet War in 1920, the plebiscite resulted in a German victory, and the region remained within Germany in the interbellum.[23]
Despite German hostility, the Poles founded numerous Polish organizations in Warmia in the interbellum. Persecution of Poles intensified after the Nazi Party rose to power in Germany. Due to severe persecution, from 1936 Polish organizations carried out their activities partly in conspiracy.[24] Polish organizations were heavily invigilated by the Sicherheitspolizei (German security police) through its undercover agents, known as the Vertrauensmänner.[25] Based on their information, the German police compiled files and lists of Poles who were supposed to be either executed or imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps.[25] Nazi militants carried out attacks on Polish schools, organizations, printshops, shops.[25] The persecution of Poles further intensified in 1939.[25] In early 1939, many Polish activists were expelled.[24] Afterwards, in an attempt to rig the results of an upcoming census and understate the number of Poles in the region, the Germans terrorized the Polish population, attacked Polish schools and organizations, and confiscated Polish pre-census information leaflets.[26] In summer 1939 the German terror against the Poles even exceeded the terror from the period of the 1920 plebiscite.[27] Poles were subjected to expulsions and arrests, there were terrorist attacks on Polish organizations and schools, Polish libraries were looted or destroyed, and entire volumes of Polish press were confiscated.[25][27] In August 1939, Germany introduced martial law in the region, which allowed for even more blatant persecution of Poles.[27] Germany co-formed the Einsatzgruppe V in Olsztyn, which then committed various atrocities against Poles during the German invasion of Poland that began World War II in September 1939.[28] In August and September 1939, the Germans carried out mass arrests of Poles, including activists, teachers, school principals, bank employees, newspaper editors, entrepreneurs, priests, scout leaders, and the consul and employees of the Polish Consulate in Olsztyn, and shut down or seized Polish newspapers and libraries.[29][30][31] Arrested Poles were mostly deported to concentration camps, incl. Hohenbruch [de], Soldau, Stutthof, Sachsenhausen, Gusen and Ravensbrück.[32] During World War II, many Poles from the region were forcibly conscripted into the Wehrmacht.[33] The Germans operated a notable Nazi prison in the town of Barczewo (Wartenburg) with several forced labour subcamps in the region.[34] The Polish resistance movement was active in the region and Polish underground press was distributed.[35]
Olsztyn is the largest city in Warmia and the capital of the Warmian-Masurian Voivedeship. During 1945–46, Warmia was part of the Okreg Mazurski (Masurian District). In 1946 a new voivodeship was created and named the Olsztyn Voivodeship, which encompassed both Warmia and Masurian counties. From 1975 to 1998, Warmia was divided between the Olsztyn and Elbląg Voivodeships, and in 1999 it was entirely included with the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship. The Catholic character of Warmia has been preserved in the architecture of its villages and towns, as well as in folk customs.
The unofficial anthem of Warmia is O Warmio moja miła from 1920, with music by local Polish composer Feliks Nowowiejski and lyrics by Maria Paruszewska. It is also the bugle call of the region's largest city of Olsztyn.
Other sights include the old towns of Olsztyn and Reszel with the Reszel and Olsztyn castles, the Old Town of Barczewo with the museum of Polish composer Feliks Nowowiejski at his birthplace. There are also several palaces, including the Baroque Grabowski Palace in Lidzbark Warmiński and the palace in Smolajny, favorite summer residence of leading Polish Enlightenment poet Ignacy Krasicki. The Basilica of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in Gietrzwałd is a popular regional pilgrimage site.
A typical feature of the Warmian landscape are the massive Gothic churches in the towns and the numerous historic wayside shrines in various towns and villages, a reminder of the region's strong Catholic traditions.
Unique local dishes include the Lord-style turkey wings (Skrzydła indycze po pańsku).[41]Ignacy Krasicki is considered one of the pioneers of turkey meat consumption in Warmia, as already in 1791, during a feast he organized, he ordered turkey to be served, among other dishes.[41]
The tradition of producing Warmian smoked beef ham (Warmińska szynka wołowa wędzona) is cultivated by several meat-packing plants in Warmia.[42]
The officially protected traditional alcoholic beverages of Warmia are Okowita miodowa warmińska, a beverage of 42% alcohol by volume made from Warmian honey, and the Warmian porter, a local type of Polish beer.[43][44]
The traditional cuisine of German Warmiaks include Königsberger Klopse, Heilsberger Keilchen, a form of potato dumplings, and Wruken (turnip), or Klunkersuppe (flour milk soup) mit Bratschukken (fried potatoes).[45]
Sports
The most accomplished sports team of Warmia is AZS Olsztyn, multiple times Polish volleyball champions and Polish Cup winners. The first several tournaments of the Memorial of Hubert Jerzy Wagner, an international volleyball friendly competition, were held in Warmia.
Marcin Kromer (1512 in Biecz – 1589 in Lidzbark Warmiński), Polish cartographer, diplomat and historian, personal secretary of Kings of Poland, Bishop of Warmia
^Górski, Karol (1949). Związek Pruski i poddanie się Prus Polsce: zbiór tekstów źródłowych (in Polish and Latin). Poznań: Instytut Zachodni. pp. 96–97, 214–215.
^Also called the Warms, Varms, Varmi, Warmians, Varmians.
^"Hermann Pölking". Ostpreußen - Biographie einer Provinz (in German). Weltbild. p. 50. Udo Arnold (1987). Europa im Hoch- und Spätmittelalter. Klett-Cotta. p. 481.
^Ceranka, Paweł; Szczepanik, Krzysztof (2020). Urzędy konsularne Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej 1918–1945. Informator archiwalny (in Polish). Warszawa: Naczelna Dyrekcja Archiwów Państwowych, Ministerstwo Spraw Zagranicznych. p. 292. ISBN978-83-65681-93-5.
^ abCygański, Mirosław (1984). "Hitlerowskie prześladowania przywódców i aktywu Związków Polaków w Niemczech w latach 1939-1945". Przegląd Zachodni (in Polish) (4): 38.
^ abcdeWardzyńska, Maria (2003). ""Intelligenzaktion" na Warmii, Mazurach i północnym Mazowszu". Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej (in Polish). No. 12-1 (35-36). IPN. p. 39. ISSN1641-9561.
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