Vistula Germans

Vistula Germans (in 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 Thorn.

Migration History

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). Germans had a long and significant presence in this region¹. 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. Significant migration and colonization did not begin until the late 18th century when the Polish Kingdom was decimated by the Partitions instigated 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 occupation 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 documented². A 1935 map³ created by Albert Breyer shows the distribution of German settlement in this region. While his map shows clearly defined boundaries of settlement by Germans from many different German territories, it should be noted that actual settlement occurred throughout the area beyond his boundaries and there was considerable overlap in their origins. It should also be noted that this entire region is variously referred to as either Congress Poland or Russian Poland.

Some German villages in the area were identified by adding an adjective in the form xxx Niemieckie. Niemieckie is the Polish word for German and it was used to differentiate it from where the Poles in the same immediate area lived (where their village might be xxx Polskie). After WW II, due to anti-German feelings, the adjective was commonly dropped or replaced by a term like Nowe (new). However, some villages even today still retain the old identifier.

The vast majority of Germans in this region were Lutheran. While they retained a clear Germanic ethnicity, traditions and language, they often adapted or adopted Polish culture and food and sometimes surnames. Some intermarriage between the cultures occurred but not a lot. Large numbers of these Germans chose to leave the area during the Napoleonic occupation, heading further south and east to the Black Sea and Bessarabian regions of Russia. Still others headed east to Volhynia during the Polish uprisings of the 1830s and 1860s. In addition to fleeing these unsettled conditions, the latter were also attracted by offers of land that became available as a result of emancipation of serfs in Russia.

Significant numbers of these Vistula Germans (including many who had spent a generation or more in the Black Sea, Bessarabia, and Volhynia regions) migrated to North America in the latter part of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Since most were farmers, they tended to head for opportunities of inexpensive or virtually free homestead land in the Midwestern and Plains States and Canadian prairies. They are of course scattered about in other regions as well.

Those who remained in this area through WW II were repatriated to German territory in accord with the post-WW II agreements between the Allied Powers of Britain, Russia, and the United States. Any Germans that live there today probably had intermarried with locals prior to the War. Some unlucky ones were captured by the Russians prior to this agreement and were forced east to settle in Kazahkstan and Siberia. They were never repatriated.

Dutch Influences

Assumptions are often made about significant influence of Dutch settlers in this region⁴. The so-called Dutch community consisted of Dutch, Frisian and a few Swiss German Mennonites who settled primarily in the northern reaches of the Vistula River valley of West Prussia. Very few of these people migrated further south though there were a few settlements right on the Vistula River east of Plock. They therefore did not have much direct impact on the Vistula Germans.

However, these Dutch settlers had negotiated rights to live in self-governed villages known as Hollendry. This form of government was also adopted by many Germans in their settlements and they also become known as Hollendry. The term can be found by itself as a place name or as an adjective attached to other more definitive place names. There is some historical disagreement over the origins of the term because it is often also spelled Haulendry. In this form, it is assumed that the term is derived from the German word Hauen which means to cut down. This, some historians say, is in reference to the forests and woods that the Germans cut down as they moved in to settle on the land. Regardless of the origins, the term does refer to government style instigated by the Dutch and well used by the Vistula Germans, and it represents one of the earliest forms of democratic government in this part of Europe.

Genealogy

It is not the intent of this page to offer a full discourse on research opportunities. Numerous genealogical websites are available for that. However, a word of encouragement is in order.

One often expects to find few research records available in east central Europe but that is certainly not the case for the Vistula Germans. Numerous Lutheran Churches (as well as some Baptist and Moravian Brethern) were scattered about the entire region. Records for many of them dating back to the late 1700s can be found in Warsaw Archives and were microfilmed by the LDS Family History Library. A list of known available Lutheran records can be found on the website of the Society for German Genealogy in Eastern Europe⁵. There are of course some places where few if any records exist, primarily because of their destruction in WW II. However, significant results can often be attained by the tenacious researcher.

Where Lutheran Churches did not exist, or in times prior to their existence, the Germans would have been obligated to register at a Roman Catholic Church, resulting in even more opportunities for success.

As with any other European research, the key to finding more information is determining the specific village or parish in which the ancestor lived. Passenger ship lists are a common source for this information and the ShtetlSeeker link below assists in determining the specific location. Good detailed historical and modern topographical maps, indices, and gazetteers are available to assist with the search, allowing for high degrees of success in finding specific locations of origin.

References

*1. Ostsiedlung
*2. "Map of German Settlements in Russian Poland" by Jerry Frank (based on previous works by Albert Breyer, Oskar Kossmann, Kurt Luck and Wieslaw Sladkowski, but fully indexed along with hundreds of additions as researched in original church records)
*3. [http://www.upstreamvistula.org/History/Breyer_Map.htm Breyer Map] On Upstream Vistula website
*4. [http://www.holland.org.pl/index_en.htm - Catologue of Dutch Settlements in Poland] This is an excellent source of information for numerous Germanic villages in the subject region but the entire site designates them as Dutch. In fact, only a half dozen or so of the many listed villages have any Dutch connections.
*5. [http://www.sggee.org/church_parishes/LutheransInRusPoland.html Society for German Genealogy in Eastern Europe] - Lutheran Records

Other Recommended Resources

*1. Book - "Die Deutschen in Polen Seit der Reformation", by Oskar Kossmann (in German)
*2. Book - "Historical Atlas of East Central Europe", by Paul Magocsi (in English)

ee also

*Nazi-Soviet population transfers
*Flight and expulsion of Germans from Poland during and after World War II
*German Russian
*History of Germans in Russia and the Soviet Union
*German minority in Poland
*German American

External links

* [http://www.upstreamvistula.org/index.htm Vistula Germans] History and map settlements by region
* [http://www.sggee.org Society for German Genealogy in Eastern Europe - with focus on Russian Poland and Volhynia]
* [http://www.grhs.org Germans From Russia Heritage Society] Focus is on Black Sea and Bessarabia regions but some limited help available for Vistula Germans as well.
* [http://www.sggee.org/GermanSettlements-EasternEurope.pdf German-Russian Settlement Map]
* [http://www.jewishgen.org/ShtetlSeeker/LocTown.asp JewishGen's Shtetl (Village) Seeker] Not just for Jewish villages.