Narodziny miasta Grudziądza w średniowieczu w świetle XIX i XX-wiecznej historiografii polskiej i niemieckiej

• Authors: Sieradzan Wiesław

Title variants

DE

Änfänge der Stadt Graudenz im Mittelalter im Lichte der polnischen und deutsche Historiographie des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts

EN

The birth of the city of Grudziądz in the Middle Ages in the light of Polish and German historiography of the 19th and 20th c

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The author disagrees with Marian Biskup’s opinion expressed in the first volume of “Rocznik Grudziądzki” (1960), that the city of Grudziądz belonged to “the Pomeranian cities that were relatively well-described historically”. It seems that the opinion of this great medievalist from Toruń was too optimistic. M. Biskup paid attention solely to the academic output of Xaver Froelich, a known German regionalist from the 19th c. The opinion cannot be any longer regarded as valid considering that he was the only such researcher for almost a century. It is Bernhart Jähnig’s remark – an archivist and historian from Berlin – that is more accurate. Jähnig, who described the Grudziądz charter of June 18, 1291, stated that until 1990s the history of Grudziądz has not been a subject of any comprehensive monograph; instead, there are only various articles or features of varying lengths. It is indeed surprising that until today there has been no publication summarizing the state of research on the history of Grudziądz, the city that turned 725 years since its establishment. This is puzzling, considering especially that Polish historians, unlike German historians, prepared a book about the history of city until 1920. The German historiography that covered the topic was only presented by Jerzy Serczyk, whose work is nevertheless limited to the period after 1945. The aim of the article is to analyze the achievements of both historiographies, or German and Polish historiographic tradition in relation to the history of the city. The author, juxtaposing German and Polish historiographies in relation to the history of Grudziądz, claims that both underwent various stages under the influence of political circumstances. Until the end of the Great War the German historiography was predominant, just like the German population in the city. During the interwar period and the first fifteen years of the Polish People’s Republic there were not many valuable publications in Polish language, although the German authors often published their nationalist or revisionist theses. Moreover, it is worth repeating that the year 1960 is often considered a turning point, as it was the year when for the first time “Rocznik Grudziądzki” was published, which gave scholars the opportunity to publish their works on the city and region. Over time some issues concerning the beginnings of the city in the Middle Ages were undertaken, while the review procedures contributed to the development of historical criticism. Still there is a lot of work ahead of us, especially when it comes to the use of archival research in the studies on Grudziądz.

• Publisher: Muzeum w Grudziądzu
• Journal: Rocznik Grudziądzki
• Year: 2016
• Volume: 24
• Pages: 145-156

Dates

published

2016

Contributors

author

Sieradzan Wiesław

• Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika w Toruniu Instytut Historii i Archiwistyki, Zakład Historii Nauki

Identifiers

ISSN

0080-3464