Wokół losów szlachty lęborsko-bytowskiej w XVI–XX wieku

• Authors: Zygmunt Szultka

Title variants

EN

About the gentry of Lebork (Lauenburg) and Bytow (Bütow) from the 16th to 20th centuries

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The article argues with the main theses in the book "Aktywność społeczno-polityczna szlachty pogranicza lęborskiego" [Social-political activity of the gentry in the Lebork (Lauenburg) borderland] (Gdańsk 2009). The politically comprehensive introduction has little to do with the content of the book. The territorial range of the work raises doubts (the gentry from Bytow (Bütow) has not been discussed although the Lebork-Bytow land constituted one administrative unit). The source base and the use of the available research (particularly in reference to the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries) is insufficient. The Author failed to include legal restrictions (in force in the 17th-18th centuries) concerning purchasing land in the area by gentry arriving from the outside. However, M. Dzięcielski managed to show the problem of religious changes and the positive influence of the Reformation on the preservation of the Kashubian language until the end of the 19th century. On the other hand, the issue of de/ ning the negative policy of the Brandenburghian authorities towards Catholicism was not discussed properly. Chapter III concerning the political culture of the Lebork gentry must also be criticized as it is not sufficiently developed in reference to the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. Nevertheless, one may agree with some statements concerning earlier periods. The book fails to include clear chronological, subject and territorial criteria. It abounds in mistakes which are rectified in this article, and which result from the incomplete use of sources. It is not easy to evaluate the work. It may seem that answering 10 research questions formed by M. Dzięcielski in the introduction will facilitate it. However, the questions are not clear chronologically, substantially and territorially. “1. What was the role of the Lebork gentry in shaping the social-ownership, ethnic and language identities?” As far as changes in the structure of the land property are concerned, the incomplete use of the sources resulted in the vague presentation of the scope of changes in the period of the direct Polish rule over starostwos (districts), and after 1657/1658 it does not correspond with its dynamics. The changes in the 19th century were only mentioned and not discussed. The ethnic-linguistic changes until the first partition of Poland were quite well presented. Later periods were treated superficially and failed to appreciate the role of education. The Author abandoned the subject from the mid-19th century. “2. What was the role of Prussian agricultural reforms in the process of the deprivation of the gentry of their land property, Germanization of the Kashubian-Polish gentry and the consolidation of Prussian land owners?” The major stage of the deprivation of the Kashubian gentry of its land property took place at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, and the Prussian agricultural reforms were originated in 1807 and continued until the mid-19th century, which is why they could only accelerate the process of land deprivation. This, however, wan not shown. “3. What was the role of spiritual culture, including studying abroad, and religious movements in the process of shaping ethnic and national identity of the Lebork gentry?” The processes were presented accurately in reference to the period until the end of the 18th century, but the Author did not discuss the national identity of the Lebork gentry in the 19th century. “4. What was the signi/ cance of the Polish political culture in the creation of sociopolitical phenomena and processes taking into account the competition between the Polish gentry democracy and the Brandenburghian-Prussian absolutism?” Incomplete use of the acts of the Lebork-Bytow assembly, examining the struggle of the Lebork-Bytow gentry traditionally through the perspective of the Polish law (mainly the gentry jurisdiction), and underestimating economic and political factors (including the absolutism of the House of Hohenzollern) hindered the correct answer to the question. “5. What was the role of military careers in the process of shaping the feeling of loyalty, national and state identity of the gentry?” The question is connected with the process of the compulsory incorporation of the Lebork-Bytow gentry to the Prussian officers’ corps. The Author presented the Lebork gentry inaccurately, attributing it the qualities actually manifested by the gentry from Eastern Pomerania. “6. Which elements of the political reality strengthened the local culture, and which contributed to disintegration, Prussification and Germanization?” If one assumes that the question refers only to the Lebork gentry, and Prussification is understood as shaping the Prussian national identity mainly through militarization whereas Germanization as a conscious, planned state activity with the aim of instilling the German language and culture in society, the answers provided by the Author are incomplete, static, dispersed in a few chapters and cannot be regarded as in-depth. “7. What were the reactions, aspirations and resistance of the gentry in the period of the Prussian agricultural reforms, industrialization and wakening of liberty movements?” Since the agricultural reforms of the gentry’s land were not discussed appropriately, eo ipso the description of their effects cannot be correct. “8. What was the role of the gentry at the end of the Hohenzollern monarchy and what was its attitude towards parliamentary democracy and the first German republic?” “9. What was the attitude of the gentry when the national-socialist movement and the Third Reich were created?” “10. What were the consequences of the political choices made by the Prussian gentry for the history of the state and the gentry itself in the period of the first German republic and the Third Reich?” Insufficient empirical research on the Lebork gentry in the 19th century and in the first half of the 20th century resulted in the necessity to reconsider the gentry’s attitude and behaviour in the face of the processes and events included in questions 8–10, which may be facilitated by a relatively well preserved source base. It does not concern the history of the Lebork gentry during and ft er World War II, although in respect to this period there also appear some controversies.

Keywords

EN

Lębork; Bytów; nobility; borderland; integration

• Publisher: Towarzystwo Naukowe w Toruniu
• Journal: Zapiski Historyczne
• Year: 2011
• Volume: 76
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 137-165

Contributors

author

Zygmunt Szultka

• Instytut Historii i Stosunków Międzynarodowych, Uniwersytet Szczeciński