Shifting Loyalties between Prussia's Eastern Provinces and Poland's Western Regions. A Comparative Study of Poznania and Upper Silesia, 1871-1939

• Applicant: Dr. Pascal Trees
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History ; Principles of Law and Jurisprudence ; Political Science ; Sociological Theory
• Term: from 2014 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 263029695

The project presented here examines how the Polish population of the Poznanian region and Upper Silesia developed multiple bonds of loyalty within the respective frameworks of the Prussian state and the German Empire, and how these loyalties shifted, changed or dissolved when the Second Polish Republic took control of those same regions after World War One. It looks into the way in which regime changes can affect subjects, especially when they take place in times of war that force people to actually decide about their loyalties. The populations affected here were made to accept that their decades-old ties to governmental and social structures now dissolved or had to give way to entirely new, unproven ones. The project is based on the idea that bonds of loyalty are always multidimensional in nature, that their genesis is complex and that loyal attitudes can be - or even have to be - learned. What is more, loyal attitudes do not simply disappear overnight, even if they have been coerced in the first place. The aim is to analyze how these bonds were established, and how they could be exchanged for new ones, especially when conflicting demands for loyalty were made from different sides (State, Church, Nation).As a first step, it will have to be determined if ideas of allegiance and loyalty were basically the same in Prussia and Poland, or if they differed in any way. As a second step, certain institutions that are supposed to evoke and further loyalty will be examined: To what extent did schools, the Church (Catholic and Protestant) and armies actually succeed in fostering loyalty among the populations of Poznania and Upper Silesia? There is a strongly established view that Prussian schools and armed forces could not possibly achieve that aim with Polish pupils or conscripts. However, in light of recent research, it appears important not only to question this view, but also the corresponding assumption that Polish successor-institutions in 1918 somehow automatically fared better, because they operated on their "own" subjects.To answer these questions, certain indicators of "loyal attitudes" will be examined and tested for their validity: The willingness to answer a call to arms, the participation in parliamentary elections, and the extent of law-abiding behaviour have all been identified as significant signs of loyalty. Consequently, they will be considered for both the pre-war-period and the after-war years. A similar comparative approach has not been attempted so far. The project will thus add considerably to recent research on loyalties.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants