“Polak w Niemczech” (1925–1972). The press organ of the Union of Poles in Germany

Representing the interests of German citizens of Polish nationality and mother tongue
 

“We, who have remained German citizens in Germany, must join together in our shared work if we do not wish to lose our national faith, our Polish language and the culture of our homeland”.[1]

These are the first lines of the appeal issued by the Union of Poles in Germany (Bund der Polen in Deutschland e.V.), the central organisation of Poles living in Germany, which was founded in Berlin on 27 August 1922. The appeal was published on 9/10 December 1922 in the Polish-language daily newspaper in Berlin, “Dziennik Berliński” together with the Union statute (see Fig. 1), shortly after the Union was officially recognised as an association on 3 December with an entry in the Prussian register.[2] Immediately after it was founded, the Union began a drive to recruit new members. One aim was to further expand the work of the Union, while at the same time organising the many Poles living in Germany and to represent them before the German state.[3] However, the Poles resident in Germany in the inter-war years were not a homogeneous group, and were not equally in agreement with the views and aims of the Union. Some of them lived in the border territories in the east (particularly East and West Prussia and Upper Silesia), while the Ruhr Poles, a no less important group, were labour migrants who had come to the German Empire from around 1870 onwards to work in the industrial region on the Rhine and Ruhr rivers, where some had remained. These two groups differed in terms of their Christian denomination, their national awareness and, in particular, their relationship with the German Empire.[4] 

In the monograph recounting the history of the organisation, published on the initiative of Edmund Forycki, the president of the Union of Poles during the 1970s and 1980s, the initial period after it was founded is described in retrospect as having been particularly difficult. The heterogeneity of the Poles in Germany and the increasing rate at which Poles were returning to the re-established Polish state during the early 1920s – particularly those who came from the intellectual class and who were leaders of Polish organisations in Germany – made the establishment and development of the Union particularly challenging.[5] The creation of a central press organ for the Union of Poles in Germany was therefore of crucial importance for the future work of the organisation.