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Polish surnames in Germany

Today, the number of people in Germany with a Polish migrant background is the second largest behind those with a Turkish migrant background. The surname is often the thing that gives it away. The most prominent example is the Tatort Inspector Horst Schimanski and, although he is a fictional character, it is telling that an inspector from the Ruhr area, of all people, should have a name ending in -ski. But that is not always the case. In the past, many Polish names were Germanised for a variety of reasons.

Wiesław Smętek, Nowak, illustration design for the text by Marek Firlej, 2023

Wiesław Smętek 2023

How the situation looks today

Today names are Germanised far less frequently or are changed in a different way. Changing your name is actually quite time-consuming and difficult. Most people from the third immigration wave kept their name, even though the special Polish characters often disappeared. Today, they can still cause problems in many data processing systems. Then the system reverts back to standard underlying letters (e.g. ś -> s, ń -> n), phonetic adaptations such as sz -> sch hardly appear. Thanks to the freedom of movement in Europe, it is no longer necessary to adapt names. There are many Poles in Germany who do not live here permanently and therefore do not want to change their name.

The most common clearly Slavic name in Germany is Nowak. Together with the variants Nowack and Novak, it ranks 133rd in the list of most common surnames, just ahead of Grimm (as at 2005).[3] However, people with this name can also be from the Czech Republic and other Slavic countries or may be their descendants; this is particularly true of the variant with v.

In Poland, the surname Nowak is by far the most common name followed by Kowalski, which is also known in Germany (or Kowalska, the female form of the name[4]). Of the ten most common Polish surnames, six of them have the ending -ski. So it is in no way a cliché to say that that is what Polish surnames sound like. That is why the name Szymański, which has already been mentioned so often, is also in the Polish Top Ten at number 9.

Marek Firlej, June 2023

[3] Verzeichnis: Deutsch/Namen/die häufigsten Nachnamen Deutschlands, in: Wiktionary, 08/02/2023. URL: https://de.wiktionary.org/wiki/Verzeichnis:Deutsch/Namen/die_h%C3%A4ufigsten_Nachnamen_Deutschlands, (last accessed on 07/06/2023).

[4] In some Slavic languages, including Polish, Russian and traditionally Sorbian, female family member have a female form of the surname. In Poland, that relates primarily to all surnames that end in -ski, -cki, -dzki, -owy or -ewy: Wiśniewski > Wiśniewska; Konopacki > Konopacka, Rudzki > Rudzka, Stanisławowy > Stanisławowa; Paduczewy > Paduczewa. There can also be other special cases. If a Polish family emigrates to Germany, the surnames are adapted to the German system, i.e., pani Kowalska becomes Ms Kowalski, so that all family members have the same surname. In April 2023, the Federal Ministry of Justice published a draft bill on the modernisation of the law relating to the use of names. Amongst other things, this provides for Slavic families being allowed to keep their gender-specific form of the name when they immigrate to Germany. URL: https://www.bmj.de/SharedDocs/Gesetzgebungsverfahren/Dokumente/RefE_Namensrecht.pdf (last accessed on 16/06/2023).

Sources and further reading:

Books, articles and essays

Burghardt, Werner: Namensänderungen slawischer Familiennamen im Ruhrgebiet, in: Bellmann, Günter inter alia. (Publ.): Festschrift für Karl Bischoff zum 70. Geburtstag, Cologne 1975, p. 271–286.

Czopek-Kopciuch, Barbara: Nazwiska polskie w Zagłębiu Ruhry, Kraków 2004.

Loew, Peter Oliver: Wir Unsichtbaren. Geschichte der Polen im Ruhrgebiet, Munich 2014.

Koch, Wilhelm Herbert: Kumpel Anton, Essen 2020.

Marti, Roland: Schimanski & Co. an der Saar, in: Greule, Albrecht inter alia (Publ.): Studien zu Literatur, Sprache und Geschichte in Europa. Wolfgang Haubrichs zum 65. Geburtstag gewidmet, St. Ingbert 2008, p. 397–410.

Menge, Heinz H.: Namensänderungen slawischer Familiennamen im Ruhrgebiet, in: Niederdeutsches Wort. Beiträge zur niederdeutschen Philologie 40 (2000): p. 119–132, URL: https://www.mundart-kommission.lwl.org/media/filer_public/b2/c8/b2c8eaff-2c0a-49d6-bbf1-2f3d26e9ad13/band40_2000.pdf (last accessed on 07/06/2023).

Rymut, Kazimierz/ Hoffmann, Johannes: Lexikon der Familiennamen polnischer Herkunft im Ruhrgebiet (2 Bde.), Kraków inter alia 2006/2010.

Spät, Robert: Die "polnische Frage” in der öffentlichen Diskussion im Deutschen Reich, 1894-1918 Marburg 2014, URL: https://digital.herder-institut.de/publications/frontdoor/deliver/index/docId/115/file/PUB_Herder-Institut_Studien_29_9783879693863.pdf (last accessed on 07/06/2023).

Online

Firlej, Marek: Warum der Ruhrpottkomissar Schimanski heißen musste, in: :bsz online. Deine Bochumer Stadt- & Studierendenzeitung, 10/11/2014, URL: https://www.bszonline.de/2014/11/10/warum-der-ruhrpottkomissar-schimanski-heissen-musste/ (last accessed on 07/06/2023).

Kaluza, Andrzej: Migranten aus Polen im wiedervereinigten Deutschland, in: bpb.de, 05/03/2021, URL: https://www.bpb.de/themen/deutsche-einheit/migrantische-perspektiven/325312/migranten-aus-polen-im-wiedervereinigten-deutschland/ (last accessed on 07/06/2023).

List of Polish surnames in Germany, in: Digitales Familiennamenwörterbuch Deutschlands (DFD), URL: https://www.namenforschung.net/dfd/woerterbuch/liste/?tx_dfd_names%5Bquery%5D=&tx_dfd_names%5BcurrentSelectedFacets%5D%5Bcountries%5D=249&tx_dfd_names%5Baction%5D=list&tx_dfd_names%5Bcontroller%5D=Names&cHash=198fa7d34f8d5b2cc2a30a0eb72ea917 (last accessed on 14/06/2023).

Migration (Modul), in: Deutsches Polen-Institut (Publ.): Polen in der Schule, URL: https://www.poleninderschule.de/arbeitsblaetter/gesellschaft/polen-migration/ (last accessed on 07/06/2023).

Nazwiska występujące w rejestrze PESEL, in: Ministerstwo Cyfryzacji (Publ.): Otwarte dane, 31/01/2023, URL: https://dane.gov.pl/pl/dataset/1681,nazwiska-osob-zyjacych-wystepujace-w-rejestrze-pesel (last accessed on 07/06/2023).

Neue Namen für polnische Arbeitsmigranten. Aus Majcrzak wird Mayer, in: Kulturbetrieb Mülheim an der Ruhr (Publ.): Das Gesicht der Migration in Mühlheim an der Ruhr zeigen, 16/08/2010, URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20170812103224/https://www.muelheim-ruhr.de/cms/neue_namen_fuer_polnische_arbeitsmigranten_aus_majcrzak_wird_mayer.html (last accessed on 07/06/2023).

Polen in Deutschland, in: Wikipedia, 20/03/2023, URL: https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Polen_in_Deutschland&oldid=232009538 (last accessed on 07/06/2023).

Pomorski Urząd Wojewódzki w Gdańsku (Publ.): Najpopularniejsze nazwiska w Polsce. Sprawdź swoje, in: gdansk.uw.gov.pl, 05/02/2020, URL: https://www.gdansk.uw.gov.pl/4064-najpopularniejsze-nazwiska-w-polsce-sprawdz-swoje (last accessed on 07/06/2023).

Schiller, Christiane/ Bichlmeier, Harald: Suffix -ski, in: Digitales Familiennamenwörterbuch Deutschlands (DFD): Namenforschung.net, 15/05/2023, URL: http://www.namenforschung.net/id/thema/28/1 (last accessed on 07/06/2023).

Skrabania, David: Die Ruhrpolen, in: Porta Polonica, May 2018, URL: https://www.porta-polonica.de/de/atlas-der-erinnerungsorte/die-ruhrpolen (last accessed on 14/06/2023).

Vensky, Hellmuth: Schimanskis Väter, in: ZEIT ONLINE, 02/03/2010, URL: https://www.zeit.de/wissen/geschichte/2010-02/ruhr-polen/komplettansicht (last accessed on 07/06/2023).

Directory: Deutsch/Namen/die häufigsten Nachnamen Deutschlands, in: Wiktionary, 08/02/2023, URL: https://de.wiktionary.org/wiki/Verzeichnis:Deutsch/Namen/die_h%C3%A4ufigsten_Nachnamen_Deutschlands (last accessed on 07/06/2023).