The Image of the Germans in Polish Literatureby Else LoeserDedicated to the memory of the ethnic researcher Dr. Kurt Lueck, Posen, in gratitude for his scientific research into the German ethnic national areas of Poland. FOREWORD  When
I was asked about a year and a half ago whether or not I would consider giving a
talk on the subject of Poland -- in view of the considerable interest in Poland
on the part of the German people and the extent of German assistance programmes
to that country -- I began to research the "Polish problem" in greater detail than
had hitherto been the case. It was not difficult for me to write recollections from
my own experience, extending as far back as my earliest childhood and school days,
while simultaneously discussing the findings of literature and history. At the request
of the listeners, a printed text of my first talk was prepared, followed, some time
later, by a further revised and expanded second edition, which has now been superceded
by a third. My
first talk was followed by many others. Many questions were raised and innumerable
letters received, expressing gratitude for my work of enlightenment, with the request
that I publish other information, unknown in Germany, which might contribute to
a more accurate appraisal of the Polish national character. I wish to comply with
that request on the part of interested readers by writing a second part on falsifications
of Polish history. The
enormous quantity of available materials made selection difficult; I had only intended
to write a brochure enabling the German reader to see and understand the development
of the Polish nation from its earliest Germanic racial origins to its chauvinistic
hatred of everything German. In so doing, I made plentiful use of documentation
prepared by scientific researchers and historians of an earlier era, as well as
of materials dating from more recent research. At
this point, I should like to thank all those who have written to me enclosing clippings,
etc. from the various news media, or who have alerted me to certain matters, thus
helping me to clarify the topic of a falsified historical past in relation to falsifications
of the present day. It
is not the case that the falsification process has come to an end. Quite the contrary:
it is now, as in the past, being given continued life not only by foreigners, but
by German writers and journalists, whether out of ignorance, carelessness, or deliberate
malice, we may not say. It is the fashion -- indeed, the fad -- to write about Poland,
since Poland is headline news in the world press; the subject must therefore be
dealt with. The following pages are intended to reveal another aspect of Poland:
the Poland of Polish literature, to which all Poles, and many Germans, make reference.
At
the immediate moment, for example, the Hoffman and Campe Publishing Company is offering
a large-format MERIAN book on glossy paper, advertised as follows: "POLAND
- a passion. Poland, the eternal. What kind of land is it, what kind of people?
... We know too little about the history of Poland, writes the author Karl Dedecius.
Yet Polish history is made especially clear to us precisely by Polish literature.
Polish history and literature complement each other perfectly, since Polish literature
has at all times been nationally and historically conscious, and therefore representative
of the Polish people. The selection of texts is unusual. Poetry and prose are presented
alongside historical documents and many journalistic texts. Bruno Barbey's photos
provide atmosphere, depicting everyday occurrences, unique qualities, and historical
events. Barbey's photographs reveal the Polish people and their surroundings with
unreserved sympathy." That
Polish literature was, and is, very nationalistic, is already well known. How historically
accurate it may be, has been discussed by someone more competent than the writer
discussed above. The second authority is the Pole, Prof. Markiewicz, head of the
Polish School Book Commission, who, speaking on German television, described the
kind of historical consciousness which is representative of the Polish people. His
statements are as follows: "We
should not forget that the historical consciousness of a people was, and still is,
influenced not so much by professional historians and their work, but rather --
and to a much greater degree -- by novelists and their works. I would like to remind
you of our great writers Adam Mickiewicz, particularly his two novels 'Drazyna',
and 'Konrad Wallenrod'; Henryk Sienkiwicz, whose novel 'The Knights' was filmed
a few years ago; and Boleslaw Prus, with his work entitled "The Watch Posts".
When
the publisher of the Merian Book says that we know too little about Polish history,
we can only agree with him. But he offers only an "unusual selection of texts",
and, in addition to historical and political documents, a number of more journalistic
writings and topics photographed with "unreserved sympathy". This means that the
reader can renounce all hope of learning the truth about Poland and its history.
I should like to provide some assistance in ameliorating this lack of knowledge
with regards to the works of the great Polish poets referred to by Prof. Markiewicz,
who were responsible for "forming the historical consciousness of the Polish people",
as Prof. Markiewicz expressly admits; but I fear that I will not concur with the
"passionate author", Karl Dedecius, and his 60 books on Poland -- which he would
like to expand to 100, according to page 37 of the "Darmstadter Echo" of 18 September
1982. The manner in which the writer's output is praised to the book purchaser is
highly peculiar. This clever fellow possesses an inimitable method of production,
described as follows: "Every
morning -- at least this is the impression he gives the reader -- he takes one,
two, three, Polish poems and translates them, much as another man might munch upon
one, two, three English muffins. For a mid-morning snack, he treats himself to a
couple of letters, which he translates; at noon, he relaxes with a few aphorisms,
which he translates; in the afternoon, he writes a little essay or two -- sometimes
short, sometimes long -- on translation work. In the evening, he attends a colloqium
on Polish literature, or holds a meeting or two with a few experts on Poland. One
may admire the quantity of work tossed off per annum by the 61-year old translator,
but the quality can only be wondered at. So far, he has written, translated, or
published approximately 60 books, testifying to his passion for Poland." I
shall not attempt to compete with this mass producer as regards sheer quantity;
but perhaps I can come closer where quality and truth about Poland are concerned.
His connections -- such as the Robert-Bosch Foundation -- are not availble to me,
but I hope to offer my readers a closer acquaintance with the Polish literature
mentioned by Prof. Markiewicz so as to provide them with a clearer image of the
land and people of Poland. There
is also a study group called "Poland Writings in the German Language", led by a
certain Udo Kuehn of Wiesbaden, of whom I wish to speak, since he has also attempted
to "fill the German information gap on Poland". According to the advertising blurb,
however, he is apparently attempting to do so in the interests of the Poles and
their country, rather than in German interests. The wares offered therein will therefore
rather resemble the merchandise purveyed by Prof. Markiewicz where the historical
consciousness of the Polish people is concerned, i.e., a product based on anything
but reality and truth. German interests cannot, however, be served by whitewashing
Polish literature and rendering it innocuous through deceptive translations, but
rather, solely and finally, through the truth. I therefore agree with all those
who say that the information gap on Poland must be filled, but please, let it not
be filled not by persons who know neither the land nor the people, who have no idea
of the conditions there, or who have only permitted themselves to be filled with
one-sided information from Poles, i.e, those who accept the Polish image of themselves.
Rather, I am in favour of permitting an expert with the highest qualications to
speak on the subject. My
compatriot from the German East, the ethnic and national researcher Dr. Kurt Lueck,
of Posen, provides information on the Polish national character and way of thinking
in his very extensive works "The Myth of the German in the Polish Tradition and
Literature", and "German Construction Forces in the Development of Poland". It is
regrettable that these works can only be consulted in the Eastern Studies Departments
of universities. They really belong in every German home, so that the unrealistic
delusion of a proud and noble Poland -- standing as high as the heavens above German
barbarism -- might finally be dispelled here in Germany, and facts be taken into
account. Kurt Lueck's research has done us a magnificent service through his sifting
of Polish literature; I wish to rescue that work from obscurity. It
is only natural for screams of "incitement to racial hatred" to be raised whenever
the coddled, pampered Polish child receives a scolding. In reply, let it be said
that I cite exclusively texts originating in Polish literature or history, that
is, admissions made by the Poles themselves, for which they alone are responsible.
To us Germans, it is more important -- in fact, a vital necessity -- to learn the
whole truth about the systematically engendered and pressure-packed Polish hatred
of everything German, i.e, that we recognize the extent and origins of Polish chauvinism,
as we ourselves experienced it in the 1920s and 30s, and are still experiencing
it today. Contemporary
research has dealt with the question of the Eastern German settlement areas with
typically German thoroughness, and in so doing it has reached findings which can
no longer be thoughtlessly ignored. Even the Poles will be compelled to recognize
these truths, if genuine reconcilation between both peoples is to become a reality.
The
history of the settlement of an area is determinative for all time. Culture is not
created by force or by lies, but only by intellectual work on the part of the elite
of a people. Rights and ownership arise only by reason of the achievements of a
people brought into fullness in a geographical area. There is no culture of weapons,
no culture of lies. Only history provides an insight into the identity of the real
founders of an ethnic culture. I
described the origins of the Polish nationality in my previous text, "Falsifications
of Polish History", in which I limited myself to the briefest possible discussion.
Here again, I must return to the beginnings of Polish historical writings in the
briefest manner possible. All
Polish history books, indeed all Polish literature, including the so-called "Letter
of Reconciliation" from the Polish bishops Stefan Wyszynski and Karol Woytyla to
the German bishops in 1956, refer to Miseszko I as the "first Polish Duke", who
took the Holy Sacrament of baptism in the year 966. Of
course, at the same time, this constitutes proof that no Polish empire existed in
966, since Miezszko was the "first"; furthermore, he was not a Pole, but rather,
a Norman named "Dago-Mesico", from the Norwegian family line of the Daglingers,
who migrated into lands settled by the Germans on the Weichsel and Warthe. His baptism
proves nothing at all -- certainly not that he was a Pole, or that he ever became
a Pole: it only proves that Dago accepted Christianity. There are no records --
as scholars confirm today -- which ever mention -- even once -- a people bearing
the name "Poles" or "Slavs" The
falsifiers of history, who came along very much later, were simple men who lived
mostly for the present, as is the case at all times. They lacked experience in falsification,
and failed to realize that their falsifications would be recognized as such, even
centuries later. They could hardly imagine that research into the truth would ever
begin, even after a thousand years. They
falsified for the present and the immediate future; they encouraged belief for the
present, and they knew how to compel this belief, just as they had known how to
compel baptism at an earlier time. Baptism or death -- thus was the conversion to
Christianity achieved. The new "Polish" language, which was only invented much later,
could hardly be imposed by force in the same way, since nobody would have understood
it. The transformation of an entire people into a previously non-existent ethnic
group could hardly occur overnight; long periods of time were required for this
purpose, as well as stubborn, deliberately conscious work. First to be effaced was
human memory, relegated to oblivion. The re-writing of the cloister chronicles dating
back to the year 966 -- the time of the first Christian baptism in the area -- was
only completed at the expense of great time and effort. It was, after all, necessary
to take the name of every well-known person, every village, every ordinary object,
and give it a new name, while concealing one's objective. Artificial
languages are not as difficult to devise or as unusual as one might at first imagine.
Synthtetic languages are created with specific objectives and propagated in books
and groups even today, such as Esperanto, for example. * ------------------------------------------------------------ * ------------------------------------------------------------ Today,
we are in a position to see how our own experience of the very recent past is falsified
on a daily basis. Since 1945, the German past -- not just the National Socialist
period but even the Weimar Republic and the Empire of the Kaisers -- has been re-written
according to the requirements of the victors and the ruling hierarchy. The newspapers
are simply not allowed to say how it really was. And the further removed we become
from personal experience, the more susceptible we become to a history bespattered
with lies and filth; all efforts to clear our name are either ignored or subject
to legal prosecution. Yet this is the case in an "enlightened age", a "democratic
state", a "state of law". The same certainly cannot be said of the period during
which the Polish falsifications were devised. The invention of the "new" Polish
artificial language by the German bishop Wolf Gottlobonis -- later name-changed
into Wincent Kadlubek -- began in 1218, at the cloister of Klein-Morimund, near
Cracow. Just as, today, all sorts of attempts are made, with recourse to every conceivable
variety of manipulation, to turn the German people into a race of mongrels, doomed
to renounce their traditions and their ability to recall, to make them easier to
rule and to exploit, in the same manner, an effort was begun to dissolve the connections
between the peoples of the Eastern German settlement areas and their Germanic origins.
The new language was also given a new past. For simplicity's sake, the date of the
origins of the Polish state was deemed to coincide with the first Christian baptism.
For
that particular period of history, this may have been enough: ordinary people had
no idea what the falsifiers were getting up to in their ecclestiastical and municipal
chronicles. If a "Polish people" really existed from a racial point of view, then
it must have fallen down out of the sky, without any racial ancestors. A Polish
miracle without parallel. Ordinary
people didn't accept the new artificial language for a long time. It took almost
300 years for a so-called Polish conversational language to arise from the glagolitic
church Latin of the monks. The city of Cracow, which according to the statements
of Polish historians remained German until the late 15th century, held out the longest.
But as it was impossible to cause the German chronicles to disappear, they continue
to provide mute evidence, even today. That
the German inhabitants of the city Cracow resisted for so long, is food for thought.
It cannot have been due to their religious belief, since all men were of the same
faith. But the seat of the bishop falsifier Kadlubek, who would today be called
a "collaborateur", was located in the city of Cracow. We may presume that the reason
why a knowledge of the altered form of the language and ethnic identity of the people
was retained for so long, was precisely because people had acquired a first awareness
of the basic objective. Their ideological teachings obviously aroused resistance,
which lasted until the final eradication of tradition, as people fell gradually
victim to compulsion. The
manner in which Germans are transformed into Poles is described very exactly on
pages 240-276 ff. of "Ostgermanien" by Franz Wolff. I know from personal experience
how German names became Polish, how German names were changed in the 1920s and 30s,
how personal identity documents were issued bearing Polish names only. Thus, Else
became Elzbieta; Eugen became Eugeniusz; Albert or Albrecht became Wojciech; Nickolaus
became Mikolaj; Lorenz became Wawrzyniak; Mathias became Maciej. And if there wasn't
any translation for a name -- Hildegard, for example -- then the person was simply
called Elzbieta, i.e., Elizabeth. Protests were a waste of time. The Nuremberg sculptor
Veit Stoss became "Wit Stwosz". The German, Nikolaus Kopernikus, from Thorn, became
"Mikolaj Kopernik". The last two could hardly protest, since they had already been
dead for centuries. Yet top-ranking officials of the Polish Catholic Church, Cardinals
Wyszynski and Wojtyla, in their so-called "Letter of Reconciliation" in 1965, claimed
that the Germans were permitted to retain their names, that nothing was taken from
them. How credible, then, are the other statements made by the same men in their
attempt to excuse themselves? Do the stones of Breslau really "speak Polish", as
the Primate Cardinal Wyszynski claimed in Breslau Cathedral? If the Cardinal Primate
personally lies in solemn ceremonies in the Cathedral, then what can one expect
from his colleagues in the education of a people? Ordinary people are not responsible
for the lies contained in Polish history -- the Polish clergy, the intellectuals,
the writers, and the press are responsible. They are the educators of the people,
as everywhere in the world. When these educators are dishonest and filled with hate,
then the people will be, too. The seeds sown by chauvinistic educators produce cruel
fruit. I should like to describe this "seed" to the German reader. In my view, this
is absolutely necessary, because only a recognition of the causes can lead to a
remediation of the effects. Light must be shed one of the most shameful chapters
in Polish history. In
his incomparably exhaustive work, Dr. Kurt Lueck of Posen has researched and established
the traditional conceptions of the Polish people from German traditions. In the
introduction to his "Myth of the German in Polish Popular Traditions and Literature",
he mentions the peculiarly Polish manner of viewing identical matters in a different
light; for example, the "winning" of the originally German -- but later Western
Slavonic -- areas between the Oder and the Elbe by Boleslaus the Brave is called
a "State programme" by Polish historians, who, in the same breath, call it "lust
for plunder" when the same areas are settled by the German Empire. These contradictory
value judgments on all aspects of national and popular life, to their own advantage
and according to the needs of the moment, were, and still are, the mainspring of
Polish actions and the Polish character. Lueck
then continues: "The
sociological roots of the Polish anti-German hatred and antipathy may be illustrated
by a few additional examples. The religious division was decisive. The abyss which
first separated Christian Germans from pagan Poles in the early Middle Ages was
not overcome without great pressure upon converts. As a result of paganism's defensive
anti-Christian attitudes, the new religion was called "the German Faith". But even
the still unified world of the Western churches was not free from disputes. In 1248,
for the first time, we hear bitter complaints from the Poles regarding foreign colonists
who failed to keep the fasts as strictly as themselves; or, later, of serious conflicts
within the nationally mixed clergy itself over benefices, rights, and the language
of sermonizing and educational work. Stubbornly, but finally in vain, the German
bourgeousie of the end of the 15th and 16th centuries in Cracow, Lemberg, Krossen,
and Weislok, in Bietsch and other localities struggled to retain their mother tongue
in religious services. But nothing brought religious temperaments to a boil with
greater heat than the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. Once again, the Polish
people called the faith of which they wished to know nothing, "the German Faith".
As in the Middle Ages, awakening nationalism implied that the struggle against Lutheranism
was now to became the chief source for a renewal of Polish Catholicism. Hatred of
dissidents grew to a mass psychosis, exploding in the numerous persecutions of Protestants
over the centuries which have cast their dark shadow over the history of the country.
Protestantism is described in Polish writings, even today, as the 'eternal enemy
of Poland'". This
is the key to all later developments in Poland. It can hardly be assumed that the
new converts complained so bitterly of the failure of old believers to keep fasts
-- believers who had been invited into the area from the German Empire by Polish
counts and priests to develop the land -- as to be the cause of the ensuing conflicts.
Rather, the serious conflicts among the nationally mixed clergy over benefices,
rights, and the language of sermonizing and educational work sowed the initial seeds
of the hatred which was to become so pervasive among the common people of later
times. There are so many indications of this clerical hatred that it is impossible
to mention them all. The following is therefore a mere selection from Kurt Lueck's
compendium: Page
34: "From the 17th century, there are so many such statements that we can only list
a few of them: 'The
Bishop Pawel Piasecki explains in one of his chronicles: 'The Poles, and all the
Slavic peoples, have always felt a national abhorrence of everything that smelt
of Germany. Anything that originated in Germany, regardless of value, everything
except the works of mechanics, is considered pernicious, and is rejected with suspicion.'
Or: 'The name of the Germans is hateful to the Poles, inherently arousing an inexorable
Slavic tribal hatred in their hearts'. Piasecki viewed the Reformation as the mortal
enemy, calling it the 'German poison', which the Poles were to reject at all costs."
Page
84: "The Dominican Fabian Birkowski writes: 'Your corrupt religion arose through
false prophets, and was created by the Devil, who wanted to be equal to God... Your
leader is the Angel of Hell, that is, the Devil'". Page
269: "The Gneneser Archbishop, Jakob Swinka, around the turn of the 13th century,
habitually called the Germans 'dog's heads'. Thus he said of a bishop at Brixen
that he would have been an excellent preacher, had he not been a 'dog's head' and
a German." The
term "dog's head" is also referred to in the "Koenigsaaler Chronicle". King Wenzel
is said to have been displeased by the expression, his reply being noted in the
chronicle: 'He who spake thus, showed that he possessed a worse tongue than a dog;
since a dog's tongue promotes healing, while the tongue of the speaker, on the contrary,
injects the poison of slander.'" This
"poison of slander", originally invented and expressed by an Archbishop, has been
passed down for centuries. Not only has this poison passed into the language of
the people, vilifying the Germans in every manner possible, but "aesthetic" and
"spiritual" writings, even paintings, have used this disgusting manner of expression.
The frequency of vilification, the constant recurrence of insults in all possible
contexts and variations, reveals a deliberate intent and, finally, a popular conviction
that there had to be a justification for such slander, or else literature and even
the clergy would not have produced it. The term "dog" is considered by Poles to
be the worst insult applicable to anyone. Polish collections of popular sayings
include the following: "Co
Niemiec, to pies" Whoever
is a German, is a dog. "Zdechly
Niemiec, zdechly pies, mala to roznica jest" A
dead German is a dead dog, there's not much difference. "A
wy Niemcy nic nie wiecie, wasza mowa to psie wycie. W naszej wsi, jak psy zawyly,
wsystkich Szwabow diabli wzieli." And
you Germans don't know anything, your language is pure dogs' barking. When the dogs
howled in the villages, the devils took away all the Germans. For
the corresponding results in the plastic arts, one need only mention a painting
by W. Brotanski: "Psie Pole pod Wroclawem", i.e.,"Dog's Field by Breslau", in relation
to which Kurt Lueck remarks: "The
battle after which the bodies of the German knights were eaten by dogs before the
very eyes of the victorious Polish King Boleslaus 'Crooked Mouth', is well known
never to have taken place; rather it is an invention. Brotanski's painting is distributed
as an 'art postcard' by the 'Exposition of Polish painters in Cracow', entitled,
in Polish: "Dogs Field in Breslau. Boleslaus 'Crooked Mouth' on the Battlefield
after the Glorious Victory over Henry V, the German Emperor, in 1109". We wonder
whether it ever dawns upon the Polish admirers of this work -- as it does to us
-- if they were to reflect a bit, with how little dignity, how tastelessly, a Polish
king is depicted here? What it is supposed to prove, if Boleslaus allowed the corpses
of enemy knights to be eaten by dogs? It is certainly no proof of historical greatness.
We Germans would never distribute such postcards; we would be too ashamed of them."
Let
us consider a few more examples of Polish "literary" writings. Even their greatest
and best-known novelists, such as Adam Mikiewicz and Henryk Sienkeiwicz, use these
insulting terms. Yet it is precisely in reference to them that Professor Markiewicz
says, in his discussion of the film "Scars": "We
should not forget that the historical consciousness of a people was, and still is,
influenced not so much by professional historians and their work, but rather --
and to a much greater degree -- by novelists and their works. I would like to remind
you of our great writers Adam Mickiewicz, particularly his two novels 'Drazyna',
and 'Konrad Wallenrod'; Henryk Sienkiwicz, whose novel 'The Knights' was filmed
a few years ago; and Boleslaw Prus, with his work entitled "The Watch Posts".
Now,
let us look at Lueck for Adam Mickiewicz's statements on the Teutonic Knights Henryk
Sienkiewicz uses the insult "scum of dogs" several times in his novel "Krzyzacy"
(the Knights). Lueck
discusses several other writers who speak of Germans as "scum of dogs", "Saxon vile
dogs", "bloody German dogs", "rabid German dogs", "barking German dogs", etc.
The
very well known Polish writer W. Reymont, in his peasant novel "Chlopi", speaks
of "dog heretics" and "dog rabble". Jan
Kochanowski, in "Proporzec" (1569) calls the Order of the Teutonic Knights "pies
niepocigniony" -- "unexcelled dogs". R.W.
Berwinski, in "Powiesci Wielko-Polskie" (Tales of Greater Poland) 1844, speaks of
"the Germans, the damned race of dogs." Jozef
Szujski, in his play "Krolowa Jadwiga" (Queen Hedwig) (1866), act II, scene 2, says:
"A Teutonic dog sank down from his horse." Adolf
Dygasinski, in his novel "Demon" (1866), says: "psy szwabscie "German dogs", and,
at another point, exclaims, "and who brought you to Poland, you dogs?" K.
Przerwa-Tetmajer, in his novel "Nefzowkie", speaks of a German manufacturer who
is called "rudy pies" -- "red haired dog" -- by his Polish workermen. Lucjan
Rydel -- Polonized form of the German name Riedel -- in "Jency" (The Prisoners),
speaks of "the German enemy dogs". Maria
Konopnicka, in "Pan Balcer w Brazyliji", speaks of "the German packs of dogs".
Jadwiga
Luszczweska, in "Panienka z Obienka" (3rd edition, 1927, p. 17), says "co pol Niemiec
i pies luter" -- "half a German is also half a Lutheran dog". J.
Weyssenhoff's "Woz Drzymaly", in which a German official is called "brother to the
dogs" was compulsory reading in German classical secondary schools (for example,
in Posen). In
Gustow Morcinek's novel "Wyrabany Chodnik" (1931, volume 1, p. 309, 310, 312), which
won a prize in 1931 and was republished in 1936, a dog with the name "Bismarck"
appears several times. As
we shall see, it is not just abstract theory when Polish writers speak and write
of "bloody German dogs". The first month of the war proved that, in September 1939.
According to Lueck, p. 271: "the Poles threw dead dogs into many of the graves of
murdered ethnic Germans. Near Neustadt in West Prussia, the Poles cut open a captured
German Luftwaffe officer's abdomen, rippped out his intestines, and packed a dead
dog inside. This report has been reliably established." Where
is the dignity of a people which can sink so low? They may believe themselves to
be expressing hatred for their neighbour, but in reality they are only revealing
their own soul. Do they think it is a sign of culture when German-speaking human
beings are referred to as "tam sczczekaja po neimiecku" -- "there, they're barking
German"? Or when a dog is called by the name of a great German statesman, or is
called "Prusak", "Krzyzak", "Szwab", or "Niemiec"? This lack of dignity is neither
a unique phenomenon nor a momentary aberration. It is a systematic denigration of
a neighbouring people, with the unrelenting object of education in hatred and contempt.
It
is precisely this which reveals the Polish lack of that culture which they claim
to possess in such great measure. Culture is not expressed by the spewing forth
of hatred, insults, lies, and distortions in all aspects of life. On the contrary,
such actions simply express a painful inferiority complex festering in the soul
of the writer or painter. Painting has not been used just occasionally to make the
Germans appear contemptible: it has been used systematically in this education in
hatred. Lueck reproduces illustrations of a variety of paintings, for example, "Zamordowanie
Przemyslawa w Rogoznie przez Margrabiow brandenburskich" (1296). ("The Murder of
Premeyslaus in Rogasen by the Count of Brandenburg"). This is the title of a colour
postcard reproduction of a painting by Jan Matejko, published by the "Exposition
of Polish Painters in Cracow". The painting shows one the murderers with a dagger
clutched between his teeth. His helmet bears the Black Eagle of Brandenburg. In
reality, this is just another atrocity legend. Premyslaus -- as serious Polish historians
have established -- was killed by Polish irregulars. Even the insinuation of the
Polish text -- irresponsibly presented as fact -- that the Brandenburgers were the
instigators, lacks convincing evidence. It is part of the psychosis of border dwellers
to blame their neighbours for wind, rain, illness, and accidents. Art and science
should be freed from this psychosis." Another
painting in the service of hatred is "Lowy na ludzi" ("Manhunt"), by Wojciech Kossak.
The picture depicts flaming huts and fleeing peasants, while Teutonic Knights discharge
firearms from horseback. Regarding
this painting, Lueck remarks: "Polish
painting never depicts Teutonic Knights except as burning villages, ravishing women,
and butchering the male population. The comments of a POLISH HISTORIAN -- Tadeusz
Ladenberger -- regarding this painting, should also be quoted: 'Study
has convinced us that two factors have had a decisive influence on the distribution
of population in Poland: the soil, and German colonization. In the north, the pioneers
of this movement were the Teutonic Knights. The Order succeeded, over a 100 year-period,
in establishing populous cities and villages in the region of Chelm -- instead of
a thinly populated wilderness -- and in making the land productive. A century was
all it took to give this region -- with by no means the best soil -- mostly clay
-- the highest population density in Poland.'" The
Poles have repaid this achievement of the Teutonic Knights with libels and hatred,
as in the painting by Wojciech Kossak, "Napad Kryzapkow" -- "The Attack of the Knights".
The
scene shows a Polish village population being murdered. The settlement is being
set on fire, while a young girl is ravished despite the pleadings of her mother.
This
painting was sold in both black and white and colour reproduction as an "art post
card" in every stationery shop in Poland, and was published by the "Exposition of
Polish Painters in Cracow". The great masses of the Polish people had no idea that
this was just a shameless piece of atrocity propaganda." On
Polish songs, Lueck writes: "Even
'History in the Songs of the Polish People' is not characterized by love for truth.
Sobieski's forward movement to Vienna (1683) has long been celebrated by Polish
tradition. The songs tell how the city was conquered by the Turks, the houses of
worship desecrated, the monks and nuns tortured and killed. Parts of the song consist
of confused phrases taken from a song about Turkish battles in the vicinity of Podolisch-Kamentz.
But the verses fit the legend of Polish assistance and German ingratitude, for example:
'The Poles beat the Turks at Vienna, but the German thieves did nothing, and didn't
even say "'thank you"'. Even today, whenever someone generously sets off on a thankless
errand, he is warned 'it's worth about as much as fighting for Vienna.'" Here
I must recall Brigette Pohl's description, published in the "Deutsche Wochen Zeitung"
no. 9 of 2 March 1979, of the noble Polish chronicle of Jan Sobieski and his movement
to Vienna. It is worth recalling, even if only in excerpts, since it shows why the
Poles always blame the Germans in connection with the battles against the Turks
at Vienna, saying "the thieves didn't even say 'thank you'". The Poles always reveal
their own character defects in attempting to accuse the Germans. The
"brave Polish king" remained behind with his comrades, far removed from the blood
of battle at all times, at a safe distance from the battlefield. He knew just where
to hide -- in the Vienna woods, at Dreimarkstein, where no Turk was to be seen or
could even be expected for miles around... Far
behind the front line, the noble Sobieski was right up front: on Bald Mountain,
ministering to the Papal nuntio Marco D'Aviano and reading Mass. Then he once again
withdrew, leaving it to the Germans to defeat the Turks. He must have been about
as peace-loving as the Soviet Union today. Again and again, the Germans attempted
to pursuade the Polish nobleman to move forward to intervene. But in vain. He had
letters to write to his noble wife, who wanted to know how much loot he would bring
back. He replied that he and his son Jakob would quite certain to run no risk of
danger. This
was while the Germans fought and died in fierce combats around Heiligenstadt, in
Nussdorf, and Grinzing. The generals were wounded, the brothers Moritz of Duke Croy
fell at Nudsdorf, the Duke himself was severely wounded. Prince Eugene, later to
become famous, won his first laurels here, in the service of Germany; none spared
himself. Streams of blood flowed over the famous wine region of Grinzing. Only the
Poles held back, "biding their time... But
when they considered the battle safely won, oh, then they broke cover, since of
course they wanted to be the first to divide the spoils. But they failed to reckon
with the Pascha of Ofen, Ibrahim, who broke forth upon the Poles at the edge of
the city of Dornbach, so that the Poles, crying for help -- this is reported by
the chronlicler Diani, who is very well disposed towards Sobieski -- ran away in
large numbers. Count Ludwig of Baden then attacked with two of his Imperial dragoon
regiments, and succeeded in rolling back the Turkish line of battle. Duke Charles
of Lorraine gained the victory by undertaking a daring wheeling movement with doubling
and flanking movements. The road to the surrounded city of Vienna now lay open.
The chronicler reports: "Our cavalry was too heavy to keep on their Thus
the legend of "the brave King Sobieski" and his equally brave army is disproven
on the basis of historical fact. There
are a few Polish historians and writers who recognize the constructive achievements
of the Germans, and have openly confirmed it. But the overwhelming majority dispute
everything, twisting even the arduous task of clearing the land and making it arable
into its very opposite: they call it "plundering the Polish peasant". At this point,
I would like to include a few remarks by Polish scholars as quoted by Kurt Lueck
in his extensive work "German Construction Work in the Development of Poland". The
following comments were made by one of the most respected Polish scholars of his
time, Alexander Brueckner (despite his German name, he considered himself ethnically
Polish), Professor at the University of Berlin until WWII: "German
settlement, especially in the cities, was beneficial to both sides. The Germans
provided the standard of living, the Poles provided order. The role of the cities
was truly educational. The two peoples learned to respect each other; to live together;
to respect the law; The
history of German immigration in Poland is known to most people only in its general
outlines. In my first publication, "Poland and Falsifications of History", I stated
that the regions of Weichsel and Warthe at the time of the introduction of Christianity
were not even inhabited by Poles, and that the newly founded cloisters were forced
to recruit German peasants and artisans from the German Reich. In this connection,
Professor Grabski of the University of Warsaw writes as follows (p. 54): "The
cloisters founded by the Germans in Poland began to draw emigrants from Germany,
Flanders, and other areas, as early as the 12th century, in order to achieve more
efficient land management. Polish peasants were very unreliable as settlers."
The
Pole Dabrowski described the activity of German farmers in the following manner:
"The
Germans lived in closed cities and open villages, in village farmhouses and manors,
occupying themselves with artisanship, trade, farming, soldiering, and the word
of God. Since they were hardworking, peaceful and economical, they were a socially
creative element representing a model for the domestic population." The
Poles always brag that Casimir the Great took over a "wooden Poland", and left it
a "Poland made of stone". Lueck gives the Polish historian Bruecker an opportunity
to express himself in the following terms (p. 23): "It
was not Casimir the Great who changed 'wooden Poland' into a 'Poland of masonry
and stone': it was the cities that accomplished this. There was a tremendous difference
between the German Cracow of 1300 and the Bishop's Cracow of 1200 -- and this applies
not just to Cracow, but to every other city." The
Pole Czeckanowski confirms German research on "In
the rise of our city population, German immigrants played a very great role. Their
descendants today form part of the highest strata of the Polish patriciandom."
Another
Polish historian has also concerned himself with the significance of the German
city founders and citizens; he is the very respected and serious cultural historian
Ptasnik (p. 131). "It
is uncomfortable to write about the history of trade and professions in Poland,
and even sadder to describe the magnificent men who rendered service in this connection.
Certainly, there was Polish trade, in the sense that it took place on Polish soil,
importing goods from abroad, selling them to the Polish population, and exporting
domestic raw products to foreign countries. But who were the merchants and tradesmen,
who carried on the trade? Germans mostly -- Poles only came along at the end."
What
Ptasnik (p. 22) as well as Grodecki (p. 23) were compelled to admit with regards
to earlier times also applies, with some reservations, to Poland during the 17th
century. Ptasnik writes: "Insofar
as it applies to earlier times, that is, around the 13th and 14th centuries, those
who immigrated into the newly founded cities were primarily German population groups;
at least, the strata that gave the city its national character, namely, the tradesmen
and artisans, were German. The name of the citizens who took part in city government,
whose names are recorded in the archives even today, testify expressly to this fact."
Another
Polish testimony to the value of German work of construction is given by Sokolowski
(p. 136): "Honour
must be paid to these careful, assiduous, hardworking, and energetic descendants
who, though they came from foreign lands, acquired a liking for their new homeland,
were loyal to their King and city; who brought culture to the rough soil of our
earth, uniting us with the world of the West and sealing our link to Latin culture.
In the tops of the Cracow towers, in the bastions surrounding the city, in the construction
of houses, in commercial and art objects, in everything that is dear to us, everything
which forms the pride of our city, we may perceive traces of the influence of the
Franks, which, together with the influence of the Italian Renaissance, created the
Golden Age of our history." On
page 330 of his work "German Construction Work in the Development of Poland", Lueck
quotes the Pole Tadeusz Smarzewski, in the agricultural newspaper "Kraj" in January
1901: "...Only those who are unaquainted with history due to the present circumstances
of nationalities in the Prussian part of the territory could be depressed by this
picture In
like manner, an equally, extraordinarily positive view of the Germans and the value
of their construction work, published in the "Gazeta Polska" in 1901, is quoted
by Lueck on pages 451-2. It confirms that not all Poles have adopted the so-called
"traditional hostility" as the sole basis of their dealings with Germany: many excellent
historians have shown a dedication to the truth, and have also attempted to do justice
to the truth. But they were the minority, and are ignored by their ill-willed brethren.
Here is the translation of a note published in the Polish original text of Prus-Glowacki:
"We
always had the best possible relations with the German people. From them, we acquired
the Gothic style in building, wood cutting, numerous mechanical devices, vessels,
and tools, a great deal of scientific knowledge, trades and textiles, trade, many
customs, and many forms of organization... We have no fear of the truth: to this
noble people we owe the greater part of our civilization." These
Poles have done their fatherland a greater service than those who, dripping with
envy and hatred caused by their feelings of inferiority, describe the Germans as
the progeny of Hell. The German Polish border was at peace for more than 300 years.
During
this period, the Germans achieved incomparable feats of culture which benefitted
the country. Of course, they didn't do so for the country's sake alone; they did
it for their own well-being as well -- it could hardly be otherwise -- but the greatest
beneficiary was the country itself. Allegations to the contrary notwithstanding,
the Germans did not engage in compulsory "Germanization"; on the contrary, they
were often forced to resist an extremely violent "Polonization". They were compelled
to defend themselves against the forced assimilation of German Catholics as Poles.
The excessively emotional, egotistical Poles only acknowledge measures taken in
their favour; they are not objective. The Poles always consider their "Polonization"
programmes to be justified, no matter how violent they may be; measures taken by
others in self-defence, on the other hand, are considered an injustice committed
against themselves. At
this point, I should like to reproduce part of a history by a German writer which
is relevant to the Pole Czckanowski's remark that the descendants of German immigrants
formed part of the highest strata of Polish patriciandom. The information is derived
from an East Prussian family chronicle, which we owe to a fortunate accident. It
was written after WWII in book form as the story of the history of a distinguished
family, from which the author was descended. The book is entitled "Names None Dare
to Mention", and the author is Marion Graf Doenhoff. At the beginning, we learn
how the Countess Doenhoff came to occupy herself with the history of her family,
which had not interested her when she was younger. Upon concluding her studies at
Basel, the professor assigned her the dissertation topic of "The Rise of the Landed
Estates of the Doenhoffs in East Prussia". She agreed to the topic, after some initial
hesitation, and got down to work. In so doing, she had to consult many cubic metres
of official documents and private papers, which she had to sort, label, catalogue,
and classify. After 12 months of preparatory work, she was finally ready to begin
her dissertation. This
family chronicle is extraordinarily interesting: it is probably the most revealing
chronicle in existence of over 700 years of German history in East Prussia. The
Doenhoff family left the Ruhr in the 13th century, and emigrated to the East. They
settled first in Livonia, and finally in East Prussia. The oldest available document
dates back to 1379, and was signed by Grand Master Winrich von Knipprode, who bestowed
the title under the law of Chelm. According to this document, the Doenhoffs had
already been settled in the area for 100 years at that time. I do not wish to dwell
on the descriptions of the expansion of the landed property, which are of no interest
here, but rather, on the parallels to the Pole Czekanowski's remark -- that the
descendants of German immigrants formed part of the highest strata of Polish patriciandom.
The Doenhoffs contributed a great many state officials and advisors to kings, both
German and Polish. The author mentions a Doenhoff who was a representative at the
Brandenburger court in the 17th century, and who founded a Polish line. This is
a perfect example of the manner in which ethnic Germans became Poles. Because the
Polish king needed a representative at the Brandenburg court, the honour was offered
to a descendant of the most highly respected family. Since German was the "lingua
franca" at all European princes's courts, * the linguistic qualification was decisive
in itself. Did this emissary of a Polish king then become a Pole solely by virtue
of his office? The Poles are supposed to be Slavs. Did Count Doenhoff become a Slav,
and found a Polish Slavic family? Such cases exist by the hundreds of thousands,
beginning with the monk Wolf Gottlobonis, who later became bishop "Wincent Kadlubek",
and who has remained so to the present day. The only difference was that the monk
adopted a Polonized name, while Count Doenhoff retained his German name, which makes
it easier for us to establish his German origins. Neither was a Slav; nor were the
hundreds of thousands -- even millions -- of Germans who emigrated to the East during
the same period, cleared the land, and made it arable. The
Doenhoff family chronicle also contains another interesting piece of information:
the grandmother of the Polish king Stanislav Lezczynski was also a Doenhoff! The
question now arises: how "Slavic" was this Polish king? Perhaps they will find someone
to research the Leszczynski family tree, so as to discover the origins of their
family name. Nor was Kadlubek born under that name in Poland. And according to legend,
the name Pilsudzki -- which is unique in Poland -- allegedly stems from the German
name "Pils" or "Pilz". It is generally well known that Pilsudzki originated in Lithuania,
was Calvinistic in religion, and that his first marriage was consecrated in the
Evangelical Church near Bialystok. His second marriage was to a Jewess atheist;
he only converted to Roman Catholicism after becoming Polish head of state. This
is not a legend, but simple fact. Was he Slavic in origin, or just possibly a German
named Pilz? After all, the names Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, Tito, and even Willy Brandt,
are not real names either, but pseudonyms. But
back to the Doenhoff family chronicle, which reveals still another important piece
of information. In relation to the allegedly "originally Slavic" area of East Prussia,
the Countess, based on her documentation, remarks as follows: "Since
we are dealing with errors at this point, reference may be made to another inexact
allegation: East Prussia was never originally Slavic territory, into which the Germans
penetrated as conquerors; rather, the Slavs appeared quite late on the Weichsel
and Oder, no earlier than around the 9th century A.D. Germans had already inhabited
the area for 1500 years. As early as 1000 B.C., the Goths inhabited the mouth of
the Weichsel, and remained in the area... At the time of the birth of Christ, East
and West Prussia were both inhabited by Goths, and the region of Posen was inhabited
by Burgundians." There
were, therefore, no "original Slavic areas" on the Weichsel, Warthe, Oder, and Pregel.
And when the "Slavs" allegedly "appeared", suddenly in the 9th century, they must
have fallen down out of the sky, since they have been unable to prove any other
origins. * ------------------------------------------------------------ * ------------------------------------------------------------ Today
we know that the concept "Slav" is not characteristic of a race or of racial origins,
but was the invention of vain scholars, manipulated by a hateful clergy against
German power and greatness. ------------------------------------------------------------ * ------------------------------------------------------------ The
term "Slav" arose in the 18th century through the German theologist August Shloezer
(1738-1809), in Russian service, who, to please his employer, the Czar, as a researcher
of Russian history and linguistic sciences at St. Petersburg, systematized his research
on glagolitic church Latin and invented the word "Slav". The basis for the word
was the designation "Sclavi" in the ancient church Latin of the monks, which, however,
meant "servant, pagan, heathen". The term is used in all ancient chronicles to refer
to any heathen not yet converted to Christianity. The
Poles, naturally, refuse to admit this. "Slavic" traditions are sacrosanct. The
present day also furnishes examples of what happens to people in Poland who undertake
research into authentic history. The Polish literatary historian, Jan Josef Lipski,
made the attempt: he was arrested and thrown into prison. His crime, in particular,
consisted of the following passage in his history of culture: "A
mass of false myths and concepts has arisen in the Polish mind regarding our historical
relations with the Germans, which, for the sake of truth and our own well-being,
must be cleansed of lies once and for all. False statements on one's own history
are a sickness in the soul of a nation, which, in particular, can only lead to hostility
to foreigners and national megalomania." And he adds: "Almost everyone in Poland
-- even the educated -- believes today that, after the Second World War, we moved
into an area which had been stolen from us by the Germans. We need only mention
Danzig and the Ermland, which were among the lands given to the First Republic under
the Second Peace of Thorn (1466), although both Danzig and the Emland were ethnically
German in the majority, then and until the end of WWII. The rest of East Prussia
was never Polish; the Germans did not take this area away from Poland, they took
it from the Prussians..." Elsewhere,
Lipski says: "After centuries of development of German culture, side by side with
Polish culture in Silesia (the overwhelmingly German city of Danzig) and the long
since exclusively German culture of West Pomerania, a rich heritage of architecture
and other works, in addition to German historical archive materials, was bequeathed
to us as the result of historical events. We are the trustees of this material for
all of humanity. We are therefore obliged to maintain these treasures in full awareness
that we are safeguarding a heritage of German culture for the future -- including
our future -- without lies, and without concealing the origin of this material.
People in Poland don't like to write about this, or to be reminded of our debt to
the Germans in terms of civilization and culture: our styles of roofing, brickwork,
our masons, printers, painters, sculptors, and hundreds of Polish words, are all
evidence of debt to our Western neighbour. "The
magnificent heritage in architecture and sculpture, paintings, and other works of
art and craftsmanship in Cracow and many other cities and villages of Poland, not
only during the middle ages, but to some extent even later, up to the end of the
19th century, was for the most part the work of the Germans, who settled here and
enrichened our culture. Almost every Pole knows about Veit Stoss. But not everybody
knows that he was an ethnic German (credit must be paid here to Polish scholarship,
because, in this case, definitive proof was adduced by the priest Boleslaw Przybyszewski;
many people imagine that he was a Pole, and are ready to assault those who contradict
them -- only specialists know the hundreds, nay, thousands, of first and last names
of creative Germans who have left indelible traces in our culture." Apart
from the fact that the Poles were not "bequeathed" any heritage, but, to the contrary,
committed land piracy, this paragraph from the pen of a Pole is a cultural act of
greatness for which its author was compelled to pay with his freedom; and not only
with his freedom, but with his health. The Polish press supplied proof of that in
its own reports. Just
like earlier Polish rulers, the present rulers of the Polish people do not wish
to hear any truth at all; they do not wish to admit that they lack a suitable national
identity to look back upon; they therefore invent their history in order to feel
like a people, at least for the present moment at any particular time. They believe
that they cannot permit themselves to hear the truth. Truth must therefore be subjugated
to a hotheaded nationalism which has long since deteriorated into chauvinism, to
make up through "style" that which it lacks in positive substance. This lack of
substance -- of which the Poles are ashamed, and which they attempt to conceal through
the camouflage of misappropriated German cultural accomplishments, has another,
hidden side, however. This is described by a Polish contemporary of the first partition
of Poland in 1772, born in Scheidemuehl, Stanislaw Staszic: "Before
my eyes stand five sixths of the Polish people. I see millions of unhappy creatures,
half-naked, covered with skins and raw cloths, disfigured by smoke and dirt, with
sullen eyes, short of breath, moody, degenerate, stupified: they feel little, think
little: one hardly perceives in them a rational soul. "They
look more like animals than human beings. Their usual fare is bread mixed with chaff;
the fourth part of the year, merely weeds. They drink water and brandy; they live
in earth huts or dwellings which are almost on a level with the earth; there, no
sun penetrates; smoke and vapours suffocate the people inside and often kill them
in childhood. Exhausted from the days work for their noble lords, the father of
the family sleeps together with his naked children on filthy straw, in the same
room with the cow with her calf, and the pig with her piglets." Such
was the reality of the Polish Republic of the Nobles, which is so famous today,
of which the claimant to the Polish royal crown, Stanislaw Leszczynski, at that
same time complained: "I
cannot remember without a shudder of horror the law according to which a nobleman
who killed a peasant was fined no more than 50 franks. This was the price at which
one purchased immunity from the force of law in our nation. Poland is the only country
in which all men are equal in having lost all their human rights." Today,
the Poles glorify the misery and suffering of the past, from which they only rose
with German help, vilifying and libelling precisely those German accomplishments
which enabled them to do so, although there is sufficient proof of both. The contemporary
witness, Staczic, has even been honoured by a monument in his birthplace Scheidemuehl,
as may be seen from the "Pommerschen Zeitung" of 24 July 1982 -- a monument to Polish
misery. The Poles are, in fact, well aware of the limitless misery of the people
who suffered under the degenerate and corrupt Republic of the Nobles, since a monument
exists, even today, to the writer who revealed the conditions of that epoch for
what they were, and set them down for posterity in writing. The quotation is taken
from the booklet "Germany and Poland 1772-1914", only 76 pages long, by Dr. Enno
Meyer, published by Ernst Klett Verlag, Stuttgart. At
the time of its partition in 1772, Poland was incapable of survival.* <* Translator's
note: The 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica calls Poland "a moribund state, existing
on sufferance simply because none was yet quite prepared to administer the coup
de grace... the folly, egotism, and selfishness of the Polish gentry, whose insane
dislike of all discipline, including even the salutary discipline of regular government,
converted Poland into something very like a primitive tribal community...". The
same description could be applied to almost any period of Polish history.> Without
the concern of the Prussian King Frederick the Great, who took over the old settlement
areas in a wretched condition, there would presumably have been no more Poles left
alive today. That is what the Poles refuse to admit in their megalomania and arrogance.
That is why every voice of reason in Poland is suppressed. That is the explanation
for the creation of a hate literature without parallel. Though national conflicts,
despite the invention of the artificial Polish language, were insignificant until
the end of the 18th century, a systematic buildup of hatred began with the invention
of the term "Slav". Responsibility for this rests, first of all, with the clergy:
this is shown by the endless number of Polish proverbs current among the lower classes,
crushed by the power of the priesthood. Kurt Lueck remarks as follows in volume
I page 111: "Polish
Messianism, which made Poland the Saviour of the World in the 19th century, was
an entire philosophical system. For centuries, the Poles considered it their mission
to form the bulwark of Christendom in the East. Even in the early Middle Ages, the
Holy Stanislaw Cult contributed considerably to bringing about an awakening of Polish
national feeling in the struggle against their German neighbour. And God's preferential
support to Poland is already clearly visible in the chronicle of Vincenz Cadlubko
(Kadlubek). "The
superstitious beliefs of the Polish peasant, contain, of course, neither philosophical
systems, nor concepts of a mission. The peasant is simply convinced that, in Heaven
and around the Pope, the only language ever spoken is Polish... "Conflicts
of the following variety break out on the ethnic front on a daily basis. An old
German says to a little old Polish grandmother from Gutowo near Wreschen (Warthegau):
'Yes, soon we'll both go up to Heaven!' 'What', protests the old woman, 'you Evangelicals
think you're going to Heaven? Heaven is only for Catholics! The Germans and Jews
are swindlers. Your religion is false. God only created the Catholic faith'. "In
many areas, they also believe that German is spoken in Hell. The Mother of God,
naturally, is only concerned with the Poles, as the 'Crowned Queen of Poland', as
'Our Mother'. It would never occur to the peasantry to think that Holy Mary would
ever think of the Germans, or even understand their language. On the contrary, she
is sometimes beseeched in their prayers to go for the throats of their enemies.
One of these prayers is quoted by Kazimierz Laskowski in his novel 'The Culture
Bearers': "'Matko
Boska Polska ochraniaj Polakow. Tych przybledow szwabow powrzucaj do krzakow". Translated:
'Polish Mother of God, protect us wonderful Poles, and throw the Schwabs The
following verse, which I prefer to give in translation only, is noted from the region
around Cracow: "At Cracow Castle, the gods had a brawl. Our Lord Jesus cut the Germans'
legs in two." This clearly shows that the religious abhorrence of the peasantry
did not simply arise from the people, but was instigated by the Polish clergy, which
needed to explain to the peasantry why the Germans were so much more prosperous
than the Poles. Of course, they didn't wish to tell them that the Germans worked
harder, were more assiduous, frugal, and cleaner, while the common Poles, vegetating
in the slavery of their nobles and the clergy, gave themselves over increasingly
to drink and idleness in an attempt to escape their inhumane existence. Thus, attention
was diverted from the real problem, while subliminally convincing the peasants that
the Germans were responsible for all their misery -- so much the more so, since
great numbers of these same "Schwabs" were also heretics. At the same time, Catholic
Germans were said to be "Polish", on the principle that "anyone who was a Catholic
was also a Pole". The heretics, the Lutherans, on the other hand, were the enemies
of Poland, and were to be abhorred. Here are a few examples: In
the entire General Gouvernement, it was said: "Whoever
is a Pole, is a Catholic. Whoever is a German, is a Lutheran." From
the Posen area: "Look
there, what heretics!", people who see a wild brawl exclaim to each other. From
the Lemberg area: "Every
German is a renegade." And
from the region of Chelm: "Half
German, half goat: an unbeliever without God." "The
Germans believe in God as the devil in his horn." "The
German religion is like an old cow". "When
a German is sick, the devil dances." The
next 4 lines are taken from the first strophe of a formerly widespread song from
the Swedish war, which was reproduced in a Polish songbook by J.St. Brystron (1925),
and which runs, freely translated: "In
Poland, there was great misery Did
it come from Man or God? From
the unholy heretics it comes And
from too few Catholics in the land." The
Reformation of Martin Luther and Calvin had reached the German settlement areas.
During the Counter Reformation, the clergy shrank from no tactic, no matter how
devious, to lead people back to Catholicism. The diffamation of Martin Luther from
that time onward continues to produce results in religious hatred even today, religious
hatred which cannot be separated from national hatred. Luther is portrayed as a
drunkard, glutton, whoremonger, and betrayer of souls, as the progeny of the Devil
and of Hell. The
Dominican friar Fabian Birkowski wrote (see Lueck p. 84): "Your
rotten religion arose through false prophets, created by the Devil, who wanted to
be equal to God... your leader is the Angel of Hell, who is the Devil." Of
course, similar expressions were used by Catholics against Protestants during the
Counter Reformation in Germany; but the German Enlightenment ensured that this kind
of language finally ceased to be used. In Poland, by contrast, this kind of language
was encouraged, and has continued down the centuries to the present day, quickened
and entwined with national sentiment, rendered second nature to the people through
so-called 'aesthetic literature'. The culturally very backward, exploited people
sought solace and consolation for their miserable existence, and found it -- which
is perfectly normal and understandable -- in religion. Thus, the clergy had an easy
time of it, achieving its own objectives in terms of power. Letters were published
which Luther was said to have written from Hell. In the sermons of the Dominican
friar Birkowski, Luther was called 'stinking filth', and it was said that even pigs
-- if they could talk -- would speak like Luther. In the region of Lublin a taunting
game arose, which, freely translated, says: "Was
Martin Luther born of woman? No!
a she-wolf in the forest lost him out of her behind. Who
raised him? Lucifer, his companion! What
kind of person is he? The Minister of Hell!" Or
"A
God, that's what the Germans don't have. They
only believe in Luther, the wretch. He
was immediately banned from Rome, Since
he invented a new church. He
seduced many women. A
new order was his objective. That's
why he had to flee from Rome to Germany, Since
the Pope wanted to castrate him. If
the Germans didn't listen to Luther, They
would have clothing and forage in winter. But
the Schwab is so stupid, He
gives everything to Luther. And
Luther collects the money, And
spends in the tavern on wine." This
verse refers to German stupidity: this alleged characteristic of the Germans is
constantly stressed in all possible variations. No Polish novel fails to describe
the Germans as stupid, cowardly, greedy, dishonest, fat, filthy, thieving, cruel,
brutish, and as many other similar qualities of a devlish kind as can be invented.
In the forefront of all of these stands Henyrk Sienkiewiczs's novel "The Knights",
the most widely read quasi-historical novel in Poland, which depicts the Germans
as the cruelest of all animals; all Poles, without exception, are examples of shining
nobility. The reader is soon compelled to put aside the novels of Sienkiewicz, Mickiewicz,
and many others from a feeling of sheer nausea at the sight of so much hatred. But
Professor Markiewicz is quite proud of this literature, even today: indeed, he considers
this literature of diffamation to be of "historical value" for German children in
his recommended school books! We
cannot understand how so much filth can accumulate in a single human being, who
reveals his true nature despite himself merely by depicting this animalistic hatred.
Since even the best author can only describe in words that which dwells in his mind,
his manner of expression is the mirror of his soul. The language of this literature
committed, and continues to commit, a form of murder against the soul of the Polish
people, just as the language of the fanatical Polish clergy of the 16th and 17th
centuries deliberately obscured and murdered the souls of the people in the struggle
against Protestantism. It was believed necesary to erect a religious retaining wall
to prevent the loss of souls, which would have weakened the power of Rome and the
Polish Church. But the results were even more far-reaching: confused souls, crippled
and made sterile by hatred, were converted or retained, for whom there existed only
one guilty party in relatiion to any of the difficulties which arose in the natural
struggle for existence: the German. Such persons no longer made any attempt to overcome
difficulties on their own. They had a scapegoat, responsible for all the evils of
life: the Germans. This was much more comforting than having to work personally.
And if things went well for the Germans, then the Germans were naturally to blame
if things went badly for the Poles, since the Poles had of course been taught that
the German was in league with the Devil -- even that the German was a devil himself.
Of all the devils in the world, the German was by far the worst. The devil spoke
only German: he wore German clothing, while German laws, which were naturally dishonest
and devilish, were valid in Hell. This doctrine of the German devil enabled the
Polish Catholic clergy to reinforce its own position among the people. Fear of the
devil kept the people in obedience: after all, who should know better than the clergy,
who was alone competent in religious matters? The people failed to notice the transition
from faith to superstition, and they still don't notice. Proof of this was provided
in 1977: a Polish worker's newspaper, in an article on the great Lodz industrialist
Karl Scheibler, claimed that Scheibler had made a pact with the devil, as a result
of which he received gold rubles down the factory chimney into his lap, for the
sole purpose of better exploiting his Polish workers! The "Deutsche Wochen-Zeitung"
informed us of this piece of lunacy in an article in the last issue of May 1977,
and printed my remarks as a letter to the editor in one of the following issues.
How primitive must a people be to accept such a sick joke today? But
how can one explain that, in Germany, the Poles are considered an enlightened, proud,
and pious people? And how can we explain the present German sympathy for the Poles?
First,
there is the very skillful propaganda of the Poles, who possess a magnificent understanding
of how to depict themselves in the best light. They must exaggerate their own worth
if they wish to survive in competition against the hardworking, culturally much
more highly developed Germans. They must therefore represent themselves as a people
with an ancient culture who have been unfairly dealt with by history. As a necessary
corollary, they must present their history in the best possible light in order to
gain sympathy. People who enjoy sympathy are more readily believed, especially by
the Germans themselves. But this alone is not enough: their adversaries must be
denigrated, and their human worth reduced to a minimum. This is why the Germans
are depicted as devils in human form, a dangerous people of violent criminals, constantly
obsessed with plundering the poor, noble Poles. If it is possible to misappropriate
the credit for the enormously valuable construction work performed by the Germans,
one must necessarily rise in the estimation of others. Above all, this must be hammered
into the heads of one's own people; eventually, the whole forgetful world will believe
it. Isn't there a saying that "attack is the best defence"? That is how the Poles
proceed in their propaganda. As attackers, they are justified in their own eyes
if the victim is made to appear to appear inferior and of lesser worth, since he
must appear to deserve no better treatment. That is why the entire Polish people
from childhood onwards is educated in hatred and superstition, destroying the capacity
for rational judgement through prejudice. Are
the Poles pious? In their own own minds, yes, since they are the underlings of their
clergy, and think only what they are supposed to think. This is shown with particular
clarity by the present conflict between the State and the at all times politically
committed national Church. A power struggle is raging between these two blocks in
Poland. Which of them will emerge victorious it is impossible to predict, but it
will not result in freedom for the masses in any case, since the result will be
continue to be subjugation as in the past. How
can one explain the one-sided sympathy of the German people for the Poles, despite
the immense hate literature directed against all things German? Kurt Lueck provides
one answer: dishonest translations of Polish literature, novels, poems, etc. In
volume 2, p. 415, he remarks: "At
this point in our study, mention must be made, in all strictness, of what is traditionally
an egregious defect in all German translations. These translations regularly delete
or falsify passages in Russian or Polish originals containing derogatory statements
or expressions of hatred and contempt for Germany and the Germans. One need only
compare the originals of Russian masterpieces such as Tolstoy's 'War and Peace',
'Anna Karenina', Dostoievsky's 'Debased and Insulted', 'The Brothers Karamozov',
and others, with the translations! 'Corrections' are also often made in the translations
of Polish novelists. 'The Knights', by H. Sienkiewicz, translated into German by
Sonja Placzek, not to mention a second translation, is nothing but a hoax perptrated
on the German reader. The spirit of the Polish original is falsified by means of
numerous deletions, and the text, which are often quite "raw", is adjusted to suit
the reader's taste. "A
number of cosmetic corrections in the Polish text were made even in the translation
of W. St. Reymont's 'The Peasants'. For example, volume II, p. 475, 'you are even
worse than the Germans', should, in reality, be translated as 'you are even worse
heathens than the Germans.' "On
p. 491, certain insults hurled at the Germans 'swinskie podogonia, sobacze pociotki'
i.e., 'sow buttocks, race of dogs', have been left out. "On
page 492, in the curse 'that you shall all come to shame to the last man', the last
phrase, 'like rabid dogs', has been deleted. "Reymonts
'Ziemia obecana' ('The Promised Land', 1899, which appeared in 1915 in a translation
published by Georg Mueller, Munich) contains very seriously falsified translation
passages. We refer to the third edition, published in Warsaw by Gebethner and Wolf.
The following passages have been deleted in the translation: "Vol.
I, p. 79, the passage containing the sentence 'that the Germans are a low people';
p. 122 'German swine' (in the translation only 'swine') p. 163 'Prussian cattle';
p. 286 'German women are only good for founding a national cattle stall'. "In
S. Lipiner's translation of 'Mr. Thaddeus, or the Last Entry into Lithuania', by
Adam Mieckiewicz, published in Leipzig in 1882, the expression coined for Prussian
officials 'psubraty' ('dog's brother') has been replaced with the somewhat milder-sounding
'vermin'. "Even
the rendering of 'Polish Folk Tales' by Glinski replaces the contemptous term 'rozum
niemieki' ('German understanding'), with 'citified understanding'. "And
in the translation of the Jalu Kurek's novel 'Grypa szaleja w Naprawie' (4th edition,
Warsaw 1935), a few evil expressions used against Germany are simply left out. A
Pole, in the reverse case, would simply refuse to translate such a book. This novel,
of course, won a prize from the Polish Academy of Literature in 1934; in Poland,
it nevertheless appears on the Catholic Church's index of forbidden books. "A
few tasteless anti-German expressions have even been deleted from the novel 'The
Sable and the Fairy', by Josef Weissenhoff, which recently appeared in German translation.
This
undignified process of falsification should be ended once and for all. We should
either translate all the passsages critical of Germans without doctoring them up,
or we should simply ignore a work of fiction containing unjustified or tactless
criticism. The German people are done a misservice through the censorship of statements
critical of us in foreign works of fiction. What is more, foreign authors are encouraged
to think that they need not shrink from any manner of expression, since the book
will appear in German translation anyway, while ethnic Germans, to whom these falsifications
become very quickly apparent, are deprived of their German dignity and worth as
human beings." The
ethnic researcher Dr. Kurt Lueck has rendered us a great service in exposing these
falsified translations for what they are, and in calling them by their true name:
a hoax perpetrated against the German reader, who is not permitted to see how he
is viewed in a foreign country. Dr. Lueck's remark regarding foreign authors --
that they may permit themselves any manner of expression, since their books are
translated anyway -- is of even greater significance. At this point, I should say
that the problem is not just that translations of Polish authors are falsified and
given a face-lift; the problem is that we translate this hate literature at all,
instead of protesting publicly and, if needs be, throwing it on the rubbish dump
-- through public condemnation -- since the preservation of this red-hot hatred
over the centuries undermines all human dignity, including that of the Polish writer.
What kind of miserable people nourishes itself upon hatred, deriving gratification
from the most inhumane atrocity propaganda directed against precisely that neighbour
to whom it owes its basic existence? I
must admit that I did not recognize the extent of the hatred contained in Polish
literature, even though these books were compulsory reading in my school days. Our
teachers obviously proceeded in the same manner as our translators, and deleted
the worst atrocity tales. Not one of us ever read a Polish novel -- such as "The
Knights" -- in its entirety. And how many people ever read them in Germany? But
it, and many other Polish atrocity legends, are translated and sold. Are they read
all the way through, or just part way, and put aside? Really, shouldn't the competent
cultural authorities have raised an objection? Let us take the contrary case as
an assumption. If a comparable body of anti-Polish hate literature had ever existed,
no matter who wrote it, the Poles would have screamed incessantly until it was prohibited.
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To
give the German reader at least a taste of this "aesthetic literature",
I would like to cite a few examples, indicating the original source, followed
by the page numbers in Lueck's book. "May
the hand of God protect us from the German neighbour". Reymont; p. 351.
"Strong were the scoundrels, broad shouldered and strong, in blue jackets
with silver chains across gorged bellies, and their snouts -- they simply
glowed from good eating. "Give
their pig snouts a sound thrashing... "I'll
give this one on the end a punch in the guts, and if he attacks me, then
I'll strike! Don't hurry so, you beggars, or you'll lose your baggy breeches!",
St. Reymont, in "Chlopi" ("The Peasants"), 1914; p. 351. "Wherever
the Germans go, no poor Jew can earn a living, much less a dog", Henr. Sienkiewicz,
in "Dwie drogi" ("Two Ways"); p. 351. "The
Brandenburg swine want to root up the earth with their snouts, to make a
new empire of swine. That might be good enough to destry the flowers, but
he rubbed his snout bloody on a stone, and had to give up his plan", Sienkiewicz,
in "Flowers and Stone"; p. 353. "One
must hit them, break their bones, until the soul quits peeping in their
bodies", Adolf Dygasinski, in "Struggle for the Land" p. 353. Lueck remarks
that Dygasinksi was an implacable enemy of the Germans, whose extermination
in the interest of a durable peace in Europe he repeatedly demanded. "Listen,
you degenerate tyrant! Thus smote Moses the Egyptian bloodhounds to death,
who murdered the children of God! And again he struck the Germans, overflowing
with blood until they looked like a bloody stump. "The people need men like
Moses!" cried the crazy mob, ruled by fury, "so that such men may free the
people from the hands of the heathen!" "Blows
crackled down like hail over the Germans, who had not a moment's time to
stand up straight. 'When you strike, strike like a crazy man', said von
Molken. 'Follow me, people, let's take the German Palki down again! To the
castle! "But
Staszek alone pushed himself slowly out of the crowd, with a gigantic scythe
in his hand. Immediately, a group of Germans came out of the castle bearing
various weapons from Lutowojski's armory, kept ready to shoot. The crazed
one nevertheless had such a horrible expression on his face, and such a
fire of rage broke forth from him, that the horde of Germans held back at
some distance. Jantsch aimed at Von Molken. "'Shoot,
you scoundrel, men without weapons are easy to kill!", called the youngster,
going after his adversary. "Now, you degenerate folk, worse than all the
beggars in the world, infamy of the century, scum of humanity! Go ahead
and shoot!", Dygasinki, in "Von Molken", (1885); pp. 353-5. "Wherever
one went, everywhere, one came into contact with Germans. No one in the
vicinity could earn their daily bread, because they even forbade the old
women to go into the woods, so that they couldn't gather mushrooms any more...
A great deal of gibberish was spoken, but nobody understood what it was
all about with those renegades. The peasants liked them about as much as
a dog's tail, but the lord of the manor stuck close to this gang", Dygasinski,
in "Two Devils" (1888); p. 355-6. "'Who
caused such devastation in the Ojcower woods? Tell me exactly who made so
much destruction? Now, the Germans, the Germans who else?', my travel companion
cut in involuntarily. The Polish peasant spoke further: 'Yes, see! see!',
and with these words the white-haired old man raised his sinewy, work-worn
hand in the air, his face took on a peculiarly hard expression, and he called
solemnly, as if in answer to an inspiration: 'May the Lord God refuse them
wood for their coffins, they that exterminate us here so. Everywhere, the
Germans take the wood away from the Polish peasants, suck us dry, make us
all their slaves. All the poison of the Germans will not suffice to poison
the body of our people... the peasant loves his earth, and hates the Germans",
Dygasinski in "Demon" (1886); p. 357. An
especially tasty tidbit, such as Zofia Kossak-Szczucka's recent (1930) novel,
turns the history of medieval Silesia (1234-41) completely upside down.
In her "Legnickie Pole", "The Battlefield at Liegnitz", she compares the
Duke of the Piasts (first dynasty of Polish rulers) Heinrich the Bearded,
and his second son, Heinrich the Pious with the Duke's eldest son Konrad,
who is an enthusiastic Pole, and at the same time a implacable enemy of
the Germans and their way of life. The dialogue of Konrad with his brother
goes like this: "'Have
you brought new Germans over here?' Heinrich got excited: 'Yes, three families,
a heap of people in each one. Decent settlers from far away in the Bamberg
area. You will be astonished at how hardworking they are! They will harvest
many times the wheat that you sow. Our lord Father gave them farmland near
Buczyna and in addition, fields in the east"; p.36
"'Where
did the Koczura and Biesage come from, who settled at Buczyna? The Duke
gave them land in Greater Poland to clear!' Konrad said indignantly, 'Why
don't the Germans settle on uncleared land?' Heinrich laughed haughtily:
'Them, clear land! They're not used to that kind of work. It's been hard
enough to bring them out into the cleared fields, although they each have
3 'malter' of grain for sowing. They wouldn't go into the wilderness under
any circumstances!', said Konrad, knitting his brows. 'And when the Koczura
clears the new land, then you give it to the Germans, since they're not
used to hard work! The Koczura should have broken their German bones --
not deserted the honestly acquired property which was theirs.'" And
then: "'Our
people just clear new land, and get tired. When they have made a strip arable,
then you give it to the Germans, and they send you further into the wilderness.'"
At
another point, it says: "Two
more wagons with Germans appeared. 'It's already known', replied Slup, 'these
are new settlers from the Bamberg area.' "'They
ate so greedily it was impossible to tolerate it', Konrad continued. 'Whereever
you throw a stick, you hit a German, and my illustrious father, the Duke,
calls more and more in'. The nobles agreed with him: 'The Germans are a
plague, may the Devil take them to Hell!'" This
is how the Poles are deceived into believing that it was they who cleared
the land and made it arable. Here
is a part of a "humourous poem" of the 17th century by Wezpazyan Kochowski
(1633-99), p. 376: "A
man from Masow and a German met on a narrow road. 'Out of the way!' shouted
the German to the other loudly. 'Step aside, you baggy pants, or you'll
see right away how I beat a German up yesterday; I'll beat up another today'.
The German moved aside, and asked, seized with fear: 'What's the matter?'
'Ha! If you weren't such a coward', said the Pole, 'I would have gotten
out of the way!' This
"poem" contains a typically Polish allegation which should not be overlooked.
The quarrelsome, brawling Pole challenges the less belligerant German, and
orders him about at every possible opportunity. When the German gives way
without making too much trouble, he is accused of cowardice. Thus, the Germans
are described as cowardly in many scornful verses, novels, and stories,
such as, for example, in the following verses by Antoni Labecki (born 1786):
"Should
you meet a real schwab in the war, "He
never thought of anything but drink and food. "You
don't need to prepare a regiment, "Or
any drums, flutes, or trumpets against those weaklings. "Just
show the Schwab a hare, "He
can scare away three hundred Schwabs." Or,
in Reymonts "Peasants", the Pole Gschela scorns the Germans: "'They
are too soft to be neighbours to us peasants, and if you ever hit one of
them on the head, they just fall down right away.' "'Did
he ever fight with one?' asked the lord of the manor, curiously. "'You
call that fighting? Mathias pushed one, because he didn't answer his 'Praised
be Jesus Christ', and he started bleeding right away; a miracle that his
soul didn't didn't fly up and away. "'A
whole nation of softies! They look like oaks, but if you ever hit one with
your fist, it's like hitting a feather bed..." "Bartek
the Victor", hero of the novel by Sienkiewicz, beats up a German teacher
together with his adult son, sticks him headfirst into a water barrel, and,
with a lathe of wood, holds off the colonists hurrying to assist, until
a treacherous stone's throw on the head knocks him to the ground. But even
then, the Germans don't dare approach him. Only
in overwhelmingly great numbers do the Germans ever dare to attack the Poles:
for example, in Artur Gruszeckis "Starancza" (1899), where forty German
boys attack an old man and a few women, and beat them unconsious. The fight
begins when the boys bait the old man like a dog. A
miracle of bravery is performed by a brave peasant in a novel by Walery
Lozinski: three Teutonic Knights stand before the peasant. He warns them
in a friendly manner, and, when that is no use, he chops all three Knights'
heads off simultaneously with one single blow of his sword (a peasant with
a sword?). For this miracle, he is rewarded with the grant of a coat of
arms featuring 3 ass's heads by King Lokietek (King "Yard-Long"). In
Zeromskis "Popioly", five hundred Germans are besieged by the Poles and
French at Tschenstochau. Peasants from the surrounding area set fire at
several different locations to feign great numbers of besieging troops.
At
the mere threat of immediate bombardment of the city, five hundred German
soldiers surrender with three hundred (!) weapons to an enemy numbering
one fifth as many. At
another point, Friedrich Wilhelm III is ridiculed: "He's
taken Warsaw, besieged Tschenstochau, and marched up to Cracow. And now
you baggy pants have lost your guts, now you retreat! Where is your land
then! Show me! Don't you have Berlin anymore? Not one piece of land, you
thief of foreign property!" Do
arrogance and conceit have no limits? Are these writers or spreaders of
filth? But
even the Polish "Prince of Poets", Adam Mickiewicz, is not sparing in disgusting
outbursts of hatred. In the much-read "Pan Tadeusz", which is compulsory
reading in all schools, the following "poem" has been preserved for posterity:
"From
Lord Todwen came a message in all haste, "Grabowski
read the letter, called 'Jena Jena Hail! "The
Prussians are beaten, knocked on the head! Victory!' "I
hardly hear the words before I immediately get down from the saddle, "And,
after kneeling to thank the Lord, we rode into the city. "Apparently
just on business, as if we had heard nothing. "Look
there! All the state counsellors, court advisors, commissars, "And
all other vermin of the same type honours us, "Bowing
down deeply before us. They tremble, their blood is pale, "Just
like when the Germans pour boiling hot broth on a cockroach. "We
rub our hands laughingly, and ask in a servile sort of way, "What's
new? What news of Jena? Ha! Didn't they give a start! "Astonished
that we know of the misfortune of their army, the Germans cry: 'O Lord God,
o misery'! "And
run with their long noses towards home. Then they really make a run for
it! "How
they did run! All the streets out of Greater Poland were full of fleeing
Germans! Crawling like ants, "They
dragged their vehicles, coaches, and carriages, whatever they are called,
each one heavy laden, the women as well as the men, "With
pipes, boxes, and chests, bedsteads and coffee pots. "'Run
for it! Wherever there's a place!' Meanwhile, we say softly to each other,
"Holla!
To horse! Let's make this journey a misery for the Germans! "Hey!
One court counselor's ribs broken! Another state counselor, and another
dog's brother hacked to pieces! "Officers
and gentlemen packed by the pigtails, "And
General Dombrowski started for Posen, "Bringing
the order to rise up for the Emperor of the French! "In
eight days, the Prussians were driven out. "Not
even a drop of medicine remained behind!" The
reader senses the poet positively gloating over the cruel notion that no
Prussian was still alive who might still have needed medical treatment.
This is certainly great testimony to the great "humanity" of the Polish
people! I would like to give the German reader one more example of this
"humanity", the last one of its kind which I care to repeat here, since
these texts, with their lust for murder and bestial cruelty, cannot be contemplated
without the profoundest horror. This doesn't mean that there is no more
"educational literature" of this kind. Lueck discusses a great many more
examples of these hateful tirades from Polish literature than I can reproduce
here. He writes: "An
allusion to 'The Knights' in Waclaw Sierosczewski's novel 'Zacisze' (1923)
displays a singular tastelessness and lack of spirituality. A Polish student
tells a German wood merchant, in reply to the question of what a great stone
is doing in such a place, the following legend, which is supposed to be
amusing: |