Grand Duchy of Posen

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Großherzogtum Posen (de)
Wielkie Księstwo Poznańskie (pl)
Grand Duchy of Posen
Client state of Prussia
← Coat of arms
 1815 – 1848 →
Flag Coat of arms
Flag Coat of arms
Location of Posen
The Grand Duchy was administrated as the Province of Posen, within the Kingdom of Prussia.
Capital Posen (Poznań)
52°24′N, 16°55′E
Government Monarchy
Grand Duke of Posen, King of Prussia
 - 1815–40 Frederick William III
 - 1840–49 Frederick William IV
Duke-Governor
 - 1815–31 Antoni Radziwiłł
History
 - Established June 9, 1815
 - Wielkopolska Uprising May 9, 1848
 - Autonomy abolished June 28, 1848
Area
 - 1849 28,951 km² (11,178 sq mi)
Population
 - 1849 est. 1,350,000 
     Density 46.6 /km²  (120.8 /sq mi)
The White Eagle, symbol of Polish statehood
Polish Statehood

The Grand Duchy of Posen (German: Großherzogtum Posen) or Grand Duchy of Poznań (Polish: Wielkie Księstwo Poznańskie) was an autonomous province of the Kingdom of Prussia in the Polish lands commonly known as "Greater Poland" between the years 1815-1848. The name was unofficially used afterwards for denoting the territory, especially by Poles, and today is used by modern historians to describe different political entities until 1918. Its capital was Poznań (German: Posen). The grand duchy was formally replaced with the Province of Posen in Prussian constitution from 5 December 1848.

Contents

The area was 28,951 km² and contained most of the territories of the historical province of Greater Poland, which comprised the western parts of the Duchy of Warsaw (Departments of Poznań, Bydgoszcz, partly Kalisz) that were ceded to Prussia according to the Congress of Vienna (1815) with an international guarantee of self-administration and free development of the Polish nation.

Population:

  • 776,000 (1815)
  • 820,000 (1816)
  • 1,350,000 (1849)
  • 2,100,000 (1910)

The monarch of the duchy, with title of Grand Duke of Poznań, was the Hohenzollern king of Prussia and his representative was the Duke-Governor: the first was Prince Antoni Radziwiłł (1815–31), who was married to Princess Luise of Prussia, the king's cousin. The governor was assigned to give advice in matters of Polish nationality, and had the right to veto the administration decisions; in reality, however, all administrative power was in the hands of the Prussian over-president of the province.

The Prussian administrative unit that covered the territory of the Duchy was called the Province of the Grand Duchy of Poznań in the years 1815–49[citation needed], and later to simplify just the Province of Posen (German: Provinz Posen, Polish: Prowincja Poznańska).

The territory of the duchy was divided into two districts (German: Regierungsbezirk, Polish: Rejencja): Poznań District, Bydgoszcz District, which were further divided into 26 original counties (German: Kreis(e), Polish: Powiat(y)) administered by landrats ("county councils"). Later, these were redivided into 40 counties, plus two urban districts. In 1824, the Duchy also received the provincial council (term started in 1827) but with little administrative power, limited to providing advice. In 1817, Chełmno Land was moved to West Prussia.

The territorial administration in 1897:

(English county name, Polish county name, county town)

(English county name, Polish county name, county town)

The Prussian province of Posen. Yellow colour: Polish-speaking areas according to German authorities
The Prussian province of Posen. Yellow colour: Polish-speaking areas according to German authorities

Until 1830, the Prussian authorities were relatively tolerant to the Polish people, although the Prussian administrative schemes were introduced and the role of the German language was strengthened in education.

The 1830 November Uprising within Congress Poland against the Russian Empire was significantly supported by Poles from the Grand Duchy, Afterwards, the Prussian administration under over-president Edward Flotwell introduced a system of police and repression against the Poles. He started to expel the Poles from administration, tried to weaken the Polish nobility by buying its lands, and after 1832 the role of the Polish language in education was significantly suppressed.

to be written

During the Revolutions of 1848 the Frankfurt Parliament attempted to divide the Duchy into two parts: the Province of Poznań, which would have been given to the Germans and annexed to a newly-created German Empire, and the Province of Gniezno, which would have been given to the Poles and held outside Germany, but because of the protest of Polish parliamentarians these plans failed and the integrity of the duchy was preserved. However on February 9, 1849, after a series of broken assurances, the Prussian administration renamed the duchy to the Province of Poznań (Provinz Posen). The line that divided the two proposed parts was ignored. However the Grand Duchy of Poznań remained a possession of the Hohenzollern dynasty and the name remained in unofficial use until 1918.

In the 1880s, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck started the Germanisation policies, such as an increase of police forces, a colonization commission, the German Society for the Eastern Borders (Hakata), and the Kulturkampf. In 1904, special legislation was passed against the Polish population. The legislation of 1908 allowed the confiscation of Polish landed property. The Prussian authorities did not allow the development of industries, so the Duchy's economy was dominated by high-level agriculture.

After World War I, the fate of the Grand Duchy was undecided. The Poles demanded that the region be included in the newly independent Second Polish Republic, while the Germans refused any territorial concessions. Greater Poland Uprising broke out on 27 December 1918, a day after the speech of Ignacy Jan Paderewski. The Treaty of Versailles decided that most of the territory of the Grand Duchy would be included in Poland.

(in alphabetical order)

  • Robert Alvis, Religion and the Rise of Nationalism: A Profile of an East-Central European City, Syracuse 2005
  • Gazeta Wielkiego Księstwa Poznańskiego
  • Konstanty Kościnski, Przewodnik pod Poznaniu i Wielkim Księstwie Poznańskiem, Poznań 1909
  • T. Dohnalowa, Z dziejów postępu technicznego w Wielkopolsce w pierwszej połowie XIX wieku, in: S.Kubiak, L.Trzeciakowski (ed.), Rola Wielkopolski w dziejach narodu polskiego
  • F. Genzen, Z.Grot, F.Paprocki, Zabór pruski w Powstaniu Styczniowym. Materiały i dokumenty, Wrocław-Warszawa-Kraków 1968
  • B. Grześ, J.Kozłowski, A.Kramarski, Niemcy w Poznańskiem wobec polityki germanizacyjnej 1815-1920, Poznań 1976
  • Witold Jakóbczyk, Przetrwać nad Wartą 1815-1914. Dzieje narodu i państwa polskiego, vol. III-55, Krajowa Agencja Wydawnicza, Warszawa 1989
  • Witold Jakóbczyk (ed.), Studia nad dziejami Wielkopolski w XIX w., vol.I-III, Poznań 1951-1967
  • Witold Jakóbczyk (ed.), Wielkopolanie XIX w., Poznań 1969
  • Witold Jakóbczyk (ed.), Wielkopolska. Wybór źródeł, t. I 1815-1850, Wrocław 1952
  • Witold Jakóbczyk (ed.), Wielkopolska. Wybór źródeł, t. II 1851-1914, Wrocław 1954
  • T. Klanowski, Germanizacja gimnazjów w Wielkim Księstwie Poznańskim i opór młodzieży polskiej w latach 1870-1814, Poznań 1962
  • Czesław Łuczak, Życie społeczno-gospodarcze w Poznaniu 1815-1918, Poznań 1965
  • K. Malinowski (ed.), X wieków Poznania, Poznań-Warszawa 1956
  • Witold Molik, Kształtowanie się inteligencji wielkopolskiej w Wielkim Księstwie Poznańskim 1840-1870, Warszawa-Poznań 1979
  • F. Paprocki, Wielkie Księstwo Poznańskie w okresie rządów Flottwella (1830-1842), Poznań 1970
  • L. Plater, Opisanie historyczno-statystyczne Wielkiego Księstwa Poznańskiego, wyd. J. N. Bobrowicz, Lipsk 1846
  • B. Pleśniarski, Poglądy Wielkopolan na sprawy wychowawcze i oświatowe w świetle prasy Księstwa Poznańskiego 1814-1847,
  • A. Skałkowski, Bazar Poznański. Zarys stuletnich dziejów (1838-1938), Poznań 1938
  • L. Słowiński, Nie damy pogrześć mowy. Wizerunki pedagogów poznańskich XIX wieku, Poznań 1982
  • J. Stoiński, Szkolnictwo średnie w Wielkim Księstwie Poznańskim w I połowie XIX wieku (1815-1850), Poznań 1972
  • J. Topolski (ed.), Wielkopolska przez wieki, Poznań 1973
  • S. Truchim, Geneza szkół realnych w Wielkim Księstwie Poznańskim, Warszawa 1936
  • S. Truchim, Historia szkolnictwa i oświaty polskiej w Wielkim Księstwie Poznańskim 1815-1915, Łódź 1967
  • Lech Trzeciakowski, Kulturkampf w zaborze pruskim, Poznań 1970
  • Lech Trzeciakowski, Pod pruskim zaborem 1850-1914, Warszawa 1973
  • Lech Trzeciakowski, Walka o polskość miast Poznańskiego na przełomie XIX i XX wieku, Poznań 1964
  • Lech Trzeciakowski, W dziewiętnastowiecznym Poznaniu, Poznań 1987
  • Wielkopolski Słownik Biograficzny, 2nd edition, Warszawa-Poznań 1983
v • d • e
Historical administrative divisions of Greater Poland
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