Grand Duchy of Poznań (Polish: Wielkie Księstwo Poznańskie, German: Grossherzogtum Posen) was province of Prussia in the Polish lands commonly known as "Great Poland" between the years 1815-1849. The name was then still unofficially used for denoting the territory, especially by Poles, and today it's used also by modern historians to describe different political entities.
The area was 28 951 km 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 the Kingdom of 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)
Territorial administration
The monarch of the Duchy was the Prussian King (a Hohenzollern) and his representative was the Governor-General: the first was prince Antoni Radziwiłł (1815-1831), 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 1815-1849, and later to simplify just the Province of Poznań (Polish: Prowincja Poznańska, German: Provinz Posen).
The territory of the duchy was divided into 2 districts (Polish: Rejencja, German: Regierungsbezirk): Poznań Disctrict, Bydgoszcz District, which were further divided into 26 original counties (Polish: Powiat(y), German: Kreis(e)) administered by the "landrats" ("county councils"). Later, these were redivided into 40 counties, plus 2 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, Chelmno land was moved to West Prussia.
Up to 1830 the Prussian authorities were relatively tolerant to the Polish people, only the Prussian administrative schemes were introduced and the role of German language was strengthened in education.
Repression system after 1830
After the November Uprising (1830 in Congress Poland against Russia) which was significantly supported by the Poles from the Grand Duchy of Poznań, 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.
In 1848 the Frankfurt parliament attempted to divide the Duchy into two parts: the Province of Poznań, which should be given to the Germans and annexed to the German Empire and the Province of Gniezno, which should be 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 9th, 1849, after a series of broken assurances, the Prussian administration renamed the Duchy to the Province of Poznan. The line that divided the two proposed parts was ignored into oblivion. However the Grand Duchy of Poznan remained a possession of the Hohenzoller dynasty and the name remained in unofficial use until 1918.
The Kulturkampf
In the 1880s Bismarck started the Germanization policies: increase of police forces, colonization commission, Hakata, Kulturkampf. In 1904 special legislation was passed against the Polish population. The legislation of 1908 allowed 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.
The liberation
After World War I, the fate of the Grand Duchy was undecided. The Poles demanded that this historically Polish region be included in the newly independent Poland, while the Germans refused any territorial concessions. The Greater Poland Uprising that broke out on 27 December1918, a day after the speech of Ignacy Jan Paderewski, allowed the region to be liberated from German occupation. The treaty of Versailles decided that most of the territory of the Grand Duchy would be included in Poland.
German Estern Marches Society (Hakata) , (Deustcher Ostmarken Verein, est. 1894)
Famous people of the Grand Duchy of Poznań
Poznań town hall
(in alphabetical order)
Stanisław Adamski (1875-1967), Polish preist, social and political activist of the Union of Catholic Societies of Polish Workers (Związek Katolickich Towarzystw Robotników Polskich), founder and editor of the 'Robotnik' (Worker) weekly
Tomasz K. Bartkiewcz (1865-1931), Polish composer and organist, co-founder of the Singer Circles Union (Związek Kół Śpiewackich)
Bernard Chrzanowski (1861-1944), Polish social and political activist, president of the Union of the Greater Poland Falcons (Związek Sokołów Wielkopolskich)
August Cieszkowski (1814-1894), Polish philosopher, social and political activist, co-founder of the Polish League (Liga Polska), co-founder and president of the PTPN
Józef Kościelski (1845-1911), Polish politician and parliamentarian, co-founder of the Straż (Guard) society
Konstanty Kościnski , author of The Guide to Poznań and the Grand Duchy of Poznanń (Przewodnik pod Poznaniu i Wielkim Księstwie Poznańskiem), Poznań 1909
Karol Rzepecki (1865-1931), Polish bookseller, social and political activist, editor of Sokół (Falcon) magazine
Walenty Stefański (1813-1877), Polish bookseller, political activist, co-founfer of the Polish League (Liga Polska)
Florian Stablewski (1841-1906), Polish priest archbishop of Poznań and Gniezno, Polish member of Prussian parliament
Antoni Stychel (1859-1935), Polish priest, member of parliament, president of the Union of the Catholic Societies of Polish Workers (Związek Katolickich Towarzystw Robotników Polskich)
Roman Szymański (1840-1908), Polish political activist, publicist, editor of Orędownik magazine
Aniela Tułodziecka (1853-1932), Polish educational activist of the Warta Society (Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Wzajemnego Pouczania się i Opieki nad Dziećmi Warta)
Teofil Walicki
Piotr Wawrzyniak (1849-1910), Polish priestr, economic and educational activist, patron of the Union of the Earnings and Economic Societies (Związek Spółek Zarobkowych i Gospodarczych)
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
