Poland is located on the Baltic Sea and is the largest state (population in 2023: 37,636,508, area: 313,964 km²) in East Central Europe. The name of the state is derived from the West Slavic Polans, who brought more and more territories under their rule from the 9th century onwards, which were known as Duchy of Poland in the 10th century. Under Mieszko (ca. 960-992), the extent of the country reached approximately its current borders. He was at times subject to tribute to the German Emperor, at least for parts of his land. Poland probably adopted Christianity in 966 and from 1025 it was a kingdom. Between 1138 and 1295, the country was fragmented as a result of inheritance disputes. The extinction of the ruling Piast dynasty led to a Polish-Hungarian personal union in 1370, which was replaced by a Polish-Lithuanian dual monarchy as early as 1386 due to pressure from the Polish nobility. The growing role of the nobility resulted in an elective monarchy in 1572. However, the disunity of the nobility led to the three partitions of Poland (1772-1795) between Prussia, Russia and the Habsburg Monarchy. Poland only became independent after the end of the First World War in 1918 and lost its independence in 1939 after the German attack from the west at the beginning of the Second World War and the Russian invasion from the east. From 1945-1989 it was a satellite state of the Soviet Union. Poland has been a member of the European Union since 2004.
"Spoon stories": A piece of cutlery as a lasting memento
West Prussia is a historical region in present-day northern Poland. The region fell to Prussia as a result of the first partition of Poland-Lithuania in 1772 and received its name from the province of the same name formed by Frederick II in 1775, which also included parts of the historical landscapes of Greater Poland, Pomerania, Pomesania and Kulmerland. The Prussian province lasted in changing borders until the early 20th century. After World War I, parts fell to the Second Polish Republic, founded in 1918. The largest cities in West Prussia include Gdansk (Polish: Gdańsk, today Pomeranian Voivodeship), Elbląg (Polish: Elbląg, today Warmia-Masuria Voivodeship), and Thorn (Polish: Toruń, today Kujawsko-Pomeranian Voivodeship).
The Province of Posen was established in 1848 on the territory of the historical regions of Greater Poland and parts of Kuyavia. It replaced the Grand Duchy of Posen, a change that was accompanied by the loss of special privileges enjoyed by this predominantly Polish-speaking administrative unit in the eastern part of the Kingdom of Prussia. The province was not part of the German Confederation, but from 1866 it belonged to the North German Confederation and, from 1871, to the German Empire. Following the Greater Poland Uprising (1918–19), the majority of the province came under Polish control de facto in 1919 and officially on January 20, 1920. Shortly before its dissolution, the entire province had a population of over 2 million people living in an area of approximately 29,000 km².
Private memory culture made visible
"This is how I see her before me" - memories of the post-war period and the flight experiences of the parents' generation
'We can also burn our furniture if necessary,' she added. I shuddered at the idea. I imagined her dismantling the beautiful bookcase and burning it for us, piece by piece. I didn't doubt for a second that she would do it. Our mother was a lioness and she would fight for us. So we could rest easy. A quarter of a century later, the wood stove was moved to the basement – it took her that long to fully trust that peace was here to stay. The stove remained down there until the house was cleared out after my mother's death. Stories of flight and expulsion, of people at war, of the years of hardship after the war accompanied us throughout our childhood years. We knew some of our mother's stories so well that we could join in when she told them.
East Prussia is the name of the former most eastern Prussian province, which existed until 1945 and whose extent (regardless of historically slightly changing border courses) roughly corresponds to the historical landscape of Prussia. The name was first used in the second half of the 18th century, when, in addition to the Duchy of Prussia with its capital Königsberg, which had been promoted to a kingdom in 1701, other previously Polish territories in the west (for example, the so-called Prussia Royal Share with Warmia and Pomerania) were added to Brandenburg-Prussia and formed the new province of West Prussia.
Nowadays, the territory of the former Prussian province belongs mainly to Russia (Kaliningrad Oblast) and Poland (Warmia-Masuria Voivodeship). The former so-called Memelland (also Memelgebiet, lit. Klaipėdos kraštas) first became part of Lithuania in 1920 and again from 1945.
A spoon as a lifesaver
Michael Schwartze carefully takes the spoon in his hand, almost as if it could crumble into dust at any moment. His special appreciation of this object is expressed in how carefully he handles the little piece of sheet metal, which weighs only a few grams. "The spoon probably saved my father's life during his captivity in the war," Schwartze says thoughtfully, recalling the few details that his father, Theo Schwartze, who died on February 24, 2014, once recounted about the difficult years in Russia. His father was at war on the Eastern Front and was taken prisoner in Borissow near Minsk in 1944. Most of the time only a thin soup was provided, which his father had to eat using a can full of holes. "A fellow prisoner of my father was assigned to a workshop in the labor camp. As far as I know, he came from Ahlen. And he made my father this spoon so that none of the precious food was spilled anymore," Schwartze reports. "It was freely given – a gesture my father could not reciprocate at that moment."
