Poles, Germans, and Kashubians / Polacy, Niemcy i Kaszubi
Everyday life, customs, and folk culture on the Hochpaleschken estate in West Prussia around 1900 / Życie codzienne, obyczaje i kultura ludowa w Prusach Zachodnich ok. 1900 r.
The photo exhibition, created by the Herder Institute in cooperation with the Brothers Grimm Museum in Kassel, was subsequently shown in many locations in Germany and Poland and finally handed over to the Kashubian Open-Air Museum on permanent loan when Poland joined the EU. It provides an impressive and artistically sophisticated insight into life in a characteristic part of West Prussia, West Prussia, a good 100 years ago.
West Prussia is an extremely interesting and problematic region of Eastern Central Europe: its repeatedly changing political affiliation since the Middle Ages to the present day, as well as its ethnic, national, and cultural diversity, make this region “between Germans and Poles” a paradigm of the complicated German-Polish relations.
The photographs were selected from a collection acquired by the Herder Institute from the descendants of Alexander Treichel. There are approximately 200 photographs from the period between 1890 and 1900, depicting life and work throughout the seasons on the West Prussian estate of Hochpaleschken/Wilcze Błota in the district of Berent/Kościerzyna, as well as neighboring estates such as Altbukowitz, Altkischau, Kischau Castle, and others. The photographs mainly depict the manor owner Alexander Treichel, his family, and the inspectors, workers, and servants employed on his estate as they carry out their work and celebrate festivities.
The photographs were selected from a collection acquired by the Herder Institute from the descendants of Alexander Treichel. There are approximately 200 photographs from the period between 1890 and 1900, depicting life and work throughout the seasons on the West Prussian estate of Hochpaleschken/Wilcze Błota in the district of Berent/Kościerzyna, as well as neighboring estates such as Altbukowitz, Altkischau, Kischau Castle, and others. The photographs mainly depict the manor owner Alexander Treichel, his family, and the inspectors, workers, and servants employed on his estate as they carry out their work and celebrate festivities.
The photographic documentation initiated by Alexander Treichel around 1900 seems to present an idyllic counterpoint to the problematic aspects of coexistence and difficult neighborly relations between different peoples and cultures, ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups that are hinted at in the past. The photographs evoke the peaceful coexistence of Poles, Germans, and Kashubians—the latter as a kind of minority.
Accompanying the exhibition, with explanatory texts in German, Polish, and Kashubian, curators Bernhard Lauer and Hanna Nogossek have published a richly illustrated catalog in German and Polish. The publication contains articles on the history and regional studies of West Prussia, the estates in the region, and Alexander Treichel's life and work, as well as on the culture, literature, and language of the Kashubians.
