Pomeranians (German people)

Last updated
Pomeranians
Pommern
Vorpommern flag.svg
Regions with significant populations
Germany (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern)
Languages
German
Religion
Protestantism (Lutheranism), Catholic Church
Related ethnic groups
Germans

The Pomeranians (German : Pommern) are a German people native to the historical region of Pomerania. In modern times, its population inhabits Germany, including the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. [1] [2] Nowadays there are about five million descendants of Germans in Brazil, a part of these Brazilians are of Pomeranian origin. [3] [4]

South gate in Pomerode, a Brazilian city founded by Pomeranians PomerodeSouthGate.jpg
South gate in Pomerode, a Brazilian city founded by Pomeranians

History

In the High Middle Ages, groups of people migrated to Pomerania during the Ostsiedlung . These migrants, consisting of Germans from what is now Northwestern Germany, Danes, Dutch and Flemings, gradually outnumbered and assimilated the West Slavic tribes of the Rani, Liutizians and Slavic Pomeranians. The evolving society (German : Neustamm) was speaking the East Pomeranian, Central Pomeranian and Mecklenburgisch-Vorpommersch dialects of Low German. Mostly German immigration continued until the 20th century. The Thirty Years' War caused a severe population drop: only one-third of the pre-war Pomeranian population survived. In the late 19th and early 20th century, many Pomeranians emigrated to prospering West German industrial centers or overseas during the Ostflucht. Low German was gradually replaced by Standard German, though spoken with an accent. After World War II, most of the former Province of Pomerania became Polish, and nearly all Pomeranians living east of the Oder-Neisse line fled or were expelled to post-war Germany. Therefore, Pomeranians today live not only in Western Pomerania but are dispersed all over Germany and other countries.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kashubians</span> West Slavic ethnic group

The Kashubians, also known as Cassubians or Kashubs, are a Lechitic ethnic group native to the historical region of Pomerania, including its eastern part called Pomerelia, in north-central Poland. Their settlement area is referred to as Kashubia. They speak the Kashubian language, which is classified as a separate language closely related to Polish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pomeranian language</span> Language

The Pomeranian language is in the Pomeranian group of Lechitic languages within the West Slavic languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pomerania</span> Historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe

Pomerania is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The central and eastern part belongs to the West Pomeranian, Pomeranian and Kuyavian-Pomeranian voivodeships of Poland, while the western part belongs to the German states of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Brandenburg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slovincians</span> Subgroup of Kashubians

Slovincians, also known as Łeba Kashubians, is a near-extinct ethnic subgroup of the Kashubian people, who originated from the north western Kashubia, located in the Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland, from the area around the lakes of Łebsko and Gardno. In the aftermath of World War II, Slovincians emigrated en masse to Germany, with the last families emigrating there in the 1980s. They originally spoke the Slovincian language, which went extinct in the early 20th century, as well as Kashubian, Polish, and German.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pomerelia</span> Historical sub-region of Pomerania

Pomerelia, also known as Eastern Pomerania, Vistula Pomerania, and also before World War II as Polish Pomerania, is a historical sub-region of Pomerania on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in northern Poland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Police, West Pomeranian Voivodeship</span> Place in West Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland

Police is a town in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northwestern Poland. It is the capital of Police County and one of the biggest towns of the Szczecin agglomeration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pomeranians (tribe)</span> West Slavic tribe that formed around the 6th-century at the shore of the Baltic Sea

The Pomeranians, first mentioned as such in the 10th century, were a West Slavic tribe, which from the 5th to the 6th centuries had settled at the shore of the Baltic Sea between the mouths of the Oder and Vistula Rivers. They spoke the Pomeranian language that belonged to the Lechitic languages, a branch of the West Slavic language family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East Low German</span> Dialect group

East Low German is a group of Low German dialects spoken in north-eastern Germany as well as by minorities in northern Poland. Together with West Low German dialects, it forms a dialect continuum of the Low German language. Before 1945, the dialect was spoken along the entire then-German-settled Baltic Coast from Mecklenburg, through Pomerania, West Prussia into certain villages of the East Prussian Klaipėda Region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neumark</span> Region in the Margraviate of Brandenburg

The Neumark, also known as the New March or as East Brandenburg, was a region of the Margraviate of Brandenburg and its successors located east of the Oder River in territory which became part of Poland in 1945.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Pomerania</span>

The history of Pomerania starts shortly before 1000 AD, with ongoing conquests by newly arrived Polan rulers. Before that, the area was recorded nearly 2000 years ago as Germania, and in modern times Pomerania has been split between Germany and Poland. Its name comes from the Slavic po more, which means "land at the sea".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Farther Pomerania</span> Historical region in Poland

Farther Pomerania, Hinder Pomerania, Rear Pomerania or Eastern Pomerania, is a subregion of the historic region of Pomerania in north-western Poland, mostly within the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, while its easternmost parts are within the Pomeranian Voivodeship.

Pomeranian is an adjective referring to the historical region of Pomerania, which is divided between Poland and Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Province of Pomerania (1815–1945)</span> Province of Prussia from 1815 to 1945

The Province of Pomerania was a province of Prussia from 1815 to 1945. Pomerania was established as a province of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1815, an expansion of the older Brandenburg-Prussia province of Pomerania, and then became part of the German Empire in 1871. From 1918, Pomerania was a province of the Free State of Prussia until it was dissolved following World War II by decree of the Allied Control Council with the de jure abolition of Prussia on 25 February 1947, and its territory divided between Poland and Allied-occupied Germany. The city of Stettin was the provincial capital.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pomerania during the Early Middle Ages</span>

Pomerania during the Early Middle Ages covers the History of Pomerania from the 7th to the 11th centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pomerania during the High Middle Ages</span>

Pomerania during the High Middle Ages covers the history of Pomerania in the 12th and 13th centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Pomerania (1945–present)</span>

History of Pomerania (1945–present) covers the history of Pomerania during World War II aftermath, the Communist and since 1989 Democratic era.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Recovered Territories</span> Former eastern territories of Germany that became parts of Poland

The Recovered Territories or Regained Lands, also known as the Western Borderlands, and previously as the Western and Northern Territories, Postulated Territories and Returning Territories, are the former eastern territories of Germany and the Free City of Danzig that became part of Poland after World War II, at which time most of their German inhabitants were forcibly deported.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Germania Slavica</span> Historiographic term

Germania Slavica is a historiographic term used since the 1950s to denote the landscape of the medieval language border zone between Germanic people and Slavs in Central Europe on the one hand and a 20th-century scientific working group to research the conditions in that area during the Early Middle Ages and High Middle Ages on the other.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western Pomerania</span> Historical region in present-day northeast Germany

Historical Western Pomerania, also called Cispomerania,Fore Pomerania, Front Pomerania or Hither Pomerania, is the western extremity of the historic region of Pomerania forming the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, located mostly in north-eastern Germany, with a small portion in north-western Poland.

<span title="German-language text"><i lang="de">Ostsiedlung</i></span> Early and High Middle Age German migration movement to the East

Ostsiedlung is the term for the Early Medieval and High Medieval migration of ethnic Germans and Germanization of the areas populated by Slavic, Baltic and Finnic peoples, the most settled area was known as Germania Slavica. Germanization efforts included eastern parts of Francia, East Francia, and the Holy Roman Empire and beyond; and the consequences for settlement development and social structures in the areas of settlement. Other regions were also settled, though not as heavily. The Ostsiedlung encompassed multiple modern and historical regions such as Germany east of the Saale and Elbe rivers, the states of Lower Austria and Styria in Austria, Livonia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, and Transylvania in Romania.

References

  1. Thomas Carson, Problems of the Postwar World, READ BOOKS, 2007, p.349, ISBN   1-4067-4703-3, ISBN   978-1-4067-4703-4
  2. Paulus Gijsbertus Johannes Post, P. Post, G. Rouwhorst, L. Van Tongeren, A. Scheer, Christian Feast and Festival: The Dynamics of Western Liturgy and Culture, Peeters Publishers, 2001, p.80, ISBN   90-429-1055-0, ISBN   978-90-429-1055-3
  3. "Deutsch ist zweithäufigste Muttersprache Brasiliens". medienhilfe.org (in German). 18 July 2016. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
  4. "Deutsch-Brasilianer fürchten um ihre pommersche Identität" (in German). Ostsee-Zeitung . Retrieved 7 November 2023.