Megalomania and expansionism.
On Polish-German relations within archaeology
in the Wielkopolska region

       During the past few years, the supporters of Slavic allochtonism theory have been discussing with the followers of Slavic autochtonism. The allochtonists claim that Józef Kostrzewski developed the theory of Slavic neoautochtonism east of the Odra River in order to balance German autochtonism, the theory developed by Gustav Kossina. Józef Kostrzewski, Kossina's disciple, based his ideas on political reasons and on "sheer spite" - in order to oppose German expansionism by means of the Polish one. This conviction seems to be popular among archeologists from the former Russian and Austrian partition of Poland, for whom the experiences of the inhabitants of the former Prussian partition seem quite incomprehensible.
       Before I present Poznań records and rare publications which constitute the source for this presentation, I wish to recall the definition of expansionism. This term covers the intention of a state to expand its territory. When a conflict relates to a part of a given country, we can only talk about national, religious and social conflicts based on i.e unequal treatment of a group of citizens by the government, nationalism or megalomania.
       Mieszko, a Polan prince of Wielkopolska received baptism in 966 AD, thus introducing his country to the culture of Christianity and, via west European clergymen of Latin order, his territory was accepted on the arena of west European culture and antique traditions. As early as in the 13^th century, a Polish bishop from Krakow, Wincenty Kadłubek, in his "Chronicles of Poland" tried to combine the history of Poland with ancient history which was so close to his heart. According to him, Gaelic Lechistan people, who fought successful battles against the army of Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, were the ancestors of contemporary Poles. Kadłubek axiomatically assumed that Poles settled on the territory marked by the Vistula and Odra Rivers and the Baltic Sea several hundred years BC at least. This "Gaelic link" made it very clear that Kadłubek was convinced of the autochtonism of ancient Poles, even though they seemed to be present in source materials under a different name. This direction determined by Kadłubek was later followed by numerous authors.
       After 1450, an imperial position of Poland among other European countries needed to be further supported. Therefore, the antiquity of Poland and its centuries-old independence had to be proved. Hence the attempt to identify Poland with European Sarmatia, the state which extended all the way to the Rhine and related to the Teutonic tribe. The other member nation of the Republic of Poland, the Lithuanians, were to originate from ancient Rome. The Sarmatian myth was so common among the Polish noblemen that their culture between the 16^th and 17^th centuries was later called a Sarmatian one. As the knowledge of Latin increased, the Bible  and  antique  literature,  including "Geography" by Ptolemeus,

became very popular. In the 16^th century, Poznań was identified with the ancient Stragona, mentioned by Ptolemeus (Sarnicki 1587). Combined with megalomania such interpretation could have ended with the grotesque, as in Wojciech Dębołecki's book (published in Warsaw in 1633), when author tried to prove that the Slavic (identified with Scythian) were the oldest nation in the world, while biblical Adam and Eve, in paradise,

spoke Polish (fig. 1).
       Also in Germany, the history of the state had been glorified since 15^th century, yet its history was derived not so much from the Antiquity but from the Middle Ages. For instance, a renowned historian of that time, Heinrich Bebel, put emperors from Otto dynasty much higher in hierarchy than pagan Greeks and Romans. Johannes Nauclerus who lived in the 16^th century believed that Providence itself gave the Germans power over the world, and that the Germanic tribe was the oldest nation in the world. It was in Germany, in the beginning of the 16^th century, that fir the first time the issue of the right to a previously occupied territory was raised. At that time, the issue pertained to German - French dispute over Alsatia. A historian of that time, Jacob Wimpfeling claimed that the French did not have a historically justified right to that region. A hundred years later a similar question was raised with regard to the precedence of settlement in Lusatia, where the issue of co-existence of Slavic and Germanic tribes was discussed. Even as late as the year 1783, a German historian Karl B. Anton advocated the primate of Slavs with this respect. Soon enough all this was to change.
       In 18^th century Poland, in the Enlightenment the ethnogenesis of Poles was a subject of great interest. The theory of conquest was at that time the most popular one. Historians looked for the cradle of Slavs in the east (e.g. in Kolchida or on the Dnieper, the Volga or the Don) or in the south, in Croatia, Slovakia, Iliria). The ancestors of Poles were to conquest in the 6^th century AD the original inhabitants of later Slavic territories. Various theories concerning ethnogenesis uplifted the readers and were used to manipulate the citizens at the times of feuds between social classes, as well as to justify the political system. They were not used, however, for territorial claims. The Republic of Poland itself was a multi-ethnical and multi-religious state. The co-existence of so many nationalities was never a bed of roses, yet conflicts were not present between minorities but between social classes. The theory of conquest was used as well (it was generally believed that the noblemen were Lechistanian and the peasantry were Sarmatian).

       At the end of the 18^th century, Poland was partitioned by Russia, Austria and Prussia. If one can believe Józef Kostrzewski, Frederic the Great, asked for an justification of his occupation of another country's territory, replied that his historians would somehow think of the right excuse. The Germans perceived Polish noblemen proudly dressed in oriental robes, having a different culture and values, in the same way as the 19^th century Europeans perceived savage Bushmen (fig. 2). It  was  clear  for them  that  real  culture  was  the  one

of German language and tradition, therefore they expected a blitz assimilation of their new citizens into German culture. Only when it was clear to the Germans, that the majority of Polish people do not even think to "civilize", did they begin to gradually adjust legal regulations in order to enforce the "civilization" on the oppressed Polish nation.
       Johann Droysen was a 19^th century German supporter of the theory of mixing politics and history. Soon enough he found numerous followers. In the newly formed science of races, or rather of language groups, the Indo-European group was shortly defined as the Indo-Germanic one. The name supposed to be right because in the Middle Ages Germanic tribes influenced Indo-European civilization so much, that in the areas where their influence was weaker, until now civilization is not "pure European". This opinion was popularized, also among some Poles, but later the terminology was substituted with Aryan terms. The adjective "Germanic" really meant "German", which was particularly stressed in the areas where Germany had its territorial interests.

       Polish people were not at all delighted to be ruled by the new government, which was generally perceived as the oppressors. Many illustrations of the mentality of that time can be found in the contemporary newspapers, for example in case of Polish farmer accused of killing German surveyor. Although he did not deny, the court found him not guilty, as he explained that he was sure he met the Evil One. Since on contemporary iconography devil

was presented in a German dress (fig. 3), one cannot be punished for killing fiend! In the 19^th, as the national awareness grew within social circles, it was not politically correct to give to the Germans Polish national relics of the past (including archaeological collections). It was not in good taste to socialize with the oppressors, what in turn brought about polonization of some German families, especially those living exclusively among Poles.
       Political situation of those times and the establishment of modern history and archeology favored the creation of Polish archeological collections, what was then considered to be a patriotic duty revealing itself by protecting relics from long gone past. A vast majority of the 19^th century documents, being in possession of Poznań Archaeological Museum archives, bears traces of this patriotism. Archeological artefacts, although at that time it was not possible to date them properly, were collected just for the patriotic reasons. The origins of nations were examined. As early as in 1857 Wojciech Konewka, a Polish inhabitant of the island of Ruegen, wrote: "There are different opinions on the residence of Slavs in this area. Some say that Slavs were present on these abandoned countries already in the 5^th century, others believe that Slavs have always been here." One of the most prominent historians of the 19^th century, Joachim Lelewel, advocated autochtonism of Slavs and their origin from (related to Tracks) the Getts and Dacs. He was of an opinion that such a great nation could not have just arrived from nowhere, but it had to form in the area, so the ancestors of Slavs must have settled on the Baltic Sea and the Vistula soon after the Flood. The tradition of reaching for antique sources and the attempts to identify Slavs with tribes mentioned by ancient authors was widespread. The book written by a Slovak historian, P.K. Szafarzyk, translated into Polish in 1842, was widely respected in Poland. The author, referring to Jordanes, considered all Weneta tribes, also the ones living on the Adriatic, with Slavs. He even assumed that a part of Tracs and Ilirians could have been Salvs as well. As for the times of Slavic arrival on the banks of Vistula River, F. Duchiński, a 19^th century historian assumed the year 1000 BC. There were authors who dated this fact even later in history. Under the theory of the long-distance ancient trade, numerous Phoenician factories were considered as "Slavic". Moreover, also Etruscan, Greek, Roman and other colonies were considered as Slavic. Shortly before World War One, a Czech researcher, J.L. Pič, opted for Slavic origins of Lusatian culture, yet he was unable to support his theory with any evidence. It should be noted here, that already in 19^th century uneducated villagers called cremation cemeteries as Aryan, megaliths and grave-mounds as the burials of Huns or giants and Medieval strongholds as Swedish trenches. All in all, in the course of the 19th century numerous theories and concepts on the origin of Slavs and Germanic tribes were created.
       Originally, those theories were not used to justify the rights to land, with maybe one exception of Pastor Karl Wunster who claimed in 1824, that the traces of the Germanic tribes in Wielkopolska could be found. Even in 1830, artefacts from Wielkopolska shown in Berlin were defined as "the collection of Slavic relics", without the chronological diversification. Prussian governments tried to use numerous decrees concerning the protection of the relic of the past in order to create the collection in Berlin museums. In 1862, a Cracovian art historian, Józef Łepkowski, complained that "when only a German researcher finds an ornamented funeral relic in the ground, (...) he immediately decides of its historical value and unmistakably  ascribes  it  to  Germanic  past".  Due  to  the  respect  for  science

shared by many, the 19^th century Polish and German scientists declared that science was international in its nature and could not be used as a tool to defend interests of any nation. This cliché was usually followed by "but" which introduced the denial of the former manifesto (fig. 4).   After  the  successful

war of the Germans against the French in 1870s, the historical awareness was purposely and systematically used to fight for territory, which brought about the increased German nationalism. If one may believe the publications of that time, the PTPN presentation of Wielkopolska relics at the exhibition in Berlin and Wrocław in 1880s showed that the artefacts of Lusatian culture were almost identical on both banks of the Odra River. Soon after that a hypothesis emerged that Germanic settlement, preceded the Slavic one. Germanic tribes were obviously identical with the Germans of that times, thus the right of the Germans to own Wielkopolska were

undeniable (fig. 5). It was believed that the general public was not at all indifferent to the question whether the nation derives from Asia, or if it is autochthon on the land it owns. Originally a very simple division was applied - Germanic relics were the ones of great artistic value, Slavic ones were the primitive and not ornamented ones. In this way, even Wilhelm Schwartz, a renowned in Wielkopolska historian  of  Antiquity,  who  co-operated  with

his Polish colleagues, having found in 1879 the graves from the times of Lusatian and Pomeranian cultures in the vicinity of Poznań described them as Slavic due to "a simple pottery technique and a lack of ornaments". When it became evident that it was hard to differentiate archeological material according to this concept, the Germans developed a new methodology hoping that maybe minute details would be useful to prove the Germanic origin of the items. A society called Historische Gesellschaft f. die Provinz Posen was organized "to present and shed proper light on the participation of the Germanic culture in the development of the Poznań region. (…) That would lead to creation of workpiece deserving the influence exerted by Germanic culture during the course of all time on the development of the Eastern Margraviate of the German State" (fig. 6). Gradually, a thesis was accepted that the occupation of Wielkopolska by Prussia was really its return to the mother country and that the new settlers had all the reasons to feel at home in the occupied land. The Pomeranian culture was Germanized, while the Lusatian culture was defined as "Trackian" (fig. 7) or "Ilirian". By summoning to collect historical relics, the patriotic dimension of this activity was strongly stressed. "Historische Geselschaft" (fig. 8) reads: "The authorities strongly support The Museum (...), because of its deeply patriotic and scientific aims". The conviction of the Germanic supremacy over the Slavs was fully reflected in the views of Gustav Kossina, who claimed that" Slavs have always admired bolshevism of some sort, which was only less severe by impossibility to gather and by an utter lack of needs. The Germans, who have always, particularly at the times of wars, been enlivened by the need of law and order, detested and despised the Slavs."

       Those views evoked a defensive reaction, which was not always very conscious. In response to them, Polish historians wrote publications that pointed to a very high or exceptional level of Slavic or Polish cultures, which were not always identical. For instance, Wiktor Czarnecki in his book published in 1900 wrote about the exceptional role of Poles. In a letter to an unknown person, written in 1910 and attached to a copy of his book, he summarized his views as follows: "in general, what I have written in "Scythia", is undoubtedly true. We Poles, are not really Slavs, but belong to a much more ancient culture, we are the pre-cultural or pre-civilization element since we have been living in this pre-country of all human legends for ages. Our language reverberates the echo of pre-civilization and pre-culture. (...) Our language obviously belongs to the Slavonic group, but the Slavs were an eastern tribe, which later flooded us (...). Primarily between the Rhine and man-made embankments in the east lived German families in the meaning legal since originated from ritually contracted marriages (...). The people from Germany, quite unrightfully usurped the name German, as their national name, for in those distant times there had been no Germanic nation. Tacit, who includes us within Germania is right, and he only points at a pernicious influence of anti-cultural, nomadic, steppe Slavs, flooding in from the east. (...). In Eddean Alwissmal is the key to European languages which were formed at the time when the Polish and German state were being established, both countries being countries of the world, with no borders."
       Prof. Jan Sas Zubrzycki, an architect from Lvov was one of the supporters of Slavic supremacy over other nations. According to him, the Slavs had used bricks for constructing their homes even before Christianity was introduced on the territory, and Slavic art was more valuable than the art of any other nation. He called Celtic art "pre-Slavic" and he believed that "Poland emerged from the Slavic nation which occupied almost all of North-Eastern territory of Europe, even a part of Italy, France, Spain and England." In 1921 he could still see the connection between Slavic art with the art of Mykenes, Troy, and the name of Tracks he derived from "tracze", which in old Polish meant "carpenters". Germanic Wenedas mentioned by Ptolemy, according to Zubrzycki, were to be Slavs living on the Rhine, only this tribe was the first to be denationalized by Teutons. In many other papers written in the turn of 19^th and 20^th centuries old ideas of Slavic Tracks, Getts and other antique tribes were mentioned. Thus, as soon as Józef Kostrzewski, familiar with the ideas of J. Pič and Szafarzyk, and also other Polish authors, learned in Berlin that G. Kossinna had also claimed Lusatian culture to be Ilirian and Trackian one, he immediately combined both approaches, especially that at that time the state-of-the-art scientific tools which he got to know in Berlin, seemed to enable the confirmation of this idea.

       In documents of Poznań Archaeological Museum from the inter-war period there is no evidence of expansionism in archeology. This historical period is further discussed in another presentation. The subject had its very stormy come back in the years 1940 - 1944 when the museum was in possession of the German Nazi. Pre-history became a political science, and its sense was very well illustrated on a poster published at that

time (fig. 9) which encouraged the protection of historical relics. Also in their private correspondence, German archeologists supported Hitler's politics of expansion, one exception being Ms. T. Haevernick. There are letters which show that along with German successful battles on the frontline, their historians tried to seek in the East (Caucasus) first only Scythes, then they looked for the elements of La-Tene culture there, and finally Indo-Germanic or Indo-European ones which obviously had to originate from Caucasus (fig. 10). The defeat of Nazi army put an end to this blooming imagination.

       To sum up, nationalism, megalomania and expansionism in Polish and German archeology happened, yet their intensity varied depending on political situation. Most often they were a menace, still in Poznań we may talk about one positive aspect of this expansionism: subsequent Polish or German authorities of Poznań Archaeological Museum did not destroy any documents found by their predecessors, which was common in other institutions, since all of the source materials were treated as "our national heritage", even though the heritage was not definitely mutual.

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