Seeking labour's aristocracy? The ‘Westphalian incident’ and Polish nationality policy in the immediate aftermath of war*

ABSTRACT. In the immediate aftermath of World War II the Polish state placed a high value on national homogeneity. The Polish Committee of National Liberation signed population exchange agreements with its socialist neighbours in September 1944 and expelled the German population who remained within the new Polish borders. Far less frequently discussed are the Polish state's efforts to persuade ‘Poles’ in Western Europe to move to Poland. This paper analyses how Polish policy towards ‘Westphalian Poles’ and the British reaction to Polish claims offer insight into both Polish and British nationality and citizenship policy in the immediate post‐war period. I argue that the quality of potential labour played an important role in both British and Polish thinking. The paper also contends that the ‘Westphalian incident’ gives useful insights into the emergence of the Cold War.     

Operationalising memory and identity politics to influence public opinion of refugees: A snapshot from Poland

Using a politics of identity and memory approach, herein, we explore how political discourse plays out in practice and ‘in place’ when Poles were compelled to consider the introduction of visibly different persons, with different cultural characteristics, to their society. In 2017, and at the height of the "migrant/refugee crisis", we conducted 200 short interviews in Wrocław, Poland, to gauge and interpolate attitudes and opinions to refugees, in a context where the refugees had been strategically Othered, and constructed as a threat to Polish society. Our discussion focuses on how the strategic use and dissemination of threat and fear, in public discourse, was operationalised to disrupt steadfast notions of belonging to the Polish nation. By exploring belonging to the nation through a politics of identity and memory framework, we can better understand and provide contextual nuance to the import of maintaining ‘a [Polish] cultural sense of belonging’ (Brockmeier, 2002, p. 18). While in a Polish context, place-based and culturally historical narratives of conflict, territorial incursion, and occupation have framed threats to belonging in the past, the contemporary political exploitation of threat and its (re)production in public discourse is not only strongly exclusionary, but also denies the opportunity for Poles to know diversity as a felt experience reinforcing ideas of a ‘closed’ Poland. The contribution of this paper, then, is to demonstrate both the effectiveness of control of public discourse in a specific place and time, but to also elucidate the less often heard Eastern European states responses to the refugee crises.     

From Empires to Nation-State: Remaking the Roman Catholic Church in an Independent Poland

ABSTRACT

Roman Catholicism is most often imagined as an element of continuity in Poland’s turbulent history: even when a Polish state was absent from the map of Europe from the late eighteenth through early twentieth centuries, a recognizably ‘Polish’ church has been presumed to provide a robust institutional anchor for the Polish nation. This article, however, argues that the creation of a ‘Polish’ Roman Catholic church was a belated and protracted process, one that was only getting started in the years following the achievement of Polish independence in 1918. The church’s ‘Polonization’ was only partially a matter of emancipation from imperial-era restrictions. It often also involved the defence and attempted extrapolation of laws, practices and institutions that had developed under the auspices of the German, Austrian or Russian states and that the Catholic hierarchy viewed as healthy and desirable building blocks for a future Polish church. These imperial precedents continued to provide crucial points of reference in ongoing debates about what ‘Polish’ Catholicism was and what it should become.     

The Impact of the First World War and the Polish-Soviet War on the ‘Culture of Suffering’ in Post-1914 Polish Fiction

ABSTRACT

Using Jeffrey C. Alexander’s theory of cultural trauma, this article focuses on the three major types of narratives of suffering which appeared in Polish fiction, after Poland regained political independence in 1918, outside the strong myth-creating narrative of the Polish Legions’ role in the war for independence. It argues that Polish post-1918 fiction developed these three major paths in the face of suffering inflicted on Polish lands, during WWI and Polish-Soviet War. These paths were to: 1) continue the narrative of Polish suffering within the framework of heroic, and selfless, sacrifice for Poland that has been well established since Romanticism; 2) present suffering as the universal fate of humanity outside the notion of national identity, due to the monstrosity of modern bureaucratic systems wherein human beings are treated as objects; and 3) present suffering as the result of modern warfare, but told outside of “patriotic phraseology” – thus suggesting a growing need as to finding a solution to national conflicts outside narrowly defined identities.     

Inappropriate object: Warsaw and the Stalin‐era Palace of Culture after the Smolensk disaster (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

This article is about the shifting relationship between the city of Warsaw and the Palace of Culture and Science – a gigantic Stalinist skyscraper which dominates the city centre – in the aftermath of the 10 April 2010 plane crash that killed the Polish president and 95 others (mostly very senior military and political figures) in the woods outside Smolensk in western Russia. The crash's victims had been on their way to a ceremony commemorating the 70th anniversary of a massacre in the Katyń forest, near Smolensk, during which thousands of Polish army officers were shot on the orders of Stalin. Despite its status as Warsaw's most obvious material relic of Russia's historical domination over Poland, the Palace of Culture has in the last two decades been gradually reappropriated into the city's own landscape and everyday life. In fact, since the fall of communism, the Palace has eclipsed the city's traditional emblems and monuments to become regarded as the most identifiable marker, or ‘symbol’, of the contemporary city. Further, the Palace has consolidated the tangible and powerful impact it exerts on the city's architecture and urban layout, on its political, bureaucratic, ‘cultural’, commercial and educational life, and on the bodies and minds of its citizens. The very word ‘palace’ is normally understood in Warsaw to refer to the Palace of Culture. For a time after Smolensk, however, the word acquired a new association with the Presidential Palace, where crowds gathered to lay flowers, light candles and stand vigil. The markedly muted presence in Warsaw of the Palace of Culture during the mourning period after Smolensk demonstrated that the happy interaction between post‐socialist Warsaw and the rehabilitated Palace does not extend into every domain. The topography of mourning in Warsaw in the days after 10 April seemed to highlight the abject dimension of the Palace's uncanny presence in the city. This article explores why, how and for how long the Palace withdrew and was withdrawn from the life of the Warsaw after Smolensk.     

'Pomorze' or 'Preussen'? Polish Perspectives on Early Modern Prussian History

The attitudes of Polish historical scholarship towards the historyof early modern Prussia has been deeply marked by the partitionsof Poland and the anti-Polish coalition between Prussia, Russiaand Austria, which denied Poland its own statehood for wellover a century. In contrast to nineteenth-century German ‘Landesgeschichte’,which focused on local research and archival resources, historiansfrom Poland have usually opted to stay more within patternsof national history-writing. When the Polish state was reconstitutedafter the First World War, hostilities built up between Germanand Polish historical schools on Prussia, expressed in the NationalDemocratic-influenced myl zachodnia (Western thought) on thePolish side, and a not less expansionist Ostforschung on theother side of the border. It was only after the catastropheof the Second World War, the redrawing of national borders ineast central Europe, and under the influence of Marxist historicalconcepts in the People's Republic of Poland that nationalistapproaches as well as the ‘black legend’ of thePrussia's past were temporarily suppressed and finally replacedby a more research-led scholarship. During the second half ofthe twentieth century, Polish historiography was in fact muchquicker and more thorough than its German counterpart to forgethe history of Prussia into a major academic subject. Sincethe 1980s, if not earlier, an extremely fruitful dialogue hasdeveloped between scholars—a dialogue which does not alwayspenetrate journalistic and public awareness, as recent polemicssurrounding the controversially planned ‘Centre for Expulsions’in Berlin have shown.     

Remaking National Identity: Two Contested Monuments in Post-Communist Poland

Abstract

The aim of this article is to explore the remaking of national identity in post-communist Poland through the analysis of urban spaces, and, in particular, two controversial monuments that were erected under communism and survive to this day in two Polish cities. By systematically tracing the trajectory of the contested monuments, from their inception through their changing symbolism to their disputed legacies, this article will pose important questions not only about the development of cultural memory and of Polish civic society, but also the role of various agents involved in these processes. The article will examine the interaction between the official and local ‘politics of memory’ and individual initiatives centred on these monuments in an attempt to unravel the intricacies of Poland’s de-communization and nation-building following the fall of communism.     

‘As Poor as Church Mice’: Bishops,Finances, Posts,and Civil Duties in the Duchy of Warsaw, 1807–13

Abstract

Relations between the Catholic Church and the secular authorities of the Duchy of Warsaw were characterized by the one’s efforts to maintain its old privileges, and the other’s modernization of the law in a Josephist spirit. Cooperation and compromise between Church and state were possible, but their relations were full of tension, which sometimes erupted into open confl ict. This article presents a wider range of problems than has hitherto been noted in the historiography. From the beginning of 1807, the Catholic clergy was expected to fulfi l new duties, because of the shortage of administrative staff. Confl icts arose over the duties of patrons, payments for the clergy, their taxes, the government’s prohibition on plural holding of benefi ces cum cura animarum, and over ecclesiastical organization in general. The place of the Church was more clearly outlined in the Constitution of the Duchy of Warsaw (1807), but the concept of the ’state religion’ was seen by some clergymen as an opportunity to spread the Church’s infl uence. Further changes opened the higher ecclesiastical ranks to commoners. The civil government and the episcopate also differed on the role of religious orders, with the former looking to employ nuns and monks in social welfare and education. Bishops complained of ministers and offi cials who did not pay priests’ salaries punctually, if at all, but some episcopal interventions led to the authorities releasing the orders from fi nancial obligations and taxes. The Civil Code, introduced in 1808, assigned the duties of registrars to priests. Insofar as divorces and civil marriages were concerned, this role could place priests in contravention of canon law, although in practice almost no such cases occurred. Despite the work undertaken by representatives of the clergy and the civil authorities, no concordat, which would have resolved these issues, was agreed with the Holy See. As a result, the period of the Duchy brought the Catholic clergy great insecurity, alongside their hopes for the Polish nation.     

KOR and the transformation of polish politics in the 1970s

It has been widely observed that the pattern of dissenting and oppositional activity in Poland had changed considerably by the early 1980s. While in the 1950s and 1960s it was characterised by spontaneity, lack of programme and strategy, the opposite holds true in the 1980s. Till the second half of the 1970s dissent in Poland was spasmodic and short‐lived, intertwined with relatively long periods of social calm and inactivity.

In the mid‐1980s the Poles have become highly politicised people, the previously common political apathy, to a great extent, has disappeared. Clandestine political organisations, inimical towards the communist state, abound. The number of free, uncensored publications can be counted in hundreds if not thousands. In the early 1980s there existed officially in Poland a free trade union which in fact performed some political activity as well. For this and other reasons it was suppressed, however the struggle to restore its official activity continues.

Nothing of that nature has happened in any other communist state. Poland seems to be the odd man out in the communist world. Political crises occur there more often than anywhere else in Eastern Europe. The period of official activity of the trade union Solidarity has usually been called the ‘Polish Revolution’ due to the seriousness of the crisis in that country.

The aim of the paper is to trace the changing pattern of dissent and opposition among the Polish intellectuals exemplified by the activity of the Workers’ Defence Committee KOR. It argues that the Polish intellectuals gathered in KOR influenced in a significant way the Polish crisis of the 1980s. The KOR group considerably contributed to the emergence of Solidarity, it also helped to shape its activity and articulate its demands.     

Front and Back Covers,Volume 27, Number 4. August 2011

Front and back cover caption, volume 27 issue 4 Front cover R.I.P. Paul the Octopus During the 2010 football World Cup, Paul the Octopus became a global celebrity on the back of his ability to correctly predict the outcome of upcoming matches eight times in a row. Paul's fans queued in long lines outside the Sea Life Aquarium in Oberhausen, Germany, hoping to catch a glimpse of the brainy cephalopod who knew the World Cup champions ahead of anyone else. Upon his death, they demanded that Paul be immortalized. And indeed, in January 2011, the first‐ever octopus memorial, a larger‐than‐life‐sized octopus sitting on top of a football which doubles as shrine for his ashes, was unveiled at the aquarium. Paul's worldwide fan following transcended the borders of footballing nations. Paul made appearances on devotional altars in cricket‐obsessed India, and in existentialist plays in the United States, a country where football that is actually played with the foot still cannot compete with the local ball‐throwing game of the same name. An American documentary* detailing Paul's meteoric rise to psychic stardom is to be released in the autumn. How do we explain the extraordinary enthusiasm for an octopus vulgaris named Paul? What was it about his uncanny knowledge of the outcome of upcoming matches that enthralled so many, whether they cared about football or not? And what was it that made Germans, proud inheritors of the so‐called Enlightenment, build a memorial to a divining cephalopod? Clearly the answers have to go beyond the love for the game and to the heart of the human condition. In this issue, Lucia Volk asks if a cephalopod really can show us what it is that makes us truly human. * The life and times of Paul the psychic octopus. Cinema Vertige, Merlin Entertainments Group & Smiley World Media. Director Alexandre O. Philippe, Producer/DoP Robert Muratore ( https://www.facebook.com/seerofseers ). Back cover In this issue, Michań, Murawski approaches the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw as a medium through which to track Poland's shifting attitude towards Russia, especially in the wake of the 2010 Smolensk plane crash that took the lives of the Polish president, his wife and top‐ranking state and military officials. The crash took place just a few kilometres from the site of the 1940 Katyń massacre, in which Stalin's NKVD shot dead thousands of Polish army officers. Pointing the finger at Russia, many Poles refer to the crash as ‘Katyń II’. The Palace itself has, as a symbol of Russian dominance in the region, always provoked a mixed reaction in Warsaw. Gifted to Poland by the USSR in 1955, it remains the tallest building in Poland and towers over the Warsaw skyline. Although now largely disassociated from its difficult past in the everyday, the Smolensk crash brought the building's traumatic provenance to the fore again. Poland's tense relations with Russia will figure prominently over the next six months as Poland awaits the outcome of a Polish report into the Smolensk air disaster, takes up the leadership of the EU, and holds its own national elections. How will Warsaw's inhabitants reconcile themselves to this large building so symbolic of a foreign occupation, as long as it is tarnished by its association with Russia and that country's role in Katyń and, by extension, Smolensk?     

In the Shadow of a Mild Revolution: Polish Women's Political Attitudes during the Great Sejm (1788−1792)

The Great Sejm (1788−1792) is perceived as a turning point in Stanisław August Poniatowski's reign and as one of the most important Sejms in the history of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Studies devoted to this period concentrate in particular on parliamentary debates and deputies’ actions, as they were leading actors in this so-called Polish mild revolution. However, an interesting line of inquiry is to ask about women's experiences, as they were also aware of the importance of these events. This paper presents conclusions arising out of analysis of women's correspondence from the Archiwum Roskie (Roskie Archives): the legacy of the Lithuanian and Polish aristocratic Sapieha, Branicki and Potocki families that is maintained at the Archiwum Główne Akt Dawnych (Central Archives of Historical Records) in Warsaw. First, the article describes the group of correspondents and the source material extracted for examination. Second, it focuses on women's approaches towards the Sejm, its deputies and its attempts to reform the Republic. Lastly, it tries to explain the factors influencing women's attitudes. The study's results allow us to gain a better understanding of elite women's political culture in the late eighteenth-century Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.     

Death-Agony and Birth Pangs: Inheritors of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania under German Occupation 1915–1918

ABSTRACT

The Ober-Ost administration instated in 1915 covered a fragment of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania; a territory contested by Germany and Russia, inhabited by a nationally and religiously diverse society, with the Polish-Jewish city of Wilno as its central point. The German policies exploited the national aspirations of both the Lithuanians and the Belarusian leaders to dissolve the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Contrary to the Belarusian leaders focused on short-term benefits, the Lithuanian politicians proved more resourceful in using the seemingly pro-Lithuanian and pro-Belarusian policies towards obtaining their own nation state. The Germans discriminated the Lithuanian Poles in terms of rights to political activity, even when conducted without subsidies from the occupier. The disunity with the local society progressed and benefited the supporters of Polish national policies, however few in Wilno in 1915. The German authorities successfully pushed the Lithuanian Poles, so far seeking consensus with other local communities, towards merging with the post-war Polish state announced by the Act of 5th November 1916. The Germans backed the creation of small, interdependent Lithuanian and Belarusian states. The Lithuanians however issued a second declaration of independence (16.02.1918), thus becoming the only ones to benefit from Germany's military defeat.     

波兰华商的发展历程与转型之困--基于华沙中国城的田野调查

论文以波兰华沙的中国城为案例,通过实地观察、访谈和问卷调查等田野方法,考察了其历史沿革和现状、转型困境以及未来前景。华沙中国城是中东欧地区最大的中国商品批发中心和波兰最集中、规模最大的华侨华人社区,也是华商在波兰乃至中东欧地区创业的历史缩影。近年来,随着同行竞争的加剧、税务矛盾、经营模式的掣肘等问题出现,波兰华商面临的挑战和考验日益严峻。从宏观视角而言,波兰华商的发展历程和转型困境也是中国传统制造业在海外发展与转型升级的缩影。从传统意义的输出“廉价货”到“质优价廉”,再到如何走向具有高附加值的“品牌化”发展道路,是当前从事贸易批发的波兰华商,乃至整个中东欧地区华商的主要发展方向。     

A Mastered Past? Prussia in Postwar German Memory

This article compares the recent ‘Prussia Year 2001’events marking the 300th anniversary of the founding of thePrussian state with the famous ‘Prussia Wave’ ofthe late 1970s and early 1980s in order to evaluate the evolvingstatus of Prussia in postwar German memory. It asserts thatGermans have largely abandoned their formerly polarized viewsof Prussia and have increasingly arrived at a more balancedview of its historical legacy. In developing a more normalizedview of the Prussian past, Germans have demonstrated that difficulthistorical legacies may, to some degree, in fact, be ‘mastered’.At the same time, the article shows how the seemingly successfulconfrontation with the Prussian past remains burdened by theenduring effort to confront the legacy of the Third Reich.     

Overcoming legacies of foreign policy (dis)interests in the negotiation of the European Union–Australia free trade agreement*

ABSTRACT

Despite a troubled trade history dominated by disputes over agriculture, the negotiation of a European Union (EU)–Australia free trade agreement (FTA) was initiated in 2015. The initiation of these negotiations was made possible because of the shift in EU trade policy towards the negotiation of what the EU terms ‘new generation free trade agreements’. The EU has concluded FTA negotiations with South Korea, Singapore, Vietnam and Canada, and is negotiating other FTAs— notably with Japan and the USA . The EU faces many commercial challenges to its FTA negotiations that go beyond tariff reduction, including the protection of its geographical indicators, public procurement and investor–state dispute settlement. These issues are likely to be substantial features of any EU FTA with Australia. In addition to these challenges, the promotion of sustainable development interests and human rights through FTA negotiations is an important component of the EU’s approach. The EU’s position on the trade-related aspects of sustainable development and the negotiation of human rights conditionality has presented significant challenges to the EU’s trade agenda, particularly in negotiations with Canada and Singapore. This article draws lessons from the EU’s new generation trade agreement negotiations to date. It compares these negotiations with Australia’s approach to FTA negotiations, and analyses potential stumbling blocks for an EU–Australia FTA in light of past tensions in the relationship. The article argues that shifts in both EU and Australian trade policies and positive developments in the relationship mitigate past obstacles to a negotiated agreement. However, EU– Australia relations still suffer from the tyranny of distance. The resulting deficit in foreign policy salience between the EU and Australia broadens the best alternatives to a negotiated agreement.     

Rousseau’s reception as an Epicurean: from atheism to aesthetics

ABSTRACT

What did Rousseau's readers mean when they called him an ‘Epicurean’? A seemingly simple question with complex implications. This article attempts to answer it by reconstructing Rousseau's contemporary reception as an Epicurean thinker. First, it surveys the earliest and most widely read critics of the second Discourse: Prussian Astronomer Royal Jean de Castillon, Jesuit priest Louis Bertrand Castel, and Hanoverian biblical scholar Hermann Samuel Reimarus. These readers branded Rousseau an Epicurean primarily to highlight his atheism, his anti-providential and materialist natural philosophy. Then, it discusses Genevan pastor Jacob Vernet's positive assessment of Rousseau as a critic of ‘fashionable’ Epicureanism, before reconstructing Rousseau's critique of the reception of Alexander Pope's Essay on Man as an Epicurean text. These sources elucidate Rousseau's engagement with a range of ideas and argumentative positions that would inform his later self-identification as a ‘refined’ Epicurean. In particular, they highlight his interest in how a sentimental awareness of beauty might mitigate the potentially vicious effects of hedonism. The article concludes with novelist Mme. de Genlis’ critique of Rousseau's Wise Materialism, using his thoughts on the imagination to suggest some of the ways the neglected aesthetic dimensions of Rousseau's reception of Epicureanism might be developed.     

Polish experiences with Scandinavian activity in the League of Nations

The aim of this article is to analyse the role played by Scandinavian politicians and experts working for the League of Nations in resolving conflicts to which Poland was a party and how this activity was assessed by Polish diplomats and politicians. Scandinavian involvement in decision-making processes related to Polish interests was mainly studied on the basis of diplomatic documents as well as Polish and Swedish press articles. The analysis focuses on several key issues. The first relates to the background to the involvement of Swedish politicians and experts in the procedures employed to resolve the Polish–Lithuanian conflict over Vilnius. Another concerns the attitude of the Scandinavian states towards electing Poland as a member of the League Council between 1923 and 1935, with special emphasis on the Swedish veto of 1926. Finally, the involvement of Scandinavian experts in resolving conflicts between Poland and the city of Danzig is discussed. In this case, the most important figure was Helmer Rosting, who held the position of the League of Nations High Commissioner in the Free City of Danzig between 1932 and 1934. The conclusions emphasize that Poles were generally dissatisfied with the work of the Scandinavians, accusing them of being biased towards the Germans and Lithuanians. Moreover, the Polish party involved believed that, when making their judgments and decisions, Scandinavian officials only followed the letter of the law and did not pay sufficient regard to the political context.     

The Experiences of a Polish Family from the Eastern Borderlands (1914–1921): The Protassewiczes of Borki

ABSTRACT

This article examines how two generations of a large Polish landed family from the Grodno governorate in the Russian Empire were affected by the political and social upheavals brought about by World War One, the Russian Revolution, the threat of Bolshevism, and the rebirth of a Polish state. The Protassewiczes, like other landed noble families in the region, despite their Polish- Lithuanian identity, enjoyed a privileged social status in tsarist Russia. Marriage and work took many of the family’s members to Wilno (Vilnius) and Siberia, while a younger member studied in Austrian Galicia where he joined Pi?sudski’s organisation. The article describes the evacuation to Taganrog in 1915 of the senior Protassewicz and his subsequent return to Borki in 1918 to face the ensuing Polish-Soviet War. Two members of the family who were engaged in railway building in Siberia met a tragic end. The younger generation participated in Polish military efforts in the east in 1919–21 and adapted successfully to life in restored Poland. Attention is paid to issues of national identity raised by rival Polish and Lithuanian claims to Wilno in the context of the fall of empires and the emergence of new national states.     

Space,time and history in the Polish People’s Republic: the trilogy Sami swoi,Nie ma mocnych,Kochaj albo rzuć

Abstract

The article discusses the meanings of popular culture, authenticity and history in People’s Republic of Poland. As an example it uses a popular film trilogy. The trilogy Sami swoi, Nie ma mocnych and Kochaj albo rzu? (‘All friends here’, ‘Take it easy’ and ‘Love or leave me’) was shown in Polish cinemas between 1967 and 1977. The reviews were written just after the premières. The article uses the concepts of time and space elaborated by Mikhail Bakhtin and Doreen Massey to analyze the different chronotopes of the films. It analyses both the films and the reviews as strategies of creating authenticity and creating cultural meanings: the meaning of history and the meanings of rurality. I will show how history and present, memory and society are interwoven in the light of popular production. In addition, I will emphasize the diverse interpretation possibilities resulting from this micro-historical view and the transnational critique of modernism highlighting the small and local which emerged throughout Europe in the 1970s.     

Negotiating Germanness: National Socialist Germanization policy in the Wartheland

ABSTRACT

Given the crucial importance of the notion of Volksgemeinschaft in Nazi Germany, one might assume that there existed a common understanding about who did or did not belong to it. Before the war, the Nazis clearly prioritized the latter, with the Volksgemeinschaft taking shape in a process of excluding those deemed to be enemies of the people. When German troops crossed into Poland, the balance shifted. Conquering land that could only be turned into German living space when settled with Germans, the occupation authorities were suddenly confronted with the opposite. Establishing the German Volksgemeinschaft in multinational territories now meant sifting through the local population and separating Germans from Poles. One might have thought that it should be easy enough to answer what was a simple enough question: who is German in annexed Poland? It was not easy, however, as I will show by looking at the selection procedure set up by the provincial government in the Wartheland, the so-called German People’s Register. Given the polycratic nature of the Nazi regime, it was to be expected that this would quickly descend into a bitter dispute with rival power factions with rather different ideas about how to define Germanness. What is surprising, however, is that it was loyal behaviour and not, for example, ‘racial suitability’ that emerged as the primary criterion. Surprising, too, is the extent to which the native population subjected to this process was able to influence its outcome by using every opportunity to convince the provincial government of its German credentials.