The Linking of National and Religious Identity and the Image of Germans in the Polish Press in West Prussia in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Cover Image

„Lutrzy” i „dajczkatolicy”. Kreacja wizerunku Niemców na łamach polskiej prasy Prus Zachodnich na przełomie XIX i XX w. – w obliczu łączenia przynależności narodowej z wyznaniową
The Linking of National and Religious Identity and the Image of Germans in the Polish Press in West Prussia in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century

Author(s): Paweł ŚPICA
Subject(s): History, Social Sciences, Communication studies, Modern Age, Recent History (1900 till today), 19th Century
Published by: Uniwersytet Jana Długosza w Częstochowie
Keywords: West Prussia; Polish-German relations; religious relations; Pomeranian Newspaper; history of education

Summary/Abstract: The development of modern nationalism and anti-Polish policy of the Prussian authorities contributed to the deterioration of Polish-German relations in West Prussia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Religious differences also did not favor non-confrontational coexistence of both nations. At that time an important role in shaping national consciousness of Pomeranian Poles played a Polish newspaper. Press repeatedly served as educational. On the pages of Polish newspaper, journalists were informing readers about the German policy and ways of fighting from germanization. The journalists also were presenting themselves as defenders of the Polish language and the Catholic faith. As a result, they were showing the Germans through the prism of national and religious differences. On the pages of the Polish press Germans Protestants and Germans Catholics were shown otherwise. This article treats about how the Polish journalists were shaping the imagination of Poles about the German Protestants and Catholics in West Prussia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in the face of intensifying conflict based on nationality.

  • Issue Year: 2015
  • Issue No: 24
  • Page Range: 523-537
  • Page Count: 15
  • Language: Polish