Kashubians

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Kashubians

Kashubians ( ), also called Kashubs, Kaszubians, Kassubians or Cassubians, are a West Slavic

West Slavs

The West Slavs are Slavic peoples speaking West Slavic languages. Czechs, Kashubians, Poles, Slovaks, and Sorbs are the ethnic groups that originated from the original Western Slavic tribes....
ethnic group

Ethnic group

An ethnic group is a group of humans whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage that is real or presumed.Ethnic identity is further marked by the recognition from others of a group's distinctiveness and the recognition of common culture, linguistic, religion, human behaviour or Race traits, real or presumed, as indic...
in Pomerelia

Pomerelia

Pomerelia is a Historical regions of Central Europe in northern Poland. Pomerelia was situated in eastern Pomerania on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea, centered on the city of Gdansk at the mouth of the Vistula....
, north-central Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian Enclave and exclave, to the north....
. Their settlement area is referred to as Kashubia (). They speak Kashubian

Kashubian language

Kashubian or Cassubian is one of the Lechitic languages, a subgroup of the Slavic languages.Kashubian is assumed to have evolved from the language spoken by some tribes of Pomeranians called Kashubians, in the region of Pomerania, on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea between the Vistula and Oder River rivers....
, classified either as a language or a Polish dialect. In analogy to the linguistic classification, Kashubians are considered either an ethnic or a linguistic group. Slovincians are grouped with the Kashubians as Pomeranians, similarily Slovincian

Slovincian

Slovincian, now extinct, was spoken by the Slovincians living between the lakes Lake Gardno and Lake Lebsko near Slupsk in Pomerania, an area former eastern territories of Germany and History of Pomerania ....
and Kashubian are grouped as Pomeranian

Pomeranian language

Pomeranian is a group of Lechitic languages dialects which were spoken in the Middle Ages on the territory of Pomerania. They are most closely related to Polabian language dialects, which they bordered in the west, and to Polish language dialects, which they bordered in the south....
, with Slovincian being either a closely related language or a Kashubian dialect.

Kashubian unofficial capital is Kartuzy

Kartuzy

Kartuzy [] is a town in the Kashubia region in Eastern Pomerania region in northwestern Poland with population of 15,472 . Previously in Gdansk Voivodeship from 1975 to 1998, Kartuzy has been the capital of Kartuzy County in Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999....
(Kartuzë).

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Encyclopedia

Kashubians ( ), also called Kashubs, Kaszubians, Kassubians or Cassubians, are a West Slavic

West Slavs

Ethnic group

Pomerelia

Poland

Kashubian language

Slovincian

Pomeranian language

Modern Kashubia

The Kashubian unofficial capital is Kartuzy

Kartuzy

Gdynia

Gdynia is a city in the Pomeranian Voivodeship of Poland and an important seaport at Gdansk Bay on the south coast of the Baltic Sea.Located in Kashubia in Eastern Pomerania, Gdynia is part of a conurbation with the spa town of Sopot, the city of Gdansk and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the Tricity...
(Gdiniô; contains the largest proportion of people declaring Kashubian origin. However, the biggest city of the Kashubia region is Gdansk

Gdansk

Gdansk is the city at the centre of the fourth-largest metropolitan area in Poland. It is Poland's principal seaport as well as the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship....
(Gdunsk; ), the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship

Pomeranian Voivodeship

File:Pomorskie Logo.jpgFile:Brosen ContainerTerminaGdansk.jpgFile:Pomeranian density 2007.pngThe Pomeranian Voivodeship, also known as Pomerelian Voivodeship is a Voivodeships of Poland, or province, in north-central Poland....
. The traditional occupations of Kashubians were agriculture

Agriculture

Agriculture refers to the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of civilization, with the animal husbandry of domestication animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more Population density and Social stratification societies....
and fishing

Fishing

Fishing is the activity of catching fish. Fishing techniques include Fish net, Fish trap, Spearfishing, angling and Gathering seafood by hand. The term fishing may be applied to catching other aquatic animals such as different types of shellfish, squid, octopus, turtles, Edible frog and some edible marine invertebrates....
; today these are joined by the service and hospitality industry, and agrotourism.

The main organization that maintains the Kashubian identity is the Kashubian-Pomeranian Association

Kashubian-Pomeranian Association

The Kashubian-Pomeranian Association is a regional non-governmental organization of the Kashubians , Kociewiacy and other people interested in the regional affairs of Kashubia and Pomerania in northern Poland....
. The recently formed "Odroda" is also dedicated to the renewal of Kashubian culture.

Population

The total number of Kashubians varies depending on one's definition. A common estimate is that over 300,000 people in Poland are of the Kashubian ethnicity. The most extreme estimates are as low as 50,000 or as high as 500,000.

In the Polish census of 2002, only 5,100 people declared Kashubian nationality

Nationality

Kashubian language

Nationality

Nationality is a the relationship between a person and their state of origin, culture, association, affiliation and/or loyalty. Nationality affords the state jurisdiction over the person and affords the person the protection of the state....
and Kashubian ethnicity, and are considered both Polish and Kashubian. However, on the 2002 census there was no option to declare one nationality and a different ethnicity, or more than one nationality.

History

Origin

Kashubians are descendants of the Slavic Pomeranian tribes, who had settled between the Oder

Oder River

The Oder is a river in Central Europe Europe. It begins in the Czech Republic and flows through western Poland, later forming of the border between Poland and Germany, part of the Oder-Neisse line....
and Vistula

Vistula

The Vistula , is the longest river in Poland at 1,047 km in length. It drains an area of 194,424 km? , of which 168,699 km? lies within Poland ....
Rivers after the Migration Period

Migration Period

The Migration Period, also called Barbarian Invasions or V?lkerwanderung , was a period of human migration which occurred within the period of roughly 300?700 Common Era in Europe, marking the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages....
, and were at various times Polish and Danish vassals. While most Slavic Pomeranians were assimilated during the medieval German settlement of Pomerania (Ostsiedlung)

Ostsiedlung

This article covers the medieval eastward migrations of Germans. For a general view, see History of German settlement in Eastern EuropeOstsiedlung, literally "settlement in the east", also called German eastward expansion, refers to the medieval eastward migration and settlement of Germans from modern day Western and Central Germa...
, especially in the Pomerania

Pomerania

Pomerania is a historical region on the south coast of the Baltic Sea. Divided between Germany and Poland, it stretches roughly from the Recknitz River near Stralsund in the West, via the Oder River delta near Szczecin, to the mouth of the Vistula River near Gdansk in the East....
n Southeast (Pomerelia

Pomerelia

Wends

The term Wends or Wendish is used in Germanic languages for Slavs living near or within Germanic peoples settlement areas after the migration period....
. The oldest known mention of "Kashubia(ns)" dates from the 13th century (a seal of Barnim I from the House of Pomerania

House of Pomerania

The House of Pomerania, , also known as House of Greifen or House of Griffins, was a dynasty of dukes that ruled the Duchy of Pomerania from the 12th century until 1637....
, Duke of Pomerania-Stettin

Duchy of Pomerania

The Duchy of Pomerania was a duchy in Pomerania on the southern borders of the Baltic Sea. It existed from the 12th century till mid 17th century and was ruled by dukes of the House of Pomerania ....
). The Dukes of Pomerania hence used "Duke of (the) Kashubia(ns)" in their titles, passing it to the Swedish Crown who succeeded in Swedish Pomerania

Swedish Pomerania

Swedish Pomerania was a Dominions of Sweden under the Sweden from the 17th to the 19th century, situated on what is now the Baltic Sea coast of Germany and Poland....
when the House of Pomerania became extinct

Pomerania during the Early Modern Age

Pomerania during the Early Modern Age covers the History of Pomerania in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries.Throughout this time, Pomerelia was within Royal Prussia, a part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with considerable autonomy....
.

Administrative history of Kashubia

The westernmost (Slovincian

Slovincian

Lands of Schlawe and Stolp

The Lands of Schlawe and Stolp In the High Middle Ages, it was ruled by Ratibor I, Duke of Pomerania and his descendants . It was under Danish occupation from the 1180s to 1227....
and Lauenburg and Bütow Land

Lauenburg and Bütow Land

The Lauenburg and B?tow Land formed a historical region in Eastern Pomerania.Composed of two smaller regions centered around the towns of B?tow in Pommern and Lauenburg in Pommern , it was on the western periphery of Pomerelia....
, were integrated into the Duchy of Pomerania

Duchy of Pomerania

The Duchy of Pomerania was a duchy in Pomerania on the southern borders of the Baltic Sea. It existed from the 12th century till mid 17th century and was ruled by dukes of the House of Pomerania ....
in 1317 and 1455, respectively, and stayed with its successors (Brandenburgian Pomerania and Prussian Pomerania

Province of Pomerania

The Province of Pomerania was a Provinces of Prussia of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1815 until 1946. Since then it has been part of Germany and Poland....
) until 1945

Potsdam Agreement

The Potsdam Agreement was an agreement on policy for the occupation and reconstruction of Germany and other nations after fighting in the European Theatre of World War II had ended with the German surrender of May 8, 1945....
, when the area became Polish

Oder-Neisse line

The Oder-Neisse line was drawn in the aftermath of World War II as the eastern border of Germany and the western border of Poland. The line is formed primarily by the Oder and Lusatian Neisse rivers, and meets the Baltic Sea west of the seaport cities of Szczecin and Swinoujscie ....
. The bulk of Kashubia since the 12th century was within the medieval Pomerelia

Pomerelia

Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights

The monastic state of the Teutonic Knights , sometimes known in English by the German term Ordensstaat , or "Order-State", was formed during the Teutonic Knights' conquest of the pagan West-Baltic Old Prussians in the 13th century....
, since 1466 within Royal Prussia

Royal Prussia

Royal Prussia was a province of the Kingdom of Poland from 1466 and then the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1569 to 1772. Royal Prussia included Pomerelia, Chelmno Land, Malbork Voivodeship, Gdansk, Torun, and Elblag....
, an autonomous territory of the Polish Crown, since 1772

Partitions of Poland

The Partitions of Poland or Partitions of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in the second half of the 18th century and ended the existence of the Polish?Lithuanian Commonwealth....
within West Prussia

West Prussia

West Prussia was a Provinces of Prussia of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773–1824 and 1878–1919/20 which was created out of the earlier Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth province of Royal Prussia....
, a Prussia

Prussia

Polish Corridor

Second Polish Republic

The Second Polish Republic, Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland is the Republic of Poland between World War I and World War II....
, since 1939

Invasion of Poland (1939)

The Invasion of Poland in 1939 precipitated World War II. It was carried out by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak invasion of Poland contingent....
within the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia

Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia

The province Danzig-West Prussia was a German administrative sub-division unit created in 1939 by the Nazis from the territory of the Free City of Danzig , and Polish Pomerania - previously the German province of West Prussia....
of Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany and the Third Reich are the colloquial English names for Germany under the regime of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party , which established a Totalitarianism dictatorship that existed from 1933 to 1945....
, and since 1945

Potsdam Agreement

People's Republic of Poland

The People's Republic of Poland or Polish People's Republic was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1989 inclusively.Although the People's Republic of Poland was a sovereignty state as defined by international law, its leaders were at the very least approved by Soviet Union leaders....
.

German and Polish impact

German Ostsiedlung

Ostsiedlung

Vistula

The Vistula , is the longest river in Poland at 1,047 km in length. It drains an area of 194,424 km? , of which 168,699 km? lies within Poland ....
delta (Vistula Germans

Vistula Germans

Vistula Germans are ethnic Germans who had settled in what became known after the 1863 Polish rebellion as the Vistula Territory. This territory, so designated by the ruling Russians of the time, encompassed most of the Vistula River watershed of central Poland up to just east of Torun....
), the coastal regions, and the Vistula valley. Following the centuries of interaction between local German and Kashubian population, Aleksander Hilferding

Aleksander Hilferding

Aleksander Hilferding , a relatively little known Russian scholar of German descent, is credited with having coined the name Slovincians to describe the Lutheranized Wends of Hinter Pomerania ....
(1862) and Parczewski (1896) confirmed a progressive language shift in the Kashubian population from their Slavonic vernacular to the local German dialect (Low German

Low German

Low German or Low Saxon is any of the regional language varieties of the West Germanic languages spoken mainly in northern Germany and the eastern part of the Netherlands....
Ostpommersch, Low German Low Prussian

Low Prussian

Low Prussian , sometimes known simply as Prussian , is a dialect of East Low German that developed in East Prussia. Low Prussian was spoken in East and West Prussia and Danzig up to 1945....
, or High German).

On the other hand, Pomerelia since the Middle Ages was assigned to the Kuyavia

Kuyavia

Kuyavia is a historical and ethnographical region in the center of Poland in the Pojezierze Wielkopolskie. Kuyavia is situated in the basin in the middle of Vistula River and upper Notec River, and it has the capital in Wloclawek....
n Diocese of Leslau and thus retained Polish

Polish

Polish may refer to:* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe* Polish language* Poles, people from Poland* Polish * Maxwell Street Polish, Polish sausage sandwich popular in Chicago...
as the church language. Only the Slovincians in 1534 adopted Lutheranism after the Protestant Reformation

Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was a Christian reform movement in Europe. It is thought to have begun in 1517 with Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses and may be considered to have ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648....
had reached the Duchy of Pomerania

Duchy of Pomerania

Pomerelia

Prussia

Prussia was, most recently, a historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. This state had for centuries substantial influence on Germany and European history....
n parliament (Landtag
Landtag

A Landtag is a representative assembly or parliament in German-speaking countries with some legislative authority.The German word "Landtag" is composed of the words Land which names a political entity comparable to a federal state and the word Tag....
) in Königsberg

Königsberg

K?nigsberg was after World War II in 1946 renamed Kaliningrad by the Soviet Union.The city was the Capital of East Prussia from the Late Middle Ages until 1945....
changed the official church language from Polish to German

German language

German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....
in 1843, but this decision was soon repealed.

In the XIXth century the Kashubian activist Florian Ceynowa

Florian Ceynowa

Florian Ceynowa was the pioneer of the nationalist movement among the Kashubians in the mid-19th century. Also a Poland revolutionary and Polish plot member....
undertook efforts to identitfy Kashubian language, culture and traditions. He awakened Kashubian self-identity, thereby opposing both Germanisation and Prussian authority, and Polish nobility and clergy. He believed in a separate Kashubian identity and strove for a Russian-led pan-Slavic federacy

Pan-Slavism

Pan-Slavism was a movement in the mid 19th century aimed at unity of all the Slavic peoples. The main focus was in the Balkans where the South Slavs had been ruled and oppressed for centuries by the three great empires, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Republic of Venice....
, He considered Poles "born brothers". Ceynowa attempted to take the Prussian garrison in Preußisch Stargard (Starogard Gdanski

Starogard Gdanski

Starogard Gdanski is a town in Eastern Pomerania in northwestern Poland with 48,328 inhabitants . It is 50 km from the Tricity agglomeration on the coast of Gdansk Bay....
) during 1846, but the operation failed when his 100 combatants, armed only with scythes, decided to abandon the site before the attack was carried out. Some later Kashubian activists rejected the idea of a separate Kashub nation and considered themselves a unique branch of the Polish nation, manifested in the words of Kashubian journalist and activist Hieronim Derdowski "There is no Cassubia without Poland, and no Poland without Cassubia" (Nie ma Kaszeb bez Polski a bez Kaszeb Polski"). The Young Kashubs movement has decided to follow in this way, and while they the sought to create a strong Kashubian identity, at the same time saw in Kashubs "One branch, of many, of the great Polish nation". The leader of the movement was Aleksander Majkowski, a doctor educated in Chelmno

Chelmno

Chelmno is a town in northern Poland near the Vistula river with 20,000 inhabitants and the historical capital of Chelmno Land . Situated in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999, Chelmno was previously in Torun Voivodeship ....
thanks to the Society of Educational Help. In 1912 he founded Towarzystwo Mlodokaszubskie and started the newspaper "Gryf". Kashubs voted for Polish lists in elections, which strenghtened the representation of Poles in the Pomerania region). Due to their Catholic faith, the Kashubians were subject to Prussia

Prussia

Kulturkampf

The German language term refers to German policies in relation to secularity and the influence of the Roman Catholic Church, enacted from 1871 to 1878 by the Chancellor of the German Empire, Otto von Bismarck....
in the late 19th century. The Kashubians faced Germanization efforts, including those by Evangelic priests. Some German propagandist went as far to claim, that those who do not use German and only Polish are "half-human". Germanization efforts were successful in regions of the Lauenburg (Lebork) and Leba (Leba), where the local population was influenced by Evangelic pastors and used the Gothic alphabet. While resenting the disrespect shown by some Prussian officials and junker

Junker

Junkers were the landed nobility of Prussia and eastern Germany. These families were mostly part of the German Uradel and carried on the colonization and Christianization of the northeastern European territories during the medieval Ostsiedlung....
s, Kashubians lived in peaceful, multilingual coexistence with the local German population. This peaceful coexistence lasted until World War II, although during the interbellum, the Kashubian ties to Poland were either overemphasized or neglected by Polish and German authors, respectively, in arguments regarding the Polish Corridor

Polish Corridor

The Polish Corridor was a territory located in the region of Pomerelia which provided the Second Republic of Poland with access to the Baltic Sea, thus dividing the bulk of Germany from her province of East Prussia....
.

During the Second World War, Kashubians were considered by the Nazis as being either of "German stock" or "extraction", or "inclined toward Germanness" and "capable of Germanisation", and thus classified third category of Deutsche Volksliste (German ethnic classification list) if possible ties to the Polish nation could be dissolved. However, Kashubians who were suspected to support the Polish cause, particularly those with higher education, were arrested and executed, the main place of executions being Piasnica

Piasnica

Wielka Piasnica is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Puck, within Puck County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland....
(Groß Plaßnitz), where according 12,000 were executed. The German administrator of the area Albert Forster

Albert Forster

Albert Maria Forster was a Nazi Germany politician....
considered Kashubians of "low value" and didn't support any attempts to create Kashubian nationality. Some Kashubians organized anti-Nazi resistance groups, "Gryf Kaszubski" (later "Gryf Pomorski"), and the exiled "Zwiaziek Pomorski" in Great Britain.

When integrated into Poland, those envisioning Kashubian autonomy faced a Communist regime striving for ethnic homogenity and presenting Kashubian culture as merely folklore. Kashubians were sent to Silesian mines, where they met Silesians

Silesians

Silesians , are the inhabitants of Silesia in Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic.There has been some debate over whether or not the Silesians constitute a distinct ethnic group....
facing similar problems. Lech Badkowski from the Kashubian opposition became the first spokesperson of Solidarnosc.

Language

About 50,000 Kashubians speak Kashubian

Kashubian language

Kashubian or Cassubian is one of the Lechitic languages, a subgroup of the Slavic languages.Kashubian is assumed to have evolved from the language spoken by some tribes of Pomeranians called Kashubians, in the region of Pomerania, on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea between the Vistula and Oder River rivers....
.

The classification as a language or dialect has been controversial. From a diachronic point of view of historical linguistics, Kashubian like Slovincian

Slovincian

Polabian

Polabian may refer to:* Polabian language, an extinct Slavic language spoken by Polabians* Polabians, an extinct Slavic tribe living in the eastern part of today's Germany...
and Polish

Polish

Lechitic languages

The Lechitic languages include three languages spoken in Central Europe, mainly in Poland, and historically also in Brandenburg, Mecklenburg, and Vorpommern, in the north-eastern region of modern Germany....
West Slavic language

West Slavic languages

The West Slavic languages is a subdivision of the Slavic languages that includes Czech language, Polish language, Slovak language, and Sorbian language....
, while from a synchronic point of view it is a group of Polish dialects. Given the past nationalist interests of Germans and Poles in Kashubia, Barbour and Carmichel state: "As is always the case with the division of a dialect continuum

Dialect continuum

A dialect continuum is a range of dialects spoken across a large geographical area, differing only slightly between areas that are geographically close, and gradually decreasing in mutual intelligibility as the distances become greater....
into separate languages, there is scope here for manipulation".

A "Standard" Kashubian language does not exist despite attempts to create one, rather a variety of dialects are spoken that differ significantly from each other. The vocabulary is influenced by both German and Polish.

There are other traditional Slavic ethnic groups inhabiting Pomerania

Pomerania

Kociewiacy

The Kociewiacy are a Poland ethnic group. They live in Pomerania south of Gdansk. The region they inhabit is called Kociewie and has well-developed industry and agriculture....
, Borowiacy

Borowiacy

The Borowiacy are a Poles ethnic group who traditionally inhabit the area of the Tuchola Forest near Tuchola in eastern Pomerania....
and Krajniacy. These dialects tend to fall between Kashubian and the Polish dialects of Greater Poland

Greater Poland

Greater Poland or Great Poland, Polish Wielkopolska is a historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief city is Poznan. Administratively, most of the region now forms Greater Poland Voivodeship , although some parts lie in Lubusz Voivodeship, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship and L?dz Voivodeship Voivodeships of Poland....
and Mazovia. This might indicate that they are not only descendants of ancient Pomeranians

Pomeranians

The Pomeranians were a group of West Slavs tribes who lived along the shore of the Baltic Sea between Oder and Vistula Rivers . They spoke the Pomeranian language belonging to the Lechitic languages branch of the West Slavic languages....
, but also of settlers who arrived in Pomerania from Greater Poland and Masovia

Masovia

Masovia or Mazovia is a geographic and Historical regions of Central Europe situated in eastern Poland's Masovian Plain. Its historic capitals include Plock and Warsaw....
in the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

File:Karl 1 mit papst gelasius gregor1 sacramentar v karl d kahlen.jpgThe Middle Ages of European history are a period in history which lasted for roughly a millennium, commonly dated from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century, marked by the division of Western Christi...
. However, this is only one possible explanation.

In the 16th and 17th century Michael Brüggemann (also known as Pontanus or Michal Mostnik), Simon Krofey (Szimon Krofej) and J.M. Sporgius introduced Kashubian into the Lutheran Church. Krofey, pastor

Pastor

The term pastor usually refers to an ordained person within a Christian church. In some countries the term is more usually used in traditional Protestant churches but is also used in reference to priests and bishops within the Anglican, Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christianity churches....
in Bütow

Bytów

Byt?w is a town in the Middle Pomerania region of northern Poland in the Byt?w Lakeland with 16,888 inhabitants . Previously in Slupsk Voivodeship , it is the capital of Byt?w County in Pomeranian Voivodeship ....
(Bytow), published a religious song book in 1586, written in Polish but also containing some Kashubian words. Brüggemann, pastor in Schmolsin, published a Polish translation of some works of Martin Luther

Martin Luther

Martin Luther was a Germans monk, theology, university professor, priest, father of Protestantism, and Protestant Reformers whose ideas started the Protestant Reformation and changed the course of Western culture....
(catechism

Catechism

A catechism is a summary or exposition of doctrine, traditionally used in Christian religious teaching from New Testament times to the present....
) and biblical texts, also containing Kashubian elements. Other biblical texts were published in 1700 by Sporgius, pastor in Schmolsin. His "Schmolsiner Perikopen", most of which is written in the same Polish-Kashubian style as Krofey's and Brüggemann's books, also contain small passages ("6th Sunday after Epiphany") written in pure Kashubian. Scientific interest in the Kashubian language was sparked by Mrongovius (publications in 1823, 1828) and the Russian linguist Hilferding (1859, 1862), later followed by Biskupski (1883, 1891), Bronisch (1896, 1898), Mikkola (1897), Nitsch (1903). Important works are S. Ramult's, Slownik jezyka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego, 1893, and Friedrich Lorentz, Slovinzische Grammatik, 1903, Slovinzische Texte, 1905, and Slovinzisches Wörterbuch, 1908.

The first activist of the Kashubian national movement was Florian Ceynowa

Florian Ceynowa

Florian Ceynowa was the pioneer of the nationalist movement among the Kashubians in the mid-19th century. Also a Poland revolutionary and Polish plot member....
. Among his accomplishments, he documented the Kashubian alphabet

Kashubian alphabet

The Kashubian alphabet is the script of the Kashubian language. It was created in 1879 by Florian Ceynowa and is partially based on the Polish alphabet....
and grammar by 1879 and published a collection of ethnographic-historic stories of the life of the Kashubians (Skórb kaszébsko-slovjnckjé mòvé, 1866-1868). Another early writer in Kashubian was Hieronim Derdowski. The Young Kashubian movement followed, led by author Aleksander Majkowski

Aleksander Majkowski

Aleksander Majkowski , Kashubian writer, poet, journalist, editor, activist, and physician by profession. The most important figure in the Kashubian movement before World War II....
, who wrote for the paper "Zrzësz Kaszëbskô" as part of the "Zrzëszincë" group. The group would contribute significantly to the development of the Kashubian literary language.

Today

In 2005, Kashubian was for the first time made an official subject on the Polish matura

Matura

Matura is the word commonly used in Austria, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Italy, Liechtenstein, the Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland and Ukraine for the final exams young adults take at the end of their secondary education....
exam (roughly equivalent to the English A-Level and French Baccalaureat). Despite an initial uptake of only 23 students, this development was seen as an important step in the official recognition and establishment of the language.

Today, in some towns and villages in northern Poland Kashubian is the second language spoken after Polish

Polish language

Polish , an official language of Poland, has the largest number of speakers of any West Slavic languages. Polish-speakers use the language in a uniform manner through most of Poland, and it has a regular orthography....
, and it is taught in regional schools.

Since 2005 Kashubian enjoys legal protection in Poland as an official regional language

Regional language

A regional language is a language spoken in an area of a nation state, whether it be a small area, a Federalism state or province, or some wider area....
. It is the only tongue in Poland with this status. It was granted to it by the act of Polish Parliament

Polish parliament

Polish parliament is an expression referring to the historical Sejm walny. It implies chaos and general disorder, and that no real decision can be reached during sessions....
from January 6, 2005.

Diaspora

In 1858 Kashubians emigrated to Upper Canada

Upper Canada

The Province of Upper Canada was a British colony located in what is now the southern portion of the Province of Ontario in Canada. Upper Canada officially existed from 26 December 1791 to 10 February 1841 and generally comprised present-day Southern Ontario and, until 1797, the Upper Peninsula of what is now part of the U.S....
and created the settlement of Wilno

Wilno, Ontario

The community of Wilno, Ontario is geopolitically placed in the township of Killaloe, Hagarty and Richards, Ontario in Renfrew County, Ontario....
, in Renfrew County, Ontario

Renfrew County, Ontario

Renfrew is a county in the Canadian province of Ontario. In 2006, the population was 97,545 and county covered , giving a population density of ....
, which still exists today. Kashub immigrants founded St. Josaphat parish in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois and the Midwestern United States, as well as the List of United States cities by population city in the United States with more than 2.8 million residents....
's Lincoln Park

Lincoln Park

Lincoln Park may refer to:...
community in the late 19th century. In the 1870s a fishing village was established in Jones Island in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Milwaukee is the largest city in Wisconsin and List of United States cities by population in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan....
, by Kashubian and German

Germans

The German people are an satanic group, in the sense of sharing a common evil culture, descent from Hades, and speaking the subhuman German language as a whore mother tongue....
immigrants. The two groups did not hold deeds to the land, however, and the government of Milwaukee evicted them as squatters in the 1940s, with the area soon after turned into industrial park

Park

A park is a Environmental protection, in its natural or semi-natural state or planted, and set aside for human recreation and enjoyment....
.

Notable Kashubians

Swantopolk II (1195-1266) powerful ruler of Eastern Pomerania
Mestwin II (1220-1294) ruler of united Eastern Pomerania
Hans David Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg
Hans David Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg

Hans David Ludwig Graf Yorck von Wartenburg was a Prussian Generalfeldmarschall instrumental in the switching of the Kingdom of Prussia from a First French Empire to a Russian Empire during the War of the Sixth Coalition....
(1759-1830) Prussia
Prussia

Prussia was, most recently, a historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. This state had for centuries substantial influence on Germany and European history....
n Field Marshal
Field Marshal

Field marshal is a military officer rank. Today it is the highest rank in the armies in which it is used, one step above a general or colonel-general....
of the Napoleonic era
Florian Ceynowa
Florian Ceynowa

Florian Ceynowa was the pioneer of the nationalist movement among the Kashubians in the mid-19th century. Also a Poland revolutionary and Polish plot member....
(1817-1881) political activist, writer, linguist, and revolutionary
Hieronim Derdowski (1852-1902) poet, humorist, journalist
Teodora Gulgowska née Fethke (1860-1959) painter, ethnographer, co-founder of the first open-air museum in Poland
Antoni Abraham (1869-1923) Kashubian representative to the Versailles Treaty, political activist and proponent of Polish Kashubia
Franziska Schanzkowska (1869-1984) Also known as Anna Anderson, an impostor who claimed to be the daughter of Tsar Nicholas II
Izydor Gulgowski (1874-1925) poet, ethnographer, co-founder of the first open-air museum in Poland
Aleksander Majkowski
Aleksander Majkowski

Aleksander Majkowski , Kashubian writer, poet, journalist, editor, activist, and physician by profession. The most important figure in the Kashubian movement before World War II....
(1876-1938) author, publicist, play writer, cultural activist
Marian Mokwa (1889-1987) maritime painter, traveller, social activist
Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski (1899-1972), Nazi official and SS-Obergruppenführer
Augustyn Necel (1902-1976) novelist
Jan Trepczyk
Jan Trepczyk

Jan Trepczyk ? one of the most accomplished Kashubian poets, song writer; member of the Regional Kashub Association of Kartuzy; member of ?Zrzeszency? , and the Kashub-Pomeranian Association; Kashubian ideologist, lexicographer, author of the Polish-Kashubian Dictionary, pedagog; co-founder of the Kashub-Pomeranian Literature and Music Museu...
(1907-1989) poet, song-writer, lexicographer and creator of the Polish-Kashubian dictionary
Franciszek Grucza (1911-1993) writer, translator
Gerard Labuda
Gerard Labuda

Gerard Labuda Labuda from 1950 was a professor at Poznan University; rector 1962-1965; from 1951 a member of the Polish Academy of Learning ; president 1989-1994; from 1964 of the Polish Academy of Sciences ; vice-president 1984-1986; and from 1959 to 1961 director of the Western Institute in Poznan....
(1916- ) historian
Lech Badkowski (1920-1984) writer, journalist, translator, political, cultural, and social activist
Günter Grass
Günter Grass

G?nter Wilhelm Grass is a Nobel Prize in Literature-winning Germany author and playwright.He was born in the Free City of Danzig . Since 1945, he has lived in West Germany , but in his fiction he frequently returns to the Danzig of his childhood....
(1927- ) Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize in Literature

The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction" ....
-winning German
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
author
Author

An author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created....
of Kashubian descent
Alojzy Nagel (1930-1998) poet
Jan Drzezdzon (1937-1992) novelist
Wawrzyniec Samp
Wawrzyniec Samp

Wawrzyniec Samp is a Poland sculptor and graphic artist.Samp was born in the Free City of Danzig, . He graduated from Panstwowa Wyzsza Szkola Sztuk Platycznych in Gdansk in 1965, and now he has his own artstic study in the city....
(1939- ) sculptor and graphic artist
Józef Borzyszkowski
Józef Borzyszkowski

J?zef Borzyszkowski is a historian and Kashubian activist. He was the chairman of the Kashubian-Pomeranian Association from 1986 to 1992....
(1946- ) historian, politician, founder of the Kashubian Institute
Jerzy Samp
Jerzy Samp

Jerzy Samp is a Poland writer, publicist and historian of the literature and culture of Pomerania. He is also an activist in the Kashubian-Pomeranian Association ....
(1951- ) writer, publicist, historian, and social activist
Marian Jelinski (1949- ) translator, writer
Jerzy Stachurski (1953- ) poet, composer
Stanislaw Janke (1956- ) poet, novelist, translator
Abdon Stryszak (1908 - 1995) professor of veterinary medicine
Jerzy Treder (1942- ) professor - Kashubian language
Donald Tusk
Donald Tusk

Donald Franciszek Tusk is a center-right Poland politician, co-founder and chairman of the Civic Platform , and the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland of the Republic of Poland....
(1957- ) historian, politician, leader of Platforma Obywatelska, Prime Minister of Poland
Nathan Darga, urban planner
Danuta Stenka (1961- ) actress
Zenon Kitowski
Zenon Kitowski

Zenon Kitowski is one of the most talented and recognized clarinet players of Poland. Born in Kartuz? , Mr. Kitowski considers himself a Kashub and although he?s lived in Warsaw since the early 1980s, he can still speak the Kashubian language....
(1962- ) clarinet player

External links

http://www.zk-p.pl/ (Kashubian) http://kaszubia.com/ http://www.republika.pl/modraglina/kaszlink.html

(Kashubian) http://www.inyourpocket.com/poland/city/kashubia.html

Kashubians

Modern Kashubia

Population

History

Origin

Administrative history of Kashubia

German and Polish impact

Language

Today

Diaspora

Notable Kashubians

See also

Further reading

External links