The
Warmiak are a
PolishThe Polish people, or Poles , are a Western Slavic ethnic group of Central Europe, living predominantly in Poland. Poles are sometimes defined as people who share a common Polish culture and are of Polish descent. Their religion is predominantly Roman Catholic...
ethnic group from
WarmiaWarmia or Ermland is a region between Pomerania and Masuria in northeastern Poland. Together with Masuria, it forms the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship....
who are mostly Roman Catholics and who speak their own dialect of
PolishPolish is a West Slavic language and the official language of Poland. Its written standard is the Polish alphabet which corresponds basically to the Latin alphabet with a few additions...
, called
gwara warminska (see:
Dialects of the Polish languageIn Polish linguistic tradition there are seven general dialectal groups of the Polish language, each primarily associated with a certain geographical region...
).
Between the 14th and 17th centuries, settlers from northern Mazovia moved to former territories of Old Prussians, following conquests by the Teutonic Order, and the erection of the
Monastic state of the Teutonic KnightsThe State of the Teutonic Order, , also Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights or Ordensstaat , was formed during the Teutonic Knights' conquest of the pagan West-Baltic Old Prussians in the 13th century in 1224 during the Northern Crusades.The Livonian Brothers of the Sword controlling Livonia...
.
The bishopric of Warmia became in 1466 an autonomous part of
Royal PrussiaRoyal 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, Chełmno Land , Malbork Voivodeship , Gdańsk , Toruń , and Elbląg . Royal Prussia is distinguished from Ducal Prussia...
, and remained part of Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1772 (see:
Partitions of PolandThe 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. The partitions were carried out by Prussia, Russia and Habsburg Austria dividing up the Commonwealth lands...
).
The
Warmiak are a
PolishThe Polish people, or Poles , are a Western Slavic ethnic group of Central Europe, living predominantly in Poland. Poles are sometimes defined as people who share a common Polish culture and are of Polish descent. Their religion is predominantly Roman Catholic...
ethnic group from
WarmiaWarmia or Ermland is a region between Pomerania and Masuria in northeastern Poland. Together with Masuria, it forms the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship....
who are mostly Roman Catholics and who speak their own dialect of
PolishPolish is a West Slavic language and the official language of Poland. Its written standard is the Polish alphabet which corresponds basically to the Latin alphabet with a few additions...
, called
gwara warminska (see:
Dialects of the Polish languageIn Polish linguistic tradition there are seven general dialectal groups of the Polish language, each primarily associated with a certain geographical region...
).
Between the 14th and 17th centuries, settlers from northern Mazovia moved to former territories of Old Prussians, following conquests by the Teutonic Order, and the erection of the
Monastic state of the Teutonic KnightsThe State of the Teutonic Order, , also Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights or Ordensstaat , was formed during the Teutonic Knights' conquest of the pagan West-Baltic Old Prussians in the 13th century in 1224 during the Northern Crusades.The Livonian Brothers of the Sword controlling Livonia...
.
The bishopric of Warmia became in 1466 an autonomous part of
Royal PrussiaRoyal 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, Chełmno Land , Malbork Voivodeship , Gdańsk , Toruń , and Elbląg . Royal Prussia is distinguished from Ducal Prussia...
, and remained part of Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1772 (see:
Partitions of PolandThe 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. The partitions were carried out by Prussia, Russia and Habsburg Austria dividing up the Commonwealth lands...
). While Mazurs in the neighboring
Ducal PrussiaThe Duchy of Prussia or Ducal Prussia was a duchy in the eastern part of Prussia from 1525–1701. It was the first Protestant duchy with a dominant German-speaking population, as well as Polish and Lithuanian minorities...
became Protestants when that Duchy adopted
LutheranismLutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the teachings of the 16th century German reformer Martin Luther. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation...
in the 16th century, most Warmiaks, populating the areas around,
OlsztynOlsztyn is a city in northeastern Poland, on the Łyna River.Historically the capital of the Warmia region, Olsztyn has been the capital of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship since 1999...
remained Catholics.
During
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the Warmiaks were persecuted by the
Nazi GermanyNazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany between 1933 and 1945, while it was led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party . The name Third Reich refers to the state as the successor to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and the German...
government, which wanted to erase all aspects of Polish culture and Polish language in
WarmiaWarmia or Ermland is a region between Pomerania and Masuria in northeastern Poland. Together with Masuria, it forms the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship....
. After the war, due to their Polish roots, they were not victims of
Expulsion of Germans after World War IIBy the end of World War II, most of the German population fled or was expelled from areas outside the territory of post-war Germany and post-war Austria, including:...
, but in the course of the time, large numbers of Warmiaks decided to leave their native land and settle in more prosperous
West GermanyWest Germany is a common English name for the period of the Federal Republic of Germany between its' formation in May 1949 to German reunification in October 1990, when the German Democratic Republic was dissolved and the five states on its territory joined the Federal Republic of Germany,...
.