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The history of the Germans in Poland dates back over a millennium. Poland was at one point the largest kingdom in Europe; it was also Europe's most multi-ethnic state during the medieval period. It covered an immense plain with no natural boundaries and had a thinly scattered population including many different ethnic groups—besides the Poles themselves, there were Germans in the cities of West Prussia and Ruthenians in Lithuania (and others). The immigrants were largely German settlers. The Polish princes granted the Germans in the cities complete autonomy according to the "Teutonic right" (later, "Magdeburg right"), and in that way in Poland there emerged cities of the German medieval type. Before the 13th century was over, around one hundred Polish towns had Magdeburg-style municipal institutions. The governing classes in these towns were increasingly German and German-speaking. At the synod of Łęczyca in 1285, Archbishop Jakub Świnka of Gniezno warned that Poland might become a "new Saxony" if German negligence for Polish language, customs, clergy and ordinary people went unchecked. Toward the end of the Middle Ages the population in a number of Polish cities was mostly German-speaking and even municipal documents were partly written in German (until the transition to Latin and later to Polish〔"Dopiero w połowie XVI wieku zaczęto pisać po polsku, Górnicki, Bielscy, Cyprian Bazylik, Budny, Wujek i Skarga, a przyczynił się do tego znany pisarz – Mikołaj Rey z Nagłowic, który w 1562 r. w utworze „Zwierzyniec” napisał: „A niechaj narodowie wżdy postronni znają, iż Polacy nie gęsi, iż swój język mają!”, () Urbańczyk. Dwieście lat polskiego językoznawstwa: 1751-1950. 1993; "dopiero w roku 1600, zniosła rada miejska zagajanie sądów ławniczych po niemiecku; tak uporczywa była tradycja tu, w Poznaniu, Bieczu, i in. () Aleksander Brückner. Encyklopedia staropolska.〕). ==History== The 13th century brought fundamental changes to the structure of Polish society and its political system. Because of the fragmentation and constant internal conflicts, the Piast dukes were unable to stabilize Poland's external borders of the early Piast rulers. Western Farther Pomerania broke its political ties with Poland in the second half of the 12th century and from 1231 became a fief of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which in 1307 extended its Pomeranian possessions even further east, taking over the Sławno and Słupsk areas. Pomerelia or Gdańsk Pomerania had been independent of the Polish dukes since 1227. In the mid-13th century, Bolesław II the Bald granted Lubusz Land to the Margraviate, which made possible the creation of the Neumark and had far reaching negative consequences for the integrity of the western border. In the south-east, Leszek the White was unable to preserve Poland's supremacy over the Halych area of Rus', a territory that had changed hands on a number of occasions.〔Wyrozumski Historia Polski. 116-128〕 Social status was becoming increasingly based on the size of feudal land possessions. Those included the lands controlled by the Piast princes, their rivals the great lay landowners and church entities, all the way down to the knightly class; the workforce ranged from hired "free" people, through serfs attached to the land, to slaves (purchased or war and other prisoners). The upper layer of the feudal lords, first the Church and then others, acquired economic and legal immunity, which made them exempt to a significant degree from court jurisdiction and economic obligations (including taxation), that had previously been imposed by the ruling dukes.〔 The civil strife and foreign invasions, such as the Mongol invasions in 1241, 1259 and 1287, weakened and depopulated the many small Polish principalities, as the country was becoming progressively more subdivided. The depopulation and the increasing demand for labor in the developing economy caused a massive immigration of West European peasants, mostly German settlers, into Poland (early waves from Germany and Flanders in the 1220s).〔John Radzilowski, ''A Traveller's History of Poland''; Northampton, Massachusetts: Interlink Books, 2007, ISBN 1-56656-655-X, p. 260〕 The German, Polish and other new rural settlements were a form of feudal tenancy with immunity, and German town laws were often used as its legal basis. German immigrants were also important in the rise of the cities and the establishment of the Polish burgher (city-dwelling merchant) class; they brought with them West European laws (Magdeburg rights) and customs which the Poles adopted. From that time the Germans, who created early strong establishments (led by patriciates) especially in the urban centers of Silesia and other regions of western Poland, had been an increasingly influential minority in Poland.〔〔Jerzy Lukowski and Hubert Zawadzki, ''A Concise History of Poland'', p. 14-16〕〔Norman Davies, ''Europe: A History'' , p. 366〕 In 1228, the Acts of Cienia were signed into law by Władysław III Laskonogi. The titular Duke of Poland promised to provide a "just and noble law according to the council of bishops and barons". Such legal guarantees and privileges included the lower level landowners—knights, who were evolving into the class of lower and middle nobility known later as ''szlachta''. The fragmentation period weakened the rulers and established a permanent trend in Polish history, whereby the rights and role of the nobility were expanded at the monarch's expense.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of the Germans in Poland」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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