POMERANIANS
 
The „Pomeranians“
were named for their land. A land, in which the Slavonic “Pomoranians?“
had lived before. “Po more“ means “at the Sea“. Like all Slavonic tribes in
the territories of the German New Tribes, the “Pomoranians?“ had been settled
there after the invasion of the Asian “Avars” (in 556).
Before the migration of the peoples the Germanic tribes of the
Goths, Suebi (Swabians) and “Rugii” had lived in “Pomerania“. Rests of
their population had remained. The most well-known Rugier had been Odowakar,
who had toppled the last (western-) Roman Emperor and
afterwards withdrawn all Roman troops from Gallia and from all territories
north of the alps. The Sea that Pomerania is named
for, was named for the Suebi “Mare Suebicum”. It’s at least a nice little
detail, that the symbol of the Pomeranians, the “Greif = griffin”, is also
the heraldic figure of the Alemanic Baden (see Swabians/ Alemans).
The Slavonic
dukes, who had promoted the German settlement of Pomerania were also called “Griffins“,
just like the heraldic animal. For a long time the different griffins in the
coat of arms showed the inner division of Pomerania.
During the
medieval German “Ostsiedlung = Settlement of the east“ (which happened
peacefully and on the initiative of Slavonic dukes in Pomerania) mostly Lower-Saxons
and Franks (including Flemings) came to Pomerania. All of them together
gradually formed the German New-Tribe of the Pomeranians. 1113-1122
big parts of Pomerania were momentarily affiliated to Poland, but already in 1135
Poland had to accept, that it only had Pomerania as a feoff from the Reich.
Other parts of Pomerania went to Denmark for a longer time, but 1227
it finally became a part of the Reich completely.
The Dialects of
the Pomeranians always stayed closely related to the western Lower-German
dialects. The German adjective to “Pommern“ is “pommersch“!
In 1534 Pomerania
became protestant. The Thirty Years’ War had devastating consequences,
despite Pomerania was actually neutral. In 1630 Pomerania joined the Swedish
in the fight for the protestant side.
- However this didn’t bring
any benefit to the people, because after the Treaty of Westphalia (which put
an end to the Thirty Years’ War) Pomerania was divided. The Electorate of
Brandenburg obtained “Hinterpommern“ (engl. East Pomerania) and Sweden
obtained “Vorpommern ” (engl. West
Pomerania). Also the destructions of the war still had hard consequences for
a long time.
Between 1655 and 1660 it came to a
Swedish-Polish War and between 1674 and 1679 to the Swedish-Brandenburgish
War, during which Brandenburg conquered all of Pomerania in 1678. Under
foreign pressure Brandenburg had to leave parts of “Vorpommern” again. – The claim upon these territories
Brandenburg did however never give up again. 1701-1721 the “Big Nordic War“
raged. At it’s end additional territories of “Vorpommern“ became parts of the
newly arisen Kingdom (Brandenburg-) Prussia (since 1701).
In 1815 all of
Pomerania became a Prussian Province.
This was also the
time of one of the most remarkable Pomeranian artists, the painter Caspar
David Friedrich.
The cultural
German era of the “Romantik = Romantic” can not be separated of his great
work. Pomeranians can however not only be “romantic”. People also claim that
they would be very cussed. - On the other hand, how else should they
be, in regard of their history …
… oh, yes:
humorous, as they are famous for this too.
  
(1) Caspar David Friedrich - and (2) his painting “Der Hafen von Greifswald = The harbor of Greifswald“
(In English the name of this
Pomeranian city would be “Griffinwood”)
(3) The famous pioneer of flying
Otto Lilienthal (from Anklam)
The biggest pain
happened to the Pomeranians after World War II. Pomerania got divided and
most of the Pomeranians were deported! Everything, they had, was robbed;
people got brutally murdered and abused.
Only the more
important is it to maintain the Pomeranian culture! - Especially also in
the USA, which is decisively responsible for the injustice of that time. -
Native American tribes have shown that this doesn’t mean a
contradiction to American patriotism, as real US-patriotism always requires
fidelity to values!
|
