Talk:Michał Drzymała

Drzymala car/wagon
Drzymala car refers to the symbol of Polish resistance to Germanisation as oficiall policy of Imperial Germany. This symbol is Michal Drzymala, one of the folk heroes of Prussian Poland from the time of the Partitions. In 1886, Bismarck created the Prussian Colonization Commission to encourage German settlers. In government eyes, this was a defensive measuredesigned to counteract the drastic ‘Flight from the East’ Ostflucht. In Polish eyes, it was anaggressive measure designed to drive the Poles from their land. The Commission was empowered to purchase vacant estates and then to sell them to approved candidates.The campaign against Polish landownership produced a strong opposition with a hero, Drzymala. In 1904, he had succeeded in obtaining a plot of land in the districtof Wollstein (Wolsztyn), but found that the rules of the colonization commission forbade him as a Pole to build a permanent dwelling-house on his land. In order to beat the rule, therefore, he set himself up in a gypsy caravan and for more than a decade tenaciously defied all attempts in the courts to remove him. The case attracted publicity all over Germany. It was highly typical of the national conflict in Prussia,where the Polish movement was dominated by peasants and where the state authorities confined themselves to legal methods of harassment. Kulturkampf and the colonization commission succeeded in stimulating the very feelings which they were designed to suppress.

Drzymala car
Drzymala car refers to the symbol of Polish resistance to Germanisation Germanisation as a verb means to expand the German language and culture. It was the name given to the policy of Imperial Germany and Nazi Germany to expand the German language in areas populated by non-Germans. The means of the policy was eradication of non-German languages from public life and from the schools. In addition in 1885 the Prussian Settlement Commission financed from budget was set up to buy land from non-German hands and distribute it among German farmers. In 1908 the committee was entitled to force owners to sell the land. Other means included Prussian deportations 1888, deportation of non-Prussian nationals living in Prussia for longer times (mostly Poles and Jews) and the ban on building houses by non-Germans (Drzymala car). Forced