Bambrzy
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Missing image Bamberka_fountain.jpg Fountain of Bamberka in married woman dress on Old Market in Poznań |
Missing image Bamberki_Corpus_Christi.jpg Girls wearing unmarried women dresses during Corpus Christi procession in Jeżyce, a borough of Poznań |
Bambrzy (Poznańskie Bambry, ger. Posen Bambergers) Poles of German origin, descendants of settlers from area of the city of Bamberg, that settled in villages surrounding Poznań (now, except of Luboń, in Poznań). The villages were destroyed during the Great Northern War and subsequent epidemic of cholera. They were repopulated with Bambrzy in several major waves between 1719 - 1753:
- 1719 in Luboń
- 1730 in Dębiec, Jeżyce, Winiary and Bonin
- 1746 - 1747 in Rataje and Wilda
- 1750 - 1753 in Jeżyce and Górczyn
In total, approximately 450 to 500 men and women arrived in Poland. There was only one condition - according to order of king August II of 1710, all newly-arrived foreign settlers in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth had to be Catholics.
Bamberka_blisko.jpg
Polonisation of this group was their wilful act and happened very quickly - settlers refused to build their own churches, they were praying with Poles, and their children learned Polish language. There were also many mixed marriages with Poles living there. At the end of 19th century, during the Kulturkampf period, all Catholics in villages inhabitated by Bambrzy chose Polish nationality during Prussian and German censae. In late 19th century meaning of the word "Bamber" (singular form) became wider - it started to denote all people living in those villages, regardles of their ethnic or cultural background.
Many of them were soldiers of the Polish army fighting in Great Poland Uprising. During the German occupation of Poland most of them, just as most Poles, were persecuted for their Polishness. After the WWII, for some time, they were suspected of colaboration with Germans.
The advent of democracy in Poland in 1989 saw the beginning of a renaissance of the Bamber culture. The most known aspect of this culture are rich female dresses.
- Official site of Bambrzy (in Polish) (http://www.city.poznan.pl/bambrzy/index.html)