1901?1904 Polish civil rights protests
Children from Wrze?nia participated in the school strike in response to the banning of the Polish language.
The
Wrze?nia school strike
, or
Wrze?nia children strike
, refers to the 1901?1904 protests in
Wrze?nia
of Polish children and their parents against
Germanisation
of the schools.
[1]
Background
[
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]
In all of
Greater Poland
, which was annexed by Germany during the late-18th-century
partitions of Poland
, German was the language of instruction in schools from 1873 except in two subjects: religion and music.
[2]
In March 1901, the German administration ordered the religion classes to switch to German.
[3]
Strike
[
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In April, a number of students (one source gives the number at 118
[4]
) in the Catholic People's School in Wrze?nia (
Katolicka Szkoła Ludowa we Wrze?ni
), attended by about 650 pupils, refused to accept new German textbooks and to participate in the class activities. The teachers responded with
detention
and
corporal punishment
.
[3]
Over the coming weeks, the students' parents became increasingly vocal in protesting the punishment of their children. On 20 May, a group of 100 to 200 people were protesting in front of the school until they were dispersed by police, who were called for by the school.
[3]
The German administration threatened the students of not being allowed to finish school. Adults involved in the protests were put on trial for public disturbance, preventing the officials from carrying out their duties, trespassing, and similar crimes, and 26 people were officially charged, and on 19 November 1901, 20 individuals were sentenced to imprisonment from several weeks to over two years.
[2]
[3]
Polish activists formed two committees to support families whose members were imprisoned. The German administration soon disbanded the committees and, in turn, charged the activists.
[3]
Despite the trials, the protests continued. Some parents moved their children to other schools, and the school officials constructed barracks, where the protesting children were isolated.
[3]
Use of the Polish language was banned on the school grounds, and police were in charge of enforcing student attendance.
[3]
After an amnesty for children was declared in 1903, the number of children still refusing to take the German religion lessons diminished. The last striking children gave up by the summer of 1904.
[3]
Aftermath
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The strike gained international attention.
[2]
[5]
In late 1901, the Polish composer
Ignacy Paderewski
declared that proceeds from his concert in Germany would be given to the Wrze?nia activists. He was booed and boycotted by German audiences. As a result, he refused to perform in Germany.
[6]
The cause was taken up by other Polish cultural figures, such as writers
Henryk Sienkiewicz
and
Maria Konopnicka
.
[7]
The Wrze?nia strike inspired another large strike of Polish students in 1907.
[5]
The issue was documented in what has been described as the oldest Polish film,
Prussian Culture
, made in 1908 by
Moj?esz Towbin
.
[4]
Another movie about the events,
Wizja lokalna, 1901
, was made in 1981 by
Filip Bajon
.
[8]
References
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]
Sources
[
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]
- John J. Kulczycki (1981).
School Strikes in Prussian Poland, 1901-1907: The Struggle Over Bilingual Education
. Boulder [Colo.] : East European Monographs ; New York.
ISBN
978-0-914710-76-9
.
- Stanisław A. Blejwas,
American Polonia and the School Strike in Wrze?nia
,
- (in Polish)
L. Kostrzewski, "Przebieg strajku szkolnego we Wrze?ni w 1901 roku", w: Strajk szkolny we Wrze?ni w 1901 r., Wrze?nia 2001
- (in Polish)
Monika Warne?ska, Ulica dzieci wrzesi?skich. Krajowa Agencja Wydawnicza, 1983.
- (in Polish)
Strajk dzieci wrzesi?skich z perspektywy wieku, opracowanie zbiorowe pod redakcj? Stanisława Sierpowskiego. Bogucki Wydawnictwo Naukowe, Pozna?, Wrze?nia 2001.