2 - Nationalism’s Debut

Summary

Until the 1930s, Germany, which ruled over Upper Silesia, relied on the appeal of education and economic integration to turn local Polish speakers into Germans. Polish activists sought to upset this pull toward German assimilation. A newspaper editor, Bronisław Koraszewski, arrived in the district capital Oppeln in 1890 intending to nationalize local Polish-speaking villagers. A small corps of Polish activists emerged around Koraszewski, capitalizing on popular discontent with the Catholic Center Party. A new Polish nationalist party recorded historic gains at the polls in 1903 and 1907, effectively dividing the local electorate into German and Polish camps. Yet these divisions proved fleeting and did not carry over to wider society. Koraszewski’s Polish-Catholic associations, founded in the 1890s, disbanded one by one after 1900. Bilingual practices continued in villages. After 1908, Polish nationalists’ electoral fortunes declined, socialism made new inroads, and the Center Party rebounded. Had World War I not radicalized the terms of national belonging, Koraszewski’s national ideal of making a Polish nation in Oppeln may have continued to fade.