This article critically reexamines how Germans understood Polish national identity during World War I, and how their perceptions affected German proposals for ruling Polish territory. Recent historiography has emphasized the impact of colonial ideologies and experiences on Germans’ imperial ambitions in Poland. It has portrayed Germans as viewing Poland through a colonial lens, or favoring colonial methods to rule over Polish space. Using the wartime publications of prominent left liberal, Catholic, and conservative thinkers, this article demonstrates that many influential Germans, even those who supported colonialism in Africa, considered Poland to be a civilized nation for which colonial strategies of rule would be wholly inappropriate. These thinkers instead proposed multinational strategies of imperialism in Poland, which relied on collaboration with Polish nationalists. Specifically, they argued that Berlin should establish an autonomous Polish state, and bind it in permanent military and political union with the German Empire. The perception of Poland as a civilized nation ultimately structured Germany’s occupation policy and objectives in Poland throughout the war, much more than stereotypes of Polish primitivity.

The aim of this study is to analyse the correlation between finds and ditches, the duration of ditch fills, and the manner of the demise of Late Neolithic rondels (Kreisgrabenanlagen) in the Czech Republic. Two comparable long-term projects are discussed here: Kolín (central Bohemia) and Vchynice (north-west Bohemia). Qualitative, quantitative, and spatial analyses of the different categories of finds (pottery fragments, lithics, daub, and faunal remains) from the ditch fills show that only finds from the bottom layers of the ditches were contemporary with the primary function of the rondels. However, the bottom layers often only contained a few artefacts. The richest parts of the ditches, the middle and upper layers, from both sites illustrated similar characteristics: after the rondels lost their primary function, the ditches were filled by both natural and cultural agents over a long period. As a consequence, some previous, and widely accepted, interpretations of the relationship between individual areas of rondels and their relationship with surrounding features, as well as the relationship of the finds from ditch fills to rondel function and chronology, need to be revisited.

The mass grave found near Talheim in southern Germany dates to approximately 7000 years ago and contains the skeletal remains of 34 individuals from the Early Neolithic period, associated with what is known as the Linearbandkeramik culture. These individuals appear to have been the victims of a massacre, based on the presence of numerous lethal head wounds, several arrow wounds, and the placement of all of these individuals in the same burial pit. The burials are considered to likely represent members of the same community attacked and executed by another group. In this study we examine the remains from the mass grave at Talheim for information on migration and community structure using strontium isotope ratios in tooth enamel. In essence, strontium isotope ratios are signatures of different rock types. The food chain moves these atoms into the human skeleton from bedrock through water, soils, plants, and herbivores. Because human tooth enamel does not change after formation, it provides a stored signal of the strontium isotopes of the place of birth. If the strontium isotope ratio of the place of death is different, the individual under study must have moved from one geology to another during his or her lifetime. Isotopic provenancing shows that several of the individuals in the group at Talheim were born in a different geological location. We discuss the results of the analysis and its significance in terms of questions of migration and community structure in the Early Neolithic of prehistoric Europe.

Human skeletal remains from Bell Beaker graves in southern Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Hungary were analyzed for information on human migration. Strontium isotope ratios were measured in bone and tooth enamel to determine if these individuals had changed ‘geological’ residence during their lifetimes. Strontium isotopes vary among different types of rock. They enter the body through diet and are deposited in the skeleton. Tooth enamel forms during early childhood and does not change. Bone changes continually through life. Difference in the strontium isotope ratio between bone and enamel in the same individual indicates change in residence. Results from the analysis of 81 Bell Beaker individuals indicated that 51 had moved during their lifetime. Information on the geology of south-central Europe, the application of strontium isotope analysis, and the relevant Bell Beaker sites is provided along with discussion of the results of the study.