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Volume V · Page 7
| the main agents of this silent
war, at which the government was a mere passive onlooker, was the Polish
Catholic clergy. The so-called "Bamberg" villages near Poznan were a striking example of the disappearance of German folkdom in the East, which could not maintain itself against the persevering Polish counter-measures because it was not supported by the German Government. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, Poznan and its surroundings were a pitiful sight. The Nordic war had destroyed the city's prosperity and innumerable persons had perished from the plague. The villages belonging to the city were almost deserted; in one of them there still lived an old woman and a small child. Thereupon the city council called immigrants "of staunch Catholic faith" from Franconia and Wuerttemberg and concluded with them the following settlement treaty. |
| Settlement Treaty in Nomine Domini |
| The three authorities of the royal city of
Poznan, to wit, the Lord Mayor and Council, the Provost and Courts of Justice,
as well as the Council of Twenty and the chamberlains as stewards and
administrators of all estates and villages belonging to the above-mentioned
city, on 1 August anno domini 1719, Be it herewith known to all, especially those concerned, now and in times to come, that amid our villages which belong to the city of Poznan there is among others a village named Luban, which village was completely destroyed a few years ago by the Swedish war and other disasters, as well as by the horrible plague with which Almighty God has afflicted our city and our whole country, and which in the year of the Lord 1709 denude(' our towns and villages of men; we have been greatly concerned how to repopulate this village and to fill it again with people For this purpose we have announced certain freedoms for several years for such people as might be found who would settle in the above-mentioned village of Luban. Thus, it came to pass that foreigners from Germany, members of a free nation, and from the Duchy of Franconia, presented themselves before our courts and authorities, asking to be accepted and to be permitted to settle in the above-mentioned village of Luban. We thereupon acceded to their requests and accepted them, considering how necessary it was to populate the above-mentioned village of Luban the sooner the better, and because these people also belonged to the Roman Catholic apostolic faith and did not wish to roam any longer in foreign countries. We further considered that the Germans love order, are good husbandmen, are obedient in all |
