RESEARCH TEAMS:
- Walddeutsche (Taubdeutsche)
- Polish Cultural Heritage in Spiš on the 255th Anniversary of the End of the Spiš Pledge
Project Leader:
Prof. Marcin Wojciech Solarz
Team: i.a. Piotr Kołpak, PhD,
Marta Raczyńska-Kruk, PhD,
Magdalena Skorupska, PhD
NCN Research Projects:
- The Walddeutsche (Taubdeutsche) during the Little Ice Age: Mobility Structures and the Natural Environment, Opus 27, 2025–2029
- The Walddeutsche: Past and Present of Forgotten Local Communities in the Carpathian Foothills, Opus 18, 2020–2026
At the Faculty of Geography and Regional Studies, we also focus on cultures closely tied to our country and its history, whose fate has been influenced by shifting borders and territorial transformations. Some of these cultures risk being completely forgotten, existing only within historical documents, maps, oral histories, or local memory. Research on the Walddeutsche—a forgotten Polish cultural group inhabiting the Carpathian Foothills for nearly 700 years—aims to restore their memory within Polish culture. Meanwhile, in the Slovak region of Spiš, we seek remnants of Poland’s historical and cultural heritage associated with the Spiš Pledge (1412–1772).
In the 1340s, Russia Rubra was incorporated into Poland. Following the dissolution of the border zone in the Carpathians, settlers arrived, leading to the eventual formation of the Polish cultural group known as the Walddeutsche. This group emerged over centuries from the blending, assimilation, and mutual adaptation of German settlers, West Slavic settlers from the Germaniae Slavicae region, and Poles, ultimately becoming fully Polonised. The term Walddeutsche first appeared in Polish sources in the 17th century, carrying a dual meaning later expressed by two German terms: Walddeutsche and Taubdeutsche. The Walddeutsche settlers were those clearing forest wilderness, but they also faced communication difficulties in their unfamiliar surroundings (metaphorically “deaf and mute”). At the turn of the 20th century, they became victims of the growing Polish-German conflict and rising nationalism on both sides. During the interwar period in Poland, the term “Walddeutsche” was replaced by names of invented ethnographic groups. Between 1939 and 1945, Nazi Germany undertook an unsuccessful attempt at their re-Germanisation. At our faculty, two research projects funded by the NCN (National Science Centre) are being carried out between 2020–2026 and 2025–2029. These projects involve comprehensive geographical, historical, anthropological, ethnographic, genetic, and linguistic research into the phenomenon of the Walddeutsche.
Another research initiative conducted by the faculty, related to Central Europe and its forgotten heritage, focuses on relics of the Polish Spiš Pledge (1412–1772). In 1412, several towns in Spiš were pledged to King Władysław Jagiełło of Poland by King Sigismund of Luxembourg of Hungary, as collateral for a loan. For 360 years, these lands remained part of the Polish Kingdom. In 1769, they were occupied by Austrian troops, and three years later unlawfully annexed by Austria. Since 1993, this region has belonged to Slovakia. The research, significant for preserving Polish cultural heritage beyond the country’s borders, aims to locate and document remnants of the Spiš Pledge heritage within towns of the Slovak Spiš region. This was the objective of our first research expedition in 2024 to Spišské Podhradie. The project is carried out by the Geography Students’ Research Circle, under the scholarly supervision of researchers from the Department of Political and Historical Geography.
Upper graphics:
↑ The Walddeutsche in relation to the extent and chronology of medieval German settlement in Central Europe (elaborated by M. Wereszczyński).
Lower graphics:
↑ FROM THE LEFT. 1
A visible symbol of the former Polish affiliation of certain Spiš towns—the 18th-century Marian Column in Spišské Podhradie (photo: S. Konik).
Biecz – the settlement centre of the Walddeutsche cultural island near Biecz (photo: J. Rutana).
Carpathian primeval forest north of Biecz—a relic of the mythical Hercynian Forest? (photo: J. Rutana).
Gothic church in Haczów—the Krosno island of Walddeutsche settlement (photo: M. Raczyńska-Kruk).
RESEARCH LOCATION: Poland / Slovakia (CARPATHIANS / WALDDEUTSCHE / SPIŠ)