Let me get this straight: Copernicus was born in Prussia but he's Polish because at the time Prussia was temporarily in Poland;
A few words of clarification in general:
Prussia
- Prussia was a non-Germanic land at one time
- Original Prussians were Western Balts (not germans)
- Prussia was occupied by Teutoonic Knights, who were German.
- Germans exterminated Prussians
- Germans eventually assumed the name Prussians for themselves, and kept the name Prussia as the name of country.
- When we say Prussian we may mean one (in some cases more) of the following:
Native Western Balt
German
Pole
Lithuanian
Estonian
Latvian
Russian
Geographic Region (some of it under Polish, some under German rule, this fluctuated)
Name of a country ruled by Germans
Marie Curie was born in Poland but she's not Russian even though Poland at the time was temporarily in Russia.
Actually, Poland was never in Russia. Not for one minute. It was occupied by Russia. (As opposed to Western Prussia which leaned towards Polish Kindgom willingly). At the time it was called Kindom of Poland (Царство Польское in Russian), not Russia, or Russian Kingdom. What's more important are Curie's own words:
“It was one of those groups of Polish youths who believed that the hope of their country lay in a great effort to develop the intellectual and moral strength of the nation....we agreed among ourselves to give evening courses, each one teaching what he knew best.”--Marie Curie
She clearly felt she was Polish. One of her discoveries was named by her "Polonium" to honor her country. It was not called Russonium, or Russium, or Rutium, nor even Sovietium.
Zvi Hirsch Kalischer was born in what is now Poland and did almost all of his work in the same town where Copernicus was born but he's not Polish, he's German. Makes perfect sense.
You can't have it both ways. If you want Kalischer to be Polish then Copernicus is certainly Polish. The fact is that Kalischer, according to Jewish sources (who would know better) was a German Jew, born under German jurisdiction in a city with a large German population.
If you want to consider Polish all those who were born within the territories of todays Poland then 1936 Olympics took Place in Poland and Germany. Not to mention hundreds of famous Germans born in cities such as Wroclaw, Gdansk, Szczecin (never really Polish), Bydgoszcz etc. By the same token, Immanuel Kant would have to be declared a Russian philosopher.
I see you meander through some of the facts of the Polish history with a degree of comfort. I also hope that you know a little more than just the few facts we had to touch upon during this chat. The history of that region is really complex (fu.cked up would be a more proper term, albeit not recognized in official debates). Norman Davies called one of his books on Poland "God's Playground". What a great an telling title.
Bottom line; IMO, if you study the history of Poland then consider this: if it walks like a German, and it quacks like a Russian it may be a Pole, an Austrian, a Russian, a German, a Lithuanian, a Ukrainian, a Tatar or a dozen other nationalities. Whoever they are, those quackin creatures, they have survived an onslaught of two most powerful neighbors for the last 1000 years, and that fact alone is sufficient reason to be proud, whether Copernicus was a Prussian, German or Polish.
Nice chatting with you.