Defying Germaniztion in 1901 Polish boy writes 'German girls are ugly'

In the hundred some years after the rebellion of Września's children against Germanization in their schools, the Regional Museum in the city reached the amazing notebook kept by one of Września's boys.

"Our girls are most beautiful"

Little Bronek wasn't just interested in history. - The student describes his relationship with girls. "Our girls are the most beautiful in the world, they make love passionately and honestly. German women don't know how to make love or live, they are ugly and with clumsy bodies" - wrote in 1901, 14-year-old Bronislaw Klimas.- it's very interesting opinions - adds Mazurkiewicz.

The found issue is the first such memorial in the Museum about the strike coming from the participant's children. The facility - in addition to a reconstructed class of that time - are also on the court's striking students and parents catechisms student.

The unbreakable children of Wrzesnia

What caused the strikes was the German authorities decision of 4 March 1901 to introduce a regulation requiring the teaching of religion in German in classes of 12 - and 13-year-olds. The Catholic School of Folk Wrzesnia bought German catechisms for children, because they did not want their parents to buy. Most students refused to adopt them. Those who took catechisms, gave them back the next day. Nearly 40 students boycotted German catechisms. Protesters were detained in this way in school longer, and the most resistant whipped.

May 20, 1901, 14 students refused to learn German religious songs. Ordered flogging. The girls had been beaten on the hands and the boys on the buttocks. A few months later, in November 1901, 25 participants of the strike stood before a court in Gniezno . The court held that it was a rebellion and disturbance of public order. Participants of the strike were sentenced to two to two and a half months in prison. Nevertheless, the boycotts of German language in Wrzesnia lasted until 1904. Following the example of the children of Wrzesnia, strikes started in other schools, including students from nearby Miłosławia.

Given that you are an American who lives in America, that isn't too surprising.

Bronek Klimas must have been onto something. Even today it is said: You know you are in Poland becasue of hte rutted. potholed roads. And you know you are in Germany becuase the cows are more attractive than the women!

Penn there are definitely good looking German women out there.

But I think in general, German men and women are letting themselves get out of shape. Prosperity has been affecting their waistlines.

They say actually the non-ethnic German population in Germany is in better shape then ethnic Germans.

That's why their German nude beaches are on the decline:

reuters.com/article/2011/07/20/us-germany-nudists-idUSTRE76J3KW20110720

They certainly wouldn't be flogged, like the Polish children in Września were. One of the reasons why
Polish parents, in the Prussian occupied part of Poland, protested in support of the "Września strike",
was the outrage caused by the use of physical violence against their kids by the Prussian authorities.


The protest had nothing to do with "race". The children only wanted to pray in their own language,
and their protest was about religion lessons only.

Interesting to see how you call children wanting to pray in their own language, the way that their
grandmothers and mothers taught them, "racist". I can understand provocation or trolling, but there
is a thin red line of stupidity that should not be crossed.

The boy likely wrote that more from a comparison with Polish girls rather than German girls being ugly.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrze%C5%9Bnia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soweto_uprising

but millions upon millions of rocks thrown by children of these ages in occupied Palestine are hard evidence to the contrary.

Most of the children in the Soweto Uprising were much older than 12 or 13, AFAIK, and the little ones were most likely drawn in by their older peers. Also, don't forget: 1901 was a totally different time. The protests in Września were definitely a sign of Polish resistance, but to call that "The unbreakable children of Wrzesnia" is a bit much.


Remember: we are talking 1901.


Do you really believe that this is their own idea? I don't.

I think that he heard it from his parents or other adults.Either way when you are oppressed you usually fight back and that's what this boy did.Maybe in stupid way but still.

Right, I thought it was very disturbing. And already being able to compare German and Polish girls?

Well.... Maybe from the time they were all playing in the same sandbox he found it hard to tell their (German) boys and girls apart. ;)

This student protest was not stupid. As for the boy's opinion regarding the German girls perhaps he meant that these girls had ugly personalities which were influenced by an imperious attitude the German minority in the town may have had as its settler overlords, perhaps the German girls around his age in the town were all really physically ugly. It was a small town. In any event it was a sentence he wrote in a notebook which is not an act of protest anyway.

Barney, I tried to find some information about the age of the protesters in the Soweto Uprising, and came across this list:

sahistory.org.za/article/june-16-1976-casualties-south-african-history-online

Looks like many protesters were older, as I suspected.

Sexual precociousness is nothing new and I doubt that there has ever been a society on earth that could keep all of their 14 year old kids chaste.

Even if he wrote it in a notebook for me it's still an act of protest.He didn't like what he saw and expressed it.


You really believe this?That all German girls had ugly personalities?I don't.

Indeed it was, a lack of electronic media suggests that the children were reflecting the true views of the community. To stop talking infront of your children is not an option children will react, anyway this was social engineering with unreasonable pressures placed upon the parents and as you said can’t apply contemporary views.

This happens every where there is oppression and what is more oppressive than attempting to remove someones ability to communicate with their ancestors. That may seem hyperbole but remember we are talking about children.

Edit:

The ages of the dead illustrate the indiscriminate slaughter that oppressive regimes unleash when confronted. Unfortunately it means nothing

Exactly, and in this case the "true view of the community" was the view of their parents (my opinion, of course). I'm pretty sure that those 12/ 13 year old kids just repeated what they heard at home, and that they acted upon what they were told to do by their parents.

That’s how society works. What are you going to do when you disagree with something don’t talk infront of the children? The state was reaching into the home and children react.

I was just offering it a possible explanation for his disdain. I actually believe that the following alternative is more likely, but I wasn't going to mention it for reasons of discretion: All of the German girls he had made love to were ugly. You can't blame a guy his age for wanting to get his rocks off with any girl that's willing, but this prurient conjecture, as probable as I think it is, is tertiary, at best, to the thread’s main topic which is the student protest defying Germanization.

That's why I see the title "The unbreakable children of Wrzesnia" as a very melodramatic one (rather typical for Poland, I might add). It should've been "The resistance of the parents of Wrzesnia" instead.

Manipulated by their political leaders to 'hate' people who are the same as them.

If you can't see that children are very easily manipulated to follow certain paths, then you need to spend more time analysing them.

The Other your naivete regarding the proclivity for teenage students to protest without parental instigation is laughable, and, I suspect, it is feigned so that you can dismiss a true instance of Polish bravery as a fabrication by "typically melodramatic Poles". Stereotyping is the recourse of inferior minds.

I think you dreadfully underestimate the power of parents and religion in pre-WW1 Poland.

We don't know the facts and there's no point speculating about it, but in those times - children simply didn't 'rebel'.

What you say holds true nowadays, but certainly not then - especially as these would have been rather wealthy children and not ruffians.

C'mon, let's have a civil discussion at least for once, Des.

Never mind, the mods have yet again removed half of the posts. :(

As if the Hebrew speaking soldiers occupying the West Bank that deny the Palestinians their human rights wouldn't be hated by Palestinian youths unless said youths' political leaders told them to, or as if the German authorities trying to stamp out the Polish language in occupied Poland would've been obeyed by Polish youths unless their parents told them to resist. Both of these false scenarios are insulting to the dignity of youthful resistance to foreign occupation. One needn't be very old to despise illegitimate authorities and to act upon this justified spite.


I have been naught but civil. You should admit that the Polish youths that endured corporal punishment rather than submit to Germanization were indeed heroic.

A 14 year old effing around, how charming.

you have got to be kidding me!! I have a 14 year old and I remember 14 myself..
you think they dont rebel?? I wouldnt doubt this.. especially the time. how often was
Poland forced to write russian, and german.. age 14 thats when teens are figuring out
they have sexual feelings.. and they can only think about girls or boys..


this alone would trigger a whole classroom to revolt.. you going to stand around and watch some
teacher/person beat one of your friends over something you believe in strongly.. and I am sure
the culture at home was even stronger then it is today.

And by him saying they dont like german girls, its a counter attack from them forcing their
ideals on them.. hate everything they stand for even their women.

The kids in question were 12 to 13 years old.


Even earlier nowadays, but I seriously doubt that this 14 year old boy had so much sexual experience with both Polish and German women that he was able to compare. Not at that age, not in the prude society of 1901, and not in a catholic community of that time. He was bragging and repeating what he heard at home.


Beating students at school and kids at home was the norm at that time. Again, remember that we are talking about 1901 and not 2011.