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GERMANS WANT TO GERMANIZE KOPERNIK (COPERNICUS)! OUTRAGE! [1016]
I'm sorry to resurrect the old thread, but as this is something I have been studying quite a bit lately as I've been writing a book on the Medieval Baltic. I thought I would chime in.
The debate about Nicholas Copernicus / Niklas Koppernigk has gone on for centuries and been debated by University professors and so on, and literally been the (partial) cause of wars, so I'm unlikely to settle the issue. I seriously doubt I could convince Bratworst Boy of anything including the color of the sky if we were both standing under it on a clear day!
But maybe I can contribute some nuance and a few facts to the argument.
1) EthnicityDuring this period (late 15th / early 16th Century) there was no such country as Germany. There was the
Holy Roman Empire which was largely German-speaking, and there was the Deutschordensland, aka Ordensstaat, aka
The Monastic State of the Teutonic Order, which was a mostly German military religious order that controlled a large part of Prussia during this period, as well as the Livonian Order which controlled much of what is today Latvia and Estonia, and many German nobles and aristocrats in regions such as Pomerania, Lusatia and Silesia with strong political links to the Holy Roman Empire. There was also the Hanse or Hanseatic League which was a German speaking (specifically Middle Low German) cartel which linked trading towns across Northern Europe, but also included many non German towns including London, Wisby in Sweden, Vilnius in Lithuania, and Novgorod in Russia, as well as several cities in Prussia and Poland.
The district of Prussia was one of the mixed zones in the Baltic which had alternated between German, Polish, and native Baltic control several times between 1000 and 1500 AD. Prussia was a relatively urbanized region with many towns which were part of the Hanseatic League. The majority of the rural population in Prussia were Kashubians, people of a mixed Baltic - Slavic heritage who spoke a language similar to Polish. The towns in Prussia including Gdansk / Danzig, the most important city in the region, and also including the two towns most directly associated with Copernicus / Koppernigk: Toruń / Thorn and Frambork / Frauenberg, had mixed German / Slavic populations and also included a large number of Scots, Dutchmen, and Jews, as well as native Prussians, Lithuanians, Russians and Western Europeans left behind from Crusader armies. Almost all towns in Central and Eastern Europe had substantial German speaking populations due to the Osteidlung, the German migration eastward, but in many cases the initial migration took place centuries before the time of Copernicus / Koppernigk and the local populations were no more German by ethnicity than Americans are English.
2) Language and LawMost towns in the Baltic during this period were under German Town Law and burghers (town citizens) spoke German and other regional languages. Burghers in Prussia spoke both Middle Low German and Polish, and we know from at least one surviving phrase book some also spoke native Prussian. The language we know today as German did not exist in the time of Copernicus / Koppernigk. The lingua franca of the mercantile trade was
Middle Low German, the language used by the Hanseatic League, while the lingua franca of regional governments and Church administration was Latin. Middle Low German was a derivative of Saxon which overlaps with Dutch and contributes numerous loan-words to English, the Scandinavian Languages, and the Baltic languages. It's very different from the high German or 'Standard' German spoken today.
Burghers in the Prussian towns during the late 15th and early 16th Century spoke both German and Polish. This was necessary because they conducted trade between Polish farms and the towns of the Hanseatic League. Most written records associated with trade were written in German because German was the language of the Hanse. City records were sometimes in German (due largely to their being under German town law) and sometimes in Latin (especially those towns under administration by the Church or the Religious / Military Orders) because this was the international language of Catholic Europe. After the Protestant reformation this shifted back to German in many of the towns after they converted to Lutheranism. But the use of German as a language of record did not necessarily make them German any more than the use of Latin made them Italian.
German town law was a type of charter (Handfeste) which delineated the degree of autonomy enjoyed by the town. Lubeck law represented the highest degree of autonomy, essentially that of a city-state. Kulm Law, named after the city of Chelmno in Prussia (now Poland) in the same district where Copernicus / Koppernigk lived, was a lesser level of autonomy in which the town did not control their own courts. Towns in this time were made up of several small municipalities which were often under different town charters and represented different ethnic groups. For example the town of Danzig was divided into the Altstadt / Urbs Gzddanyzc (old town), the Rechstadt / Civitas Gedanensi (Main Town), the Stare Przedmiescie (Old Suburb) and the Osiek Hakelwerk. The Stare Przedmiescie and Osiek Hakelwork was primarily Polish speaking during the 15th Century, the Altstadt and Rechstaft (and the Neustadt which was torn down due to siding with the Teutonic Order during the 13 Years War) were primarily German speaking, but most Burghers were bilingual.
Just for context, Krakow, Warsaw, and nearly every other major Polish town in this time were also chartered under German town law. So was Vilnius and Stockholm. Nearly every city in Prussia at this time also had both a Polish and a German name, both of which were used interchangeably at the time. Modern historians have understandably dropped this habit and neglected the cumbersome obligation of using both names when discussing the period, but that has has contributed to the either / or mentality of these types of debates.
3) The family of Kopernik / CopernicusNicholas / Niklaus did in fact speak both Polish and German. His parents, a Polish father and German mother, died when he was young and he was raised by his uncle Lucas Von Watzenrode the Younger / £ukasz Watzenrode. Lucas was a prominent Burgher of the Free and Hanseatic city of Toruń / Thorn, a Ratzheren and also a Schoffe / Šepmistr, a magistrate. When Niklaus parents died unexpectedly, Lucas sponsored his education at Jageilonian University in Krakow and later in Bologna and Cologne (the same path that Lucas himself had taken as a student). Lucas was from a prominent local family which had supported the Prussian Confederation and the Poles against the Teutonic Order during the perilous 13 Years War, during which there was significant internal strife within Toruń / Thorn. Later in his life Lucas became Bishop of Warmia. He walked a fine line between the Polish and German authorities, the Polish King wanted to appoint a relative to the post and fought at least one small war to gain the right to appoint the Bishop, and the Teutonic Order desperately wanted to re-capture the district and launched many raids into Warmia and attempted assassinations and other mischief. Lucas proved and able administrator and a strong intellectual voice in opposition to the Teutonic Order, whom he advised to apply their aggressive energies toward the Turks rather than to fellow Europeans. (This was advice, incidentally, that the Poles themselves followed when they saved Vienna from it's second siege much later on in the 17th Century). Over time the Poles adopted a pragmatic policy and tacitly supported Lucas in his role. Nicholas / Niklaus followed Lucas around on his diplomatic errands and later in life became his personal physician.
My conclusion, for what little it's worth is this: The man by ethnicity was mixed, Polish and German and probably some native Prussian and very likely Dutch, Scottish and who knows what else. But probably more Polish than anything else. He spoke both languages though most of his surviving writings were in German. His political leanings were clearly toward Poland. Germany did not exist back then, but the closest thing to German nationalism (or really any type of nationalism) were the Teutonic Order, whose attitude was very similar to Bratwurst boy in their belligerence, hostility, xenophobia, and knack for rationalization.
The period of prosperity in this region was characterized by a mix of culture. The Polish Golden Age was also the Golden Age for the German speaking town of Prussia, who having consciously decided to throw off the rule of the Teutonic Order, elected to join with Poland under the condition that they be allowed to retain their autonomy. During the Reformation and Counter-Reformtion, when the rest of Europe was tearing itself apart in religious wars, the Lutheran German speaking cities like Danzig and Elbing and Torun, remained in harmony with Catholic Poland. As a result they prospered while much of Western Europe burned.
In most of the late Medieval and Renaissance period Central Europe could be described as a 'Failed State'. The Holy Roman Empire was a very loose and politically weak patchwork of Free Cities, theocratic zones, and feudal fiefdoms. Poland was and even less centralized Kingdom dominated by the rural Gentry, of whom 500,000 had a vote in the Szlachta. Though eventually both systems broke down, it was a recipe for prosperity for over 200 years, and it's hard to argue that Germany has been better off as a hyper nationalist, Centralized state. I think you are in fact seeing some return to regionalism in Germany. And while Sarmatism was far from an ideal system, the decentralization, religious tolerance and libertarian aspects of the Polish medieval system was at least somewhat successful, at least for the nobility and the townsfolk. It was in this environment where Copernicus / Kopernik was able to publish his scientific observations unmolested, even while Galileo was put on trial for heresy in Italy.
Just my $.02
Galloglaich.
