History / East Prussia - German Poles who lived in pre-second world war in this area [6]

Mazurians aren't Poles. The Mazurians in East Prussia were Slavs and, at the same time, staunch Prussians who voted for conservative German parties, and against Poland in the East Prussian plebiscite. After WW2, when this part of East Prussia was given to Poland, almost all Mazurians left for Germany.

Their story was completely rewritten in the PRP. They were turned into a lost Polish tribe who discovered his Polishness in the 19th century and was subsequently brutally suppressed by evil Germans. In truth it was a bit more complicated.

I highly recommend not to read books published before 1989, which are all crap.

History / Whom do the people in Poland hate more: Germans or Russians? [869]

Russians can travel, they can buy everything the world has to offer, they can freely move within their country, minorities have more rights than in most western countries, the freedom of religion is guaranteed (how many Western countries have Islamic universities?), the freedom of speech is as limited as in most Western countries.

You, like so many others, don't know what you are talking about. But I don't blame you, as the winner of the Cold War the West never had to question his beliefs, and Russophobia, based on ignorance and a deep lack of knowledge, is a accepted prejudice.

History / Whom do the people in Poland hate more: Germans or Russians? [869]

You witnessed a "ugly transformation of the Russian society"? In the Russia of the 90s police officers robbed you, professors begged on the streets, army officers sold their weapons to get food for their families, old people didn't get their pension and starved, Oligarchs controlled entire oblasts, the Mafia killed people on the streets, the health care system didn't work anymore... in fact, the situation was so abd that life expectancy dropped by 3 or 4 years during that time. And you witnessed "ugly transformation of the Russian society"???

Sorry, but you are just another Westerner without a clue about Russia. Who cares about election frauds and Pussy Riots when you are hungry? Putin is popular because he restored the Russian statehood, and people still vividly remember the horrors of the 90s.

History / Do Polish people in general dislike Russia or Germany more? [369]


~2 million Poles, 1,4 million Yugoslavs, and up to 6 million Russian Speakers live in Germany. I guess they are all masochists....

History / Poland must get back Lwow, Wilno and Brest back [345]


OK: of the ~150 listed castles and palaces 23 are in good shape (restored and used), 60 are in ruins, the rest is in various states of decay.

History / Poland must get back Lwow, Wilno and Brest back [345]


Poles have to live with the result of Polish nationalism, not Germans. They just can't find the graves of their families anymore.
Interesting how people always defend the action of the Polish Commies in the "recovered territories", who acted just like the Taliban a few decades later.

History / Poland must get back Lwow, Wilno and Brest back [345]


Hmm, lets see: in German Silesia we had Slavic and German place names, Germans, Poles, Czechs and Jews, and Catholic + Protestant churches and Jewish synagogues. Now we have Polish names, Polish people and Catholic churches. The rest fled,was expelled, destroyed, leveled. Looks like Polish nationalism was way more effective than German Nazism in Silesia.

History / Poland must get back Lwow, Wilno and Brest back [345]


No, almost all cities to the left of the Odra survived WW2 without damages. Nysa, Legnica, Kłodzko or Jelenia Gora were destroyed in the 60s and 70s. Even Wrocław was further destroyed after the war before parts of the city were reconstructed.

Thankfully Ukrainians cared much better for Polish cities.


And medieval Poland took Silesia from Bohemia. Who's clever now?

History / Future of Kaliningrad Oblast - is it possible to annex by Poland or will it become an independent country? [137]

Kaliningrad oblast was


Maybe you should read one or two history books...

Topic: the area is even more run down than the former German territories in Poland. I think Germany couldn't care less.

News / Poland and Germany should unite, says Lech Walesa [113]

All Germans who received Nobel prices since 1901: 104
Germans who received Nobel prices since 1945: ~50

Hmm...


Well, at least you get proper Döners and Pizza there...

News / Poland and Germany should unite, says Lech Walesa [113]


This "Drang nach Osten" is one of the great Polish myths. The Teutonic Knights were invited by Poles, because they couldn't conquer the land themselves. The settlers in Pomerania and Silesia were invited by the local dukes, who Germanized their lands by choice.

News / Poland and Germany should unite, says Lech Walesa [113]


Your grandparents were free to move into a completely furnished German house. They could also have looted a German castle in Silesia or East Prussia for example.

Love / Polish women: what do you think of Polish men? Physically unattractive? [180]


Oh cool, now we know that 90yo Poles are in great shape... :D

Love / Polish women: what do you think of Polish men? Physically unattractive? [180]

How did they spot them? Especially since there are almost no Poles in the city?

Love / Polish women: what do you think of Polish men? Physically unattractive? [180]


That's not a Polish phenomenon, women everywhere adapt better to changes.
And regarding the looks: like in most Slavic countries women are often quite glamorous, while men often look like hobos. Strange.

History / History of Poland in a pill - illustrated [38]

So, Poles in Prussia and Russia felt like Ukrainians before in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth?

History / What do Poles owe to Germans? [451]

No, Germans became the majority again. Until the early 16th century the town council was German-speaking and the biggest church of the city the German church. This changed during Sigismunds reign, who gave St. Mary to the Poles (1537).

It's quite interesting that this is almost unknown.

History / What do Poles owe to Germans? [451]

At that time Kraków actually had a German majority, which was maybe also one reason why Wit Stwosz moved there (St. Mary was the German church back then).

Genealogy / Are Silesians people German/Germanic? [178]

That's not a Silesian house, that's a Tyrolean house built by religious refugees from Austria who fled to Prussia in the 18th century. This region was called the Silesian Elysium before WW2, because of the many royal castles, large parks and quaint villages. Most of it doesn't exist anymore, but most of the Tyrolean houses survived.

The typical houses in this region looked like this:



But places like this don't exist anymore. If you want to see such villages today you have to go to the other side of the border.

Genealogy / Are Silesians people German/Germanic? [178]


No. Lower and Middle Silesia were German, Upper Silesia was mixed with a strong Polish majority in the eastern parts. The border regions to Poland in Lower and Middle Silesia housed a Polish minority too, but their numbers were insignificant.

The German settlers came mostly from neighboring Saxony and Thuringia, but also from Bohemia. These people first settled in unpopulated places, i.e. the Sudete mountains and the "Preseka" (border forests). After 2 or 3 generations Silesia was developed from within. The local Slavs who moved into the new towns were quickly Germanized, Slavs who stayed in villages in remote places where not. That's why some linguistic enclaves survived until the 18th century, like in other parts of Germany too (Luther spoke of Slavs close to Wittenberg in Central Germany, and there was a enclave near Hamburg too).

Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]


No, we can only offer the Italian, Albanian and Russian Mafia, illegals from Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe and the drug trade from Northern Africa and the Middle East. And we still don't want guns.

Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]


Less death and suffering? LOL.
I love all this fantasising about self-defense. Against whom? Criminals here in Europe usually don't carry weapons. If they break into your house you turn on the light and they leave. If you feel unsafe with the light switch as your weapon get a dog. Problem solved.

No one in Europe misses this kind of freedom. What I would miss would be drinking alcohol in public, "bad" words on TV, the freedom to get naked in the park or on the beach if I want or having to say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas".

History / What do Poles owe to Germans? [451]


Private property can't be used as compensation since this form of expropriation is illegal.

Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]

Total firearm-related death rate:

Poland: 0.26
USA: 10.2

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate

I don't know why Poles would enjoy the right to live in a much more violent society.

Travel / Castles and Palaces in Poland (with pictures) [155]

A almost unknown castle in Silesia:



Oh, and just for Monia: it was built with German bricks. :D

Travel / Castles and Palaces in Poland (with pictures) [155]

What are Polish bricks? And the Old Prussians settled on Polish land? And why had the Polish king to buy something he already owned?

Travel / Castles and Palaces in Poland (with pictures) [155]

No, knowledge. The Nazis destroyed 3 valuable rooms and converted large parts of the castle. Many of these rooms howewer weren't very valuable. The loootings after WW2 destroyed large parts of the valuable interior, but the Nazis were blamed for many of the destructions that happened between 1945 and 1960.

Travel / Castles and Palaces in Poland (with pictures) [155]


Yes and no. It was confiscated by the Nazis from duchess Daisy von Pless in 1939 and partly changed by the "Organisation Todt" between 1941 and 1945. But these changes didn't affect the stately rooms that much. All the damages that make the interiors so disappointing today happened in Polish times. The castle was looted several times between 1945 and 1960. The old castle also burned down in Polish times, and the mausoleum (last resting-place of the duchess) was destroyed too.

USA, Canada / What do people in Poland think about American cars? [44]

Car / possibility to have sex on the first date

American car/0-35% (<- Corvette)
Japanese car/0-20%
Audi TT/15%
Audi Q7/35%
BMW Z4/60%
BMW Z8/ 95%
BMW X6/40%
BMW M6/50%
Mercedes CSL/30%
Mercedes SLK/20%
Mercedes SLS/100%
Porsche 911/70%
Porsche Panamera/20%
Porsche Cayenne/40%

History / What do Poles owe to Germans? [451]


What is "original German land"? And what is "original Polish land"? That's just bollocks.