Abstract

The modern mutual view on the neighbour is strongly influenced by the history of the 20th century and even nowadays new clichés are raised. The ‘Germans’ and the ‘Poles’ are often depicted as monolithic entities and neither individual nor regional identities are reflected. The relationship between the Empire and Poland during the Middle Ages were for long periods peacefully and based on diplomatic and economic exchange. In order, thus, to draw a contrast-picture to the modern ones, the project will look to the opinions of the German and Polish chroniclers and authors from the 10th until the 15th century. In doing so, the dialectic terms of ‚own’ and ‚foreign’, which play a major role in modern research concepts, can be applied.

The following questions will be put forward: Writing of the neighbour, did the authors mean the whole population/the nation or did they rather refer to smaller contact-regions or even individuals? If thus speaking of ‘foreign’, how did the authors define the ‘own’? Did the authors try to explain the neighbour’s people, land, customs etc. to their recipients or did they take a good orientation of their readers for granted? Certainly the authors ‘invented tradition’ (Eric Hobsbawm), which became later ‘collective identity’. How does this process look like?

Modern research on the topic from the German side had been scarcely conducted (Ch. Lübke, Th. Wünsch) and only in a smaller framework. The Polish research is broader (A.F. Grabski, J. Krzyżaniakowa, J. Strzelczyk, A. Pleszczyński), but should be reassessed by asking for the above mentioned modern concepts.

Hypothesis: The relationships between Germans and Poles in the Middle Ages are often described in a positive way, simply because the two countries had a long-term, intensively interwoven history. These positive views are nowadays unfortunately still overshadowed by much younger stereotypes, which disturbed any clear historical analysis of earlier periods.

Expected impact of the planned research on the development of science, civilization and society:

Both countries (Germany and Poland) will receive an overview that certainly provides another picture than that given in the modern stereotypes (or will it even confirm some stereotypes?). In both countries there are a lot of academic publications on the modern view on the neighbour. But what is lacking is a concise medieval study of this notion. The planned monograph will close the gap and it will be possible to base new studies on the results. The project will have some social impact, because the study offers another access point to the historical mutual perception that up to now mostly refers to the overwhelming and often negative shared history in the 19th/20th century.