Introduction

Massive Polish migrations to Berlin started in the 1860s and by the end of the century, significant centres of the Polish diaspora were firmly established. The process of immigrant community building and decline has thus far been studied mostly from the Polish perspective, and to a lesser extent, from the German side, focusing predominantly on cultural continuity and/or the policy toward immigrants. As both Polish and German discourses have been highly ethnocentric, much less attention has been paid to the integration and assimilation process. In this paper I will concentrate on the Polish presence in Berlin. The settlement of Poles in the Ruhr area will be used as a contrasting case, highlighting the specific characteristics of Berlin as a fast-growing metropolitan city.

The Polish Berlin of the past was exceptional for at least three reasons. First of all the city was located close to the eastern Prussian provinces where most of the Polish immigrants came from. Secondly, due to the partitions of the Polish state at the end of the 18th century, until 1918 there was no state border separating Brandenburg with Berlin from the eastern provinces. The lack of a state border meant that Polish influx to Berlin, although literally international, was not an interstate move. hirdly, it should be emphasised that despite significant difference between the Polish and German culture, there was no large cultural distance between the immigrants and the city residents. Poles, most of whom were Prussian subjects at the time, usually spoke German and were familiar with German values and customs.

Geographical and cultural proximity shaped the Polish diaspora in Berlin in a special way. Its complex social structure, cultural orientations, and survival strategies differed not only compared to Polish- American communities, but also when compared to other centres of the Polish diaspora in Germany, especially the one in the Ruhr Basin. Polish communities in other European cities, such as Paris, were very different as well. The only place with a Polish immigrant population similar to Berlin's was Vienna’s.

Polish Communities in Berlin

Polish migrations to Berlin started at the time of the partitions of Poland. In the first half of the 19th century numerous members of the Polish nobility had already served the Prussian authorities at the Hohenzollern royal court, in the Prussian state administration, in the juridical system, and in the Prussian army.