53/968/0/-/669

Two small exercise books of field notes in German, written in pencil by Albert Breyer (1889-1939), a teacher at the German school in Sompolno and a historian of the German settlements in central Poland. They are kept in the State Archive in Poznań (Archiwum Państwowe w Poznaniu) among his papers, in a bundle of his notebooks that the archive calls “Notes on Grodziec, Józefów, Zameń and Łazińsk”. This holding is two of them, both of July 1936: the notebook on Łazińsk and Emilienheim, of 35 pages with its covers, and the one whose cover reads “V. Grodziec Juli 1936”, of 25 pages, which is about the same places and their neighbours.

Historical background

Łazińsk and Emilienheim were Protestant German settlements on the land of the former Trąbczyn estate, in the commune of Trąbczyn. Two Olęder colonies had been founded on the estate, first called Trąbczyńskie Stare Olędry and Trąbczyńskie Nowe Olędry and later Łazińskie Stare Olędry and Łazińskie Nowe Olędry; their settlers’ dispute with the owner of the estate over pasture and wood in his forest is the subject of the summons of 1860, 53/968/0/-/783. Breyer went from village to village collecting what the settlers remembered and photographing their houses, schools and graves, for his studies of the German settlements.

Contents

The cover is dated July 1936 and names Łazinsk and Emilienheim [1]. Under the heading “Kolonja Łazińsk” stands the stamp of the village mayor of the commune of Trąbczyn, and the notes that follow give the colony 2,040 Morgen and 250 farmers. About 1880, with a question mark, the colony received servitudes from the Trąbczyn estate; they were added to the old land at the notary’s and are heavily taxed [1].

Breyer twice asks when the remaining manor land of Trąbczyn was parcelled out. Jesse bought it, and it is now called Włodzimierow [1]. He notes how the land of Michalinów is divided into house plots, strips and meadows, the land of the village mayor and of the school, and the classes of the land of Emilienheim, 337 Morgen in all [1].

Much of the notebook is about schools and their teachers. In Łazińsk Mielke has taught since 1925; the other teachers named are Klingbeil, 9 years, Ed[uard] Zelmer of Łazińsk, 34 years, Radke, 10 years, and Rasch, 50 years, who was still teaching at 80. On the first day of lessons there were 186 children in the school, and for ten years one teacher had 170 pupils. The military authorities complained to the Ministry of Education that the recruits of the commune of Trąbczyn could not speak Polish [1]. Emilienheim was joined to Drzewce because 11 persons were lacking to make 200, and the village mayor there does not know the German people [1].

Breyer records where the settlers went: many to Volhynia, around Novograd-Volynsk and Żytomierz, people from Łazinsk to Russia and back, others to America, and an aunt of Krüger’s to Brazil [1]. He notes whom they marry, which hymn books they used, field names, sayings, the slow, drawn-out speech of the “Brücher” of the marsh villages, houses of clay and timber, Pomeranian barns, and the wooden grave boards in Łazińsk and Emilienheim, which he sketched [1].

The last pages are a log of his photographs: subject, aperture, filter, exposure time and hour. One page is headed July 1935 and names Gostynin, Leonberg and Grabie, places outside this district [1].

The second notebook [2] goes over some of the same ground and adds more. Very many people from Łazińsk had gone to Russia some 65 years before, in March, a month’s walk; some came back from Volhynia shortly before the war. Włodzimierów had been parcelled out 25 years before from the Trąbczyn estate, whose owner was a Count Miączyński, almost all of it to Germans, and the remaining manor of some 60 Morgen went to Jesse, who came from Białobłoty. Forest land of the estate, bought by a Jew and sold on to Germans five or six years before the war, became the new settlement “Trompczyn D.” [2]. Under the heading “Colonisation Commission” Breyer notes that many moved away and got good, drained land, and that at Ostfelde near Września the Germans from Łazińsk were driven off by the Poles for a few groszy [2]. Breyer also notes the speech of Obory and the Kashubian of an earlier generation, the servitudes of the villages, the teachers and sextons from 1895 to 1928, and on the last page the years 1744, 1782 and 1790 against Züllichau, Old Kazimierka and Józefów, the last “from the Chocz estate”, whose owner was Lipski [2].

Form and language

Pencil notes in German, in Latin script, with field names and a few notes in German Kurrent; they are short and much abbreviated, and quote the settlers’ own words. Breyer separates his notes with a short line and a small circle, and drew the shapes of houses, barns and grave boards. The pencil is faint, and very faint on the lilac inside covers, so many words are read with doubt.

Related holdings

The summons of 1860 against the colonists of the two Łazińska colonies, from the same papers of Albert Breyer: 53/968/0/-/783. Breyer’s copies on the parcelling of Zagórów and Trąbczyn in 1806: 53/968/0/-/801.

Scans

The archive’s images show the front cover and seventeen openings of the notebook. The openings were cut at the fold, so that each of its 35 pages, the inside covers included, has its own image.

Transcription

There was no transcription. An AI model (Claude) read the notebook from the scans, line by line, each opening in enlarged strips and the faint inside covers with the contrast raised. Words not read are marked “[?]”; words read with doubt carry “?” inside square brackets; where only some letters were read, those letters are given. There were 88 such marks, many of them on the two faint inside covers. The editor then read the most uncertain of them on the scans, 39 in all on two sheets that show each beside a picture of its line, and settled 21, many of them differently from the first reading; 70 marks remain, most of them on the inside covers and in the log of photographs. On a third sheet the editor read the place Swięcia twice more where the first reading had Smięcia without doubt. The editor then read the English against the scans and corrected names, places and the order of some lines, and read the faint inside back cover; 59 marks of doubt remain. A word broken at the end of a line ends in “¬”. Breyer’s dividers between notes, a short line with a small circle, are kept. Words he struck out are left out, as everywhere in this edition; his sketches are not transcribed, and can be seen on the scans. The editor has not checked the rest of the reading.

The second notebook was added at the editor’s request from the editor’s own photographs, taken in 2023 as camera raw files. No raw converter was used: each file holds the camera’s full-size picture, and that picture was cut to the notebook and at the fold. The two blank inside covers are left out. Its 25 pages were read in the same way, with 33 marks of doubt; the editor then read 18 of them on two sheets with pictures, and 28 marks remain. The editor’s own English notes, kept beside the scans, render parts of this second notebook; they were compared with the reading after it was made, and agree with it.

Division and dating

Each notebook is one document, dated by its cover, July 1936. One page of the photograph log at the back of the first is headed July 1935.

Translation

The English was written by the AI model from the reading, note by note. It keeps Breyer’s notes as notes, gives quoted field names and sayings in German with an English gloss, and uses the edition’s spellings for places such as Trąbczyn, Pyzdry and Wrocław.

Summary

The summaries were written in German from the reading and translated into English. Each of their statements was then checked against the document. In the second notebook’s, three were weakened: the teachers of 1895 to 1928 are not placed by the page, the years on its last page are not called founding years, and a word read with doubt was cut. In the first notebook’s 16 statements, two were weakened: the notebook carries the village mayor’s stamp but does not say who put it there, and the note of 170 pupils with one teacher does not name the school. Nothing in the summary rests on a word read with doubt.