Wokół sporów o znaczenie rolnego osadnictwa niemieckiego w łódzkim okręgu przemysłowym

Abstract

The matter of discuss in this article is German agrarian settlement in South Prussia in years 1793-1806. There are many information about this problem from the sources from years 19204 944. Their authors originated mainly from the German national minority, who lived in Poland. German „Ostforschung" of those days presented very tendentious (purpose) views. These opinions brought historians to the followin conclusions: - German settlement existed all the time in industrial region of Łódź, - there were great number of German settlers, there, - they played an important part in civilization and culture development in this region, - German agrarian colonists participated also in industry development of this region. At present, analysing closely historical sources connected with German settlement, we can disagree with these points. There were some few settlements of German colonists which were established in years 1793-1806 and they were sparsely populated. These settlements could not be real help form cities because of their poor economical situation. In times when bases of future industrial region were creating, settlements were only interested in agriculture. They had profitable law conditions to work in this area. It caused small territorial mobility, which was limited by national and religious character of settlements.