Once It Was A Land Called Pomerania

[@MsKleinlaut]

My family on my father's side left that area more than 100 years ago. They moved to Rostock and eventually Hamburg. I have friends who went to visit their ancestor's birth place. I never did. This document is very interesting. Thank you for sharing. Greetings from Canada.

[@jdakat88]

My great grandfather was from Pomerania, his family name was Balfanz. He was a carpenter craftsman and loved to play the fiddle.

[@rnjkl560]

In my family is the name Balfanz also common. Is your family from Neustettin?

[@krisjustin3884]

My great grandparents were recorded as coming from Schweitzen, a very northern town in Pomerania on the Baltic sea. He was surnamed Rach and she was a Krause with a grandfather surnamed Petersen. Our DNA test came back as German/Slavic/Baltic with some Scandinavian, which seems to have been common for Pomeranians back then. I feel saddened and empty thinking of my family’s lost language and culture.

[@theoryianabsolute8777]

Sending love, I hope you don't let loose good cultures. Keep fighting for survival of these traditions

[@krisjustin3884]

@@theoryianabsolute8777 Nice comment with sound advice!

[@ragnarostbrok1254]

All in all a very good film thanks for uploading. My grandfather and my grandmother both come from pomerania, and when we asked them if they would want to return to their homeland, they answer Wich homeland? There is no pomerania. It doesnt exist anymore. There is no Stettin anymore, and no kolberg. A Land that lost its people and its cities and changed its face so much in general is not the same Land, it perished Pommerland ist abgebrannt Part of the history of Pomerania continues living in the new homes of the pomeranians, like Lower Saxony and especially Schleswig-Holstein (like Nortorf where the bell came to), where i also live and wich i call homeland, cause the land where my family originally came from doesnt exist anymore. Even tho the pomeranian history and the pomeranian memories where chasen away from pomerania with the pomeranians, it continues here, its now part of the history and collective memories of the new lands. The history of Wollin and the bell of wollin is exemplaric for whole pomerania. Interestingly the pomeranians kind of returned to the lands where their ancestors originally came from. they mostly came from saxon areas, so schleswig-holstein, lower saxony and westfalia. It is not a completely strange world, the culture kept its similarities, the language is similar and even the landscape is. Pommern looks so much like my homeland of Schleswig-Holstein.

[@LostintheTangle]

That is both heartening and fascinating to me. My paternal grandfather's family came from Foehr, my maternal father's family came from Femarhrn. My maternal grandmother's family where from Alt Banzin village in Pomerania. I am hoping all of my cousins came safely to Schleswig-Holstein. Thank you so much for this information. 😊

[@aileenmarzanna]

And yet... I was adopted from the United States by a Dutch woman who died when I was a teenager. After living in various places all over Central Europe from Netherlands to East Poland, on accident I ended up in Pomerania. Recently a friend of mine who is into genealogy did some research and it turns out much of my ancestry is right here from Eastern Pomerania. Pomerania will recover.

[@allansnape416]

I’m a 70 year old English man but was enough to live in Greifswald for 3 years in early 1990’s I found this program fascinating. Thank you for posting on KZbin, I’ve learned a lot this evening

[@Andergast_guitar]

As someone growing up at that time in that town, I am curious: How did you end up living in that place for 3 years in the early 90s?

[@ireckandreaslitzbarski4203]

Ciekawy i wzruszajacy film. Dziekuje tworcy i uczestnikom projektu.

[@_Catriona]

Tak się robi dokumenty. Cieszę się, że youtube podesłał mi taki skarb.

[@gurglejug627]

Thanks for the video - I haven't watched it all yet, but I'm hoping it mentions that there were Pomeranian Slavic tribes about whom little is known but who had a specific culture in the area and who are thought to have assimilated into German groups in fairly recent history as they are lost as an entity. Though of course I see a WW2 displacement slant to the video, so any omission of that period is definitely not a criticism and I genuinely thank you for your film. I recall the pain of the people I met who had been displaced in the war, old and young. I was told how some 35 fishing boats set out West (I think from Kolberg/Kolbrzeg) packed to the gunwhales with German speaking families desperate to get away from the approaching and marauding Soviet troops - they went through the coldest winter ever and, hungry and packed aboard and in danger of the boats capsizing in the freezing waters, a risk ever increasing by the buildup of ice, they entered a minefield - and only 3 of the boats came through - the rest keeling over, or blown to pieces for the occupants to drown amongst the ice floes. My family was aboard one of the boats which made it, they were all sea-going people who had owned 13 of the boats and the market there. God bless the souls of all those who suffered on all sides, and may they rest in peace.

[@wildwomanofthewoods]

Another beautiful documentary. Thank you.

[@thorstenriedel3152]

My Grandpa played those Songs on the piano as well, he was from Klein Waltersdorf

[@theoryianabsolute8777]

Wspolczuje najmocniej osobom przesiedlonym, pielęgnujcie piękną historię i kulturę z Pomorza!

[@leonorefuller2134]

Und Ostpreußen ❤

[@theresarowe1656]

I appreciate your sense of history in telling this story. This explains much for me; my family left Pomerania - Szczeczin and Mecklenburg- sometime around 1860, to be able to buy land in Canada. They were fiercely Pomeranian. They rejected any labeling as "German" even 100 years later in new generations.

[@PrzczolaMcGNonLive]

Really interesting.. Did they speak pomeranian language?

[@theresarowe1656]

@@PrzczolaMcGNonLive My understanding is that the old folks did not speak a "traditional German" whatever that is, but it was so long ago it's hard to say. They were Lutheran, too, and felt more freedom of religion in Canada.

[@brettanthonypalmer2956]

My left from several places in the Kingdom of Prussia including Wolin in 1861 and took home in Australia. Our family also only ever accepted Pomeranian or Prussian ""labeling"". Indeed even on all their release from service and immigration papers it is clearly stated they were Prussian ... not German

[@brettanthonypalmer2956]

German was the ""common tongue"" for a Kingdom of many people who spoke their own tongue in differing dialects. One pair of my grand spoke East Pomeranian when they didn't want us to know what they were talking about while the other pair of grandparents spoke east Prussian (perhaps an old Lithuanian dialect). Similar, all my Prussian ancestors were Lutheran and came to Australia for the freedom of religious worship

[@jeanvaljean7266]

Pomeranians were of course Germans and this is precisely the reason why they had been expelled by force in 1945 by Soviets and Poles. _" _*_East Pomeranian_*_ (Ostpommersch) or Farther Pomeranian (Hinterpommersch) is an _*_East Low German dialect_*_ moribund in Europe, which used to be spoken in the region of Farther Pomerania when it was part of the German Province of Pomerania, until World War II, and today is part of Poland. Currently, the language survives mainly in Brazil, where it is spoken by descendants of German immigrants of the 19th century ..."_ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Pomeranian_dialect --- By thy way Mecklenburg isn`t Pomerania at all.

[@polnocblog]

I was born in West Pomerania, I'm of mixed Polish-German-Pomeranian ancestry. I'm neither Polish nor German, I'm Pomeranian. Indeed, Polish and German nationalisms were the worst that has ever happened to my country, never again. But Pomerania lives on.

[@dracokinerek]

Sup dogs?

[@B727X]

You are either a Slav or Germanic. You are NOT A DOG BREED

[@zejdland]

Probably a german pomerania is polish

[@zejdland]

I am also west pomeranian but 99 % are polish

[@rjmurphyo0]

@@zejdland that's because at the end of ww2 when the land was given to Poland, the Germans who lived there were forced to move out.

[@wuestenpinguin]

very interesting documentation. My grandparents stemmed from Pommern. A new era of history started after 1945. That is what I deducted from this documentation

[@Sandra-lm5gu]

My mother was born in Gdanz , Danzig. After WWII she grow up in the GDR.

[@vvviiixxx8745]

My great-great-great grandparents were born in Pomerania (early to mid 1800s), and I have been so curious to learn more about this largely neglected piece of history. Thank you for sharing this and helping myself (and others) understand a piece of my family that I’ve only recently been able to understand!

[@MagnoliaZZZZ]

Yes, my grandfather's people came from Pomerania too. Now I understand why there are hardly any records left, looks like the Russians just got rid of anything German. Makes me angry that they did that, especially razing the German cemeteries and using the tombstones to build other things. Who would do such a thing? Part of my heritage is lost forever now.

[@StoneUnturned]

@@MagnoliaZZZZ Now I know why I can't find anything from my family's past. Damn it...

[@rjmurphyo0]

My 2nd great grandfather was born in Pomerania and he was German. At age 13, in 1890, he along with his mother, sister and the sister's family moved to the US. After doing some research, I found out that they lived around Mallschutz near Lauenburg, although the names no longer exist, there are maps that show exactly where it is.

[@krisjustin3884]

Similar story here! I only just found out my great grandparents were from Pomerania through a DNA test and rigorous research. They were a mixture of German, Slavic, Baltic and Scandinavian ancestry. They were even descendants of a Swedish army officer stationed in Schleswig-Holstein before Bismarck won the northern battles. So much movement even back then

[@krisjustin3884]

@@rjmurphyo0 Wow! My folks were in a similar area in Schweitzen, part of Lauenburg. Too sad to think about sometimes - lost culture and language never to be recovered.

[@arturruchniewicz6845]

Są Pomorzanie, tu na Pomorzu! Ja nim jestem! Tu się urodziłem (w Słupsku 1967), ulepiony z Polaków, Kaszubów nadłebskich, Kaszubów kościerskich, Lubliniaków ...... i Niemców. Tu jest moja Ojczyzna - Pomorze, powiat słupski, nad jeziorem Łebsko. Znam tu każdy kamień, strugę, las, jezioro.

[@francisgutierrez9674]

Ciekawe, jako dziecko spędzałem wakacje w Łebie i bardzo dobrze je wspominam. Jestem pomorzaninem z Torunia.

[@zejdland]

My pomorzanie jestesmy polakami

[@rnjkl560]

@@zejdlandInterestingly the poles expelled the Pomeranians from their homeland

[@H.P.Germany]

Du bist ein Pole, der in dieser Region geboren wurde, nachdem die deutschen Pommern vertrieben worden waren. Der Begriff "Pommern" ist deutsch und meint die Region und die Deutschen, die bis 1945 dort lebten.

[@rnjkl560]

@@H.P.Germanydas verstehen die Polen halt nicht 😉

[@anondragon544]

my great great grandfather Otto was born in pomerania and left with his family to live in new Zealand around 1860

[@kennethcarney5874]

So well done! Wielki bravo. The English word for Poznan is Poznan not Posen

[@Wolf-hh4rv]

No it’s original name was Posen founded and built by Germans.

[@kennethcarney5874]

So why is the oldest cathedral in Poland there and the first polish kings there?

[@jerzyziemniak9939]

​@@Wolf-hh4rvFor centuries before the Christianization of Poland (an event that essentially is credited as the creation of the very first Polish state, the Duchy of Poland), Poznań was an important cultural and political centre of the Western Polans. It consisted of a fortified stronghold between the Warta and Cybina rivers on what is now Ostrów Tumski. Mieszko I, the first historically recorded ruler of the West Polans and of the early Polish state which they dominated, built one of his main stable headquarters in Poznań. Mieszko's baptism in AD 966, seen as a defining moment in the Christianization of the Polish state, may have taken place in Poznań.[9] (Wikipedia)

[@wolliveryoutube]

English also used to have some unique names for German places before they got re-Germanized. We used to say “Sleswick-Holsatia” instead of Schleswig-Holstein.

[@Eonwe]

My Great Grandfather was a German from Pomerania.

[@thorstenriedel3152]

My Father was Pommer from Glowitz....and my love is there too

[@intercoreuk]

Hey just wanted to say that I did enjoy this very much so. Thanks

[@theresarowe1656]

One outcome, too, is the difficulty in tracing family and family records in this area.

[@krisjustin3884]

For sure! I only just found out my great grandparents were from Pomerania through a DNA test and rigorous research. They were a mixture of German, Slavic, Baltic and Scandinavian ancestry. They were even descendants of a Swedish army officer stationed in Schleswig-Holstein before Bismarck won the northern battles. So much movement even back then!

[@Bierhalss]

Does anyone know Bierhals, Fiss or Griep surname in pommern? Me and my wife Will go to europe to try to find some information. in some documents I found information that we came from klein reichow (rychowko) and gross reichow (rychowo), near bialogard. My grandpa speak pommern, but only he in the family.

[@CT7056]

I think the translator could have done a better job.

[@soaringheart2203]

My great-great Grandfather and his Son(my great grandfather), arrived on a ship in 1884 from Pomerania, Prussia, Germany, going to Baltimore, MD. They arrived as a whole group. Does anyone’s family know the family name ‘Gast’? I’m trying to piece things together as others have commented.

[@SusanTaylor-x7y]

Means guest

[@gurglejug627]

There is a good chance that Gast is a derivation of "Gust." - a common abbreviation used in records as there were so many Gustavssons in Pomerania and it became a name per-se from that (today Gustavsson is the most common surname in Sweden, so one can see why it was so commonly abbreviated) as so many Swedes intermarried or settled along the Pomeranian and Baltic coastal areas. There were many Danes, too, of course. It may be worth considering.

[@HermannderCherusker1970]

44:20 I can hear/see some of my father's mannerisms in this guy.

[@n1ngnuo]

Pomorjansko - The heart of West Slavia!

[@marcinband]

The film insinuates that the land was always German, and that Kashubians & Poles are recent transitory settlers. I wonder how many historians would consider the Piast dynasty, established by Mieszko I, a german dynasty? Does it not pre-date german occupation? While german and slavic tribes certainly both inhabited the area, as did vikings, the first permanent settlement was certainly western-slavic, as the name itself derives from early slavic etymology.

[@zejdland]

Poland!❤

[@baaaj3200]

Poland, German, dwa bratanki i do bitki i do szklanki 🙃😅

[@renatev.7473]

I just found your channel and want to thank you for the effort it must have been to produce this beautiful documentary! My mother‘and father‘s families had to flee Dugen and Königsberg in East Prussia. My mother passed in 2004 and never felt at home in the Black Forest area of West Germany where they were settled after the war. She loved her Ostpreußen to the very end! Such sad, but also some very funny stories she told around our kitchen table. She never had the opportunity to return for a visit, I think she was afraid she would not want to leave again!

[@Baruch-q4n]

Any good comments about the helpless abandoned hard working peaceful jewish people that lived here before the nazi seizure of power.

[@johnnylangen2839]

hard working and Jewish in the same sentence. You must be trolling😄

[@gurglejug627]

@@johnnylangen2839 All the (many) Jews I have known, with one single exception, have been incredibly hard working, even obsessively so, whether it suits your rather odd stereotyping or not. I would even say that their stereotype is one of extremely hard work from all I have seen. I write from observation, not prejudice.

[@gurglejug627]

Dear Baruch - an odd and throw-away comment indeed - write such a comment, or otherwise, if you have something to say?!