Page - 22 - in Media – Migration – Integration - European and North American Perspectives

Horst Pöttker | Successful Integration? 22 between Polish men and German women, subscribing to and reading German newspapers. In a word, they were against all the various forms of intercultural communication and contact between the Polish minority and the German majority in everyday life (Cf. Der Polizei-Präsident, Abt. II.: Übersetzungen aus westfälischen und anderen polnischen Zeitungen. Jg. 1912, No. 41, 11. Oktober 1912, p. 383ff). Moreover, their reporting provides further substantiation that there was a significant amount of further migration of Poles to Lorraine prior to World War I. On October 9th, 1912 the Viarus Polski published the following “warning”: Many Poles, especially from Silesia, leave their homes for France without prior information. But what is waiting for them there is misfortune, as the French mines only employ workers from the Rhineland and Westphalia. Salaries are not higher than in Westphalia. But, since we are allowed Polish teachers and Polish pastors, freedom of speech is granted. Also, the clubs are allowed every freedom they require. (…) Work is not so harmful to health, as the coal is free of gas. But the salary fluctuates. (Der Polizei-Präsident, Abt. II.: Übersetzungen aus westfälischen und anderen polnischen Zeitungen. Jg. 1912, No. 41, 11. Oktober 1912, p. 388) This quote clearly indicates that the further migration of Poles to France and the failure of their integration into German society were linked to the pressure to assimilate that they had had to face in Germany. The Roman Catholic Polish nationalism of the newspapers mentioned can also be understood as a reaction to the pressure to assimilate brought forward from the German side. It is not without a certain irony that in German-language research contexts all of the statements about the Polish ethnic press – those made by Christoph Kleßmann and others, and even the assertions in this paper– are based on the historical translations of the German authorities. These translations were probably not inauthentic, although this possibility should also be taken into consideration. What is more disturbing than the philological accuracy of the texts is their selection. It is possible that the apparently strong nationalist tendency of the successful Polish newspapers Viarus Polski and Narodowiec would prove to be less prominent, if recourse were taken to the Polish originals instead of to the selective translations. In this regard, a great amount of intercultural content analysis remains to be done.