Jan Szałowski: Two different measures in the vicinity of the Polish border

While the money was being raised in the Vilnius Region to pay a hefty fine imposed on Bolesław Daszkiewicz because of the bilingual street names placed, what is interesting, on private premises owned by the Poles, people in Potsdam were preparing for unveiling the (bilingual) plaque placed near the main entrance to the Brandenburg State Parliament building.

Brandenburg is one of the sixteen federal-states of Germany. It consists of fourteen districts and four independent cities. Berlin which lies within Brandenburg constitutes independent federal-state and it does not look like these two federal-states will unite – the inhabitants of Brandenburg oppose it. This federal-state with a total area of nearly 30,000 km² has a population of 2,500,000 according to the data of the end of 2011.

Three south-eastern districts and the city of Cottbus are inhabited by the Sorbs. In this area they speak Lechitic language which does not differ too much from literary Polish. Together with the Sorbs from Saxony they make up the smallest Slavic nation in Europe. In Brandenburg there are about 20,000 Sorbs, which makes up 0,8% of the total population of Brandenburg. It is presumed that only 7,000 Sorbs in the area of Brandenburg speak their language. In Germany the Sorbs are, following the Danes and the Frisians, one of the three (I will mention the fourth one later) national minorities which have been recognised by the state after the Second World War. As a consequence, the law on minorities with their historical area of settlement applies to them. Unfortunately, the Poles who have been living in Germany since 1940 do not have such rights. German politicians explain it by saying that the Poles have no historical area of settlement within the borders of Germany changed after the Second World War. What is interesting in this context is the fact that the Romani, called also the Gypsies, have been considered to be a national minority in Germany for a few years although they do not have any historical area of settlement.

Native Slavs in Brandenburg or the Lower Sorbs – other Slavic groups had been yielding to the strong pressure of Germanisation for hundreds of years or they emigrated like the Slavic prince Jaxa of Köpenick did in the Middle Ages – have been losing the command of their language for a few generations. It is a constant process. It has many diverse reasons which cannot be discussed in this short article. In many families which uphold Sorbian traditions for example by observing the customs or wearing their folk costumes there is a need to revive the command of their language. It is often already a language of their ancestors because at home they speak German too frequently. Young Lower Sorbs have some possibilities to learn their language at school. Bilingual education is provided in some of the forms – some subjects are taught in German and in Sorbian. In Cottbus there is also the Sorbian lower secondary school. In Lusatia the project “Welcome” is carried out. Especially in Lower Lusatia it is based on the Breton model. Teachers who have been trained in a special way during postgraduate courses or other courses teach children their language within the scope of the project. This extremely challenging task has been carried out in Lower Lusatia for several years. Now it is going to be evaluated by specialists.

Preservation of traditional areas of settlement like the areas situated in the south of Brandenburg where brown coal is mined, is an extremely significant issue for the Sorbian community. Assurance that in case of necessary resettlements the resettled people will live with other Sorbs and not with the Germans is also of considerable importance. I don’t have to admit that for many years the Sorbian place names, street names and inscriptions on office buildings have been placed in the areas where the Sorbs live without any problem. For the Germans this does not create any big problem.

At the end of January, after 18 years of discussion, the Brandenburg State Parliament adopted the amended law on the Sorbian minority living in this federal-state. The law is more advantageous for the Sorbs in five questions. It needed to be adopted in order to adapt Brandenburg’s law to the current requirements connected with national minorities imposed by the EU.

On Monday 20^th January the clerks of the Brandenburg State Parliament invited on the website all interested people to the ceremony of unveiling the plaque placed near the main entrance to the new building of the Brandenburg State Parliament situated at Alter Markt 1 in Potsdam. The ceremony took place on 22^nd January. The participants could see the inscription which emerged after the fabric had been removed from the plaque:

LANDTAG BRANDENBURG
KRAJNY SEJM BRAMBORSKA

According to the official data there are 200,317 Poles in the Republic of Lithuania with a total population of 3,043,429. It makes up 6,6% of the total population, 26% of the Vilnius County’s population, 61% of the Vilnius District Municipality’s population and 80% of the Šalčininkai District Municipality’s population. The Law on National Minorities, which made it possible to use the minority language in offices and on signboards in the area of a compact settlement, has not been in force in Lithuania since 1^st January 2011. Since 2004 the Republic of Lithuania has been a member state of the EU which provides the protection of national minorities within particular member states. For three years the Poles who want to exhibit attributes of their nationality have being hunted for in Lithuania. Is it all right that the Head of Council Administration of the Šalčininkai District Municipality, Bolesław Daszkiewicz, is a victim of this hunting? Is it OK that he pays a fine of nearly PLN 50,000 because of the fact there are still Polish names near the Lithuanian ones placed on the private premises in his district municipality?

A simple question arises: Brothers Samogitians, are you not ashamed of what you do in the Vilnius Region? We should also ask the Polish political class a number of questions!

Source: http://zw.lt/opinie/jan-szalowski-dwie-rozne-miary-tuz-za-miedza-polski/

Tłumaczenie by Martyna Kołtun w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Martyna Kołtun within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.