The
only scanned German-language press archives in Poland are both a
nightmare and a dream. Automatic text recognition seems to be the
only way to process the vast amounts of content from such archives.
But if you are a bit picky, then it is quite possible to do so on a
smaller but significant scale, using the most suitable keyboards.
After all, not everything is really important in it.
In
practical terms, only the historical press sources on politics,
society and the economy are absolutely necessary to better understand
the events of the age when Lodge was still the Polish-German-Jewish
city. So, I repeat what the “Neue Lodzer Zeitung” once wrote:
"History is not just a repertory of numbers and names, not just
a commemorative plaque of what happened and is irrevocably over."
(August Müller)
The
"Neue Lodzer Zeitung" (New Lodger Daily) had been a very
special newspaper. Founded in 1902 by young journalists of the old
“Lodzer Zeitung”, it was distinguished by the Western European
level of its journalism.
Since
its infancy, it has been, and still remains a treasure
trove of valuable historical information
about the late Russian Empire, Congress Poland and the Second
Republic of Poland.
No
other German-language newspaper in Poland had been so clearly
friendly to the Polish people
… and
later also to the Polish State during the interbellum. It reflected
the high ideals of Polish Germans and the People of the City of
Lodge. Under tragic circumstances (terrorist attacks by Hitler's
Luftwaffe against the People of the City), she ceased her activity on
3 September 1939.
On
the same day, the "Volkszeitung" (People’s Daily, a quite
similar newspaper) was published for the last time.
The
digital archive of the historical newspaper is now available on the
websites of the two major libraries of Central Poland
Unfortunately,
its digitisation is by no means perfect. First, whole
vintages are missing
and some others have been left incomplete. The
reason for this are the activities of the Hitler’s Youth,
who visited all copies of the newspaper accessible to them with
hatred and contempt in their hearts, in order to destroy them as
waste paper.
On
the other hand, nothing was done to somehow organize the majority of
the wonderful magazine paper pages, which had been saved from
destruction, in the Third Republic of Poland, and to make it known a
little more.
The
main problem with the digital press archives of periodicals from the
first half of the 20th century is that if the hundreds of thousands,
even millions of essays and contributions scanned and put into their
collections have
been not indexed into searchable text databases
(by the means of "OCR"), then ...
You
are quite baffled by the huge
jungle of content.
Unless someone really likes to
build a jungle camp
and then tap into the fairytale wealth of the little-known interior
for themselves and for others. I have to deal with this at the Neue
Lodzer Zeitung. Quite
different from the case of some other online press archives,
like these of the Austrians, Swissmen and Luxembourgers (to stay in
the German-speaking area), where the content is even accessible in
full digital text. As a German
language lover,
I don't have to force myself to take on the whole jungle bloodless
warfare and to shoulder this burden of history speaking to the
present-time people. I would not meet the King Kong there, but the
saints and heroes, and still…
Anyway,
the most modern input methods (including for the best keyboards) are
absolutely necessary to make the notes or to create the quotes using
word processing and later prepare them for digital media
The
task is to be judged as of medium difficulty: to download the
best keyboards (as Android apps)
and then use them as, so to speak, the
means of transportation of all treasures discovered.
This possibility is mainly offered by the flat computers (tablets). I
chose from the extensive range of ultra-modern apps of this kind
three of them. As the first, GO
Keyboard Pro
to write in German of today. Something like this is absolutely
necessary. You can use it very successfully also to write in English,
for example using the TouchPal Pro.
As
the second, the Emoji
Keyboard (with three hearts),
but without download of the digital dictionary of the German
language, to
independently collect and upload the old, classic German vocabulary,
including the outdated, but so delightful for me spelling.
I
have been able to read the German
Fractura
almost since forever, but to use it fully, I got myself one of the
keyboard types that the user can program almost any way he wants. The
ai.Bot
Keyboard Free uses the vocabulary from Emoji.
A small example for this:
From
the very beginning, the Polish Jews have had their representatives in
the institutions which advised those in power in this country. They
were allowed to speak freely so that they could tell interesting
things about finance.
In
this way, I now have three new keyboards at my disposal, which on the
one hand ensure a quick input of words and correction of errors, but
on the other hand have also enabled the collection of the old
vocabulary and the
imitation of the writing style of the authors of the historical
newspaper. The
best balance between these two tasks is simple: upload the German
keyboard language packs for Emoji and ai.Bot a little later, after
editing about ten texts by hand.
Goal
recognized and achieved: Johannes Danielewski warns again
The
Protestant-Lutheran believer, a member of the Saint John’s parish
in Lodge,
friend of the later martyr Julius
Bursche,
warned in
the year 1930
against the destruction of Christian values by pagan
chauvinism.
Danielewski died in 1933. He did not experienced the Nazi
crimes
to which thousands of the clergy and Christian activists, like
himself, fell victim. His
prophecies came true.
I
have discovered an essay that was also written for posterity and
undoubtedly deserves our attention
First
briefly about its historical background.
At that time there were two very different organizations of the
German minority in Poland. German
People's Union in Poland united the Reichs Germans, the former
subjects of Emperor Willy, who wanted nothing to do with Poland,
and yet had to become Polish citizens. This was one of the
consequences of the German defeat in the First World War; the borders
of Poland were shifted to the west. What's astonishing, at the head
of the People's Union (Volksverband) was a Polish German, August
Utta.
However, this was also due to the false policy made by the Polish
side. About that briefly at the end.
In
addition, Utta has served since 1919 as a leading member of the Synod
Council of the Protestant Lutheran Church in Poland
In
opposition to the German People's Union, the German Confederation for
Preserving the Culture and Economic Development
was proclaimed
in Poland to represent the interests of the German nationals,
inhabitants of Central Poland. The two German ethnic groups in the
Second Republic of Poland were very different from each other,
including for their views on religious matters. Fierce political and
social fight broke out between Union and Confederation, and freedom
as well as Christianity were at stake.
This led to the attempts
of Unionists to conquer the big city of Lodge,
which played the crucial role for interwar Poland, not only as an
important industrial area but also as the
bulwark of the German supporters of Polish State.
As a
counterweight to the Neue Lodzer Zeitung, the daily newspaper
„Freie Presse”
(Free Press) was founded. The
chairman of the German Confederation, Danielewski, wrote a fierce
polemic against the editorial
of the last one, which dealt with the balance sheet of 1929. He
zealously put to use the true principles of Lutheranism.
He
was a true Protestant believer and an ardent follower of the
traditional German settlers' loyalty towards tolerant and generous
Poland
“In
dealing with the second balance sheet item of the People's Union, one
can perceive a direct unchristian attitude. [...] The
gravediggers of Christianity are those who bring politics into the
church,
who don't wish to have local ministers being filled with the Holy
Spirit, but a new breed of clergy who would preach according to the
instructions of the German Union. They are those who want to conquer
the church with stormtroopers and with people who are far from the
church.
The
exits from the Church and the decrease in the number of readers of
Christian magazines can be traced back to those who leave no stone
unturned to
politicize the Church and are trying to misuse it as a means of
propaganda
for their party purposes. On the passive side of the political
balance sheet is also the
inflammatory
activity
of political parties, including for the German Union, which
undoubtedly leads to communism.
Every
anti-German policy has to stay away from the Lutheran Church, but if
you make this demand you have to demand that the Church not become
the enemy of the Polish population too. You should know that
the bond of Christian charity was and must remain most important
thing for our true faith.
[...] If we are of the opinion that fellow believers, that the
government, etc. make mistakes, then we as Christians should ask God
to give the circles concerned a different insight, so they can change
their minds and hearts but
not to hate or bully them.”
“Otherwise
we praise God with our lips and our hearts are far from God. That is,
however, precisely the attitude of the circles which wants to misuse
the Church for political purposes.”
“In
his balance sheet, the leader of the German Union did not draw any
conclusions and made no suggestions for improvement. But no better
proposal could be made for the new year than to work
for the creation of one national community in Poland,
in which the most diverse sections of the population compete for the
buildup of the economy and the State
in order to bring about peace, happiness and prosperity for this
country and to deepen Christianity
among the common people.”
Johannes
Danielewski, Totengräber
am Christentum,
„Neue Lodzer Zeitung”, January 3, 1930, p. 3 (21 in the scan of
Digital Library of the University of Lodz, being based on monthly
volumes).
Some
unrecognized saints
The
Lutheran Church, or for example the Methodist Church, has since its
beginning bid farewell to the veneration of the saints. This did not
mean, however, that God the Almighty has ceased to create the holy
men and women in the world and to give them important tasks. There is
simply no formal canonization among the Protestants
But
when we get to know the
deeds and teachings of the outstanding leaders of the Lutheran people
in Poland from that time, we see the saints.
We see the
right path of the Church of God — sincere obedience to the Eternal
Father.
This is one of the most important topics of the “Neue Lodzer
Zeitung”. This is also one reason why this very special historical
newspaper should finally be made properly accessible or at least more
known.
This
is obviously not the only value of old Lodger German-language
newspapers and magazines as historical sources
These
newspapers also provide an answer to the question of why, despite the
favourable conditions in cities such as Tomashov of Mazovia, it
proved to be impossible to fully integrate the German minority in the
Second Republic of Poland.
The
governments of the National Democrats and Peasants Party (1919-26)
sinned in excessive haste. They introduced the schools with two
teaching languages in purely German villages, instead to wait a while
and gradually change some unfavorable for that conditions. After some
hesitation, the
sanation regime (1926-39) began to polonize people through
administrative constraints, and followed in the footsteps of
Germanizers and Russizers.
The sanators oversaw the fact that the policies of the partitioning
powers had failed and led to armed resistance against them, which
ended with overthrow of their rule. Historia
magistra vitae est!
After
the essay was completed, I learned about another, quite similar
on-line archive
In
this case, too, you have to make the not painless effort and browse
slowly, one outmoded paper page after another. Of course, the pain is
for purpose. It is a collection of historical documents of the
Imperial and German Wehrmacht
from the Eastern Front. Lots of old machine fonts, no standard pages,
of low at best medium quality. I mean: Deutsch-Russisches
Projekt zur Digitalisierung Deutscher Dokumente in Archiven der
Russischen Föderation
(German-Russian project on the digitization of German documents in
archives of the Russian Federation).
The
holdings were divided into a sufficiently large number of thematic
groups,
but
remained only scanned.
It’s
not much surprising; part of them was recovered from the ashes by the
soldiers of the Soviet Army. Under these circumstances, digitisation
must be limited to creating page images and making them accessible
for international public. This provides inspiration and reason to
continue working around the most modern, highly effective keyboards
of the Android operating system.
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