KMT 2021 nr 2 Download PDF

Poles by choice – on the identity of German and Austrian wives of polish landed gentry in light of biographical accounts

Cite: , Polki z wyboru – rzecz o tożsamości niemieckich i austriackich żon polskich ziemian z perspektywy narracji biograficznych, "Kultura - Media - Teologia", 2021( 45) nr 2, s. 166-182.

DOI: 10.21697/kmt.45.8

The article focuses on the identity of wives of Polish landed gentry, women who came from the German-speaking countries. The subject is discussed on the basis of selected biographical narratives: both autobiographies (Matylda Sapieżyne nee Windisch-Graetz: My i nasze Siedliska. Kraków 2003) and accounts of the children of the women-protagonists of the study (Maria Czapska: Europa w rodzinie. Czas odmieniony. Kraków 2014 and Zygmunt Szmeja: Medycyno, moja miłości. Poznań 2012). Analysis of the selected biographical narratives indicates that one of the pillars of identity of landed gentry, i.e. the sense of belonging to a given place, is also developed by the German or Austrian wives of Polish landed gentry. The memory of family nests is a prime factor for the continuity of identity. Thus, the home, or the manor house into which the foreigner-wife is introduced, is the constituent element of the identity of landed gentry, which comprises attachment to all things Polish. The rootedness of “Poles by choice” in a manor house and in Polish identity is on the one hand attested to by their individual memories, part and parcel of the collective memory of Polish landed gentry (Maurice Halbwachs), and on the other hand by the patriotism displayed by the women discussed in the study during the Second World War and in the post-war period.

About authors

Justyna Krauze-Pierz

ORCID: 0000-0002-8693-1468