Poles in Germany, or the Polish community in Germany, is the second largest Polonia in the world and the biggest in Europe. Estimations of the number of Poles living in Germany vary from 384808 Poles with exclusively Polish citizenship to about 1 million and with up to three million people living that might be of Polish descent, although many of them have lost their ancestors indentity. The main Polonia organization in Germany are the Union of Po...
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Poles in Germany, or the Polish community in Germany, is the second largest Polonia in the world and the biggest in Europe. Estimations of the number of Poles living in Germany vary from 384808 Poles with exclusively Polish citizenship to about 1 million and with up to three million people living that might be of Polish descent, although many of them have lost their ancestors indentity. The main Polonia organization in Germany are the Union of Poles in Germany and Congress of Polonia in Germany. Polish surnames are relatively common in Germany, especially in the Ruhr area (Ruhr Poles) and among Silesians.
Since the Partitions of Poland in 1772, 1793 and 1795 and Poland's partial incorporation into Prussia, a large Polish ethnic group existed inside Prussia's borders, especially in the new provinces of Posen and West Prussia.
During the transformation of Germany from an agrarian to an industrial society, many Poles, alongside Silesians, Kashubians and Masurians migrated to the rapidly...
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