German Settlements in the Zator Deanery in the Middle Ages

Abstract

The article describes the phenomenon of German colonization in the area that at the beginning of the 14^th century belonged to the Zator deanery. The area was crossed by the border between Silesia and Little Poland (Małopolska) from the last quarter of the 12^th century. Connections of the western part of the deanery with Silesia probably contributed to the occurrence of German colonization in this area. The first apprerance of German settlers in the area took place in the first quarter of the 14^th century at the latest; possibly it happened as early as the second half of the 13^th century.

In 1325 no fewer than 27% vicars in the Zator deanery had typically German Christian names (whereas only 8% had Slavonic ones). In those areas of the deanery that were situated in the valley of the River Skawa the proportion of German Christian names reached 38%. Also numerous villages had German names. The occurrence of German Christian names as well as names of villages no doubt reflects German colonization. All in all, of the 36 parishes that constituted the Zator deanery in 1325, German names occurred in 16 (44%). In the valley of the River Skawa traces of German colonization occur in 13 of the 21 parishes (62%), and in the area west of the Skawa in 9 out of 13 (69%).

In the enumeration of the vicars in the Silesian part of the deanery from 1378 German names make up 27%, which shows that the German colonization in that area was a lasting one. Traces of foundation of settlements with German names or of German settlers' activity still appear in various parts of the Zator deanery in the second half of the 14^th century. In the 15^th century apart from Wadowice there are no traces of new German colonization, which leads one to conclude that about the year 1400 this phenomenon started to expire.

Generally in the area discussed in the article traces of German colonization are found in 24 places. In 21 of them there were churches in the Middle Ages and in one of them there was an unsuccessful attempt at building one. This confirms the proposition that Germans tended to build churches in places they colonized.