Introduction

Why republish?

Republishing articles, which have been written in a time characterized by severe political extremes, does raise questions.

• Is it politically correct to republish probably one-sided, German minded articles about the German minority in Poland and have them distributed to an even larger public than the original publications?
• Isn't this - again - giving speech to those among the ethnic Germans in Poland who already had the loudest voices between the World Wars?
• Does the valuable historic and genealogical content of articles justify the republication of formerly sponsored points of views and obvious propaganda?

All these questions can be condensed to the single question:

Are the visitors of this website able to set the republished documents into their historic context and interpret them according to their background?
This question was answered with yes.

Why Albert Breyer?

Among the numerous articles and books that have been published about the Germans in Poland, the publications by Albert Breyer are always somehow special.

At first sight this seems to be based on the fact that Breyer's work is concentrated on the scarcely covered area of Central Poland. His works are easy to read and they lack the otherwise heavily used jargon of German supremacy.

But a second sight reveals, that it is actually the attention to detail and the multi-layered approach of the sensitive researcher Albert Breyer, that make his works still convincing.

This quality of Albert Breyer's works is caused by the many different sources, that he had used. Only this difficult and detailed research enabled Albert Breyer to give justice to the specific and manifold characteristics of the German settlers in Central Poland and to understand their history.

The teacher Albert Breyer never failed to explain these complex issues in an easily understandable language.

A brief notice about Albert Breyer's death as a reserve officer of the Polish army during the first days of World War II caught my attention and made me think about the person Albert Breyer. This led to further research about Albert Breyer's life and work and also to contacts to the Breyer family.

Most impressing was the insight into Albert Breyer's unpublished works:

Notes about conversations he had with people that he had met on his hikes through Central Poland, information taken from church books and court records - copied in the original language, correspondence with teachers, Kantors and Pastors, drawings of the landscape and sketches of architectural details.

All of this reflected the versatile person and the meticulous researcher that had already been perceptible in the published works.

Albert Breyer's work gains significance today, since many of the sources which he used are not available anymore.

The live of Albert Breyer was strongly influenced by the historic events between 1919 and 1939 and by being an ethnic German in Poland.

So Albert Breyer's story of life can give today's researchers an insight into recent history and the events around the German minority in Poland.

Jutta Dennerlein - April 2007