Settlement History
The current Polish Voivodeship of Greater Poland of which Gebiczyn, Polajewice, and Niewiemko is located is sometimes called the cradle of Poland. The cathedral in Poznan is the oldest church in the country. Its crypt contains the tombs of the first Polish rulers, Duke Miesko I and King Boleslaw I Chroby. The churches archives store many of the surviving German church records. In the middle-ages the cities and land of the future Gembitz Hauland parish and its neighboring cities and communities were owned either by the King of Poland or a Polish royal hereditary family.
Between the years of 1600 and 1629 the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth fought a series of wars with Sweden. Also, during this time, as was true across Europe, the region suffered numerous plagues. Combined these events depopulated the region resulting in financial losses for the Polish owners of the estates. The fields of the owners lay fallow and their smaller villages and farmsteads were destroyed. To repopulate their holdings and return them to profitability the owners started to offer German immigrants’ incentives to settle on their estates.
Prior to the Swedish wars the cities, such as Czarnkow and Chodziez, located along the Netze (today Notec) river were important for trade. To encourage that trade there is early documentation of German trades people being invited to settle in these cities. The documentation prior to 1600 suggests that these settlers assimilated into the Polish community and became Polish.
Development of Schulzendorfs
The Polish-Swedish War (1600-1629) was a series of four distinct conflicts separated by truces. The last two conflicts from 1621-1625 and 1626-1629 appear to have put the Royal Polish families under a particularly heavy strain. In addition to the wars, a series of plagues had so depopulated their estates that in many cases entire villages ceased to exist. The Polish owners sought entrepreneurial German immigrants to rebuild their holdings. Starting as early as 1621 free Schulzen (Magistrate) contracts were granted to well-funded and capable men. Generally, the Schulze received land with the right to fish and brew beer. He was responsible to recruit other settlers to the community, administer the community, and collect the taxes for the landlord.
Little documentation exists of the origins of these German Schulze. They were likely very well-connected to the landlord or other communities. The Schulzen contract was expensive. In order to get a return on their investment, the Schulze would have needed a large network in other German communities to be able to attract settlers to his village. A review of the history of the villages of Althütte, Beyersdorf, Fitzerei, Gramsdorf, Podanin, and Jankendorf in the book “Quellenband zur Geschichte der zweiten deutschen Ostssiedlung im westlichen Netzegau” by Werner Schulz in 1938 documents numerous connections between the Schulze families in these communities.
For the next one hundred years wars and palace intrigue by the rulers of Russia, Prussia and Austria continuously weakened the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Great Northern War between the Commonwealth and Sweden from 1700 to 1721 created tensions between the Polish residents and the German settlers. During the war plague spread across Poland severely depopulating the region again. The city of Poznan prior to the war had approximately 14,000 residents. After 1709 the population of the city had been reduced to 5,000 people. Many of the original Schulze families became mired in debt when significant portions of their Schulzegut were abandoned.
Development of Haulands
Following the Great Northern War and the subsequent plagues the Polish landlords needed a large influx of immigrants to move onto their estates to return them to profitability. A century earlier in similar circumstances their ancestors had issued Schulzen contracts to accomplish the task. At this time, following the failure of many of their Schulzenguts the landlords likely found the structure of Polish Oleder community financially favorable as it spread out the risk to a larger number of farmers on their estate.
The first of the Polish Oleders, or German Holländer/Hauländer were mostly of the Mennonite faith who in the 16th and 17th centuries used their knowledge of flood control to create prosperous farms along the Vistula River and its tributaries. In exchange for taming the flood prone area into productive farmland these settlers received from their Polish Landlords rights to personal freedom, long-term or perpetual use of land, and the possibility of transmitting land to heirs. The freedom, success, and rights to self-government in these communities became the basis for future Hauland contracts across Poland.
Within a Oleder/Hauländer community the change of ownership, sale, purchase, parceling or inheritance, was much easier than in a Schulzendorf. The most important characteristic, however, was the collective responsibility of the entire Olęder/Hauländer community for its obligations toward the landowner. The community’s Schulze rather than having paid a landlord for the right to administer the community was elected yearly by the whole community along with two Schöffen (councilmen). The Schulze in an Older/Hauländer community exercised the same lower court jurisdiction as the Schulze in a Schulzendorf.
Searching for enough German farmers to repopulate their estates was likely a very competitive environment in the early 1700s among these Polish estate owners. For the German immigrants the financial incentives offered in these contracts provided an opportunity for them and their family to begin to break the bonds of serfdom.
Among the Hauländer founded during this period in the area were Strozewo Hauland (1730), Gembitz Hauland (1733), Niewiemko (approx. 1744), Raczyn Hauland (1744), Rehwiese or Igrzno Hauland (1746), Josepher Hauland (1750), Wischin Hauland (before 1751), Strelitz Hauland (1753), and Polajewo Hauland (circa 1760). Wischin Hauland, present day Wyszynki, was originally four independent Haulands consisting of Wischin Hauland, Philippener Hauland, Raczyn Hauland, and Josepher Hauland.