Mieszkanie „na wsi” – dobrodziejstwo czy fatum czyhające na sędziów i adwokatów na ziemiach byłej dzielnicy pruskiej?
Living in the countryside – a blessing or Fate lurking for judges and Lawyers on the lands of the former Prussian Quarter?

Summary/Abstract: The interwar period constituted an era of integration for the young Polish state. Migrations of Polish intelligentsia representatives in the field of law to the lands of the former Prussian Quarter due to enormous staff shortages, in both town and the countryside, were one of its key aspects. Prussian Quarter lands were made of industrialized areas (Upper Silesia/Gorny Slask), as well as rural areas (Greater Poland, Pomerania/Wielkopolska, Pomorze).The study’s objective is to demonstrate that, in the given time period, the countryside could not afford the constant accommodation of people within the Polish legal intelligentsia. This state of matter was due to the regulations bounding judges and lawyers to live in the place of their legal settlement and where the courthouse was located. Therefore, only a city could do so. However, legal intelligentsia was still bound to the province because of the services they provided (eg. notarial contracts, criminal defense). Coming to post-Prussian grounds, lawyers could not meet their rental needs by living in the countryside, which would be substantially cheaper. On the other hand they could not be sure if they would be directed to the bigger industrial regions that would offer potentially higher earnings. This work presents potential issues with settling down in the province from the perspective of lawyers who were stationed on the lands of the former Prussian Partition during the interbellum. For some, the province represented a fate they wanted to avoid at all costs; for others - a perspective of legal career growth and decent living conditions.

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