Zwischen Geschichte und Politik: Das Privileg fuer die Juden Grosspolens aus dem Jahr 1453 in der Polnischen Historiographie
Between History and Politics: The 1453 Charter for the Jews of Great Poland as a Topic of Polish Historiography

Summary/Abstract: For a long time, the historiography on Polish Jewry – be it written by Jews, or by Christians – centered around two topics: the question, where the Jews settling in Poland originally came from; and their legal status, the foundations of which had been laid during the late mediaeval period. Both of them were directed at eminently political problems: the legitimacy of Jewish settlements on Polish soil, and the question whether the Jews of Poland belonged to, and were part of, the Polish nation. The article investigates, if, and how historiography intertwined with the politics of the so-called “Jewish question” in the writings of Polish historians dealing with the mediaeval royal charters for the Jews of Great Poland, both before and after 1918. Its focus is on Stanisław Kutrzeba, one of the leading mediaevalists in early 20th century Poland, but also a journalist of the catholic and overtly antisemitic “Głos Narodu”, and one of the consultants of Roman Dmowski at the Paris Peace Conference after World War I.

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