Petra Reski (born in 1958) is a German writer from the post-war generation. Its representatives confront with dramatic consequences of the Second World War like the loss of homeland, the experience of escape and forced displacement. The article focuses on the Reski’s novel Ein Land so weit in the context of space. The narrator describes a sentimental journey to the home village in Warmia and family past. She documents impressions that combine different time dimensions, generations and memories.

ABSTRACT:

The article is an attempt at an analysis of the information contained in Ludwig von Baczko’s article, titled Von einigen in Preussen gefundenen römischen Münzen. The text was published in 1780, in the periodical “Das preussische Tempe” in Königsberg. The information from the publication was used only by Sture Bolin in his catalogue of the finds of Roman coins (Bolin 1926). The “Das preussische Tempe” was practically lost and its only copy remained in the National Library in Moscow.

SUMMARY:

In the article Von einigen in Preussen gefundenen römischen Münzen authored by Ludwig Franz Adolf Josef von Baczko, published in the “Das preussische Tempe” in 1780 some information on the finds of antique coins was published. The author mentioned two Roman coins of Augustus and Tiberius for Livia found in the Elbląg area. The information does not allow any conclusion on whether the find was authentic and the Elbląg area was indeed the place of the discovery of two “bronze” Roman coins, one of which had the image of Justitia or Pietas on its obverse. The subsequent finds, mentioned by von Baczko, came from the areas of Klaipėda (German: Memel), Zheleznodorozhny (German: Gerdaunen), Kaliningrad Oblast (Russia), Krylowo (German: Nordenburg), Kaliningrad Oblast (Russia) and Tilsit, today Sovetsk, Kaliningrad Oblast (Russia). He identified Philip the Arab as the issuer. Von Baczko provided some more questionable information concerning 83 silver coins which “had been brought from those areas to Königsberg by a Polish Jew in 1774”. The Polish Jew suggested that the coins could be easily found in Samogitia, not far from the Prussian border, in remains of an old building. Von Baczko decided that the information was incomplete as it pointed only to the existence of the foundations of an old, stone building. All the information about the 83 coins presented above bring to mind the typical accounts of coin traders of the time.

Von Baczko informed also that “he was shown a few more coins” which had been discovered, as he was said “zu Höle bei Danzig”, so in today’s Gdańsk Ujeścisko. They were silver Vespasian’s coins with images of “various Judean sacrificial vessels” on reverses, there was also a coin with the representation of a “veiled woman” and the legend IVDEA CAPTA. The information about the find appeared in all catalogues of the Roman coins found on the Polish territory. The discovery was described as a hoard consisting of an unknown number of pennies from the period between Vespasian and Septimius Severus or Caracalla (the coin struck for Julia Domna). Sture Bolin repeated the information faithfully after von Baczko, so the discovery of the 1780 “Das preussische Tempe” does not contribute much to the matter in question. The only novelty is that von Baczko questioned the find’s authenticity, supporting his opinion with a vague remark about “das zu wenig erhobene Gepräge”, which implied that he considered the coins to be contemporary products.

Further in his article, von Baczko deliberates on how the coins had got to Prussia. He refers to some unspecified writers (“verschiedene Schriftsteller”) who suspected the presence of Romans by the Baltic Sea but emphasises that he does not know any written record by a Roman historian which would confirm the Roman presence so far away from the Empire’s borders. Von Baczko then suggests that the coins may have come as loot. He observed that Old Prussians had had the custom of leaving spoils taken from their enemies in the urns of their heroes. He argued that after the urns were destroyed by time, the coins that remained came to the surface as a result of land cultivation.

Having been long searched for, when eventually found von Baczko’s article turned out not to be particularly useful in interpreting the records concerning the coins. The lack of results is, however, also a result. There are a lot of laconic and arbitrary descriptions of coins which did not help to identify particular specimens. Based on the article, we may assume that he saw the coins and identified and described them himself. The legends he quotes are usually incorrect, but they did appear on Roman coins, so he did not invent them completely. He knew what could be found on Roman coins. It is also evident that he had a considerable knowledge of ancient Rome for his times.

While comparing von Baczko’s article with similar contemporary texts one may arrive at the conclusion that it is a typical product of Prussian scholars of the time, such as A. Grübnau, M. Praetorius, C.B. Lengnich. The coins were described selectively, only those specimens that for some reason attracted the attention of the authors mentioned above. The descriptions are incomplete, what is more, the described obverses do not match the reverses. Based on von Baczko’s article, one may conclude that he wrote about what he could discern on the coin. There is much to make us believe that having read the obverse legend on one coin, he coupled it with the reverse of another coin, while a third one provided the image. Such an approach was certainly adopted in the case of the solidi from the Mrzezin hoard. The author, who signed himself with an “X” described the obverse of Anastasius I’s solidus and the reverse of the Ostrogoth imitation of the same type of coin.

The crisis of the Catholic Church due to the Reformation marked a profound shift in European religious dynamics during the 16th century. This transformation led to confessional conflicts previous-ly unseen in Europe’s history. Within this context, the Warsaw Confederation 1573 stands out as an extraordinary event. Unlike traditional peace settlements following religious wars or edicts is-sued by rulers, it was a political and pragmatic measure introduced by the Sejm and aimed at maintaining peace during the Interre-gnum period, and preventing bloody conflicts. The path to this uni-que solution lay in the multiculturalism of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth on which territories Roman Catholics already in the late Middle Ages coexisted with Orthodox Christians. Besides, through Poland’s diplomatic efforts, the protestant Duchy of Prussia was established in 1525 following the secularization of the Teu-tonic Order. The Warsaw Confederation remains an exceptional example of resolving internal religious conflicts in the early modern period, as the Western countries, with their conflict-oriented mind-set, were less inclined to pursue such a path.

The biographies of the journalists of Polish press published in West Prussia in the 19th and early 20th century usually highlight their patriotic commitment and admirable perseverance in launching and running various newspapers and journals. However, we can also find in their lives episodes that did them little credit, or even were downright disgraceful.

The Thornische Nachrichten von gelehrten Sachen, published in Toruń in 1762–1766, was a learned review journal, the first periodical of this kind in Poland. As one of its editors' priorities was to keep track of current Polish writing, the magazine regularly published reviews of the most notable books of Polish Enlightenment (among its reviewers were Stanisław Konarski, Wacław Rzewuski, Franciszek Bohomolec, Józef Minasowicz).

Throughout its publishing history (1850–1866) the editors of the Nadwiślanin, a weekly published at Chełmno (Kulm) in Royal Prussia, were the target of harassment by the Prussian police, prosecutors and courts. Print runs of the magazine were often seized, the editors taken to court and sentenced to fines and terms of imprisonment.

One of the consequences of the incorporation of Warmia into the Kingdom of Prussia was the growing secularisation of the entire region. The lands belonging to the bishop of Warmia and his canons became the property of the state. The Prussian Partition enabled Protestants to settle in the areas which had previously been domi-nated almost entirely by Catholics. State authorities tried to meet the expectations of Protestants already in the 18th century by employing school headmasters and religion teachers in the towns of Warmia. Frederick the Great issued a decree that allowed holding religious services in local town halls. Some rooms in the castles were also adapted for the purpose. However, along with the increase in population, there was a growing demand for new church buildings, parish houses and schools. Necessar financial support came from the Prussian king Frederick William III, who suggested that the so-called secularisation fund, available after the dissolution of the Neuzelle monastery in Brandenburg, be assigned to this end. Building of new churches was entrusted to the State Construction Commission, led by a distinguished architect, Karl Friedrich Schinkel.

The holdings of the Kórnik Library include a small printed book by Walenty Schreck published by the Königsbergian printing house of Johann Daubmann in 1559. At the beginning of the book, there is a hand-written dedication from the author to Duke Albrecht Frederick, a son of Albrecht of Prussia (von Hohenzollern), and a versed poetic work. Since the volume was a gift to a juvenile duke (and indirectly to his father), it was bound in a masterly manner: in covers with rich, almost entirely gilded ornamentation and with gilded edges. The paper offers an analysis of this book-binding work, taking similar objects from Polish collections and information from relevant literature as a point of reference. This allowed a thesis that the object is a representative creation of the leading 16th century Königsbergian book-binder Kaspar Angler, in which he used several of his characteristic decorating tools (such as a roll with fi gures of cupids and putti, a roll with a cortège of a king and bishop, and 3 medallion plaques with Biblical scenes). Taking into account its high artistry and almost untouched condition, the work seems to be one of the most impressive objects of the 16th century European bookbinding industry in the collection of the Kórnik library. Its high historical value also results from its provenance – it originates from the ducal library in Königsberg.

This biographical dictionary includes 226 biograms of editors in chief journalists executive editors and co-workers that were also described as editors. It is based on research data as well as records in ecclesiastical and state archives, libraries and registry offices. The individual lives are presented in accordance with the customary biogram template.

The Gdansk chronicle by Bernt Stegmann was written in the East Central German language (Ostmitteldeutsch) in 1528 and is the oldest surviving historiographic artefact concerning Gdansk. The article sums up the author’s latest findings concerning the circumstances in which the chronicle was written and the probable addressee of the work. She also puts forward some hypotheses regarding the origin of the compiler, discusses the structure of the manuscript and the manner of its production.
The chronicle is a compilation of some older historiographic sources, which place the history of the Main City of Gdansk in world history: the Jerusalem rulers and the history of the Teutonic Order. It is a type of a universal town chronicle. The content is moralizing – the compilation is a collection of historical examples teaching how to rule the town properly. It was probably written for didactic purposes for young Hans Kremer, the future mayor of Gdansk.
Bernt Stegmann was a merchant trading in such places as Stockholm and Reval. The toponymic criterion indicates that his family could originate from the area of Brandenburg or Braniewo, while the dialect in which he wrote the chronicle as well as the numerous Silesian threads in the content also make it possible to be open to the hypothesis that Stegmann’s family could have come from Silesia. This question remains unresolved. The manuscript was written and made personally by Bernt Stegmann, as indicated by the atypical arrangement of its sections and non-professional binding.