Walka o obcą/swoją przeszłość. Niemiecki romantyk o dawnym Pomorzu

Abstract

The paper offers a description of the poetic and prose works by a German Romantic writer, Johann Ernst Benno, operating in Western Pomerania (Koszalin, Kolobrzeg, Slupsk) in the mid‑nineteenth century. His literature was primarily meant to glorify the beauty of the native land and its people. Furthermore, it expressed an attachment to the past and heroic attitudes of the ancestors. The main ideological problem in Benno’s works was his attitude towards Slavic past. Appreciating the presence of non‑Germanic culture in Pomerania as a humanist, as a writer associated with Prussian administration, he remained silent about Slavic origins of Pomeranian dukes, or about the involvement of Kashubians and Poles in making history of the region, using instead general terms, such as forefathers or ancestors, to refer to them. Benno is an example of a Romantic writer influenced by the Herderian attitude towards the Slavs, but also an artist increasingly involved in developing German Kulturkampf literature.