Performing National Identity on the Town Square: Germans, Poles, and Jews in Poznań/Posen, 1886–1914

In the late nineteenth century, Poznań/Posen, the capital of the Prussian province of Poznania, became a battleground for growing hostilities between German and Polish nationalists. But even as German and Polish nationalists sought to nationalize urban spaces such as the marketplace, the churches, and the schools, Germans, Poles, and Jews continued to walk the streets together and to interact on a daily basis. This paper examines the tensions between, on the one hand, German and Polish nationalist activism that sought to claim urban spaces as national property and to mobilize Germans and Poles in support of nationalist agendas in the city of Poznań/Posen and, on the other hand, the realities of everyday life for Poznanians in a multinational city. It focuses in particular on the rival boycott movements that emerged in the city, as German and Polish nationalists used their own variations on the phrase “each to his own” – “Jedem das Seine” in German and “Swój do swego po swoje” in Polish – in attempts to mobilize their supporters in support of the boycotts. The repeated calls for boycott activity, however, call into question the effectiveness of such movements. Thus, even as the marketplace became one of the many flashpoints in national conflict, nationalist mobilization in the multinational city of Poznań/Posen was tempered by urban dynamics that highlighted the interdependence of the nationalities.