| dc.description.abstract | On the cusp of the 19th and 20th centuries the Grunwald tradition was becoming one of the
basic instruments of forming the historical awareness, especially among the plebeians, and
the feeling of unity in the period between the annexations. A number of factors that led to
the revival of the Grunwald tradition which had been disrupted by the partitions appeared
in the 19th century. These factors also influenced the change of the character of the Grunwald
tradition, its social perception and mythologization. The process should be associated with
the current state of the “Polish affair” and “Lithuanina affair”, the course of the nationbuilding
processes and the international events. The development of historical writing,
political thought and literary works of Romanticism, the programmes of the Spring of Nations,
cultural and national emancipation as well as the autonomic freedoms of Galicia also had an
impact on the revival. The germinasational policy of the Prussian and German authorities
was a significant impulse to develop a stereotype of a German resembling a Teutonic Order
Knight. The Grunwald celebrations organised in 1902 and 1910 in Galicia, by their course,
mass participation and ideological content revealed the extent of the changes that had taken
place in the historical awareness of the Polish society in the 19th century. They also showed
the role of the Grunwald tradition in the process of nationalisation of the plebeians, especially
the peasants. It were the last celebrations, combined with the unveiling of the Grunwald
Monument in Cracow, lasting three days and having a central character, with the participation
of delegations from other partitions that reverberated not only in the Polish society. | en |
