Editing Kaliningrad Oblast (section)

====German culture and Germanization====
[[file:Etnoregionai.png|thumb|Historic [[Lithuania Minor]] (red) comprised the eastern part of the [[Prussia (region)|Prussian region]] that is now Kaliningrad Oblast]]
[[file:Curonians kursenieki in 1649.png|thumb|[[Curonian Spit]] in 1649, inhabited by the [[Kursenieki]]]]
[[file:Cranz Damenbad 1900.jpg|thumb|Resort town of Cranz ([[Zelenogradsk]] today) as it looked circa 1900. It was a destination for [[List of German artists|German artists]] and [[intelligentsia]]]]

In the 19th century, East Prussia was commonly viewed by German commentators as culturally backwards and a part of the "German mission in the East" rather than a core German territory. Pan-Germanist politician [[:de:Ernst Hasse (Politiker)|Ernst Hasse]] criticised the lack of folk identity and [[imagined community]]: "It is the case that there is almost no common folk identity [Landsmannschaften] among the Poseners and Prussians at all. [...] Who can recognise a Posener or Prussian by dialect and character? Distinct features hardly exist."<ref name="tilse">{{cite book |author=Mark Jonathan Breedon Tilse |title=Nations in synthesis: the ideology and practices of transnationalism in the Prussian East, 1871-1914 |type= Doctoral thesis |publisher=University of London |date=2008 |id=PQ ETD 591343 |page=63 }}</ref> While the north of East Prussia was overwhelmingly German, the south was majority Slavic and mostly composed of Poles and [[Masurians]]. There was also a slight Lithuanian majority in the north-eastern area of East Prussia, [[Lithuania Minor]].<ref name="polugodina">{{cite journal |author1=Maria Polugodina |author2=Theocharis Grigoriadis |title=East Prussia 2.0: Persistent Regions, Rising Nations |journal=Discussion Paper |publisher=Freie Universität Berlin |location=Berlin |date=2020 |volume=2020/8 |issue=1 |doi=10.17169/refubium-26889 |page=8 }}</ref> Regional and local identities were particularly strong in East Prussia - local Polish population often identified with Masuria rather than Poland, and Prussian Lithuanians also did not actively identify themselves with the Lithuanian nation.<ref>{{harvnb|Maria Polugodina|Theocharis Grigoriadis|2020|p=9}}</ref> Moreover, confessional identity often prevailed over the national one - German authorities were concerned about the "Catholic-Polish axis"; German Catholics were alienated from the German nation because of the [[Kulturkampf]] legislation, and tended to support the Polish national movement. An East German newspaper ''Thorner Zeitung'' reported in 1871 that "not only Polish Catholics, but also a great number of German Catholics, are willing to vote for a Polish party candidate".<ref>{{harvnb|Mark Jonathan Breedon Tilse|2008|pp=177–178}}</ref>

By the end of the 19th century, East Prussia had a significant Polish minority, and German nationalist circles warned of the prospect of [[Polonization]] of East Prussia.<ref name="srokowski">{{cite book |last1=Srokowski |first1=Stanisław |author-link=Stanisław Srokowski |title=East Prussia |publisher=The Baltic Pocket Library |location=Toruń |date=1934 |page=22 |url=https://kpbc.umk.pl/Content/248439/PDF/Gromadzenie_POPC_027_75.pdf |access-date=27 July 2023 |archive-date=27 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230727021352/https://kpbc.umk.pl/Content/248439/PDF/Gromadzenie_POPC_027_75.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> The perceived weakness of Germanness of East Prussia was also reinforced by the [[Ostflucht]], as East Prussia suffered from both underindustrialisation and rural overpopulation. After 1876, farm prices in East Prussia fell by 20 percent, which encouraged local landowners to hire foreign workers from [[Congress Poland]], incidentally strengthening the Polish element in the region. The increased Slavic immigration to the region generated by the requirement of the [[Junker]]s for cheap labour and better economic conditions in West Germany caused many German inhabitants to leave the region.<ref>{{harvnb|Mark Jonathan Breedon Tilse|2008|p=42}}</ref> Most Germans moved to work in the industrial heartland of western Germany, while others migrated abroad. Poles and Lithuanians of East Prussia also had much higher birth-rate and natural increase rates than the Germans, and rarely emigrated.<ref name="Srokowski 1934 21–22">{{harvnb|Srokowski|1934|pp=21–22}}</ref> Discussing the situation in East Prussia, Polish geographer [[Stanisław Srokowski]] remarked:

{{Blockquote|text=The Poles who live in the southern and western parts of East Prussia and the Lithuanians of the north-west have succeeded better than the Germans in reconciling their mode of life with their earnings. This has, of course, led to a lower standard of life, but it has enabled them to adapt themselves to actual conditions and even to prosper where the Germans fail. Moreover, both these national minorities in East Prussia are bound to the soil by centuries of tradition: they are not comparative new-comers like the majority of the Germans there. For these reasons, the Poles and Lithuanians in that province hardly ever emigrate from the land of their birth, especially as the emigration in question is not so attractive for them as for the Germans: proceeding to central or western Germany, the former would really be going to a foreign country, amongst people not speaking their language and having other customs than theirs.<ref name="Srokowski 1934 21–22">{{harvnb|Srokowski|1934|pp=21–22}}</ref>}}

The Memel Territory ([[Klaipėda region]]), formerly part of northeastern East Prussia as well as Prussian Lithuania, was annexed by Lithuania in 1923. In 1938, Nazi Germany radically renamed about a third of the place names of this area, replacing [[Old Prussian language|Old Prussian]] and [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]] names with newly invented German names.