What Nationality Did Nicolas Copernicus Have, German Or Polish?
Nicolas Copernicus was born in 1473 in the city of Toru? as the son of Nicolas Koppernigk and Barbara Watzenrode; the city is situated in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship of modern Poland.In 1473, the city was called Thorn (in German); it was a member of the Hanseatic League.Until 1466, it had been part of the independent state of the Teutonic Knights in Prussia and the Che?mno Land (Kulmerland in German).
In the 9th century, Che?mno Land was inhabited by a mixture of Baltic and Slav people which had displaced the Old Prussian inhabitants since the 8th century.In the 10th century, the Dukes of Masovia had started to conquer the area.By 1065, it was considered part of the Duchy of Masovia but its inhabitants remained Baltic and Slav until the 13th century.
The Dukes of Masovia were amongst the leading aristocrats in the Lithuanian-Polish Empire and involved in the regular wars of succession as contenders for the throne.At the beginning of the 13th century, their treasury was empty and their armies needed in Poland.
In 1228, Duke Conrad I of Masovia called in the Teutonic Knights and granted them Che?mno Land as a dependent Duchy and part of Masovia (as to Polish history books); or he called them in to conquer and to hold independently (as to German history books); the original treaty is missing.For good measure, Emperor Frederick II of the Holy Roman Empire and Pope Gregory IX granted them Prussia including the Che?mno Land, too, under condition that they convert the pagan Old Prussians by the sword if necessary.
The Teutonic Knights conquered Prussia and Che?mno Land.The Old Prussians chose the sword over conversion to Christianity and were slaughtered; today we would call it genocide.The Teutonic Knights called in German settlers and repopulated the whole province.The first two cities founded were Che?mno (Kulm) and Toru? (Thorn) in 1233.
At the end of the 14th century, the Hanseatic League and the Teutonic Knights had opposing interests where commerce was concerned.The Prussian member cities of the Hanseatic League entered an alliance with Poland to further their interests.A first war was ended in the peace treaty of Thorn in 1411.A second war ended in 1466 in the second treaty of Thorn.In the latter treaty, the Teutonic Knights lost large tracts of land including Thorn to the Polish crown.The new entity was called Royal Prussia.It was not part of the Lithuanian-Polish Empire but of the Polish Commonwealth and held in personal union by the King of Poland.
Nicolas’ father was also called Nicolas.The family name was spelled as Koppernigk; it is considered possible that the family name meant that they had come at some time from the Silesian village Koperniki in the Oppole Voivodeship in modern Poland.Koppernigk had moved from Cracow to Thorn between 1454 and 1458.But citizens going by the same family name had been on record in Thorn before that.He married a patrician’s daughter, Barbara Watzenrode, and they had four children.Silesia had a history as tortuous as Toru? minus the Baltic influence and changed hands several times over.
While history and family history are interesting, they hold no answer to the question.There is a reason why they don’t.Nationality as we understand it today is an invention of the 19th century.It was to be the corner stone of the new states emerging from the Napoleonic Wars and to give them a reason for their existence (and to exterminate minorities).Before that, states of mixed ethnicity like the Holy Roman Empire had held sway.Nationality had played no part in the definition applied to these super states and ethnic descent had been an excuse to play politics.
People, too, would see their national or ethnic descent as less important than their social standing, their family, their regional affiliations, and being good Christians.The Poles today claim Copernicus as their own, so do the Germans.They do this under a modern understanding of nationality.This had no meaning then.Copernicus might understand that we have satellites, television, and telephones; he would be baffled by the concept of nationality.
People are a product of the time they are born and lived in.For his father, family, city, and church were the things that counted most.He had served as a messenger to the king for the city of Cracow and he served as a judge in Thorn.Loyalty and service to the city he lived in were important; a distant and quite often changing overlord on a throne was incidental to his thinking.In fact, the citizens of cities were often in opposition to their sovereign over rights and freedoms they wanted or had been granted but which were withheld from them.Accordingly, self-understanding was fiercely local.Nationality couldn’t have been farther from their mind.
Reference:
Nicolaus Copernicus - Wikipedia
Toru? - Wikipedia
Silesia - Wikipedia
Nationality - Wikipedia