The Wendish Research Exchange - Pałys, Piotr: The Scientific Committee in Poland for Academic Questions in Relation to the Sorbs

Lětopis Abstract 2014 2: Pałys, Piotr: The Scientific Committee in Poland for Academic Questions in Relation to the Sorbs

A national Polish institution designed to coordinate activities in relation to the Sorbs was created in Poznań on 5 and 6 October 1946. The main focus was on the current development of the Sorbs and Lusatia after the war, together with the organisation of courses in Sorbian studies and research. All institutions involved in this question in Poland met in Cracow on 30 January 1947. A statute relating to this work was put together, which assigned individual tasks and elected Professor Tadeusz Stanisław Grabowski as chairman of the committee. The task of the scientific committee, as it was called, was to find a solution to the Sorbian or Lusatian question.

Several options were discussed in this respect: they ranged from remaining in Germany within an autonomous province, or the possibility of becoming part of Czechoslovakia or Poland, to the creation of an independent Sorbian state. Contacts existed on the one hand with the Domowina in Lusatia, and on the other hand with the Sorbian National Committee operating in Prague. In addition, the scientific committee composed a memorandum, which demanded the free development of the Sorbian nation. But already by November 1947 the organisation was forced to suspend its political activities in relation to the Sorbian question, as Poland did not want to get into a political conflict with the Soviet Union. The committee only remained active to a limited extent in academic matters.