Like every year, at the beginning of August a festival commemorating the arrival of German settlers from Bamberg was held. In 1719 the first groups of settlers came to the capital of Greater Poland.

For centuries one of the sources of Poznan’s income were villages belonging to the city. At the beginning of the XVIII century, after wars and an epidemic, the villages were almost completely deprived of people. This resulted in serious financial problems. Therefore, the local authorities decided to encourage the citizens of Bamberg, a region located in southern Franconia, to settle there. The first contract with the citizens of Bamberg was signed on September 1st 1719. As a result, over many decades a large group of people moved from Bamberg to Poznan.



A Bamberg girl in regional costume

The new settlers could come to Poznan under one condition-they had to bring a certificate proving their Catholic faith. In exchange the city government provided them with wood to build farms. Despite the fact that the new inhabitants spoke a different language, the assimilation process advanced. In the XIX century the name “Barber” was reserved for all farmers from the vicinity of Poznan. It is worth mentioning that in the XIX century - when Poznan belonged to Prussia-the descendants of Bamberg settlers considered themselves not as Germans but as Poles.
Bamberg citizens and their descendants brought many elements into the culture of Poznan's countryside, ranging from farming and food to building. However, thanks to contacts with the western neighbours those elements were not entirely new to Polish citizens. The characteristic feature of the citizens of Bamberg is their clothing. It developed over many centuries as a mixture of Polish and German influences. Women wearing characteristic crowns made of flowers were called “bamberki.”
For almost 300 years, Bamberg people blended into Poznan's landscape. During communist rule, Bamberg people avoided admitting to their roots for fear of being suspected of contacts with German enemies. The situation changed in the 1990s. The Association of Poznan's Bamberg People, which brought together the first descendants of the Bamberg settlers, was set up. This association organizes the Bamberg Festival on the first Saturday after September 1st. The festival takes place on the Old Square, right by the fountain with a Bamberg figurine on the back of the City Hall. After the welcoming speeches, a fragment of the first contract between the city and the Bamberg settlers from Luboń is read out. The festival offers many attractions, such as a fruit and vegetable fair, the sale of village bread and szneki with glanc (yeast cake with frosted topping), pyry with gzik (potatoes with cottage cheese), rumpuc (dense vegetable soup), a slice of bread with smoloszek and skrzyczki (a slice of bread spread with lard).
Relics from the Bamberg settlers are put on display in the Bamberg Museum, opened just a few years ago. The museum is located on Mostowa Street, a few hundred meters from the Old Square, right next to the Ethnographic Museum. A typical Bamberg house was recreated there, surrounded by a yard and a small fence, and was exhibited on the ground floor. All the rooms have furniture, paintings and household equipment typical of a wealthy Bamberg farmer’s house in the XIX century. Showcases displaying precious historical objects, like a baptizing bonnet from the XVII and XVIII centuries, are located on the first floor.

Bemberg farm in the museum

Pictures: the City Office