Just like every year in the beginning of August in Poznań a holiday commemorating the coming of settlers from German Bamberg will be celebrated.

The first group of settlers came to the capital city of Wielkopolska in 1719.
For hundreds of years villages belonging to Poznań were one of the main sources of income for the city. At the beginning of 18th century because of the wars and the plague the villages were almost completely depopulated. It meant serious financial trouble for the city. That is why the authorities of Poznań decided to settle there people from German Bamberg, a region in Upper Franconia. The first agreement with the settlers from Bamberg was signed on 1 August 1719. Within the next several dozen years a considerable group of farmers from Bamberg came to Poznań as a result of the agreement.
The only condition new settlers had to meet was to possess a certificate confirming that the holder practices Catholic faith.  In return the authorities of the City gave them timber so that they could rebuild their farms. And although the settlers spoke German, not Polish, their assimilation happened very quickly. In the 19th century all farmers from the vicinity of Poznań were called Bambrzy. And, what’s interesting, in the 19th century, when Poznań was a part of Prussia, the descendants of Bamberg settlers considered themselves Polish, not German.
Bambrzy and their descendants contributed to the culture of near-Poznań villages. They brought with them their own traditions concerning farming, food, construction, but these traditions were not that completely new, because Polish people had been in touch with their western neighbours for many years. What was the most characteristic feature of Bambrzy was the way they used to dress. Their costumes had formed throughout the ages under Polish and German influences. Women wearing characteristic crowns made of flowers were called in Poznań “bamberka”.
After almost 300 years Bambrzy have blended in the Poznań cultural landscape. During the years of the Communist government they even tried to hide their roots, because they were afraid of accusations of cooperation with then hostile Germany. The situation changed in the 1990s. The Society of Poznań Bambrzy was founded, embracing the descendants of the settlers from Bamberg.
Every year the Society organizes, on the first Saturday after the 1 August, the Bamber Holiday. It always takes place on the Old Market Square by the fountain of Bamberka at the rear of the Town Hall. After the welcoming ceremony and speeches a fragment of the first agreement made between the City and Bamber settlers from Luboń village is read out. There many other attractions like fruit and vegetable fair, one can also buy farmhouse bread, traditional teacake covered with sugar icing, potatoes with cottage cheese, thick vegetable soup and slices of bread with lard.
Mementos left by Bamber settlers are in the Bamber Museum opened a couple of years ago. The Museum has its seat in Mostowa Street, a couple of hundred metres away from the Old Market Square, in the vicinity of the Ethnographic Museum. A typical Bamber house was reconstructed there. On the ground floor we can see a Bamber house with a garden and a fence. All the rooms are equipped with furniture, domestic appliances and pictures that were in the typical 19th century house of a wealthy Bamber farmer. On the first floor there are display cabinets with valuable historic objects like a christening cap from the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Photograph – a Bamber homestead in the Museum