The article reviews the personnel policy of the occupant regarding the appointment of the landrat/ county supervisor in South Prussia — a province created from the territories seized by the Hohenzollerns following the second partition of Poland in 1793. Due to external factors and the situation in the province, the process of appointing landrats underwent some modifications. Initially, these officials were elected directly by the Prussian administration, with no contribution from the nobles. The denomination of the nominee played an important role — Evangelical Reformed Church members who had been living in these territories for generations were preferred. All of it was in accordance with the demands of minister Bucholz formulated in the early 1793. During the Kościuszko Uprising many of these elected officials took up arms against the Prussians. As a consequence, they were removed from their positions, and people with no ties with the county they were meant to administer were nominated. However, as early as 1795, the demands of middle noblemen were taken into account, especially since they pledged their allegiance to the monarch during the uprising (in Radomsko) or called for the nomination of a former Prussian officer (in Częstochowa). This nominating procedure also functioned during the second term of minister Voss in South Prussia (after Frederick William III of Prussia had come to the throne). At that point, noblemen were allowed to choose the candidate among themselves, which was in compliance with the General State Laws for the Prussian States, wishes submitted when assuming supervision over the province, as well as the suggestions of the minister himself from the early days of his office.

Jehovah’s Witnesses have operated in Greater Poland for over a hundred years. Each sub-period of this century was full of events affecting both the whole community and its individual members: their early days in the interwar period — partially as a legal association, but also as a group facing misunderstanding and attempts to ban its operation; the period of Nazi occupation — full of tragic events for both the whole community and individual members who fell victim to the system and wore purple triangle badges in concentration camps; post-war period — yet another stage of Jehovah’s Witnesses’ functioning in Greater Poland. This article details their history until the year 1950, until which point the Jehovah’s Witnesses association operated legally, though the communist authorities already tried to limit their functioning through administrative decisions. Those actions made Jehovah’s Witnesses aware that their short-lived legal operation might come to an abrupt end. And in the mid-1950 — it did.

Systemic transformation following the Second World War brought a new philosophy of education. For the communist authorities, the most important goal was to provide the country with new, socialist workers, who were aware of their role in the process of reconstruction. Therefore, political criteria took precedence over any others. The political objective was to create a new “intelligentsia” comprising workers and peasants who would understand their role in the fight for socialism. In order to achieve that objective, rules of high school and college enrollment had to be revolutionized. Political and social engagement were to be the decisive factors in college admissions — not knowledge. Young people were also meant to be allowed to make up for the time lost because of the war — however, this particular demand does not raise any questions. Political objectives did not translate into practice in all cases. Despite clear guidelines and the key role of security offices when reviewing the candidates, the social composition of students did not change radically. This does not mean that the communist policy did not do any harm to some talented young people who were precluded from gaining college education for class reasons.

Among the field managers working in state archives in the interwar period, Białynia-Rzepecki and Esman belonged to the smallest group coming from the territory of the former Prussian partition. They represented two different generations of archivists: the former started working in archival services after he had turned sixty (just like 18% of managers), while the latter (like 20% of managers) — before he turned thirty. They also had different education: Białynia-Rzepecki finished his at high school, while Esman (like most managers working in archives) had a university degree in history. This had no real impact on how many papers they published, though it was Esman who was in a group of 54% of managers who had published scientific works before the war. They both came from Bydgoszcz and like most archivists in the interwar period they were socially active and involved in the life of scientific societies.

In the period of 1918–1939, archivists played an important role in the process of reconstructing the Polish statehood. They began their work for the rebirth of Poland as early as during the First World War, by preventing the destruction of archival materials and taking them abroad, and preparing the first drafts of normative regulations regarding archives and archival service. After Poland had regained independence, they focused on building a centralized and efficient network of archives. This involved work on legislation and organizational matters, as well as repossession actions. They also actively popularized the subject, thus shaping national awareness and patriotic attitudes. Many archivists from this period significantly contributed to the development of scientific research, both in the field of history and in archival studies.

In 1938, upon the initiative of Henry Langois and Georges Franju from Cinémathèque Française, Frank Hensel from Reichsfilmarchiv, John Abbott from the Museum of Modern Art Film Library, and Olwen Vaughan from the London National Film Library, Fédération Internationale des Archives du Film (International Federation of Film Archives) was established. The objective of the article is to present the operation of FIAF, which celebrated its 80th birthday last year. The text presents the early days of the Federation, its goals, structure and activity — including its workshops, congresses, publications, and projects. The achievements of FIAF in terms of protecting the film heritage and fostering cooperation between various archival offices are also discussed. The following sources have been used for the purposes of this paper: printed sources posted on the Federations’ website (such as minutes from meetings and reports), information from the organization’s website, and literature on the history of film.

The main objective of this article is to present the text of the so-called sub-voivodeship tariff on food products for the town of Zbąszyń from 1751. This source was entered into the Zbąszyń municipal registry for the years 1592–1807, which is kept in the Kórnik Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Kórnik. Compared to other similar publications, it is far from impressive. The main reason is the fact that it does not cover other trades which existed in this town at the time. Still, one of its major advantages is the fact that it is the first such source from the former Poznań voivodeship. Furthermore, it helps us learn more about living conditions in a small private town. It lists prices of spirits, bread, and meat, which were the basic alimentary products consumed by people back then.

This article responds to the research needs regarding 19th-and 20th-century sigillography, presenting the results of research on press advertisements of seal makers and sellers published in the Poznań press in the years 1815–1939. This publication includes a list of people who produced seals and offered sales of the associated products, which made it possible to present information on the lives and activities of several dozen craftsmen and merchants from the period of the partitions and the interwar period in Poland. The personal data collected here allow for the development of research on craftsmanship and Poznań craftsmen working with metal. 

This publication presents an unknown seal matrix, made by Fryderyk Wilhelm Below — a remarkable Poznań artist, medalist, and seal maker. The announcement provides a description of the seal including basic information about its shape, material, dimensions, and inscription. This object, with its small size, is a unique example of a private order. The presented artefact supplements the list of known products made by this seal maker.

In 2011, to celebrate the upcoming one-hundredth anniversary of the Greater Poland Uprising, the State Archive in Poznań began registering and digitalizing documents regarding the uprising, found in the collection of the Archive. Fond no. 884: “Association of Greater Poland Uprising Veterans” is particularly interesting. It includes documents on nearly all veteran associations uniting veterans of the events in Greater Poland in the years 1918–1919. The preserved material, collected in archival unit 402 (13 960 records on the list), though of varying quality, allows one to gain some knowledge on the operation of the community, especially in the interwar period. The inventory of the fond is now complete and ready to be shared on the Internet.

The Polish General Exhibition organized in Poznań in 1929 was the biggest exhibition in the history of the Second Polish Republic. Its goal was to showcase the achievements of independent Poland, and present a review of its accomplishments in the areas of industry, politics, culture, and agriculture. The article aims at presenting the most important materials: catalogs, books, photographs, and magazines, which were published to celebrate the Exhibition or contain references to it. The analysis of selected publications allows one to gain detailed insights into the content of particular displays. Many publications were also meant to play an educational role. Some of them were historical studies, and some are now the testimony of the social, political, and cultural situation in Poland back then, which means they can be treated as sources for historical research from the contemporary point of view.

The article presents the legacies of four employees of the State Archive in Poznań, kept in the collection of the Archive of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, Poznań branch, namely the directors of the office: Kazimierz Kaczmarczyk, Czesław Skopowski, and Jan Szajbel, as well as Kazimiera Chojnacka, the head of the Archive Materials Preservation Lab. The text presents the circumstances in which these legacies were taken over by the Archive of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznań branch, and discusses the materials concerning the State Archive in Poznań and the activity of the authors of the legacies while they had worked in this archive.

The article discusses the condition of historical knowledge in Poland in social media. The study is based on a quantitative survey performed online in March 2019. The survey, filled out by 2200 respondents, was designed following the contemporary discourse on historical awareness. Quoting the works of Jan Pomorski, Barbara Szacka, and Nina Assorodobraj, the authors compared self-assessed historical knowledge of social media users with their interests, media popularity trends, and the impact of media of the pre-Web 2.0 era (film, television, computer games). Based on this analysis, the authors created a description of social need for historical narratives (public history), and presented the contemporary condition of the social role of history in entertainment (digital homo ludens). This work is a part of a broader original research project on historical awareness and the condition of historical knowledge in Poland with detailed analyses included in other texts.