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Polish surnames in Germany

Today, the number of people in Germany with a Polish migrant background is the second largest behind those with a Turkish migrant background. The surname is often the thing that gives it away. The most prominent example is the Tatort Inspector Horst Schimanski and, although he is a fictional character, it is telling that an inspector from the Ruhr area, of all people, should have a name ending in -ski. But that is not always the case. In the past, many Polish names were Germanised for a variety of reasons.

Wiesław Smętek, Nowak, illustration design for the text by Marek Firlej, 2023

Wiesław Smętek 2023

If the name is approached in terms of its pronunciation, then the spelling of the name can be adapted. However, changes in pronunciation also came about because nothing in German corresponds to the sounds that come after the letters ą, ę, ł, ń, ć, ś, ź, ż, ci, si, zi, rz, or even the y and some other combinations. But sometimes a simplified pronunciation was also desired or accepted. The Slavic origin can often still be seen.

Balcerewicz -> Balzerewitz

Frydecki -> Friedetzki

Mojzysz -> Meusisch

Baudisz -> Baudisch

Markiewicz -> Markewitz

Strzelec -> Strelec

Majchrzak -> Maischak

The consonants cz, rz, sz (for tsch, voiced and unvoiced sch) are the most affected and were mostly replaced by tz and sch. And because there were no uniform “transcription guidelines”, many different variants still exist today: Szymanski, Schymanski, Schimanski, Szimanski, Schimansky, Schimainski and more.

It cannot be ruled out that in many cases it was not the migrants themselves who chose this form of adaptation to the German spelling; instead “lazy” or ignorant officials, who wrote the name down by ear or did not have the corresponding keys on the typewriter, were often to blame.

Germanisation and partial translation

Many changes interfere with the name to an even greater extent. These changes often make the Polish origins invisible. In this case, the meaning of the name or of one of its components is adapted if it is known or transparent. Examples of this include:

Wilczewski (from wilk ‘Wolf’) -> Wolf

Słomkowski (from słoma ‘Halm‘ [stalk]) -> Hälmler

Pawlowski (from Paweł ‘Paul’) -> Paulsen

Owsianowski (from owies ‘haver’ [oats]) -> Havermann

New formation by similarity

The removal of the components of a name that are usually considered to be Polish or Slavic, mainly the typical endings, was also supposed to conceal its Polish origins. In this case, German sounding endings were sometimes used:

Henselowski -> Hensel

Mikołajczyk -> Mikola

Hetmaniak -> Hetmann

Wachowiak -> Wachner

Wiśniewski -> Wisner

This method was also taken to such extremes that only the start of the name or even just the first letter was retained:

Borsimski -> Born

Dombrowski -> Dombrück

Nowakowski -> Nolte

Lachmannski -> Lichtenstein

Majchrzak -> Mertens

New formations without any similarity