On Kętrzyński and His Crazy Theories

Wojciech Kętrzyński was born Adalbert von Winkler but soon learned that the Winkler name was one his father adopted to make life easier for the family in the Polish provinces incorporated into the German Empire (the family was actually Kashubian; Winkler is a translation of the Polish Kętrzyn, Kętrzyno a town in Kashubia from which the family came which town also gave the family the Kętrzyński name).  Adalbert grew up speaking German as his first language until about sixteen.  It was at that time that his sister (both were now orphans) revealed the family lineage to him.  This discovery sparked a rebellious streak in Adalbert, he renamed himself back to Kętrzyński and learned Polish.  He became a historian, an ethnographer and later in life the director of the Lviv (Lwow or Lemberg) Ossolineum Library.  During his prolific life he produced a torrent of works including some very interesting works about Germany.  He was a subscriber to the theory that the Slavs were the ancient Suevi/Suavi.  It will be, therefore, quite unsurprising for the reader to discover that Kętrzyński kicked the tires on some of the town and place names in Germany.  As a recognition of his labours, after World War II the town of Rastenburg in East Prussia was renamed Kętrzyn.

Courtesy of many hours spent mindlessly inputting these by our interns (no holidays for them this year, we fear), here is a map of the names Kętrzyński identified as Slavic in northern and western Germany only (he also produced a list for southern Germany which we will not be getting into here).

A few comments are in order first, however:

• we do not necessarily agree with all the place names Kętrzyński designated as Slavic (e.g. the various place names containing Wind or Wend do not necessarily indicate the presence of Slavs/Wenden);

• there are other names that we do think are candidates for being Slavic but that did not make Kętrzyński’s list (he admits that he could not locate some and states that a few dozen names would not move the needle on his views one way or another); after all, Kętrzyński did not have Google (but look towards Borken, Velen, Heiden, Reken on the East side of the Rhein, maybe, maybe not);

• Kętrzyński did not review any place names in France or the Benelux countries stating that he was not qualified to do so (but look in Germany towards the Maas – Kerken, Straelen, Kempen – maybe, maybe not; Dutch Venlo on the Maas appears as Vendle on earlier maps);

• as mentioned, Kętrzyński’s placenames below leave out southern Germany (again, he has a separate list for that); thus, for example, the Moinu-Winidi and Ratanz-Winidi (west of Nuremberg) are not shown;

• since no one doubts the existence of Slavs east of the Elbe and Saale, we eliminated all the Slavic names Kętrzyński identified that were East of the Elbe-Saale (i.e., Solawa) line; consequently, what you are looking at are only the Slavic names West of the Elbe-Saale/Solawa (the line marked in light green); put differently, you may presume everything to the East of that line to have been Slavic at the relevant time (marked dark green);

• Kętrzyński mentions the river Lippa/Lippe and the town of Kamen on the same river;

• he also mentions a town on the left bank of the Rhein at about the place where the Ruhr joins the Rhein – a town under the name of  Kraiokauwe (1480), Krakau (1493), Krackauawe (1498), Krackauwe (1541), Kracow/Cracow (1579), Craeckouw/Crackouw (1594) or Cracouwe (1598).  We had our interns locate this town and show its location on a 1633 – Mercator/Hondius map – it now lies within the town of Krefeld in Germany.

Note that the above roughly jives with the following German map showing the Teuton-Slav border.  Roughly, though not exactly.

And this is Cracow southwest of Duisburg on the left, i.e., Western… bank of the Rhine (there is, of course, also a Krakow in East Germany but no one questions that one as Slavic):

For the Alemannic (Suevic?) or Vandalic king Crocus see our last year’s post.

Copyright ©2015 jassa.org