Walddeutsche

Walddeutsche (German: Walddeutsche ("Forest Germans") or Taubdeutsche ("Deaf Germans"); Polish: Głuchoniemcy ("deaf-mutes", a pun), sometimes simply called Polish Germans, the name for a group of people, mostly of German origin, who settled during the 14th-17th century on the territory of present-day Sanockie Pits, Poland, a region which was previously only sparsely inhabited because the land was difficult to farm.

Nomenclature

The term Walddeutsche - coined by the Polish historians Marcin Bielski, 1531,Szymon Starowolski 1632, Bishop Ignacy Krasicki and Wincenty Pol - also sometimes refers to Germans living between Wisłoka and the San River part of the West Carpathian Plateau and the Central Beskidian Piedmont in Poland.

The Polish term Głuchoniemcy is a sort of pun; it means "deaf-mutes", but sounds like "forest Germans": Niemcy, Polish for "Germans", sounds as if derived from niemy ("mute"), and głuchy ("deaf", i.e. "unable to communicate") sounds similar to głusz "wood".

History