“Pro-German censorship” by Rota? Who introduced the new version and when

A fragment of one of the Polish language textbooks for high school and technical school students is widely distributed and commented on on the Polish Internet. We are talking about the textbook “Polish language. The face of epochs 2.2” by Dariusz Chemperek, Adam Kalbarczyk and Dariusz Trześniowski, published by Wydawnictwo Szkolne i Pedagogiczne (WSiP) and the page with the poem “Rota” by Maria Konopnicka. The controversy concerns the first line of the fourth stanza, which is written in the book as follows: “The Teutonic Knight will not spit in our faces“. Many Internet users are outraged – including right-wing politicians – that the word “Teutonic Knight” has replaced the word “German”. In their opinion, this line should look like this: “No German will spit in our faces”, in their opinion this has happened “pro-German censorship”.

One of the most popular posts distributing the photo of the textbook was published on the X portal on November 7, 2024. “Ladies and gentlemen, if any of you learned 'Rota', what did it look like? The same as the one presented below in the Polish language textbook? Maybe you will find the differences? 'There will be no Germans spitting in our faces or Germanizing our children,'” wrote the author. Then she added: “PS. I hope that everything will return to its previous state before my daughter goes to school, because I cannot vouch for myself if someone hurts her by lowering the grade for the correct version!” Her entry quickly generated over 500,000 likes. views. It was liked over a thousand times and retweeted less than 5,000 times. times. “It's really starting to get downright dangerous”; “It's sick what's going on…” – commented Internet users (original spelling of all posts).

An entry with a photo of a fragment of the textbook was also shared by Confederation MP Konrad Berkowicz. In a post from November 7 he wrote he said: “If that's not enough for you, look at this. A textbook for the Polish language in secondary schools. Our Polish-speaking government decided to change the words of the Rota. They replaced the Germans with the Teutonic Knights so that no one would associate them with anything. This is how our young people are dumbed down and denationalized.” The MP's entry has already been viewed over 293,000 times. times. Berkowicz was not the only politician commenting on the matter. Sebastian Kaleta from PiS also commented on it: “Shocking!! Pro-German censorship changes Rota's words in Polish schools so as not to offend Germans” – his entry was viewed over 320,000. times. His party colleagues also reacted: MEP Maciej Wąsik and MEP Bartosz Kownacki.

However, the manual that Internet users and politicians are now referring to was published several years ago, which was noticed by many commentators. “The textbook was introduced during the PiS era,” one of them wrote in the comments. Moreover, there is no certainty as to the original text of “Rota” by Maria Konopnicka.

The book referred to by right-wing politicians and Internet users actually comes from 2020, when Law and Justice was in power in Poland. We asked the Ministry of National Education about this. We were informed that the application for approval for use of this textbook “Polish language. The face of epochs 2.2” by Dariusz Chemperek, Adam Kalbarczyk and Dariusz Trześniowski was submitted on May 8, 2020, and the textbook itself was approved for school use on July 8, 2020 by the then minister national education Dariusz Piontkowski.

The current head of the Ministry of Education, Barbara Nowacka from the Civic Coalition, commented on the row over the alleged censorship of “Rota” on the website X. She wrote: “The hypocrisy and hypocrisy of politicians and PiS circles as seen through the lens. Full of phrases about patriotism, and during their times a textbook appeared with the changed content of Rota” (original spelling). She continued: “The textbook entitled 'The Faces of Epochs' was approved for use in July 2020 by the Minister of Education, Dariusz Piontkowski from PiS. The application for admission was submitted in May of the same year. Out of concern for historical truth, I contacted Wydawnictwo Szkolne. and Pedagogical Councils for restoring the original entry of the Rota in the textbook – consistent with Maria Konopnicka's manuscript. Nowacka added at the end: “And this year, by my decision, Rota was included on the list of compulsory reading. It wasn't there before.”

We wrote a request for comment to WSiP. We are waiting for your reply.

We also contacted the author of the chapter in which “Rota” was published. This is prof. Ph.D. Dariusz Chemperek from the Department of the History of Polish Literature at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University. When we call, he already knows the case. He is very surprised by the whole turmoil.

– I don't understand where this scandal came from, it just jumped out of the box. Nobody paid attention to this before. This version [“Roty”] it has been in circulation since at least 1989 – he says in an interview with Konkret24. And he explains that he was guided by the textbook “Literature. Positivism” by him prof. Ph.D. Tadeusz Bujnicki from the Jagiellonian University, first published in 1989 by WSiP. Professor Bujnicki was the head of several research projects that concerned Polish literature of the 19th century and Polish-Lithuanian cultural relations. He is the author of several books and approximately 300 articles and scientific dissertations. He specialized in the works of Henryk Sienkiewicz.

Professor Chemperek points out that in this textbook from 1989 in the text of “Rota” there is no “German” but there is “Krzyżak”. He also draws attention to Professor Bujnicki's annotation: “Text according to the autograph (manuscript – ed.) from 1904.” – Professor Bujnicki is an outstanding specialist and researcher of literature – emphasizes Chemperek.

It also indicates that prof.'s textbook Bujnicki's work with this version of “Rota” was then reprinted many times and no one paid any attention to it. He also emphasizes that in the textbook he co-authored and which was first published by WSiP in 2016 (i.e. already during the rule of Law and Justice), “Rota” also includes “Krzyżak”.

This word in Konopnicka's poem does not surprise him. He explains that in “Rota” the author's intention to use archaic language is visible. Hence words such as “rota”, “groom”, “strain”. – Both myself and other co-authors, despite our differences, have always tried to be objective. There is no falsification of history, and it is consistent with the author's intention – emphasizes Prof. Chemperek in an interview with Konkret24.

We contacted Professor Tadeusz Bujnicki, who confirmed that there is an older version of the manuscript than the one from 1910. He also told us that he would provide us with a more extensive comment over the next few days, and then we would add it to the text.

When we ask Paweł Bukowski, director and senior curator of the Maria Konopnicka Museum in Żarnowiec in the Podkarpackie Voivodeship, about the matter, he informs that “Rota” was created in the spring of 1908 in a manor house in Żarnowiec. – This year the song was written and from the very beginning there was the word 'German' in the first line of the third stanza – he emphasizes. He explains that the song it was first printed in its entirety in November 1908 in “Gwiazdka Cieszyńska” and the Krakow “Przodownica”. In these printed versions, the word “German” was written in lower case. On the other hand manuscript from 1910 it is currently kept in the Public Library in Bydgoszcz.

In January 1910, Feliks Nowowiejski, a Polish composer from the Prussian partition, but then living in Kraków, wrote music to Konopnicka's text. The song created in this way was first publicly performed by the choristers on July 15, 1910, during the unveiling ceremony of the Grunwald Monument in Krakow, on the anniversary of the 500th anniversary of Poland's victory in the Battle of Grunwald.

However, as Konkret24 explains, Magdalena Grzebałkowska, author of the book “Disinformation. Biography of Konopnicka'' (premiere on November 13, 2024), “earlier, the song was published in episodes (one verse each) – at the turn of August and September 1908 in the Poznań-based 'Głos Wielkopolanek'. Because it happened in Prussia, 'Głos Wielkopolanek' published it in a very clever way – every issue published one verse next to the vignette, in tiny letters, so that anyone who wasn't smart wouldn't notice it. This was theirs [mieszkanek Wielkopolski] rebellion against Prussia, where they lived. And just in case, the words 'German' and 'children' were dotted – explains Grzebałkowska.

“I am not able to say who and when changed the words and gave the incorrect year of creation of 'Rota'. However, I know that there is a textbook from 2020 and that 'Krzyżak' was included there, which is a mistake, because there has never been such a version of the song “Based on the source materials, it can be concluded that there is no textual record of 'Rota' in which there is a word other than 'Niemiec',” he emphasizes. He describes that in the past, when singing, some words were changed, e.g. “Teutonic turmoil” to “Soviet turmoil”, “There will be no German spitting in our faces” to “There will be no Soviet…”, “He didn't Germanize our children” to “We don't need any children.” “he was confused.” – “Currently, there are over 100 adaptations of the songs,” explains the writer, but emphasizes that there have never been any changes in the written text.

Dagmara Reszkowska-Gierden, director of the Provincial and Municipal Public Library in Bydgoszcz, confirms that its collection includes the world's only manuscript of “Rota” by Maria Konopnicka. Together with a letter from February 17, 1910, it was sent by Maria Konopnicka to Józef Watra-Przewłocki, editor of “Gazeta Polska w Chicago”. It has been digitized. It is available online. When asked about the mentioned manuscript from 1904, Reszkowska-Gierden emphasizes that she knows nothing about it and that the only one is the one in the library's collection.

However, Internet users provide a bit more knowledge. Host of the “Listy Literackie” profile on the website X I'm writing: “there is also an earlier version [‘Roty’] with the word 'Teutonic Knight' from 1904, and this is what is found in school textbooks.” When asked by another Internet user about a scan of the manuscript from 1904, he replies: “And the edition of Konopnicka's writings from 1915 with the annotation that the autograph included a Teutonic Knight is enough?”

The photo or screenshot he posted comes from a study of Maria Konopnicka's poetry edited by Jan Czubek from 1915 with a foreword by Henryk Sienkiewicz. The study is available, among others, in the online library Polona. In the seventh volume, on page ten there is the text of “Rota” with the line: “The German will not spit in our faces.” However, the above-mentioned fragment of the critical commentary and annotations to “Rota” indicate that the word “German” was used in the first edition, but the word “Teutonic Knight” was used in the autograph (manuscript).

Another commentator notes: “I haven't seen this manuscript (from 1904 – ed.), but at the same time it is easy to find old texts of the Rota with a 'cross', here, for example, on a postcard. It can be seen that the text has actually always existed in two versions, of which In fact, the one with German is more common. And he attaches a photo of a postcard where the word “Teutonic Knight” is used. A postcard can be found in the collections of the museum in Żarnowiec. We have not been able to determine when it was printed.

''There has never been a version like this [z “Krzyżakiem”]. Konopnicka wrote: 'Germans will not spit in our faces', maintains Magdalena Grzebałkowska, author of Konopnicka's biography, in an interview with Konkret24. She said that Konopnicka wrote “Rota” as a protest against the behavior of the Prussian authorities and police towards Poles in Greater Poland. The author dates the manuscript, the photo of which is included in Grzebałkowska's book, to 1908. “And about no Teutonic Knights [Konopnicka] she didn't write,” she said. “Unless I don't know about something,” she added.