ErgoProxy wrote:Now this is a puzzle I need to think over a while to solve.

To add a bit to the puzzle, if you're not half-Rheinish, you never know. Most of the Prussian peasantry were Slavs or Balts, convinced in some moment of history to abandon their speech and adopt German customs. Also, in medieval ages Polish royals brought literally tons of German settlers to boost the economy of their realms. So it wouldn't be surprising much to find out that once ago our ancestors lived door to door, in the same town or village. Cheers!

Well, from my own research into my German side, I know one family came from around the Rhine, so perhaps our ancestors were once neighbors

robesora wrote:As an Austrian, I do what all of us Austrians tend to do when the bad parts of our past comes up.
Acknowledge it politely, then resume doing your stuff, ignoring it for the rest of the day.

You just should've taken him to that school of the fine arts he'd applied. By the way, did you know that Stalin in his youth was a promising Georgian poet? This is what we get when we allow artisans into the ranks of power.

Still, don't get misled by some people - the K.u.K monarchy was our best ally invader and occupant of all times.

^
Whenever I'm abroad, I'm baffled as to how well received Austria seems to be - especially when traveling former "crown lands". From what I've heard the Habsburgers were indeed one of the less assholey conquerers... Which might have played a big part in how they've managed to stay relevant for the better part of a Millenia.
Anyways - in what ways was Austria better than the other occupants?

I'm afraid I can say more about how awful (aaawfuuul) were the other invaders, than how benevolent was the Brightest Lord. He was apparently... civilized, even by modern standards.

Anyway. When we lost our state, we could only keep ourselves swimming, so to say, using our culture. And both Germany and Russia were trying to - well, to belittle it at least, sometimes informally and sometimes by the law. Eg. it was impossible to advance to higher military ranks in German Empire if you were a Pole - you were just kept forgotten when your colleagues were getting promoted, over and over. At the same time in Russian Empire all the education was done in Russian, from the first elementary grade - the children were targets of the imperial politics, one could say. And while under the German reign you could at least try and defend your case in court, the whole Russia was still the private possesion of Tzar, so the law implementation there was so-so.

A fine example of impact of the Russian internal policies is the character of Captain Nemo. While Jules Verne made him initially a Polish noble, he had to rewrite him into a Hindu raja, because his publisher was afraid to get kicked out of the Russian market due to the state censorship. How rude.

At the same time Austria apparently was multi-culti to some extent, and Poles were just one of plenty of nations under the benevolent rule of the Brightest Lord, at equal rights with all the others. So we were allowed to play the game with fair rules. A Pole could become the Prime Minister for instance - as it indeed happend (twice, if I remember right). No wonder our culture flourished in Galizien.

Oh, BTW - I've just checked and this pub in the Old Town apparently is still in the business.

Uh, wow. That was super interesting! You know, you can learn only so much from googling or from textbooks... Hearing from the perspective of an actual Pole is so much more valuable! So, thanks for sharing... The pub you've mentioned... I think I've been there... we were on a school trip in Kraków, and we were allowed to roam the beautiful inner city. We found this pub, but were promptly thrown out, since we were only 16 back then, lol.

This is a very informative conversation, thank you ErgoProxy! I've learned quite a bit, as robersora said, this kind of explanation is harder to find online or in a library, and I do love learning about the world too.

Thanks! I'm simply fond on history, though I never studied it; still I keep collecting curios I can get from here and there. Anyway, mind that I'm not a standard Pole, thoughtlessly accepting the how-dreadful-and-injust-they-were narration s/he's spoon-fed in school and elsewhere. I simply think we should strive to a better future instead of scratching the old wounds over and over.

Oh, and since you both put me in a good mood - heh, too good perhaps - is there anything in the way of making some operational meeting of our NERV branch in that pub? Except for my poor spoken English of course.

^
Oh wow, I'd love to! Sadly Krakow is like 650km away, lol.

ErgoProxy wrote:At the same time Austria apparently was multi-culti to some extent, and Poles were just one of plenty of nations under the benevolent rule of the Brightest Lord, at equal rights with all the others. So we were allowed to play the game with fair rules. A Pole could become the Prime Minister for instance - as it indeed happend (twice, if I remember right). No wonder our culture flourished in Galizien.

They also had German speaking peoples that were living outside the present day borders. I know my father's side of the family is Austrian (mother's side is Germans from Russia), and they came from a village called Galutz (I think that's how it's spelled). The problem is I don't know if it is in what we now call Austria or in another part of the old Empire. There were German speaking areas in what is now Hungary, Solvenia, Czechia, and even parts of Italy. So I don't know if it's near Vienna, Prague, or Venice, if it still exists at all.

^ It may no longer exist with that name, especially if it's in an area that was in the former German Empire. But I'm sure some careful research could help you find the village.

ErgoProxy wrote:Oh, and since you both put me in a good mood - heh, too good perhaps - is there anything in the way of making some operational meeting of our NERV branch in that pub? Except for my poor spoken English of course.

I would so enjoy that... but logistically I think I'm a bit farther away from Krakow than robersora, even if I live in New England.

robersora wrote:Oh wow, I'd love to! Sadly Krakow is like 650km away, lol.

Oh well. It cannot be that far? But I was thinking about the New Year's Eve or similar occasion, not the next sunday, lol.

DarkBluePhoenix wrote:I would so enjoy that... but logistically I think I'm a bit farther away from Krakow than robersora, even if I live in New England.

Stupid puddle. Also, I dare to ask, where's the transporter technology when we all need it?

cyharding wrote:I know my father's side of the family is Austrian (mother's side is Germans from Russia), and they came from a village called Galutz (I think that's how it's spelled).

I've run a quick search and I found a book from Google Books, The Praises of Rabbi Nachman. Apparently the name was once associated with the city of Galați on the Danube River, in nowadays Romania. However, if that's an alternative (Jewish?) name for Halicz, there's such a village in Ukraine, in the Tarnopol oblast (formerly a part of Austrian Galicia indeed).

It's really fascinating to think about how important Austria was for the better part of the second Millenia after Christus, compared to the next to no importance of present day, lol.
It makes perfect sense that our flag ball is portrait as weird, happy, sinister Freud caricature, lol.

cyharding wrote:They also had German speaking peoples that were living outside the present day borders. I know my father's side of the family is Austrian (mother's side is Germans from Russia), and they came from a village called Galutz (I think that's how it's spelled). The problem is I don't know if it is in what we now call Austria or in another part of the old Empire. There were German speaking areas in what is now Hungary, Solvenia, Czechia, and even parts of Italy. So I don't know if it's near Vienna, Prague, or Venice, if it still exists at all.

As you said, there were/are quite a few German speaking minorities outside of former and present day Germany/Austria/Switzerland. Many villages have ceased existing, since those times, or have been renamed to have a name in the respective national language. To me, the name Galutz suggests it being located in the western, mountainous part of Austria, like Tyrol/South Tyrol (which is a part of Italy nowadays) or Vorarlberg (which has many "weird" sounding location names heavily influenced by Swiss-German).
Is there any way to find out for sure what the name used to be?

ErgoProxy wrote:Oh well. It cannot be that far? But I was thinking about the New Year's Eve or similar occasion, not the next sunday, lol.

haha, true. New Year's Eve in Krakow sounds a lot of fun, sadly due to my job I more often have free time on totally innocuous days, for instance, next Wednesday - than on New Year's Eve.

^ ...well, you said that. The thing is, the next Thursday is my birthday, when I'll enter the decade of the dreaded middle-age crisis. So if you're serious about the 11/21 Wednesday and anyone else would like to join, I'll be happy to call up the pub squad and reserve the tables. And if I fail with this - well, there's plenty of other places in the Old Town.

Anyway. Funny thing, I was also 16 when I went on a school trip to Wien. We were spending nights in Bratislava and crossing the border each morning by coach. Sadly, the tour schedule didn't include visitng the wine inns. I think I still have some photos from that event... somewhere.

^
In Austria you're allowed to drink wine and beer at the age of 16, so I guess your teachers just wanted to protect you from harm, lol.
And oh man, sadly I'll be in Germany that day... But let's pin this... maybe plan it better... so we manage to have an Euro-Eva-Geeks meetup somewhere!

robersora wrote:^
Euro-Eva-Geeks meetup somewhere!

I would definitely be down to that, meeting some of you people irl sounds like a ton of fun

^ I could bet all in that it doesn't sound only like that. It'll be a good thing to remember after we make it real! However -

Polish

planning

- now this is what I call a strong disturbance of the Force. Adaptation, improvisation, and the things will, uhm... go forward? (I'm lacking an idiom now.) Still, I'm ready to learn new things in my life.

Could we have some TOPIC in here for a bit, and take the rest to PMs?

Sorry, topics are boring.

So, uhm... I hope coming-outs are not considered politics? I think they shouldn't be, especially in sports. So this time it's Paola Egonu, Italian volleyball player. But hey, guess why I link that.

Mr. Tines wrote:Could we have some TOPIC in here for a bit, and take the rest to PMs?

Sorry, that's kinda my fault

ErgoProxy wrote:So, uhm... I hope coming-outs are not considered politics? I think they shouldn't be, especially in sports. So this time it's Paola Egonu, Italian volleyball player. But hey, guess why I link that.

Why do think that?

So, yeah, back on topic... As an accountant, the fact that the Pentagon failed it's first ever audit isn't surprising, and it wasn't to them either

DarkBluePhoenix wrote:Why do think that?

Because here we have Teh Chruch here and believe it or not, but after the Wall came down, the late Primate speculated that return to feudalism could be - if you think of it - a quite good solution for Poland. Yes, he said that in the 20th century.

Okay, enough. Despite recurring rumors Poland actually can into space, lately thanks to the effort of the WUT student astro-club. The launch (on board of Falcon-9) is scheduled on this month.

I like this acronym - WUT.