Jimala, Michal

Between 1850 and 1907, the eastern regions of Germany ( Pomerania , West Prussia , East Prussia , Poznan and Silesia ) left 2,300,000 people, and only 358,000 arrived, so the negative migration balance amounted to 1,942,000 people. The decrease in the number of Germans in the eastern lands and the higher birth rate of rural Catholic Catholics caused extreme concern among the German administration and especially among German nationalists. To combat this phenomenon, special measures were proposed in the framework of the “ Onslaught to the East ” policy:

• restriction or prohibition on the sale of land to the Poles;
• encouraging East German immigration through tax relief;
• the creation of a “Settlement Commission”, funded by the state, which bought the lands of ethnic Poles and transferred them to the Germans;
• the introduction of architectural zoning rules requiring ethnic Poles to obtain permission to build a new house on acquired land.

When Prussian officials refused to grant Michal Jimale the right to build a house on a plot of land that he bought from a German in the village of Podgradovits in the province of Posen , in 1904 he bought a circus wagon and began to live in it.

Officials found that the wagon, which has been standing in one place for 24 hours, is home and thus Jimal must leave it. Therefore, he moved the van every day.

As Jimaly became famous (for example, Lev Tolstoy wrote about this peasant), people began to come to look at the van. As a result, Jimal was imprisoned as the organizer of an illegal assembly.

Five years later, for a far-fetched reason, Jimal was sentenced to a fine. When he did not pay it, he was arrested, and the Germans destroyed the van. After leaving prison, Jimal built a dugout, but it was destroyed. Then, in 1909 , Jimala sold the land.

In independent Poland, Jimale, as a hero, was given an economy. After his death, he was awarded the Order of the Renaissance of Poland, 5th degree (1937) ^[1] . Even before World War II, Podhradovice was renamed Dzhimalovo .

During World War II, the Germans leveled the grave of Jimala to the ground.

Mentioned in the song of Jan Petrzak Żeby Polska była Polską ( Rus. To Poland was Poland ) ( 1981 ):

• Germanization
• Germanization of the Poles in Prussia
• Vzhesnensky school boycott of 1901-1902
• General school strike 1906-1907
• Pan-german union
• Ostfluht
• Kulturkampf
• Pan-Germanism
• Halophobia

• Drzymała Michał , in: Internetowa encyklopedia PWN ,
• Drzymała Michał , in: WIEM .

• Information on the website of the newspaper Polish People's Party
• Wóz Drzymały (Polish)