The Old Roots of the Modern Stereotype of Poland in Germany, or: What was the Connection between the Hitler’s Propaganda and the Perception of the Slavs in the Middle Ages

Abstract

All over the world, in the popular lectures on the Second World War the Polish Uhlans are often presented as allegedly charging the German tanks in September 1939. Assuming the scrutiny of the contents of Hitler’s false propaganda presented in a movie „Kampfgeschwader Lützow”,1941, the analysis was conducted over the structure in the topic story- which was referred to by the movie makers, and which is unwittingly rehashed also by others (as was also done by Andrzej Wajda in a movie “Lotna”, 1959- who in this case wanted to present courage and determination of the defenders of Poland). A brief overview of the existing phenomenon, having many variations and semantic connections, shows the basic characteristics of the image of “a Pole- loser of civilisation” functioning in the consciousness of the part of the German intellectual spheres. The analysis goes all the way from the modern day period to the medieval times, and the topos of the “barbaric north”, the contents of which were drawing the patterns and inspirations for the storyline described in the article.