science

Goralenvolk

Goralenvolk is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Goralenvolk rather than just read about it. In short: Goralenvolk was a geopolitical term invented by the German Nazis in World War II in reference to the Goral highlander population of Podhale region in the south of Poland near the Slovak border. The Germans postulated a separate nationality for people of that region in an effort to extract them from the Polish citizenry during their occupation of Poland's highlands.

Key takeaways

Goralenvolk belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Goralenvolk to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Goralenvolk from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Goralenvolk was a geopolitical term invented by the German Nazis in World War II in reference to the Goral highlander population of Podhale region in the south of Poland near the Slovak border. The Germans postulated a separate nationality for people of that region in an effort to extract them from the Polish citizenry during their occupation of Poland's highlands. The term Goralenvolk was a neologism derived from the Polish word Górale (the Highlanders) commonly referring to the ethnic group living in the Beskid and Tatra mountains. In an attempt to make the Gorals collaborate with the SS, the Nazis proclaimed that they were of Germanic descent, and were thus worthy of Germanisation and separate treatment from other Poles.

Origin Nazi ideology claimed that Gorals (Górale) were descended from ethnic Germans who allegedly settled in that region during medieval times in significant numbers. They were considered by the Nazi ideologues to be of Germanic origin. The concept of the Gorals being from German descent did not originate with the Nazis themselves. For example, the 1885 Meyers Konversationslexikon entry under Goralen stated, that Germans (also) lived in that area in the 11th century but were slavicized.

German occupation

The region inhabited by Górale (pre-war Polish Nowy Targ County in Podhale) was annexed by Germany immediately after the Invasion of Poland in 1939. Later, the German authorities attempted to assimilate the population into the body of Volksdeutsche, and to encourage their collaboration with the occupying forces. Soon, a small group of local collaborators gathered under the leadership of Reichsdeutscher Witalis Wieder, with Wacław Krzeptowski – a self-proclaimed Goralenführer – and his cousins Stefan and Andrzej Krzeptowski, as well as suspected German spy Henryk Szatkowski, and Józef Cukier from Zakopane. During a visit of Nazi Governor-General Hans Frank to Podhale on 7 November 1939 they proposed to establish a separate state for Goralenvolk. Most fled to Germany at the end of the war except for Krzeptowski himself, who decided to hide in the mountains (at na Stołach) in a secluded shack. He was apprehended by the Polish Armia Krajowa unit under Lieutenant Tadeusz Studziński, charged with high treason and hanged on 20 January 1945. The implementation of the Goralenvolk action aimed at Germanization of the Polish highlanders was actively opposed by the underground Tatra Confederation, a Polish resistance organization founded in May 1941 in Nowy Targ (the historical capital of Podhale), by the poet and partisan, Augustyn Suski (nom-de-guerre Stefan Borusa) with Tadeusz Popek (Wacław Tatar) as his deputy and Jadwiga Apostoł (nom-de-guerre Barbara Spytkowska) as their administrative secretary. Suski was murdered at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Popek was tortured and executed in Zakopane. A German census conducted in 1940 showed that 72% of the local Goralenvolk population identified themselves as ethnically Polish rather than ethnically German. This result was a great disappointment for the Nazi administration.

Failed attempt at recruiting In January 1943 the SS Germanische Leitstelle in occupied Zakopane in the heartland of the Tatra Mountains embarked on a recruitment drive, with the objective being to create a brand new Waffen-SS highlander division. Some 200 young Goralenvolk signed up after having been given unlimited supplies of alcoholic drinks. They boarded a train to Trawniki, but got off the train in nearby Maków Podhalański, when they had become sober. Only twelve men arrived at the SS training base in Trawniki next to Lublin. At the first opportunity they got into a major fistfight with the Ukrainians, causing havoc. They were arrested and sent away. The whole idea was abandoned as impossible by SS-Obergruppenführer Krüger in occupied Kraków by an official letter of 5 April 1943. The failure has inevitably contributed to his dismissal on 9 November 1943 by Governor General Hans Frank.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Goralenvolk

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Goralenvolk claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Goralenvolk before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Goralenvolk ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Goralenvolk

In research: Goralenvolk appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Goralenvolk in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Goralenvolk is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Cultural history of Poland during World War II, Exonyms, German occupation of Poland during World War II, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Goralenvolk outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Goralenvolk in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Goralenvolk means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Goralenvolk out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Goralenvolk in simple terms?

Why does Goralenvolk matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Goralenvolk?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Goralenvolk.