Hans-Jürgen Bömelburg, DE

Migration and mobility in the textile capital of Lodz: A cosmopolitan metropole in East Central Europe

The early globalised textile industry was strongly influenced by migrants and mobility. The textile city of Lodz developed through the immigration of Bohemian, Saxon, Silesian and Polish textile manufacturers and specialists between 1820 and the 1860s. In a second phase, the immigration of Russian "Litvak" Jews succeeded in creating a stronger network with the Russian market, in which Lodz played the leading role alongside the textile region around Moscow. Migrations for educational purposes to technical and textile schools promoted the modernisation and competitiveness of the Lodz industry.

Since the development of housing in the textile industry with its low wages was insufficient and the industry also marked by economic slumps and social unrest (lockouts, revolution in 1905), the supply and mobility of labour played a significant role. Many textile workers were "worker farmers", returning to the countryside at harvest time, when the economy was not booming, when there were job losses or in times of war (World War I) - this mobility and the availability of food lowered the cost of living. At the same time, mobility encouraged commuting and chain migration, neighbourhoods and workforces of companies often came from the same villages. Forced migrations (recruitment of workers in the First World War, forced labourers in the Second World War) were also part of this.

This process was repeated even after the Second World War, because after the murder of the Jews and the flight and expulsion of the Germans, there was often a lack of workers and they were recruited from the Polish villages in the region.

Hans-Jürgen Bömelburg, DE

Since 2007 Professor for Eastern European History at the Justus Liebig University Giessen, Assistant Managing Director of the Giessen Centre for Eastern European Studies (GiZo), German Co-Chairman of the Joint German-Polish Textbook Commission

Important publications: Lodz. Geschichte einer multikulturellen Industriestadt im 20. Jahrhundert. Paderborn: Brill Schöningh 2022; Lodz im Zweiten Weltkrieg. Deutsche Selbstzeugnisse über Alltag, Lebenswelten und NS-Germanisierungspolitik in einer multiethnischen Stadt. Osnabrück: fibre 2015.

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