The Province of Posen (, ) was a province of
Prussia from
1848-
1918 and as such part of the
German Empire from 1871 to 1918; the whole area is now part of
Poland. Its capital was
Poznań (German: Posen). The province replaced the
Grand Duchy of Posen.Known as the "cradle of the Polish nation", this region was the home to
Poles,
Germans, some
Jews and a smattering of other peoples. Almost all the Poles were
Roman Catholic, and about 90% of the Germans were
Protestant. The small numbers of Jews were primarily to be found in the larger communities, mostly in skilled crafts, local commerce and regional trading. The smaller the community, the more likely it was to be either Polish or German. These "pockets of ethnicity" existed side by side, with German villages being the most dense in the northwestern areas. With
Germanization policies, the population became more German until the end of the
19th century, when the trend reversed (in the
Ostflucht). This was despite efforts of the government in Berlin, which established the
Settlement Commission to buy land from Poles and make it available only to Germans.
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