Ostflucht

The Ostflucht (east flight) was the movement of the German population of East Prussia, West Prussia, Silesia and Province of Posen beginning around 1850, to the more industrialized Rhine and Ruhr provinces. At the same time massive movements of neighboring Russia-Poles going westwards into Prussia/Germany caused imbalances and upheavals. The loss of Germans and the higher Polish birth rate in these areas caused concern among German nationalists. The result was special laws:

• limiting sales of estates to Germans,
• encouraging Germans to immigrate to the Prussian state,
• Ansiedlungskommision, ("Settlement Commission") funded by the state, that aimed at buying off the land from ethnic Poles and selling them to Germans,
• procedure that required an ethnic Pole to apply for approval (never given) to build a new house on newly acquired farm, see also Drzymala car.