The Olęder settlement and the settlement on the Olęder Law

Abstract

The term Olędrzy firstly was used to the settlers form the Netherlands and Friesland. In majority they were Mennonites, who came to Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in XVI and XVII century. They founded villages in Royal Prussia, along the Vistula River and its tributaries, in Kujawy, Mazovia and Wielkopolska. They possessed knowledge of flood control, and a well-developed agrarian culture. At that time, they were the wealthiest group of peasants, in a later period (up to the middle of the 19th century), the term Olędrzy was used to describe settlers of different ethnicities (principally Germans and Poles, at times Scots, Czechs, and Hungarians), who benefited from certain privileges resulting from the law established by the Frisian and Dutch colonists (such as personal freedom, long-term or perpetual use of land, and the possibility of transmitting land to heirs). The most important characteristic, however, was collective responsibility of the entire Olęder community for its obligations toward the land owner and the specific character of the community's self-government. Thus, the distinguishing characteristics of an Olęder settlement are legal, and not ethnic, religious or economic. Consequently, the word Olęder is not synonymous with „Dutch settler".