Abraham Antoni

The figure of A. Abraham (born 19.12.1869 in Zdrada, Puck district – died 23.06.1923 in Gdynia), called by his contemporaries the “Kashubian king”, “the Polish king in Maciejówka” or “apostle of the Kashubians”, has appeared in many publications, often in a mythologised form and has been commemorated in a variety of ways.

The surname Abraham, quite common in northern Kashubia, refers to the name of the forefather of the Israelites (Jews), also fitting into the myth of Kashubia as the Holy Land. A. Abraham came from a poor family. His father Jan was a bailiff, belonging to the category of peasants who lived from hired labour, often changing their place of work and residence. Antoni’s mother, Franciszka née Czapp, was born in Tupadły, in the parish of Strzelno, where her family came from. Her parents were J. Czapp, a landowner in Tupadły and Marianna née Lachs. Franciszka was J. Abraham’s second wife. He had two sons with his first wife Krystyna (d. 1868), Jan and Franciszek – Antoni’s half-brothers. Less than three months after the death of his first wife (17.02.1869), 38-year-old Jan married 33-year-old F. Czapp, a young woman from Leśniewo, in the church in Mechowo. A. Abraham was born from this union on 19 December of that year in the settlement of Zdrada. His youngest brother Jakub was born in 1871, also in Zdrada. The following year, the family suffered a double misfortune: on 8 March J. Abraham died in Zdrada, and three weeks later, six-month-old Jakub died. Franciszka was left alone with her husband’s two adolescent sons from his first marriage and little Antoni – their joint son. Being 36 years old and with little chance of raising children on her own, the widow married a much younger, 23-year-old farmhand from Leśniewo, M. Kohnka in 1873 in Mechowo. It is probable that only one daughter, A.M. Kohnke, was born from this union in 1879 in Leśniewo. Young Antoni lived therefore in a family where children from three marriages were raised. In all previous biographies of Abraham, it was emphasized that he lost his father at the age of 16. Hence, it should be assumed that he was raised by his mother, who died in Leśniewo in 1904, and his stepfather, who outlived her.

Young Abraham only finished a one-class Prussian village school, and supplemented his education by reading books and newspapers. His deep national awareness was strengthened by the environment, the atmosphere of his family home and the strong influence of the Catholic Church. At the age of 16, Abraham probably left his family home and went into business for himself. This is partly confirmed by the words written in 1913 in the “Gazeta Gdańska”: “I wandered around Kashubian villages almost from the cradle”. Therefore, as Bolduan wrote “young, but already familiar with life, perhaps even too serious in important conversations…”, he quickly found his life’s companion. Not yet 20 years old, A. Abraham, a worker from Pryśniewo (a settlement near Orle), married Matylda Paszkówna, a worker 9 years older than he, from the same village, on 27.11.1889 in the registry office in Domatowo. The church wedding probably took place in Góra, but the relevant registers have not been preserved in the Oliwa archive. Matylda was born on 8 May 1860 in Orle, in the family of a day labourer, A. Paszka, and Albertyna née Loeser. The father’s surname, but also Matylda’s own, was sometimes written von Paschke or v. Paschki, but most often Paschke, because the family belonged to minor Kashubian gentry reduced to the status of peasants.

Less than three months after the wedding, on 16.02.1890 in Orle, Antoni and Matylda’s first daughter, Julianna Teresa, was born. The next child, Jan Leon, was born five years later, on 22.02.1895, also in Orle. The second son, Leon Józef, was born on 7.08.1897 in Gręzów, in the then parish of Oliwa. Today, this town is part of Sopot. The youngest daughter, Małgorzata Marta, was also born in the area of present-day Sopot, in Świemirów on 16.06.1900. In his biography, Abraham mentioned that he raised five children, but four were certainly born under his surname. The fifth child was Matylda’s illegitimate daughter, M.R. Paszka, who was born on 31.05.1886 in Pryśniewo. The child died on 12.12.1898 crushed by a tree in the forest in Gręzów, where Abraham worked. In all the civil status records, A. Abraham was listed as a labourer, but it was in Sopot as it turned out later that his financial situation significantly improved for a short time. In Pniewski’s text, we can find a fragment confirming this:

“He first settled in the suburb of Śmirow [in reality: Świemirow – T.R.] at number 20, and later, from April 8, 1903, at number 2 Reiselfeldweg Street[?]. In Sopot, he worked for Lüdtke’s shipping company. With hard work and frugal living, he saved up a modest amount of capital, bought a small plot of land and built a one-story house on it at 16 Elżbiety Street [now Karlikowska]. He lived there from April 1, 1908. He soon became independent. He purchased a gravel pit and started a carting business, where he quickly acquired two pairs of horses.”

Published a bit later than the events described, the Sopot address book (Adreßbuch Ostseebad Zoppot…) from 1917/18 lists among the city’s residents a certain W. Lüdecke, a railway freight forwarder, residing at 12 Schulstrasse (now Kościuszki Street), who may have been Abraham’s co-worker. In the files of the Sopot notary O. Nawrocki, three notarial deeds from the years 1905–1906 were found, from which it appears that A. Abraham purchased a plot of land located in Sopot with an area of approx. 2 morgens, worth 20 thousand marks, from the Sopot lawyer and notary Dr. R. Wannow. He then signed binding agreements between the aforementioned Wannow and the timber merchant G. Bahr from Sopot. These documents clearly indicate that Abraham based his entire professional success on economic cooperation with Germans. In view of such facts, the suggestion made by previous biographers that Abraham began his socio-political activity in his early youth remains a matter of myth. This G. Bahr is probably the same person who, until then was referred to as “Bahr from Reda” in Abraham’s biographies and was indicated as the perpetrator of the “Kashubian king’s” bankruptcy. It was only the loss of Abraham’s fortune that gave rise to his pro-Polish activity and aversion, if not hatred, towards Germans. Deprived of his fortune, Abraham settled in Oliwa with his family in 1909. He found employment as a travelling salesman for the Singer & Neidlinger company, which manufactured sewing machines and bicycles. This job made it easier for him to travel to various parts of Kashubia, thanks to which he was able to distribute the “Gazeta Gdańska” and Polish books. In addition, he spoke at rallies, which were often spontaneous, and took part in the setting up of community associations, including in Puck, Reda, Kielno, Wejherowo, Chwaszczyno, Gdynia and Chylonia. For all this, the Prussian authorities repeatedly punished Abraham with arrest or fines.

His activity was interrupted by the outbreak of World War I. In 1916, he was conscripted into the German army. He fought in the artillery on the Western Front, where he was seriously wounded. He returned home at the beginning of 1918 and took up a position as a janitor at the Gdańsk Bank of the Association of Commercial Companies. When the Supreme People’s Council was established in Poznań in December of that year, he became a member of the Sub-commissariat of the Supreme People’s Council in Gdańsk, which was the body of the temporary Polish government in Pomerania. On his own initiative, Abraham established the People’s Council in Oliwa, and also took part in numerous rallies demanding the annexation of Pomerania and Gdańsk to Poland.

In the spring of 1919, some national activists from West Prussia put forward a motion to delegated representatives of the Polish population to Paris. The main advocate of this cause was P. Ossowski from Chełmno. Initially, Dr. A. Majkowski, who spoke French well, was expected to participate in this delegation. However, his candidacy was opposed by S. Łaszewski, a lawyer and independence activist and later the Pomeranian Voivode. In view of this, the delegation included Dr. M. Marchlewski from Gdańsk – as Majkowski’s replacement, as well as the “peddler from Oliwa” A. Abraham and the “craftsman from Kościerzyna” T. Rogal. The latter two made it through the “green” border to Warsaw, where they were provided with the necessary travel and identification documents, and then reached Paris via Kraków, Vienna and Basel on 18 April 1919. There they were received by I. Paderewski, E. Piltz – a delegate of the Polish National Committee to the French government, and members of the Commission for Polish Affairs established by the peace congress. The Kashubian delegates also paid a number of visits to various embassies and editorial offices of the largest dailies, where they presented historical evidence proving the Polish nature of Gdańsk and Pomerania. The annuals of “Gryf”, the resolutions of the people’s councils of various Pomeranian towns in favour of annexation to Poland, brochures in French about Polish Pomerania and statistical data proving the Polish nature of Pomerania served as their arguments. They also included the Gdańsk address books which today would seem to be doubtful evidence.
as Germans were then in the majority.

The Paris expedition very quickly became a legend, helped by Abraham himself, who embellished its course in his stories. One of them still recalled today, claims that Abraham banged the table at Versailles in front of the world’s leading politicians and said: “Pòmòrza nóm żóden kùsy Pùrtk zarab ni mòże”.

Abraham returned to Pomerania with General Haller’s army. In February 1920, he took part in the celebrations of Poland’s Nuptials with the Sea. Because Oliwa became part of the Free City of Gdańsk, in August of that year he moved to the village of Gdynia, where he rented part of a house from the Skwierczów family (today the so-called Abraham’s House at 30 Starowiejska Street). He had difficulties finding employment in Gdynia, so he went to Puck, where he worked in the company of his old friend Adolph as the manager of a smokery. Abraham’s wife and daughter traded fish in Gdynia. Abraham still actively participated in community life. Just as before the war, he led pilgrimages from Oliwa to Wejherowo and organized trips around Poland. As a municipal councillor, he strove to build a port and transform Gdynia into a city. In May 1923, he received the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta from President S. Wojciechowski.

His activity was interrupted by a serious illness – stomach cancer. Despite being under the care of the best doctors, he died in Gdynia on 23.06.1923 at the age of 54. His funeral at the Oksywie Cemetery on 27 June became a great patriotic manifestation. The parish priest of Oksywie, Fr. F. Łowicki, writing in the church register on the margin of the death certificate of “a labourer from Gdynia, Antonius Abraham” noted: “A Kashubian activist known throughout Poland, who was also in the Kashubian delegation to Paris. Knight of the Order of Polonia Restituta”.

A. Abraham left few mementos and documents and these were used by his first and only pre war biographer, W. Pniewski. For many years after World War II, two mementos of Abraham were kept by Fr. H. Jastak from Gdynia in his Kashubian collection. One of them was a “Singer” sewing machine, which Jastak’s parents bought from Abraham, the other a large snuffbox. Both items were added to the collection of the Gdynia City Museum at the end of the 20th century. There is a legend associated with the latter item. Towards the end of his life, Abraham gave the impressive snuffbox to W. Rolbiecki from Wejherowo with the order to give it to a worthy clergyman. For a long time, Rolbiecki could not decide who to give it to, finally in 1946 giving it “with due respect” to Father H. Jastak. Along with the snuffbox, he also gave the “spell” that should accompany the ritual of taking snuff, which Abraham apparently said each time: “If you are Polish and you believe in God, take snuff from this horn. If you do not believe in God, do not touch this horn, because your hand or leg will fall off”.

A. Abraham is commemorated by street names in Gdańsk, Sopot and Gdynia, and in almost all other towns and many villages in Kashubia, especially in the north. Two primary schools, No. 6 in Gdynia-Obłuże and in Połczyn in the Puck commune, are also named after him. The oldest preserved commemorative plaque is the one hung in 1936 on the Abraham’s House in Gdynia (30 Starowiejska Street). Right next to the house, in 1974, a stone obelisk with a plaque was erected to commemorate the 105th anniversary of Abraham’s birth. In 2001, a monumental statue by S. Szwechowicz was erected on the Plac Kaszubski in Gdynia. Since 1987, a full-length statue of Abraham has also been located in Puck at 1 Maja Street, and a bust in Władysławowo on the Aleja Gwiazd Sportu In his home town of Zdrada, a monument with a clock and chimes was erected in 2003. The latest and somewhat bizarre commemoration of Abraham, founded in 2014, is the so-called statue of “Świętowid Kaszubski” in Szymbark at CEPR, which depicts four figures: Bishop K. Dominik, J. Wybicki, A. Abraham and an “ordinary fisherman”.

In 1985, Abraham’s likeness was featured on a medal minted by the Kashubian-Pomeranian Association on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of Poland’s Nuptials with the Sea. Since 1994, the Gdynia branch of the ZKP has awarded a medal for Kashubian public service – “Abraham’s Silver Snuffbox” – on 23 June, the anniversary of the activist’s death.

Tomasz Rembalski