Nicolaus Copernicus: A National Treasure

German and Polish historians have been wasting their time over an issue of nationality. Is the eminent astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus German of Polish? Whole tomes have been filled with learned dissertations proving the one or the other to the author's liking. I do have an answer to that question, and nobody will like it. 

Nicolaus Copernicus was born in 1473 in the city of Thorn or Toruń as the son of Nicolaus Koppernigk and Barbara Watzenrode; the city is situated in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship in modern Poland. In 1473, the city was called Thorn (in German); it was a member of the Hanseatic League. Until 1466, it had been part of the independent state of the Teutonic Knights in Prussia and the Chełmno Land (Kulmerland in German).

In the 9th century, Chełmno Land was inhabited by a mixture of Baltic and Slav people that had displaced the Old Prussian inhabitants starting in the 8th century. In the 10th century, the Dukes of Masovia had started to conquer the area. By 1065, it was considered part of the Duchy of Masovia but its inhabitants remained mainly Baltic and Slav until the 13th century.

The Dukes of Masovia were among the leading aristocrats in the Lithuanian-Polish Empire and Commonwealth, They were involved in the regular wars of succession as contenders for the Polish throne. At the beginning of the 13th century, the Masovian treasury was empty and their armies were needed in Poland for another war of succession. The pagan Old Prussians exploited this situation. They entered Chełmno Land to plunder it and take its inhabitants into slavery. They conquered it, tore down the castles, burnt cities and villages (and particularly all churches), and slaughtered or abducted the inhabitants.

In 1228, Duke Conrad I of Masovia called in the Teutonic Knights and granted them Chełmno Land as a dependent Duchy within Masovia (according to Polish history books); or he called them in to conquer and to hold as an independent state (according to German history books); the original treaty is conveniently missing. For good measure, Emperor Frederick II of the Holy Roman Empire and Pope Gregory IX granted them Prussia including the Chełmno Land, too, under condition that they convert the pagan Old Prussians by the sword if necessary. Frederick II declared them independent of the Holy Roman Empire, and Gregory IX gave them church autonomy as further inducements.
 
The Teutonic Knights conquered Prussia and Chełmno Land. The Old Prussians chose the sword over conversion to Christianity and were slaughtered to the last man, woman, and child; today we would call it genocide. The Teutonic Knights recruited German settlers (remember the Pied Piper of Hamelin?) and repopulated the whole province with settler hungry for land. The first two cities they founded were Chełmno (Kulm) and Toruń (Thorn) in 1233.
 
At the end of the 14th century, the Hanseatic League and the Teutonic Knights had opposing interests where commerce was concerned. The Prussian member cities of the Hanseatic League entered an alliance with the Lithuanian-Polish Commonwealth to further their interests. A first war was ended in the peace treaty of Thorn in 1411. A second war ended in 1466 in the second treaty of Thorn. In the latter treaty, the Teutonic Knights lost large tracts of land including Thorn to the Polish king. A new country was created and called Royal Prussia. It was not part of the Lithuanian-Polish Empire but of the Lithuanian-Polish Commonwealth. It was held and ruled in personal union by the King of Poland.
 
Nicolaus’ father was also called Nicolaus. The family name was spelled as Koppernigk; it is considered possible that the family name meant that they had come at some time from the Silesian village of Koperniki in the Oppole Voivodeship in modern Poland. Father Nicolaus Koppernigk had moved from Cracow to Thorn between 1454 and 1458. But citizens going by the same family name had been on record in Thorn before that. He married a patrician’s daughter, Barbara Watzenrode, and they had four children. Silesia had a history as tortuous as Toruń minus the Baltic influence and changed hands several times over between interested monarchs.

While all these places are situated in modern Poland, that doesn't make its inhabitants Polish by some retroactive act of annexation, as much as Polish historians work on that premise in their history writing. That Thorn was part of Royal Prussia and governed by the Polish crown doesn't mean anything either. That the city was a German settlement in Prussia and that Prussia later became the bully boy of Germany doesn't make him German. The question is simply completely irrelevant and doesn't interest in the least. Every penny spent on research has been a total waste.

The concept of nationality started in the 19th century after the Reorganisation of Europe following the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna. Nationality made it important for some newly emerging states like the German kingdoms that they have figures to identify with. Before that time, nationality would not have been understood by anyone. Nicolaus Copernicus was therefore neither German nor Polish, but simply a person born in Thorn.

Further reading
Bulla Aurea: The Golden Bull
Borussia: Not (Quite) Soccer History
Frederick II: A Model Ruler?