Kreis Bütow

The documentation was developed as part of the project initiated by Pomeranian linguist, Dr Robert Holsten (1862-1954), with the aim to collect and compile contemporary folk and archive names of natural and anthropogenic physiographic objects, as well as inhabited and uninhabited places of the pre-war province of Pomerania (from Rügen to Lębork), with the help of teachers and local scientists. The collected set of archive materials – indices and maps with locations of objects – Flurnamen Sammlung – covers the intangible onomastic cultural heritage of the region. Documentation of names of physiographic objects from the area of former Kreis Bütow (Polish: Bytów; after territorial changes, Bytów District, Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland) was compiled in the 1930s. The source material did not contain information about the local authors, who collected names during a field study by interviewing the local populace. Based on the collected data, the documentation was probably compiled by Robert Holsten. The original documentation was drafted in German (including the Lower German dialect), with very numerous Slavic, Polish and Kashubian vocabulary. The documentation comprises 78 sheets, some of them double-sided, comprising a typed index (77 sheets) and a handwritten index (1 sheet). The vast majority of the topographic maps with locations of physiographic objects and their names also survived in the documentation.

Andrzej Chludziński