Towns and Villages - Kluki

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Published on Monday, 14 November 2011 23:12

KLUKI - a fishing village in the commune of Smołdzino, situated on the western bank of the Łebsko Lake on the terrain of the Slovinski National Park.
The name was settled in this form in 1769; following the local, verbal tradition, the village came into being from small crofts inhabited by the Kleks. This surname was spelled differently: Kleków, Kluck, Kuch, Klik. Originally it certainly sounded Kluk/Kluka and derived from a common word - kluka - an oxen yoke, severely curved stick being the attribute of the village administrator's office, being sent with some message, curved large nose, door handle, a route turning, eventually some of these meanings were of service as a source for the nickname Kluk. The name used by Slovinians was Kluki, in plural number, referring to the whole family, in the meaning: and there live the Klukes. The name of the skansen museum derives from the name "the Slovinians", which was first used by the Russian ethnographer Hil Ferding, who in the mid of the XIX century conducted expedition research. Hil Ferding determined in this way, the group of Kaszubian population inhabiting several villages situated between the lakes of the Gardno and the Łebsko. Kluki was a village in which the relicts of material culture and Kaszubian traditions stayed the longest; German Klucken.
In the middle ages, the Kaszubian tribes inhabiting Pomerania spreaded as far as the Parsęta and Kołobrzeg. That time, on the terrain of Pomerania, there was the influx of German settlers, gradually superseding the Kaszubian population more and more towards the east. Firstly, the towns were germanised, and only then the rural areas. In spite of this fact, until the end of the XVI century, current Mid Pomerania sustained its Slovian character. Only after the victory of reformation and the extinction of the Gryfits dynasty along with the commencement of planned germanisation, there occurred a fast shrinking of the area inhabited by the Kaszubian population. The reformation brought about the break of the Kaszubian cultural and lingual collectivity into the protestant Kaszubians (further known as Slovinians) and katholic Kaszubians. The dissimilarity of the historical courses of these two groups, larger isolation of the former ones, generated the creation of a separate cultural and lingual community and allowed for rapid germanisation of this Slovinian group. Also the German school and church played an important role as well as Prussian administration inimically oriented to the Kaszubians. In spite of this, as a result of Slovinians' resistance, the masses with sermons in the local language survived in Smołdzino until 1832, in Gardno until 1845, and the longest in Główczyce until 1886. Until the XX century there were preserved singular population groups in several villages upon the lakes of the Łebsko and the Gardno. That time the Slovinian speech disappeared. Singular words were preserved in the names of tools, fishing equipment and the names of water depths on the lakes.
The village became in the XVIII century and consisted of a few parts - Kluki Smołdzińskie, Kluki Żelazne and Kluki Ciemińske. Throughout the centuries, strictly isolated from the world, until the World War I, it was adequately remaining as cut off from civilisation.
The building up of a beaten track in 1863 was the greatest event throughout the history of the village, which brought German culture to the inhabitants of Kluki. The Skansen Museum in Kluki was established in 1963; currently it includes: dwelling houses (among others, so called: three-roomed dwelling houses and semi-detached houses from the XIX century, the oldest structure is a restored hut of Charlotta Klick dated for the end of the XVIII century), utility houses, a fishing shelter made of old boats, a bread oven, an over-ground basement and a fishing stock. A few hundreds samples of the daily utility objects were collected inside. The Skansen Museum still expands and it is expected, that altogether it will comprise 20 structures including 7 huts, 7 little cow-sheds, 2 barns, 2 bread ovens, a boat and fishing equipment stock as well as a fishing shelter.

Source: "Historical Dictionary of Towns and Villages of the Slupsk Province",
authors: A. Świetlicka - E. Wisławska