Michał Drzymała was a Polish

Poles

thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...

 peasant, living in the Greater Poland

Greater Poland

Greater Poland or Great Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska is a historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief city is Poznań.The boundaries of Greater Poland have varied somewhat throughout history...

 region (or the Grand Duchy of Posen) under the Prussian rule. He is a Polish folk hero because after he was denied permission to build a house on his own land (only because he was Polish) by the Prussian authorities in the village of Kaisertreu, so he bought a circus wagon and turned it into his home. At the time, Prussian law considered any dwelling a house if it remained stationary for more than 24 hours. Drzymała use the mobility of the wagon to exploit the law and to avoid the negative consequences by moving the wagon each day and thus preventing the Prussians the ability to penalize him. His dwelling became known as Drzymała's wagon (Wóz Drzymały), and gained notoriety when this case was described by the Polish and European newspapers, making fun of the Prussian state, and energizing the Poles living under the Prussian authority against it.

External links

• Michał Drzymała : A Bibliography by LitDok East-Central Europe / Herder-Institut (Marburg)