The independence of newly born (or reborn) states at the end of 1918 raised the question of the future of the aristocratic families who had built their position in the pre‑war empires. An interesting example of such dilemmas arose in Poland. This was connected with the fate of two originally German‑speaking families. One of them was a branch of the imperial Habsburg family that settled in Żywiec (German: Saybush) in western Galicia. The other: rich and powerful family of Hofburg von Pless having their main seat in Pszczyna (German: Pless) in Prussian Upper Silesia. They were both members of the absolute elite of European aristocracy, being related to many noble and royal families and playing important roles in the political and economic life of Austro‑Hungary and Germany. What they also had in common was the fact, that their estates were located in a borderland between different ethnic and national groups. After the end of World War One, almost all these properties became part of the independent Polish state. As a result, the new administration treated the families with serious distrust. However, their national choices were different: the Habsburgs of Żywiec started to consider themselves as pure Polish, while the Hofburgs radically adhered to their German self‑identity. This article shows what the criteria were behind these choices.

Maria Manteuffel letters from the period 1844–1859 offer invaluable insights into the life of Polish gentry in the former Polish Livonia (Infl anty Polskie), incorporated into the Vitebsk Governorate of the Russian Empire. These letters of mother to her son Gustaw Manteuffel, student at the University of Dorpat (now Tartu, Estonia) who was to become one of great Polish historiographers of late 19th century, are an important historical source. Although they deal mainly with family matters, the mundane is interspersed with notes and comments which throw light on the Russian tax burdens and the social life of the aristocracy and the local gentry. An eye-catching feature of that correspondence is a string of Latvian (Latgalian) words and phrases which are interspersed into Maria Manteuffel’s sentences. There is not much we know about her life. Born in Wielony in 1811, she was heiress to the Drycany estate. In 1828 she married baron Jakub Manteuffel. Of their children only four sons survived to adulthood. Born into a Polish-Livonian family, Maria Manteuffel became a Polish patriot, patroness and sponsor of various patriotic initiatives. When the Drycany estate was sequestrated by the Russian authorities after the 1863 January Uprising, she moved to Lesno and later to Riga where she died in 1874. She was buried at Drycany beside her husband; in 1916 her son was buried in the same family vault.