Bochum was the center of the Polish Movement in Prussia, but above all, it was the center for the community of Ruhr Poles. Amongst the Polish community, the city was known as the “Bochum Elite School”.

At the beginning of the First World War, around 500,000 Polish people lived in the Ruhr area. Starting around 1880, they began to gather in a localized fashion, but not in a systematic way; pastoral initiatives by the German clergy were the catalyst for this development. Beginning in 1891 they became connected through the Polish language daily newspaper „Wiarus Polski“ (Polish mine worker /Patron Saint). Next, Polish activists began to use “Wiarus Polski” to organize trans-regional political organizations and associations independent from the church. Then, Polish infrastructure was built into the formal economy. Companies, interest groups, co-operative shops, and banks were established.

All of these activities were warily monitored by the state and the church, because of their suspicions that the Polish people were working towards rebuilding the annexed Polish state. In addition, they ran counter to the “Germanisation” policy of the German Reich, which, for example, banned the use of the Polish language in schools beginning in 1873, in the mines beginning in 1899, and at public gatherings beginning in 1908.

Bochum’s transformation into a centre for Polish people in Germany was a chance development. Arguably, the process began when a priest was appointed to take the Polish immigrants under pastoral care in 1884. He, and his successors, lived in a Redemptorist monastery, which has maintained its status as the center of Polish pastoral care in the Ruhr Region to the present day, but now faces closure. “Wiarus Polski”, whose print shop and editorial staff were maintained at the Kortländer, was founded here.

In 1895 Bochum became the founding location of the “Federation of Poles in Germany”, (Związek Polaków w Niemczech, ZPwN). In 1898, a Polish election committee was created in Bochum, which combined votes and made targeted nominations during many different types of elections up until the Reichstag elections. The founding of the “Polish Trade Union” ZZP followed in 1902, which, in 1913, claimed 80,000 members. The “Committee of Polish-Catholic Associations for mutual assistance in Westphalia, Rhineland, and in the neighbouring provinces with headquarters in Bochum”, which, in 1914, coordinated 174 associations with 18,500 members, also had a great deal of influence. Between 1905 and 1917 a variety of banks were founded for the Polish community, the most successful one was the labour bank “Bank Robotnikow”, whose advertisement can still be seen on one of the exterior walls of the Kortländer.

The increased importance of Bochum became clear when the first Polish Catholics Day was held in the city in 1894; in 1913, a trade show was held by the association of Polish merchants and tradesmen.

In 1905 the Polish organizations decided to obtain its own premises, and subsequently purchased seven buildings, Kortländer 2 – 14. Right up to 1939, these continued to be the premises for the ZZP Labour Union, Federation of Polish People, National Labour Party, and the headquarters of the public libraries, the school associations' administrative office, Wiarus Polski, the Reichstag faction office, each of whom were aligned with the interests of the Ruhr Poles. The spaces were looted and expropriated by the Nazi State during the invasion of Poland. Nothing is known about the fate suffered by the employees as a result of this. There is testimonial evidence of executions taking place in the courtyard of house no. 6.

Revitalized after the war, the Federation of Poles, for example, is supposed to have printed publications for the Solidarność union 1980s. Currently, there are plans to reactivate the centre at the Kortländer. This would be appropriate because Poles have contributed a great deal to the development of Bochum through their high level of economic participation and political influence.