Old Bamber Woman (1930) Wilhelm Oseccki Bambrzy (Poznańskie Bambry, German: Posener Bamberger) are Poles who are partly descended from Germans who moved from the area of Bamberg (Upper Franconia, Germany) to villages surrounding Poznań, Poland. They settled in villages which had been destroyed during the Great Northern War and the subsequent epidemic of cholera in the 1700s. The condition for settlement was, according to the order of King August II of 1710, all newly arrived foreign settlers in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth had to be Catholic. The advent of democracy in Poland in 1989 saw the beginning of a renaissance of the Bamber culture. The best-known aspect of this culture are the rich female dresses.