A fact from Nicolaus Copernicus Monument, Warsaw appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 30 October 2009 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
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So what was the exact wording of the plaque added in 1939? In which language(s)? The monument erected by Germans in his home town in Thorn was/is inscribed in Latin only, the language Copernicus mainly used in writing (aside from German, which is still denied at his article). The Warsaw monument also has words in Polish, a language never used by Copernicus, who probably never was in Warsaw. -- Matthead Discuß 17:25, 25 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I don't know what exact words were added; but the Germans removed the Latin and Polish inscriptions and added their own (presumably in German) that translates as "To NC, the German nation". (ref). And the monument was built in Warsaw, as the Prussian government refused to allow the Poles to build it in Toruń. --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| talk 19:13, 25 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]
"No preview available " for me, being located outside of the USA. It is helpful when relevant quotes from books are copied verbatim to the ref. -- Matthead Discuß 19:25, 25 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]
The content shown by Google Books to a user is depending on his location. US-based users can see more than users in Europe, apparently. The ref given by Piotrus above yields only "Book overview No preview available - 2006 - 92 pages" for me. -- Matthead Discuß 22:08, 25 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]
"...one of the things Germans did when they occupied Warsaw in September 1939, was to blot out both [Latin and Polish - P.] inscriptions on the Copernicus monument and to substitute for them one of their own: "To Nicholas Copernicus, the German Nation"." PS. Some other sources are giving the German text as "Dem Grossen Deutschen Astronomen" or "Dem grossen Astronomen Nicolaus Copernicus"/Kopernikus, I am looking in it (correct me if I am wrong, but this would translate as "the great German astronomer" and "the great astronomer NC", right?). Unfortunately, sources discussing this are mostly Polish and mostly not available for anything other than snippet preview on GBooks, which means I am not getting much info. Can you find anything on the German websites? PPS. I found a publication that seems to discuss the issue of different German plaques and such, unfortunately it is again gutted by snippet view. It seems to be Poradnik językowy, Issues 295-304, Państwowe Wydawn Naukowe, 1972, GPrint p.532-533. ([1]). The snippets are so poor I am unable to identify the author and the title of the article (it appears that the journal had an article (or a series) on Copernicus; one of them discussed the plaques). What I was able to glimpse from the snippets is that: there were no Polish plaques; only engravings; they were covered by German plaque, "Dem grossen Astronomen" seems the correct one. The first one was poorly attached (and thus stolen by the Polish resistance); the second one was "solidly attached"). --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| talk 22:30, 25 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]
