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As Tadeusz Łepkowski put it, organic works were “actually local, adapted to specific conditions and possibilities, different in each of the partitions.”. The chronological framework in which they developed was also different. It is not possible to provide exact start and end dates.  Stefan Kieniewicz considered the year 1840 as an initial date for all of the Polish lands. Witold Jakóbczyk, however, moved that date to 1828 for Greater Poland, as it was when a group of broad-minded landowners attempted to establish the Society of Friends of Agriculture, Industry and Education. The Prussian authorities did not allow the formation of the Society, but its statute included the first advanced plan of specific activities aimed at accelerating social and economic transformation and, consequently, strengthening Polish society. Witold Jakóbczyk, Stefan Kieniewicz and other contemporary researchers assumed that the year 1890 marked the end of the “organic work” era. As Stefan Kieniewicz wrote, it was when opportunities for the “landholding classes” to start broad activities based on political parties for the masses emerged. Although the work was not given up on, political parties still remained patrons of economic and educational organisations, which were, however, degraded to “an addition to the central front of political action.”. After 1890, organic work undoubtedly lost its prestige and its status as an independent political programme. The situation looks different from the perspective of the function of organic work in the process of modernising Polish society in the Prussian Partition. The turn of the 19th and 20th century brought about dynamic developments in various organisations established on the Organicists’ initiative in the previous decades (agricultural circles, industrial societies, saving & loan associations etc.), the operations of which considerably contributed to the growth of the economic force and national awareness of the Polish population. This is when the “fruits” of the organic work ripened, and Polish society was finally capable of succeeding in its fight against a much stronger opponent: the Prussian state and a part of the German population also taking part in the fight.

According to Stefan Kieniewicz, a particularly important domain of organic work was “spreading national awareness among the masses and multiplying the number of patriots.”. The statement fully applies to the Prussian Partition, where activities raising national awareness among petty bourgeoisie, peasants and workers had a considerable share in “organic work”. Authors of the Organicist thought claimed that societies should be the core of patriotic undertakings. They were to be a place of patriotic education. Thus, the organisational structures of the Polish national movement were gradually expanded within the limits of the legal possibilities allowed within the Prussian state. In the region of Poznań, the directions of organic work initiatives were initially set by landowners’ agricultural associations, called “Kasyna” [Casinos] to confuse the Prussian authorities. They did not stand the test of time and turned out to be ephemeral. However, the Gostyń Kasyno, founded in 1835, for the next six years was a home for undertakings organised by the Organicists. 

In 1841, two pillars of organic work were established in Poznań: The Bazar Hotel and the Scientific Help Society. The Bazar, located in the centre of Poznań, was not only a hotel with Polish shops and craft workshops (on the ground floor) that used their signboards to accentuate their presence in the heart of the city of merchants and craftsmen, but also, above other things, an institution which was home to the Polish national movement (the seat of Polish societies and a venue for the conventions and meetings of its leaders) and a centre of Polish cultural and social life. It may be said that it was a multi-functional Polish “national house”. Its multi-functionality was a phenomenon, as no other place in Central Europe had so many functions at the same time. The fundamental task of the Scientific Help Society was to collect funds and grant financial support to the youth from poorer social classes. Hundreds of school-going children and students benefitted from its scholarships, one-off grants and loans. After obtaining a professional education, the beneficiaries became part of the intelligentsia and the increasingly powerful petty bourgeoisie. The Scientific Help Society not only supported poor students financially, but was also involved in patriotic and educational activities. The beneficiaries had to prove their progress in education and send papers on different subjects to the Society’s office. Many of them were grateful for the aid they had been granted, and, after achieving professional independence, they tried to pay the debt back to society, frequently by engaging themselves in political and social work, often combining a high professional level with social acumen. These beneficiaries included some of the most active participants of the Polish national movement. The Scientific Help Society was the longest-running society in Poland. Despite crises, which were impossible to avoid in its long period of activity, it survived from the year of its founding in 1841 to the end of the partition era, and served Polish society even in the Second Polish Republic. The longevity of the Scientific Help Society and its resistance to the Prussian attempts at its liquidation was very important for other Polish societies established later. They drew inspirations from its experiences and followed its example. 

In the era of the Revolutions of 1848, the Organicists from Poznań were given the opportunity to spread the ideas pursued by their societies. On 25 June 1848, on the initiative of August Cieszkowski, a group of Polish deputies in Berlin set up a society named the Polish League. The League, established in full compliance with the law, was to help lift the Polish nationality up. Its founders wanted to implement a broad programme of civic education addressed to the masses, to counteract the Prussian propaganda praising the alleged benefits offered by the king, and also the emigration-related revolutionary propaganda. Organisers of poviat leagues, which were later to form the lowest links, i.e. parish leagues, were quickly appointed. The organisational work on this new form of Polish activity proceeded fast; at the end of 1848, there were nearly 246 district and local leagues operating in the region of Poznań and in West Prussia. According to a report from 1849, the Polish League had 37271 members (the data was, however, incomplete, because not all of the local leagues sent their reports to the headquarters), so it was one of Europe’s first mass organisations. A complete description of its activity would be quite extensive and would certainly go beyond the subject of this article. However, its activities in the arenas of promoting patriotism and education have been presented below. The League did not become as extensive as its leaders, including August Cieszkowski, had expected, because soon many landowners became indifferent to its activities. Some of the district leagues, however, could boast great achievements. Every week, appointed lecturers gathered local people (mostly on Saturday afternoons or Sundays after the mass) to read newspapers or to discuss current political events and issues related to civic education. During the meetings, they encouraged townspeople and peasants to make sacrifices for the nation. According to the reports published in “Gazeta Polska”, the meetings were attended by crowds of people from the neighbourhood. It can be assumed, therefore, that, at least in some of the poviats, the League's activity had a significant impact on raising the national awareness of the Polish masses. Unfortunately, on 11 March 1850, the Prussian Parliament adopted an act prohibiting the existence of political associations with central headquarters and well-developed organisational field structures, which brought the activities of this mass organisation to an end.