More than perhaps any other in Poznań, this building represents the determined efforts to Germanise the historically Polish lands of West Prussia. Built between 1908 and 1910 as the headquarters of the Prussian Colonisation Commission, this commanding structure served as the administrative hub of a state-sponsored campaign to populate Wielkopolska with ethnic Germans. The Commission provided land, credit, and other incentives to settlers, while simultaneously working to curtail Polish landownership and cultural influence - efforts that were met with staunch and surprisingly effective resistance from the Polish population.

Architecturally, the building is a striking example of German Historicism with Neo-Renaissance elements, designed to impress would-be colonists and assert imperial authority. After World War II, the large symbolic German figures atop the pillars of its distinctive dome were removed. Other overtly German elements were also stripped, and since 1951 the building has belonged to Adam Mickiewicz University (aka Poznań University or UAM). Though no longer the main seat of the university that its Latin name suggests, Collegium Maius remains an important academic centre, housing several faculties and departments. As such, this former tool of Germanisation has been thoroughly recontextualised as a proud institution of modern Polish academic life.