History of Pomerania
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[edit] History of the Pomeranian people
Pomerania has experienced several transitions not only of culture and administration, but also of its population.
The first historically noted major change occurred in the midst of the first millennium, when large parts of the indigenous population left Pomerania as Germanic Goths and Rugians to write history in the Roman Empire, while Slavs moved into Pomerania, settled and spread their culture, shifting Pomerania from Germanic to Slavic. The Slavs diverged into several small tribes referred to as Baltic Wends.
The second major transition of the Pomeranian tribes was from Slavic to German in the 13th century. At the beginning of the second millennium, Christian Piast Poland, Denmark and the German Holy Roman Empire started to incorporate pagan Pomeranian territories into their expanding feudal states. After all Slavic Pomeranian tribes had lost their independence in late 12th century, local dukes called in German settlers to resettle areas devastated in the wars, to populate and cultivate formerly uninhabitable areas, mostly consisting of large woodlands separating former Slavic dwellings, to found cities and - as the result of and the reason for all of this - pay plenty of taxes. In the course of the 13th and 14th century, the Duchy of Pomerania became populated by Germans and only diminishing number Slavs were left not assimilated. Where Slavic population was left, they were called Wends, Kashubs or Slovincians to distinguish them from the German Pomeranians. Whereas through later history the Kashubs were only minority in the Eastern Duchy of Pomerania, their numbers were notably higher in Pomerelia as well as the numbers of Germans were significantly lower there either. Pomerenian history was, from that time, closely tied to the history of Germany, Danmark and Sweden, whereas Pomerelian history was tied to the Polish.
In the 1600s and 1700s, the Thirty Years War and the Nordic Wars had a severe impact on the Pomeranian population. More than half died, lots of villages were completely wiped out. After this enormous population drop, new settlers were called in from less devastated German territories. Yet, not all villages were repopulated, so the today's density of communities is not as high as back in the Middle Ages.
The third major change of Pomeranian population happened in the course of the Second World War and its aftermath. In the Nazi era, Jews and many members of the Polish minority were murdered. Due to the advance of the Red Army and the territorial changes after the war, nearly all Germans populating post-war Poland that survived the war and failed to evacuate in 1945 were expelled to post-war Germany 1945-1947. The major, now Polish part of Pomerania was resettled with Poles instead.
[edit] Early History
[edit] Prehistoric Pomerania
20,000 years ago the territory of present-day Pomerania was covered with ice, which did not start to recede until the late period of the Old Stone Age or Paleolithic some 10,000 years BC, when the Scandinavian glacier receded to the north. Various archaeological cultures developed in the Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age, and Iron Age.
[edit] Baltic tribes
Since around 3000 BC Pomerania was dominated by Baltic tribes. They were partly pushed, assimilated, and surrounded by Germanic tribes advancing to the east from 1500 BC to the 1st century AD. When the Germanic tribes left this territory in the 1st to 5th centuries AD during the Migration Period, some Pomeranian (Western) Balts remained behind. These tribes integrated with Slavic tribes (arrived to Pomerania in the 6th century AD), forming Kashubians and other Pomeranian groups.
[edit] Germanic tribes
Since around 500BC and before 500 AD Pomerania was dominated by East Germanic tribes including several tribes of Goths, who according to archeological evidence and their own tradition have come from Scandinavia. Goths and Rugians are recorded by Roman historians in the areas of Pomerania in 98 AD. The Veneti, non-Germanic tribe, which later assimilated with Slavs, are recorded by Ptolemy and Pliny the Elder around Vistula in first century AD.
- See also: Balts, East Germanic tribes, Lusatian culture, Pomeranian culture, Wielbark Culture, Goths, and Rugians
[edit] Early Middle Ages
[edit] Slavic Pomeranians
Perhaps due to centuries of ongoing raids on Europe by various Asiatic peoples a group of people later known as Slavic tribes moved into Magna Germania (as the area west and south of the Vistula river was called), as well and by 1000 AD the region was recorded as inhabited by various tribes belonging to the Lechitic group of the West Slavs, known collectively as Veleti, later Liutizian tribes dwelling west and Pomeranian tribes dwelling east of the Oder river. Little is known about the organisation and administration of the Pomeranians. The tribes spoke Pomeranian and Polabian dialects.
A Frankish document entitled Bavarian Geographer (ca 845) mentions the tribes of Volinians (Velunzani), Pyritzans (Prissani) and Veleti (Wiltzi).
The Pomeranians were constantly defending themselves against Viking and Polish raids. Pomeranians made their living mainly from trading and fishing. Chronicles report that Pomeranian cities in the very early Middle Ages belonged to the biggest and most affluent cities in the Slavic world and the whole of Europe.
Pomeranians are claimed to have occasionally raided Vikings in their Scandinavian homes. The ships of Pomeranians probably were not distinguishable from the ships of the Vikings themselves.
As Polish dukes tried several times to subdue and mission parts of the Pomeranian settlement area, there are spare records of dukes in this area, but no records about the extension of their duchies or any dynastic relations.
The first written record of any local Pomeranian ruler is the 1046 mention of Zemuzil (in Polish literature also called Siemomysł) at an imperial meeting. Another chronicle written in 1113 by Gallus Anonymus mentions several dukes of Pomerania: Swantibor, Gniewomir, and an unnamed duke besieged in Kołobrzeg (Kolberg).
[edit] Polish invasions (979-1005/1035)
In the 960s, the Polish duke Mieszko I fought the tribes of Wieletes and Volinians south of the Baltic Sea, and their ally, the Saxon count Wichman.
Mieszko later defeated Count Dietrich of the Northern March at Cedynia in 972 and reached the mouth of the Oder River in 976. The decisive battle there in 979 ensured Mieszko's position as ruler of the area. In the following year, he celebrated his victory by dedicating the city of Gdansk at the mouth of the Vistula River, to compete with the ports of Stettin (Szczecin) and Jumne (Wolin) on the Oder. Shortly before his death, Mieszko placed his state, under the suzerainty of the pope in a document usually called the Dagome Iudex.
Mieszko's son and successor, Boleslaus I of Poland, continued his father's conquests in Pomerania in 995, when he personally led his army. In 1000, while on pilgrimage to the tomb of Saint Adalbert of Prague at Gniezno, Holy Roman Emperor Otto III invested Boleslaus with the title Frater et Cooperator Imperii ("Brother and Partner of the Empire") and confirmed the rights of Boleslaus to Pomerania. On the same visit, Otto gave Boleslaus the right to create the first Pomeranian bishopric in Kolobrzeg. The ultimate aim of this gesture was to Christianize the Pomeranians.
Nevertheless, the mission was destroyed when Pomeranians revolted against the church in 1005. The events brought five new martyrs to the Roman Catholic Church. This was the first time that the country split; the eastern part along the Vistula remained subject to Poland, whereas western Pomerania tended to remain independent and pagan. The Pomeranian bishopric was moved to safer Kruszwica in Cuiavia (ca 1015.
[edit] Pomeranian involvement in internal conflicts of the Kingdom of Poland
In the 1030s, the Polish state was destroyed and fragmented into several provinces, but was soon rebuilt when Casimir I the Restorer was victorious in a battle with Mazovians and Pomeranians in 1047. Boleslaus II of Poland ("Boleslaw Smialy") is reported to have lost control of Pomerania.
In 1107, there was a civil war in Poland between Duke Boleslaus III of Poland and his brother Zbigniew. As Zbigniew was allied to Pomeranians, Boleslaus brought warriors to Pomerania and captured Bialogard (Belgard), Koszalin (Köslin), Kamien Pomorski (Cammin), and Wolin (Wollin).
[edit] Jomsvikings
Canute the Great was the son of sea-king Sweyn Forkbeard, also reputed to be a member of the Jomsburg Vikings, a military organization of mercenary warriors with a fortress based in Pomerania. There is some dispute among historians, however, over the existence of the "Jomsvikings." Canute's mother was Gunhild (formerly Swiatoslawa, daughter of Mieszko I of Poland). In about 1020, Canute made a deal with Holy Roman Emperor Conrad II, and the emperor gave Canute the Mark of Schleswig and Pomerania to govern. Nevertheless, Pomerania or parts thereof may or may not have been part of that deal. In any event, Boleslaus sent his troops to help Canute in his successful conquest of England.
[edit] Pomeranian duchies of the High and Late Middle Ages
In the 12th century, Poland, the Holy Roman Empire's Duchy of Saxony and Denmark conquered Pomerania, ending the tribal era. In three military campaigns of 1116, 1119, and 1121, most of Pomerania was conquered by the Polish duke Boleslaus III.
[edit] Pomerelian duchies (1116-1294) - House of Sobieslaw
Pomerelia with Gdańsk (Danzig) was put under Polish control, ruled gradually independant by the House of Sobieslaw dynasty until 1294. In various times they were vassals of Poland and Denmark. The duchy was split temporarily into districts of Gdansk (Danzig), Bialogard, Swiecie (Schwetz), and Lubieszewo-Tczew (Dirschau).
In 1226, Prince Konrad of Masovia signed an agreement with the Teutonic Knights. The Knights gradually conquered Prussia and erected a monastic state, the later Duchy of Prussia, where most of Pomerelia was integrated.
[edit] Duchy of Pomerania (1121-1630) and Schlawe-Stolp (1121-1227) - House of Pomerania
In Pomerania proper, Polish influence vanished in the next decade. The Stolp (Słupsk) and (Schlawe (Sławno) areas (lands of (Länder) Schlawe-Stolp )were ruled by Ratibor I and his descendants (Ratiboriden sideline of the Griffin House of Pomerania) until the Danish occupation of Schlawe and extinction of the line in 1227.
The western areas, stretching from Kolberg (Kołobrzeg) to Stettin (Szczecin) were ruled by Ratibor's brother Wartislaw I and his descendants (House of Pomerania, also called Griffins) until the 1630s. Wartislaw managed to conquer vast territories west of the Oder river, an area inhabited by Liutizian tribes weakened by past warfare, and included these territories into his Duchy of Pomerania. This duchy was in the 12th and 13th centuries centered around the strongholds of Stettin and Demmin and co-ruled from there by Wartislaws successors.
After the 1147 Wendish crusade and the 1164 Battle of Verchen, the duchy joined Henry the Lion's Duchy of Saxony, and in 1181 the dukes took their duchy as a fief from the Holy Roman Emperor Barbarossa.
At that time, the duchy was also referred to as Slavia (yet this was a term applied to several Wendish areas such as Mecklenburg and the Principality of Rügen). The duchy remained in the Empire, although Denmark managed to take control of the southern Baltic including the Duchy of Pomerania from the 1180s until the 1227 Battle of Bornhöved.
From the 13th century, the duchy was set under pressure by its southern neighbor, the Margraviate of Brandenburg. In the 1236 Treaty of Kremmen and the 1250 Treaty of Landin, the duchy lost its western and southern areas (from Circipania to Uckermark) to Brandenburg and the dukes had to accept Brandenburg inheritance of the duchy.
[edit] Principality of Rügen (1168-1325) - House of Wizlaw
The island of Rügen and the surrounding areas between the Recknitz, Peene and Ryck rivers were the settlement area of the West Slavic Rani (or Rujani) tribe, that was subdued by a Danish and Saxon expedition in 1168. The Griffin dukes of Pomerania aided this expedition as they were Saxon vassals at this time. After the successful expedition, the local Rani dynasty (known in German as Wizlawiden, that is the House of Wizlaw) became Princes of Rügen in a now Danish principality. In the 1180s, the Griffins were sent by the Holy Roman Emperor to take the principality for the empire, yet, Denmark turned out to succeed in the conflict and subdued most of the Southern Baltic instead. The border between Pomerania-Demmin and Rügen varied and was subject to ongoing conflict. In 1325, the last prince of Rügen, Wizlaw III, died without male heirs and the principality was claimed by both Mecklenburg and the Duchy of Pomerania. After the following two wars for Rügen inheritance, Rügen was integrated into the Duchy of Pomerania.
[edit] Conversion of the pagan Pomeranians
The Middle Ages' Pomeranians believed in numerous gods of the Slavic mysticism.
The first attempt to establish a Christian diocese in Kolberg (Kolobrzeg) by the archdiocese of Gnesen (Gniezno) in 1000 failed due to a pagan uprising in 1005.
In the 1120s, Boleslaus asked Otto of Bamberg to convert Pomerania to Christianity, which he accomplished in his first visit in 1124. Otto of Bamberg returned in 1128, this time invited by duke Wartislaw I himself, aided by the emperor Holy Roman Emperor Lothar II, to convert the Liutici tribe, who were located mainly in the city of Demmin and incorporated into a Pomeranian state, and to strengthen the Christian faith of the inhabitants of Szczecin (Stettin) and Wolin (Wollin), who fell back into heathen practices and idolatry.
[edit] German settlement (Ostsiedlung)
Starting in the 12th century, Pomerania was settled with Germans during the 13th century (West and North) and the 14th century (South and East). Except for the Pomerelian Kashubians and the Slovincians, the Wends were assimilated. Most towns and villages are dating back to this period.
[edit] Brandenburg claims
During the reign of Otto I, Margrave of Brandenburg and son of Albert I of Brandenburg (1100-1170), Brandenburg claimed sovereignty over Pomerania.
In 1181, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I invested Duke Bogislaw with the Duchy of Slavia/Pomerania.
Between 1185 and 1227, Pomerania along with most of the southern Baltic coast remained under sovereignty of Denmark. However 1198/99 Brandenburg again tried held the sovereignty over Pomerania. Their virtual rights are recognized by king (later emperor) Frederick II in 1214. After the Battle of Bornhoeved, the remaining Danish sovereignty rights were removed. Treaties of 1236 (Kremmen) and 1250 (Landin) between Pomeranian dukes and margraves of Brandenburg verified the Brandenburg lordship. Stargard and the northern Uckermark come into direct ownership of Brandenburg.
In 1231, Emperor Frederick II again invested the Ascanian Brandenburg margraves with the duchy of Pomerania.
In 1264, Duke Wartislaw III of Demmin died, allowing his cousin Barnim I the Good to unite the whole of Pomerania under his rule. In 1266, Barnim I married Mechthild, the daughter of Otto III, Margrave of Brandenburg.
Then in 1269 duke Barnim promised in his testimony the city of Danzig (Gdańsk) and other parts of Eastern Pomerania to his father-in-law, the margrave of Brandenburg. Barnim however had no right to do it, since Eastern Pomerania (Pomerelia) was ruled by the Mścislaw dukes of Schwetz (Świecie) family. Schwetz was to be inherited after his death. Barnim died in 1278 at Altdamm (near Stettin).
After the line of the dukes of Pomerelia died out in 1294, strifes broke out and in 1295 Adolf of Nassau-Weilburg verified the Lehnshoheit, the right to feodality, of the margraves of Brandenburg over Pomerelia. From Brandenburg it was dispensed to the sons of Barnim I, Otto I and Bogislaw IV. New lines Pommern-Wolgast and Pommern-Stettin were started. Harbors, waterways etc. were to be held in common.
[edit] Brandenburg, Poland and the Teutonic Order compete for Pomerelia
In line with the will of duke Mestwin II of Eastern Pomerania, duke Przemysl II of Poland took over Eastern Pomerania in 1294. Therefore the Eastern Pomerania united with his principality - Greater Poland. Keeping two of five major lands of Poland he was crowned as king of Poland. When he was killed by an assassin sent from Brandenburg in 1296, the country shared with the rest of Poland controversy over succession.
From 1300 until 1306 Eastern Pomerania was ruled by Wenceslaus II of Bohemia and his son Wenceslaus III, King of Bohemia and Poland, later also disputed King of Hungary. After the death of Wenceslaus III in 1306, the most powerful of Polish dukes became Władysław Lokietek.
On becoming king of Poland, in summer 1300, Wenceslaus II of Bohemia asked the Teutonic Knights to protect Pomerania from the claims of Brandenburg. In 1306 Władysław Lokietek's forces seized Gdańsk (Danzig). When Gdańsk was subsequently attacked by the Margrave of Brandenburg in 1308, Lokietek was unable to help and called in the Teutonic Knights for support. The Brandenburgers were repelled. The king did not pay the Teutonic Knights, however, and then they took over Danzig (Gdańsk) and ousted the remaining Polish garrison from the castle. Poles later claimed that the Knights committed a massacre of 10,000 civilians.
Teutonic Grandmaster Siegfried von Feuchtwangen and Master Heinrich von Dirschau und Schwetz thus became lords over all of Pomerelia. The Margraves ceded the area to the Teutonic Order in the 1309 Treaty of Soldin. Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor ratified the Soldin Treaty in 1313.
The districts of Schlawe (Sławno), Rügenwalde (Darłowo) and Stolp (Słupsk), however, remained with Brandenburg. Previously, they were part of Eastern Pomerania (Pomerelia).
[edit] Feudal fragmentation of the Duchy of Pomerania
After the last duke of Demmin had died in 1264, and the 1236 territorial losses left Demmin at the westernmost edge of the Duchy of Pomerania, Wolgast arose as the new residence besides Stettin. The sons of Barmin I (↑ 1278) divided the Duchy o Pomerania. Pomerania-Stettin was ruled by Otto I and his successors until 1464. Pomerania-Wolgast was ruled by Bogislaw IV and his successors. The latter was split in 1368 into the proper Duchy of Wolgast and the Duchy of Stolp (Slupsk) under duke Bogislaw V the Old.
In the course of the 14th century, Pomerania succeded in the wars for Rügen inheritance, expanding the duchy northwest to Barth. In the East, the duchy gained control over the Schlawe-Stolp and later also the Lauenburg (Lebork) and Bütow (Bytow) areas. In 1531, when Reformation reached Pomerania, the Diocese of Cammin areas around Kolberg (Kolobrzeg) came under control of the dukes, too. In the Thirty Years War, Sweden occupied Pomerania.
In 1425, conflict with Brandenburg about the rule of the Uckermark and Pomerania resulted in a war of Brandenburg against Pomerania, Mecklenburg, the Teutonic Order and even Poland. Brandenburg was able to keep the Uckermark, but Hohenzollern pretensions to rule Pomerania were thwarted.
The 1637 death of the last Griffin duke Bogislaw XIV and the 1648 Peace of Westphalia marked the end of the duchy. Farther Pomerania came to Brandenburg and Hither or Western Pomerania to Sweden, both later making up the Prussian Province of Pomerania.
[edit] Thirty Years' War (1618-48), Pomerania as a province of Sweden and Brandenburg
During the Thirty Years' War Pomerania, lost two thirds of its population due to military raids, plague, famine and criminal violence.
Upon entering into the Thirty Years' War in 1629, Sweden gained effective control over Pomerania. Following the death of Bogislaw XIV, Duke of Pomerania without issue in 1637, control was disputed between Sweden and Brandenburg-Prussia - which had previously held reversion to the Duchy. The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 enforced a partition into a Hither or Western and a Further or Eastern Pomerania. Sweden received Western Pomerania (now in Germany), together with Stettin (Swedish Pomerania). Further Pomerania (now in Poland) passed to Brandenburg-Prussia. In the negotiations between France, Brandenburg, and Sweden following the Northern War the Brandenburg diplomats Joachim Friedrich von Blumenthal and his son Christoph Caspar obtained the rights of succession for Brandenburg, though the argument with Sweden, especially over Hither Pomerania, continued to the end of the 17th century and beyond, until the Treaty of Stockholm in 1720. Stettin and Western Pomerania up to the Peene river (Altvorpommern) became part of Brandenberg-Prussia following the end of the Great Northern War in 1720.
Western Pomerania north of the Peene river (Neuvorpommern) remained a dominion of the Swedish Crown from 1648 until 1815.
[edit] The 18th–20th centuries
Prussian noblemen began to acquire estates in Pomerania, while Pomeranian noblemen were integrated into Prussian society. Thus originally Wendish noble families such as the von Lettows, von Strelows, von Peglows, von Zitzewitzes and von Krockows intermarried with German families from Brandenburg such as the von Blumenthals, who possessed great estates at Quackenburg, Varzin, Dubberzin, Schlönwitz and elsewhere. By the nineteenth century Pomerania was mostly Germanised, and was a popular place of retirement for the well-to-do such as Bismarck, who bought Varzin.
[edit] Napoleonic Wars and its consequences
In 1812, when French troops marched into Pomerania, The Swedish army mobilized and 1813 won against Napoleon in the Battle of Leipzig, together with troops from Russia, Prussia and Austria. Sweden also attacked Denmark. During the peace negotiations in Kiel 1814, Sweden got Norway, but gave Pomerania to Prussia in 1815.
After the extinction of the Ascanian Brandenburg line several other ruling houses were invested with the administration of Pomerania by the empire. After Napoleon's break-up of the empire in 1806, the Western Part was the member of the Deutsche Bund. After foundation of the German Empire of 1871, the whole of Pomerania was included into the newly created state.
[edit] Pomerania in the German Empire (1870–1918)
During the German Empire whole Pomerania remained an agricultural area.
The Prussian Province of Pomerania was dominated by large-scale agriculture which forced many abundant workers to emigrate into the western provinces of Germany. Only the city of Stettin (now Szczecin) became an industrialized city with more than 200,000 inhabitants. Some towns on the Baltic Sea became tourist resorts. The Prussian Province of Pomerania was a stronghold of conservative parties and of the nobility during the German Empire. Except for Schneidemühl and Stolp, where Polish and Slavic Slovincian minorities lived, 19th century Pomerania province was virtually entirely German and Germanized. As such, it was also moderately German-nationalistic.
The Prussian province of West Prussia (Pomerelia) was inhabited by both ethnic groups: Polish people predominantly in rural areas in the southern parts, as well as Slavic Kashubians dominating the northern areas and ethnic German people predominantly in big cities. The German government tried to support German settlement in Polish and Kashubian areas, but German investors did not show much interest. Polish people founded economical and political organisations and succeeded in electing some Polish representatives into the German Reichstag.
| Population of the Prussian provinces in 1890 | Area km² | Population | foreigners |
| West Prussia | 25,483 | 1,433,681 | 1,976 |
| Pomerania | 30,121 | 1,520,889 | 1,405 |
| Total | 55,604 | 2,954,570 | 3,381 |
[edit] World Wars of the 20th century
[edit] Between WWI and WWII - Pomerania in Germany and Poland (1919–1939)
As a result of the Versailles Peace Treaty (1919) after World War I, Pomerania was divided between Poland and Germany. Most of the German-Prussian province of West Prussia fell to Poland and constituted Pomeranian Voivodship (województwo pomorskie) with the capital at Toruń. Danzig was made the Free City of Danzig. The population of Danzig, 90% of which spoke German, was not asked whether it wanted to leave Germany. Remainders of West Prussia were joined to East Prussia and newly created province Grenzmark Posen-Westpreussen. The entire Prussian province of Pomerania remained in Germany. The area inhabited by Kashubians remained split between Poland, the Free City and Germany.
In 1938-39, the German and Polish Pomeranian provinces were enlarged. Most of Grenzmark and two counties of Brandenburg were made a district of the German province of Pomerania. Several counties from Mazovia and Greater Poland were joined to Polish Pomerania, and the voivodship's capital was moved from Toruń to Bydgoszcz.
[edit] Pomerania during World War II (1939–1945)
The dispute between Germany and Poland over rights to Free City of Danzig and land transit through the Polish Corridor (Polish Pomerania/Pomerelia) to the exclave of East Prussia, came to ignite Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland, which commenced on September 1, 1939.
The strategy of the Nazi government was to temporarily divide Poland with Stalin's Soviet Union, formalized in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. In the longer perspective, the National Socialists aimed to expand the German "Lebensraum" in the East, to exploit soil, oil, minerals and workforce from the lands of the Slavs, turning them into a race of slaves destined to serve the German 1000 Year Reich and its master race (Germanics). The fate of other peoples of these territories, notably Jews and Gypsies, was to be annihilation and deportation in the Holocaust.
Initially, the Heinz Guderian' tank corps was to pass through Pomerelia (Polish Pomerania, Kashubia) on the way to Eastern Prussia. The Guderian corps was to regroup there and attack Warsaw from the east.
The Polish opponent was the Army of Pomerania (Armia Pomorze). It was not quite decided, if the army was to protect the Free City of Danzig in case of local uprising in support of the German invasion, or defend the Polish corridor in case of the general war. The first aim suggested to put large units deep north into the province of Polish Pomerania.
However, they were unprepared for the unexpected attack from the Germans, and this contributed to the fact that the Army of Pomerania was quickly destroyed in the Battle of Tuchola Forest.
One of the famous episodes of the Invasion of Poland was the famous Krojanty charge, where a Polish cavalry unit had charged against German infantry. The machine guns of German armed reconnaissance vehicles then ended the cavalry charge. The episode was used in Nazi propaganda to underline unreasonable Polish attacks against Germans, and in Polish propaganda to claim brave Poles caused panic among German infantry.
After the initial battles in Pomerelia, the remains of Army of Pomerania withdrew to the southern bank of river Vistula. After defending Toruń for several days, it withdrew further south under pressure of the overall strained strategic situation, and took part in the main battle of Bzura.
On the borders of the Free City of Danzig, there were two fortified Polish points: the Polish post office in Danzig and the Polish ammunition store on the Westerplatte. Both were ordered to defend up to 12 hours in case of local uprising, until the help from the Polish army was to arrive.
The Polish Post office were held by 52 employees led by Konrad Guderski against the German Danzig police, Home Guard (Heimwehr) and SS, which after 14 hours of battle set the building on fire with flamethrowers. All but four postman who escaped either died in the battle or were executed by the Germans as partisans.
The Polish Military Transit Depot (Polska Wojskowa Składnica Tranzytowa) on the Westerplatte bravely repelled countless attacks by the Danzig Police, SS, the Kriegsmarine and the Wehrmacht. Finally, the Westerplatte crew surrendered on 7 September, having exhausted their supplies of food, water, ammunition and medicines.
There were heavy fights in Pomerania, and the Polish Navy base at the Hel peninsula held out as one of the last centres of Polish military resistance until October 3, 1939 (see battle of Hel).
The Polish corridor and the Free City of Danzig-Gdansk were annexed by Germany on October 8, 1939, and were made into the province of Reichsgau Danzig-Westpreussen. They were not added to the German Province of Pomerania.
Even during the September campaign, security police set up first security police camps for Poles. Deportations to the General Government and Stutthof soon followed. Polish was strictly forbidden, even in church by the German Roman Catholic Bishop Carlo Maria Splett of the Diocese of Danzig. Local Polish-Kashubian intelligentsia were executed in the mass murder site of Piasnica.[citation needed]
The remaining Poles and Kashubians of Eastern Pomerania-Pomerelia organized guerrilla resistance called the "Pomeranian Griffin" (TOW Gryf Pomorski).
In central Pomerania (the German province of Pomerania, called Hinterpommern, or Western Pomerania by the Poles) during the first month of the Second World War no fighting took place as the Polish army was defeated on Polish soil and did not cross the border to Germany. In this province existed no Polish population which could have formed a Polish or Pan-Slavic resistance, as the Slavic Slovincians had been assimilated as well as the Slavic Kashubians. It is possible that Kashubians in this province formed links with the Polish resistance, but no evidence exists to confirm this. On German manors and bigger farms Polish prisoners of war replaced German workforce - they were often treated badly, especially in those areas where Polish-German conflicts had a long history. In the cities Polish forced-labourers were exploited by German companies and factories.
Western Pomerania suffered from British and American air-raids. The (later world heritage site) Stralsund suffered from raids aimed at the historical center as well as Anklam and Stettin. Roughly 60,000 German men from Pomerania died as soldiers in the Wehrmacht and SS until May, 1945. In March, 1945, the German-Soviet Eastern Front reached central Pomerania (Köslin, Kolberg). The next months would bring the final end of 800 years of German settlement, language and culture in most of the province of Pomerania, notably its centre and eastern parts.
In March the Russian Red Army reached the coast near Stettin and Köslin. Central Pomerania, roughly the coastal area between the village of Treptow an der Rega up to the town Stolp, was cut off by land from the west of Germany. The civilians and many German soldiers tried to flee by ship over the Baltic sea. The Hela peninsula and Hela town, northwest of Danzig, were defended by the German army until the end of the war on May, 9th, 1945. 900,000 people where evacuated by ship, mainly by the Kriegsmarine. 200,000 could flee to the more western provinces of Germany on land (most before March, 1945). Only 3% of those who fled per ship died on the Baltic sea due to Soviet torpedoes. On land, due to the harsh winter and due to Soviet air raids, the losses among civilians were much higher.
Many Germans in Pomerania (Western Pomerania) and Danzig (Gdansk) and West Prussia (East Pomerania, Pomerelia) died during and shortly after the war due to air raids, but mainly afterwards due to Polish and Soviet Red Army atrocities committed in revenge against the German civilians.
The German civilian losses in all of the territories generally called "Pomerania" were estimated at:
- Danzig: 100,000 dead out of 404,000 inhabitants, living there in December 1944.
- German Province of Pomerania: 440,000 dead out of 1,895,000 inhabitants, living there in December 1944.
- West Prussia (Eastern Pomerania): 70,000 of 310,000 inhabitants, living there in December 1944 (of which 100,000 were "settlers" transferred to this province by the nazi government).[1]
The Germans who had not already fled the Pomeranian towns and countryside were expelled by the Polish communist Government. Less than 50,000 ethnic Germans stayed in the entire region after 1948, and many of these repatriated to West Germany in the 1950s due to increasing discrimination and maltreatment by Poles. Some of the Kashubians in the formerly German Province of Pomerania, called Western Pomerania by the Poles, were allowed to stay, if they could speak a bit of Polish.
The Polish Government brought settlers to Pomerania who took the houses of the expelled Germans. These settlers were mostly poor civilians and "asocial persons" from central Poland and also ethnic Poles from Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union. Many also were ethnic Ukrainians, both Greek Catholics and Ukrainian Orthodox, from southeastern Poland whom the Communist Polish Government had forced to move to this western part of the state, to ensure no ethnic rebellion or clash could happen at the new, ethnically mixed southeastern Polish-Ukrainian border.
[edit] Border shift after World War II (1945)
After the WWII Polish-German border was moved to the west to the Oder-Neisse line. In case of Pomerania, the Free City of Danzig and most of the pre-war German province of Pomerania fell to Poland. The city of Stettin (now Szczecin) and, located on Usedom island, Swinemünde (now Swinoujscie) were assigned to Poland, as the vessel route goes through Swinoujscie to Szczecin. In addition, the small strip of land 20 km west of Stettin/Szczecin, and a small part of the Usedom island also became part of Poland in order to facilitate the growth of the cities. (see also German exodus from Eastern Europe). The remainder of Pomerania west of Stettin/Szczecin and the Oder River was joined with Mecklenburg and later renamed Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern).
[edit] Modern times (after 1945)
[edit] Pomerania in communist Poland and Germany (1945–1989)
[edit] Polish Pomerania
At the end of the WW II, Pomerania was completely devastated. In addition to destruction during the war, Soviets treated the property left in Polish Pomerania (Pomerelia, West Prussia) as war loot. Machines, animals and anything that could be packed were sent to Soviet Union. Additionally, the land contained unexploded landmines and explosives remained lying around the sites of major battles. The situation in German Western Pomerania (the former Prussian province of Pomerania), most of which was to be assigned to Poland shortly, was even more catastrophical.
Gangs of criminals, mostly from razed Warsaw, terrorised the population and used the cover of night to steal anything left behind by the Soviet Army. This period was known as 'Shaber'.
The Soviet Army was granted the military polygons and naval bases of Pomerania; the areas were excluded from Polish jurisdiction until 1992. Russia used the area to store nuclear warheads.
Despite these problems, life in mostly Slavic (Kashub and Polish) Eastern Pomerania (Pomerelia) soon returned to normality, especially after the final and brutal expulsion of German minorities from the countryside and the German city populations had taken place. Poland was ruled by a Communist regime and the policy of the government was focused on making the state a sole proprietor of means of production and points of trade. Polish victims of WW II who settled in Western Pomerania (the fromer Prussian province of Pomerania) were actually granted only long-term rent right to the land, forests and houses.
In what would later (1999) become the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, the entire (German) population however was expelled, causing the region to be totally emptied demographically in a quite violent way. Therefore, the Polish authorities quickly forced Ukrainian Poles and central Polish settlers to immigrate in the future West Pomeranian Voivodeship and polonize this Western Pomerania, which before 1945 had been virtually 100% ethnic German.
The situation changed for the worse in 1948, when all countries of the Eastern Bloc had to adopt Soviet economic principles. Private shops were banned and most farmers were forced to join agricultural cooperatives, managed by local communists.
In 1953 Poland was forced to accept the end of war reparations, which previously were solely placed on East Germany, while West Germany enjoyed the benefits of the Marshall Plan. In 1956 Poland was on the verge of a Soviet invasion, but the crisis was solved and the Polish government's communism developed a more human face with Wladyslaw Gomulka as the head of politburo. Poland developed the ports of Pomerania and restored the destroyed shipyards of Gdansk, Gdynia and Szczecin.
These were organised as two harbour complexes: one of Szczecin port with Swinoujscie avanport and the other was Gdansk-Gdynia set of ports. Gdansk and Gdynia, along with the spa of Sopot located between them, became one metropolitan area called Tricity and populated by more than 1,000,000 inhabitants.
In 1970, after putting an end to the uncertain border issue with West Germany under Willy Brandt, the massive unrest in the coastal cities marked the end of Wladyslaw Gomulka's rule. The new leader, Edward Gierek, wanted to modernize the country by the wide use of western credits. Although the policy failed, Poland became one of the main world players in the shipyard industry. Polish open sea fishing scientists discovered new species of fish for the fishing industry. Unfortunately, countries with direct access to the open seas declared 200 mile (370 km) economic zones that finally put the end to the Polish fishing industry. Shipyards also came under growing pressure from the subsidized Japanese and Korean enterprises.
During 1970, Poland built also the Northern Harbour in rebuilt Gdansk, which allowed the country independent access to oil from OPEC countries. The new oil refinery had been built in Gdansk, and an oil pipeline connected both with main Polish pipeline in Plock.
In 1980, Polish Pomeranian coastal cities, notably Gdansk, became the place of birth for the anticommunist movement, Solidarity. Gdansk become the capital for the Solidarity trade union. In 1989 it was found that the border treaty with the Communist German Democratic Republic had one mistake, concerning the naval border. Subsequently, a new treaty was signed, but one of the three ways out of Szczecin harbour was assigned to Germany.
The West Pomeranian Voivodeship's rural countryside from 1945 until 1989 remained underdeveloped and often neglected, as the pre-1945 German structures of Prussian-style nobility leading and steering agricultural cultivation had been destroyed by expulsion and communism.
[edit] Pomerania post-communism (1989)
See Pomorze Voivodship and Vorpommern for the western part of Western Pomerania.
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[edit] Historical administrative divisions
[edit] Eastern Pomerania
- Removal of Free City of Danzig, left bank of Vistula river, and Grenzmark Posen-Westpreussen
- Pomeranian Voivodship (1920-1938)
- Bydgoszcz county added (1938)
- Pomeranian Voivodship (1938-1939)
- Free City of Danzig added through annexation
- Danzig-Westpreussen (1939-1945)
- Gdansk Voivodship (1945-1998)
- additions: part of Slupsk Voivodship, Elblag Voivodship and Chojnice County from Bydgoszcz Voivodship
- Pomeranian Voivodship (from 1998)
[edit] See also
- History of Gdańsk
- History of Szczecin
- Dukes of Pomerania
- House of Pomerania
- Pommersch
- Pomeranian language
- West Prussia
- Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
[edit] References
- ^ Figures from: Die Vertreibung der deutschen Bevölkerung aus den Gebieten östlich der Oder-Neiße, volume 1, edition from 1984, page 7 E, 158 E, 159 E
English:
- Pomerania
- Byrnes, James F., Speaking Frankly, New York, 1947.
- Keesing's Research Report, Germany and Eastern Europe since 1945, New York, 1973, Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 72-7729. ISBN 0-684-13190-0
- de Zayas, Alfred M, Nemesis at Potsdam, Routledge, (1st edition 1977), Revised edition 1979, ISBN 0-7100-0458-3
- Boehlke, LeRoy, Pomerania - Its People and Its History, Pommerscher Verein Freistadt, Germantown, WI, U.S.A., 1983.
- von Krockow, Christian, Hour of the Women, UK edition 1992, Faber & Faber, ISBN 0-571-14320-2
- Herrick, Linda, & Wendy Uncapher, Pomerania - Atlantic Bridge to Germany, Origins, Janesville, WI, U.S.A., 2005.
Polish:
- Gerard Labuda (ed.), Historia Pomorza, vol. I (to 1466), parts 1-2, Poznań 1969
- Gerard Labuda (ed.), Historia Pomorza, vol. II (1466–1815), parts 1-2, Poznań 1976
- Gerard Labuda (ed.), Historia Pomorza, vol. III (1815–1850), parts 1-3, Poznań
- Gerard Labuda (ed.), Historia Pomorza, vol. IV (1850–1918), part 1, Toruń 2003
- Marian Biskup (ed.), Śląsk i Pomorze w historii stosunków polsko-niemieckich w średniowieczu. XII Konferencja Wspólnej Komisji Podręcznikowej PRL-RFN Historyków 5–10 VI 1979 Olsztyn, Instytut Zachdni, Poznań 1987
- Antoni Czubiński, Zbigniew Kulak (ed.), Śląsk i Pomorze w stosunkach polsko-niemieckich od XVI do XVII w. XIV Konferencja Wspólnej Komisji Podręcznikowej PRL-RFN Historyków, 9–14 VI 1981 r. Zamość, Instytut Zachodni, Poznań 1987
- Szkice do dziejów Pomorza, vol. 1-3, Warszawa 1958-61
- B. Wachowiak, Rozwój gospodarczo-społeczny Pomorza Zachodniego od połowy XV do początku XVII wieku, Studia i Materiały do dziejów Wielkopolski i Pomorza, 1958, z. 1
- J. Wiśniewski, Początki układu kapitalistycznego na Pomorzu Zachodnim w XVIII wieku, Studia i Materiały do dziejów Wielkopolski i Pomorza, 1958, z. 1
- A. Wielopolski, Gospodarka Pomorza Zachodniego w latach 1800–1918, Szczecin 1959
- W. Odyniec, Dzieje Prus Królewskich (1454–1772). Zarys monograficzny, Warszawa 1972
- Dzieje Pomorza Nadwiślańskiego od VII wieku do 1945 roku, Gdańsk 1978
- Zygmunt Boras, "Książęta Pomorza Zachodniego", Poznań 1969, 1978, 1996
- Zygmunt Boras, "Stosunki polsko-pomorskie w XVI w", Poznań 1965
- Zygmunt Boras, "Związki Śląska i Pomorza Zachdoniego z Polską w XVI wieku", Poznań 1981
- Kazimierz Kozłowski, Jerzy Podralski, "Poczet Książąt Pomorza Zachodniego", KAW, Szczecin 1985
- Lech Bądkowski, W. Samp. "Poczet książąt Pomorza Gdańskiego", Gdańsk 1974
- B. Śliwiński, "Poczet książąt gdańskich", Gdańsk 1997
- Wojciech Myślenicki, "Pomorscy sprzymierzenscy Jagiellończyków", Wydawnictwo Poznańskie, Poznań 1979
- Józef Spors, "Podziały administracyjne Pomorza Gdańskiego i Sławieńsko-Słupskiego od XII do początków XIV w", Słupsk 1983
- Kazimierz Ślaski, "Podziały terytorialne Pomorza w XII-XII w.", Poznań 1960
- Benon Miśkiewicz, "Z dziejów wojennych Pomorza Zachodniego. Cedynia 972-Siekierki 1945", Wydawnictwo Poznańskie, Poznań 1972
German:
- M. Wehrmann, Geschichte von Pommern, vol. 1-2, Gotha 1919-21
- M. Spahn, Verfassungs- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte des Herzogtums Pommern von 1476 bis 1625, Leipzig 1896
- B. Schumacher, Geschichte Ost- und Westpreussens, Würzburg 1959
