Brodnica

Brodnica (IPA: [brɔdˈnʲiʦa] (help·info); German: Strasburg) is a town in northern Poland with 27,400 inhabitants as of 1995. Previously in Toruń Voivodeship from 1975-1998, Brodnica has been situated in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999.

[edit] History

The town's settlement began in 1262, and it received German town law in 1298. It was incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia in 1772 during the First Partition of Poland, but was incorporated into the Duchy of Warsaw in 1807 during the Napoleonic Wars. From 1815-1945 it was again under Prussian administration, becoming part of the Prussian-led German Empire in 1871. The town, along with the entirety of Eastern Germany, was annexed to Poland after the Potsdam Conference in 1945.

Approximately 1,000 Polish inhabitants were murdered during World War II by the SS and the Selbstschutz; after the war, an unknown number of German inhabitants were expelled or killed by the Red Army during the expulsion of the Germans.