History of Gdańsk

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the History of Gdańsk (Danzig), a city located on the Baltic Sea.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Early times

The area around the Vistula delta was inhabited by populations belonging to the various archaeological cultures of the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age. Settlements existed in the area for several centuries before the birth of Jesus Christ.

Wielbark Culture (red) in the early 3rd century (also Gotland (pink), Götaland (green), Roman Empire (purple))
Wielbark Culture (red) in the early 3rd century (also Gotland (pink), Götaland (green), Roman Empire (purple))

In the 1st century AD, a new culture appeared in the area, called Willenberg-Kultur or now Wielbark culture. This culture is widely identified as the Gothiscandza (or Coast of the Goths) that was mentioned by Jordanes in the 6th century. It was characterised by Scandinavian burial traditions, such as the stone circles. In the 3rd century, this culture moved to the Ukraine, which they called Oium, and formed the Chernyakhov culture. It is known that until around 500 East Germanic and Baltic tribes controlled the area and traded with the Roman Empire.

It is known that the Kashubians migrated to the area, but it is sure they settled in neighboring areas in Pomerania with the general Slavic people's movement to the north and west from the Pripjet marshes after 600. There are traces of a crafts and fishing settlement from the 8th–9th centuries, and — in the 10th century — an important stronghold of the Pomeranian dukes and at least 1,000 inhabitants.

[edit] Foundation

In 980, Duke Mieszko I of Poland dedicated a fortress built in the region. The official year of foundation of Gdańsk (Gyddanyzc) was 997, which was the year St. Adalbert of Prague passed through the area as part of the Christianizing crusade against the Baltic Prussians on behalf of Duke Boleslav the Brave of Poland. In 1997 Gdańsk celebrated the millennium of its foundation by Mieszko I, who resolved to compete with the Pomeranian ports of Szczecin and Wolin on the Oder River.

Mieszko I received the ducal title from the Ottonian emperors in regards to lands he already controlled. In 1000 Gdańsk belonged to the territory later called Pomerania, and to the Pomeranian bishopric in Kołobrzeg (German: Kolberg). From ca. 1015 it belonged to the Pomeranian bishopric in Kruszwica, and in 1124 the town was assigned to the diocese of Włocławek (Kuyavia and Pomerania). Several crusades were ordered by the popes to Christianize the pagan Prussians and Pomeranians (see Northern Crusades).

Spellings of the name from medieval and early modern documents are Gyddanzyc, Kdansk, Gdanzc, Dantzk, Dantzk, Dantzig, Dantzigk, Dantiscum and Gedanum.

[edit] Historical population

Historical population
of Gdańsk/Danzig

ca. 1000 1000
1235 2,000
1600 40,000
1650 70,000
1700 50,000
1750 46,000
1793 36,000
1800 48,000
1825 61,900
1840 65,000
1852 67,000
1874 90,500
1880 13,701
1885 108,500
1900 140,600
1910 170,300
1920 360,000 (whole FCD)
1925 210,300
1939 250,000
1946 118,000
1950  ?
1960 286,900
1970 365,600
1975 421,000
1980 456,700
1990  ?
1994 464,000
2000  ?
2002 460,000

Compare: population of Tricity

[edit] Capital of the Pomeranian Duchy (1138–1294/1308)

Zwantepolc de Danceke, 1228
Zwantepolc de Danceke, 1228

In the 12th century, Poland was divided into several provinces under the overlordship of the High-Duke of Kraków. In reality the duchy of Pomerania was regaining more and more independence. Gdańsk was the capital of an entire dynasty of the Dukes of Pomerania, the most famous being Mściwój I of Pomerania (1207–1220) Świętopełk II of Pomerania (1215–1266) and Mściwój II of Pomerania (1271–1294).

Ca. 1235 the settlement had some 2,000 inhabitants and was granted a charter by Duke Świętopełk II incorporating Lübeck city rights. Merchants from the Hanseatic cities of Lübeck and Bremen began to settle in greater numbers. Officially chartered as a city in 1224 as Dantzike, it rose to become one of the more important trading and fishing ports along the Baltic Sea coast.

In 1282/1294 Mestwin II, the last duke of Eastern Pomerania, ceded all his lands including Gdańsk to Duke Przemysł II. After his assassination in 1296, the city was temporary ruled by the kings of Bohemia and Poland, Wenceslaus II and his son Wenceslaus III. The city and surrounding areas had already been heavily Germanized[citation needed] due to the invitation made to German settlers by the Slavic rulers[citation needed], and due to the increase in trade with German and Dutch ports.

[edit] Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights (1308–1454)

Pomerelia (Polish Pomerania) while part of the Monastic state of the Teutonic Knights.
Main article: Teutonic takeover of Gdańsk (Danzig)

At the beginning of the 14th century, the region was plunged into war involving Poland and the German principality of Brandenburg to the west. Brandenburg's claim to Gdańsk and Pomerania was based on a treaty of August 8, 1305 between Brandenburg's margraves and Wenceslaus III, promising the Meissen territory to the Bohemian crown in exchange for Pomerelia, although it never was finalised.

Because King Władysław I of Poland's troops were unable to relieve Gdańsk from a siege by Brandenburg, the city's Pomeranian judge, Bogusza, appealed to the Teutonic Knights in Prussia for assistance.[1] The Knights expelled the Brandenburgers in 1308, but did not relinquish the city to Poland after Władysław refused to pay them 10,000 marks in compensation. The townspeople rebelled in an uprising bloodily repressed by the Knights. The royal garrison was attacked and expelled[2] and the suburban populace was slaughtered, with the suburbs subsequently destroyed.[1] Gdańsk's colony of German merchants and artisans was specifically attacked because they competed with the Knights' town of Elbing (Elbląg), a nearby Prussian Hanseatic city.[3] Polish reports spread by Władysław indicated that 10,000 inhabitants were slain in the city[4], although that number has also been considered greater than the city's population at the time.[3]

The Knights then captured the rest of Pomerelia from Brandenburg's troops. In September 1309, Margrave Waldemar of Brandenburg-Stendal sold his claim to the territory to the Teutonic Order for 10,000 marks, thereby connecting the Order's territory with that of the Holy Roman Empire. Gdańsk became officially known by its Germanised name "Danzig" and was incorporated into the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights. Previously allies against the Prussians, Poland and the Teutonic Order engaged in a series of conflicts after the capture of Pomerelia.

Development of the city initially stagnated after its capture by the Teutonic Knights. Initially the new rulers tried to reduce the economic significance of Danzig by abolishing the local government and the privileges of the Lübeck traders. This apparently relates to the fact that the Danzig city council, including Arnold Hecht and Conrad Letzkau, was removed and beheaded in 1411. Later they had to accept the fact that Danzig defended its independence and was the largest and most important seaport of the region after overtaking Elbing. Subsequently Danzig flourished, benefiting from major investment and economic prosperity in Prussia and Poland, which stimulated trade along the Vistula. The city had become a full member of the Hanseatic League by 1361, but its merchants remained resentful at the barriers to the trade up the Vistula river to Poland, along with the lack of political rights in a state ruled in the interest of the Order's religiously-motivated knight-monks.

The takeover of Danzig by the Teutonic Order was questioned consistently by the Polish kings Wladislaus I and Casimir the Great, which led to a series of bloody wars and legal suits in the papal court in 1320 and 1333. Peace was established in the Treaty of Kalisz in 1343; although the Polish kings were able to retain the title "Duke of Pomerania" and were recognized as titular overlords of the crusaders, the Knights retained control of Danzig.[1]

[edit] As part of the Kingdom of Poland (1454/66–1793)

In 1440, Danzig joined the nearby Hanseatic cities of Elbing (Elbląg) and Thorn (Toruń) to form the Prussian Confederation, which in February 1454 seceded from the Teutonic Order's rule. They also sought protection from King Casimir IV of Poland. To govern themselves, the city of Danzig drafted a set of laws, called Danziger Willkür (German, meaning created by the will of Danzig).

An "Act of Incorporation of Royal Prussia" was signed in Cracow (6 March 1454), recognizing Pomerelia as part[citation needed] of the Polish Kingdom. The resulting Thirteen Years' War ended in 1466 with the Order's defeat. With the Second Peace of Thorn (1466), Pomerelia and the rest of the area became a province of Poland called Royal Prussia. The 15th and 16th centuries brought changes to the city's cultural heritage. They could be seen in the arts and language, as well as Danzig's contributions to the world of science. In 1471, a refurbished sailing ship under the native Danzig captain Paul Beneke brought the famous altar painting titled Jüngstes Gericht (Last Judgement) by artist Hans Memling to Danzig. Around 1480–1490, tablets were installed at St. Mary's Church, depicting the Ten Commandments in Middle Low German.[5]

Georg Joachim Rheticus visited the mayor of Danzig in 1539, while he was working with Nicolaus Copernicus in nearby Frauenburg (Frombork). The mayor of Danzig gave Rheticus financial assistance for the publication of the Narratio Prima, published by the Danzig printer Franz Rhode in 1540 and to this day considered the best introduction to the Copernican theory. While in Danzig, Rheticus, who was also a cartographer and navigational instrument maker, interviewed Danzig sailors as to their navigational needs. He presented the Tabula chorographica auff Preusse to Duke Albert of Prussia in 1541.

In 1566, the official language of the city's governing institutions was changed from Middle Low German, which had been used throughout the Hanseatic cities, to standard German, used in most German courts.

In the Danzig rebellion and the ensuing Siege of Danzig (1577), the city resisted against King Stephen Batory for six months before the conflict was settled.

The Danzig printer Andreas Hünefeld(t) (Hunsfeldus) (1606–1652) printed a Danzig edition of the Rosicrucian Manifestos. Later on, he published the poems of Martin Opitz. Opitz had died in 1639 and his friend, Pastor Bartholomaeus Nigrinus of Danzig, together with two associates edited the Opitz poems for the Hünefeld printing house.

In 1606 a distillery named Der Lachs (German for "the Salmon") was founded, which produced one of Danzig's most famous products, a liqueur named Danziger Goldwasser ("Danzig gold water"), made from herbs and with small 22 carat (92%) gold flakes floating in the bottle (similar to Goldschläger). As Danzig was separated from Germany after World War I, the Der Lachs company opened an additional factory in Berlin which continues to produce genuine Danziger Goldwasser. Various Polish brands offer similar drinks.

From the 14th century until the mid-17th century Danzig experienced rapid growth, becoming by the 16th century the largest city on the Baltic seaboard, owing to its large trade with the Netherlands and its handling of most of Poland's seaborne trade, transported northward via the Vistula River. The city's prosperity was severely restricted, however, by the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) and the Northern Wars (1655–1660), and it suffered an epidemic of bubonic plague in 1709.

Danzig took part in all Hanseatic League conferences until the final one in 1669. By that time the United Provinces and other long-distance overseas commercial powers had surpassed the Baltic trade centres such as Danzig. In 1734, the city was briefly occupied by the Russians under Field Marshal Munnich after the prolonged Siege of Danzig.

In 1743 the Naturforschende Gesellschaft in Danzig (Danzig Research Society ) was formed by Daniel Gralath and Gottfried Lengnich.

[edit] In the Kingdom of Prussia (1793–1806, 1815–1919)

During the First First Partition of Poland in 1772, the German-speaking inhabitants of Danzig fought fiercely for it to remain a part of Poland , although the majority of Royal Prussia fell to the Kingdom of Prussia. Danzig was surrounded by the Prussian territories until 1793, when it was incorporated into the Prussian kingdom as part of the province of West Prussia. After the defeat of the Fourth Coalition, Napoleon Bonaparte created the semi-independent Free City of Danzig (1807-1814). Danzig reverted to Prussia after Napoleon's defeat in 1814. The city became the capital of Regierungsbezirk Danzig within West Prussia in 1815.

With the Industrial Revolution and the steam engine trains, industrial machinery and Ferdinand Schichau's F. Schichau company gained the upper hand for Elbing over Danzig. Schichau later constructed a large shipyard in Danzig as well, however.

From 1824 until 1878, East and West Prussia were combined as a single province within the Prussian kingdom. But although Danzig was a part of the Kingdom of Prussia, it was never a member of the 1815–1866 German Confederation. After the Confederation's dissolution, the city was included in the newly created German Empire in 1871.

[edit] Free City (1920–1939)

Following Germany's defeat in World War I, the Allied powers in the Treaty of Versailles (1919) decided to create the Free City of Danzig (under a commissioner appointed by the League of Nations) covering the city itself, the seaport, and a substantial surrounding territory. The League of Nations rejected the citizens' petition to have their city officially named as the Free Hanseatic city of Danzig (Freie Hansestadt Danzig). However, the League recognized them as citizens of Danzig with a separate Freistadt Danzig citizenship, and thus no longer possessors of citizenship of the German Reich.

The strategic aim of Poland was to (re)gain free access to the open sea, and the territories assigned to Poland in the Treaty of Versailles provided a good opportunity to do so. However, during the Polish-Soviet War, Danzig workers went on strike to block delivery of ammunition to the Polish army when the Soviet Red Army tried to capture Warsaw. This move set both sides in the conflict that marks the history of the Free City of Danzig.

A customs union with Poland was created by the victorious allies of WWI, which gave the Danzig Westerplatte port to the Polish republic; it became the Polish military transit depot. The separation of the Danzig port, post office and customs office under the treaty was said to be justified by Poland's need for direct access to the Baltic Sea. Poland then stationed a small squad of troops at Westerplatte. Due to the massive resentment by the Danzigers and with large foreign investments, Poland began building a large military port in Gdynia, just 25 km away from Danzig. Unlike Danzig, Gdynia was in the direct possession of Poland and soon became the so-called "Polish outside window".

After World War I a massive influx of Poles into the area, as part of a governmental strategic settlement program, took place. Beforehand, Gdynia was a small fishing village and spa with 1,000 inhabitants. With Poland's take-over it had over 100,000 Polish inhabitants 20 years later. Due to a Polish–German trade war between 1925-1934, Poland became focused on international trade; for example, a new railway line was build to connect Silesia with the coast and the new tariffs made it cheaper to send goods through Polish ports rather than German ones. Gdynia became the biggest port on the Baltic sea. Nevertheless, Poland resorted to economic sanctions during the Danzig-Polish conflicts and Danzig suffered greatly.

The Free City of Danzig issued its own stamps and currency (the Gulden). Many examples of stamps and coins, bearing the legend Freie Stadt Danzig, survive in collections. There was a strong desire to rescind the Allied Powers' decision on the status of the city's 400,000 citizens which were predominantly German. This culminated in the election of a National Socialist government in Danzig's elections in May 1933.

The German incorporation of Danzig was a territorial claim that every government of the Weimar Republic put on its agenda. When the Nazi government came to power in Germany in 1933, it had the government in Danzig stage a military incident in the city in 1934. Both countries were on the edge of war, but Germany relented after Poland resolved to resist the Nazi action.

A Polish–German non-aggression agreement was signed and the Free City's government was ordered by the Nazis to stop making problems between Poland and Danzig. Poland and Danzig entered a brief period of good economic cooperation and prosperity. Nevertheless, a totalitarian society was being constructed in Germany, and especially members of the Polish or Jewish minority required stamina in the face of everyday acts of violence and persecution from the Nazis.

In 1939, the Jewish community decided that all members should leave — not only Danzig — but the whole region, as they realised it would soon be in the hands of Nazis. This evacuation was successfully achieved.

[edit] World War II (1939–1945)

Postage stamp issued by the German Post to celebrate the re-joining of the city with Germany.
Postage stamp issued by the German Post to celebrate the re-joining of the city with Germany.

Following the annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland, Germany in October 1938 urged the Danzig territory's cession to Germany. Not surprisingly, Danzig repeatedly refused to negotiate its status and, on September 1, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, initiating World War II. On September 2, 1939 Germany officially annexed the Free City. The Nazi regime murdered the Polish postmen defending the Polish Post Office: this was one of the first war crimes during the war. Other Polish soldiers defending the Westerplatte stronghold surrendered after seven days of fighting. The German commander returned the sword to the Polish commander for putting up a brave fight. On Sep 7th NSDAP organised night parade on Adolf-Hitlerstrasse to celebrate success. It was bombed by single Polish hydroplane operating from Hela peninsula piloted by Jozef Rudzki and Zdzisław Juszczakiewicz. 6 bombs weight 12.5 kg were dropped from very low height (source). In October 1939, Danzig, together with the rest of Polish Pomerania to the south and west, became the German Reichsgau (administrative district) of Danzig-West Prussia (Danzig–Westpreussen).

Polish and German dissidents were sent to concentration camps, especially neighbouring Stutthof where 85,000 victims perished. Kashubian and Polish intelligentsia were killed in the Piaśnica mass murder site, which is estimated to have had 60,000 victims.

At the beginning of 1945, Germany started evacuating civilians from Danzig. Most Germans fled the city, many by seaborne evacuation to Schleswig-Holstein. This happened in winter under the threat of bombs and in constant danger of submarines.

On March 30, 1945 the Soviet Red Army seized Danzig. In the following days, Soviet (and allegedly Polish) soldiers were given completely free hand in the city. Danzig was the scene of brutal violence, rapes, murders, and robbery, and eventually the city was set on fire.

From 1945-1950 most Germans were expelled from the city.

[edit] Post-World War II

Already before the end of World War II, the Yalta Conference had agreed to place Danzig, under its original Polish name Gdańsk, under de facto administration of Poland, and this decision was confirmed at the Potsdam Conference. World War II did not end in a peace treaty with Germany, therefore West Germany — unlike the countries of the Allied Powers — did not recognize the border formally (de jure). The question of Polish sovereignty over Gdańsk was eventually resolved after the treaties with East Germany in 1950, West Germany in 1970 and reunified Germany in 1990.

A communist-led Polish administration was declared in Gdańsk. Nevertheless, the city was seriously devastated.

After the war ended, nearly all citizens of Germany that returned and remained in the city were recognized as enemy aliens- citizens of an enemy country. Poles widely believed that the Danzigers' blame for triggering World War II could not be rejected.

Most of the Germans had to face special verification committees that judged their personal behaviour during the German time. Many failed, even if their families' roots in the city went back many centuries, or they were of Kashubian descent, but had shown their support for Germany during WWII. The committees are often criticised since they were established by a communist government and their members were not always competent.[citation needed]

Later, questions of citizenship were the subject of the judicial process. Nevertheless, if somebody was granted Polish citizenship, he was not able to emigrate to Germany on his volition. After 1948, Joseph Stalin made the Polish government close the border for those who wanted to join their families in Germany. People of German origin were repressed and had to obtain special permissions for emigration. In the whole process, most of the pre-war German citizens of Danzig left to Germany. Those who stayed were forced to Polonize their family names.

New Polish residents were settled in Gdańsk from mainly other parts of Poland and some from Polish-speaking areas east of the Curzon Line that were annexed by the Soviet Union after WWII. Many local Kashubians also moved into the city. The city was thus transformed from a city where most people (as many as 95%) communicated in German — portrayed in Danzig native Günter Grass's novels The Tin Drum and Dog Years — into a city where most people spoke in Polish.[citation needed]

Eventually, Polish artisans restored much of the old city's architecture, 90% destroyed in the war, but removed nearly all German inscriptions. All German names of streets, buildings, shipyards and districts, even names on tombstones, were changed to Polish names, such as Długi Targ for Langemarkt (Long Market), the city's main pedestrian center.

Gdańsk was the scene of anti-government demonstrations which led to the downfall of Poland's communist leader Władysław Gomułka in December 1970, and ten years later was the birthplace of the Solidarity trade union movement, whose opposition to the government led to the end of communist party rule (1989) and the election as president of Poland of its leader Lech Wałęsa. It remains today a major port and industrial city.

A list of the 173 mayors of the City of Gdańsk from 1347 to March 1945 was compiled by the current Gdańsk city government and can be found on their recent website with the invitation for the "First World Gdańsk Reunion", which took place in May 2002. This list demonstrates the violently shifting ethnicity of the city's inhabitants before and after the World Wars.[1]

Throughout its long history Gdańsk faced various periods of rule from different states before 1945,

  • 997-1308: as part of Poland
  • 1308-1454: as part of territory of Teutonic Order
  • 1454-1466: Thirteen Years' War
  • 1466-1793: as part of Poland
  • 1793-1805: as part of Prussia
  • 1807-1814: as free city
  • 1815-1871: as part of Prussia
  • 1871-1918: Imperial Germany
  • 1918-1939: as a free city
  • 1939-1945: Nazi Germany

Altogether combining the number of years, the city was under rule of Poland for 641 years, under the rule of Teutonic Order for 158 years, 125 years as part of Prussia and later Germany, 29 years of its history are marked by the status of a free city, and 6 years under the occupation of Nazi Germany until it was given back to Poland in 1945.

[edit] Famous people born in the city

[edit] Famous people living or working in the city

  • Edward O'Rourke, the first Catholic bishop of Danzig
  • Lech Wałęsa, b. 1943, trade unions activist, politician, president of Poland (1990–1995)

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Gieysztor, Alexander, Stefan Kieniewicz, Emanuel Rostworowski, Janusz Tazbir, and Henryk Wereszycki. History of Poland. PWN. Warsaw, 1979. ISBN 8301003928
  2. ^ Halecki, Oscar. A History of Poland. Roy Publishers. New York, 1976. ISBN 0679510877
  3. ^ a b Urban, William. The Teutonic Knights: A Military History. Greenhill Books. London, 2003. ISBN 1853675350
  4. ^ Urban, Thomas. "Rezydencja książąt Pomorskich". (Polish)
  5. ^ Table of the Ten Commandments

[edit] Further reading

  • Prutz, Danzig, das nordische Venedig (Leipzig, 1868)
  • Wistulanus, Geschichte der Stadt Danzig (Danzig, 1891)
  • Puttner, Danzig (Danzig, 1899)
  • (ed.) E. Cieślak, Historia Gdańska, vol. I–II, Gdańsk 1978
  • E. Cieślak, C. Biernat, Dzieje Gdańska, Gdańsk 1969
  • P. Simson, Geschichte der Stadt Danzig, vol. 1–4, Danzig 1913-18
  • H. Samsonowicz, Badania nad kapitałem mieszczańskim Gdańska w II połowie VX wieku., Warszawa 1960
  • Cz. Biernat, Statystyka obrotu towarowego Gdańska w latach 1651–1815., Warszawa 1962
  • M. Bogucka, Gdańsk jako ośrodek produkcyjny w XIV–XVII wieku., Warszawa 1962
  • M. Bogucka, Handel zagraniczny Gdańska w pierwszej połowie XVII wieku, Wrocław 1970
  • H. Górnowicz, Z. Brocki, Nazwy miast Pomorza Gdańskiego, Wrocław 1978
  • Gminy województwa gdańskiego, Gdańsk 1995
  • Gerard Labuda (ed.), Historia Pomorza, vol. I–IV, Poznań 1969-2003
  • L. Bądkowski, Pomorska myśl polityczna, Gdańsk 1990
  • W. Odyniec, Dzieje Prus Królewskich (1454–1772). Zarys monograficzny, Warszawa 1972
  • (ed.) W. Odyniec, Dzieje Pomorza Nadwiślańskiego od VII wieku do 1945 roku, Gdańsk 1978
  • L. Bądkowski, W. Samp, Poczet książąt Pomorza Gdańskiego, Gdańsk 1974
  • B. Śliwiński, Poczet książąt gdańskich, Gdańsk 1997
  • Józef Spors, Podziały administracyjne Pomorza Gdańskiego i Sławieńsko-Słupskiego od XII do początków XIV w, Słupsk 1983
  • M. Latoszek, Pomorze. Zagadnienia etniczno-regionalne, Gdańsk 1996
  • Działacze polscy i przedstawiciele R.P. w Wolnym Mieście Gdańsku, Pomorze Gdańskie nr 9, Gdańsk 1974
  • B. Bojarska, Eksterminacja inteligencji polskiej na Pomorzu Gdańskim (wrzesień-grudzień 1939), Poznań 1972
  • K. Ciechanowski, Ruch oporu na Pomorzu Gdańskim 1939–1945., Warszawa 1972
  • Dziedzictwo kulturowe Pomorza nad Wisłą, Pomorze Gdańskie nr 20, Gdańsk 1997

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Languages