Olsztynek

Olsztynek

Coat of arms

Olsztynek

Country

Area

- Total

7.69 km² (3 sq mi)

Population (2006)

- Total

7,591

987.1/km² (2,556.6/sq mi)

Postal code

11-015

Website: http://www.olsztynek.pl

Castle of the Teutonic Order in Olsztynek

Olsztynek [ɔlʂˈtɨnɛk] (German: Hohenstein) is a town in Poland, in Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, in Olsztyn County. It has 7,648 inhabitants (2004).

[edit] History

The town was founded as Hohenstein by the Teutonic Order, which began to construct a castle in 1351 and granted Kulm law city rights in 1359.

The Battle of Grunwald in 1410 took place in the vicinity of the town.

It became a member of the Prussian Confederation in 1440, opposing the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights but returned to its rule in 1455. With the conversion of Albert of Prussia to Lutheranism in 1525, the town became part of Protestant Ducal Prussia, in 1618 part of Brandenburg-Prussia and after its creation part of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701. After the unification of Germany the town lay inside the German Empire.

In the beginning of World War I in August 1914 the Russian Army occupied the region but has been defeated throughout the Battle of Tannenberg. In rememberance of those battles a large Tannenberg Memorial was erected here in 1927, place of the burial of the Weimar Republics President Paul von Hindenburg in 1934, but destroyed in 1945 after his (and his wifes) coffins were removed.

As a condition of the Treaty of Versailles the League of Nations held the East Prussian plebiscite on July 11, 1920 to determine if the people of the southern districts of East Prussia wanted to remain within East Prussia or to join the Second Polish Republic. Inside the town only 2 votes were given for Poland.

Until 1945 the town, known as Hohenstein in Ostpreußen, was part of Landkreis (district) Osterode in East Prussia. In January 1945 it was occupied by the Red Army throughout the East Prussian Offensive. Later it was handed over to Polish authorities, the German population was expelled and the region was resettled with Poles especially from Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union.

In 1960 a memorial for the Battle of Grunwald was erected.