This article is about the History of Gdańsk (Danzig), a Polish city located on the Baltic Sea.
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 BC.
In the 1st century AD, a new culture appeared in the area, called Wielbark culture. 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 the Slavic Pomeranians 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.
In 980, Duke Mieszko I of Poland built a fortress in the region. The official year of foundation of Gdańsk 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[1] and Jumne (Vineta, now Wolin) on the Oder River.
In the year 1000 a Polish Ecclesiastical province was created and Gdańsk, which belonged to the territory later called Pomerania was assigned to the bishopric in Kołobrzeg (German: Kolberg) subjected to the Archdiocese of Gniezno. The diocese of Kolberg was destroyed in a pagan Pomeranian uprising after only five years. The region of Gdańsk was not however involved in this revolt and from ca. 1015 it belonged to the Pomeranian bishopric in Kruszwica. In 1124 the town was assigned to the diocese of Włocławek (Kuyavia and Pomerelia). Several crusades were ordered by the popes to Christianize the pagan Prussians and Pomeranians (see Northern Crusades). In 1168, the Cistercians built a monastery in nearby Oliva (today within the city limits).
Spellings of the name from medieval and early modern documents are Gyddanzyc, Kdansk, Gdanzc, Dantzk, Dantzk, Dantzig, Dantzigk, Dantiscum and Gedanum.
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
In the 12th century, Poland managed to take control over Pomerelia, yet soon after Poland itself was divided into several autonomous provinces formally under the overlordship of the High-Duke of Kraków. Therefore, the Pomerelian duchies remained under the control of stewards, of the Samborides dynasty, appointed by Polish Dukes (usually those of Wielkopolska), although like other Polish provinces during the period of feudal partitions of Poland it increased its regional autonomy. Gdańsk was the main stronghold of Samborides, serving as residence of Mestwin I (1207–1220) Swantopolk II (1215–1266) and Mestwin II (1271–1294).
Ca. 1235 the settlement had some 2,000 inhabitants and was granted Lübeck city rights by Swantopolk II. Merchants from the Hanseatic cities of Lübeck and Bremen began to settle in greater numbers. Officially chartered as a city in 1224, 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 Pomerelia, ceded all his lands including Gdańsk to Duke of Wielkopolska (Greater Poland) Przemysł II. Przemysł's official title as a result became "dux Polonie et Pomoranie". After Przemysł's assassination in 1296, the city was temporary ruled by the kings of Bohemia and Poland, Wenceslaus II and his son Wenceslaus III.
At the beginning of the 14th century, the region was plunged into war involving Poland and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. 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 of the Teutonic Monastic State of Prussia for assistance.[2] The Knights expelled the Brandenburgers in 1308, but did not relinquish the city to Poland. The townspeople rebelled in an uprising bloodily repressed by the Knights. The royal garrison was attacked and expelled[3] and the suburban populace was slaughtered, with the suburbs subsequently destroyed.[2] 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.[4] Polish reports spread by Władysław claimed that 10,000 inhabitants were slain in the city,[5] although that number has also been considered greater than the city's population at the time.[4]
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. Danzig was incorporated into the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights. Previously allies against the Baltic tribe of the Old Prussians, Poland and the Teutonic Order engaged in a series of Polish-Teutonic Wars after the capture of Pomerelia.
Development of the city initially stagnated after its capture by the Teutonic Knights. The new rulers tried to reduce the economic significance of Danzig by abolishing the local government and the privileges of the Lübeck traders. This was exemplified by 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 the Teutonic 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 Władysław 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.[2]
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.
On the 10th of February 1454, a delegation of Prussian Confederation submitted a petition to the Polish king asking him to regain power over Prussia as the rightful ruler. An "Act of Incorporation of Royal Prussia" was signed in Cracow (6 March 1454), recognizing Pomerelia as part[6] 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.[7]
In 1520 Lutheran Scriptures were printed, in 1522 the first Lutheran liturgy was held by the local cleric Jakob Hegge and the Protestant Reformation was soon supported by the local populace. In 1523 some iconoclastic riots occurred and the towncouncil was deposed. This revolt was quelled in 1524 by Polish troops and the leaders were executed or imprisoned, some of them released and exiled to the Protestant Duchy of Prussia on request of Albert of Prussia. While the city ordinance of 1526 penalized the Lutheran liturgy under death penalty, the burghers were still influenced by reformatory ideas. In 1557 the Lutheran Eucharist was permitted and both religious orientations were tolerated.[8]
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. Polish language was taught in local Academic Gymnasium (Grammar School or High School)[9] from 1589.[10]
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.
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.
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. Polish private schools were opened in addition to public schools who taught Polish during this period with 1370 Polish students in later half of 17th century.[11][12]
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. In 1654, Charles X Gustav of Sweden invaded Poland; in 1655 he appeared outside the Danzig city walls, but refrained from laying siege. A Dutch fleet arrived on July 1656, reopening the vital trade with the Netherlands.
In 1650 87 percent of the populace were Lutheran, 6 percent Calvinists and about 7 percent Catholics, a number that would grow to more than 20 percent in 1800 due to the migration of Catholics from the vicinity.[13] A large share of the Lutheran population used Polish as their language[14] and Poles played an influential role in the Lutheran Church in Royal Prussia.[15]
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 during the War of the Polish Succession. The city, which supported Stanisław Leszczyński, the losing candidate for the throne, was forced to pay reparations following the siege.
In 1743 the Danzig Research Society was formed by Daniel Gralath and Gottfried Lengnich.
During the First First Partition of Poland in 1772, the inhabitants of Danzig fought fiercely for it to remain a part of Poland[16], although the majority of Royal Prussia fell to the Kingdom of Prussia. For several years Danzig was surrounded by Prussian territories. In 1793 it was captured by Prussian forces and incorporated into the Prussian Kingdom as part of the province of West Prussia. According to Peter Oliver Loew (2011) the common language in Danzig until the partition was German and the knowledge of German was the premise to become an integrated burgher,[17][18] however, according to Maria Babnis (1989) the majority of the population in the city spoke both Polish and German and spoken language didn't determine national identity.[19] After the partition the city's inhabitants demonstrated their resentment towards Prussia, with some, like Arthur Schopenhauer's family, choosing emigration.[20] An attempt of student uprising against Prussia led by Gottfried Benjamin Bartholdi was crushed quickly by the authorities in 1797.[21][22][23] The migration processes that happened after Prussia took over the city diminished the usage of Polish language and structure of population.[24]
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.
In 1816 about 70 percent of the populace were Lutheran, 23.6 percent Catholics, the share of Catholics would grow to 33 percent in 1910.[25]
With the Industrial Revolution and the steam engine trains, industrial machinery and Ferdinand Schichau's Schichau-Werke 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. As a part of Prussia Danzig was a member of the Zollverein and elected its representatives to the German National Assembly of 1848,[26] but lay outside of the borders of the 1815–1866 German Confederation. In the second half of XIX century the growth of German population in the city was being slowly reversed, with more Poles settling in, mainly from Pomerania, and parts of local population discovering their Polish roots[27]
In 1871 the city was included in the newly created German Empire. The Polish minority in the city started its activities in the late 1870s and 1880s with the creation of a Polish organisation Ogniwo and formation of a Polish bank Bank Bałtycki.[20] In 1891 a Polish newspaper Gazeta Gdańska was printed out, and later two publishing houses and a printing press.[20] Local Poles focused their cultural life in the vicinity of Church of Saint Anna.[20]
In 1907 local Poles from the "Straż" movement, organised protests against Prussian policies of Germanization, including a ban on Polish language and expropriation of Polish home owners[28]
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).[29] The citizens of Danzig received a separate citizenship of the Free City and thus lost their former German citizenship.
According to the official census of 1923 3.7 percent of city population was Polish (13,656 out of 366,730 citizens of the Free City).[30] However Polish estimates range up to around 22.000, or around 6% of the population, and increased to around 13% in the 1930s.[31] In the elections to the Free City of Danzig's Parliament the results of Polish Parties declined from 6.08 percent of votes in 1919 to 3.15 in 1927 and 3.53 in 1935. According to Henryk Stępniak many Poles voted for the catholic Zentrumspartei instead[32] and, based on these assumed voting patterns, he estimates the number of Poles in the city to be 25-30% of Catholics living within it or about 30-36 thousand people. In addition around 4,000 Polish nationals were registered in the city, bringing the total number of Polish population to 9,4-11% of people in this estimate.[33] According to other estimates about 10 percent of the 130,000 Catholics were Polish.[34] The Polish population faced discrimination and persecution in the Free City, which it tried to resist.[35]
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 Second 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".
Due to a Polish–German trade war between 1925–1934, Poland became focused on international trade; for example, a new railway line was built 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.
A German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact 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.
About 50 percent of members of the Jewish Community of Danzig had left the city within a year after a Pogrom in October 1937,[36] after the Kristallnacht riots in November 1938 the community decided to organize its emigration[37] and in March 1939 a first transport to Mandate Palestine started.[38] By September 1939 barely 1,700 mostly elderly Jews remained. In early 1941 just 600 Jews were still living in Danzig who were later murdered in the Holocaust.[36][39] Out of the 2938 Jewish community in the city 1227 were able to escape from the Nazis before the outbreak of war[40]
Following the annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland, Germany in October 1938 urged the Danzig territory's cession to Germany. 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 a 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.[41] 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).
Poles, Kashubians, leading members of the Jewish community[42] and the political opposition[43] 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 occupied a largely destroyed Danzig. The exact circumstances of the occupation remain a matter of dispute. While the traditional Polish historiography stressed the role of the German resistance, after 1990 reports about deliberate destructions and arsons by the Soviets were published. However, as Soviet sources about the events are inaccessible, the topic has not been conclusively clarified.[44] In December 1945 the Soviet Consulate explained the existing "anti-Soviet feelings" with some "excesses" of the Red Army.[45]
In June 1945 124,000 Germans and 8,000 Poles lived in the city,[46] from 1945-1950 most Germans were expelled.
With the defeat of German state the planned genocide of Polish population classified by German authorities as "subhuman" was averted and Polish population returned to Gdańsk. Already before the end of World War II, the Yalta Conference had agreed to place the city, under its original Polish name Gdańsk, under de facto administration of Poland, and this decision was confirmed at the Potsdam Conference.
A Polish administration was set up in the devastated Gdańsk on 30 March 1945. New Polish residents were settled in Gdańsk, 3,200 in April and more than 4,000 in May and June 1945. As of 1948 more than two thirds of the 150,000 inhabitants came from Central Poland, about 15 to 18 percent 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 deportation of the German populace started in July 1945, thus the pre-war populace soon became a small minority within post-war Gdańsk.[47]
Between 1952 and the late 1960s Polish artisans restored much of the old city's architecture, up to 90% destroyed in the war.[48] Initially the reconstruction of parts of the inner city (Główne Miasto, German: Rechtstadt) was controversial. As a result of anti-German sentiments and the new settler's at least indifferent attitude towards the unknown, German city a modern architecture was preferred.[49] The decision to reconstruct a traditional old town was politically motivated in order to symbolize the city’s "reunification" with Poland[49] and limited to the area of the Główne Miasto. The Old town and other historical districts were, with the exception of some monumental buildings, built-up with modern architecture.[50] The reconstruction is not tied to the city’s pre-war appearance, instead its purpose was to rebuild an idealized pre-1793 state.[51][52] 19th and early 20th-century architecture, any traces of German tradition were ignored or regarded as "Prussian barbarism" worth of demolition[53][54] while Flamish-Dutch, Italian and French influences were emphasized.[55] After 1990 this concept has been criticized e.g. by Donald Tusk, who called the reconstruction "in the spirit of Communism" the city's second catastrophe of the 20th century.[56] All German names of streets, buildings, shipyards and districts, even names on tombstones, were changed to Polish names, such as Długi Targ for Langer Markt (Long Market), the city's main pedestrian center. The city districts were renamed, sometimes derived from medieval Polish records (Wrzeszcz, Siedlce), sometimes translations of the German terms (Nowy Szkoty - Neu Schottland, Nowy Port - Neufahrwasser). In some cases the specifications of the Commission for the Determination of Place Names were initially ignored and placenames originating in the homeregion of the settlers were used.[57]
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.[58]
Throughout its long history Gdańsk faced various periods of rule from different states before 1945,
Altogether combining the number of years until 2010, the city was under rule of Poland for 706 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 transferred to Poland in 1945.
