| Międzyrzecz | |||
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Międzyrzecz
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| Coordinates: | |||
| Country | Poland | ||
| Voivodeship | Lubusz | ||
| County | Międzyrzecz County | ||
| Gmina | Gmina Międzyrzecz | ||
| Government | |||
| • Mayor | Tadeusz Dubicki (2002– ) | ||
| Area | |||
| • Total | 10.26 km2 (4 sq mi) | ||
| Elevation | 51 m (167 ft) | ||
| Population (2008) | |||
| • Total | 18,584 | ||
| • Density | 1,811.3/km2 (4,691.3/sq mi) | ||
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) | ||
| • Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) | ||
| Postal code | 66–300 | ||
| Car plates | FMI | ||
| Website | http://www.miedzyrzecz.pl | ||
Międzyrzecz [mjɛnˈd͡zɨʐɛt͡ʂ] (Latin: Meserici, German: Meseritz) is a town in western Poland with 18,584 inhabitants (September 30, 2008). The capital of Międzyrzecz County, it was part of the Gorzów Wielkopolski Voivodeship from 1975–1998. Since the Local Government Reorganization Act of 1998, Międzyrzecz has been situated in the Lubusz Voivodeship. It is located between the town of Skwierzyna and the town of Świebodzin, and stands at the confluence of the rivers Obra and Paklica.
The town is situated in a particularly green part of Poland. Extensive forests and numerous lakes can be found in the vicinity.
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The settlement on the road leading from Magdeburg to Gniezno was first mentioned in the course of the 1005 campaign of King Henry II of Germany into the Polish lands of Duke Bolesław I Chrobry. Located close to the border with the Holy Roman Empire, it remained a western outpost of the Duchy of Greater Poland established by the 1138 Testament of Bolesław III Krzywousty. Under King Casimir III the Great (1333-1370) German settlers moved into the area in the course of the Ostsiedlung. Town privileges were confirmed by King Casimir IV Jagiellon in 1485.
Until 1793 the town was part of the Polish crown lands of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In the Second Partition of Poland it was annexed together with the whole region of Greater Poland by the Kingdom of Prussia. From 1793 it belonged to Prussia and, after the Unification of Germany, to Germany until 1945. The town at first was part of South Prussia in 1793, was ceded to the Poznań Department of the Napoleonic Duchy of Warsaw in the 1807 Treaties of Tilsit, fell back to the Prussian Grand Duchy of Posen in 1815 and from 1848-1919 belonged to the Province of Posen.
In 1919, upon the Greater Poland Uprising and the ruling according to the Treaty of Versailles, the town was part of the small, mostwestern part of Greater Poland which remained part of Weimar Germany and was located close to the border to the Second Polish Republic. From 1922 these lands were administrated as the Prussian Province of Posen-West Prussia with Meseritz becoming the seat of the Landeshauptmann governor, until in 1938 the province was dissolved and Meseritz was incorporated into the Province of Brandenburg. At that time the townspeople were predominantly Ethnic German until the end of World War II, when the German population was expelled and replaced by Poles who had been expelled or left Ukraine and Lithuania. It was occupied by Red Army in 31 January 1945 and left to Poland by USSR in 15 March, 1945.
Międzyrzecz is twinned with:
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