Pomerania (German: Pommern, Polish: Pomorze, Kashubian: Pòmòrze or Pòmòrskô, Latin: Pomerania or Pomorania) is a historical region on the south shore of the Baltic Sea. Divided between Germany and Poland, it stretches roughly from the Recknitz River near Stralsund in the West, via the Oder River delta near Szczecin, to the mouth of the Vistula River near Gdańsk in the East.[1] Pomerania was strongly affected by 20th century, post-World War I and II border and population shifts.
Pomerania belongs to the lowlands of the North European Plain. Outside its few urban centers − most notably the Szczecin and Tricity metropolitan areas − the poor soil is mostly used as farmland, dotted with numerous lakes, forests, and small towns. Agriculture primarily consists of raising livestock, forestry, fishery and the cultivation of cereals, sugar beets, and potatoes. Since the late 19th century, tourism has become an important sector of the economy, primarily in the numerous seaside resorts along the coast. Of the limited industrial zones, the most important products are ships, metal products, refined sugar, and paper.[1]
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Pomerania is the area along the Bay of Pomerania of the Baltic Sea between the rivers Recknitz in the west and Vistula in the east.[1][2] It formerly reached as far south as the Noteć (Netze) and Warta (Warthe) rivers, but since 1250 its southern boundary has been placed further north. Most of the region is coastal lowland of the North European Plain; its southern, hilly parts belong to the Baltic Ridge, a belt of terminal moraines formed during the Pleistocene. Within this ridge, a chain of moraine-dammed lakes constitutes the Pomeranian Lake District. The soil is generally poor, often sandy or marshy.[1] The western coastline is jagged, with lots of peninsulae (e.g., Darß–Zingst) and islands (Rügen, Usedom, Wolin and other, small isles) enclosing numerous bays (Bodden) and lagoons (e.g., the Lagoon of Szczecin).
The eastern coastline is smooth. The lakes Łebsko, Jamno and Gardno were formerly bays but have been cut off from the sea. The easternmost coastline along the Gdańsk Bay (with Bay of Puck) and Vistula Bay has the Hel peninsula and the Vistula peninsula jutting out into the Baltic.
Pomerania in all languages is derived from Old Slavic po, meaning "by/next to/along", and more, meaning "sea", thus "Pomerania" is literally "seacoast", referring to its proximity to the Baltic Sea.[3]
Pomerania was first mentioned in an imperial document of 1046, referring to a Zemuzil dux Bomeranorum (Zemuzil, Duke of the Pomeranians).[4] Pomerania is mentioned repeatedly in the chronicles of Adam of Bremen (ca. 1070) and Gallus Anonymous (ca. 1113).
Historical Pomerania is currently sub-divided into the following contemporary political regions:
The bulk of historical Farther Pomerania is included within the modern West Pomeranian Voivodeship, its easternmost parts (Słupsk (Stolp) area) now constitute the northwestern Pomeranian Voivodeship. Farther Pomerania in turn comprised several other historical regions itself, most notably the Lands of Schlawe and Stolp, the Lauenburg and Bütow Land, the County of Naugard and the principality of the Cammin bishops. In the South, Farther Pomerania comprised historical Neumark regions, and former Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia was attached during World War II.
Parts of Pomerania and surrounding regions have constituted a euroregion since 1995. The Pomerania euroregion comprises Germany's Vorpommern and Uckermark, Poland's Zachodniopomorskie, and Scania in Sweden.
The term "West(ern) Pomerania" is potentially ambiguous, since it may refer to either Vorpommern (in historical[5] and German usage), to the Polish West Pomeranian Voivodeship (in common Polish usage), or both (in Polish historical usage).
The term Eastern Pomerania may similarly carry different meanings, referring either to historical Farther Pomerania (in historical[5] and German usage), or the Pomeranian Voivodeship (in Polish usage).
West | Pomerania | East | |||||||||||
Stralsund | Anklam | Szczecin (Stettin) |
Kolobrzeg (Kolberg) |
Słupsk (Stolp) |
Gdynia (Gdingen) |
Gdańsk (Danzig) |
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Current regions | Vorpommern (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) |
Zachodniopomorskie (West Pomeranian Voivodeship) |
Pomerelia (Pomeranian Voivodeship) |
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German terminology (corresponding English term) |
Pommern[1] (Pomerania) |
Pomerellen, Pommerellen[1] (Pomerelia)[1] Kaschubei (Kashubia) |
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Vorpommern in modern usage excluding Szczecin (Western Pomerania) (Hither/Upper Pomerania) |
Hinterpommern (Farther/Further Pomerania) Ostpommern (Eastern Pomerania) |
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Polish terminology (corresponding English term) |
Meklemburgia-Pomorze Przednie (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) | Pomorze Zachodnie in historical usage including Słupsk (Western Pomerania) Pomorze Nadodrzańskie (Oder Pomerania) |
Pomorze Wschodnie (Eastern Pomerania) Pomorze Gdańskie (Pomerelia, Gdańsk Pomerania) before World War II Pomorze[1] in historical usage, excluding Słupsk (Pomerelia,[1] literally Pomerania) |
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Pomorze Przednie (Hither/Upper Pomerania) |
Pomorze Tylne (Farther/Further Pomerania) |
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Kashubian terminology (corresponding English term) |
Zôpadnô Pòmòrskô (Western Pomerania) |
Pòrénkòwô Pòmòrskô (Eastern Pomerania) |
History of Pomerania | |
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This article is part of a series |
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Early history | |
Early Middle Ages | |
High Middle Ages | |
Late Middle Ages | |
Early Modern Age | |
1806–1933 | |
1933–1945 | |
1945–present | |
Pomerania Portal |
Settlement in Pomerania started by the end of the Vistula Glacial Stage, some 13,000 years ago.[6] Archeological traces have been found of various cultures during the Stone and Bronze Age, Baltic peoples, Germanic peoples and Veneti during the Iron Age and, in the Middle Ages, Slavic tribes and Vikings.[7][8][9][6][10][11][12] The Pomeranian (Western) Balts who lived between the Jutland peninsula in the west and the Vistula river in the east were partly assimilated by Germanic tribes advancing to the east from 1500 BC to the 1st century AD. Starting in the 10th century, early Polish dukes on several occasions subdued parts of the region from the southeast, while the Holy Roman Empire and Denmark augmented their territory from the west and north.[13][14][15][16][17][18][19]
In the High Middle Ages, the area became Christian and was ruled by local dukes of the House of Pomerania (Griffins) and the Samborides, at various times vassals of Denmark, the Holy Roman Empire and Poland.[20][21][22] From the late 12th century, the Griffin Duchy of Pomerania stayed with the Holy Roman Empire and the Principality of Rugia with Denmark, while Denmark, Brandenburg, Poland and the Teutonic Knights struggled for control in Samboride Pomerelia.[22][23][24] The Teutonic Knights succeeded in integrating Pomerelia into their monastic state in the early 14th century. Meanwhile the Ostsiedlung started to turn Pomerania into a German-settled area; the remaining Wends, who became known as Slovincians and Kashubians, continued to settle within the rural East.[25][26] In 1325 the line of the princes of Rugia (Rügen) died out, and the principality was inherited by the Griffins.[27] In 1466, with the Teutonic Order's defeat, Pomerelia became subject to the Polish Crown as a part of Royal Prussia.[28] While the Duchy of Pomerania adopted the Protestant reformation in 1534,[29][30][31] Kashubia remained with the Roman Catholic Church. The Thirty Years' and subsequent wars severely ravaged and depopulated most of Pomerania.[32] With the extinction of the Griffin house during the same period, the Duchy of Pomerania was divided between the Swedish Empire and Brandenburg-Prussia in 1648.
Prussia gained the southern parts of Swedish Pomerania in 1720,[33] Pomerelia in 1772, and the remainder of Swedish Pomerania in 1815, when French occupation during the Napoleonic Wars was lifted.[34] The former Brandenburg-Prussian Pomerania and the former Swedish parts were reorganized into the Prussian Province of Pomerania,[35] while Pomerelia was made part of the Province of West Prussia. With Prussia, both provinces joined the newly constituted German Empire in 1871. Following the empire's defeat in World War I, Pomerelia was transformed into the Polish Corridor and the Free City of Danzig. Germany's Province of Pomerania was expanded in 1938 to include northern parts of the former Province of Posen–West Prussia, and in 1939 the annexed Polish Corridor became part of the wartime Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia. The Nazis deported the Pomeranian Jews to a reservation near Lublin[36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46] and, in Pomerelia, mass murdered Jews, as well as Poles to some extent, through Nazi Germany's anti-semitic and untermensch pogroms.
After Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II, the German–Polish border was shifted west to the Oder–Neisse line and all of Pomerania was under Soviet military control.[47][48] The German population of the areas east of the line was expelled, and the area was resettled primarily with Poles (some themselves expellees from former eastern Poland) and some Ukrainians (resettled under Operation Vistula) and Jews.[49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57] Most of Western Pomerania (Vorpommern) remained in Germany and today forms the eastern part of the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, while the Polish part of the region is divided between the West Pomeranian and Pomeranian voivodeships, with their capitals in Szczecin (Stettin) and Gdańsk (Danzig), respectively. During the 1980s, the Solidarity and Die Wende ('the change') movements overthrew the Communist regimes implemented during the post-war era; since then, Pomerania is democratically governed.
Western Pomerania is inhabited by German Pomeranians. In the eastern parts, Poles are the dominating ethnic group since World War II. Kashubians, descendants of the medieval Slavic Pomeranians, are numerous in rural Pomerelia.
Polish Voivodeship/ German Landschaft |
Capital | Registration plates |
Area (km²) |
Population Polish 31 December 1999 German December 2010 |
Territorial code |
Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship (northernmost parts) |
Bydgoszcz (Voivod office) Toruń (Voivod council) |
C | 17,969.72 | 2,100,771 | 04 |
Pomeranian Voivodeship | Gdańsk | G | 18,292.88 | 2,192,268 | 22 |
West Pomeranian Voivodeship | Szczecin | Z | 22,901.48 | 1,732,838 | 32 |
Polish Pomerania and Kuyavia total | 59,164.08 | 6,025,877 | |||
Vorpommern-Greifswald | Greifswald | 3,927 | 245,733 | ||
Vorpommern-Rügen | Stralsund | 3,188 | 230,743 | ||
German Pomerania total | 7,115 | 476,476 |
(with population figures for 1999):
In the German part of Pomerania, Standard German and the East Low German Pomeranian dialects Vorpommersch and Mittelpommersch are spoken, though Standard German dominates. Polish is the dominating language in the Polish part; Kashubian dialects are also spoken by the Kashubians in Pomerelia.
East Pomeranian, the East Low German dialect of Farther Pomerania and western Pomerelia, Low Prussian, the East Low German dialect of eastern Pomerelia, and Standard German were dominating in Pomerania east of the Oder-Neisse line before most of its speakers were expelled after World War II. Slovincian was spoken at the Farther Pomeranian-Pomerelian frontier, but is now extinct.
Kashubian and Low German Pomeranian dialects are also spoken by the descendants of émigrées, most notably in the Americas.
The Pomeranian State Museum in Greifswald, dedicated to the history of Pomerania, has a variety of archeological findings and artefacts from the different periods covered in this article. At least 50 museums in Poland cover history of Pomerania, the most important of them The National Museum in Gdańsk, Central Pomerania Museum in Słupsk,[58] Darłowo Museum,[59] Koszalin Museum,[60] National Museum in Szczecin.[61]
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