Łyna, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship

Łyna [ˈwɨna] (German: Lahna, Lithuanian: Alna) is a village in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship in Poland, 16 km north of Nidzica in Nidzica County. It has a population of 440. It lies approximately 9 kilometres (6 mi) north of Nidzica and 40 km (25 mi) south of the regional capital Olsztyn.

The village is situated near the source of the River Alle, which is also named Łyna in Polish.

History

The village shares most of its history with that of Nidzica and Nidzica County.

It was first mentioned on 12 March 1387. At least since 1540 until 1945, Lahna was the seat of an evangelical Kirchspiel (church parrish) that included the towns of Allendorf, Commusin, Dietrichsdorf, Gutfeld, Glinken, Jablonken, Lykusen, Orlau, Radomin, Terten, Wolfsgarten, Wolka.

The Battle of Tannenberg (1914) of August 1914 took place nearby.

In 1945, while many if not most German civilians had fled the area, many of those who remained experienced atrocities at the hands of Soviet soldiers who found themselves on German soil for the first time. Lev Kopelev, a Soviet officer and later dissident, described how he was appalled by the acts of murder and looting against those who remained. After World War II the local populace was expelled to West Germany and the town and district became part of Poland as Powiat nidzicki. The area has been henceforth known by its present official name, Łyna.

References

• Kopelev, Lev (1977). No Jail For Thought. London: Secker & Warburg. pp. 39–41. ISBN 0-436-23640-0. 

External links

• Municipal webpage (Polish)
• Photos and crest of pre-WWII Neidenburg (German)

This article incorporates information from the revision as of 31 July 2007 of the equivalent article on the German Wikipedia.