Gdańsk

Gdansk is a city of northern Poland, on the coast of the Baltic Sea, with a population of 460,000 (2002). It was once part of the region known as Pomerania. In the time of the second partition of Poland in 1793, it was annexed from the Commonwealth of Poland Lithuania by the Kingdom of Prussia, which later (1871) became a part of the German Empire. Gdansk is called Danzig in German. In the period between World War I and World War II, it had the status of a free city. In 1945 returned to Poland after over 150 years.

In English-language literature dealing with Gdansk's pre-1945 existence, the city is most often referred to as "Danzig." Alternative spellings from documents from the medieval and Early Modern periods often use the spellings Gyddanzyc, Dantzig, Dantzigk or Dantzk.

A major regional port since the 14th century and subsequently a principal shipbuilding centre, Gdansk remains an important industrial centre despite the development in the 1920s of the nearby port of Gdynia.

History of the city

Settlements existed in the area for several centuries before the birth of Christ. The coast was recorded as Gothiscandza by Jordanes. In 997 Saint Adalbert of Prague entered Prussia to convert the inhabitants.

The year 980 was used the most probable year of the city foundation. The city was dedicated in 997 by Mieszko I, Duke of Poland, to compete with the ports of Szczecin(Stettin) and Wolin on the Oder River.

The City of Gdansk was chartered in 1224 with the participation of merchants from Lübeck, Duke Swaitopolk I granted the place city rights under the Lübeck law. Gdansk rose to become one of the more important of the many trading and fishing ports along the Baltic Sea coast.

Pomerania was divided into the Szczecin Pomerania: with cities of Wologoszcz, Radogoszcz, Strzalowo(Strelitz), Gryfia, Szcczecin, Kamien, Kolobrzeg etc.) and the Gdansk Pomerania with cities of Slupsk, Lebork, Tczew, Gdansk and Starogard.

After the extinction of the Pomerelian ducal dynasty in 1294, the region was plunged into war involving Poland and Brandenburg. Brandenburg's ficticious claim to the Gdansk Pomerania was based on a treaty between Waclaw III and the Brandenburg which took place on 08/08/1305, promising the Misnia (Meissen) territory to the Czech Kingdom in exchange of the Gdansk Pomerania. The claim was ficticious, because the Czech king Waclaw III had no right to the Pomerania and Brandenburg never ceded Misnia region to the Czechs. During the course of war Gdansk was invaded (November 1308) by the Teutonic Knights, called in by Wladislaw Lokietek of Poland. All the inhabitants of the city Polish and German were brutally slaughtered. The Teutonic Order continued it's invasion of the polish lands, incorporaing them into the Monastic State. Later they also chased the Poles out. In September 1309 Margrave Waldemar of Brandenburg sold his ficticious claim over the territory to the Teutonic Order for 10,000 Mark. Since this time the city became known under it's german name - Danzig. It was also a start of conflicts between Poland and the Teutonic Order.

Danzig became a full member of the Hanseatic League by 1361. In 1440, Danzig joined the other Hanseatic League cities of Elbing and Thorn to form the Prussian Confederation, which was supported by Casimir IV of Poland in its rebellion (1454) against the Teutonic Order's rule. The resulting Thirteen Years War ended with the Order's defeat and the Second Treaty of Thorn in 1466).

The Hanseatic city of Danzig had full legal rights as a city ruled by a Stadtrat, or city council, with its own court system and army. Around 1480-1490 tablets were installed at the Danzig St. Mary church, depicting the Table of the Ten Commandments (outside link:[[1]]) in Low German language. In 1566, the official language of the city's governing institutions was changed from the Low German used throughout the Hanseatic cities to High German.

Georg Joachim Rheticus had visited the mayor of Danzig in 1539, while he was working with Copernicus in nearby Frauenburg. The mayor of Danzig assisted Rheticus financially in order to publish the "Narratio Prima" or First Report... The Narratio Prima was published by the Danzig printer Rhode in 1540 and to this day it is still considered to be the best introduction to the Copernican system. While in Danzig Rheticus, among many other profession, a cartographer and navigational instrument maker, had interviewed Danzig pilots as to their navigational needs. He presented the "Tabula chorographica auff Preussen" to Duke Albert of Prussia in 1541.

The Danzig printer Andreas Huenefeld(t) (Hunsfeldus) (1606-1652) printed a Danzig editition of the Rosicrucian Manifestos. Later on, he published the poems of Martin Opitz. The famous poet Opitz had died in 1639 and his friend, the pastor of Danzig, known as Bartholomaeus Nigrinus together with two associates edited the Opitz poems for the Huenefeld printing house.

In 1606 a distillery named Der Lachs (the Salmon) was founded , which produced one of Danzig's most famous products, a liqueur named Danziger Goldwasser ("Danzig gold water"), made from herbs and with small 22-carat gold flakes floating in the bottle. The recipe for this went with the expellees of 1945 to western Germany, where it continued to be produced.

From the 14th century until the mid-17th century Danzig experienced rapid growth, becoming the largest city on the Baltic seaboard by the 16th century and handling most of Poland's seaborne trade. The city's prosperity was severely damaged, however, by the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) and the Second Northern War (1655-1660), and it suffered an epidemic of bubonic plague in 1709.

During the time of the Partitions of Poland in the late 18th century(1772) , Gdansk was not incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia and remained a Polish exclave on the Baltic sea, and then (1793) became part of the State of Prussia as part of the province of West Prussia, reverting to direct Prussian rule after a second brief period (1807-1814) as a free city. From 1824 until 1878 East and West Prussia were combined as a single province under the Prussian kingdom, from 1871 a part of the German Empire.

Following Germany's defeat in World War I, Danzig was separated from Germany without its inhabitants' consent in 1920 under the Treaty of Versailles, forming with a small surrounding territory a Free City under a commissioner appointed by the League of Nations. A customs union with Poland was created and gave the Danzig Westerplatte port to the Polish republic. The separation of the Danzig port from Danzig by Great Britain and France was justified to give Poland direct access to the Baltic Sea.

The League of Nations rejected the citizens' petition to have their city officially named: "Freie Hansestadt Danzig" (free Hanseatic city of Danzig). The Danzig inhabitants were by the League of Nations forced to seperate citizenship as Danziger and removed from German Reich citizenship. The Danzig harbor, Customs and the Post Office functions were handed over to Poland, who stationed Polish Military troops in Danzig. Local opposition to the city's status and support for reunification with Germany culminated in the election of a Nazi government in the Danzig elections of May 1933.

Danzig's annexation to Germany was one of the objectives of the Nazi government which came to power in Germany in January 1933. Following the annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia, Germany in October 1938 urged the territory's return to Germany, but Poland refused to accept reunification. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded the Danzig port Westerplatte, and annexed Danzig, initiating World War II. Danzig and areas of the "Polish Corridor" to the south and west became the German Gau (administrative district) of Danzig-West Prussia.

In January 1945 the Soviet Army overran Danzig. After the end of World War II, the Soviet Union placed Danzig under Polish administration. By June 1945 there were 8000 Poles and 124000 Danziger Germans in the city. Nearly all of those German inhabitants were subsequently removed forcibly to Germany and other countries. Polish sovereignty was recognised by the Soviet-installed East German government in 1950, but by the Federal Republic of Germany only upon German reunification in 1990 (though the West German government had acknowledged de facto Polish possession of the city in 1970).

The expelled Danzig citizens had no voice in any of the post WW II events.

Polish administrated Gdansk was the scene of anti-government demonstrations which led to the downfall of Poland's communist leader Wladyslaw Gomulka 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 Walesa.

Famous people born in Danzig

External Links:

1598 map of Pomerania and western Prussia with Dan(t)zig [[2]]
c.1630 map of Prussia with Dantzk [[3]]
Free City of Danzig: stamps [4]
City Hall (in Polish, English and German)
City History on Gdansk City Hall page