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 the independent free city merged with the Kingdom of Prussia, then Deutsche Bund, which later (1871) became a part of the German Empire. In the period between World War I and World War II, it had the status of a free city. In 1945 it was given to Poland, which uses the official name Gdansk.

When dealing with the city's pre-1945 existence, the name Danzig is often used. Alternative spellings from documents from the medieval and Early Modern periods are Gyddanzyc, Dantzig, Dantzigk or Dantzk. The name of the city is still a sore subject even today; as an example, the official city history website in English [1] does not even mention the word "Danzig".

The city is situated at the Motlawa (Mottlau) river, an arm of the Vistula. A major regional port since the 14th century and subsequently a principal ship-building centre, today's 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 and as Magna Germania. In 997 Saint Adalbert of Prague entered Prussia to convert the inhabitants. While the river name is an old Prussian name, the history of the territory of Pomerania nevertheless must also be read. It is via Pomerania where papal orders for christianization were executed, while the other part of Prussia was christianized via Riga.

There were wooden structures in existence previously, but the year 997 is currently considered as a possible year of the foundation of the city: In 1997 Poland celebrated the 1000 Years Gdansk Aniversary, founded in 997, the supposed foundation of Gdansk by Mieszko I, Duke of Poland, "to compete with the ports of Szczecin(Stettin) and Wolin on the Oder River".

A papal bull in 1148 mentions Gdansk as part of the Polish diocese Wloclawek.

A city named Danzig was chartered in 1224 with the participation of merchants from Lübeck and Bremen. The 1224 city charter seal states Sigillum Burgensium Dantzike ("Seal of the City of Danzig") (see Danzig Law). The seal, similar to the seals of Luebeck and other Hanseatic cities, shows a Hanse cog. Duke Swaitopolk I granted the place city rights under the Lübeck law. It rose to become one of the more important of the many trading and fishing ports along the Baltic Sea coast and overtook Elbing.

Pomerania was divided into several dukedoms, which were bought, sold and traded, as were all other imperial lands. After the extinction of the Pomerelian (Little Pomerania) ducal dynasty in 1294, the region was plunged into war involving claims by Polish and Brandenburg rulers. Brandenburg's claim to Danzig and Pomerania was based on the fact that in 1269 the Duke of Pomerania gave his inherited land to the Margrave of Brandenburg and received it back as fief. A hundred years earlier the margraves of Brandenburg already held the reins. Many towns in Pomerania, founded by Brandenburg, still show the red eagle of Brandenburg or parts thereof in their city arms.

Feudal law stipulated, that in the case a ruling dynasty died out, the land would return to the empire and in 1309 the emperor gave the administration of Pomerania to the Teutonic Knights. In September 1309, Margrave Waldemar of Brandenburg sold his claim to the territory and Danzig to the Teutonic Order for 10,000 marks.

This was the start of a series 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).

In 1471 a refurbished sailing ship under Danzig captain Paul Beneke is recorded in the Danzig chronicles as dat grote Kratel.. aufgesottet und wider gebaut. Captain Beneke brought the famous altar painting titled: Latest Judgement (Juengste Gericht) by artist Hans Memling to Danzig.

The Hanseatic city and land of Danzig had full legal rights as a city state 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 (external link: [2]) in the 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 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, who was, 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.

In 1743 a Danzig Research Society (Naturforschende Gesellschaft in Danzig) was formed by Daniel Gralath.

During the time of the Partitions of Poland in the late 18th century (1772), Danzig was not incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia and remained a free independent city until [1793]], when it became part of the State of Prussia as part of the province of West Prussia, reverting under Napoleon 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, then Deutsche Bund, which became a part of the German Empire in 1871.

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 forced by the League of Nations to hold citizenship as Danziger and removed from German citizenship. The Danzig harbor, customs service, and the Post Office functions were handed over to Poland, which stationed 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 124,000 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-World War II events.

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 [[3]]
c.1630 map of Prussia with Dantzk [[4]]
Free City of Danzig: stamps [5]
City Hall (in Polish, English and German)
City History on Gdansk City Hall page