Fordon

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Fordon Coat of Arms

Fordon , with 76,800 inhabitants, is the largest district of the city of Bydgoszcz ( Bromberg ) in the Polish province Kujawy .

Until it was incorporated into the urban area of ​​Bydgoszcz on January 1, 1973, the village was an independent town with 8,700 inhabitants.

Old Fordon on the Vistula

Geographical location

The village is about ten kilometers east of Bydgoszcz ( Bromberg ). The district of Alt-Fordon lies on the Vistula at a river crossing. To the north and west of Alt-Fordon extends the Neu-Fordon district , a satellite town characterized by residential blocks .

Districts

Panorama picture
Bird's eye view of the city

The district is divided into 16 areas:

  • Stary Fordon ( Old Fordon )
  • Academy
  • Bajka
  • Bohaterów
  • Eskulapa
  • Kasztelanka
  • Łoskoń ( Loskon )
  • Mariampol ( Marienfelde )
  • Nad Wisłą ( On the Vistula )
  • Niepodległości
  • Pałcz ( Patsch )
  • Powiśle
  • Przylesia
  • Szybowników
  • Tatrzańskie
  • Zofin ( Sophienthal )
Fordon east of the city of Bydgoszcz (northeast of the city of Posen ) on a map of the province of Posen from 1905 (areas marked in yellow indicate areas with a predominantly Polish- speaking population at the time ).

history

Old Fordon on a photo from the interwar period

The fortress of Wissegrod (today: Wyszogród), which no longer exists and was first mentioned in 1113, is considered the predecessor of Fordon . It was a defense post on the border with Pomerania and guarded an important crossing over the Vistula . In 1330 it was destroyed by the Teutonic Order in retaliation for attacks in the Kulmerland . The new settlement was rebuilt two kilometers northeast at the current location of Fordon. The name was also taken from the ford ( forda ) across the river. 1382 Fordon received by the Duke Władysław II. The Chelmno town rights and on 3 July 1424 by the Polish king Władysław II. Jagiello the Magdeburg rights . In 1656 Fordon was conquered and plundered by the Swedes.

In 1772 Fordon came to the Kingdom of Prussia after the first partition of Poland-Lithuania . At the time of the occupation, Fordon was a small, insignificant place where only a few Jews and Poles lived. The Jews had increasingly settled here because Bromberg had been closed to them until then. At times, Jews made up well over half of the population of the city of Fordon. The village grew rapidly from 1772 after a customs post for trade with Poland had been set up here and, in addition to the Prussian customs officers, many craftsmen and some merchants had settled here. By 1783 the village already had 129 fireplaces, and in the previous decade 40 privately financed new buildings had been built in addition to a few handsome state buildings. At that time the Catholics had a parish church here, the Jews a synagogue , and there was a Protestant school where the Protestant worship took place. The customs station was protected by a 36 man strong guard. At the place, which had existed in the 17th century, there were traces of a redoubt on the Vistula , which had been raised by the Swedes under General Horn in September 1665 for their defense during the Second Swedish War .

The local border customs office were subject to all customs and Acciseämter in Netzedistrict , in Pomerania and in Kulmerland . All barges loaded with grain and other imports from Poland had to dock here, where there was a convenient dock on the Vistula. In June and July there were often 70–80 freighters loaded with grain from Poland lying at Fordon. In the last quarter of the 18th century, the customs office generated annual tax revenues of almost 250,000 thalers from merchant shipping on the Vistula .

In 1816 Fordon had a Catholic and a Protestant church. After most of the village burned down in 1826 and was poorly rebuilt, Fordon's economic strength sank considerably and wealthy merchants emigrated. The state bought back the former customs building at a ridiculous price to convert it into a prison. In 1831 there were around 1,500 of the approx. 2,000 inhabitants Jews who built a synagogue in Fordon from 1827 to 1832 .

Between 1891 and 1893, today's 1,325 meter long Rudolf Modrzejewski Bridge , the longest bridge in the German Empire at that time, was built over the Vistula near Fordon . There was a detention center for female prisoners in the village. In 1910, 2,124 Germans (approx. 70%) and 726 Poles (approx. 26%) lived in Fordon .

After the First World War , Fordon was ceded to Poland on January 10, 1920 under the provisions of the Versailles Treaty for the purpose of establishing the Polish Corridor . Most of the German residents emigrated in 1921. The wave of emigration was spurred on by the Polish-Soviet war , as German families who opted for Polish citizenship had to expect that their sons would be drafted by the Polish state for military service against Soviet Russia . In 1923, only 916 (34%) Germans lived in Fordon and, if you count Jews as Poles, 1,608 Poles (61%).

After the invasion of Poland in 1939 Fordon was assigned to the district of Bromberg in the newly established Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia .

In October and November 1939 mass executions were carried out in the Valley of Death , which are said to have affected around 5,000 residents from Bromberg and the surrounding area. According to Polish sources, the victims were mainly teachers, civil servants, intellectuals and priests. The executions of Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz that of Ludolf-Hermann of Alvensleben was commanded, and the SWAT 16 of Gestapo performed.

During the Second World War, the Germans built a cinema in the synagogue, which was housed in the building until 1988. Then it fell into disrepair. In 2005 the synagogue was given to a Jewish foundation.

Population development
year Residents Remarks
1780 1,054
1783 1,119 443 of them were Jews, half of the remaining Poles and the other half German Protestant new citizens
1788 0845 including 483 Jews
1816 1,757 thereof 1,097 Jews, 377 Catholics and 288 Evangelicals
1837 2,409
1843 2,066 including 1,447 Jews
1861 1,767 (including 177 prisoners), of which 752 Jews, 566 Evangelicals and 444 Catholics
1875 2,045
1880 2,076
1900 2,387 mostly evangelicals

traffic

Fordon lies on the Brodnica – Bydgoszcz railway line , which uses the Vistula bridge.

Attractions

literature

  • Johann Friedrich Goldbeck : Complete topography of the Kingdom of Prussia. Second part, which contains the topography of West Prussia . Kantersche Hofdruckerei, Marienwerder 1789, p. 84, no. 2.).
  • Heinrich Wuttke : City book of the country Posen. Codex diplomaticus: General history of the cities in the region of Poznan. Historical news from 149 individual cities . Leipzig 1864, pp. 293-294.
  • Tadeusz Jaszowski, Edmund Pyszczyński: Fordońska Dolina Śmierci , Urząd Miejski w Bydgoszczy

Web links

Commons : Fordon  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Johann Friedrich Goldbeck : Complete topography of the Kingdom of Prussia. Second part, which contains the topography of West Prussia . Kantersche Hofdruckerei, Marienwerder 1789, p. 84, no. 2.).
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Heinrich Wuttke : City book of the country of Posen. Codex diplomaticus: General history of the cities in the region of Poznan. Historical news from 149 individual cities . Leipzig 1864, pp. 293-294.
  3. ↑ Wszystkie tajemnice Fordonu: doctor od Marylin Monroe, warownia nad Wisłą
  4. ^ A b Meyer's Großes Konversationsa-Lexikon , 6th edition, 6th volume, Leipzig and Vienna 1906, pp. 760–761.
  5. ^ A b Michael Rademacher: German administrative history from the unification of the empire in 1871 to the reunification in 1990. pos_bromberg.html. (Online material for the dissertation, Osnabrück 2006).

Coordinates: 53 ° 9 '  N , 18 ° 10'  E