History of the city of Gdansk

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This article describes the history of the city of Gdańsk ( Gdańsk in Polish ).

Surroundings of Danzig with Neufahrwasser and Weichselmünde around 1898

History from the 7th to 13th centuries

Viking Age 9th and 10th centuries

Trade routes in the 10th century, the route through the Vistula is the left blue line

The mouth of the Vistula into the Baltic Sea was part of an important trade route for the Scandinavian Vikings ( Varangians ) to the Byzantine Empire. The oldest archaeological find in the urban area of ​​today's Gdansk is a fragment of an Arab coin from around 812/820 west of the old town in ul. Strzelnicka (Schützengasse), where an old trade route ran from south to north. This was on the Hagelsberg (Góra Gradowa). It is uncertain whether there was a settlement or a castle on this mountain. Almost no archaeological finds have been made, as the site was built with a fortress in the 17th century. An Arab coin from around 913/943 is almost the only find, traces of settlement or fortifications have not yet been found. However, since there is a comparable castle in nearby Sopot , it is possible that there was also a smaller castle complex here.

There was a settlement in the area of ​​the later Long Market and the eastern Long Lane (ul. Długa, at what later became the City Hall) since the late 9th century. This was on the Motława and had a port. The residents engaged in fishing, agriculture and cattle breeding, and practiced crafts such as blacksmithing. The settlement was surrounded by an earth wall with fascine reinforcement. It served the trade on the Vistula and is comparable to Truso and Wolin , which were used by Scandinavian traders and seafarers. The ethnic composition of the settlement is not yet known; there were probably Prussian , Kashubian and Scandinavian residents.

A cemetery was located on the site of the later Dominican monastery (now the market hall / Hala Targowa) since the 10th century at the latest

Polish period 10th to 12th centuries

Chronicle of 997, with first mention of urbem Gyddanyzc

Around 970/990 the area came under the rule of the Polish ruler Mieszko I. The oldest mention of the urbs Gyddanyzc has been preserved from 997 when the missionary Adalbert came from Prague to convert Prussia. He noticed that there were already Christians in Gdansk.

It is uncertain whether the castle town of Danzig was on the Hagelsberg or on the Motlawa at that time. It is quite possible that there was already a castle settlement on an island in the Motława at that time, in the area of ​​the later Ordensburg (today the district of Zamczysko ). The oldest archaeological dates, however, have only been proven from around 1050.

The settlement on what would later become the Lange Mark changed into a trading port type place without animal husbandry. It was also secured by a strong wood-earth fortification; its spatial extension is estimated to be no more than three hectares.

When Poland broke up around 1034 in the chaos of a pagan reaction, the Pomeranian tribes were able to free themselves again from central power in Gniezno . Around 1113/1116 the Polish Duke Bolesław III subjugated . Wrymouth whole Pomeranian. After his death, Danzig was subordinated to the Senior Duke of Cracow under the Senior Citizenship Constitution. Since then, governors have sat in Gdansk, and over time they have acquired more and more skills and independence.

Around 1180 Sambor I became governor in Danzig. In his time, the Nikolaikirche (next to the old cemetery of the 10th century) was rebuilt. There was a settlement of German merchants, partly from Lübeck. In 1186 he founded the Oliva monastery ( Schamborius princeps Pomeranorum ), and the construction of the Katharinenkirche as a town church began. His brother Mestwin I founded the Zuckau Premonstratensian Monastery in 1209 . In 1210 he had to submit to the suzerainty of the Danish king. In 1221 King Waldemar of Denmark re-conquered Danzig and lost it in 1225.

Duchy of Pomerania 13th century

His son Swantopolk II ( Zwentopolc , Świętopełk ) achieved full political independence around 1227, including from Denmark , after an assassination attempt on the Polish senior duke Leszek II that he initiated . Under his rule, the settlement around the Katharinen- and Nikolaikirche continued to develop and at an unknown point in time received city rights under Luebian law (between 1226 and 1263). In 1227 he founded the Dominican monastery as the first monastery in the city.

After his death, after brotherly fights between the sons, the city came under the control of the Brandenburg margrave Konrad I in 1271. In the following battles, parts of the German patriciate in Danzig supported the Brandenburgers. After the reconquest by Mestwin II in 1272 , the city walls were razed and some of the renegades were executed. When Mestwin II died in 1294 without a male heir, according to the Treaty of Kempen ( Kępno ) from 1282 , Danzig fell to King Przemysław II and remained under the rule of changing Polish (and Bohemian) rulers in the following decades.

Danzig under the influence of the Teutonic Order and in the heyday of the Hanseatic League

Intervention of the Teutonic Order State

In 1308 Władysław Łokietek called the Teutonic Order against the Brandenburgers who were besieging Danzig. One of the reasons for the siege was that the Brandenburg Ascanians had been enfeoffed with Pomeranians and Pomeranians by the Roman-German Emperor Friedrich II in Ravenna in December 1231 , and that after the death of the last Pomeranian Duke they had been enfeoffed from this enfe January 8, 1295 in Mühlhausen had been renewed, wanted to make use of it. German citizens of Danzig opened the city gates to the Brandenburg troops. Since the Teutonic Order helped defend Danzig Castle, the Margrave of Brandenburg could not take the castle. He withdrew from Danzig, but left behind a weak Brandenburg occupation force. When the defenders of the castle realized their military superiority, they invaded the city and overpowered the Brandenburg troops left behind. Most of them were massacred. Danzig partisans who had helped the Brandenburg troops to take the city were executed. The Teutonic Order occupied the city and kept it in its possession - since the promised compensation had not been paid out.

In order to legally secure the possession of Pommerellen with Danzig, the order bought the Brandenburgers in the contract of Soldin on September 13th 1309 all their - on the Polish side, doubted - ownership of Pommerellen, which they had since 1269 ( see also Treaty of Arnswalde ) and due to the earlier Emperor Friedrich II. Were able to assert enfeoffment with pomeranian for 10,000 marks silver. The annexation of Pomerania by the Knights of the Order led to a protracted legal dispute between the Kingdom of Poland and the Teutonic Order, which was ended in 1343 by a settlement in the Peace Treaty of Kalisch . After that there was peace between the Teutonic Order and the Kingdom of Poland for 66 years.

Hanse

Main trade routes of the Hanseatic League
The Danzig Hanseatic merchant Giese 1532 in London's Stalhof , painting by Hans Holbein the Younger .

From the 13th century Gdansk established itself as a trading hub in the Baltic Sea. There is evidence that as early as the beginning of the 13th century craftsmen and merchants from Lübeck settled near the Parochial Church of St. Katharinen and that this settlement was abandoned during Swantopolk's clashes with the Teutonic Order (1242-1248). Evidence of the early trade relations with Lübeck, which at that time already played a leading role in the Baltic Sea trade , is provided by the oldest surviving document with the Danzig seal, which shows a high-sided Hanse cog.

At the end of the 13th century, the Gdansk merchants already had a great influence in the Peterhof office in Novgorod and in Pomerania and even had a say in court matters. Danzig became the suburb of the Prussian quarter within the Frühhanse and thus assumed a leading role towards Thorn and Elbing from 1377 at the latest . Since the middle of the 14th century, there has been an increasing interdependence in the Baltic transit trade and with the cities of the Wendish Confederation, especially Hamburg and Lübeck, which were to form the core of the Hanseatic League emerging at the end of the century. These acted together more and more often than early Hanseatic cities, including Gdansk. Participation in the so-called Hanseatic Day of 1361 is documented. In the clashes between the cities of the Cologne Confederation (see also Cologne Confederation ) with Denmark and Sweden , Danzig took part since 1367.

Disputes with the Teutonic Order

After the takeover by the Teutonic Order in 1309, there were repeated disputes between the Council and the Order over control of the trade. Like almost all cities in the area of ​​the order, Danzig took over Kulm law in 1343 instead of Luebian law . With this hand-held celebration, the order, as sovereign of the right city, placed self-administration in the hands of the city council, which was ruled by urban patrician families .

The order supported trade in the Prussian cities, knowing about the large profits that could be made with it. Within the early years of Hanse, however, Danzig could not pursue an independent policy because the city was controlled by the order and was also in an increasingly competitive relationship with the order's independent trade.

Development of the city

The city continued to prosper, which was reflected in extensive construction projects and the immigration of merchants and craftsmen from the Lower Rhine and the coastal cities of the Hanseatic League (Lübeck). The Danzig Ordensburg was rebuilt and the formerly wooden Pomoran castle was replaced by a brick building. The "castle", as the castle complex was also called, was 30 meters away from the Mottlauufer, the complex formed a square, which framed the alleys on the Rähm, the Große Knüppelgasse, the Rittergasse and the Burgstrasse leading along the Mottlauufer. The system of the Rechtstadt (1340) and the Jungstadt (1380) found their origin here.

The urban area was expanded in a northerly direction, where the so-called "New Town" was built (St. Johannes parish church around 1349). In a southerly direction, the suburb formed around the shipyard, where the subsidiary church of St. Peter and Paul was built around 1400. The legal town had a council constitution since 1378 and the town hall was moved to the Long Market in 1380; The now famous brick St. Mary's Church was also rebuilt from 1343 onwards. Also on March 26, 1343, the construction of the city wall began, the foundation stone of which was laid under the corner tower at the city courtyard. The rapid development of Danzig led to social conflicts between the patriciate, who formed the council, and the craftsmen and the newly arrived merchants (1363, 1378) from the middle of the 14th century.

Conflicts with the Order escalate

Gdansk was drawn into the conflict between the Order and Poland after the coronation of Władysław, which led to the Battle of Tannenberg in 1410 . After the defeat of the order, the Gdansk city council, like most Prussian cities, joined the Polish crown . But with the Peace of Thorn in 1411, the knights regained control of Danzig. Repressions against the city followed, the port was temporarily closed and shipping was diverted to Elbing. The mayors Conrad Letzkau and Arnold Hecht and the councilor Bartholomäus Gross were murdered at the castle of the order commander.

After a deterioration in the quality of the coins under the mayor Gert von der Beke , there was an uprising in 1416 by parts of the citizenry under the leadership of Martin Kogge. The city council was deposed and its houses looted. After a short time, the order reinstated the old city council and some rioters were executed.

From 1440 Danzig was a member of the Prussian Confederation , an association of cities and the nobility that demanded a co-government in the order state. When he asked the Polish King Casimir IV for help against the order, the Thirteen Years War broke out between the two parties :

Danzig's dependence on the Kingdom of Poland

Second Peace of Thorn

On March 6, 1454, Danzig entered into a protective relationship with King Casimir IV, who had been married to Elisabeth von Habsburg since February 10, 1454, at the request of the embassy of the Prussian Federation led by Hans von Baysen . This protective relationship culminated in the Thirteen Years' War financed by Danzig against the Order in 1457 with the granting of the Great Privilege (land, sovereign rights and extensive autonomy ) to Danzig. In the Second Peace of Thorn of 1466, Danzig came permanently to Royal Prussia , which was subordinate to the Crown of Poland, that is, to the king personally. The extensive autonomy rights granted to Gdansk in 1454, 1455 and 1457 were confirmed and it was allowed to fill its offices according to the Privilegium Casimirianum granted to it , received full jurisdiction (according to its own code of law, called Danzig Arbitrary ), exemption from all customs and duties and from the Accounting for his income, the right to coin, the right to maintain his own occupation, and completely free choice of war, alliances and peace. The sovereignty of the King of Poland was represented by a member of the city council, the burgrave. The city held its secretary in Warsaw and voted in diets and in royal elections. The four districts were now united into a whole and subordinated to the right-wing town council.

Disputes with the king over the occupation of the Diocese of Warmia led to the eight-year priests' war (1472–1480) in which Danzig's power, but also the Polish antipathy towards this city, proved itself.

In 1498 Konrad Baumgarten printed the oldest surviving book in Gdansk, followed by Martin Tretter in 1502 .

Danzig uprising and reformation

Mayor Johann Ferber (1488–1501)

The conflicts between the city council of rich patricians and the simple craftsmen and merchants in the city came to a head. In 1518 the Dominican monk Jacob Knothe preached Lutheran ideas for the first time. The war between Poland and the Teutonic Order in 1520/21, in which the city participated on the Polish side, and armed conflicts between Gdańsk and Denmark put additional strain on the city. Therefore, in 1522, the mayor Eberhard Ferber was deposed and expelled from the city. In 1522 Jacob Hegge began with Reformation sermons.

In 1525 the city council was deposed by an angry crowd. Evangelical preachers were installed in five churches and the monasteries were asked to dissolve. In 1526, King Sigismund I ended this development with his appearance and restored the old order.

At about 1534 settled in and around Gdansk also from the Netherlands escaped Mennonites to

Elbing and Marienburg , competitors of Gdańsk for overseas trade in Poland, pierced the river island Große Kampe in 1554 before the Vistula branched off into the (western) Vistula and Nogat. As a result, the western Vistula and its Danzig arm began to silt up, which made the further development of the Danzig port difficult. In 1555 the areas were drained again.

In 1557 Danzig, like other Polish-Prussian cities, got the right to found Protestant communities. In 1558 the Protestant grammar school was opened. Now Reformed people also founded three parishes, a German-speaking Calvinist , a Scottish Presbyterian and a Dutch religious refugee.

Lublin Union

Gdansk was the only city that did not join the Union of Lublin of 1569 between Poland, Lithuania and Polish-Prussia. When Stephan Báthory was elected King of Poland in 1575 , Danzig initially refused to recognize him and declared himself in favor of Emperor Maximilian II , who guaranteed the city significant commercial advantages. Even after his death in 1576, Danzig only wanted to pay homage to King Stephen in exchange for significant concessions. Danzig was therefore besieged, but defended itself so resolutely in 1577 that the king contented himself with an apology and the payment of 200,000 guilders.

Second Northern War

Danzig around 1628
City panorama of Danzig around 1643, with orientation instructions at the bottom of the picture (can be enlarged by clicking).

While the Lutheran Senate rejected the Reformed, they were recognized by King John II Casimir in 1652 . In the Second Northern War between Sweden and Poland-Lithuania in 1656, the Swedes besieged the city by sea and land, but were driven out by troops from Poland and a fleet from the Netherlands , an ally of Poland . The Netherlands and Brandenburg-Prussia , allied with Sweden, agreed in the Elblingen Treaty on September 10, 1656, that Danzig be neutral, but without the consent of the main parties to the conflict. The Northern War ended in 1660 with the Treaty of Oliva . In 1688 Huguenots founded a fourth Reformed congregation, which in 1813, during the French occupation, became part of the German-speaking Reformed congregation.

Siege and internal battles

In 1734 Danzig was besieged by the Russians and Saxons under General Field Marshal Münnich because it had taken in King Stanislaus I. Leszczyński and, despite brave resistance, after several months of containment after several months of bombardment, forced to surrender. Soon afterwards, disputes arose between the magistrate and the citizenry, which were not passed by new legislation until 1752.

Danzig as part of the Kingdom of Prussia

Economic constriction by Prussia

With the accelerated decline of the Polish state , it became increasingly clear in the 1760s that Prussia was striving to annex Danzig. By taking diplomatic steps with the powers of Holland , Great Britain , France and Denmark interested in free trade with Poland , the city tried to protect itself against this. She also succeeded in persuading Catherine II to issue a guarantee for the "rights and privileges" of Danzig in March 1767. Above all, the Russian objection prevented Danzig from falling to Prussia with the first partition of Poland in 1772.

In 1772 Prussia annexed Pomerania . It now also controlled Neufahrwasser and the Westerplatte . This was a catastrophe for trade in the city, which is now closely surrounded by Prussian territory. Prussia used the control over the Vistula estuary to cut off the port of Danzig. It levied a duty on all incoming and outgoing ships against Danzig's objection, which in connection with the tariffs still levied by the city of Danzig made the port of Danzig unattractive. Also, let Frederick II. At Fordon impose a high tariff on all goods, the Vistula downstream towards the Gdansk were traveling. In 1783/84 the Prussian king imposed a real blockade against Danzig, which was only lifted through Russian mediation. During these years there was a dramatic decline in Gdansk trade and the associated urban industry; the city was downright impoverished. The population decreased to about 36,000.

After the death of Frederick II in August 1786, a Danzig delegation unsuccessfully sought a lessening of the economic pressure in Berlin. Conversely, at the end of 1788/90, the Prussian attempt to persuade the Polish aristocratic republic to cede Danzig (and Thorn ) against the offer of a military alliance failed . The Gdansk merchants, in particular, gradually saw a connection between the city and Prussia as inevitable.

Occupation and annexation by Prussia

After the Prussian-Russian agreement on a second partition of Poland , Danzig began with military preparations for its defense. On February 24, 1793, the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm II. Justified the now militarily prepared Prussian occupation of Danzig in a declaration by stating that the city, which "has had very little friendly sentiments towards the Prussian state for a long number of years" A source of unrest and shelter for supporters of the French Revolution . At the beginning of March 1793, Prussian troops under General von Raumer sealed off the city. In an ultimatum limited to 24 hours, Danzig was asked to hand over Weichselmünde and the fortifications on the Bischofsberg that dominated the city to the Prussian troops. While the council, ruled by the patricians, opted for acceptance of the Prussian ultimatum, the majority of the residents - not least out of fear of being forced into the Prussian army - were decidedly against it. When Prussian troops began to occupy the outer fortifications of the city on March 28, they were shelled by mutinous Gdansk troops and residents who had previously obtained weapons. There were bloody clashes with dead and injured on both sides. Riots broke out in the city, directed not only against Prussia, but also against the council and the patricians. Thereupon Mayor Reyger had the Prussian troops occupy the most important city gates on the night of March 30th. On April 4, the Prussians entered the city. On May 7, 1793, the council paid homage to the representatives of the Prussian king. At the end of May 1798 visited with Friedrich Wilhelm III. For the first time a Prussian king opened the city in which there was now a Prussian garrison of over 5,000 men.

This ended the centuries-long self-government of Danzig, which had also been defended under Polish sovereignty. The council and the three "orders" were dissolved. Prussia, however, took care to integrate the old Danzig upper class: Most of the 18 members of the magistrate formed in 1794, headed by a city president, came from Danzig and had mostly already belonged to the dissolved bodies. The Gdańsk legal system was not initially repealed. Thus the opposition to Prussian rule remained weak. An isolated attempt at insurrection prepared by a secret society founded in 1794 under the leadership of high school student Gottfried Benjamin Bartholdy was suppressed by the authorities in April 1797 without difficulty. The reconciliation with Prussian rule also contributed to the fact that trade and industry quickly recovered from the decade-long decline after 1793. Since the Vistula up to and including Warsaw fell to Prussia with the third division of Poland in 1795 , the economic hinterland of Danzig expanded enormously. The export of grain through the port of Danzig reached a level in 1802 that had not been seen since the middle of the 17th century.

Coalition wars

The year 1806 was very ruinous for Danzig. The occupation of Hanover resulted in a declaration of war by Great Britain and Sweden on Prussia. Sweden blocked the port and the Royal Navy confiscated all Prussian ships worldwide.

After the war that broke out with France began in October with a Prussian defeat in the battle of Jena and Auerstedt , Danzig armed for resistance with zeal: the 21,700-strong crew was adequately supplied, the lowland flooded and the suburbs partially demolished. At the beginning of March 1807, the French under Marshal François-Joseph Lefebvre moved in front of the city.

Despite brave defense by Governor Kalckreuth , the besiegers settled on the Zigankenberg on April 1st and took the Kalkschanze on the Vistula in the night of April 12th to 13th . It was snatched from them again, but the Danzigers felt compelled to destroy this very important work themselves. On the night of April 23rd to April 24th, the bombardment of the city began, which, after Lefebvre had unsuccessfully requested surrender on April 25th, continued with vigor. The most terrible attack by the besiegers on May 21 was repulsed, but the last supply of powder was exhausted. When the food ran out, the crew had melted down to 7,000 men, while the enemy's armed forces had grown to 60,000 with the arrival of Marshal Édouard Mortier , the city capitulated on May 24th.

On May 27, when Weichselmünde surrendered, the crew left the fortress with war honors and the obligation not to serve against France for a year . But a war tax of 20 million francs was imposed on the inhabitants, with gradual payment.

Marshal Lefebvre received the title of Duke of Danzig.

Republic of Gdansk

In the Tilsit Peace of July 9, 1807, Danzig was recognized as a free state with an area of ​​two Lieues, which by the arbitrary declaration of Napoleon I was extended from two German miles around, under the protection of France, Prussia and Saxony, but always remained a French one Governor in the garrison, and trade with England was destroyed by the continental blockade. When retreating from Russia , the French and Polish troops of the 10th French Army Corps managed to escape to the city.

At the end of January 1813 a Russian containment corps of 6,000 Cossacks appeared , which was soon replaced by a corps of 7,000 infantry and 2,500 cavalry with 60 field guns under the command of Lieutenant General von Loewis. The siege of Danzig in 1813 , which lasted over ten months and began on January 22, 1813, again brought severe hardship to the city. The most violent attacks and attacks took place on February 4th, March 5th, April 27th and, after the siege army had been reinforced on June 1st by 8,000 Prussian soldiers under Count Dohna, on July 9th. After the armistice of August 24th, Duke Alexander von Württemberg took over the supreme command of the siege army and on August 28th and 29th, September 1st, 7th and 17th and November 1st, inflicted great disadvantages on the besieged while an English squadron bombarded the city from the seaside.

Finally, on November 17th, a surrender came about, after which the garrison was to be released to France on January 1st, 1814 with the obligation not to serve against the allies for a year. However, these conditions did not receive the approval of the Emperor Alexander I , and General Jean Rapp had to accept the condition that all French were deported to Russia.

After the Congress of Vienna: incorporation into modern Prussia

Gdansk city map from 1898.

On February 3, 1814, Danzig returned under Prussian rule; whereupon the old constitution was restored. In 1816 Danzig became the seat of the government of the Danzig district , the high presidium and the royal consistory of West Prussia. However, there was no West Prussian office of spiritual director. With the 1817-powered Union Lutheran and Reformed churches in an administrative unit, the 1821 Evangelical Church in the Royal Prussian lands called Uniate national church , which was created ecclesiastical province of West Prussia. The two still existing Reformed parishes, once three, and between 1688 and the 1780s even four, with their places of worship Elisabethkirche and St. Petri und Pauli did not join the new regional church.

The district president in Gdansk chaired the consistory, as it was also responsible for school supervision at the time. However, the king appointed the previous senior of the Danzig ecclesiastical ministry as consistorial counselor in the royal consistory. In 1832 the consistory was abolished and its district was added to the one in Königsberg in Prussia .

Numerous and deeply penetrating improvements were made quickly, especially at the instigation of Ober-President von Schön. The city suffered great damage in 1829 from a breakthrough in the Vistula, in 1831 from Asian cholera and a fire in June 1858. Since 1863, the city administration has experienced a great new boom, brought about by the official activities of Mayor v. Winter. The city owes the installation of a water pipe and sewerage system to him , which were first built here on the continent. Since then, the city's health conditions have improved significantly. The only remaining Reformed congregation from 1846 onwards, the one at St. Petri and Pauli, finally joined the Evangelical Church in 1876 while maintaining its confessional status.

After the division of the former province of Prussia on July 1, 1878, Danzig became the capital of the province of West Prussia . In 1883, the division of the regional church into the church provinces of East and West Prussia was initiated and a general superintendent was appointed for the first time specifically for West Prussia . But until the restoration of the Church Province of West Prussia and the Royal Consistory of Danzig three years later, it was in Königsberg.

General Command
Dominikswall and Kaiser Wilhelm monument

Since 1881 the Infantry Regiment No. 128 , which was to bear the name of the city from 1902, was garrisoned in the city. By law of January 27, 1890, the separation of the West and East Prussian provinces was also prepared in military terms. It determined that from April 1, 1890, the entire rulership of the German Empire should consist of twenty army corps.

The AKO of February 1st, based on this, says: The XVI. and XVII. Army Corps. The latter goes to the 1st Army Inspection and, from a military point of view, covers the area of ​​the Landwehr districts: Schlawe, Stolp, Konitz, Thorn, Graudenz, Danzig, Pr. Stargard, Neustadt, Osterode, Dt. Eylau and Marienburg.

The General Command of the XVII was established in Danzig . Army Corps , the 36th Division and the 71st Infantry Brigade, which was subordinate to the 128th and the Grenadier Regiment "King Friedrich I." (4th East Prussian) No. 5 in Danzig.

City Library (1905), now Gdańsk Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences

Between 1893 and 1895, Danzig was partially defused. The ramparts and fortifications from the 16th and 17th centuries in the west - where today only the Hohe Tor is a reminder of the former city fortifications - and in the north of the city were removed, while their substance was retained in the east and south. In the area of ​​the dismantled facilities or the filled in fortress moat, new streets with representative new buildings, including the general command, the police headquarters and the city ​​library , were created directly adjacent to the old town . The new main station was also built on the leveled wall terrain by 1900. Modern functional buildings were also built in the old town during these years (such as the market hall , which has been preserved and used to the present day, on the site of the Dominican monastery, which was closed in 1835).

In 1902 the villages of Zigankenberg , Heiligenbrunn and Strieß were incorporated.

On September 21, 1903, the 14-meter-high Kaiser Wilhelm monument was unveiled in the presence of the emperor on the square in front of the Hohen Tor . It was considered a symbol of Prussian rule over Danzig. The monument consisted of a high base made of Finnish red granite with a statue of the riding emperor in field uniform with the characteristic spiked bonnet . The statue was created by the Königsberg professor and sculptor Eugen Brömel (1858–1932). The base of the base was surrounded by three allegorical bronze figures :

- Borussia - a girl with long hair and a sword in her hand as a personification of Prussia

- the Vistula - as a personification of the river

- Ægir - as the Germanic god of the sea.

A relief of the Marienburg with a barge on the Nogat was depicted above the Vistula , while at Ægir there are warships.

The technical college was opened on October 6, 1904 in the presence of the 128 and the emperor.

Economic and social development in the 19th and early 20th centuries

Since the so-called Congress Poland fell to Russia at the Congress of Vienna , but Danzig finally fell to Prussia, the city was cut off from an important part of its economic hinterland, whose agricultural products it had exported for centuries and which it had supplied with imported finished goods in return. In addition, the Prussian authorities diverted a considerable part of the remaining goods traffic coming from the upper Vistula via the Bromberg Canal to Stettin . As a result, the development of Gdańsk in the course of the 19th century lagged behind that of comparable port cities such as Szczecin and Königsberg , which led to a relative loss of importance for the city. Danzig, which at the beginning of the 19th century was the fourth largest city in Prussia, fell back to 19th place by 1910. In the 1860s, around 78,000 inhabitants, fewer people were counted than in the city's heyday in the middle of the 17th century.

Another cause of the growing economic problems were the natural boundaries of the old Gdańsk harbor on the Motława River . A further expansion or equipping with modern loading and unloading facilities was not possible due to the structural conditions. The administration refrained from deepening the Motlawa beyond 4.50 meters, as this endangered the stability of the granaries and residential buildings on the bank. In the 1860s, incoming ships sometimes had to wait longer than a week for their unloading. A steadily growing proportion of cargo handling therefore took place further north - in the Kaiserhafen on the island of Holm , which was expanded from 1901 and also used for military purposes, and above all in Neufahrwasser , which had a railway connection in 1866. The Gdansk shipowners repeatedly complained to the Prussian authorities about the slow expansion of the facilities there. Since the 1870s, the ship and tonnage stocks of the Gdansk trading houses have declined despite the growing cargo handling and an expansion of the total available port area to more than 700 hectares - from 125 sailing and steam ships with 56,000 GRT in 1870 to 21 steamers with 19,700 GRT in Year 1910. A large part of the cargo handling in the port of Danzig was now handled by shipping companies from other German ports or from abroad.

In the second half of the 19th century, modern industry also developed in Gdansk - albeit more slowly than in many other German cities of this size. At the beginning of the 20th century there were over 120 manufacturing companies, most of which had fewer than 150 workers. Only two large companies employed more than 1,000 workers. The engine of industrial development was the shipbuilding industry, the largest of which were the Schichau shipyard , the state Imperial shipyard and the Klawitter shipyard . Outside the city center, many sawmills and wood processing companies settled, especially along the so-called Dead Vistula. The largest metal works besides the shipyards were the wagon factory as well as the Prussian rifle factory and the artillery workshop (both in the Niederstadt district ). The Prussian state directed some investment to Gdansk to promote the economic development of the city. In 1912 the railway repair shop started work, employing more than 600 workers.

Danzig-Langfuhr (around 1900)

By 1914 the population of Gdańsk had grown to around 175,000. A particularly noticeable socio-spatial separation of the population emerged. Since around the 1880s, the wealthy Gdansk bourgeoisie, the officials of the Prussian provincial administration and higher-paid employees settled mainly outside the core city in suburbs such as Langfuhr and Oliva . Representative villas and apartment buildings with large, modern apartments were built here. In the old town, with its almost consistently poorer living conditions and underdeveloped sanitary facilities, mainly small craftsmen, traders and workers remained. Small, almost always overcrowded one-room apartments made up about half of the Gdansk housing stock at the beginning of the 20th century. Numerous houses in the old town were declared uninhabitable by inspection commissions, but continued to be used due to the lack of housing. The spread of disease was facilitated by the cramped and unsanitary living conditions; In 1894 there was an outbreak of cholera in Danzig . Worker suburbs such as Ohra emerged only slowly outside the former fortification ring , in which tenement houses with slightly larger apartments and a minimum of sanitary facilities were built.

Free City of Gdansk

With the entry into force of the Peace Treaty of Versailles , Danzig and its surrounding areas were separated from Germany on January 10, 1920, and declared an independent state, the Free City of Danzig , on November 15, 1920 . From February 1920 there was a British occupation force in the city, which should secure this process. The Second Polish Republic had not been successful in the negotiations in Versailles its maximum demand in terms of Danzig: Poland had sought to annex the city. The construction of the “Free City” finally created by the victorious powers was primarily intended to guarantee Poland unrestricted use of the port of Danzig without integrating the city into the Polish state. Great Britain and the USA had refused an incorporation with reference to the very unfavorable nationality statistics for Poland and with reference to the “right of peoples to self-determination”; France, too, only cautiously supported direct annexation.

The Free City of Danzig was a partially sovereign state under the supervision of the League of Nations . This was represented by a permanent high commissioner in the city, who, however, had no opportunity to intervene directly in the politics of the Free City. The Free City had its own police force, but no military of its own. The status of the Free City was regulated in Articles 100 to 108 of the Versailles Treaty and further specified in the Paris Treaty (November 9, 1920) and the Warsaw Agreement (October 24, 1921). Their internal circumstances were regulated by a constitution that was finalized in 1922. The territory of the Free City consisted of the cities of Danzig and Sopot as well as the districts of Danziger Niederung , Danziger Höhe and Großes Werder . At the time of the census in 1929, 407,517 inhabitants lived on 1,892 square kilometers, 235,237 of them in the city of Gdansk.

The Polish ammunition port on the Westerplatte (today used by the Polish border guards)

Poland, which was represented in the Free City by a general commissioner, received extensive special rights. The port was administered by a “Committee for the Port and Waterways of Gdansk”, half of whose members were appointed by the Republic of Poland and the Free City of Gdansk. The Free City was included in the Polish customs area; the Gdańsk customs officers were supervised by Polish customs inspectors. With the exception of the small railways, the railway was also under Polish administration. The Polish Post Office was allowed to maintain a post office in the port. In 1924, another Polish post office was opened in the north wing of the former Danzig garrison hospital. In January 1925, against the opposition of the Danzig Senate, the Polish Post installed several mailboxes in the city of Danzig and started a regular postal service. The foreign affairs of the Free City were also handled by Warsaw, which, however, was obliged to take Gdańsk's “wishes and requests” into account. Citizens of the Free City could enter Poland without a visa, but required a Polish visa if the destination was Germany. Despite this position of influence in Gdansk, Poland pushed the expansion of the fishing village Gdynia into a trading and war port in the 1920s , creating an "artificial" competitor for the Gdansk port in the Gdansk Bay. After Danzig dockworkers refused to unload ammunition intended for Poland in the summer of 1920 during the Polish-Soviet war , Poland obtained permission from the League of Nations to house an ammunition port with storage buildings on the Westerplatte peninsula , which had previously been a seaside resort Polish administration, which also received a railway connection. To protect the harbor basin and the stored ammunition, Poland was allowed to maintain a small garrison without heavy weapons on the Westerplatte, which continued to belong to the territory of the Free City, but was now de facto controlled by Poland.

The influence of German government agencies in the Free City was particularly evident through the Consulate General, which was opened in 1921. It exercised a kind of informal “control over the Danzig authorities”, which in any case coordinated all fundamental issues with the Foreign Office in Berlin. Funds flowed continuously to Gdansk through various channels - even during the global economic crisis - with which the "German character" of the city was to be promoted, but which increasingly also served to balance the Free City's budget To establish Gdansk in the 1920s as a “congress city”, in which meetings and congresses of German clubs and associations took place, although “neither the geographical location nor other advantages” spoke in favor of this choice of location.

The Parliament of the Free City was the People's Day with initially 120 and later - from 1930 - 72 members. The People's Day elected the government, the Senate, which consisted of the President, the Vice President and ten Senators. The first People's Day was elected on May 16, 1920. The SPD and USPD together had 51,143 votes and 40 MPs; the split in the left led to the German National People's Party becoming the strongest force with 43,206 votes and 34 seats. The independent mayor of Gdańsk Heinrich Sahm , who was close to conservative circles, was elected the first President of the Senate of the Free City of Gdańsk and remained in this office until 1931.

In a census in 1923, 95 percent of citizens stated German and four percent Polish or Kashubian as their mother tongue. Contrary to the results of the census, the Polish historian Andrzej Drzycimski estimated the proportion of people of Polish origin in Gdańsk's total population in 1923 at 16 percent. According to this census, 218,137 of the total population were religious, 130,174 Catholic, 7,282 Jewish, around 5,600 were Mennonites , 1,900 Reformed, 1,100 Baptists , 400 free religious, the rest were religious or belonged to other faiths.

Mother tongue of the population in the Free State according to the census of November 1, 1923
native language total German German and Polish Polish, Kashubian, Masurian Russian, Ukrainian Yiddish , Hebrew No information
Citizens of Gdańsk 335.921 327,827 1.108 6,788 99 22nd 77
Foreigners, stateless persons 30,809 20,666 521 5,239 2,529 580 1,274
total 366.730 348.493 1,629 12,027 2,628 602 1.351
percent 100% 95.03% 0.44% 3.28% 0.72% 0.16% 0.37%

The Polish minority had their own schools and a very lively association system. She was viewed with suspicion by parts of the German population and discriminated against. In addition, Kashubians and a relatively large community of Russian emigrants lived in Danzig in the interwar period . Until 1918, Gdansk was not an immigration destination for the impoverished Jewish population, but primarily for wealthy Jewish company owners and traders who moved their business from the east to Gdansk. In the post-war period, the Jewish communities grew strongly due to immigration. At the same time, Danzig was an important port of emigration for Eastern European Jews in those years: around 15,000 Jews are said to have emigrated to North America via Danzig as early as 1919/20. Around 90% of the Jews in Danzig managed to emigrate in 1939/40, the majority of the remaining Jews were expropriated and deported.

Danzig Harbor Canal in the 1930s (Neufahrwasser on the right, the Westerplatte on the left)

The port and shipyards, the backbone of Gdańsk's economy, were in a very difficult position after 1920. The shipyards were no longer allowed to build warships, which meant that the former Imperial Shipyard, which was now continued as Danziger Werft und Eisenbahnwerkstätten AG (with a British-French majority stake), was deprived of its economic basis. The directly neighboring Schichau shipyard , which was on the verge of bankruptcy for years, was continued from 1929 as F. Schichau GmbH in the majority ownership of the German Reich and the State of Prussia (with a minority stake of the Free City). The Klawitter shipyard had to close in 1931. The port of Danzig also faced major problems. Many economic connections in Danzig had been impaired or torn apart by the customs border with the German Empire. In the first post-war years, handling in the port therefore decreased significantly compared to the pre-war period. In 1920 only 1,653 ships called at the port of Danzig - around 650 fewer than in 1912. In addition, the importance of the goods traditionally handled in Danzig (especially grain and wood) decreased, while that of coal and iron ore increased. The port of Danzig was not developed for these bulk goods at the beginning of the 1920s. Since Danzig had no significant export industry of its own, its port, if it did not become a pure port of entry, had to rely on Polish export products. But since 1925 these were more and more carried out via Gdynia. The Free City tried to stop the further decline of the port through considerable investments. By 1927, 34 modern port cranes had been purchased, which significantly increased the handling capacity. In addition, between 1928 and 1930, a new harbor basin for bulk goods was constructed on the Dead Vistula south of Weichselmünde and equipped with the most modern facilities. Nevertheless, Danzig lost its position as the most heavily handled port on the Baltic Sea, which it had recaptured again in the second half of the 1920s, to Gdynia in the course of the 1930s.

After the People's Day election in May 1933 , the NSDAP also came to power in Gdansk in June with the support of the Center , which sent two representatives to the new Senate. The Senate under President Hermann Rauschning was based on an enabling law . Because of the international control of the area, the NSDAP had to come to terms with opposition parties until 1936/37 (with the exception of the Communist Party , which was banned in May 1934), which had a two-thirds majority in the People's Day elections of 1935 (despite attempts to influence the election) the National Socialists could clearly prevent. In October 1936, the Social Democratic Party of the Free City of Danzig was also banned. In the spring of 1937, the DNVP dissolved after most of its members of the people's parliament had defected to the NSDAP, which gave the NSDAP the desired two-thirds majority to amend the constitution. In May 1937, the Social Democratic MP Hans Wichmann was arrested and murdered by the political police. In October 1937, the Danzig police chief also ordered the dissolution of the Center Party. With an ordinance of November 1, 1937, the formation of new political parties in the area of ​​the Free City of Danzig was prohibited. By June 1938, the remaining members of the disbanded parties either "voluntarily" renounced their mandates or joined the NSDAP parliamentary group. Only the mandates of the members of the Polish minority were initially not touched by the Nazis. For this reason, the Nazis also decided not to hold a new election for the People's Day, since they assumed that the Polish list, which had been marginal up to then, would also receive the votes of the remaining German anti-Nazis; This potential was estimated by observers to be up to 30 percent of the voters.

While Rauschning tried to get closer to Poland as President of the Senate in 1933/34, his successor Arthur Greiser again distanced himself and led the Free City to increasing (also financially) dependence on the German Reich. Although Danzig was under the supervision of the League of Nations, after a few years the living conditions of the Jews living there were hardly better than in the Reich. The Jewish community of the Free City, which had around 11,000 members in 1933, has been in constant battle with the Senate since the NSDAP came to power, which initially did not take legal action against the Jews, but actually ousted them from state life. From 1937 onwards, the Senate turned increasingly to the so-called "Jewish question". On the night of November 12th to 13th, 1938, the Nazis staged an anti-Semitic " Kristallnacht " in Danzig .

At the end of August 1939, Gauleiter Albert Forster declared himself head of state and on September 1, 1939, after the German armed forces attacked the Polish ammunition depot on the Westerplatte, ordered Danzig to join the German Reich, in violation of international law. The German attack on the Westerplatte is seen today as the beginning of the Second World War .

Second World War

During the Second World War, the Jews in particular, but also the Polish minority in Gdansk (Jews had been systematically persecuted and disenfranchised since 1933), many lost their lives. Others, on the other hand, registered as Germans on the “people's list” and thus escaped persecution through change of nationality. For this purpose, many of these people were deported to concentration camps (such as the Stutthof concentration camp ) and murdered.

Since the beginning of the war, various satellite camps of the Stutthof concentration camp have been set up in Danzig. In today's urban area were:

Refugee march in Danzig in February 1945

In 1941 the A / B 6 pilot school was located in Danzig-Langfuhr . At the end of March 1945, Danzig was enclosed and conquered by the Red Army in the course of the Battle of East Pomerania . Large parts of the city center (consisting of the Rechtstadt, Altstadt, Vorstadt and Niederstadt) were destroyed by the fighting. During and after the invasion, the remaining houses in the inner city were looted and set on fire by the Soviet soldiers. Overall, a very large proportion of the buildings were destroyed.

In the first few months after the war, most of the Germans who remained in Danzig were expelled by the Soviet occupiers and Polish authorities. What remained was a minority of around five percent of the original urban population, mostly with Polish ancestors. The expulsion was tolerated by the Polish authorities and not, as is often wrongly assumed, “systematically” prepared. As a result of the Second World War and the Bierut Decree , property was expropriated from people of German nationality and origin. Criminal offenses committed against the German civilian population have only been prosecuted to a limited extent. Due to the suffering of the Polish population during the war and the post-war years, these events were never properly dealt with.

Post war period - Poland

The right city of Danzig and numerous monuments in the old town were reconstructed based on early modern models.

At the same time, satellite settlements were built in the suburbs such as Przymorze , especially in the 1960s . Characteristic here are the so-called wave houses - blocks of flats, some of which are several hundred meters long, made of prefabricated panels, which meander and evoke an association with the nearby sea.

In the early 1980s, the Solidarność trade union movement, led by Lech Wałęsa, began its resistance to communist rule in Poland in the Gdańsk shipyard .

View from the Long Market to the Green Gate - 2010

With the fall of the Iron Curtain , the situation of the national minorities in the Republic of Poland changed, including that of the German minority . The Association of the German Minority was founded in Gdansk in 1990 (number of members: 5,512; source: Association of the German Minority, Danzig, 2005). Soon afterwards, younger Polish Danzigers began to discover the previously hidden traces of German Danzig; this search for local identity is still going on today. The most important figures in this identity discourse include the liberal politician Donald Tusk and the writers Paweł Huelle and Stefan Chwin .

In the novel Die Blechtrommel, Günter Grass summarized the history of Danzig in a succinct way (before he traced it in more detail):

First came the Rugians , then came the Goths and Gepids , then the Kashubians, from whom Oskar is a direct descendant. Soon after, the Poles sent Adalbert from Prague . He came with the cross and was killed by Kashubes or Pruzzen with an ax.
It happened in a fishing village and the village was called Gyddanyzc. Gydannyzc was made Danczik, Danczik became Dantzig, which later spelled itself Danzig, and today Danzig is called Gdańsk. (The tin drum, Luchterhand 1959, p. 379)

literature

Source editions and complete presentations

in order of appearance
  • Daniel Gralath : An attempt at a history of Danzig from reliable sources and manuscripts . Hartung, Königsberg 1789-1891.
    • Volume 1, Königsberg 1789 ( e-copy )
    • Volume 2, Königsberg 1790 ( e-copy )
    • Volume 3, Königsberg 1791 ( e-copy ).
  • Friedrich Carl Gottlieb von Duisburg : Attempt of a historical-topographical description of the Königl. Prussia. Maritime and trading city of Gdansk . Second edition, G. Adolph Krause, Danzig 1816 ( e-copy )
  • Matthias Gotthilf Löschin : History of Danzig. 2 volumes. Danziger Verlagsgesellschaft, Klausdorf / Schwentine, 1822/1823.
  • Matthias Gotthilf Löschin : Contributions to the history of Danzig and its surroundings. Mostly from old manuscripts and publications that have become rare. Harro v. Hirschheydt, Hannover-Döhren 1837, reprint 1977
  • Theodor Hirsch and Friedrich August Vossberg : Caspar Weinreich's Danziger Chronik. A contribution to the history of Danzig, the Lands of Prussia and Poland, the Hansabund and the Nordic empires . Berlin 1855 ( e-copy ).
  • Scriptores rerum Prussicarum - The historical sources of the Prussian prehistoric times up to the fall of the monarchy ( Theodor Hirsch , Max Toeppen and Ernst Strehlke, eds.), 5 volumes, 1861–1872, Neudruck Minerva GmbH, Frankfurt / Main 1965
  • Pomeranian document book.
  • Gustav Köhler : History of the fortresses Danzig and Weichselmünde up to 1814. 2 volumes. Breslau 1893, reprint 2014 archive.org
  • Paul Simson: History of the City of Danzig until 1626 , 3 volumes. 1913–1918, new print Scientia Verlag, Aalen 1967
  • Erich Keyser: Danzig's history , 2nd edition, AW Kasemann publishing house, Danzig 1928.

Individual aspects

  • Frank Fischer: Danzig. The Broken City , Propylaeen Verlag, Berlin 2006.
  • Peter Oliver Loew: Danzig and its past, 1793 to 1997. The historical culture of a city between Germany and Poland. Fiber Verlag, Osnabrück 2003.
  • Wilhelm Brauer: Prussian settlements west of the Vistula , JG Herder-Bibliothek Siegerland eV, Siegen 1983.
  • Heinz Lingenberg : The beginnings of the Oliva monastery and the development of the German city of Danzig , Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-12-914900-7 .
  • Bohdan Szermer: Gdansk - Past and Present , Interpress Publishing House, Warsaw 1971.
  • Andrzej Zbierski: Początki Gdańska w świetle najnowszych badań (The beginnings of Gdańsk in the light of the latest research). In: Gdańsk, jego dzieje i kultura , Warsaw 1969, pp. 11–27.
  • Werner Neugebauer: New Polish research on the prehistory and early history of West Prussia , West Prussia yearbook 1953, Leer / Ostfriesland.
  • Erich Keyser: Danzig's history , 2nd edition, AW Kasemann publishing house, Danzig 1928.
  • Gustav Neumann: Geography of the Prussian State . 2nd edition, Volume 2, Berlin 1874, pp. 36-39, item 1.
  • Prussian Ministry of Finance: Results of the property and trade tax assessment in the administrative district of Danzig . Danzig 1867. See: 3. Danzig District (Stadtkreis) , pp. 1–11.
  • Karl Gustav Fabricius : Studies on the history of the Wendish Baltic countries . Volume 2: The rule of the Dukes of Pomerania in Danzig and their outcome . Schneider, Berlin 1859 ( e-copy ).
  • Theodor Hirsch: Commercial and industrial history of Danzig under the rule of the Teutonic Order , S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1858.
  • Friedrich August Vossberg : Coin history of the city of Danzig. With 12 plates illustrations . Berlin 1852 ( e-copy ).
  • Friedrich August Voßberg : Coins and seals of the Prussian cities Danzig, Elbing, Thorn, as well as the dukes of Pomerellen in the Middle Ages. With many coins and seals . Berlin 1841 ( e-copy ).
  • Goswin von Brederlow : History of the trade and industrial culture of the Baltic Sea empires in the Middle Ages up to the end of the sixteenth century with special reference to Danzig as a district town of the Hanseatic League, and the internal state relations in Prussia that developed during this time . Berlin 1820, 379 pages ( e-copy ).
  • Wilhelm Engelcke: Accurate news of the Russian-Saxon siege and bombing of the city of Dantzig. Along with a necessary appendix of their manifestos, edicts, letters, and other writings . Merian, Cöln 1735 ( e-copy ).

Web links

Wikisource: Danzig  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Beginnings of Danzig Gedanopedia (Polish)
  2. ↑ Jerzy Kmieciński: Gdańsk - geneza średniowiecznego miasta i portu. [Gdansk, Development of the Medieval City and the Port], In: Zakład archeologiczny. No. 65. 2017. pp. 133–149, here pp. 136-140, with a plan of the early settlements in Danzig (Polish, with English explanations of illustrations)
  3. ↑ From the history of the self-government of Danzig by Andrzej Jaruszajtis, especially p. 10 f. (4ff.) With chronology of urban development from 1220 to 1271; some of his views are inconsistent
  4. ↑ Johannes Voigt : History of Prussia from the earliest times to the fall of the rule of the Teutonic Order . Fourth volume: The time from the subjugation of the Prussians in 1283 to Dieterich von Altenburg's death in 1341 , Königsberg 1830, p. 215.
  5. ^ Philippe Dollinger: The Hanseatic League. Stuttgart 2012, pp. 301-302.
  6. ↑ Gerard Labuda: Danzig , in: Lexikon des Mittelalters, Vol. 3 (1986), Col. 564-565.
  7. ^ Rüdiger Ruhnau: Danzig. History of a German City, Würzburg 1971, p. 28.
  8. ^ Henryk Samsonowicz: Danzig , in: Lexikon des Mittelalters, Vol. 3 (1986), Col. 566.
  9. ↑ Marian Biskup: The German Order and the Freedoms of the Big Cities in Prussia from the 13th to the middle of the 14th century. In: Udo Arnold (Ed.): City and Order. The relationship of the Teutonic Order to the cities in Livonia, Prussia and the German Empire. Marburg 1993, p. 113.
  10. ↑ Jahnke Carsten: The Hanseatic League. Considerations on the development of the Hanseatic term and the Hanseatic League as an institution or Organization. in: Hansische Geschichtsblätter, p. 26.
  11. ^ Henryk Samsonowicz: Danzig , in: Lexikon des Mittelalters, Vol. 3 (1986), Sp. 565-566.
  12. ^ Henryk Samsonowicz: Danzig , in: Lexikon des Mittelalters, Vol. 3 (1986), Sp. 565-566
  13. ↑ on the assumption of the Kulm town charter by the towns of Pomerania see the article by: Marian Biskup: The German Order and the Freedoms of the Big Cities in Prussia from the 13th to the middle of the 14th century. in: Udo Arnold (Ed.): City and Order. The relationship of the Teutonic Order to the cities in Livonia, Prussia and the German Empire. Marburg 1993, pp. 116-118.
  14. ^ Hans Georg Siegler: Danzig. Chronicle of a Millennium, Düsseldorf 1990, pp. 27–28.
  15. ↑ Marian Biskup: The German Order and the Freedoms of the Big Cities in Prussia from the 13th to the middle of the 14th century. in: Udo Arnold (Ed.): City and Order. The relationship of the Teutonic Order to the cities in Livonia, Prussia and the German Empire. Marburg 1993, pp. 121-122.
  16. ^ Henryk Samsonowicz: Danzig , in: Lexikon des Mittelalters, Vol. 3 (1986), Col. 566.
  17. ^ Hans Georg Siegler: Danzig. Chronicle of a Millennium, Düsseldorf 1990, pp. 26–27.
  18. ^ Henryk Samsonowicz: Danzig , in: Lexikon des Mittelalters, Vol. 3 (1986), Col. 566.
  19. ^ Hans Georg Siegler: Danzig. Chronicle of a Millennium, Düsseldorf 1990, pp. 27–28
  20. ^ Rüdiger Ruhnau: Danzig. History of a German City, Würzburg 1971, p. 17.
  21. ^ Hans Georg Siegler: Danzig. Chronicle of a Millennium, Düsseldorf 1990, pp. 27–28
  22. ^ Henryk Samsonowicz: Danzig , in: Lexikon des Mittelalters, Vol. 3 (1986), Col. 566.
  23. ^ Rüdiger Ruhnau: Danzig. History of a German City, Würzburg 1971, p. 22.
  24. ^ Henryk Samsonowicz: Danzig , in: Lexikon des Mittelalters, Vol. 3 (1986), Col. 565.
  25. ^ Mennonite Lexicon , Volume 1 . 1913, p. 426 . In 1569, a Flemish Mennonite congregation was also formally established.
  26. ↑ Johannes Vogt, Geschichte Marienburgs , p. 45
  27. ↑ a b c d e Eberhard Gresch, Evangelical Reformed in (East) Prussia PDF file , Dresden: Eigenverlag, 2012, (= revised and expanded version of the article: Eberhard Gresch, “In the focus of the history of the Reformation: Evangelical Reformierte in (East) Prussia “, in: Circular letter of the Community of Protestant East Prussia , No. 1 [2011]), p. 42.
  28. ↑ See the facsimile of the declaration in Edmund Cieślak, Czesław Biernat: History of Gdańsk . 2nd edition, Gdańsk 1995, p. 293.
  29. ↑ a b cf. B. Karl Martin Plümicke : Sketched history of the siege of Danzig by the French in 1807 , Berlin 1817 ( E-copy ).
  30. ↑ a b Czesław Biernat, guide through the holdings up to 1945 / State Archives Danzig = Przewodnik po zasobie do 1945 roku / Archiwum Państwowe Gdańsku , General Directorate of the State Archives of Poland (ed.), Stephan Niedermeier (trans.), Munich: Oldenbourg, 2000 (= Writings of the Federal Institute for East German Culture and History; Vol. 16), p. 228. ISBN 3-486-56503-6 .
  31. ^ Paul Tschackert:  Taube, Emil Heinrich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 37, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1894, p. 420.
  32. ↑ see also: pl: Wilhelm I. Memorial ( Memento of the original from November 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / rzygacz.webd.pl
  33. ↑ See Edmund Cieślak, Czesław Biernat: History of Gdańsk . 2nd edition, Gdańsk 1995, p. 387.
  34. ↑ See Edmund Cieślak, Czesław Biernat: History of Gdańsk . 2nd edition, Gdańsk 1995, p. 378.
  35. ↑ State Statistical Office of the Free City of Danzig: Danziger Statistisches Taschenbuch for 1933 . Danzig 1932, p. 14.
  36. ^ Marek Andrzejewski: Opposition and Resistance in Danzig 1933 to 1939 . Bonn 1994, p. 29.
  37. ↑ See Norbert Krekeler: Right to revision and secret Ostpolitik of the Weimar Republic. Subsidizing the German minority in Poland 1919-1933 . Stuttgart 1973, pp. 145 f. (Note 71).
  38. ^ Marek Andrzejewski: Opposition and Resistance in Danzig 1933 to 1939 . Bonn 1994, p. 30.
  39. ^ According to the handbook of the history of East and West Prussia. Part 4: From the Treaty of Versailles to the end of the Second World War: 1918-1945, Lüneburg: Verlag Nordostdeutsches Kulturwerk 1997 ISBN 978-3-932267-06-2 , p. 135; on the problem of Drzycimski's estimation see Marek Andrzejewski: Opposition and Resistance in Danzig: 1933 to 1939. Bonn: Dietz 1994, ISBN 978-3-8012-4054-7 (series Political and Social History 36), p. 19: The Poles against it often emphasized the Polish influences at the mouth of the Vistula, and not infrequently they exaggerated the proportion of residents of Polish nationality in Gdansk. For example, it is difficult to agree with the Polish historian Andrzej Drzycimski when he asserted that almost a fifth of the population living in the Free City area were in fact Poles.
  40. ^ Kamila Kozlowska: The Jews in the Free City of Danzig - Integration and Exclusion Processes between 1919 and 1933 , Akademische Verlagsgemeinschaft München, 2011, ISBN 978-3-86306-705-2 , p. 50
  41. ↑ See Trude Maurer: Ostjuden in Deutschland 1918-1933 . Hamburg 1986, p. 69 f.
  42. ^ Online encyclopedia on the culture and history of Germans in Eastern Europe , University of Oldenburg
  43. ^ Marek Andrzejewski: Opposition and Resistance in Danzig 1933 to 1939 . Bonn 1994, p. 201.