Flatow district

The Flatow district within the boundaries from 1818 to 1920

The province of West Prussia until 1920

Gdansk administrative district

Marienwerder administrative district

Map of the province of Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia with district boundaries (1938)

The Flatow district , until 1939 Flatow district , was a district that existed in Prussia between 1818 and 1945 . At first it belonged to West Prussia . Its western half remained in the German Reich after the First World War , became part of the Posen-West Prussia border region and belonged to the Pomerania Province from 1938 to 1945 . Today the former district is located in the Polish Voivodeships of Kuyavian-Pomeranian and Greater Poland .

Administrative history

The area of ​​the Flatow district originally belonged to the Kamin district in the Netzedistrikt , which came to Prussia after the first Polish partition in 1772 . As part of the Prussian provincial authorities ordinance of April 30, 1815 and its implementation provisions, the area around Flatow became the new administrative district Marienwerder of the new province of West Prussia . As part of the district reform in the Marienwerder administrative district on April 1, 1818, the Flatow district was founded. It was made up of the five cities of Flatow , Kamin , Krojanke , Vandsburg and Zempelburg , the office of Kamin and 98 noble estates. The seat of the district office was the city of Flatow.

From December 3, 1829 to April 1, 1878, West Prussia and East Prussia were united to form the Province of Prussia , which had belonged to the North German Confederation since July 1, 1867 and to the German Empire since January 1, 1871 .

After the First World War , when the Versailles Treaty came into force on January 10, 1920, the eastern part of the Flatow district with the cities of Vandsburg, Zempelburg and Kamin i. Wpr. ceded to Poland without a referendum for the purpose of establishing the Polish Corridor . 30,516 people lived there, 8,600 of whom were Poles. This eastern part formed the Polish powiat Sępoleński until the attack on Poland in 1939 .

On November 20, 1919, the district was subordinated to the new administrative district Grenzmark West Prussia-Posen with its seat in Schneidemühl . On January 11, 1921, the administrative district "Grenzmark West Prussia-Posen" was renamed "Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia". On July 1, 1922, the new province Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia was formed from the administrative district. At the same time, the circle around the northern tip of the former Kolmar district with the community of Schönfeld was enlarged. The new administrative district of Schneidemühl was formed on August 1, 1922, congruent with the province .

On September 30, 1929, a regional reform took place in the Flatow district, as in the rest of the Free State of Prussia , in which all manor districts except for one were dissolved and assigned to neighboring rural communities. In 1934 the Polish state government terminated the minority protection treaty between the Allies and Associated Main Powers and Poland from 1919, which affected the German population in that part of the district that had fallen to Poland in 1920. On October 1, 1938, the Flatow district was incorporated into the Pomeranian Province after the Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia province was dissolved. The administrative district of Schneidemühl was given the name "Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia" for reasons of tradition. On January 1, 1939, the Flatow district was given the designation Landkreis in accordance with the now unified regulation .

After the attack on Poland in September 1939, the part of the district ceded in 1920 was annexed by the German Reich. In the spring of 1945, the Flatow district was occupied by the Red Army . After the end of the war, the district was placed under Polish administration by the Soviet occupying power in the summer of 1945 in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement . The immigration of Poles then began in the Deutsch district, mainly from the areas east of the Curzon Line . In the following years the German population from the county sold .

Population development

The following is an overview according to number of inhabitants, denominations and language groups:

year	1821	1831	1852	1861	1871	1890	1900	1910	1925	1933	1939
Residents	28,854	36,066	52,761	58,695	63,303	65,156	65,752	69,186	41,241	40,567	39.211
Evangelical Catholics Jews	14,630 11,842 2,282	19,378 14,063 2,625	30,578 19,076 3,107	34,511 21,205 2,971	37,084 23,511 2,538	37,482 25,584 2,079	37,573 26,450 1,692	38,578 29,364 1,221	26,676 13,585 603	25,973 14,016 449	25,197 13,380 83
German-speaking, bilingual, Polish -speaking		22,012 - 14,054	38,139 - 14,622	43,758 - 14,937		47,990 825 16,328	48,081 921 16,738	50,648 1,510 17,021

With the help of extensive statistical analyzes, the historian Joachim Zdrenka drew the population development as well as the shifts between Germans and Poles as main ethnic groups and Protestants, Catholics and Jews as religious communities from the turn of the 19th to the 20th century to the end of the Second World War after. According to this, from around 30,000 members of the Wehrmacht, around 10,000, including Reich German Polish, died in World War II alone. That was just under nine percent of the local population. In the concentration camps of the Nazis, 546 Jews known by name, 64 Roma, 28 known Poles and eight Germans found by name died simultaneously in the Flatow district. Of the 2960 people of Jewish origin listed in the registry office of the Flatow district, a total of two thirds fell victim to the Holocaust.

politics

District administrators

• 1818–1825: Ferdinand August de l'Homme de Courbière (1786–1825)
• 1827–1832: Wilhelm Schirmeister
• 1832-1833: Wilkens
• 1833–1851: Bernhard Otto Curt von Beneckendorff and von Hindenburg († 1861)
• 1852– 0000: Wagner ( provisional )
• 1852– 0000: Ebmeyer ( provisional )
• 1852–1882: Benno von Weiher (1810–1882)
• 1882–1894: Alfred von Conrad (1852–1914)
• 1895–1915: Fritz von Massenbach (1861–1915)
• 1915–1916: Ludwig Bartels
• 1916–1929: Kurd Janssen (1881–1953) ( from 1919 to 1920 General Commissioner for handing over the civil administration of the parts of the district to be ceded to Poland )
• 1929–1934: Werner Snay (* 1892)
• 1934–1935: Waldemar Voege (* 1901) ( substitute )
• 1935– 0000: Lothar von Perfall ( substitute )
• 1935–1937: Friedrich Ackmann (1903–1972)
• 1943– 0000: Paul Wilke ( substitute )
• 1943– 0000: C. Knabe ( representative )
• 1943– 0000: Danzig ( provisional )

Local constitution

The Flatow district was divided into cities, rural communities and - until their almost complete dissolution in 1929 - into independent manor districts. With the introduction of the Prussian Municipal Constitutional Act of December 15, 1933, there was a uniform municipal constitution for all Prussian municipalities from January 1, 1934. With the introduction of the German municipal code of January 30, 1935, the leader principle was enforced on April 1, 1935 at the municipal level . A new district constitution was no longer created; The district regulations for the provinces of East and West Prussia, Brandenburg, Pomerania, Silesia and Saxony from March 19, 1881 continued to apply.

elections

In the German Reich the circle formed Flatow together with the Schlochau the diet constituency Marienwerder 7 . The constituency was usually won by conservative candidates:

• 1871 : Botho Heinrich zu Eulenburg , German Conservative Party
• 1874 : Botho Heinrich zu Eulenburg, German Conservative Party
• 1877 : Botho Heinrich zu Eulenburg, German Conservative Party
• 1878 : Adalbert von Flottwell , German Conservative Party
• 1881 : Viktor von Tepper-Laski , Free Conservative Party
• 1884 : Wilhelm Scheffer , German Conservative Party
• 1887 : Wilhelm Scheffer, German Conservative Party
• 1890 : Wilhelm Scheffer, German Conservative Party
• 1893 : Georg von Kanitz , German Conservative Party
• 1898 : Robert Hilgendorff , German Conservative Party
• 1903 : Otto Böckler , German Reform Party
• 1907 : Fritz Wilckens , German Conservative Party
• 1912 : Wilhelm von Knigge , German Conservative Party

Districts, cities and municipalities

Cities and municipalities ceded to Poland in 1920

The following cities and municipalities belonged to the eastern half of the district, which was ceded to Poland in 1920:

Damerau Eichfelde Great Lossburg Great Lutau Great Wisniewke Gross Wöllwitz Gross Zirkwitz Green linden tree Hohenfelde Illowo Jasdrowo Jastrzembke Chimney i. Wpr. , City

Little Lutau Little Wisniewke Klein Wöllwitz Klein Zirkwitz Log booths Komierowo Lily hedge Lindebuden Lubcza New Waldau Nichors Obendorf Obkass

Pempersin Petznick Suddenly Radonsk Rogalin Salesch Schmilowo Schönhorst Schönwalde Sechau Seemark Sittnow Soßnow

Suchoronczek Sypniewo Vandsburg , city Waldau Waldowke Vilkovo Wittkau Wittun Wordel Zempelburg , city Zempelkowo

Cities and municipalities 1945

At the end of its existence in 1945, the district comprised two cities and 66 other municipalities:

Nobleman Landeck Aspenau Augustendorf Battrow Blankwitt Böck Buschdorf Conradsfelde German Fier Dobrin Espenhagen Flatow , city Friedrichsbruch Glumen Gresonse Big Butzig Great Friedrichsberg

Grunau Gursen hammer Hohenfier cap Karlsdorf Kietz Cherry village Klein Butzig Klein Friedrichsberg Kleschin Kölpin Königsdorf Krojanke , city Krummenfliess Kujan Lanken

Lessendorf Linden tree Lugetal Middle Friedrichsberg New Battrow New Butzig New Grunau Neuhof Petzin Posenberg Pottlitz Prussia field Proch Radawnitz Ruden Sakollnow Schmirdau

Schmirtenau Schwente Schönfeld Seedorf (Grenzmark) Seefelde Steinau Stone marrow Stewnitz Strasbourg Tarnowke Treuenheide Wengerz Wilhelmsbruch Wilhelmssee Wittenburg Wonzow Ziskau

The community-free forestry district Kujan also belonged to the district .

Several incorporations took place in the interwar period:

• Buntowo, 1928 to Seefelde
• Blankenfelde, to Blankwitt on October 1, 1937
• Strusendorf, on April 1, 1938 in Steinau
• Hut to Lanken on October 1, 1939

Districts

The rural parishes of the district were divided into 20 administrative districts in the 1930s. The cities of the district were free of office.

Nobleman Landeck Battrow Glumen Big Butzig Grunau

Gursen Kujan Kölpin Lanken Linden tree

Lugetal Petzin Pottlitz Radawnitz Sakollnow

Schwente Seefelde Steinau Stewnitz Tarnowke

Name changes

In the course of the 20th century, place names were considered "not German" enough in several cases and were given a phonetic alignment or translation:

• Augustowo → Augustendorf, 1914
• Cziskowo → Ziskau, 1912
• Dollnik → Wittenburg, 1926
• Glubschin → Steinau, 1926
• Hüttenbusch → Wilhelmsbruch, 1928
• Klukowo → Blankenfelde, 1928
• Leßnick → Lessendorf, 1928
• Obodowo → Obendorf, 1908
• Ossowke → Espenhagen, 1926
• Ossowo → Aspenau, 1926
• Paruschke → Treuenheide, 1926
• Petzewo → German Fier, 1926
• Podrusen → Prussia Field, 1927
• Polish Wisniewke → Lugetal, 1913
• Skietz → Kietz, 1926
• Slawianowo → Steinmark, 1933
• Smirdoro near Flatow → Schmirdau, 1909
• Smirdoro near Krojanke → Schmirtenau, 1909
• Wersk → Seedorf, 1926
• Zakrzewke → Seemark, 1907
• Zakrzewo → Buschdorf, 1935

Sponsorship

The Lower Saxony district of Gifhorn has taken on a sponsorship for the Flatow home district . Among other things, in the historical museum there, located in Gifhorn Castle, there is a Flatow home room with a small archive and book collection. New developments in recent years have led Gifhorn groups to establish friendly contacts with Polish partners in the town and district (powiat) Zlotow , the successors of the former German regional authorities.

traffic

The Flatow district was crossed by the Schneidemühl - Dirschau line of the Prussian Eastern Railway > 115.0 < since 1871 . Only 35 years later Flatow became the starting point of a branch line of the Prussian State Railroad to Vandsburg> 115.c <. Another connection followed in 1914 from the district town to Deutsch Krone with a branch in Wengerz to Jastrow> 115.f + f² <.

literature

• Gustav Neumann : Geography of the Prussian State. 2nd edition, Volume 2, Berlin 1874, pp. 56-57, item 12 books.google.de
• E. Jacobson: Topographical-statistical manual for the administrative district Marienwerder. Danzig 1868, Ortschafts-Vereichnis, pp. 2–17, books.google.de .
• Friedrich Wilhelm Ferdinand Schmitt : Topography of the Flatower circle. In: Preußische Provinzial-Blätter , other series , Volume VI, Königsberg 1854, pp. 257–289 ( books.google.de ) and pp. 432–461 ( books.google.de ), Volume VII, Königsberg 1855, pp. 42–46 ( books.google.de ) and pp. 105–118 ( books.google.de ).
• Friedrich Wilhelm Ferdinand Schmitt: The Flatow district. In all of his relationships. Thorm 1867 ( books.google.de ).
• ACA Friedrich: Historical-geographical representation of old and new Poland . Berlin 1839, p. 616.
• Goerke, Otto: The Flatow district. Represented in geographical, natural history and historical relation. [1. 1918] 2nd edition, Gifhorn 1981, with an addendum on the period from 1918 to 1945 by Manfred Vollack.
• Home book for the Flatow district - Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia - Pomerania Province . Published by the home district committee for the Flatow district with the support of the Gifhorn sponsorship group. Printing: Karl Neef oHG (Wittingen), Gifhorn 1971.
• Mathias Niendorf : Minorities on the border - Germans and Poles in the Flatow (Złotów) and Zempelburg ( Sępólno Krajeńskie ) districts 1900–1939 (dissertation, University of Kiel 1996). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1997, ISBN 3-447-03917-5 , ( perspectivia.net ).
• Michael Rademacher: German administrative history from the unification of the empire in 1871 to the reunification in 1990. Province of Pomerania - District Flatow. (Online material for the dissertation, Osnabrück 2006). 
• Gunthard Stübs and Pommersche Forschungsgemeinschaft: The Flatow district in the former province of Pomerania (2011).
• Joachim Zdrenka: Mieszkancy Ziemi Złotowskiej polegli w II wojnie światowej 1939–1945. The fallen soldiers of the Flatow district in World War II 1939–1945. In: Biblioteka Muzeum Ziemi Złotowskiej 8th Złotów 2011.
• Joachim Zdrenka: Ofiary obozów koncentracyjnych z powiatu złotowskiego. Concentration camp victims from the Flatow district. In: Biblioteka Muzeum Ziemi Złotowskiej 9. Złotów 2012.
• Joachim Zdrenka: Żydzi powiatu złotowskiego (1859–) 1874–1945. Jews of the Flatow district (1859–) 1874–1945. In: Biblioteka Muzeum Ziemi Złotowskiej 10. Złotów 2013.
• Joachim Zdrenka: Cmentarz Wojenny w Złotowie. Historia i fakty. In: Biblioteka Muzeum Ziemi Złotowskiej 11 . Zielona Góra, Złotów 2014.
• Mathias Niendorf: Minorities on the border: Germans and Poles in the Flatow (Złotów) and Zempelburg (Sępólno Krajeńskie) districts 1900–1939. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1997 ( limited preview )

Web links

• Administrative history of the Flatow district and the district administrators on the website territorial.de (Rolf Jehke), as of August 9, 2013.
• Cities and municipalities in 1910 with population figures
• Polish website for today's Flatow County - Zlotow

Individual evidence

1. ^ Friedrich Herzberg: Brief outline of the geography of the Royal Prussian States . Verlag der Buchhandlung der Königliche Realschule, Berlin 1790, p. 93 ( digitized version ).
2. ^ Max Töppen: Historisch-Comparative Geographie von Preussen . Justus Perthes, Gotha 1858, p. 354 ( digitized version ).
3. ↑ Wolfgang Bahr: Brief history of the Flatower country . In: Home book for the Flatow district - Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia - Province of Pomerania . Published by the home district committee for the Flatow district with the support of the Gifhorn sponsorship group. Print: Karl Neef oHG (Wittingen), Gifhorn 1971, pp. 37–42.
4. ↑ Leszek Belzyt: Linguistic minorities in the Prussian state from 1815 to 1914. Marburg 1998. p. 105.
5. ↑ The Big Brockhaus . 15th edition, sixteenth volume, Leipzig 1933, p. 745.
6. ^ ^{A b} Michael Rademacher: German administrative history from the unification of the empire in 1871 to the reunification in 1990. Flatow district. (Online material for the dissertation, Osnabrück 2006). 
7. ^ Mathias Niendorf : Minorities on the border. Germans and Poles in the Flatow (Złotów) and Zempelburg (Sępólno Krajeńskie) districts 1900–1939. P. 91; ( limited preview on Google Book Search ).
8. ↑ friedrich-ackmann-haus.de
9. ↑ Database of members of the Reichstag ( memento of the original from January 6, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
10. ^ Pomeranian information system: Flatow district