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The district of Lötzen was a district in the former province of East Prussia . It existed from 1818 to 1945.

Area and inhabitants

Its total area covered 898.8 km², of which about 70% were used for agriculture , about ten percent were forest areas and about 12.5% ​​water. Of the 46 lakes, 23 were larger than 0.5 km². The three largest lakes were the Löwentinsee 24.62 km², the Kissiansee 19.50 km² and the Rheiner See 11.30 km². The great lakes are connected by navigable canals.

The district of Lötzen included the two cities on January 1, 1945

as well as 86 other communities and a manor district (forest).

The district last had 50,012 inhabitants, of which 16,288 lived in the city of Lötzen, 2,429 in the city of Rhine and a total of 31,295 in the 86 villages. Widminnen, a conveniently located market town, was the largest village in the district with 2335 inhabitants.

The remaining 86 municipalities and the forest estate district Borker Heide, part of Kr. Lötzen were combined in 19 administrative districts . Ecclesiastically, the district was divided into the Protestant parishes of Adlersdorf, Groß Stürlack, Königshöhe, Lötzen Land and Stadt, Neuhoff, Milken, Rhein, Rotwalde and Widminnen. In Lötzen there was also a Catholic parish with the St. Bruno Memorial Church. Before 1945, the Lötzen district was 93.3% Protestant .

In the referendum on July 11, 1920 , 29,378 voters voted to remain in East Prussia and 9 to join Poland, 14 votes were invalid. According to Robert Kempa, the 9 votes cast for Poland came from two Polish families who had settled in the district before World War I.

Population development
1871: 39.203
1885: 42.666
1933: 46,100
1939: 49.865

Administrative history

Kingdom of Prussia

After the reorganization of the districts in the Prussian state after the Congress of Vienna , the district of Lötzen in the administrative district of Gumbinnen was established on May 2, 1817 . The predecessor of the district of Lötzen was the district of Rhine from 1816 to 1817 , and the Rhine remained a district town until 1820. The district comprised the parishes :

The district office was in the Rhine and was relocated to Lötzen in 1820. After the merger of the Province of Prussia with West Prussia on December 3, 1829, the district belonged to the new Province of Prussia with the official seat in Königsberg i. Pr.

North German Confederation and German Empire

Since July 1, 1867, the district belonged to the North German Confederation and from January 1, 1871 to the German Empire . After the province of Prussia was divided into the new provinces of East Prussia and West Prussia, the district of Lötzen became part of East Prussia on April 1, 1878. On November 1, 1905, the Lötzen district joined the newly formed Allenstein district .

On September 30, 1929, a regional reform took place in the district of Lötzen in line with developments in the rest of Prussia, in which all previously independent manor districts were dissolved and assigned to neighboring rural communities. At the same time, the manor districts of Borken, Groß Salzig-See and Klein Hensel-See from the Sensburg district were incorporated into the Lötzen district.

During the East Prussian Operation (1945) the 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 . As far as the German population had not fled, she was largely in the aftermath of the circle area sold .

Local constitution

The district of Lötzen was initially divided into town councils, rural parishes and - until they were almost completely eliminated - into independent manor districts.

With the introduction of the Prussian Municipal Constitutional Law of December 15, 1933 and the German Municipal Code of January 30, 1935, the leader principle was enforced at the municipal level on April 1, 1935 .

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 .

District administrators

Place names

In 1938, numerous place names were Germanized in the Lötzen district. These were mostly phonetic adjustments, translations or free inventions, for example:

literature

  • Gustav Neumann : Geography of the Prussian State. 2nd edition, Volume 2, Berlin 1874, pp. 32–33, item 12.
  • Otto Barkowski: Contributions to the settlement and local history of the main office Rhine. In: Altpreussische Forschungen , Volume 11 (1934), Issue 1, pp. 197-224.
  • Max Meyhöfer: The Lötzen district. An East Prussian homeland book . Holzner, Würzburg 1961.

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ^ Robert Kempa: The northeastern part of Masuria in the plebiscite 1920 . In: Bernhart Jähnig (Hrsg.): The referendum 1920 - requirements, course and consequences . NG Elwert, Marburg 2002, ISBN 3-7708-1226-3 , p. 161 .
  2. ↑ Lötzen - the pearl of Masuria , booklet accompanying the exhibition in Lötzen. East Prussia Cultural Center , Ellingen 2012
  3. ↑ Alexander August Mützell: New topographical, statistical-geographical dictionary of the Prussian state . Volume 6, Halle 1825, p. 379.