District of Prussian Holland

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District area around 1910
Location in East Prussia

The district of Preussisch Holland was a Prussian district in the administrative district of Königsberg in the province of East Prussia , which existed from 1818 to 1945. It was in the west of the province, a few kilometers southeast of the West Prussian city ​​of Elbing . The seat of the district administration was the small town of Prussian Holland .

geography

The district of Pr. Holland was in the southwest of East Prussia and had an area of ​​858 km². There were two cities on its territory:

In total, the population of the district in 1939 was 34,742.

Neighboring districts were the East Prussian districts of Braunsberg in the northeast and Mohrungen in the southeast as well as the West Prussian districts of Stuhm in the southwest and Elbing in the northwest. Three rivers shaped the hilly and wooded landscape. The Passarge forms the entire eastern border, the Weeske flowed through the district from east to west, and the Sorge . In addition, the Oberland Canal cuts through the area, it flows into the Drausensee . The urban center of the region was the nearby Elbing , which is not even 20 kilometers away from Prussian Holland.

Reichsstrasse 130 Elbing– Osterode led through the district . In the north ran the Elbing – Braunsberg section of the Prussian Eastern Railway , to which the city of Mühlhausen was connected. The railway line Güldenboden - Göttkendorf with the Pr. Holland station ran in north-south direction and connected to the Prussian East Railway Berlin - Königsberg . Until the end of the 19th century, the Oberland Canal was also an important traffic route. The economic life in the district was dominated by agriculture and forestry. The poorly developed industry was located in the two cities of Pr. Holland and Mühlhausen, where wood processing, tanneries, breweries and the textile industry had settled.

history

prehistory

The area of ​​the district was inhabited by people as early as the Neolithic Age (4000 BC) and into modern times. During the Roman Empire (1st – 3rd centuries AD), Germanic tribes lived here , which were replaced by the Baltic Prussians in the course of the migration from the 6th century onwards. Tribal political landscapes emerged among them, including Pomesania . Its north-eastern part later formed the Prussian Holland district.

From 1231 the Teutonic Order began to conquer the Prussian territory from the Vistula . After the order had created by founding cities and resettlement programs, a state-like entity, he taught as administrative units Commanderies one. The later district was in the area of ​​the Commandery Elbing . After Elbing had been lost to Poland by the 2nd Thorner Peace , the city of Prussian Holland became the seat of the Commander-in-Law. Before the Prussian reorganization, there had already been a main office in Prussian Holland.

Kingdom of Prussia

Carhaben Castle around 1860, Alexander Duncker collection
Schlodien Castle around 1860, Alexander Duncker collection
Schlobitten Castle (2009)

With the Prussian "Ordinance for Improved Establishment of the Provincial Authorities" of April 30, 1815, the new district of Prussian Holland was formed on February 1, 1818 by hiving off its towns and communities from the Mohrungen district , which had existed since 1752 . It included the parishes of Blumenau, Deutschendorf, Döbern, Groß Thierbach and Quittainen, Grünhagen, Hermsdorf, Herrendorf and Schlobitten, Hirschfeld, Lauck and Ebersbach, Marienfelde, Mühlhausen, Neumark, Prussian Holland, Reichenbach, Reichwalde, Rogehnen and Schönau, Schmauch and Schönberg.

He was subordinate to the administrative district of Königsberg . The city of Prussian Holland became the seat of the District Office . Captain von Hacke was the first district administrator to serve.

The coat of arms of the circle showed a white coat of arms shield with a black cross (see German Order ), in the middle a small coat of arms with a red lion on a gold background.

Interwar period

Due to the provisions of the Versailles Treaty , most of the territory of West Prussia had to be ceded to Poland in 1920 for the purpose of establishing the Polish Corridor . In 1920 the West Prussian districts that remained in Germany were annexed to East Prussia, including Prussian Holland's neighboring districts of Elbing and Stuhm.

With effect from September 30, 1929, a territorial reform took place in the Prussian Holland district in line with developments in the rest of Prussia , in which almost all previously independent manor districts were dissolved and assigned to neighboring rural communities .

Under the rule of the National Socialists in 1936 the community of Judendorf was renamed Hermannswalde.

After the end of the Second World War

In the spring of 1945 the district was occupied by the Red Army . In the summer of 1945 the Prussian Holland district was placed under Polish administration by the Soviet occupying power in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement, along with the southern half of East Prussia and all of West Prussia . In the period that followed, the remaining German population was expelled from the district by the local Polish administrative authorities . The newly settled residents came mainly from areas east of the Curzon line . Their areas of origin in what was formerly Eastern Poland were conquered by Poland in the Polish-Soviet War (1919–1921), fell to the Soviet Union with the Soviet occupation in 1939, were occupied by the Germans during the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 and returned after the Second World War The Soviet Union.

The former county Region belongs largely to today Elbląg County ( Elbląg district ) in Allenstein ( Olsztyn ) from ruled Polish Warmia and Mazury .

Since August 2, 1953, the Steinburg district in Schleswig-Holstein has been the sponsor of the “Prussian Holland” district. A sandstone plaque on the district building reminds of this.

District administrators

Communities

The number of municipalities decreased over the years due to incorporations. In 1908 there were 173 municipalities in addition to the two cities, in 1945 the register of municipalities showed 90 municipalities without municipal rights and the Wehrmacht's remonteamt district . Prussian Holland and Mühlhausen remained the only two cities in the district until the end of its existence.

literature

  • Gustav Neumann : Geography of the Prussian State. 2nd edition, Volume 2, Berlin 1874, pp. 20-21, item 16.
  • Adolf Schlott: Topographical-statistical overview of the government district of Königsberg, according to official sources . Hartung, Koenigsberg 1861, pp 115-122.
  • Prussian Ministry of Finance: The results of the property and building tax assessment in the administrative district of Königsberg : Berlin 1966, Kreis Preußisch Holland, pp. 1–35.
  • Contributions to the customer of Prussia . Volume 2, Koenigsberg 1819, pp. 493-494.
  • WEA v. Schiegen : The newest painting of the Prussian monarchy . Vienna 1834, p. 265.

Web links

Commons : Kreis Preußisch Holland  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Foundation and development of the district community Pr. Holland