Pomeranian

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Pomerania (Polish Pomorze Nadwiślanie , Pomerania on the Vistula , Latin Pomerania ) is a historic landscape on the Baltic Sea coast in what is now northern Poland .

geography

It is located in today's Pomeranian Voivodeship ( Pomeranian Voivodeship ), the northern part of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship and a small part of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship .

The Vistula forms the eastern border . The western demarcation to Western Pomerania has shifted several times over the centuries due to the lack of natural obstacles. The westernmost border was on the Persante , the easternmost on the border with the Prussian province of Pomerania (after 1772). In the south, Pomerania borders the historical territories of Greater Poland and Kujawy . (In the early days the southern border of Pomerania was close to the nets ; since the conquest of Pomerania by the Teutonic Order, its southern border was further north.)

Geologically , Pommerellen consists of the ground and terminal moraine landscape of the Baltic ridge between Persante and the lower Vistula. Here is also the eastern part of the Pomeranian Lake District with the Weitsee , which merges into the Tucheler Heide to the south .

Designations

Derivation

The name "Pomeranian" derives from the Slavic po and more = by the sea . The German form Pommerellen is a diminutive of Pomerania with the suffix -elle .

Historical development

The Latin and Polish languages ​​only have one word each for the entire area between Rügen and the Vistula , but in German a distinction was usually made between Pomerania and Pomeranian .

One of the oldest surviving mentions of Pomeranians was Kdanzc in Pomerania (1148). Around 1250 a distinction was even made between Pomerania superior ( Oberpommer [elle] n ) around Danzig and Pomerania inferior Pomerania inferior ( Unterpommer [elle] n ) around Stolp . A political demarcation took place around 1300, when the state of Stolp came to the Margraviate of Brandenburg and then became part of Western Pomerania.

Since 1466 there was a Pomeranian Voivodeship (Latin Palatinatus Pomerania , Polish Województwo pomorskie ) in the Prussian part of the Kingdom of Poland . This included the area west of the Vistula to Western Pomerania. (In the Dutch atlas Theatrum Orbis Terrarum by Abraham Ortelius from the late 16th century, “Pomerella” is referred to as the province of the Prince of Pomerania (“Pomoraniae principis”) and the name erroneously also refers to the eastern bank of the Vistula. The Atlas Blaeu from 1645 separated "Pomerellia" from " Pomesania " located to the right of the Vistula .)

After Polish Prussia came to the Kingdom of Prussia in 1772 , the official name was West Prussia for all these voivodships, now with administrative districts. Pomeranian remained a historical name for an area with no official meaning.

After 1919 a Województwo pomorskie was formed again, which was translated as the Pomeranian Voivodeship . The administrative units of the same name after 1949 were officially translated by the Polish side as the Pomeranian Voivodeship , which leads to confusion for German listeners. Today's Województwo Pomorskie would have to be correctly translated as Pomeranian Voivodeship and the Vojewództwo Kujawsko-Pomorskie as Kujawsko-Pomorskie Voivodeship , since they pretty much include this historical territory.

Current usage

In the present, the name is given in the Polish language with additions such as Pomorze Nadwiślańskie ( Pomeranian on the Vistula ), “Pomorze Gdańskie” (“ Danzig Pomerania ”) or “Pomorze Wschodnie” (“East Pomerania”).

For the northern part of Pomerania there is also the ethnic name Kashubia ("Pòrénkòwô Pòmòrskô").

history

Early history

Settlement area “Magna Germania” from the Rhine to the Vistula around the year 150, according to Claudius Ptolemy (reconstructed map in an atlas from the 19th century).

Around 100 the Roman historian Publius Cornelius Tacitus named in his Germania, along with other Germanic peoples, the Goths as inhabitants of the Vistula Delta. The archaeological legacy of the Goths and other peoples living on the Vistula was named Willenberg after the place near the Nogat in East Prussia, and after 1945 the Wielbark culture . Around 200 the Germanic tribes, namely the Goths and Gepids , began to leave the Vistula region and migrate southeast to what is now Ukraine . Western Baltic branches , the ancestors of the Prussians , migrated further west, where they lived before the Goths. West Slavic tribes spread from the end of the 6th century and also came north to the Baltic Sea in the area of ​​later Pomerania. After the middle of the 10th century, the Polanen were first mentioned in western sources, a tribe closely related to the Slavic Pomeranians.

From the 9th century to the 12th century, Vikings and, following them, Danes also left their mark on the coast of Pomerania. Names like Oxhöft, Rixhöft , Heisternest and Hela ( English "heel") attest to permanent Viking trading settlements. Despite Scandinavian bases on the southern Baltic coast and a blurred settlement border between Slavic Pomorans and Baltic Prussians , the area west of the lower Vistula was largely Slavic in the 10th century.

The location at the mouth of the Vistula has always brought the area close contacts to the south. The Amber Road led since the Neolithic period from Samland on the Vistula Delta south to the Adriatic Sea . Numerous Arabic silver coins from the 8th to 10th centuries, often crushed to " hack silver ", were found in Pomerania. You may have got there through trade or booty voyages by the Vikings, as well as Slavic and even Arab traders from the Mediterranean .

Pomeranian as part of the early-piastic Polish state

Mieszko I, Prince of the Polans, Duke of Poland.

The authors of the oldest Polish chronicles made no distinction between West and East Pomerania. The Gallus Anonymus in Gniezno , Wincenty Kadłubek , Bishop of Krakow and Bogufał II. , Bishop of Posen , tell of the attempts of the Polish rulers to subdue the neighboring people of Pomerania, or to defend themselves against attacks Pomeranian. Gallus Anonymus calls the Pomeranians, who only accepted Christian doctrine under military pressure at the beginning of the 12th century , a "pagan people", comparable to the Baltic Prussians. Bogufał already knows the Pomeranian sub-tribe of the "Caszubitae", i.e. the Kashubians.

The area of ​​today's Pomerania was conquered towards the end of the 10th century by the Polish Duke Boleslaw I ; According to Richard Roepell , Danzig is said to have come under Polish sovereignty in the period 995-997 when Emperor Otto III. ruled in the Holy Roman Empire .

With the military support of the Polish ruler Bolesław “the brave” , Saint Adalbert of Prague came from Prague via Gdansk to the Prussian land in 997, where he was martyred on April 23, 997 near Fischhausen on the Baltic coast . Johannes Canaparius , a Benedictine monk , referred to Adalbert's Gdansk as “urbs”, (city), where St. Adalbert converted many Pruzzen in his biography.

When the Archbishopric of Gnesen was founded in the year 1000, during the state act of Gniezno , a bishopric in Kolberg was founded for the Pomeranian coastal region on the Baltic Sea (since 1046 in imperial files as "Pomerania") Times was mentioned. It lies at the mouth of the Persante in the Baltic Sea. The first bishop was the Saxon Reinbern , but the Kolberg diocese soon went under and was not renewed until 1972 as the Koszalin-Kołobrzeg diocese .

Gallus Anonymus speaks of the long and hard battles of the Poles against the Pomerania. Since the rule of the Kingdom of Poland (the Piasts ) over Pomerania was only nominal as a tribute rule in the course of the 11th century, the northern border of the Polish heartland was secured by the Vistula along the nets by a chain of border castles. At the end of the 11th century there were two border castles in Santok at the confluence of the Netze in the Warta , one Polish and one Pomeranian.

In the 12th century, after the Christianization of the country under the auspices of the Roman-German emperor with the help of Bolesław III. Wrymouth ruled two (Christian) noble families as rulers in Pomerania. In the western part of Pomerania around the main fortress Stettin the griffins , in the eastern part around the main fortress Gdansk the Samborids . While the griffin became a heraldic animal in western Pomerania, medieval seals in eastern Pomerania show images of rulers and eagles .. The western part became an integral part of the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of Denmark in the 12th century. The eastern part (also called Pomeranian in German) was under Polish suzerainty and sovereignty in the 12th century. Much of Poland's secular context was lost due to the decline of the seniority constitutional order, which in 1138 ushered in the age of feudal particularism . Ecclesiastically, however, the Duchy of Eastern Pomerania was still subordinate to the Diocese of Włocławek and thus the Polish Archdiocese of Gniezno .

Mestwin I was defeated in 1210 by the Danish king Waldemar II and had to take the oath of feudalism in Danzig. The Danish feudal sovereignty began here 25 years later than in western Pomerania, whose griffin dukes were imperial princes of the Holy Roman Empire.

Age of particularism and the Duchy of Pomerania

The Pomeranian dukes basically administered their land from a permanent seat. Several personalities from the local landed gentry stood by the duke's side. The names Grimislaus, Gnezota and his brother Martin, Zulis and Stropha have been handed down. The chamberlain and chancellor Heinrich was probably a German priest. The subjects were obliged to serve and serve in the army . They had to pay tithing from their catches of fish and cattle . Duke Sambor , like his father, favored the establishment of German settlers and merchants . For this he donated the St. Nicolai Chapel “in front of Danzig in the field” in 1190.

Saint Nicholas was the patron saint of the German merchants engaged in sea trade. That is why there are also large Nikolaikirchen in Lübeck , Wismar , Stralsund , Berlin , Elbing , Reval and other places. Maritime trade was already developed. First and foremost, cloth (at that time they were also a means of payment) and the essential salt were imported, mainly by Lübeck, founded in 1143. Furs, wax, honey and amber were exported. At the site of the later Long Market, stalls were built to sell the goods brought in by the ships. A jetty was built at the Koggentor, the maintenance of which was the responsibility of the Oliva monastery . In return, the monastery received a share of the customs revenue. Merchant roads led inland, one of them to Stargard and further south, the ancient Amber Road led to the Adriatic Sea. The road led to the west via Stolp and Schlawe to Kolberg . Several drivers got together for such trips, often accompanied by an armed escort. When leaving, each driver had to pay the under-chamberlain in Danzig five yards of cloth and half a mark of silver. On the continuation of the journey, an additional toll in kind was levied at every sovereign castle. It was not until around 1240 that all taxes had to be paid in cash. The sources say nothing of Pomeranian mints. No Pomeranian coins have been found either. In the course of the economic penetration of the Baltic Sea area by the Kingdom of Denmark , Danish money came from Haithabu ( Hedeby ) to the coastal areas, and the Saxon coins from the silver of the Rammelsberg near Goslar poured into Pomerania in large numbers.

The end of the house of the Samborids and the struggle to succeed them

Kingdom of Poland and Mark Brandenburg

Mestwin II with an eagle in his shield as DUX POMERANIÆ (Duke of Pomerania)
Przemysław II, a Polish duke from the Wielkopolska line of the Piasts, from 1295 King of Poland

Through the feudal letter of Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa from 1181 for the West Pomeranian Duchy of the Griffins , the West Pomeranian dukes became princes of the Holy Roman Empire . According to Friedrich von Dreger , Friedrich Barbarossa had assigned the Margraves of Brandenburg fiefdom sovereignty over Pomerania, which, however, did not border on the Mark Brandenburg at all, since the Szczecin Pomerania stretched far south between the Upper Havel and the Middle Oder since Jacza von Köpenick left it , bordered in the southeast by Silesia and in the southwest by the Margraviate of Meissen . The confirmation by Emperor Frederick II does not specify which Pomerania the privilegium liberalitatis refers to.

In 1210 King Waldemar the victor of Denmark led a campaign to Pomerania and forced Mestwin I under his suzerainty. After Swantopolk II "the great" (r. 1220-1266) was asked by Leszek I , Duke of Cracow and Princeps of Poland, in 1227, citing the Polish feudal sovereignty that existed in the 12th century, to pay tribute and his feudal obligation he responded with an attack on the Polish national assembly, in which the Polish king was killed. In the same year, the Battle of Bornhöved broke the Danish supremacy over the southern Baltic Sea, so that he ruled Pomerania completely independently from 1227. Swantopolk II enlarged his duchy to include the original West Pomeranian lands of Schlawe, Stolp and Rügenwalde . He was the first of the East Pomeranian dukes to acquire the title of dux Pomeranorum .

In Pomerania the dukes of West Pomerania were also entitled to inheritance because of existing family relationships; they led Kashubia in their title. Accordingly, in a treaty of 1264 with Mestwin II, the Pomeranian Duke Barnim I was agreed to be the heir of all his possessions in the event of his death . The rule of a dynasty, even of a single prince over two or more territories, however, did not imply equal fiefdoms of these areas, cf. Duchy of Burgundy  and Free County of Burgundy .

The duchies of Pomerania and Greater Poland (yellow) in the years 1294–1296 as part of the monarchy of King Przemysław of Poland. Areas that were lost to the Mark Brandenburg immediately after the king's death in 1296, olive, temporary losses to the Duchy of Glogau, flesh-colored

In the early phase of his rule, the last ruler of Pomerania from the Samborid line, Mestwin II , briefly allied himself with the Ascanian margraves from the Margraviate of Brandenburg against his brothers and uncles and their Pomeranian partial rule. The treaties of Arnswalde in 1269 and Dragebrücke in 1273 placed parts of his Pomeranian sovereignty under Brandenburg suzerainty, but expressly released Mestwin from military succession against the Polish duchy of Greater Poland . A little later, with the support of Bolesław the Pious , Duke of Greater Poland, he defended himself against these Brandenburgers when they refused to hand over Danzig, conquered in 1271, to him, Mestwin. Mestwin II later changed his mind and wanted to use his nephew Duke Przemysław II , the son of Bolesław the Pious, as his successor in Pomerania , with whom he was related on the feminine side. With him he concluded a "donatio inter vivos" (gift between the living) in the Treaty of Kempen on February 15, 1282 with the aim of bequeathing his duchy to him. This inheritance contract was in contrast to the previously entered contracts with the Duchy of Pomerania and the Mark Brandenburg. Brandenburg, which also claimed feudal sovereignty over the dukes of the Griffin, did not recognize this treaty. This had no immediate consequences for Duke Mestwin II and his rule. On May 18, 1282, Mestwin had to cede the land of Mewe , the Great Werder and part of the Fresh Spit to the Teutonic Order due to the arbitration award of a papal legate . Mestwin's uncle Sambor II had given this land to the order as early as 1276. In the same year, the order built the Komturschloss in Mewe and thus set foot on the left bank of the Vistula for the first time.

Mestwin died on December 25, 1294, and Duke Przemysław II tried to incorporate the Duchy of Pomerania into his sphere of influence. From 1294 he ruled over Greater Poland and Pomerania at the same time. On June 26, 1295, he was crowned King of Poland in Gniezno by Archbishop Jakub Świnka . At the beginning of February 1296, Przemysław was kidnapped by dissatisfied members of the noble families Zaremba and Nałęcz, who were influential in Greater Poland, and murdered in Rogasen on Wednesday morning, February 6th . It has been suggested that the Margraves of Brandenburg or the Duke of Bohemia, Wenceslaus II, might have stood behind the act in order to persuade the kidnapped king to make concessions .

The Bohemian Přemyslids and Władysław I. Ellenlang

Wenceslas II, a Bohemian duke from the noble family of the Přemyslids, from 1297 King of Bohemia and from 1300 as Wenceslaus (I) King of Poland (illustration from the Chronicon Aulae Regiae)

Since King Przemysław only left his daughter Rixa Elisabeth , a power struggle between Duke Władysław I Ellenlang and Wenceslaus II, Duke of Bohemia, began for his successor and the Polish kingship, which had a strong impact on the history of Pomerania. First Władysław I. Ellenlang prevailed in 1296 as heir and sovereign of Pomerania and Greater Poland. Western parts of the Duchy of Greater Poland fell to the Mark Brandenburg and Duke Heinrich von Glogau . In the medium term, however, Duke Wenceslaus II of Bohemia, who had been claiming to be a King of Poland since taking possession of the Duchy of Cracow in 1291, owing to his superior military and financial power, retained the upper hand. He drove his piastic opponent completely into exile from Poland until 1299, after which he incorporated his Polish dominions (the duchies of Pomerania, Greater Poland, Kujawia, Sieradz and Łęczyca) into his other Polish dominions in Upper Silesia and Lesser Poland .

The Polish territory and monarchy of King Wenceslas in his capacity as King of Poland in 1301. Red: direct rule as sovereign (represented by "Capitanei"). Blue: Piastic partial rulers who recognized his suzerainty. Gray, green and purple: Piastic partial rule, which in 1301 did not yet recognize him as suzerain and king of Poland.

To ensure legitimacy, Wenzel became engaged to Rixa Elisabeth and was crowned King of Poland in 1300 by Jakub Świnka in Gniezno. To further secure his rule, he asked his suzerain for the lands of the Bohemian crown, King Albrecht I , for consent to take over the Polish royal dignity, while his Polish adversary had to seek protection and acceptance abroad. Wenzel returned to Prague and was represented in the Polish (including Pomeranian) areas by "Capitanei", Starosten . He had entrusted the administration of Pomerania to the local palatine of Danzig, Swenzo . This native dynasty of the Swenzonen (pol. Święcowi), based on Neuchâtel and extensive lands in the Brahe river basin with Tuchel, had achieved size and influence.

When Wenceslaus II suddenly died in June 1305, he was followed by his 16-year-old son Wenceslaus III. on the bohemian throne. This appointed a son of old Swenzo, Peter of Neuchâtel (pol. Piotr Święca), captain of Pomerania. Duke Władysław I had already returned to Poland in 1304 with Hungarian help. From Wiślica he began to push back the Bohemian rule in Poland. Thereupon Wenceslaus III tried. for the help of the Teutonic Order. He prepared himself for a campaign against Władysław I, but was murdered in Olomouc in August 1306 . Władysław I was able to recapture his old property, the duchies of Pomerania, Kujawy, Sieradz and Łęczyca, including the Lesser Poland duchies of Kraków and Sandomir, at the turn of the years 1305/1306. Wielkopolska fell into his hands again only after a revolt of the Wielkopolska nobility against the rule of the Dukes of Glogau in 1314.

The Swenzones call the Brandenburgers, Władysław I. Ellenlang calls the Teutonic Order

Władysław I. Ellenlang, a Polish duke from the Piast line of Kujaw, king of Poland from 1320

Władysław I. Ellenlang disempowered the Swenzonen, Peter von Neuchâtel, as governor, with whom Gerward, Bishop of Włocławek , had fallen out because of outstanding Pomeranian tithe payments from his time as Bohemian provincial administrator. Since Neuchâtel, who had been kicked out of office, could not raise the required amount of money, he concluded a transfer and submission contract with Margrave Waldemar of Brandenburg in July 1307 , although he had no authorization as a "ministerial official". In the transfer agreement, the Swenzones declared themselves vassals from Brandenburg and paved the way for their new liege lords to take possession of the area of ​​the Duchy of Pomerania.

Brandenburg troops under the Margraves Otto and Waldemar occupied the strategically most important points in the summer of 1308. The then predominantly Slavic city of Danzig opened its gates to them; the Polish-Kashubian occupation of the castle, which is about 300 meters away, with the regional judge of Pommerellen Bogusza and other Kashubian officials, was able to resist. Internal problems prevented Władysław I. from giving relief to his governors in Pomerania.

On the advice of the Dominican Prior Wilhelm, who was loyal to the Polish Duke, Regional Judge Bogusza asked the Teutonic Order for help against reimbursement of the costs, with the consent of Władysław. In August 1308, Gunter von Schwarzburg , Komtur des Kulmerlandes , came to Danzig with troops, reinforced the castle's garrison and forced the Brandenburgers to withdraw in September. However, because of the reimbursement of costs, the knights got into a dispute with the Polish-Kashubian occupation, which ended in acts of violence.

Conquest by the Teutonic Order and the "Danzig Bloodbath"

Siegfried von Feuchtwangen, Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, from 1309 sovereign of Pomerania

In the meantime, under Heinrich von Plötzke , Landmeister of Prussia, a strong force had been formed. They besieged Danzig. On November 13, 1308, the city was captured by the order. 16 Kashubian knights and an unknown number of Poles and German citizens staying in the city were killed. The citizens had to destroy their houses and leave the city, the knights laid down the city fortifications. Only after two years were the citizens allowed to return and rebuild their city on the site of the “ Danzig right city ”.

Pomeranian in the 14th century as part of the Teutonic Order (German School Atlas from 1905)

The number of people killed by the Order when Danzig was captured ("Danzig Bloodbath") has been a point of contention between German and Polish historians for centuries. As early as 1310, the Polish king sued the order with the Pope. The first trial took place in Riga as early as 1310-1312 . In the Bull of Pope Clement V of June 19, 1310, Archbishop Johann von Bremen and the Canon of Ravenna, Magister Albert von Milan, were commissioned to investigate serious allegations against the Teutonic Order. These serious allegations include the allegation of the murder of over 10,000 people in the city of Gdansk.

On behalf of the Grand Master, Siegfried von Feuchtwangen , the Knights of the Order occupied large parts of Pomerania without encountering any resistance worth mentioning. The German Order of Knights then moved its Grand Master's seat from Venice to the Marienburg . Władysław I could not afford the very high war indemnity demanded by the order, and in an interview with the Landmaster of Prussia he refused to cede his rights to the Duchy of Pomerania in return for financial compensation to the order. The order bought the Brandenburg claims, which were controversial, from Margrave Waldemar in the Treaty of Soldin , 1309, for the high sum of 10,000 marks. The Duchy of Pomerania was thus divided between two German feudal states. In Brandenburg the Pomeranian states around Stolp, Schlawe, Rügenwalde and Bütow remained as fiefdoms of the Swenzonen until 1317 , the larger remainder with the main fortress of Danzig went to the Grand Master.

Pomeranian as part of the order state

Fuse

Casimir the Great, son of Władysław I. Ellenlang, from 1333 King of Poland. In 1343 he made peace with the Teutonic Order.

Władysław I. Ellenlang had reunited some of the Polish duchies (Greater Poland, Lesser Poland, Kujawy, Dobrin, Sieradz and Łęczyca) under his aegis and was crowned King of Poland in 1320. His declared aim was to wrest Pomeranian from the Teutonic Order. Advances to the Curia in Avignon had no effect. He allied himself with the order's greatest enemy, Lithuania , and married his son Casimir in 1325 to Aldona-Anna , daughter of Grand Duke Gedimin . The order, however, had allied itself with the now Luxembourg Kingdom of Bohemia, with the Margraviate of Brandenburg and with three Dukes of Mazovia.

In 1327 King Władysław I started a war against the Teutonic Order. The war consisted of mutual devastation campaigns. When an army of the order returned from eastern Wielkopolska, Ellenlang attacked it on September 27, 1331 near Płowce and destroyed one of the three divisions. The result of the battle remained undecided, even if the psychological effect of this first partial success in open field battle against the Order was considerable. Eventually the order was able to repel the Polish-Lithuanian attacks and occupy Kujawy and the Dobrin region in a powerful offensive .

Władysław died in 1333. His son, King Casimir "the Great", had to give way in the dispute. In the Treaty of Kalisch 1343 he recognized the rule of the order over Pomerania and the Kulmerland as "final". In return, the order returned the Kujawy and the Dobrin region it had occupied to the Kingdom of Poland. The renunciation was expressly confirmed by the Polish bigwigs. Casimir later still called himself "heres Pomeraniae" (Pomerania's legacy), which contradicted the provisions of the treaty. The south of the country, far from the sea, on the Net, had remained Polish. This resulted in external peace between the order and Poland for several decades.

Development

In 1309, the order immediately devoted itself to expanding the country. In the south of the Commanderies Schlochau and Konitz , the border with Poland was secured by the planned installation of German service goods and interest villages and the city ​​of Friedland was founded at the crossing over the Dobrinka on its north bank. The Pomeranian border was secured by the towns of Baldenburg and Hammerstein and by German service goods.

In the interior of the country there were numerous spiritual free float of the monasteries Oliva , Pelplin , Zarnowitz , Zuckau of the diocese of Włocławek etc. In the years 1315-1340 the Werder in the Vistula delta were diked and settled exclusively with German farmers. The Kashubian villages in the north of Pomerania were made more economically efficient by the introduction of the German hoof constitution and the granting of the kulmischen right . The three-field economy and the Schulzen constitution were introduced. Newly founded cities became focal points for inland traffic in the surrounding villages.

Danzig

Economic life in the important Hanseatic city of Gdansk

The big cities like Danzig, which because of its more favorable location, soon overtook Elbing, which was initially preferred by the order, experienced a great economic boom . King Przemysław of Poland had already given the city of Danzig the Magdeburg law instead of the original Luebian law. Grand Master Ludolf König von Wattzau granted the city in 1342 or 1343 culmic rights, of course only to the inner city, the “real” city, which was named after the “right city”. The massive walling of this city was finished as early as 1380. The tower still preserved today is a remnant of this medieval fortification. The foundation stone for the new construction of the Marienkirche , the largest church building in the Baltic Sea region, is said to have been laid in 1343. The city was already densely populated at that time. The Artus Court is mentioned for the first time in 1350. The right town hall was built purely as an administrative building around 1380 by Hinrich Ungeradin.

Danzig was a member of the Hanseatic League and became the leader of the Prussian cities towards the end of the 14th century. Long-distance trade, in spite of all the associated risks, was the basis for the city to flourish. Mainly grain, wood, ashes and tar were exported, while Flemish cloth, English wool and salt were imported, mainly from Lübeck . In the 14th century, English merchants settled in Danzig, bought property and formed a cooperative under the direction of a “governor”.

Alliance of the Prussian Federation and the Kingdom of Poland against the rule of the Teutonic Order

Władysław II. Jagiełło, Grand Duke of Lithuania, from 1386 King of Poland. In alliance with his cousin Vytautas, he won the Battle of Tannenberg in 1410 over the Teutonic Order.

The order managed its own extensive state property, the domains, from its own farms. The income from its own farms, the milling monopoly and the trade carried out by the order itself made it possible to largely forego taxes and duties.

Over the years, however, increasingly self-confident cities saw the order's proprietary trading as threatening competition. The regional meetings of the Prussian Hanseatic cities served to prepare joint action on the day trips of the Hanseatic League, but of course complaints against the order were also raised.

The foreign knights without family continuity could not establish a relationship of trust with the families of the town patricians, who had been established for generations, but also not with the rural nobility. They were perceived as arrogant. The indigenous families had no opportunity to rise to higher administrative positions in the state. There were no institutional bodies in which the affairs of the country could be discussed with the sovereigns. So there was increasing dissatisfaction in the country.

The foreign policy situation had also changed towards the end of the 14th century. The empire was weakened by the concessions that Charles IV had to make to the elector in 1376 in order to enforce the election of his son Wenceslaus as Roman-German king. The papacy had become incapable of acting as a result of the Western Schism (1378–1417). The Lithuanian Grand Duke Jogaila (pol. Jagiełło) was baptized and married the Polish Queen Hedwig of Anjou , who was crowned "King of Poland" in 1384. After he had promised to connect all of his Lithuanian and Russian lands with the crown of Poland for eternity and to regain the "lands lost to the Polish empire" - primarily Pomerania and the Kulmerland - he was chosen by the Polish nobility 1386 King of Poland. Jogaila took the name Władysław .

The order was surrounded by an overpowering enemy without being able to count on the help of the emperor or the pope. Through the Christianization of the Lithuanian heartland, the order's right to exist was also endangered. The support of the crusaders from all over Europe, who had previously supported the Teutonic Order in the Baltic States during the “ Lithuanian Wars ”, was no longer to be expected. The technique of warfare had also changed. The first firearms appeared. Armies of knights relied on the support of mercenaries, who had to be paid.

War and First Peace of Thorn

The Marienburg order castle, a symbol of the power of the Teutonic Order in the Baltic States, from 1309 the "capital" of the order

In 1409 the order began a preventive war against Poland and Lithuania, which initially went successfully for the order without any major fighting due to the occupation of the Dobrin country. During an armistice, King Wenceslaus of Bohemia , who was called on to act as arbitrator, issued an arbitration award favorable to the order on February 15, 1410, which Poland refused. After the armistice, the war began again on June 24th. It led to the battle on July 15, 1410, which was devastating for the order and which has become known in German historiography as the Battle of Tannenberg and the Poles as the Battle of Grunwald . The Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen was killed in the battle. The victorious Polish-Lithuanian army also moved into Pomerania. Many of the small towns and the country nobility paid homage to the Polish king. Only Rheden, Schwetz, Konitz and Schlochau supported the order.

The secular territory of the Teutonic Order around 1410

The victorious Poles, Lithuanians, Ruthenians and Tatars had besieged the Marienburg . The king had to break off the siege, however, because the order was approaching help from Germany, epidemics had broken out in the siege army and the Lithuanian prince Witold , a cousin of Jogaila, had withdrawn to protect his country against a threat from Livonia . The initiative quickly returned to the Order. Within 14 days of the lifting of the siege, most of the country was back in the hands of the Order.

On November 9, 1410, the successful defender of the Marienburg, Heinrich von Plauen , was unanimously elected Grand Master by the General Chapter of the Order. He was able to make peace with Poland and Lithuania on February 1, 1411 on an island near Thorn , the First Peace of Thorn . The order kept its entire old area including the Neumark and only renounced the Dobriner Land "forever". To release the numerous noble prisoners, however, the order had to pay the significant sum of 100,000 shock Bohemian groschen to the King of Poland on certain dates.

The new Grand Master cracked down with brutal severity to punish the subjects who had so quickly paid homage to the Polish king after the Battle of Tannenberg or who had started negotiations. It was worst in Danzig, whose commander was a brother of the Grand Master of the same name. He invited the two mayors Conrad Letzkau and Arnold Hecht as well as the councilman Bartel Groß, a son-in-law of Letzkau, to the castle and had them murdered there the following night without justice or judgment. After the Grand Master's intervention, the corpses were not thrown in front of the castle gate until eight days later. The citizens were immensely excited. The incident was still in Gdańsk elementary school reading books in the 1930s.

Thirteen Years War and Second Peace of Thorn

Light gray: "Teutonic Order State in Prussia" as a fiefdom of the Polish king, called Ducal Prussia from 1525;
Colored: "Prussia royal share" divided into the three voivodships Kulm , Marienburg and Pomerania and the prince-bishopric of Warmia combined in a union with the Polish crown;
Khaki: Lande Lauenburg and Bütow as pledge of the Dukes of Pomerania (political status of the year 1466)

Grand Master Heinrich von Plauen did not want to accept peace. He started arming. For this and for the payment obligations from the peace treaty, he needed money. The cities and the nobility should pay that. The situation did not improve for the country when Heinrich von Plauen was deposed in 1413. Tensions even increased again.

On February 4, 1454, the Prussian Confederation disobeyed the order and allied itself with the Kingdom of Poland against the rule of the Grand Master. A well-prepared uprising began. In a few days the greater part of the country was in the hands of the insurgents. All castles in western Prussia (Pomerania) with the exception of the main German fortresses Marienburg and Marienwerder were occupied by federal troops.

After all, the financial strength of the Teutonic Order state was too exhausted in relation to the Polish-Prussian alliance. Attempts to mediate by the mayor Castorp from Lübeck in 1463/64 failed. However, intensive negotiations by the papal legate Rudolf von Rüdesheim , Bishop of Lavant, led to success. The Second Peace of Thorn was signed on October 19, 1466. The Teutonic Order had to recognize the end of its rule over Pomerania, Ermland and Kulmerland, including the Marienburg Order Castle and the surrounding area . The rest of the secular rule of the Teutonic Order ("Teutonic Order State in [East] Prussia") became a fiefdom of the Polish kingship. The Grand Master moved his main residence from the Marienburg Order Castle to Königsberg . The area of ​​Pomerania, cities of the Prussian Confederation, especially the city ​​republics of Danzig, Elbing and Thorn, as well as the Duchy of Warmia became part of the "Prussian Royal Share" (Royal Polish Prussia). The state was a corporate state with its own assembly of estates under the sovereignty of the Polish king, but, like Grand Master zu Konigsberg, retained the German official language and extensive internal autonomy . The Polish states of Lauenburg and Bütow went as pledge to Duke Erich II of Pomerania as thanks for his support in the war against the order.

Pomeranian as “Prussian Royal Share” under the Polish crown

Sigismund II August, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, from 1569 co-founder and the first ruler of the (I). Rzeczpospolita, as well as sovereign of the autonomous Prussian royal share

From 1454/1466 onwards, the “Prussian Royal Share” was initially only linked to the Polish crown in a not clearly defined “union”. The autonomy of the "Royal Prussia" among the countries of the Polish Crown included its own state parliaments with German as the language of negotiation, its own state government (Landesrat), its own coin, the big cities' own defense sovereignty, the right of the big cities to have their own diplomatic connections with abroad entertain a Jus Indigenatus . Apart from the Principality of Warmia, the area was divided into three voivodships, of which the Pomeranian Voivodeship was the largest in terms of area.

During the equestrian war of 1519–1521 , the last grand master of the state, Albrecht von Hohenzollern , tried to break away from the supremacy of the Polish crown. The territory of Royal Prussia became a center of battles and sieges . After unsuccessful fighting, a truce was concluded between the parties in 1521 . Hochmeister Albrecht used the armistice to travel to Germany, which induced him to fundamentally change his policy. On the advice of Martin Luther , he introduced the Lutheran Reformation in his dominion in 1525 , dissolved the office of grand master and was enfeoffed by King Sigismund I "the old" in the Treaty of Krakow with the secular ducal dignity of Prussia . The Teutonic Order in Prussia was secularized in its function as a religious order and the secular rule of the "Teutonic Order in Prussia" changed as Ducal Prussia to become the first Protestant state in Europe under Polish suzerainty .

The monarchy of the House of Brandenburg-Prussia within the borders of 1701, consisting of the Electorate of Brandenburg in the Reich (on the "Kurmark" map) and the sovereign Kingdom of Prussia (on the "Duchy of Prussia" map). Both members of the state, the Kurmark and Kgr. Prussia, were territorially separated from each other by Polish Prussians until 1772.

Against the background of the extinction of the ruling Polish-Lithuanian dynasty of the male Jagiellonian line (1572), the estates of Poland and Lithuania, headed by King and Grand Duke Sigismund II August, decided to introduce an elective monarchy in both states, as well as the merger of the Kingdom of Poland, Royal Prussia and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to the I. Rzeczpospolita . In the Real Union in Lublin , 1569, the states previously ruled in a loose personal union by a common ruler, but legally independent from one another, changed into a dualistic union state with common state institutions . The resistance was broken with violence, for example by the imprisonment of the Danzig embassy, ​​etc. a. with Albrecht Giese . The first freely elected ruler of Poland-Lithuania (I. Rzeczpospolita) was the Capetian Heinrich von Valois in 1573 .

In the Treaty of Oliva , 1660, the Elector of Brandenburg and Duke in Prussia won sovereignty over the "Duchy in Prussia" of Poland-Lithuania. In a status survey in 1701, Elector Friedrich III rose. from Brandenburg in his capacity as "Duke in Prussia" to the first sovereign "King in Prussia", thus the Hohenzollern Kingdom of Prussia arose from the "Duchy in Prussia" , which initially only included the area of ​​the later province of East Prussia without the Warmia. With his coronation, King Friedrich I of Prussia laid the foundation for the rise of the monarchy of the House of Brandenburg-Prussia to a major European power.

Pomeranian as a "West Prussia" part of Prussia

The dissolution of Poland-Lithuania through the three partitions of Poland in 1772, 1793 and 1795 by Prussia, Austria and Russia

Through the three partitions of Poland in the late 18th century, in cooperation of the Prussian King Friedrich II. "The Great" with the Russian Empress Catherine II. "The Great" in Saint Petersburg had been realized, came the from the German Teutonic Knights fallen autonomous, Until then, Prussia had a royal share under the sovereignty of the Polish crown with the Duchy of Warmia and the Netzedistrikt to the Hohenzollern Kingdom of Prussia , which until 1771 was territorially congruent with the Duchy of Prussia. The area of ​​Pomerania was incorporated into the province of West Prussia . The special regional autonomy under the Polish crown was abolished and the estates that had to fit in without contradiction within the Absolute Monarchy of the Hohenzollern were ousted. The annexation of the state had to recognize the militarily defenseless I. Rzeczpospolita under the impression of Prussian-Russian bayonets in the Treaty of Warsaw 1773 " under international law ".

In the years 1796 to 1806/1807, by resolution of the First Rzeczpospolita, the monarchy was the Hohenzollern of the Kingdom of Prussia (divided into West Prussia, East Prussia , Southern Prussia , East Prussia , New Silesia ) and the Electorate of Brandenburg in the kingdom . With the rise of the Hohenzollern State in the Second German Empire in 1871, Pommerellen was part of the German nation state until 1919.

Pomeranian as part of the Second Polish Republic

After 1919 most of West Prussia was separated from the Weimar Republic by the Treaty of Versailles without a referendum and divided into the “ Polish Corridor ” or the Free City of Danzig . In the Second Polish Republic , a Pomeranian Voivodeship was set up again with the capital Thorn .

In addition to historical, economic and, not least, power-political considerations, this was justified by the high proportion of Polish and Kashubian residents in Pomerellen and the new corridor. In 1919, 412,000 German, 433,000 Polish and 120,000 Kashubian speakers lived in Pomerania. The Polish government, whose course was determined by the National and Christian Democrats until 1926, pursued the declared goal of reducing the German population after the annexation of Pomerania. Measures were the non-recognition of citizenship, the expulsion according to the option under Article 297b of the Versailles Treaty as well as the liquidation of house and property. The emigration of Germans took place more quickly from the cities than from the rural areas. As a result, from 1921 their share was the opposite of the situation up to 1918, higher in the rural districts than in the urban districts. Their number had decreased to 105,000 by 1931.

When the Second World War broke out as a result of the attack on Poland in 1939, the second Pomeranian Voivodeship was lost and the area belonged, contrary to international law, to the Third German Reich of the National Socialists until 1945 .

Pomeranian as part of the People's Republic of Poland and the Third Polish Republic

At the end of the Second World War, the Red Army conquered Danzig with Pomeranian and handed it over to the People's Republic of Poland at the end of March 1945 . Since the end of communist one-party rule in 1989, Pomerania has belonged to the Third Polish Republic.

Pomeranian between Germans and Poles

According to the Prussian-German reading, Pomerellen and Danzig are regarded as parts of the 700-year-old Prussian unity based on the Teutonic Order , which, after 300 years of separation as an autonomous Royal Prussia , were politically "reunited" with the Hohenzollern Kingdom of Prussia from 1772 , while one always was culturally connected through the common German language and the foreign-language minorities in Prussia only played an unimportant and subordinate role in working life; Through the Germanization of numerous place names between 1772 and 1919, the historical Polish heritage was partly also symbolically destroyed. From the Polish point of view, Pomerania is considered to be the traditionally Polish part of Pomerania, which before 1309, 1454 / 1466–1772, 1919 / 1920–1939 and from 1945 onwards was politically assigned to the countries of Poland and the Polish crown, with the German-speaking aspect compared to 1454 expressed pro-Polish political will is depicted as insignificant or has been disguised by the Polonization of numerous place names.

cards

  • Pomerania (designated as M Gdansk , German Mark Danzig ) within the Duchy of Pomerania (designated as D Pomeraniæ ) on the southern Baltic coast on a map of West Slavic peoples and empires (outlined in yellow) until 1125. Pruzzia east of Pomerania was a country inhabited by the Baltic Sea .

  • Pomerania on the southern Baltic coast as part of the Teutonic Order State in the early 14th century.

  • Pommerella within the Provinces of Poland, English Map (18th Century)

  • Pomerellia west of the Vistula on a map of Prussia (Atlas Blaeu, 1645)

  • Map of Prussia including Pomeranian

literature

Recent monographs and papers
Older representations

Web links

Wiktionary: Pomeranian  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Wikivoyage: Pomeranian  Guide

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ This derivation is based on assumptions, there is no historical evidence for it. But they are plausible and very likely. see e.g. B. Pommern Pomeranian State Museum
  2. ^ Max Perlbach: Pomeranian document book. Danzig 1882. No. 2. P. 1
  3. ↑ Reinhold Cramer : History of the Lande Lauenburg and Bütow . Volume 1, Königsberg 1858, pp. 14-15
  4. ^ Friedrich Nicolai: General German Library. Volume 57, 1784, p. 511
  5. ^ August von Haxthausen : The rural constitution of the provinces of East and West Prussia . Volume 1, Koenigsberg 1839, p. 152 ; In an ordinance of the Prussian government dated October 12, 1854, a distinction is made between North Pomerelles and South Pomerelles. Reinhold Cramer : History of the Lands Lauenburg and Bütow . Volume 1, Königsberg 1858, p. 15, first footnote.
  6. ↑ For example, the Polish politician Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz wrote in the early 19th century of "our Pomerania" in contrast to the then German " Hinterpommern ",
  7. ↑ in chap. 45 of his Germania
  8. ^ Richard Roepell : History of Poland . Volume 1, Perthes, Hamburg 1840, pp. 106-107, footnote 3).
  9. ^ Friedrich Wilhelm Barthold : History of Pomerania and Rügen . Volume 2: From the conversion of Pomerania to Christianity to the death of Barnim I. i. J. 1278, Perthes, Hamburg 1840, p. 362.
  10. ^ Friederich II. Roman Kayser, enfeoffed Johannem and his brother Ottonem, seel. Marggraffen Alberti sons, with the Marck Brandenburg and the Hertzogthum Pommern, like this one to her father and the previous Marggraffen zu Brandenburg was bestowed by him and his ancestors. In: Friedrich von Dreger : Codex Pomeraniae diplomaticus. Volume I except for the year 1269 including Haude and Spener, Berlin 1768, pp. 149–152, no. LXXXVII .
  11. ↑ Codex Pomeraniae vicinarumque terrarum diplomaticus vol. 1 p. 150 Ao. 1231: … ejus privilegium liberalitatis inde concessimus inde cum ducatu Pomeraniae eidem Iohanni & Ottoni fratri suo
  12. ↑ James Minahan: One Europe, Many Nations: A Historical Dictionary of European National Groups . Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000, ISBN 0-313-30984-1 , p. 375.
  13. ^ Oskar Eggert: History of Pomerania . Hamburg 1974, ISBN 3-9800036 , p. 107.
  14. ↑ Jacob Paul von Gundling : Pomeranian Atlas or Geographical Description of the Hertduchy of Pomerania, and the local nobility from the country's documents . Potsdam 1724, p. 207.
  15. ^ Richard Roepell : Geschichte Polens , Perthes, Hamburg 1840, p. 552 ff .
  16. ↑ Duke Mestwinus II. Prescribes Hertzog Barnimo Consanguineo Suo the land of Swetz that after his death he should have and own it as well as his other rulers, if he is to come to him from his father and brother, along with his heirs. (Cammin, October 12, 1264). In: Friedrich von Dreger : Codex Pomeraniae diplomaticus. Volume I except for the year 1269 including Haude and Spener, Berlin 1768, pp. 475–478, no. CCCLXVIII.
  17. ↑ There are genealogical tables reconstructed by historians on the relationship between the Pomeranian and Pomeranian dukes, cf. B. Christian Friedrich Wutstrack : Short historical-geographical-statistical description of the royal Prussian duchy of Vor and Hinter Pomerania . Maurer, Berlin and Stettin 1793, p. 32 ff., Or a genealogical family tree published in 1773 .
  18. ↑ Stanisław MARONSKI : The tribal kinship and political relations Pomerania to Poland, to the end of the first Polish domination in Pomerania, in 1227 . Neustadt i. W. 1866 S. 22 .
  19. ^ Richard Roepell : History of Poland , Part I, Hamburg 1840, p. 558 .
  20. ↑ Hein, Max and Maschke, Erich: Preußisches Urkundenbuch, 2nd volume, p. 9 (certificate no. 13).
  21. ^ Ernst Opgenoorth: Handbook of the history of East and West Prussia. Part III: From the Reformation to the Treaty of Versailles 1807–1918 , Lüneburg 1998, p. 132.
  22. ↑ Ernst Opgenoorth (1998), Part III, p. 133.
  23. ^ Daniel Gralath : An attempt at a history of Danzig from reliable sources and manuscripts . Hartung, Konigsberg 1789. The first volume, p 29 .