Szczecin

Szczecin
Climate diagram
	Temperature in ° C , precipitation in mm
	Source: wetterkontor.de

Szczecin ; Szczecin
	Szczecin ; Szczecin
	Szczecin ; Szczecin
Basic data
State :	Poland
Voivodeship :	West Pomerania
Powiat :	District-free city
Area :	301.30 km²
Geographic location :	53 ° 25 ' N , 14 ° 33' E Coordinates: 53 ° 25 '29 " N , 14 ° 33' 19" E
Height :	1 m npm
Residents :	402,067 ; (Jun. 30, 2019)
Postal code :	70-018 to 71-871
Telephone code :	(+48) 91
License plate :	ZS (old: SZ, SC, SM)
Economy and Transport
Street :	DK 3 Świnoujście - Jakuszyce - CZ
	A 6 D - Kołbaskowo –Stettin– Rzęśnica
	DK 13 Szczecin - Rosówek - D
Rail route :	Wrocław – Szczecin
	Berlin – Szczecin
Next international airport :	Szczecin-Goleniów
Gmina
Gminatype:	Borough
Surface:	301.30 km²
Residents:	402,067 ; (Jun. 30, 2019)
Population density :	1334 inhabitants / km²
Community number ( GUS ):	3262011
Administration (as of 2006)
City President :	Piotr Krzystek
Address:	pl. Armii Krajowej 1 ; 70-456 Szczecin
Website :	www.szczecin.pl (city administration) ; www.szczecin.eu (official information portal )
	; ;

Szczecin ( Polish: Szczecin [ ˈʂt͡ʂɛt͡ɕin ]; listen ^?^/^I ) is the capital of the Polish West Pomeranian Voivodeship . The independent city with just under 410,000 inhabitants is the seventh largest city in Poland after Gdansk . It forms the focus of the German-Polish metropolitan area of Szczecin with around 780,000 inhabitants, which is to be developed into a European metropolitan region with around one million inhabitants.

With three state universities, the University of Szczecin , the Technical University of Szczecin and the Medical University of Szczecin , the university town is an important research and university location. In addition, numerous vocational schools, art academies and a private business school are located in Szczecin .

Historically, culturally and touristically significant landmarks of Szczecin include the Greifenschloss and St. James' Cathedral in the old town, the Philharmonic and the Hook Terrace with the National Museum . The city's best- known sports club is the Pogoń Stettin football club , and rowing is also very important .

geography

Hook terrace ( Polish Wały Chrobrego ) on the west bank of the Oder

Szczecin is located near the southern Baltic coast at the mouth of the Oder in the Stettiner Haff , about 105 km southeast of Greifswald , 125 km northeast of Berlin and 151 km southwest of Koszalin ( Köslin ). The urban area borders with its suburbs in the west on the states of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Brandenburg . This makes Szczecin the largest city in this area of Berlin, ahead of Magdeburg and Potsdam . The larger Leipzig is halfway further from Berlin.

Stettin and the Powiat Policki ( Pölitzer Kreis ), which is also west of the Oder, have belonged to Western Pomerania since the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 , but the cultural border between Western Pomerania and Western Pomerania lay further to the west. The "Stettiner Zipfel" created by the drawing of the border in 1945 had a precursor to the western expansion of Pomerania (since 1121). In the east, the urban area extends over the Oder. The part of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship to the east of the Oder comprises large parts of the historical Hinterpommern and the northern half of the former Neumark .

Traffic routes

As an old Hanseatic city, Szczecin has one of the largest seaports in the Baltic Sea region. It is u. a. It is also widely networked via the international airport Szczecin-Goleniów by air and via the Szczecin Główny train station via several railway lines.

Oder estuary

Most of the city lies on the left bank of the West Oder , which is characterized by wooded hills, especially in the north of the city. The districts of Dąbie ( Altdamm ), Podjuchy ( Podejuch ) and Kołbacz ( Colbatz ) east of the Oder are also surrounded by forest areas of the Buchheide (Puszcza Bukowa, up to 149 m above sea level ) and the Gollnower Heide (Puszcza Goleniowska).

The river valley, which is up to five kilometers wide, runs between these two compression moraines - bounded by the main arms Westoder and Ostoder (Odra Zachodnia and Odra Wschodnia). The Oder, which is divided into numerous arms with numerous river islands, extends into the urban area. Immediately south of the city begins the German-Polish international park Unteres Odertal, which consists of the Polish landscape protection park Unteres Odertal and the German national park Unteres Odertal and extends over Schwedt / Oder to near Hohensaaten .

To the north of the city center, the Oder widens to form a large inland lake, the Dammschen Lake (Jezioro Dąbie). At the level of Police ( Pölitz ) the river returns to a (very wide) bed before it widens again (Roztoka Odrzańska) and flows into the Szczecin Lagoon at Trzebież ( Ziegenort ) . The open Baltic Sea is reached at Świnoujście ( Swinemünde ) via the Kanał Piastowski ( Kaiserfahrt ) and the Swine (Świna) .

Szczecin river islands

View over the West Oder and four Oder islands: Duńczyca (Dunzig), left Wyspa Grodzka (Schlächterwiese), right the port facilities on Łasztownia (Lastadie) and Ostrów Grabowski (Grabower Werder)

In the urban area between the two main branches of the river, the Westoder (Odra Zachodnia) and the Ostoder (Odra Wschodnia) , as well as the old cross-connections Parnitz and Dunzig, there are numerous river islands:

Directly opposite the old town is the island of Lastadie (Łasztownia) , which is reached via the Most Długi (translated "Long Bridge", formerly Hansabrücke ). The Łasztownia district borders directly on the area of the seaport. The island is crossed by the Trasa Piotra Zaremby expressway without connection to its road network , which starts north of the old town as Trasa Zamkowa (Castle Route), crosses east and west or.

To the north of it, between Westoder, Duńczyca and Oder-Dunzig Canal (Kanał Grodzki), lies the small, undeveloped island Schlächterwiese (Wyspa Grodzka) .

The island of Silberwiese (Kępa Parnicka) lies south of Lastadie , surrounded by Westoder, Grünes Graben (Kanał Zielony) and Parnitz (Parnica) . The Silberwiese is fully built, and the island was formerly by the railway bridge connected to the directly opposite the main railway station, the bridge now extends only to the small Ahrens island in the West Oder. The Silberwiese is connected to Lastadie and the Neue Silberwiese by other bridges.

The Neue Silberwiese (Wyspa Zielona) adjoining to the south has only a small part of it built on, the island was created through the construction of the Parnitz piercing.

The island Vorbruch (Wyspa Pucka) lies east of the Parnitz cut-off point and is separated from the larger island of Zaleskie Łęgi by the receiving channel (Kanał Rybny) . This canal branches upriver from the Westoder to the Hafensee (Jezioro Portowe) and from this leads downriver to the Parnitz. Wyspa Pucka is only built on in the north (former Vorbruch settlement) and otherwise largely covered by allotment gardens.

Zaleskie Łęgi is the largest island of the 80 km long Międzyodrze called island area between the lower reaches of Westoder and Ostoder. It is characterized in the north by port and railway facilities on the Parnitz. This includes the Szczecin Port Centralny train station on the northernmost railway line across the Oder. This area is connected to the west bank of the Oder by the Trasa Piotra Zaremby (part of trunk road 10 ) and to the east bank by two parallel bridges. On the southern border of Szczecin, the island ends at Kanał Lesny ( transl . : forest canal ). On the north bank of the canal, the Poznań – Szczecin railway line and the Poznańska autostrade (part of trunk road 31 ) run across the island, the latter without any connection to the local road network.

North of Lastadie is the Grabower Werder (Wyspa Ostrów) , which originally had an approximately triangular shape and was bordered by Westoder, Dunzig and Möllnfahrt. Since the island is in the middle of the seaport area, the river arms were heavily modified when the harbor basins were built. So part of the Dunzig was filled in, creating a direct land connection with Lastadie. The Wroclaw Drive (Kanał Dębicki) , open to the north , thus became a dead end. The aforementioned Schlächterwiese was separated by the Oder-Dunzig Canal in the west of the island. The Dunzig-Parnitz Canal created a connection between the two arms of the river. Allotment gardens and forests are predominant in the west of Grabower Werder.

To the north of it lies the Bredower Werder (Wyspa Gryfia) , which is completely occupied by the harbor. It is surrounded by the Westoder in the west, the Grabower Fahrt (Kanał Grabowski) and the Oderfahrt (Przekop Mieleński) in the east .

The neighboring islands of Schwarzer Ort (Czarnołęka) and Großer Oderbruch (Wyspa Dębina) are already located in Dammschen Lake.

There are two more islands in the area where the Ostoder meets the Dammschen See. The northern island of Mönne was a nature reserve until 1945. In the south-western corner of the Mönne was one of the oldest bird and nature conservation stations in Germany, the Mönne Nature Observatory . On the foundation of the station building, which was destroyed in 1945, there is now a plaque commemorating the founder of the nature observatory, Paul Robien , in Polish and German . The island is now called Wyspa Paula Robiena after him .

Climate table

Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Szczecin

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Max. Temperature ( ° C )	1.3	2.8	7.2	12.6	18.4	21.6	22.8	22.6	18.6	13.1	6.9	3.0	O	12.6
Min. Temperature (° C)	−3.7	−3.1	−0.4	2.9	7.5	11.1	12.9	12.3	9.5	5.8	2.0	−1.6	O	4.6

Precipitation ( mm )	36	27	32	38	52	57	61	55	44	38	46	41	Σ	527

Hours of sunshine ( h / d )	1.3	1.8	3.7	5.2	6.6	8.3	7.6	6.8	5.6	3.2	1.2	0.9	O	4.4

Rainy days ( d )	10	7th	8th	8th	9	9	9	8th	8th	8th	10	10	Σ	104

Humidity ( % )	87	84	79	74	72	75	75	76	81	85	87	88	O	80.2

Source: wetterkontor.de

National emblem

Szczecin city flag

Blazon : "Within a golden border in blue a torn off gold-crowned, gold-armored, red griffin head with a knocked-out red tongue."

The coat of arms of the city of Szczecin shows the head of the red griffin , the heraldic animal in the coat of arms of Pomerania , with the golden crown in the blue field. The content of the coat of arms has not changed after the Second World War . The coat of arms can also be found in this official form on the city flag of Szczecin.

City structure

Outline map of Szczecin with the four districts and 37 districts

The Szczecin Town Hall used to be the seat of the Pomeranian provincial government

The city of Szczecin is divided into the four districts Śródmieście (city center), Północ (north), Zachód (west) and Prawobrzeże (right bank), which in turn are divided into 37 districts ( osiedla , literally "settlements"):

The historic city center, the old town, lies on the western bank of the Westoder. The Wilhelminian style Neustadt lies around it, with predominantly urban perimeter block development . The densely built-up inner city area occupied by these two has a diameter of about three kilometers.

The neighboring districts are more loosely developed. Beyond the Westoder are the districts of Lastadie and Silberwiese on the river islands of the same name. On the left bank is bordered to the south of the city center Pommerensdorf (Pomorzany) , west of the districts Schwarzow (Świerczewo) , Torney (Turzyn) , Braunsfelde (Pogodno) , and north Grünhof (Bolinko) and Grabow (Grabowo) . Most of these downtown districts are former villages, there are also villa colonies from the prewar period and prefabricated housing estates from the 1960s to 1980s.

There are also numerous established, incorporated villages in the outskirts. Before 1945, Stettin was the third largest city in the German Empire with an area of 460 km²; the urban area comprised numerous villages that were still quite rural. The former town of Altdamm ( Dąbie ) on the eastern bank of the Oder plays a special role in the outskirts . It has its own medieval town center and is still the center of the Szczecin urban area to the right of the Oder.

German name	Polish name	Residents	Borough	Seats in the local council
Eckerberg-Nemitz	Arkońskie-Niemierzyn	11,703	west	15th
Buchheide-Hökendorf	Bukowe-Klęskowo	14,261	Right bank of the Oder	15th
Buchholz	Bukowo	3,591	North	15th
center	Center	21,252	City center	21st
Old dam	Dąbie	13,266	Right bank of the Oder	15th
Bredow-Grabow	Drzetowo- Grabowo	17.184	City center	15th
Glambeck-Polchow	Głębokie- Pilchowo	1,232	west	15th
Frauendorf-Gotzlow	Golęcino -Gocław	3,442	North	15th
barn	Gumieńce	19,048	west	15th
rose Garden	Kijewo	3.124	Right bank of the Oder	15th
Kreckow-Brunn	Krzekowo-Bezrzecze	3,590	west	15th
West end	Łękno	3,533	City center	15th
[...]	Majowe	7,820	Right bank of the Oder	15th
Middle or pre-break	Międzyodrze-Wyspa Pucka	1,111	City center	15th
Zabelsdorf	Niebuszewo	17,678	North	15th
Zabelsdorf-Grünhof	Niebuszewo-Bolinko	22,657	City center	21st
Neustadt	Nowe Miasto	7,969	City center	15th
Wussow	Osów	3,328	west	15th
Buchholz-Mühlenbeck-Jeseritz	Płonia-Śmierdnica-Jezierzyce	3,911	Right bank of the Oder	15th
Podejuch	Podyuchy	9,063	Right bank of the Oder	15th
Braunsfelde	Pogodno	25,713	west	21st
Pommerensdorf	Pomorzany	22,186	west	21st
Scholwin	Skolwin	3,328	North	15th
[...]	Słoneczne	14,088	Right bank of the Oder	15th
Old town	Starlings Miasto	4,902	City center	15th
Stolzenhagen	Stołczyn	4,542	North	15th
City center north	Śródmieście-Północ	12,665	City center	15th
City center-west	Śródmieście-Zachód	16,256	City center	15th
Schwarzow	Świerczewo	17,017	west	15th
Torney	Turzyn	20,736	City center	21st
Warsow	Warszewo	7.184	North	15th
Augustwalde-Franzhausen	Wielgowo-Sławociesze	3,687	Right bank of the Oder	15th
Arnimswalde	Załom	3,657	Right bank of the Oder	15th
[...]	Zawadzkiego-Klonowica	13.091	west	15th
Finkenwalde	Zdroje	8,868	Right bank of the Oder	15th
Zuellchow	Żelechowa	14,013	North	15th
Sydowsaue-Klütz	Żydowce - Klucz	2,455	Right bank of the Oder	15th

Cityscape

Old town

South wing, the so-called Bogislawbau, of the Szczecin Palace , which was rebuilt after its destruction in the Second World War and has since served as a cultural center under the name "Palace of the Dukes of Pomerania".

Old Town Hall

Houses in the old town

Johanneskirche

Petrikirche , founded in 1124 as the first Christian church in Pomerania . Century renovated in the late Gothic style

The old town was only partially rebuilt after being severely damaged during the war. The area of the medieval city, which was expanded several times, lay roughly between the banks of the Oder and today's streets Dworcowa ("Bahnhofstraße", formerly Green Schanze ), aleja Niepodleglości , ("Independence Avenue ", formerly Parade Square ), plac Zołnierza Polskiego ("Square of the Polish Soldier", formerly Königsplatz ) and the new Trasa Zamkowa expressway ("Castle Route"). Numerous fallow land still characterize the cityscape in the oldest part of Szczecin. Numerous very simple houses from the 1950s stand between the old buildings that have been preserved or reconstructed according to old documents.

The castle of the Dukes of Pomerania occupies the highest point of the old town . At its feet, to the south, the bourgeois city was built. Between the Heumarkt (Rynek Sienny) and Neumarkt (Rynek Nowy) stood the Nikolaikirche and the old town hall close together . The Nikolaikirche burned down in 1811. Almost exactly in the middle of the old town stands the largest church in the city, the Gothic Jakobikirche , which has been a cathedral since 1972 .

At the medieval city walls today only reminds Siebenmäntel- or woman Tower (Baszta Siedmiu Płaszczy / Baszta Panieńska) at the northeast corner of the former urban area. The two preserved baroque fortress gates , the Berliner Tor ( Brama Portowa, "Hafentor") in the west and the Königstor ( Brama Królewska in Polish ) in the north, were only built in the course of the fortification expansion after the transition to Prussia under King Friedrich Wilhelm I. 18th century. They were designed by the Prussian fortress builder Gerhard Cornelius von Wallrave and served not only military but also representative purposes, so the inscriptions on the royal gate document the occupation of the city by Prussia.

Two more Gothic churches have been preserved, the Johanneskirche , originally the church of the Franciscan monastery , on the southern edge of the old town and the church of St. Peter and Paul in the north. In contrast, the Marienkirche between Kleiner and Großer Domstraße and the Nikolaikirche next to the old town hall on Heumarkt (Rynek Sienny) disappeared from the cityscape at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century. Between the Jakobikirche and Königstor there are several baroque city palaces, such as the former Pomeranian state parliament in Staromłyńska ("Altmühlenstrasse", formerly Luisenstrasse ), the Wolkenhauerhaus on Plac Orła Białego ("Pl. Of the white eagle", formerly Rossmarkt ), today a music college, or that former General Command, now the National Museum, on plac Żołnierza Polskiego (formerly Königsplatz ).

Neustadt

plac Grunwaldzki (Kaiser-Wilhelm-Platz)

plac Jasne Błonia (Quistorp-Aue)

After 1945, the late nineteenth Neustadt took over with their well-preserved predominantly block building instead of the almost completely destroyed the old town center of most functions. The new town was built on the initiative of the mayor of many years, Hermann Haken .

A dominant city center is not recognizable today in the new town, but you can see the area around aleja Niepodległości ("Independence Avenue ") and plac Wyzwolenia ("Liberation Square "), before the war together Paradeplatz, between Berliner Tor (today Brama Portowa "Hafentor") and the Radisson SAS hotel tower as the most important street in today's city center. The Galaxy shopping mall , the largest shopping center in the city, is located right next to the hotel building .

On the aleja Niepodległości there are some magnificent buildings from the Wilhelminian era , such as a neo-baroque building that was once built as the seat of the state bank Pomeranian Landscape , the neo-Gothic post office and several department stores.

At the Berliner Tor, the plac Zwycięstwa ("Siegesplatz", until 1945 Hohenzollernplatz ) meets the street mentioned. Representative green spaces adorn the square, in which the neo-Gothic Bugenhagenkirche (today św. Wojciecha "Adalbertkirche") rises at the western end ; today it serves as a Catholic garrison church. The neighboring, former Protestant garrison church, nowadays Herz-Jesu-Kirche (N. Serca Pana Jezusa) , was built in the Art Nouveau style from the same period .

In the southern Neustadt, between the old town and the main train station, further representative large buildings were erected before the First World War , which today, after the destruction of their urban environment, stand as solitaires in a succession of large green spaces.

North of the train station, directly on the banks of the Oder (bulwark, Bulwar Piastowski) is the main post office, a brick building in a moderate neo-renaissance . The open space to the west is called plac Tobrucki (" Tobruk Platz"). The former New Town Hall on plac Stefana Batorego (" Stephan-Báthory -Platz", formerly Town Hall Square ) was named the Red Town Hall after the Berlin model , and today it houses the facilities of the Maritime Office. The nearby former town house with its high Art Nouveau tower is now the seat of the Pomeranian Medical School (Pomorska Akademia Medyczna) .

The urban layout of the outer Neustadt is reminiscent of Parisian models, while the architecture of the individual buildings is reminiscent of Berlin. Large, straight street axes intersect at representative star squares, the most famous of which is plac Grunwaldzki (formerly Kaiser-Wilhelm-Platz ) in the north of Neustadt. The development of the individual parcels was carried out as in Berlin with front buildings, side wings and transverse buildings, creating numerous narrow backyards. The development of the Neustadt is predominantly four-story. One of the major road axes is Aleja Jedności Narodowej (formerly Kaiser-Wilhelm-Straße ), now the Town Hall stands at the end of Szczecin, formerly a country house seat of Pomerania . Behind the town hall is the Jasne Błonia ("Helle Brache", formerly Quistorp -Aue ), in which a monument to Pope John Paul II was erected during his lifetime.

To the north of the old town, between the banks of the Oder and Grabower plants, the most famous building ensemble in Szczecin, the Hakenterrasse , today Wały Chrobrego , was built between 1902 and 1921 . There are three large, monumental buildings on this embankment: the Maritime University, the City Museum (now the Theater and Maritime Museum) and the Pomeranian government building, which today still serves its original function as the seat of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship. The side of the street on the river side is adorned by two Art Nouveau pavilions and a large flight of stairs to the lower lying river.

Outer districts

The outer districts of Szczecin are criss-crossed by large green spaces. These include the main cemetery in Stettin , in the Scheune ( Polish: Gumieńce ) district on ulica Ku Słońcu ("Road to the Sun", formerly Pasewalker Chaussee ), with an area of 1.7 km², one of the largest cemeteries in Europe. It was created on the initiative of the aforementioned Lord Mayor Haken, who is also buried here.

The neighboring district of Pogodno to the north , the former villa colony Braunsfelde , is home to the Pogoń Szczecin football club . North of this part of the city is the Leśny Arkónski Park ("Arkona Forest Park", formerly Eckerberg Forest ), an important excursion destination. Not far from there is the beautiful jezioro Głębokie ("Deep Lake", formerly Glambecksee ) in the Leśny Głębokie Park.

Larger prefabricated housing estates are located on the western edge of Pogodno (Zawadzkiego, Somosierry) , in the south of Pogodno (Kaliny, Przyjaźni) , in Niebuszewo (Zabelsdorf, Książąt Pomorskich ) and in the southern district of Pomorzany (Wzgórze Hetmańskie) .

history

Stettin around 1580 ( Frans Hogenberg )

Szczecin around 1888

Szczecin developed from an early medieval settlement that was probably founded by the Ukranians .

The city of Szczecin emerged from a Pomoran and two neighboring German settlements, which the Pomeranian Duke Barnim I granted city rights in 1237–1243. After that, the districts grew together quickly and Szczecin became an important trading center. In 1278 it was accepted into the Hanseatic League . Duke Otto I made Stettin the royal seat of Pomerania in 1309.

In 1451 and 1464 the plague raged in the city. After the introduction of the Reformation , the first secular university in Pomerania, the Pedagogy , was founded in Szczecin . In 1570 the so-called Stettin Peace Congress took place here, which ended the Nordic Seven Years War . Duke Johann Friedrich (r. 1569–1600) expanded the castle into a residence in the Renaissance style and essentially gave it its present-day appearance. In 1637, Duke Bogislaw XIV died here as the last griffin duke .

From 1630/37 to 1713/20 Szczecin was in Swedish hands. As the seat of the Swedish provincial administration and an important fortress that secured the northernmost crossing of the Oder, it was besieged several times during the wars of the Swedish great powers. In 1659 it resisted the besiegers, but in 1677 during the Swedish-Brandenburg War , Elector Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg conquered the city, suffering severe damage, but had to surrender it again. In 1713, after the city was captured by Russian and Saxon troops in the siege of Stettin, the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm I occupied the city as a neutral power and finally acquired it through the Peace of Stockholm of 1720. The Prussians added important administrative institutions and continued to build Stettin to a fortress city. The Old Prussian Infantry Regiment No. 7 was moved to Stettin, and Stettin became a Prussian garrison town. The soldier king had the city rebuilt as a fortress, administrative and garrison city, with numerous new buildings.

During the Napoleonic Wars , the fortress of Stettin was taken without a fight by the French in 1806, who held the city until 1813.

In 1815 Stettin became the capital of the Prussian province of Pomerania . With the opening of the Stettin – Berlin railway line and the expansion of the port, the city also developed into an important industrial location. After the demolition in 1870, the city expanded through new residential areas and incorporations. In 1879 a hospital with 300 beds was opened on a hill in front of the city. Szczecin housed various administrative authorities, some of which also served as schools. The Prussian Navy established the Stettin Naval School in 1851 .

In 1909, Szczecin had three high schools, two secondary schools, two teachers' seminars, a mechanical engineering school, a building trade school, a seaman's school, a navigation school, an agricultural school, a commercial school, a midwifery school with an attached women's clinic, an institution for the deaf and dumb, and an institution for the blind. A stock exchange was available to the economy in the city .

In 1913 the foundation stone was laid for the Szczecin Bismarck Tower on the left high bank of the Oder in Stettin-Gotzlow, which was inaugurated as a memorial and observation tower in 1921 - delayed by the First World War . By resolution of the Pomeranian Provincial Parliament of 1929, the outdated and no longer expandable Provincial Midwife Training Institute and Women's Clinic in the city center (Karkutschstrasse) was converted into the Provincial Women's Clinic of the Pomeranian Province (LFK). Under the direction of the gynecologist and institute director Siegfried Stephan , a spacious new building was built for the LFK between 1929 and 1931 in a quiet suburb (Roonstrasse 7, southeast corner of Quistorppark and Westendsee). The synagogue in Stettin was destroyed in the November pogroms in 1938 .

In 1939, through the incorporation of the cities of Altdamm and Pölitz, as well as 36 other municipalities, Greater Stettin was created. The 1,000 or so Jews from Szczecin were the first on German territory to be deported by the National Socialists to the now occupied Poland : On February 12, 1940, they were arrested in the entire Pomeranian administrative district of Szczecin .

During the Second World War in 1943 and 1944, bombing raids by the Bomber Command of the Royal Air Force caused great damage, 90 percent of which fell victim to the old town, including the port area, and 70 percent of the rest of the city. On April 11, 1944, the 8th US bomber fleet carried out a daytime attack on the aircraft engine factory "Pommersche Motorenwerke GmbH" in the suburb of Arnimswalde / Załom . From April 18, 1945, the " Fortress " Stettin was immediately defended against the Red Army , but abandoned on April 25, 1945 and taken the day after by the Red Army without a fight. The war finally ended with the unconditional surrender on the 8th and 9th. May 1945.

After the end of the war, the exact course of the demarcation line between the Soviet occupation zone of Germany and the German areas in the Szczecin area placed under Polish administration was still unclear, so that the Red Army initially refrained from handing over Stettin, west of the Oder, to the Polish authorities. It set up a newly formed German administration in the city, initially from May 2, 1945 under Erich Spiegel as mayor, who was replaced on May 26, 1945 by the KPD politician Erich Wiesner . On July 5, 1945, however, Stettin was handed over to Poland by the Soviet headquarters ( see also the Schwerin Border Treaty ). (At the beginning of August, allied agreements provided for a border course “immediately west of Swinoujscie and from there along the Oder to the confluence of the western Neisse”, the Oder-Neisse line .) At the same time, the German city administration was replaced with the removal of Mayor Wiesner, and the settlement of Poles began, which was accompanied by the expulsion of the German civilian population. Some of the newly settled residents belonged to the Polish ethnic minority in areas east of the Curzon line that had fallen to the Soviet Union . Szczecin was rebuilt as the capital of the voivodeship of the same name and with the reactivation of industry, educational institutions, etc. The port was not handed over to Poland by the Soviet Union until 1955.

Workers' unrest broke out in 1970/71 and 1980 , and along with Gdańsk , Szczecin became the nucleus of the Solidarność trade union movement . In 1972 the Catholic Church made Stettin the seat of the diocese. On May 27, 1990, the first democratic local elections were held. On December 15, 1995, the founding agreement of the Pomerania Euroregion was signed in Szczecin between Polish and German partners. In 1999, as part of an administrative reform, Szczecin became the capital of the new West Pomeranian Voivodeship . Piotr Krzystek has been the city president since December 4th, 2006 . Since 2012, the agglomeration of Szczecin has been developing as a cross-border metropolitan area into a European metropolitan region following Berlin .

Place name

The place name Stetin is first found in documents from 1140 and 1223. Old Norse sources translated it at the end of the 12th century as 'Burstaborg' (and Kamień / Cammin as 'Steinsborg'). From the 15th century, the second “t” was doubled, which soon became common practice and led to Stettin . At about the same time, the city was also called Alten-Stettin more and more generally to distinguish it from Neustettin, which was founded in 1310 . Until the early 19th century the spellings were Alt-Stettin , Altstettin and Szczecin side by side applied until eventually return to the simpler Szczecin prevailed, which has since been the place name in German. The Polish city of Szczecin has been the official name of the city since May 19, 1946.

religion

Jakobikirche, west facade

Orthodox Church św. Mikołaja

The population of Szczecin, like all of Pomerania, had become Protestant with the Reformation , so that the majority of the population of Szczecin belonged to the Protestant creed until the end of the war in 1945. At the beginning of the 20th century Stettin had nine Protestant churches, of which the late Gothic Petrikirche (founded in 1124) as the first Christian church in Pomerania and the Jakobikirche (from the second half of the 14th century) are remarkable for their size. The Luther Church, St. Gertrud Church and Bugenhagen Church (still under construction in 1907) were new. There were also: an Old Lutheran and a Catholic church, four Baptist chapels and a synagogue .

Christianity

Protestant

In 1905 93.3% of the people of Szczecin were Protestant and 3.9% were Catholic. The entries about baptisms, marriages and deaths of the Protestant church members in Stettin have been available since 1603 and were recorded by the LDS church (" Mormons ") after 1920 . With the expulsion of the German population from 1945 to 1948, the Protestant era in Stettin also ended: of the former 15 municipalities, one still exists, the center of which is the former Gertrudenkirche (today: Św. Trójcy / St. Trinitatiskirche) on the Great Lastadie (today: ul. Energetyków) is. It belongs to the diocese of Breslau of the Evangelical Church of Augsburg (Lutheran) denomination in Poland , which comprises about 0.3% of the total population.

Roman Catholic

Since the majority of today's Polish residents belong to the Catholic Church , a Catholic diocese was established in 1972 with its seat in Stettin, which was elevated to the Archdiocese of Stettin-Cammin in 1992 . The Jakobikirche in the center of the city became a Catholic cathedral.

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church at Mickiewicza Street

Greek Catholic / Orthodox

Living in large numbers in Szczecin Ukrainians are predominantly of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church , but also of the Polish Orthodox Church of. The Greek Catholic Church is located on the site of the former Bethanienstift at ul. Mickiewicza. The Orthodox Church uses a new building, which is the second cathedral church of the Wroclaw-Stettin diocese.

Old Catholics

The Polish Old Catholics today use the oldest church in Szczecin and Pomerania, founded in 1124 and only slightly damaged in World War II, the Petrikirche .

Buddhists

Szczecin is also considered to be one of the centers of Buddhism in Poland . Among other things, the headquarters of the “Misja Buddyjska” (Buddhist Mission), an umbrella organization of Buddhist groups in Poland, is located here . With the opening of a “Buddhist library” as part of the Pomeranian Library by the Dalai Lama in May 2000, the importance of Szczecin was recognized. In 2005 the annual congress of the European Buddhist Union and the meeting of the “Buddhist Teachers in Europe” took place in Szczecin at the invitation of the Polish Buddhists .

Jews

The Szczecin synagogue was burned down during the Reichspogromnacht . Since June 1946 there has been a Jewish community in Stettin again, which has its own burial ground in the main cemetery.

Culture

Libraries

The Książnica Pomorska (Pomeranian Library) in Szczecin is the largest library in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship . It also has many pre-war holdings from the former Szczecin City Library, which was managed by Erwin Ackerknecht from 1905 . The brochure Treasures of the Pomeranian Library Stettin gives a good overview of the current holdings.

National Museum of Szczecin

Pomeranian Ständehaus, today the National Museum of Szczecin

After the Pomeranian Provincial Parliament moved in 1928 to the New State House (1924–1928 by Georg Steinmetz ), the owner of the old state house (1726–1729 by Gerhard Cornelius von Walrave ; also known as the Old State House), the Pomeranian Provincial Association , converted the building into a museum the collection of Pomeranian antiquities founded in 1913 by the Society for Pomeranian History and Archeology , which operated as the Pomeranian State Museum from 1934–1945 . After 1945 the former, destroyed State Museum and the barely damaged former Stettin City Museum were combined on the hook terrace to form the Museum for West Pomerania, with the Ständehaus as the main exhibition building after its reconstruction. Since 1970, both houses have formed a network under the name "National Museum Stettin". It shows art from the region, especially in the Ständehaus , while the archeology and marine departments are under construction on the hook terrace.

Candidacy as European Capital of Culture

Szczecin ran for European Capital of Culture for 2016, but the decision was ultimately made in favor of the Silesian city of Wroclaw . Szczecin could be nominated again as the cultural capital for 2029.

Local cuisine

The most famous local dishes are Szczecin patties and paprykarz szczeciński .

media

The local public television broadcaster is TVP Szczecin , there are also several private broadcasters. The most important newspapers are Głos Szczeciński and Kurier Szczeciński .

Sports

The sports club Pogoń Szczecin represents the city in handball in the first-class super league and in football in the first-class Ekstraklasa . The sports club plays the home games of the first men's soccer team in the Florian Krygier Stadium in the Pogodno district. The Arkonia Stettin sports club, which is also successful in football, but above all in water polo, has its own sports facilities in the Eckerberg Forest.

The largest athletics stadium in Szczecin is the Wiesław Maniak Stadium in the Klonowica district. With the Zbysław-Zając cycle track , Szczecin also has one of the oldest still intact open-air cycle tracks in Europe. All sports facilities are owned by the city.

Szczecin has also hosted several international sporting events, such as the European Swimming Championships and the European Volleyball Championships . Since 2014, the city has also had the Netto Arena, a multifunctional hall for athletics, gymnastics, handball, volleyball, basketball, tennis, badminton and various martial arts.

Rowing is of great national importance in Szczecin . The city is home to a performance center of the Polish Rowing Association and several rowing clubs, the members of which have already successfully won medals at world rowing championships and the Olympic Games.