Wałcz

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Wałcz
Wałcz coat of arms
Wałcz (Poland)
Wałcz
Wałcz
Basic data
State : Poland
Voivodeship : West Pomerania
Powiat : Wałcz
Area : 38.16  km²
Geographic location : 53 ° 16 ′  N , 16 ° 28 ′  E Coordinates: 53 ° 16 ′ 0 ″  N , 16 ° 28 ′ 0 ″  E
Height : 109 m npm
Residents : 25,312
(Jun. 30, 2019)
Postal code : 78-600
Telephone code : (+48) 67
License plate : ZWA
Economy and Transport
Street : DK 10 Lubieszyn ↔ Płońsk
DK 22 Kostrzyn nad Odrą ↔ Grzechotki
Ext. 163 Kołobrzeg ↔ Wałcz
Rail route : PKP line No. 403 ( Piła – Ulikowo )
Next international airport : Poznań-Ławica
Gmina
Gminatype: Borough
Surface: 38.16 km²
Residents: 25,312
(Jun. 30, 2019)
Population density : 663 inhabitants / km²
Community number  ( GUS ): 3217011
administration
Address: Plac Wolności 1
78-600 Wałcz
Website : www.walcz.pl



Wałcz (German Deutsch Krone ) is a small town in the Polish West Pomeranian Voivodeship . It is the county seat of the Powiat Wałecki . It is also the official seat, but not part of the Gmina Wałcz (rural community Deutsch Krone) named after it .

Geographical location

The city is located in the former West Prussia on a flat ridge, embedded in a large beech forest area, about 20 kilometers northwest of Piła (Schneidemühl) , 130 kilometers east of Stettin and 140 kilometers south of Koszalin (Köslin) .

Nearby are the Radaunsee and the Schloss-See. The city is a popular destination and was formerly known as the “pearl of the border march cities”.

Radunsee
Castle lake

history

Deutsch Krone in West Prussia , southwest of Konitz and south of Neustettin in Hinterpommern , on a map from 1908
town hall
Former Protestant church
Nicholas Church
high school
school-building
Suspension bridge over the Radunsee in winter time

In a deed of donation from 1249, a village called villa Cron is mentioned. Later place names are 1303 Arnskrone , Arneskrun sive Wałcz , 1368 and 1380 Welcz , 1375 Corana or Corona , 1672 Arnes Cron and the Crone , 1766 German Crone , as names in New Polish are 1867 Wałcz and Wałęcz .

Villa Cron, mentioned in the founding deed of 1249 , was a settlement on a peninsula in the castle lake, which also bore the Slavic name Wałcz. In the contract, the site was assigned to the Knights Templar . At the beginning of the 14th century, the Askanians became owners of the area, borderland between Pomerania and Poland, later called Neumark . The jointly ruling Margraves Waldemar, Otto IV, Konrad and Johannes issued a certificate on April 23, 1303, in which the Knights of Schöningen and von Liebenthal established the town of “Arneskrone”, which was to be built next to the “Walcz” settlement , were commissioned. It was the time of the German settlement in the east . In 1307 the newly founded town was sold to the Liebenow family. After that there were repeated disputes with Poland over the Kroner Land. For the sake of peace, the Brandenburg Margrave Otto the Lazy sold it to the Poles in 1368. With this, Krone stayed with Poland for 404 years, but the Polish king assured the city that all rights granted to it when it was founded would be preserved. In the 15th century the city suffered from the ongoing fighting between Poland and the Teutonic Order . In 1407 Krone was cremated by soldiers of the order and in 1460 mercenaries of the order conquered the city and drove out the governor Hans von Wedell .

The introduction of the Reformation was also contested . First, governor von Gorka introduced Lutheran teaching in 1535, but the Poles wanted to reverse this in 1594 by appointing a Catholic pastor. They failed because of the predominantly German residents who drove out the imposed clergy. The granting of market rights on August 20, 1577 by the Polish King Stephen had a positive effect on the further development of the city. At that time, most of the inhabitants were arable farmers who worked the nearby lands. However, this meant that the city could not expand. Newly arriving settlers therefore had no choice but to settle further outside. This created a new place, which in 1590 received its own town charter under the name of New Town Wałcz. Only when the land of Krone was devastated in the Thirty Years' War and economic hardship forced it to move closer together, the two cities were united with the treaty of May 6, 1658.

By Article V of the Warsaw Treaty of 1773, the Kroner Land was transferred to Prussia . Since there is already a place called Polish Krone near Bromberg , the city was given the official name Deutsch Krone to distinguish it. With the formation of the Deutsch Krone district , the second largest in Prussia at the time, the city received its administrative center, but only had 1155 inhabitants. After the Jesuits had founded a very successful Latin school in 1665 - 200 students were taught there in 1710 - the Protestant citizens were allowed to set up their own secondary school in 1773. The Jesuit school, called Lyceum or Atheneum , was converted into a royal high school in 1781. The first own Protestant pastor was appointed in 1794, but the construction of the Protestant church did not begin until 1823. At that time the number of inhabitants had doubled to 2,500. This church became the official seat of a superintendent , whose diocese (church district) was part of the old Prussian church province of West Prussia .

Coat of arms German crown

At the beginning of the 19th century, the city was ravaged by several major fires and in 1831 by a cholera epidemic; The disease reappeared in 1848/49. However, structural advances also made themselves felt. In 1828 Deutsch Krone was connected to the Berlin – Königsberg trunk road, later Reichsstraße 1, and in 1881 the railway reached the city on the Schneidemühl – Deutsch Krone route. With the construction of further railway lines, a railway junction developed by 1898, which ensured an economic boom. Wood and metal processing companies emerged, and agricultural trade increased. The population had risen to 7,300.

After the old high school had lost the status of a grammar school in the meantime, the city had a complete grammar school again since October 1855; it stood in the same place where the Latin school founded by the Jesuits in the 17th century had last been. At the beginning of the 20th century, Deutsch Krone had a Protestant church, a Catholic church, a synagogue , a grammar school, a Catholic teachers ' college, a preparatory institute , a building trade school , a local court and commercial enterprises or companies in various branches of industry (e.g. iron foundry , mechanical engineering , Alcohol distillery , beer brewery and timber trade).

The First World War brought profound changes . The borders of Poland, newly created by the Treaty of Versailles , were to separate the areas east of the Deutsch Krone from Germany. Only after mass protests by the citizens of the affected cities was the entire district, along with eight others, back in the German Reich. It was incorporated into the new Prussian province of Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia and when it was dissolved in 1938 it became part of the province of Pomerania .

The city's borderline location created considerable economic difficulties. Due to the resettlement of the residents from the now Polish areas, around 3,000 people streamed into the city. It was not until the 1920s that several new housing estates were built, in which the newcomers found a new home. Since the city was now a border town, it was declared a fortress in 1932. The army moved in 1935 an artillery division in the city. The last German census recorded 14,941 inhabitants in 1939.

During the Second World War , several military hospitals were set up or newly built in the city and a naval training unit was stationed. In 1944 the able-bodied citizens had to work on strengthening the so-called Pomeranian position , a system of concrete bunkers and anti-tank barriers. In January 1945 the residents of Deutsch Krone were asked to leave the city. They were supposed to be taken in the city of Demmin , 200 kilometers to the west, which, however, was unable to cope with the onslaught, so that many of the refugees had to move further west.

On February 12, 1945 Deutsch Krone was occupied by the Red Army . In the summer of 1945 Deutsch Krone was placed under Polish administration by the Soviet occupying power in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement, together with all of Western Pomerania , all of West Prussia and the southern half of East Prussia . The Poles introduced the place name Wałcz for Deutsch Krone . Where German citizens had not fled, they were in the aftermath of German crown sold .

Demographics

Population development until 1945
year Residents Remarks
1783 0 1,448 including 321 Jews
1804 0 2,423 1,817 Christians and 606 Jews thereof
1810 02,254
1816 02,093 548 Protestants, 1,005 Catholics and 540 Jews
1821 02,504 including 500 Protestants
1839 03.157 thereof 1,531 Catholics, 1,100 Protestants and 526 Jews
1854 03,854
1864 05,791 including 2,732 Evangelicals and 2,675 Catholics
1875 06,064
1880 06,568
1890 06,964 of which 3,426 Protestants, 3,044 Catholics and 492 Jews
1900 07,278 half Catholic
1905 07,516
1925 10,580 mostly Protestants, 4,530 Catholics and 240 Israelites
1933 10,762 of which 5,957 Protestants, 4,555 Catholics and 232 Jews
1939 13,359 of which 7,900 Protestants, 5,175 Catholics, nine other Christians and 56 Jews
Population since the end of the Second World War
year Residents
2010 25,942

Town twinning

  • Bad Essen (Germany, Lower Saxony)
  • Bailleul (France, Nord department)
  • Demmin (Germany, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania)
  • Kyritz (Germany, Brandenburg)
  • Werne (Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia)

The cities of Bailleul, Kyritz, Wałcz and Werne have all entered into partnerships with each other.

Personalities

Sons and daughters of the place

Associated with Deutsch Krone / Wałcz

  • Hermann Löns (1866–1914), German journalist and writer, lived in his youth from 1867 to 1884 in Deutsch-Krone, where his father was a high school teacher (memorial plaque on Ul. Bankowa 21)
  • Ernst Sauer (1799–1873), German organ builder, ran an organ workshop in Deutsch Krone
  • Karl Theodor Wilhelm Weierstraß (1815–1897), German mathematician, from 1843 to 1848 high school professor in Deutsch-Krone

traffic

Wałcz Railway Station (2010)

Until 1945 the Reichsstraße R 1 ran through Deutsch Krone , which led from Aachen via Potsdam and Berlin to Königsberg (Prussia) and Eydtkuhnen .

The city lies on the railway line Piła-Ulikowo (Schneidemühl-Wulkow [Pom.]), Which continues from Ulikowo to Stargard . There are four continuous regional trains every day from Stettin via Stargard to Piła Glowna (Schneidemühl) and back, as well as other trains between Walcz and Piła Glowna. Freight traffic exists to a tank farm.

literature

  • Johann Friedrich Goldbeck : Complete topography of the Kingdom of Prussia . Volume 2, Marienwerder 1789, Part I, pp. 107-108, No. 1.)
  • August Eduard Preuss : Prussian country and folklore or description of Prussia. A manual for primary school teachers in the province of Prussia, as well as for all friends of the fatherland . Bornträger Brothers, Königsberg 1835, pp. 376–377, No. 4.
  • Friedrich Wilhelm Ferdinand Schmitt: History of the Deutsch Croner circle . Thorn 1867, especially pp. 192–201 ( full text )
  • Franz Schultz : History of the Deutsch-Krone district. German Crown 1902.
  • Peter Aufgebauer : 700 years of the Deutsch Krone . In: Westpreußen-Jahrbuch, Vol. 54 (2004), ISSN  0511-8484 , pp. 5-18.

Web links

Commons : Wałcz  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b population. Size and Structure by Territorial Division. As of June 30, 2019. Główny Urząd Statystyczny (GUS) (PDF files; 0.99 MiB), accessed December 24, 2019 .
  2. ^ FWF Schmitt: History of the Deutsch-Croner Circle . Thorn 1867, p. 192 f.
  3. ^ Heinrich Gottfried Philipp Gengler : Regesta and documents on the constitutional and legal history of German cities in the Middle Ages , Erlangen 1863, p. 751 .
  4. ^ Friedrich Wilhelm Ferdinand Schmitt : History of the Deutsch-Croner circle . Thorn 1867, pp. 193-196
  5. ^ A b Friedrich Wilhelm Ferdinand Schmitt : History of the Deutsch-Croner circle . Thorn 1867, p. 103 and pp. 187-191
  6. ↑ a b L. Wiese: The higher school system in Prussia. Historical-statistical representation. Berlin 1864, pp. 84-85
  7. ^ A b Mecklenburg: What can the medical police do against cholera? Answered based on my own experience . Berlin 1854, pp. 11-15
  8. ↑ a b Meyer's Large Conversation Lexicon. 6th edition, Volume 4, Leipzig and Vienna 1908, p. 760.
  9. ↑ The Evangelical Church District Deutsch Krone came to the Ecclesiastical Province of Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia in 1923 and then changed to the Ecclesiastical Province of Pomerania when it was dissolved in 1941 .
  10. ^ A b c d Friedrich Wilhelm Ferdinand Schmitt : History of the Deutsch-Croner circle. Thorn 1867, p. 200
  11. ↑ a b Alexander August Mützell and Leopold Krug : New topographical-statistical-geographical dictionary of the Prussian state . Volume 5: T – Z , Halle 1823, pp. 378–379, item 671.
  12. ^ E. Jacobson: Topographical-statistical manual for the administrative district Marienwerder . Danzig 1868, p. 60, No. 133.
  13. ↑ a b c d e Michael Rademacher: German administrative history from the unification of the empire in 1871 to the reunification in 1990. deutschkrone.html # ew39dtkradtkrone. (Online material for the dissertation, Osnabrück 2006).
  14. ↑ http://gov.genealogy.net/item/show/WALLCZJO83FG
  15. ↑ The Big Brockhaus. 15th edition, Volume 4, Leipzig 1929, p. 709