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162-509: Sławno is a railway junction on the major Gdańsk – Szczecin line, with access to secondary importance connections to Darłowo and Korzybie . It is also a stop on the European route E28 running parallel to the south coast of the Baltic Sea between the cities of Koszalin and Słupsk . The territory became part of the emerging Polish state under Mieszko I around 967. Since the mid-12th century

324-498: A Jagiellon tradition was Joseph Stalin 's refusal to withdraw from the Curzon line and the Allies' readiness to satisfy Poland with German territory instead. The original argument for awarding formerly German territory to Poland – compensation – was complemented by the argument that this territory in fact constituted former areas of Poland. Dmitrow says that "in official justifications for

486-626: A commentary for Tribune , George Orwell likened the transfer of German population to transferring the whole of the Irish and Scottish population. Also, the Piasts were perceived to have defended Poland against the Germans, while the Jagiellons' main rival had been the growing Duchy of Moscow , making them a less suitable basis for post-war Poland's Soviet-dominated situation. The People's Republic of Poland under

648-523: A few places, including Olsztyn , Masuria , and Upper Silesia , particularly in Opole Voivodeship (the area of Opole , Strzelce Opolskie , Prudnik , Kędzierzyn-Koźle and Krapkowice ). The Communist government, not democratically legitimized, sought to legitimize itself through anti-German propaganda. The German "revanchism" was played up as a permanent German threat, with the Communists being

810-457: A free and secure access to the sea"), the Poles hoped the city's harbour would also become part of Poland. However, in the end – since Germans formed a majority in the city, with Poles being a minority (in the 1923 census 7,896 people out of 335,921 gave Polish, Kashubian, or Masurian as their native language) – the city was not placed under Polish sovereignty. Instead, in accordance with the terms of

972-491: A historical background. Historical scientists, archaeologists, linguists, art historians and ethnologists worked in an interdisciplinary effort to legitimize the new borders. Their findings were popularised in monographs, periodicals, schoolbooks, travel guides, broadcasts and exhibitions. Official maps were drawn showing that the Polish frontiers under the first known Piast princes matched the new ones. According to Norman Davies ,

1134-566: A member of the Hanseatic League which influenced its economic, demographic and urban landscape . It also served as Poland's principal seaport, and was the largest city of Poland in the 15th-17th centuries. In 1793, within the Partitions of Poland , the city became part of Prussia , and thus a part of the German Empire from 1871 after the unification of Germany . Following World War I and

1296-576: A non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union. The German attack began in Danzig, with a bombardment of Polish positions at Westerplatte by the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein , and the landing of German infantry on the peninsula. Outnumbered Polish defenders at Westerplatte resisted for seven days before running out of ammunition. Meanwhile, after a fierce day-long fight (1 September 1939), defenders of

1458-622: A part of Poland. It had a substantial autonomy and a lot of privileges. It formed the Pomeranian Voivodeship , located within the province of Royal Prussia in the Kingdom of Poland, as it remained until being annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia in the partitions of 1772 and 1793. A small area in the west of Pomerelia, the Lauenburg and Bütow Land (the region of Lębork and Bytów ) was granted to

1620-567: A process parallel to the expulsions, with the first settlers arriving in March 1945. These settlers took over farms and villages close to the pre-war frontier while the Red Army was still advancing. In addition to the settlers, other Poles went for "szaber" or looting expeditions, soon affecting all former eastern territories of Germany . On 30 March 1945, the Gdańsk Voivodeship was established as

1782-663: A result of increased exports of grain (especially wheat), timber, potash , tar, and other goods of forestry from Prussia and Poland via the Vistula River trading routes , although after its capture, the Teutonic Knights tried to actively reduce the economic significance of the town. While under the control of the Teutonic Order German migration increased. The Order's religious networks helped to develop Danzig's literary culture. A new war broke out in 1409, culminating in

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1944-625: A result of the fragmentation of Poland, it was ruled in the 12th and 13th centuries by the Samborides , who were (at least initially) more closely tied to the Kingdom of Poland than were the Griffins. After the Treaty of Kępno in 1282, and the death of the last Samboride in 1294, the region was ruled by kings of Poland for a short period, although also claimed by Brandenburg . After the Teutonic takeover in 1308

2106-511: A suffragan of the Archbishopric of Gniezno until 1821. The first German colonists arrived in the late 12th century, and large-scale German settlement started in the early 13th century during the reign of Henry I (Duke of Silesia from 1201 to 1238). After the era of German colonisation, the Polish language still predominated in Upper Silesia and in parts of Lower and Middle Silesia north of

2268-543: A time. Various regions, when not under Polish rule, were in different times under the authority of the Bohemian (Czech) Kingdom , Hungary , Austria , Sweden , Denmark , Brandenburg , Prussia , and the German Reich . Many areas were also part of various Polish-ruled duchies, created as a result of the fragmentation of Poland , which began in the 12th century. The great majority of the previous inhabitants either fled from

2430-426: Is a lifetime "ascriptive" characteristic acquired at birth and not easily changed. However people who "betrayed" their Polish heritage by their political words or actions were excluded from the Polish nation. Everyone else was labelled as "Polish" and had to remain in their "native" land – even if they wanted to emigrate to Germany. People from all over Poland quickly moved in to replace the former German population in

2592-466: Is a matter of expanding our Lebensraum in the east", adding that there will be no repeat of the Czech situation, and Germany will attack Poland at first opportunity, after isolating the country from its Western Allies. After the German proposals to solve the three main issues peacefully were refused, German-Polish relations rapidly deteriorated. Germany attacked Poland on 1 September after having signed

2754-404: Is freely admitted in some circles that on the whole 'the recovered territories' had a wholly German character", but that this view has not necessarily been transmitted to the whole of Polish society. The term was also used outside Poland. In 1962, Pope John XXIII referred to those territories as the "western lands after centuries recovered", and did not revise his statement, even under pressure of

2916-469: Is regarded as one of the biggest trade and cultural events in Europe. Gdańsk has also topped rankings for the quality of life, safety and living standards worldwide, and its historic city centre has been listed as one of Poland's national monuments . The name of the city was most likely derived from Gdania , a river presently known as Motława on which the city is situated. Other linguists also argue that

3078-509: Is situated at the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , close to the city of Gdynia and the resort town of Sopot ; these form a metropolitan area called the Tricity ( Trójmiasto ), with a population of approximately 1.5 million. The city has a complex history, having had periods of Polish, German and self rule. An important shipbuilding and trade port since the Middle Ages , in 1361 it became

3240-541: Is the vita of Saint Adalbert . Written in 999, it describes how in 997 Saint Adalbert of Prague baptised the inhabitants of urbs Gyddannyzc , "which separated the great realm of the duke [i.e., Bolesław the Brave of Poland] from the sea." No further written sources exist for the 10th and 11th centuries. Based on the date in Adalbert's vita , the city celebrated its millennial anniversary in 1997. Archaeological evidence for

3402-635: The Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg in 1249. The Bishopric of Lebus , established by Polish Duke Bolesław III Wrymouth , remained a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Gniezno until 1424, when it passed under the jurisdiction of the Archbishopric of Magdeburg . The Lubusz Land was part of the Lands of the Bohemian (Czech) Crown from 1373 to 1415. Brandenburg also acquired the castellany of Santok , which formed part of

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3564-631: The Battle of Grunwald (1410), and the city came under the control of the Kingdom of Poland . A year later, with the First Peace of Thorn , it returned to the Teutonic Order. In 1440, the city participated in the foundation of the Prussian Confederation which was an organisation opposed to the rule of the Teutonic Knights. The organisation in its complaint of 1453 mentioned repeated cases in which

3726-540: The Danzig gulden . With the growth of Nazism among Germans, anti-Polish sentiment increased and both Germanisation and segregation policies intensified, in the 1930s the rights of local Poles were commonly violated and limited by the local administration. Polish children were refused admission to public Polish-language schools, premises were not allowed to be rented to Polish schools and preschools. Due to such policies, only eight Polish-language public schools existed in

3888-515: The Duchy of Greater Poland , from Duke Przemysł I of Greater Poland and made it the nucleus of their Neumark ("New March") region. In the following decades Brandenburg annexed further parts of northwestern Greater Poland . Later on, Santok was briefly recaptured by the Poles several times. Of the other cities, King Casimir III the Great recovered Wałcz in 1368. The lost parts of Greater Poland were part of

4050-654: The Great Privilege , the town was granted full autonomy and protection by the King of Poland. The privilege removed tariffs and taxes on trade within Poland, Lithuania, and Ruthenia (present day Belarus and Ukraine ), and conferred on the town independent jurisdiction, legislation and administration of her territory, as well as the right to mint its own coin. Furthermore, the privilege united Old Town , Osiek , and Main Town , and legalised

4212-481: The Kashubian language the city is called Gduńsk . Although some Kashubians may also use the name "Our Capital City Gduńsk" ( Nasz Stoleczny Gard Gduńsk ) or "Our (regional) Capital City Gduńsk" ( Stoleczny Kaszëbsczi Gard Gduńsk ), the cultural and historical connections between the city and the region of Kashubia are debatable and use of such names raises controversy among Kashubians. The oldest evidence found for

4374-572: The Kingdom of Prussia in 1793, in the Second Partition of Poland . Both the Polish and the German-speaking population largely opposed the Prussian annexation and wished the city to remain part of Poland. The mayor of the city stepped down from his office due to the annexation. The notable city councilor Jan (Johann) Uphagen, historian and art collector, also resigned as a sign of protest against

4536-565: The Kristallnacht riots in November 1938, the community decided to organize its emigration and in March 1939 a first transport to Palestine started. By September 1939 barely 1,700 mostly elderly Jews remained. In early 1941, just 600 Jews were still living in Danzig, most of whom were later murdered in the Holocaust . Out of the 2,938 Jewish community in the city, 1,227 were able to escape from

4698-671: The Land of Słupsk-Sławno was under the rule of Duke Ratibor I of Pomerania and his descendants, a cadet branch of the Griffin dynasty . From 1190 to 1238 it was the capital of a small eponymous duchy . When the line became extinct about 1227, their estates were the matter of an inheritance conflict between the Griffin Duke Barnim I the Good and Swietopelk II from the Samborid dynasty , who ruled over

4860-746: The Lands of the Bohemian (Czech) Crown from 1373 to 1402, when despite an agreement between the Luxembourg dynasty of Bohemia and the Jagiellons of Poland on the sale of the region to Poland, it was sold to the Teutonic Order . During the Polish–Teutonic War (1431–35) several towns of the region rebelled against the Order to join Poland, among them Choszczno/Arnswalde , Neuwedell and Falkenburg . The present-day Polish Lubusz Voivodeship comprises most of

5022-497: The Lubusz region (former East Brandenburg ), the local authorities conceded already in 1948 that what the PZZ claimed to be a recovered "autochton" Polish population were in fact Germanized migrant workers, who had settled in the region in the late 19th and early 20th centuries – with the exception of one village, Babimost , just across the pre-war border. Great efforts were made to propagate

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5184-754: The November and January uprisings and refugees from the Russian Partition of Poland fleeing conscription into the Russian Army, and insurgents of the November Uprising were also imprisoned in Biskupia Górka ( Bischofsberg ). In May–June 1832 and November 1833, more than 1,000 Polish insurgents departed partitioned Poland through the city's port, boarding ships bound for France , the United Kingdom and

5346-585: The Odra river . Here the Germans who arrived during the Middle Ages became mostly Polonized ; Germans dominated in large cities and Poles mostly in rural areas. The Polish-speaking territories of Lower and Middle Silesia , commonly described until the end of the 19th century as the Polish side , were mostly Germanized in the 18th and 19th centuries, except for some areas along the northeastern frontier. The province came under

5508-565: The Old Town was equipped with city rights as well. In 1380, the New Town was founded as the third, independent settlement. After a series of Polish-Teutonic Wars , in the Treaty of Kalisz (1343) the Order had to acknowledge that it would hold Pomerelia as a fief from the Polish Crown . Although it left the legal basis of the Order's possession of the province in some doubt, the city thrived as

5670-677: The Polish Enlightenment are connected with these lands: philosopher, geologist, writer, poet, translator, statesman Stanisław Staszic and great patron of arts, writer, linguist, statesman and candidate for the Polish crown Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski were both born in these territories, Ignacy Krasicki (author of the first Polish novel , playwright, nicknamed the Prince of Polish Poets ) lived in Warmia in his adulthood, and brothers Józef Andrzej Załuski and Andrzej Stanisław Załuski (founders of

5832-651: The Polish Workers' Party thus supported the idea of Poland based on old Piast lands. The question of the Recovered Territories was one of the few issues that did not divide the Polish Communists and their opposition, and there was unanimity regarding the western border. Even the underground anti-Communist press called for the Piast borders, that would end Germanisation and Drang nach Osten . The official view

5994-603: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , the city inhabitants largely became bi-cultural sharing both Polish and German culture and were strongly attached to the traditions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The city suffered a last great plague and a slow economic decline due to the wars of the 18th century. After peace was restored in 1721, Danzig experienced steady economic recovery. As a stronghold of Stanisław Leszczyński 's supporters during

6156-477: The Recovered Territories . By this stage Germans still constituted more than 42 per cent of the inhabitants of these regions, since their total population according to the 1946 census was 4,822,075. However, by 1950 there were only 200,000 Germans remaining in Poland, and by 1957 that number fell to 65,000. While the estimates of how many Germans remained vary, a constant German exodus took place even after

6318-809: The Second Partition . During Napoleonic times the Greater Poland territories formed part of the Duchy of Warsaw , but after the Congress of Vienna Prussia reclaimed them as part of the Grand Duchy of Posen (Poznań), later Province of Posen . After World War I , those parts of the former Province of Posen and of West Prussia that were not restored as part of the Second Polish Republic were administered as Grenzmark Posen-Westpreußen (the German Province of Posen–West Prussia) until 1939. Lower Silesia

6480-419: The Sicherheitsdienst camp Stutthof some 50 km (30 mi) from Danzig, and murdered. Many Poles living in Danzig were deported to Stutthof or executed in the Piaśnica forest . During the war, Germany operated a prison in the city, an Einsatzgruppen -operated penal camp, a camp for Romani people , two subcamps of the Stalag XX-B prisoner-of-war camp for Allied POWs, and several subcamps of

6642-416: The Silesian and Masovian duchies remained independent Piast holdings. In the course of the 12th to 14th centuries, Germanic , Dutch and Flemish settlers moved into East Central and Eastern Europe in a migration process known as the Ostsiedlung . In Pomerania, Brandenburg , Prussia and Silesia, the indigenous West Slav ( Polabian Slavs and Poles ) or Balt population became minorities in

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6804-413: The Soviet Union to form the Kaliningrad Oblast . Since the time of the Piast dynasty , which unified many of the western Slavic tribes and ruled Poland from the 10th to the 14th centuries, ethnic Poles continued to live in these territories under foreign rule, including Bohemian, Hungarian, Austrian, Prussian, and from 1871 German, this despite the Germanization process ( Ostsiedlung ), which began in

6966-558: The Stutthof concentration camp within the present-day city limits. In 1941, Hitler ordered the invasion of the Soviet Union , eventually causing the fortunes of war to turn against Germany. As the Soviet Army advanced in 1944, German populations in Central and Eastern Europe took flight, resulting in the beginning of a great population shift. After the final Soviet offensives began in January 1945, hundreds of thousands of German refugees converged on Danzig, many of whom had fled on foot from East Prussia , some tried to escape through

7128-401: The Suwałki Region moved into adjacent Masuria . Poles expelled from former Polish territories in the east (today mainly parts of Ukraine , Belarus and Lithuania ) settled in large numbers everywhere in the Recovered Territories (but many of them also settled in central Poland). The People's Republic had to locate its population inside the new frontiers in order to solidify the hold over

7290-500: The Town Hall , the Green Gate , Artus Court , Neptune's Fountain , and St. Mary's Church , one of the largest brick churches in the world. The city is served by Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport , the country's third busiest airport and the most important international airport in northern Poland. Gdańsk is among the most visited cities in Poland, having received 3.4 million tourists according to data collected in 2019. The city also hosts St. Dominic's Fair , which dates back to 1260, and

7452-415: The Treaty of Versailles , it was a Free City under the protection of the League of Nations from 1920 to 1939. On 1 September 1939 it was the scene of the first clash of World War II at Westerplatte . The contemporary city was shaped by extensive border changes , expulsions and new settlement after 1945. In the 1980s, Gdańsk was the birthplace of the Solidarity movement, which helped precipitate

7614-453: The United States (see Great Emigration ). The city's longest serving mayor was Robert von Blumenthal, who held office from 1841, through the revolutions of 1848 , until 1863. With the unification of Germany in 1871 under Prussian hegemony , the city became part of the German Empire and remained so until 1919, after Germany's defeat in World War I . Starting from the 1850s, long-established Danzig families often felt marginalized by

7776-496: The Versailles Treaty , it became the Free City of Danzig , an independent quasi-state under the auspices of the League of Nations with its external affairs largely under Polish control. Poland's rights also included free use of the harbour, a Polish post office, a Polish garrison in Westerplatte district, and customs union with Poland. The Free City had its own constitution, national anthem , parliament , and government ( Senat ). It issued its own stamps as well as its currency,

7938-414: The War of the Polish Succession , it was taken by the Russians after the Siege of Danzig in 1734. In the 1740s and 1750s Danzig was restored and Danzig port was again the most significant grain exporting ports in the Baltic region . The Danzig Research Society , which became defunct in 1936, was founded in 1743. In 1772, the First Partition of Poland took place and Prussia annexed almost all of

8100-431: The Western and Northern Territories ( Polish : Ziemie Zachodnie i Północne ), Postulated Territories ( Polish : Ziemie Postulowane ) and Returning Territories ( Polish : Ziemie Powracające ), are the former eastern territories of Germany and the Free City of Danzig that became part of Poland after World War II , at which time most of their German inhabitants were forcibly deported . The rationale for

8262-406: The Załuski Library in Warsaw , one of the largest 18th-century book collections in the world) grew up and studied in these territories. Also painters Daniel Schultz , Tadeusz Kuntze and Antoni Blank , as well as composers Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki and Feliks Nowowiejski were born in these lands. By the time that Poland regained her independence in 1918, Polish activist Dr. Józef Frejlich

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8424-405: The diacritic over the "n" is frequently omitted) the usual pronunciation is / ɡ ə ˈ d æ n s k / or / ɡ ə ˈ d ɑː n s k / . The German name, Danzig , is usually pronounced [ˈdantsɪç] , or alternatively [ˈdantsɪk] in more Southern German-speaking areas. The city's Latin name may be given as either Gedania , Gedanum , or Dantiscum ;

8586-428: The expulsions of Germans were the " autochthons ", close to three million ethnically Polish/Slavic inhabitants of Masuria ( Masurs ), Pomerania ( Kashubians , Slovincians ) and Upper Silesia ( Silesians ). The Polish government aimed to retain as many autochthons as possible, as their presence on former German territory was used to indicate the intrinsic "Polishness" of the area and justify its incorporation into

8748-416: The former eastern territories of Germany that were being handed over to Poland , pending a final peace conference with Germany which eventually never took place. The term "Recovered Territories" is a collective term for different areas with different histories, which can be grouped into three categories: The underlying concept was to define post-war Poland as heir to the medieval Piasts' realm, which

8910-438: The Łeba Lake and the Lake Gardno ), the total population of the province consisting of almost 1.7 million inhabitants. The Polish communities in many cities of the region, such as Szczecin and Kołobrzeg, faced intensified repressions after the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933. The region of Pomerelia at the eastern end of Pomerania, including Gdańsk (Danzig), was part of Poland since its first ruler Mieszko I . As

9072-424: The 10th century have been found in archaeological excavations of the city. The site was ruled as a duchy of Poland by the Samborides . It consisted of a settlement at the modern Long Market, settlements of craftsmen along the Old Ditch, German merchant settlements around St Nicholas' Church and the old Piast stronghold. In 1215, the ducal stronghold became the centre of a Pomerelian splinter duchy . At that time

9234-476: The 13th century with the arrival of German, Dutch and Flemish colonists to Silesia and Pomerania at the behest of the feudal Silesian Piasts and the House of Griffins . Likewise, in the 14th, 15th and 16th century many Polish settlers from Mazovia migrated into the southern portions of the Duchy of Prussia . Before the outbreak of war, regions of Masuria , Warmia and Upper Silesia still contained significant ethnic Polish populations, and in many areas

9396-517: The 14th and 15th centuries formed a duchy , which rulers were vassals of Jagiellon-ruled Poland. Over the following centuries Western Pomerania was largely Germanized, although a small Slavic Polabian minority remained. Indigenous Slavs and Poles faced discrimination from the arriving Germans, who on a local level since the 16th century imposed discriminatory regulations, such as bans on buying goods from Slavs/Poles or prohibiting them from becoming members of craft guilds. The Duchy of Pomerania under

9558-410: The 14th century, after the takeover of the city by the Teutonic Knights. At latest in 1263 Pomerelian duke, Swietopelk II granted city rights under Lübeck law to the emerging market settlement. It was an autonomy charter similar to that of Lübeck, which was also the primary origin of many settlers. In a document of 1271 the Pomerelian duke Mestwin II addressed the Lübeck merchants settled in

9720-429: The Brandenburg Province of Pomerania by the 1653 Treaty of Stettin . During World War II , the Polish resistance was active, and Polish underground press was distributed in the town. Sławno suffered heavy destruction during the war. With the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, its German population was expelled in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement and it was handed over back to Poland . From 1975 to 1998, it

9882-459: The Brandenburgians left the town. Subsequently, the city was taken by Danish princes in 1301. In 1308, the town was taken by Brandenburg and the Teutonic Knights restored order. Subsequently, the Knights took over control of the town. Primary sources record a massacre carried out by the Teutonic Knights against the local population, of 10,000 people, but the exact number killed is subject of dispute in modern scholarship. Multiple authors accept

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10044-448: The Czechoslovakian part of Cieszyn Silesia and other bordering areas with significant Polish population. The Polish population of these lands was subject to Germanisation and intensified repressions, especially after the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933. Most of long Germanized Lower Silesia , Farther Pomerania and Eastern Prussia remained undisputed. However, in reaction to Hitler 's Germany threats to Poland shortly before

10206-427: The German embassy. The term is still sometimes considered useful, due to the Polish existence in those lands that was still visible in 1945, by some prominent scholars, such as Krzysztof Kwaśniewski. Several different West Slavic tribes inhabited most of the area of present-day Poland from the 6th century. Duke Mieszko I of the Polans , from his stronghold in the Gniezno area, united various neighboring tribes in

10368-434: The German influx on the general outlook of the city. Boosted by heavy investment in the development of its port and three major shipyards for Soviet ambitions in the Baltic region , Gdańsk became the major shipping and industrial centre of the People's Republic of Poland . In December 1970, Gdańsk was the scene of anti-regime demonstrations , which led to the downfall of Poland's communist leader Władysław Gomułka . During

10530-459: The King during the incorporation in March 1454 in Kraków , and the city again solemnly pledged allegiance to the King in June 1454 in Elbląg , recognizing the prior Teutonic annexation and rule as unlawful. On 25 May 1457 the city gained its rights as an autonomous city. On 15 May 1457, Casimir IV of Poland granted the town the Great Privilege , after he had been invited by the town's council and had already stayed in town for five weeks. With

10692-413: The Kresy. The expellees were termed "repatriates" . The result was the largest exchange of population in European history. The picture of the new western and northern territories being recovered Piast territory was used to forge Polish settlers and "repatriates" arriving there into a coherent community loyal to the new regime, and to justify the removal of the German inhabitants. Largely excepted from

10854-561: The Middle Ages (in Wrocław and Kołobrzeg ), as well as the Polish Reformation in the Renaissance era. Significant figures were born or lived in these territories. Astronomer Jan of Głogów and scholar Laurentius Corvinus , who were teachers of Nicolaus Copernicus at the University of Kraków , both hailed from Lower Silesia . Jan Dantyszek (Renaissance poet and diplomat, named the Father of Polish Diplomacy ) and Marcin Kromer (Renaissance cartographer, diplomat, historian, music theoretician) were bishops of Warmia. The leading figures of

11016-518: The Nazis before the outbreak of war. Nazi secret police had been observing Polish minority communities in the city since 1936, compiling information, which in 1939 served to prepare lists of Poles to be captured in Operation Tannenberg . On the first day of the war, approximately 1,500 ethnic Poles were arrested, some because of their participation in social and economic life, others because they were activists and members of various Polish organisations. On 2 September 1939, 150 of them were deported to

11178-494: The Poles constituted a majority of the inhabitants. According to the 1939 Nazi German census , the territories were inhabited by 8,855,000 people, including a Polish minority in the territories' easternmost parts. However these data, concerning ethnic minorities, that came from the census conducted during the reign of the NSDAP (Nazi Party) is usually not considered by historians and demographers as trustworthy but as drastically falsified. Therefore, while this German census placed

11340-424: The Polish Post office were tried and executed then buried on the spot in the Danzig quarter of Zaspa in October 1939. In 1998 a German court overturned their conviction and sentence. The city was officially annexed by Nazi Germany and incorporated into the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia . About 50 percent of members of the Jewish community had left the city within a year after a pogrom in October 1937. After

11502-427: The Polish aspects of the territories: medieval Piast history of the region, the cultural, political and economic bonds to Poland, the history of the Polish-speaking population in Prussia and the "Drang nach Osten" as a historical constant since the Middle Ages. The Communist authorities of the Polish People's Republic and some Polish citizens desired to erase all traces of German rule. The "Recovered Territories" after

11664-466: The Polish population of the Northern and Western territories for the first time caught up to the pre-war population level (8,711,900 in 1970 vs 8,855,000 in 1939). In the same year, the population of the other Polish areas also reached its pre-war level (23,930,100 in 1970 vs 23,483,000 in 1939). Today the population of the territories is predominantly Polish, although a small German minority still exists in

11826-443: The Polish post-war census of December 1950, data about the pre-war places of residence of the inhabitants as of August 1939 was collected. (In the case of children born between September 1939 and December 1950, their place of residence was reported based on the pre-war places of residence of their mothers.) Thanks to this data it is possible to reconstruct the pre-war geographical origin of the post-war population. Many areas located near

11988-548: The Polish press. German students attacked and expelled Polish students from the technical university. Dozens of Polish surnames were forcibly Germanized, while Polish symbols that reminded that for centuries Gdańsk was part of Poland were removed from the city's landmarks, such as the Artus Court and the Neptune's Fountain . From 1937, the employment of Poles by German companies was prohibited, and already employed Poles were fired,

12150-530: The Polish province of Royal Prussia , and later also of the Greater Poland Province . The city was visited by Nicolaus Copernicus in 1504 and 1526, and Narratio Prima , the first printed abstract of his heliocentric theory , was published there in 1540. After the Union of Lublin between Poland and Lithuania in 1569 the city continued to enjoy a large degree of internal autonomy (cf. Danzig law ). Being

12312-496: The Polish state again under Bolesław III Wrymouth from 1116 until 1121, when the noble House of Griffins established the Duchy of Pomerania . On Bolesław's death in 1138, Poland for almost 200 years was subjected to fragmentation , being ruled by Bolesław's sons and by their successors, who were often in conflict with each other. Władysław I the Elbow-high , crowned King of Poland in 1320, achieved partial reunification, although

12474-483: The Polish state as "recovered" territories. "Verification" and "national rehabilitation" processes were set up to reveal a "dormant Polishness" and determine who was redeemable as a Polish citizen. Few were actually expelled. The "autochthons" not only disliked the subjective and often arbitrary verification process, but they also faced discrimination even after completing it, such as the Polonization of their names. In

12636-630: The Recovered Territories came under Polish rule several times from the late 10th century on, when Mieszko I acquired at least significant parts of them. Mieszko's son Bolesław I established a bishopric in the Kołobrzeg area in 1000–1005/07, before the area was lost again. Despite further attempts by Polish dukes to again control the Pomeranian tribes , this was only partly achieved by Bolesław III in several campaigns lasting from 1116 to 1121. Successful Christian missions ensued in 1124 and 1128; however, by

12798-550: The Soviet Army, which captured the heavily damaged city on 30 March 1945 , followed by large-scale rape and looting. In line with the decisions made by the Allies at the Yalta and Potsdam conferences, the city became again part of Poland, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime, which stayed in power until the Fall of Communism in the 1980s. The remaining German residents of

12960-540: The Teutonic Knights imprisoned or murdered local patricians and mayors without a court verdict. On the request of the organisation King Casimir IV of Poland reincorporated the territory to the Kingdom of Poland in 1454. This led to the Thirteen Years' War between Poland and the State of the Teutonic Order (1454–1466). Since 1454, the city was authorized by the King to mint Polish coins. The local mayor pledged allegiance to

13122-504: The act of incorporation of the region into the Kingdom of Poland (1454). After the Second Peace of Thorn (1466) Warmia was confirmed to be incorporated to Poland, while Masuria became part of a Polish fief , first as part of the Teutonic state, and from 1525 as part of the secular Ducal Prussia . Then it would become one of the leading centers of Polish Lutheranism, while Warmia, under

13284-635: The adjacent territories of Pomerelia ( Gdańsk Pomerania ) in the east. Both duchies had previously separated from Poland as a result of the 12th-century fragmentation of Poland (Pomerania in the 12th century, and Pomerelia in the 13th century). Swietopelk II prevailed, his son Mestwin II , duke in Pomerelia from 1266, however again had to deal with claims raised by the Pomeranian Griffins and also by his brother Wratislaw II. To secure his rule, Mestwin accepted

13446-568: The administration of prince-bishops remained one of the most overwhelmingly Catholic regions of Poland. Polish suzerainty over Masuria ended in 1657/1660 as a result of the Deluge and Warmia was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia in the First Partition of Poland (1772). Both regions formed the southern part of the province of East Prussia , established in 1773. All of Warmia and most of Masuria remained part of Germany after World War I and

13608-520: The annexation. His house exemplifies Baroque in Poland and is now a museum, known as Uphagen's House . An attempted student uprising against Prussia led by Gottfried Benjamin Bartholdi was crushed quickly by the authorities in 1797. During the Napoleonic Wars , in 1807, the city was besieged and captured by a coalition of French , Polish , Italian , Saxon , and Baden forces. Afterwards, it

13770-551: The area of the later city included various villages. In 1224/25, merchants from Lübeck were invited as hospites (immigrants with specific privileges) but were soon (in 1238) forced to leave by Swietopelk II of the Samborides during a war between Swietopelk and the Teutonic Knights , during which Lübeck supported the latter. Migration of merchants to the town resumed in 1257. Significant German influence did not reappear until

13932-470: The border shift, the decisive argument that it presented a compensation for the loss of the eastern half of the pre-war Polish territory to the USSR, was viewed as obnoxious and concealed. Instead, a historical argumentation was foregrounded with the dogma, Poland had just returned to 'ancient Piast lands'." Objections to the Allies' decisions and criticism of the Polish politicians' role at Potsdam were censored. In

14094-432: The cases when one was absent either the German name was translated or new names were invented. In January 1946, a Committee for Settling of Place Names was set up to assign new official toponyms. The German language was banned from public schools, government media and church services. Many German monuments, graveyards, buildings or entire ensembles of buildings were demolished. Objects of art were moved to other parts of

14256-666: The centuries, however, they had become predominantly German-speaking through the processes of German eastward settlement ( Ostsiedlung ), political expansion ( Drang nach Osten ), as well as language shift due to Germanisation of the local Polish , Slavic and Baltic Prussian population. Therefore, aside from certain regions such as West Upper Silesia , Warmia and Masuria , as of 1945 most of these territories did not contain sizeable Polish-speaking communities. While most regions had long periods of Polish rule, spanning hundreds of years, some were controlled by Polish dukes and kings for short periods of up to several decades at

14418-406: The city as his loyal citizens from Germany. In 1300, the town had an estimated population of 2,000. While overall the town was far from an important trade centre at that time, it had some relevance in the trade with Eastern Europe . Low on funds, the Samborides lent the settlement to Brandenburg, although they planned to take the city back and give it to Poland. Poland threatened to intervene, and

14580-486: The city was home to a large number of Polish-speaking Poles, Jewish Poles, Latvian-speaking Kursenieki , Flemings , and Dutch . In addition, a number of Scots took refuge or migrated to and received citizenship in the city, with first Scots arriving in 1380. During the Protestant Reformation , most German-speaking inhabitants adopted Lutheranism . Due to the special status of the city and significance within

14742-469: The city who had survived the war fled or were expelled to postwar Germany. The city was repopulated by ethnic Poles ; up to 18 percent (1948) of them had been deported by the Soviets in two major waves from pre-war eastern Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union . In 1946, the communists executed 17-year-old Danuta Siedzikówna and 42-year-old Feliks Selmanowicz , known Polish resistance members, in

14904-466: The city's port in a large-scale evacuation involving hundreds of German cargo and passenger ships. Some of the ships were sunk by the Soviets, including the Wilhelm Gustloff after an evacuation was attempted at neighbouring Gdynia . In the process, tens of thousands of refugees were killed. The city also endured heavy Allied and Soviet air raids. Those who survived and could not escape had to face

15066-844: The city, and Poles managed to organize seven more private Polish schools. In the early 1930s, the local Nazi Party capitalised on pro-German sentiments and in 1933 garnered 50% of vote in the parliament. Thereafter, the Nazis under Gauleiter Albert Forster achieved dominance in the city government, which was still nominally overseen by the League of Nations' High Commissioner . In 1937, Poles who sent their children to private Polish schools were required to transfer children to German schools, under threat of police intervention, and attacks were carried out on Polish schools and Polish youth. German militias carried out numerous beatings of Polish activists, scouts and even postal workers, as "punishment" for distributing

15228-576: The city, encouraged by the secret support of Denmark and Emperor Maximilian , shut its gates against Stephen. After the Siege of Danzig , lasting six months, the city's army of 5,000 mercenaries was utterly defeated in a field battle on 16 December 1577. However, since Stephen's armies were unable to take the city by force, a compromise was reached: Stephen Báthory confirmed the city's special status and her Danzig law privileges granted by earlier Polish kings . The city recognised him as ruler of Poland and paid

15390-1078: The collapse of the Eastern Bloc , the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact . Gdańsk is home to the University of Gdańsk , Gdańsk University of Technology , the National Museum , the Gdańsk Shakespeare Theatre , the Museum of the Second World War , the Polish Baltic Philharmonic , the Polish Space Agency and the European Solidarity Centre . Among Gdańsk's most notable historical landmarks are

15552-415: The conquest by the Teutonic Knights in the 13th and 14th centuries. In order to repopulate the conquered areas, Poles from neighboring Masovia , called Masurians ( Mazurzy ), were allowed to settle here (hence the name Masuria ). During an uprising against the Teutonic Order most towns of the region joined or sided with the Prussian Confederation , at the request of which King Casimir IV Jagiellon signed

15714-631: The control of Kingdom of Bohemia in the 14th century and was briefly under Hungarian rule in the 15th century. Silesia passed to the Habsburg monarchy of Austria in 1526, and Prussia's Frederick the Great conquered most of it in 1742. A part of Upper Silesia became part of Poland after World War I and the Silesian Uprisings , but the bulk of Silesia formed part of the post-1945 Recovered Territories. The territories of Warmia and Masuria were originally inhabited by pagan Old Prussians , until

15876-453: The country. German inscriptions were erased, including those on religious objects, in churches and in cemeteries. In Ziemia Lubuska "Socialist competitions" were organized to search and destroy final German traces. Historian John Kulczycki argues that the Communist authorities discovered that forging an ethnically homogeneous Poland in the Recovered Territories was quite complicated, for it

16038-462: The course of the following centuries, although substantial numbers of the original inhabitants remained in areas such as Upper Silesia . In Greater Poland and in Eastern Pomerania ( Pomerelia ), German settlers formed a minority. Despite the loss of several provinces, medieval lawyers of the Kingdom of Poland created a specific claim to all formerly Polish provinces that were not reunited with

16200-418: The demolition of New Town , which had sided with the Teutonic Knights . By 1457, New Town was demolished completely, no buildings remained. Gaining free and privileged access to Polish markets, the seaport prospered while simultaneously trading with the other Hanseatic cities. After the Second Peace of Thorn (1466) between Poland and the Teutonic Order the warfare ended permanently; Gdańsk became part of

16362-664: The demonstrations in Gdańsk and Gdynia, military as well as the police opened fire on the demonstrators causing several dozen deaths. Ten years later, in August 1980, Gdańsk Shipyard was the birthplace of the Solidarity trade union movement. Recovered Territories The Recovered Territories or Regained Lands ( Polish : Ziemie Odzyskane ), also known as the Western Borderlands ( Polish : Kresy Zachodnie ), and previously as

16524-583: The early 16th century, the last ( George William , duke of Legnica ) dying in 1675. Some Lower Silesian duchies were also under the rule of Polish Jagiellons ( Głogów ) and Sobieskis ( Oława ), and part of Upper Silesia , the Duchy of Opole , found itself back under Polish rule in the mid-17th century, when the Habsburgs pawned the duchy to the Polish Vasas . The Roman Catholic Diocese of Wrocław , established in 1000 as one of Poland's oldest dioceses, remained

16686-488: The end of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795 had to promise to do everything possible to reunite the rest of those territories with the Crown. Many significant events in Polish history are associated with these territories, including the victorious battles of Cedynia (972), Niemcza (1017), Psie Pole and Głogów (1109), Grunwald (1410), Oliwa (1627), the lost battles of Legnica (1241) and Westerplatte (1939),

16848-399: The end of the 18th century, Gdańsk was still one of the most economically integrated cities in Poland. It was well-connected and traded actively with German cities , while other Polish cities became less well-integrated towards the end of the century, mostly due to greater risks for long-distance trade , given the number of violent conflicts along the trade routes. Danzig was annexed by

17010-563: The enormous sum of 200,000 guldens in gold as payoff ("apology"). During the Polish–Swedish War of 1626–1629 , in 1627, the naval Battle of Oliwa was fought near the city, and it is one of the greatest victories in the history of the Polish Navy . During the Swedish invasion of Poland of 1655–1660, commonly known as the Deluge , the city was unsuccessfully besieged by Sweden . In 1660,

17172-617: The existence of a settlement on the lands of what is now Gdańsk comes from the Bronze Age (which is estimated to be from 2500–1700 BCE). The settlement that is now known as Gdańsk began in the 9th century, being mostly an agriculture and fishing -dependent village. In the beginning of the 10th century, it began becoming an important centre for trade (especially between the Pomeranians ) until its annexation in c. 975 by Mieszko I . The first written record thought to refer to Gdańsk

17334-678: The expulsions. Between 1956 and 1985, 407,000 people from Silesia and about 100,000 from Warmia-Masuria declared German nationality and left for Germany. In the early 1990s, after the Polish Communist regime had collapsed 300,000-350,000 people declared themselves German. The flight and expulsion of the remaining Germans in the first post-war years presaged a broader campaign to remove signs of former German rule. More than 30,000 German placenames were replaced with Polish or Polonized medieval Slavic ones. Previous Slavic and Polish names used before German settlements had been established; in

17496-596: The first administrative Polish unit in the "recovered" territories. While the Germans were interned and expelled, close to 5 million settlers were either attracted or forced to settle the areas between 1945 and 1950. An additional 1,104,000 people had declared Polish nationality and were allowed to stay (851,000 of those in Upper Silesia ), bringing up the number of Poles to 5,894,600 as of 1950. The settlers can be grouped according to their background: Polish and Soviet newspapers and officials encouraged Poles to relocate to

17658-460: The form Gdańsk was always used. The German form Danzig developed later, simplifying the consonant clusters to something easier for German speakers to pronounce. The cluster "gd" became "d" ( Danzc from 1263), the combination "ns" became "nts" ( Danczk from 1311)., and finally an epenthetical "i" broke up the final cluster ( Danczik from 1399). In Polish, the modern name of the city is pronounced [ɡdaj̃sk] . In English (where

17820-448: The former Brandenburgian Neumark territory east of the Oder. A small part of northern Greater Poland around the town of Czaplinek was lost to Brandenburg-Prussia in 1668. Bigger portions of Greater Poland were lost in the Partitions of Poland : the northern part with Piła and Wałcz in the First Partition and the remainder, including the western part with Międzyrzecz and Wschowa in

17982-458: The former Royal Prussia, which became the Province of West Prussia . However, Gdańsk remained a part of Poland as an exclave separated from the rest of the country. The Prussian king cut off Danzig with a military controlled barrier, also blocking shipping links to foreign ports, on the pretense that a cattle plague may otherwise break out. Danzig declined in its economic significance. However, by

18144-421: The largest and one of the most influential cities of Poland, it enjoyed voting rights during the royal election period in Poland. In the 1560s and 1570s, a large Mennonite community started growing in the city, gaining significant popularity. In the 1575 election to the Polish throne, Danzig supported Maximilian II in his struggle against Stephen Báthory . It was the latter who eventually became monarch but

18306-456: The life and work of astronomers Nicolaus Copernicus (16th century) and Johannes Hevelius (17th century), the creation of the oldest Polish-language texts and printings ( Middle Ages and the Renaissance era), the creation of the standards and patterns of the Polish literary language (Renaissance era), Polish maritime history, the establishment of one of the first Catholic dioceses in Poland in

18468-467: The local prison. The port of Gdańsk was one of the three Polish ports through which Greeks and Macedonians , refugees of the Greek Civil War , reached Poland. In 1949, four transports of Greek and Macedonian refugees arrived at the port of Gdańsk, from where they were transported to new homes in Poland. Parts of the historic old city of Gdańsk, which had suffered large-scale destruction during

18630-551: The name stems from the Proto-Slavic adjective / prefix gъd- , which meant ' wet ' or ' moist ' with the addition of the morpheme ń / ni and the suffix -sk . The name of the settlement was recorded after St. Adalbert's death in 997 CE as urbs Gyddanyzc and it was later written as Kdanzk in 1148, Gdanzc in 1188, Danceke in 1228, Gdańsk in 1236, Danzc in 1263, Danczk in 1311, Danczik in 1399, Danczig in 1414, and Gdąnsk in 1656. In Polish documents,

18792-421: The native Griffin dynasty existed for over 500 years, before it was partitioned between Sweden and Brandenburg-Prussia in the 17th century. At the turn of the 20th century there lived about 14,200 persons of Polish mother-tongue in the Province of Pomerania (in the east of Farther Pomerania in the vicinity of the border with the province of West Prussia ), and 300 persons using the Kashubian language (at

18954-542: The new town elite originating from mainland Germany. This situation caused the Polish to allege that the Danzig people were oppressed by German rule and for this reason allegedly failed to articulate their natural desire for strong ties with Poland. When Poland regained its independence after World War I with access to the sea as promised by the Allies on the basis of Woodrow Wilson 's " Fourteen Points " (point 13 called for "an independent Polish state", "which should be assured

19116-439: The number given in the original sources, while others consider 10,000 to have been a medieval exaggeration, although scholarly consensus is that a massacre of some magnitude did take place. The events were used by the Polish crown to condemn the Teutonic Knights in a subsequent papal lawsuit. The knights colonized the area, replacing local Kashubians and Poles with German settlers. In 1308, they founded Osiek Hakelwerk near

19278-553: The number of Polish-speakers and bilinguals below 700,000 people, Polish demographers have estimated that the actual number of Poles in the former German East was between 1.2 and 1.3 million. In the 1.2 million figure, approximately 850,000 were estimated for the Upper Silesian regions, 350,000 for southern East Prussia and 50,000 for the rest of the territories. Under German rule, these communities faced discrimination and oppression. In 1924, an association of national minorities

19440-610: The official declaration that the former German inhabitants of the Recovered Territories had to be removed quickly to house Poles displaced by the Soviet annexation, the Recovered Territories initially faced a severe population shortage. The Soviet-appointed communist authorities that conducted the resettlement also made efforts to remove many traces of German culture, such as place names and historic inscriptions on buildings. The post-war border between Germany and Poland (the Oder–Neisse line )

19602-483: The origins of the town was retrieved mostly after World War II had laid 90   percent of the city centre in ruins, enabling excavations. The oldest seventeen settlement levels were dated to between 980 and 1308. Mieszko I of Poland erected a stronghold on the site in the 980s, thereby connecting the Polish state ruled by the Piast dynasty with the trade routes of the Baltic Sea . Traces of buildings and housing from

19764-415: The outbreak of World War II , Polish nationalists displayed maps of Poland including those ancient Polish territories as well, claiming their intention to recover them. In the interwar period the German administration, even before the Nazis took power, conducted a massive campaign of renaming of thousands of placenames , to remove traces of Slavic origin. The Pomeranian (Western Pomeranian) parts of

19926-524: The pre-war German border were resettled by people from neighbouring borderland areas of pre-war Poland. For example, Kashubians from the pre-war Polish Corridor settled in nearby areas of German Pomerania adjacent to Polish Pomerania . People from the Poznań region of pre-war Poland settled in East Brandenburg . People from East Upper Silesia moved into the rest of Silesia. And people from Masovia and

20088-606: The re-establishment of independent Poland . During the 1920 East Prussian Plebiscite , the districts east of the Vistula within the region of Marienwerder (Kwidzyn), along with all of the Allenstein Region (Olsztyn) and the district of Oletzko voted to be included within the province of East Prussia and thus became part of Weimar Germany. All of the region as the southern part of the province of East Prussia became part of Poland after World War II, with northern East Prussia going to

20250-591: The region and Waldemar of Ascania finally separated Sławno from Pomerelia, which he sold to the Teutonic Order by the 1309 Treaty of Soldin . He nevertheless lost the town to the Griffin duke Wartislaw IV of Pomerania in 1317, whereafter Sławno remained a part of the Griffin-ruled Pomeranian duchies until 1637. Duke Wartislaw IV enfeoffed Peter von Neuenburg of the Swienca noble family with Sławno, who granted

20412-545: The region was annexed to the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights . Most cities of the region joined or sided with the Prussian Confederation , which in 1454 started an uprising against Teutonic rule and asked the Polish King Casimir IV Jagiellon to incorporate the region to Poland. After the King agreed and signed the act of incorporation, the Thirteen Years' War broke out, ending in a Polish victory. The Second Peace of Thorn (1466) made Royal Prussia

20574-561: The rest of the country in 1320. They built on the theory of the Corona Regni Poloniae , according to which the state (the Crown) and its interests were no longer strictly connected with the person of the monarch . Because of that no monarch could effectively renounce Crown claims to any of the territories that were historically and/or ethnically Polish. Those claims were reserved for the state (the Crown), which in theory still covered all of

20736-522: The return of Danzig to Germany along with an extraterritorial (meaning under German jurisdiction ) highway through the area of the Polish Corridor for land-based access from the rest of Germany. Hitler used the issue of the status of the city as a pretext for attacking Poland and in May 1939, during a high-level meeting of German military officials explained to them: "It is not Danzig that is at stake. For us it

20898-426: The rulers of Pomerania as a Polish fief , before being reintegrated with Poland in 1637, and later on, again transformed into a Polish fief , which it remained until the First Partition , when three quarters of Royal Prussia's urban population were German-speaking Protestants. After Poland regained independence in 1918, a large part of Pomerelia was reintegrated with Poland, as the so-called Polish Corridor , and so

21060-466: The second half of the 10th century, forming the first Polish state and becoming the first historically recorded Piast duke. His realm roughly included all of the area of what would later be named the "Recovered Territories", except for the Warmian-Masurian part of Old Prussia and eastern Lusatia . Mieszko's son and successor, Duke Bolesław I Chrobry , upon the 1018 Peace of Bautzen expanded

21222-463: The settlement town rights in 1317. The Gothic St Mary's Church was consecrated about 1360. Between 1368 and 1478 Sławno was under the rule of dukes of Słupsk , vassals of the Kingdom of Poland . Later on it was part of the Duchy of Pomerania , until its partition in the 17th century between Sweden and Brandenburg-Prussia . Devastated throughout the Thirty Years' War , the town was allotted to

21384-510: The southern part of the realm, but lost control over the lands of Western Pomerania on the Baltic coast. After fragmentation, pagan revolts and a Bohemian invasion in the 1030s, Duke Casimir I the Restorer (reigned 1040–1058) again united most of the former Piast realm, including Silesia and Lubusz Land on both sides of the middle Oder River, but without Western Pomerania, which became part of

21546-408: The successful Greater Poland uprising , the cession of Pomerelia to Poland following the Treaty of Versailles and the Silesian Uprisings that allowed Poland to obtain a large portion of Upper Silesia , the territorial claims of the Second Polish Republic were directed towards the rest of partially Polish speaking Upper Silesia and Masuria under German control, as well as the city of Danzig ,

21708-406: The suzerainty of the Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg by the 1269 Treaty of Arnswalde , but later on, in 1282, Mestwin and Polish Duke Przemysł II signed the Treaty of Kępno , which transferred the suzerainty over Gdańsk Pomerania including Sławno to Przemysł II. Upon Mestwin's death in 1294, the Samborides became extinct and Sławno was reintegrated with Poland . In 1308 Brandenburg invaded

21870-483: The term "Recovered Territories" had been dropped from Polish communist propaganda , but it is still used occasionally in common language. On the grounds that those areas should not be regarded as unique territories within the Polish state, the authorities began to refer to them instead as the "Western and Northern Lands". Wolff and Cordell say that along with the debunking of communist historiography, "the 'recovered territories' thesis ... has been discarded", and that "it

22032-471: The term "Recovered" was that these territories formed part of the Polish state, and were lost by Poland in different periods over the centuries. It also referred to the Piast Concept that these territories were part of the traditional Polish homeland under the Piast dynasty (there were their small parts under Poland even after the Piast ended), after the establishment of the state in the Middle Ages . Over

22194-724: The territories during the later stages of the war or were expelled by the Soviet and Polish communist authorities after the war ended, although a small German minority remains in some places. The territories were resettled with Poles who moved from central Poland, Polish repatriates forced to leave areas of former eastern Poland that had been annexed by the Soviet Union , Poles freed from forced labour in Nazi Germany , with Ukrainians forcibly resettled under " Operation Vistula ", and other minorities which settled in post-war Poland, including Greeks and Macedonians . However, contrary to

22356-593: The territories that were part of, or dependent on, the Polish Crown upon the death of Bolesław III in 1138. This concept was also developed to prevent from loss of territory after the death of King Casimir III the Great in 1370, when Louis I of Hungary , who ruled Hungary with absolute power, was crowned King of Poland. In the 14th century Hungary was one of the greatest powers of Central Europe , and its influence reached various Balkan principalities and southern Italy ( Naples ). Poland in personal union with Hungary

22518-491: The territories. With the Kresy annexed by the Soviet Union, Poland was effectively moved westwards and its area reduced by almost 20% (from 389,000 to 312,000 km (150,194 to 120,464 sq mi)). Millions of non-Poles – mainly Germans from the Recovered Territories, as well as some Ukrainians in the east – were to be expelled from the new Poland, while large numbers of Poles needed to be resettled having been expelled from

22680-607: The time of Bolesław's death in 1138, most of West Pomerania (the Griffin-ruled areas ) was no longer controlled by Poland. Shortly after, the Griffin Duke of Pomerania, Boguslav I., achieved the integration of Pomerania into the Holy Roman Empire. The easternmost part of later Western Pomerania (including the city of Słupsk ) in the 13th century was part of Eastern Pomerania , which was re-integrated with Poland, and later on, in

22842-568: The town, initially as a Slavic fishing settlement. In 1340, the Teutonic Knights constructed a large fortress, which became the seat of the knights' Komtur . In 1346 they changed the Town Law of the city, which then consisted only of the Rechtstadt , to Kulm law . In 1358, Danzig joined the Hanseatic League , and became an active member in 1361. It maintained relations with the trade centres Bruges , Novgorod , Lisboa , and Sevilla . Around 1377,

23004-453: The transfer still contained a substantial German population. The Polish administration set up a "Ministry for the Recovered Territories", headed by the then deputy prime minister Władysław Gomułka . A "Bureau for Repatriation" was to supervise and organize the expulsions and resettlements. According to the national census of 14 February 1946, the population of Poland still included 2,288,300 Germans, of which 2,036,439—nearly 89 per cent—lived in

23166-407: The use of Polish in public places was banned and Poles were not allowed to enter several restaurants, in particular those owned by Germans. In 1939, before the German invasion of Poland and outbreak of World War II , local Polish railwaymen were victims of beatings, and after the invasion, they were also imprisoned and murdered in concentration camps . The German government officially demanded

23328-553: The variety of Latin and German names typically reflects the difficulty of pronunciation of the Polish/Slavonic city's name, all German- and Latin/Romance-speaking populations always encounter in trying to pronounce the difficult and complex Polish/Slavonic words. On special occasions, the city is also referred to as "The Royal Polish City of Gdańsk" (Polish: Królewskie Polskie Miasto Gdańsk , Latin: Regia Civitas Polonica Gedanensis , Kashubian: Królewsczi Pòlsczi Gard Gduńsk ). In

23490-582: The view of the Piast Concept . It was actively supported by the Catholic Church. The sciences were responsible for the development of this perception of history. In 1945 the Western Institute ( Polish : Instytut Zachodni ) was founded to coordinate the scientific activities. Its director, Zygmunt Wojciechowski , characterized his mission as an effort to present the Polish history of the region, and project current Polish reality of these countries upon

23652-440: The war was ended with the Treaty of Oliwa , signed in the present-day district of Oliwa . In 1677, a Polish-Swedish alliance was signed in the city. Around 1640, Johannes Hevelius established his astronomical observatory in the Old Town . Polish King John III Sobieski regularly visited Hevelius numerous times. Beside a majority of German-speakers, whose elites sometimes distinguished their German dialect as Pomerelian ,

23814-473: The war, were rebuilt during the 1950s and 1960s. The reconstruction sought to dilute the "German character" of the city, and set it back to how it supposedly looked like before the annexation to Prussia in 1793. Nineteenth-century transformations were ignored as "ideologically malignant" by post-war administrations, or regarded as "Prussian barbarism" worthy of demolition, while Flemish/Dutch, Italian and French influences were emphasized in order to "neutralize"

23976-421: The west – "the land of opportunity". These new territories were described as a place where opulent villas abandoned by fleeing Germans waited for the brave; fully furnished houses and businesses were available for the taking. In fact, the areas were devastated by the war, the infrastructure largely destroyed, suffering high crime rates and looting by gangs. It took years for civil order to be established. In 1970,

24138-629: The young post-war generation received education informing them that the boundaries of the People's Republic were the same as those on which the Polish nation had developed for centuries. Furthermore, they were instructed that the Polish "Motherland" has always been in the same location, even when "occupied" for long periods of time by foreigners or as political boundaries shifted. Because the Recovered Territories had been under German and Prussian rule for many centuries, many events of this history were perceived as part of "foreign" rather than "local" history in post-war Poland. Polish scholars thus concentrated on

24300-444: Was a free city from 1807 to 1814, when it was captured by combined Prussian-Russian forces. In 1815, after France's defeat in the Napoleonic Wars , it again became part of Prussia and became the capital of Regierungsbezirk Danzig within the province of West Prussia . Since the 1820s, the Wisłoujście Fortress served as a prison, mainly for Polish political prisoners, including resistance members , protesters, insurgents of

24462-407: Was administratively located in the Słupsk Voivodeship . Sławno is twinned with: Sławno is also a partner city with: Gda%C5%84sk Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic coast of northern Poland , and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship . With a population of 486,492, it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport . Gdańsk lies at the mouth of the Motława River and

24624-419: Was already claiming that the lands situated on the right bank of the Oder river, including inner industrial cities such as Wrocław , and Baltic ports such as Szczecin and Gdańsk , were economic parts of Poland that had to be united with the rest of the "economic territory of Poland" into a united and independent state, as a fundamental condition of the economic revival of Poland after World War I . After

24786-413: Was created in Lower Silesia. The first Polish-language printed text was published in Wrocław by Głogów -born Kasper Elyan, who is regarded as the first Polish printer. Burial sites of Polish monarchs are located in Wrocław, Trzebnica and Legnica . Piast dukes continued to rule Silesia following the 12th-century fragmentation of Poland . The Silesian Piasts retained power in most of the region until

24948-409: Was difficult to differentiate German speakers who were "really" Polish and those who were not. The government used criteria that involved explicit links to Polish ethnicity, as well the person's conduct. Local verification commissions had wide latitude in determining who was or was not Polish and should remain. Their decisions were based on the nationalist assumption that an individual's national identity

25110-501: Was founded in Germany, also representing the Polish minority. Jan Baczewski from Warmia , member of the Landtag of Prussia , initiated a law allowing the founding of schools for national minorities. In 1938, the Nazi government changed thousands of place-names (especially of cities and villages) of Polish origin to newly invented German place-names; about 50% of the existing names were changed in that year alone. Also, undercover operatives were sent to spy on Polish communities. Information

25272-753: Was gathered on who sent their children to Polish schools, or bought Polish books and newspapers. Polish schools, printing presses, headquarters of Polish institutions as well as private homes and shops owned by Poles were routinely attacked by members of the Schutzstaffel (SS) . Although, thousands of Poles were forcefully migrated or voluntarily migrated to these lands during World War II . Also, small isolated enclaves of ethnic Poles could be found in Pomerania , Lubusz Land and Lower Silesia . These included scattered villages which remained ethnically Polish and large cities such as Wrocław ( Breslau ), Szczecin ( Stettin ) and Zielona Góra ( Grünberg in Schlesien ) which contained small Polish communities. During

25434-445: Was not part of the post-war so-called Recovered Territories. The medieval Lubusz Land on both sides of the Oder River up to the Spree in the west, including Lubusz ( Lebus ) itself, also formed part of Mieszko's realm. In the period of fragmentation of Poland the Lubusz Land was in different periods part of the Greater Poland and Silesian provinces of Poland. Poland lost Lubusz when the Silesian duke Bolesław II Rogatka sold it to

25596-414: Was one of the leading regions of medieval Poland. Wrocław was one of three main cities of the Medieval Polish Kingdom, according to the 12th-century chronicle Gesta principum Polonorum . Henry I the Bearded granted town rights for the first time in the history of Poland in 1211 to the Lower Silesian town of Złotoryja . The Book of Henryków , containing the oldest known written sentence in Polish,

25758-438: Was recognized by East Germany in 1950 and by West Germany in 1970, and was affirmed by the re-united Germany in the German–Polish Border Treaty of 1990. The term "Recovered Territories" was officially used for the first time in the Decree of the President of the Republic of 11 October 1938 after the annexation of Trans-Olza by the Polish army. It became the official term coined in the aftermath of World War II to denote

25920-414: Was simplified into a picture of an ethnically homogeneous state that matched post-war borders, as opposed to the later Jagiellon Poland, which was multi-ethnic and located further east. The argument that this territory in fact constituted "old Polish lands" seized on a pre-war concept developed by Polish right-wing circles attached to the SN. One reason for post-war Poland's favoring a Piast rather than

26082-399: Was that the Poles had always had the inalienable and inevitable right to inhabit the Recovered Territories, even if prevented from doing so by foreign powers. Furthermore, the Piast concept was used to persuade the Allied Powers, who found it difficult to define a Polish "ethnographic territory", to assume that it would be an intolerable injustice to not "give the territories back". By 1949,

26244-440: Was the smaller, politically weaker and peripheral country. In the Privilege of Koszyce (1374) King Louis I guaranteed that he would not detach any lands from the Polish Kingdom. The concept was not new, as it was inspired by similar Bohemian (Czech) laws ( Corona regni Bohemiae ). Some of the territories (such as Pomerelia and Masovia) reunited with Poland during the 15th and 16th centuries. However all Polish monarchs until

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