History of Pomerania

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History of Pomerania
DUCATUS POMERANIAE Tabula Generalis, in qua sunt DUCATUS POMERANIAE, STETTINENSIS CASSUBIAE, VANDALIAE et BARDENSIS, PRINCIPATUS RUGIAE ac INSULAE, COMITATUS GUSKOVIENSIS
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The history of Pomerania starts shortly before 1000 AD, with ongoing conquests by newly arrived Polan rulers. Before that, the area was recorded nearly 2000 years ago as Germania, and in modern times Pomerania has been split between Germany and Poland. Its name comes from the Old Polish po more, which means "(land) at the sea".[1]

Settlement in the area started by the end of the Vistula Glacial Stage, about 13,000 years ago.[2] Archeological traces have been found of various cultures during the Stone and Bronze Age, of Veneti and Germanic peoples during the Iron Age and, in the Middle Ages, Slavic tribes and Vikings.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8] Starting in the 10th century, Piast Poland on several occasions acquired parts of the region from the south-east, while the Holy Roman Empire and Denmark reached the region in augmenting their territory to the west and north.[9][10][11][12][13][14][15]

In the High Middle Ages, the area became Christian and was ruled by local dukes of the House of Pomerania and the Samborides, at various times vassals of Denmark, the Holy Roman Empire and Poland.[16][17][18] From the late 12th century, the Griffin Duchy of Pomerania stayed with the Holy Roman Empire and the Principality of Rügen with Denmark, while Denmark, Brandenburg, Poland and the Teutonic Knights struggled for control in Samboride Pomerelia.[18][19][20] The Teutonic Knights succeeded in annexing Pomerelia to their monastic state in the early 14th century. Meanwhile, the Ostsiedlung started to turn Pomerania into a German-settled area; the remaining Wends, who became known as Slovincians and Kashubians, continued to settle within the rural East.[21][22] In 1325, the line of the princes of Rügen died out, and the principality was inherited by the House of Pomerania,[23] themselves involved in the Brandenburg-Pomeranian conflict about superiority in their often internally divided duchy. In 1466, with the Teutonic Order's defeat, Pomerelia became subject to the Polish Crown as a part of Royal Prussia.[24] While the Duchy of Pomerania adopted the Protestant Reformation in 1534,[25][26][27] as part of the Empire by then termed the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation,[28] Kashubia remained with the Roman Catholic Church. The Thirty Years' and subsequent wars severely ravaged and depopulated most of Pomerania.[29] With the extinction of the Griffin house during the same period, the Duchy of Pomerania was divided between the Swedish Empire and Brandenburg-Prussia in 1648.

Prussia gained the southern parts of Swedish Pomerania in 1720.[30] It gained the remainder of Swedish Pomerania in 1815, when French occupation during the Napoleonic Wars was lifted.[31] The former Brandenburg-Prussian Pomerania and the former Swedish parts were reorganized into the Prussian Province of Pomerania,[32] while Pomerelia in the partitions of Poland was made part of the Province of West Prussia. With Prussia, both provinces joined the newly constituted German Empire in 1871. Following the empire's defeat in World War I, Pomerelia became part of the Second Polish Republic (Polish Corridor) and the Free City of Danzig was created. Germany's Province of Pomerania was expanded in 1938 to include northern parts of the former Province of Posen–West Prussia, and in 1939 the annexed Polish territories became the part of Nazi Germany known as Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia. The Nazis deported the Pomeranian Jews to a reservation near Lublin[33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42] and mass-murdered Jews, Poles and Kashubians in Pomerania, planning to eventually exterminate Jews and Poles and Germanise the Kashubians.

After Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II, the German–Polish border was shifted west to the Oder–Neisse line and all of Pomerania was placed under Soviet military control.[43][44] The area west of the line became part of East Germany, the other areas part of the People's Republic of Poland even though it did not have a sizeable Polish population. The German population of the areas east of the line was expelled, and the area was resettled primarily with Poles (some of whom were themselves expellees from former eastern Poland), and some Ukrainians (who were resettled under Operation Vistula) and Jews.[45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53] Most of Western Pomerania (Vorpommern) today forms the eastern part of the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in Federal Republic of Germany, while the Polish part of the region is divided between West Pomeranian Voivodeship and Pomeranian Voivodeship, with their capitals in Szczecin and Gdańsk, respectively. During the late 1980s, the Solidarność and Die Wende movements overthrew the Communist regimes implemented during the post-war era.[citation needed] Since then, Pomerania has been democratically governed.

  1. ^ Der Name Pommern (po more) ist slawischer Herkunft und bedeutet so viel wie „Land am Meer“. Archived 2020-08-19 at the Wayback Machine (Pommersches Landesmuseum, German)
  2. ^ a b RGA 25 (2004), p.422
  3. ^ From the First Humans to the Mesolithic Hunters in the Northern German Lowlands, Current Results and Trends - THOMAS TERBERGER. From: Across the western Baltic, edited by: Keld Møller Hansen & Kristoffer Buck Pedersen, 2006, ISBN 87-983097-5-7, Sydsjællands Museums Publikationer Vol. 1 "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-09-11. Retrieved 2008-10-01.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. ^ Piskorski (1999), pp.18ff 6
  5. ^ Horst Wernicke, Greifswald, Geschichte der Stadt, Helms, 2000, pp.16ff, ISBN 3-931185-56-7
  6. ^ A. W. R. Whittle, Europe in the Neolithic: The Creation of New Worlds, Cambridge University Press, 1996, p.198, ISBN 0-521-44920-0
  7. ^ Buchholz (1999), pp.22,23
  8. ^ Herrmann (1985), pp.237ff,244ff
  9. ^ Herrmann (1985), pp.261,345ff
  10. ^ Piskorski (1999), p.32 :pagan reaction of 1005
  11. ^ Buchholz (1999), p.25: pestagan uprising that also ended the Polish suzerainty in 1005
  12. ^ A. P. Vlasto, Entry of Slavs Christendom, CUP Archive, 1970, p.129, ISBN 0-521-07459-2: abandoned 1004 - 1005 in face of violent opposition
  13. ^ Nora Berend, Christianization and the Rise of Christian Monarchy: Scandinavia, Central Europe and Rus' C. 900-1200, Cambridge University Press, 2007, p.293, ISBN 0-521-87616-8, ISBN 978-0-521-87616-2
  14. ^ David Warner, Ottonian Germany: The Chronicon of Thietmar of Merseburg, Manchester University Press, 2001, p.358, ISBN 0-7190-4926-1, ISBN 978-0-7190-4926-2
  15. ^ Michael Borgolte, Benjamin Scheller, Polen und Deutschland vor 1000 Jahren: Die Berliner Tagung über den "Akt von Gnesen", Akademie Verlag, 2002, p.282, ISBN 3-05-003749-0, ISBN 978-3-05-003749-3
  16. ^ Addison (2003), pp.57ff
  17. ^ Piskorski (1999), pp.35ff
  18. ^ a b Theologische Realenzyklopädie (1997), pp.40ff
  19. ^ Buchholz (1999), p.34ff,87,103
  20. ^ Cite error: The named reference Piskorski43 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  21. ^ Piskorski (1999), pp.77ff
  22. ^ Buchholz (1999), pp.45ff
  23. ^ Cite error: The named reference Buchholz pp.115,116 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  24. ^ Cite error: The named reference Buchholz p.186 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  25. ^ Cite error: The named reference Buchholz pp.205–212 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  26. ^ Richard du Moulin Eckart, Geschichte der deutschen Universitäten, Georg Olms Verlag, 1976, pp.111,112, ISBN 3-487-06078-7
  27. ^ Theologische Realenzyklopädie (1997), pp.43ff
  28. ^ Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger (2006). Das Heilige Römische Reich Deutscher Nation: vom Ende des Mittelalters bis 1806. C.H.Beck. p. 10., Joachim Whaley (2012). Germany and the Holy Roman Empire. Vol. 1. Oxford University Press. pp. 51, 54.
  29. ^ Buchholz (1999), pp.263,332,341–343,352–354
  30. ^ Buchholz (1999), pp.341-343
  31. ^ Buchholz (1999), pp.363,364
  32. ^ Buchholz (1999), p.366
  33. ^ Lucie Adelsberger, Arthur Joseph Slavin, Susan H. Ray, Deborah E. Lipstadt, Auschwitz: A Doctor's Story, Northeastern University Press, 1995, ISBN 1-55553-233-0, p.138: February 12/13, 1940
  34. ^ Isaiah Trunk, Jacob Robinson, Judenrat: The Jewish Councils in Eastern Europe Under Nazi Occupation, U of Nebraska Press, 1996, ISBN 0-8032-9428-X, p.133: February 14, 1940; unheated wagons, elderly and sick suffered most, inhumane treatment
  35. ^ Leni Yahil; Ina Friedman; Haya Galai (1991), The Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry, 1932-1945, Oxford University Press US, p. 138, ISBN 0-19-504523-8, February 12/13, 1940, 1,300 Jews of all sexes and ages, extreme cruelty, no food allowed to be taken along, cold, some died during deportation, cold and snow during resettlement, 230 dead by March 12, Lublin reservation chosen in winter, 30,000 Germans resettled before to make room
  36. ^ Martin Gilbert, Eilert Herms, Alexandra Riebe, Geistliche als Retter - auch eine Lehre aus dem Holocaust: Auch eine Lehre aus dem Holocaust, Mohr Siebeck, 2003, ISBN 3-16-148229-8, pp.14 (English) and 15 (German): February 15, 1940, 1000 Jews deported
  37. ^ Jean-Claude Favez; John Fletcher; Beryl Fletcher (1999), The Red Cross and the Holocaust, Cambridge University Press, p. 33, ISBN 0-521-41587-X, February 12/13, 1,100 Jews deported, 300 died en route
  38. ^ Yad Vashem Studies, Yad ṿa-shem, rashut ha-zikaron la-Shoʼah ṿela-gevurah, Yad Vashem Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, 1996 Notizen: v.12, p.69: 1,200 deported, 250 died during deportation
  39. ^ Nathan Stoltzfus, Resistance of the Heart: Intermarriage and the Rosenstrasse Protest in Nazi Germany, Rutgers University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8135-2909-3, p.130: February 11/12 from Stettin, soon thereafter from Schneidemühl, total of 1,260 Jews deported, among the deportees were intermarried non-Jewish women who had refused to divorce, eager Nazi Gauleiter Schwede-Coburg was the first to have his Gau "judenfrei", Eichmann's "RSHA" (Reich Security Main Office) ensured this was an isolated local incident to worried Eppstein of the Central Organization of Jews in Germany (Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland)
  40. ^ John Mendelsohn, Legalizing the Holocaust, the Later Phase, 1939-1943, Garland Pub., 1982, ISBN 0-8240-4876-8, p.131: Stettin Jews' houses were sealed, belongings liquidated, funds to be held in blocked accounts
  41. ^ Buchholz (1999), p.506: Only very few [of the Pomeranian Jews] survived the Nazi era. p.510: Nearly all Jews from Stettin and all the province, about a thousand
  42. ^ Alicia Nitecki, Jack Terry, Jakub's World: A Boy's Story of Loss and Survival in the Holocaust, SUNY Press, 2005, ISBN 0-7914-6407-5, pp.13ff: Stettin Jews to Belzyce in Lublin area, reservation purpose decline of Jews, terror command of Kurt Engels, shocking insights in life circumstances
  43. ^ Cite error: The named reference Buchholz, pp.512-515 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  44. ^ Piskorski (1999), pp.373ff
  45. ^ Piskorski (1999), pp.381ff
  46. ^ Tomasz Kamusella in Prauser and Reeds (eds), The Expulsion of the German communities from Eastern Europe, p.28, EUI HEC 2004/1 [1] Archived 2009-10-01 at the Wayback Machine
  47. ^ Philipp Ther, Ana Siljak, Redrawing Nations: Ethnic Cleansing in East-Central Europe, 1944-1948, 2001, p.114, ISBN 0-7425-1094-8, ISBN 978-0-7425-1094-4
  48. ^ Gregor Thum, Die fremde Stadt. Breslau nach 1945, 2006, pp.363, ISBN 3-570-55017-6, ISBN 978-3-570-55017-5
  49. ^ Buchholz (1999), p.515
  50. ^ Dierk Hoffmann, Michael Schwartz, Geglückte Integration?, p142
  51. ^ Karl Cordell, Andrzej Antoszewski, Poland and the European Union, 2000, p.168, ISBN 0-415-23885-4
  52. ^ Piskorski (1999), p.406
  53. ^ Selwyn Ilan Troen, Benjamin Pinkus, Merkaz le-moreshet Ben-Guryon, Organizing Rescue: National Jewish Solidarity in the Modern Period, pp.283-284, 1992, ISBN 0-7146-3413-1, ISBN 978-0-7146-3413-5