Pomerania

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Pommern redirects here. For alternative meanings of Pommern see Pommern (disambiguation)
The Duchy of Pomerania, ruled by the dynasty of the Griffins, was a semi-independent principality in the 17th century. Note also the variant coats of arms on this map by Eilhardus Lubinus.
The Duchy of Pomerania, ruled by the dynasty of the Griffins, was a semi-independent principality in the 17th century. Note also the variant coats of arms on this map by Eilhardus Lubinus.
Administrative division of Pomerania
Administrative division of Pomerania
Coat of arms of the Duchy of Pomerania
Coat of arms of the Duchy of Pomerania

Pomerania is a collective term used to refer to the three regions of Hither Pomerania, Farther Pomerania, and Pomerelia.[1] It is located on the south coast of the Baltic Sea, divided today between Germany in the west and Poland in the east by the Polish-German border.

While its boundaries have varied, and are somewhat differently interpreted,[2] Pomerania can be said to stretch roughly from Stralsund in the west to Gdańsk in the east, centred on the Oder River delta around Szczecin.

The Polish part of Pomerania is divided into three voivodeships: West Pomeranian, Pomeranian, and Kuyavian-Pomerian. The German part of Pomerania is included within the Federal State Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

Contents

[edit] Geography

Pomerania is the area along the Baltic Sea between the Vistula, Noteć, Warta and Recknitz rivers. The islands of Rügen, Usedom and Wolin lie along the Pomeranian coast, while the Hel peninsula and the Vistula peninsula jut out into the Baltic.

The Baltic forms the Bay of Pomerania, Lagoon of Szczecin, Gdańsk Bay with Bay of Puck, and Vistula Bay along the coast. Lakes Łebsko, Jamno and Gardno were formerly bays but have been cut off from the sea.

[edit] Etymology

Pomerania (Polish: Pomorze, German and Swedish: Pommern, Kashubian: Pòmòrze or Pòmòrskô, Latin: Pomerania or Pomorania) comes from Old Slavic "po+more" "country by/next to/along the sea." The Polish name, "Pomorze," is literally "seacoast", referring to its proximity to the Baltic Sea.

There is a probable first mention of Pomerania as the Latin "longum mare" ("along the sea") in a monastery document or note from around 1080, the Dagome iudex, shortened copy of an earlier document supposedly referring to the year 992. The document speaks of Oda von Haldensleben and her husband "Dagome", presumably the Polish ruler Mieszko I, and refers to territory gifted by "Dagome" to the Pope. An imperial document of 1046 makes an actual first mention of "Pomerania" in reference to "Zemuzil dux Bomeranorum" (Siemomysl, Duke of the Pomeranians). From then on, "Pomerania" appears repeatedly in the chronicles of Adam of Bremen (ca. 1070) and Gallus Anonymous (ca. 1113).

[edit] Subdivisions of Pomerania

In the German tradition Pomerania is often divided into:

  1. Vorpommern (in English also Hither or Western Pomerania, on the left bank of the Oder river)
  2. Hinterpommern (in English also Further or Eastern Pommerania, on its right bank).
  3. Pommerellen (Pomerelia), bordering and overlapping with West Prussia. The German term Pommern, and therefore pre-1945 references to Pomerania as well as present German understanding of that term, does in contrast to Polish Pomorze not include Pommerellen/Pomerelia in the vast majorities of its meanings.

Some confusion can come about as today there are provinces using the term Western Pomerania in both Germany and Poland. This is due to their respective historical interpretations of the history of the region, i.e. from the German perspective the Polish Province of Western Pomerania (annexed by Poland in 1945) covers the historical territory of Central and Eastern Pomerania or Mittel and Hinterpommern which was demographically, culturally and politically part of the German state for centuries.

Polish terminology divides Pomerania into:

  1. Pomorze Zachodnie, Pomorze Szczecińskie, or Pomorze Nadodrzańskie (Western Pomerania, the entire area of the former Duchy and Province of Pomerania)
  2. Pomorze Wschodnie or Pomorze Gdańskie (Pomerelia).

The former covers roughly the territories referred to in German as Vorpommern and Hinterpommern, the latter corresponds to Pommerellen (Pomerelia). Under Polish administration a number of several different voivodeships all using the name Pomerania have been established.

Kashubian geographic terminology with regard to Pomerania is similar to Polish, and distinguishes between Zôpadnô Pòmòrskô (Western Pomerania) and Pòrénkòwô Pòmòrskô (Eastern Pomerania).

[edit] Demographics

Polish Voivodeship/
German Kreis		 Capitals Registration
plates		 Area
w km²		 Population
Polish 31 December 1999
German 2001		 Territorial code
Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship Bydgoszcz¹
Toruń²		 C 17,969.72 2,100,771 04
Pomeranian Voivodeship Gdańsk G 18,292.88 2,192,268 22
West Pomeranian Voivodeship Szczecin Z 22,901.48 1,732,838 32
(¹) - the site of the Voivod office. (²) - the site of the Voivod council
Polish Pomerania total     59,164.08 6,025,877  
Nordvorpommern Grimmen NPV 2,168 117,722  
Ostvorpommern Anklam OVP 1,910 113,623  
Rügen Bergen auf Rügen RÜG 974 74,400  
Uecker-Randow Pasewalk UER 1,624 83,459  
Demmin (district) Demmin DM 1,921 93,700  
Greifswald   HGW 52.2 52,984  
Stralsund   HST est. 52.2 60,000  
German Pomerania total     8,701 595,888  

The biggest cities are (with population figures for 1999):

in Polish Pomerania

and Świnoujście, Kołobrzeg, Sopot, Malbork, Kwidzyn, Szczecinek, Lębork, Chojnice, Iława, Ostróda, Police, Wałcz

in German Pomerania

[edit] History of Pomerania

Main article: History of Pomerania
Historic Pomerania (outlined in yellow) on the background of modern country borders. The map outlines the pre-1946 German Province of Pomerania; Kashubia, known as Eastern Pomerania or Pomerelia, is not included.
Historic Pomerania (outlined in yellow) on the background of modern country borders. The map outlines the pre-1946 German Province of Pomerania; Kashubia, known as Eastern Pomerania or Pomerelia, is not included.

[edit] Timeline

The history of the region is rich and varied, probably due to its having been fragmented into several independent duchies through the centuries.

[edit] Prehistoric times, Germanic and Slavic tribes

20,000 years ago the territory of present-day Pomerania was covered with ice, which did not start to recede until the late period of the Old Stone Age or Paleolithic some 10,000 years BC, when the Scandinavian glacier receded to the north. Various archaeological cultures developed in the Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age, and Iron Age.

Initially at least part of Pomerania was dominated by Baltic tribes. Since around 500BC and before 500 AD Pomerania was dominated by East Germanic tribes including several tribes of Goths, who according to archeological evidence and their own tradition have come from Scandinavia. Goths and Rugians are recorded by Roman historians in the areas of Pomerania in 98 AD. The Veneti, non-Germanic tribe, which later assimilated with Slavs, are recorded by Ptolemy and Pliny the Elder around Vistula in first century AD. By the 7th century Slavic tribes (Wends) such as the Pomeranians settled the area.

See also: Balts, East Germanic tribes, Lusatian culture, Pomeranian culture, Wielbark Culture, Goths, Rugians, and Kashubians

[edit] Pomerania as a part of Poland, Denmark and Germany; German settlement

The tribes which collectively were to become known as the Pomeranians emerged in the 9th century as one of more the important Slavic tribes in the Baltic Region. They were based in the north of Central Europe around the cities of Wolin, Kamien, Szczecin, Stargard, Pyrzyce, Bialogard and Kolobrzeg. The Pomeranians strongly resisted the attempts by the Piast dynasty of the Polanian state to forcibly incorporate them, but did not at that time develop their own central dynastic leadership. The chronicler Dzięcioł suggests that the 'Slavs', led by the Saxon count Wichmann who was related to Hermann Billung the Duke of of Saxony and whose victories over Mieszko I Prince of Poland in 963 were recorded by the chronicler Widukind of Corvey, may have been western Pomeranians.

The year 967 was a disastrous one for the western Pomeranians, when Wichmann was killed in battle by the Poles, in alliance with Boleslav I Duke of Bohemia, and the whole western half of the state was subjected to Polish rule, thereby opening a period of increased Polish influence in Pomerania. In matters of religion, the Pomeranians had an organised pagan religion with priests and temples, but after the establishment of the archbishopric of Gniezno in 1000, the bishopric of Kolobrzeg [Kolberg] was founded in Pomerania as part of the new Polish ecclesiastical organisation, with Reinbern as its first bishop. During the war between the Polish state and the Holy Roman Empire, the western Pomeranians liberated themselves from their Piast conquerors in 1013. [1]

Pagan uprisings in 1005 and 1038 resulted in independancy for Western Pomerania and Pomerelia, respectively. Howerver, the Pomeranians were finally forced to abandon paganism by the Poles in the early 12th century. Regained by Poland in 1116/1121, the Polish could not hold the Pomeranian duchy longer than 1135, whereas Pomerelia after the 1138 partition of Poland among the sons of Boleslaus Wrymouth became a part of the Polish seniorat (see Map of Poland before the fragmentation period) which was declared fief of the Holy Roman Empire in 1156.

The Western part, the Duchy of Pomerania, was declared part of the Holy Roman Empire (1181). After a brief period of Danish rule (1168/1186-1227), it remained part of Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation until 1806.


The Eastern part, Pomerelia, which was directly part of Kingdom of Poland, was disputed by Brandenburg and conquered by the Teutonic Knights in 1309, becoming part of the Teutonic Order state. After the rebellion of the Prussian Confederation, it was then annexed by the Kingdom of Poland in 1466 as a province with considerable autonomy. This part of Pomerelia and Prussia was centuries later referred to as "Royal Prussia". In the Union of Lublin of 1569 the province agreed[citation needed] to sacrifice part of its autonomy to join the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as the new entity to unify lands of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Since ~1200, a steady influx of German settlers had been arriving in Pomerania. One of the first recorded German settler came to Stettin (Szczecin) in 1187. Some rural parts of Pomerania were however still predominantly Slavic in character before the advent of Protestantism. Later though the duchy of Pomerania became German by ethnicity, language and culture, whereas Pomerelia still preserved a Slavic character.

In 1425, conflict with Brandenburg about the rule of the Uckermark and Pomerania resulted in a war of Brandenburg against Pomerania, Mecklenburg, the Teutonic Order and even Poland. Brandenburg was able to keep the Uckermark, but Hohenzollern pretensions to rule Pomerania were thwarted.

See also: Kashubians and Ostsiedlung, also Kashubian settlement areas from 800-today

[edit] The 16th–17th centuries

For more details on this topic, see Swedish Pomerania.

Disputes with Brandenburg continued. These were partially agreed at the Conference of Juterbog (1527) between Joachim I Nestor, Elector of Brandenburg, and the Duke of Pomerania. As the Protestant Reformation gathered pace, Pomerania also converted to Lutheranism, but the process was slower than in Brandenburg.

In 1637 the last of the Dukes of Pomerania, Boguslaw XIV, died without direct male successor. During the Thirty Years' War, King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden occupied Pomerania. In the negotiations between France, Brandenburg, and Sweden following the Northern War the Brandenburg diplomats Joachim Friedrich von Blumenthal and his son Christoph Caspar obtained the rights of succession for Brandenburg, though the argument with Sweden, especially over Hither Pomerania, continued to the end of the 17th century and beyond, until the Treaty of Stockholm in 1720.

[edit] The 18th–19th centuries

Prussian noblemen began to acquire estates in Pomerania, while Pomeranian noblemen were integrated into Prussian society. Thus originally Wendish noble families such as the von Lettows, von Strelows, von Peglows, von Zitzewitzes and von Krockows intermarried with German families from Brandenburg such as the von Blumenthals, who possessed great estates at Quackenburg, Varzin, Dubberzin, Schlönwitz and elsewhere. By the nineteenth century Pomerania was mostly Germanised, and was a popular place of retirement for the well-to-do such as Bismarck, who bought Varzin.

[edit] The 20th century

After the first World War, Pomerelia (as West Prussia and Danzig (Gdansk)) came to Poland. After the defeat of Germany in World War II in 1945, the Potsdam Conference placed most of Pomerania under Polish administration. The German population of the transferred territories fled, was expelled, or lost their lives. Some Germans were retained by Soviet authorities to do forced labour in the Soviet exclaves for a number of years after 1945.[7] The now Polish parts of Pomerania were resettled with Poles.

[edit] See also

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Pomerelia overlaps with and is also sometimes called West Prussia.
  2. ^ For instance whether Pomerelia is to be included.
  3. ^ Pommern History
  4. ^ The dispute between the Teutonic Knights and the Polish kings was settled in negotiations in the Treaty of Kalisz (1343). This easternmost part of Pomerania remained under the rule of the Teutonic Knights as a fief of the Polish Crown. Polish kings held the title of Duke of Pomerania within the Holy Roman Empire's fief of entire Pomerania.
  5. ^ In 1654 Farther Pomerania was conquered by Brandenburg-Prussia from the Swedes. In 1720 Hither Pomerania became also a part of the then Kingdom of Prussia. With the Partitions of Poland 1772–1795 Pomerelia was incorporated into Prussia as the Province of West Prussia.
  6. ^ In the Prussian provinces of Pomerania and West Prussia. The Kingdom of Prussia was a member state of the German Confederation (1815–1866), the North German Confederation (1867–1871), and the German Empire (since 1871).
  7. ^ Vegelahn Familiengeschichte

[edit] Further reading

[edit] Publications in English

  • Byrnes, James F., Speaking Frankly, New York, 1947.
  • Keesing's Research Report, Germany and Eastern Europe since 1945, New York, 1973, Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 72-7729. ISBN 0-684-13190-0
  • de Zayas, Alfred M, Nemesis at Potsdam, Routledge, (1st edition 1977), Revised edition 1979, ISBN 0-7100-0458-3
  • Boehlke, LeRoy, Pomerania - Its People and Its History, Pommerscher Verein Freistadt, Germantown, WI, U.S.A., 1983.
  • von Krockow, Christian, Hour of the Women, UK edition 1992, Faber & Faber, ISBN 0-571-14320-2
  • Herrick, Linda, & Wendy Uncapher, Pomerania - Atlantic Bridge to Germany, Origins, Janesville, WI, U.S.A., 2005.

[edit] Publications in Polish

  • Gerard Labuda (ed.), Historia Pomorza, vol. I (to 1466), parts 1-2, Poznań 1969
  • Gerard Labuda (ed.), Historia Pomorza, vol. II (1466–1815), parts 1-2, Poznań 1976
  • Gerard Labuda (ed.), Historia Pomorza, vol. III (1815–1850), parts 1-3, Poznań
  • Gerard Labuda (ed.), Historia Pomorza, vol. IV (1850–1918), part 1, Toruń 2003
  • Marian Biskup (ed.), Śląsk i Pomorze w historii stosunków polsko-niemieckich w średniowieczu. XII Konferencja Wspólnej Komisji Podręcznikowej PRL-RFN Historyków 5–10 VI 1979 Olsztyn, Instytut Zachdni, Poznań 1987
  • Antoni Czubiński, Zbigniew Kulak (ed.), Śląsk i Pomorze w stosunkach polsko-niemieckich od XVI do XVII w. XIV Konferencja Wspólnej Komisji Podręcznikowej PRL-RFN Historyków, 9–14 VI 1981 r. Zamość, Instytut Zachodni, Poznań 1987
  • Szkice do dziejów Pomorza, vol. 1-3, Warszawa 1958-61
  • B. Wachowiak, Rozwój gospodarczo-społeczny Pomorza Zachodniego od połowy XV do początku XVII wieku, Studia i Materiały do dziejów Wielkopolski i Pomorza, 1958, z. 1
  • J. Wiśniewski, Początki układu kapitalistycznego na Pomorzu Zachodnim w XVIII wieku, Studia i Materiały do dziejów Wielkopolski i Pomorza, 1958, z. 1
  • A. Wielopolski, Gospodarka Pomorza Zachodniego w latach 1800–1918, Szczecin 1959
  • W. Odyniec, Dzieje Prus Królewskich (1454–1772). Zarys monograficzny, Warszawa 1972
  • Dzieje Pomorza Nadwiślańskiego od VII wieku do 1945 roku, Gdańsk 1978
  • Zygmunt Boras, "Książęta Pomorza Zachodniego", Poznań 1969, 1978, 1996
  • Zygmunt Boras, "Stosunki polsko-pomorskie w XVI w", Poznań 1965
  • Zygmunt Boras, "Związki Śląska i Pomorza Zachdoniego z Polską w XVI wieku", Poznań 1981
  • Kazimierz Kozłowski, Jerzy Podralski, "Poczet Książąt Pomorza Zachodniego", KAW, Szczecin 1985
  • Lech Bądkowski, W. Samp. "Poczet książąt Pomorza Gdańskiego", Gdańsk 1974
  • B. Śliwiński, "Poczet książąt gdańskich", Gdańsk 1997
  • Wojciech Myślenicki, "Pomorscy sprzymierzenscy Jagiellończyków", Wydawnictwo Poznańskie, Poznań 1979
  • Józef Spors, "Podziały administracyjne Pomorza Gdańskiego i Sławieńsko-Słupskiego od XII do początków XIV w", Słupsk 1983
  • Kazimierz Ślaski, "Podziały terytorialne Pomorza w XII-XII w.", Poznań 1960
  • Benon Miśkiewicz, "Z dziejów wojennych Pomorza Zachodniego. Cedynia 972-Siekierki 1945", Wydawnictwo Poznańskie, Poznań 1972

[edit] Publications in German

  • M. Wehrmann, Geschichte von Pommern, vol. 1-2, Gotha 1919-21
  • M. Spahn, Verfassungs- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte des Herzogtums Pommern von 1476 bis 1625, Leipzig 1896
  • B. Schumacher, Geschichte Ost- und Westpreussens, Würzburg 1959

[edit] External links

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[edit] Internet directories

[edit] Culture and history

[edit] Maps of Pomerania

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