Drawsko Pomorskie (until 1948 pl, Drawsko; formerly german: Dramburg) is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

Drawsko County __NOTOC__ Drawsko County ( pl, powiat drawski) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in West Pomeranian Voivodeship, north-western Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local gover ...

West Pomeranian Voivodeship The West Pomeranian Voivodeship, also known as the West Pomerania Province, is a voivodeship (province) in northwestern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Szczecin. Its area equals 22 892.48 km² (8,838.84 sq mi), and in 2021, it was ...

in northwestern

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

, the administrative seat of

and the urban-rural commune of Gmina Drawsko Pomorskie. As of December 2021, the town has a population of 11,292. It is home to the Drawsko Training Ground, one of the largest training areas in Poland.

Geography

Located in the southeast of West Pomeranian Voivodeship (since 1999) in the

Pomerania Pomerania ( pl, Pomorze; german: Pommern; Kashubian: ''Pòmòrskô''; sv, Pommern) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The western part of Pomerania belongs to ...

region, Drawsko is situated within the Pomeranian Lakeland, the western spur of the Baltic Uplands. The town lies on the headwater of the Drawa River, a right tributary of the

Noteć Noteć (; , ) is a river in central Poland with a length of (7th longest) and a basin area of .protected area of the Drawsko Landscape Park. The regional capital Szczecin is about to the west. A large training area south of the town is frequently used in

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

exercises.

History

Medieval Poland

Drawsko Pomorskie kosciol Zmartwychwstania (1)

From the 7th century onwards Slavic tribes settled along the shores of the Drawa River, where they erected a fortress a few kilometers north of Lake Lubie. In the 10th century the region was under the sovereignty of the

Piast The House of Piast was the first historical ruling dynasty of Poland. The first documented Polish monarch was Duke Mieszko I (c. 930–992). The Piasts' royal rule in Poland ended in 1370 with the death of king Casimir III the Great. Branche ...

duke

Mieszko I of Poland Mieszko I (; – 25 May 992) was the first ruler of Poland and the founder of the first independent Polish state, the Duchy of Poland. His reign stretched from 960 to his death and he was a member of the Piast dynasty, a son of Siemomysł and a ...

; however, the sparsely inhabited border area during the

fragmentation of Poland The period of rule by the Piast dynasty between the 10th and 14th centuries is the first major stage of the history of the Polish state. The dynasty was founded by a series of dukes listed by the chronicler Gall Anonymous in the early 12th cen ...

was also claimed by the

Dukes of Pomerania This is a list of the duchies and dukes of Pomerania. Dukes of the Slavic Pomeranian tribes (All Pomerania) The lands of Pomerania were firstly ruled by local tribes, who settled in Pomerania around the 10th and 11th centuries. Non-dynastic ...

, and later also by the mighty

Ascanian The House of Ascania (german: Askanier) was a dynasty of German rulers. It is also known as the House of Anhalt, which refers to its longest-held possession, Anhalt. The Ascanians are named after Ascania (or Ascaria) Castle, known as ''Schloss ...

margraves John I and Otto III, who in 1257 had founded the town of Landsberg (present-day Gorzów Wielkopolski) on the Noteć River as centre of their New March (''Neumark'') estates.

New March

At that time, the fortress of Drawsko had been held by Duke

Przemysł I of Greater Poland Przemysł I (4 June 1221 – 4 June 1257), a member of the Piast dynasty, was Duke of Greater Poland from 1239 until his death, from 1241 with his brother Bolesław the Pious as co-ruler. He was able to re-acquire large parts of Greater Poland, r ...

, but after his death the settlement was also acquired by the Margraves of Brandenburg. They invited Premonstratensian monks from Belbuck (Białoboki) Abbey near

Trzebiatów Trzebiatów (pronounced ; ; formerly german: Treptow an der Rega) is a town in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland, with 10,119 inhabitants (2016). Trzebiatów is located on the Rega River in the north-western part of Poland, roughly 9 kilo ...

to found a monastery in their new territory. These plans failed, however, as the desired location was too far from Belbuck and the monks saw the wilderness as unsuitable. The Brandenburg margraves planned to expand upon a settlement already developing near the fortress of Drawsko. The

Uckermark The Uckermark () is a historical region in northeastern Germany, straddles the Uckermark District of Brandenburg and the Vorpommern-Greifswald District of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Its traditional capital is Prenzlau. Geography The region is nam ...

knights Arnold, Konrad and Johann von Goltz were granted the right to develop the settlement into a town mentioned as ''Drawenborch''. It grew after the arrival of German colonists, allowing the margraves to grant it

Magdeburg city rights Magdeburg rights (german: Magdeburger Recht; also called Magdeburg Law) were a set of town privileges first developed by Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (936–973) and based on the Flemish Law, which regulated the degree of internal autonomy within ...

in 1297. When the Ascanian dynasty became extinct in 1320, the colonisation efforts in the Neumark region abated. Nevertheless, to promote the further development of the newly established town of Dramburg, the

Wittelsbach The House of Wittelsbach () is a German dynasty, with branches that have ruled over territories including Bavaria, the Palatinate, Holland and Zeeland, Sweden (with Finland), Denmark, Norway, Hungary (with Romania), Bohemia, the Electorate ...

margrave Louis I of Brandenburg released the town from all duties from 1338 until 1350, when he ceded the town as a fief to the noble Wedell family. On 13 February 1368, Dramburg was the setting of a peace treaty between Elector Otto VII of Brandenburg and King Casimir III of Poland, whereby Otto ceded the town of

Wałcz Wałcz (pronounced ; german: Deutsch Krone) is a county town in Wałcz County of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. During the years 1975 to 1998, the city was administratively part of the Piła Voivodeship. Granted city r ...

to Poland. The influx of colonists began to cease, although by the end of the 14th century the Dramburg ''Neustadt'' ("new town") had developed on the southern shore of the Drawa. Drawsko Pom mural

From 1373 the New March was part of the Lands of the Bohemian (Czech) Crown under the

House of Luxembourg The House of Luxembourg ( lb, D'Lëtzebuerger Haus; french: Maison de Luxembourg; german: Haus Luxemburg) or Luxembourg dynasty was a royal family of the Holy Roman Empire in the Late Middle Ages, whose members between 1308 and 1437 ruled as kin ...

. The decay of the region continued: held by

Jobst of Moravia Jobst of Moravia ( cs, Jošt Moravský or ''Jošt Lucemburský''; german: Jo(b)st or ''Jodokus von Mähren''; c. 1354 – 18 January 1411), a member of the House of Luxembourg, was Margraviate of Moravia, Margrave of Moravia from 1375, List of mo ...

since 1388, it was pawned by his cousin

Sigismund Sigismund (variants: Sigmund, Siegmund) is a German proper name, meaning "protection through victory", from Old High German ''sigu'' "victory" + ''munt'' "hand, protection". Tacitus latinises it '' Segimundus''. There appears to be an older form of ...

(the later Holy Roman Emperor) to the

Teutonic Knights The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians o ...

in 1402, despite an agreement with Poland, based on which Poland was to buy and re-incorporate the territory. The Teutonic Knights also neglected the region, which furthermore was devastated by

Hussite The Hussites ( cs, Husité or ''Kališníci''; "Chalice People") were a Czech proto-Protestant Christian movement that followed the teachings of reformer Jan Hus, who became the best known representative of the Bohemian Reformation. The Huss ...

forces in 1433. In 1454 the Knights sold the New March to the Hohenzollern elector Frederick II of Brandenburg, in order to raise funds for war with Poland. From that time on, the Hohenzollerns retained the region; the red eagle of the town's coat of arms was taken from the

coat of arms of Brandenburg This article is about the coat of arms of the German state of Brandenburg. History According to tradition, the ''Märkischer Adler'' ('Marcher eagle'), or red eagle of the March of Brandenburg, was adopted by Margrave Gero in the 10th cent ...

.Hupp, Otto: ''Königreich Preussen. Wappen der Städte, Flecken und Dörfer''. Reprint von 1896 und 1898. Kulturstiftung der deutschen Vertriebenen,

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

, 1993. In 1537 the former

Franciscan , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

friar Faustinus Schliepe introduced

Lutheranism Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

to Dramburg during the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and ...

. From 1540 the town was administered by the Order of St. John in Germany (until 1808). A great fire destroyed a wide section of Dramburg in 1620, leaving only five houses unscathed, while five years later numerous citizens died from plague. In 1638 during the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of battle ...

, the

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

colonel Beer plundered and pillaged Dramburg. Despite that setback, the town's economic advantages allowed it to recuperate quickly. Dramburg had

staple rights The staple right, also translated stacking right or storage right, both from the Dutch language, Dutch ''stapelrecht'', was a medieval right accorded to certain ports, the staple ports. It required merchant barges or ships to unload their goods at ...

, giving it the privilege to force merchants traveling on the Drawa to offer their wares, such as Kołobrzeg (Kolberg) salt, for sale at Dramburg's markets. Wool-weaving and shoe-making were also important craft industries since the Middle Ages.

Province of Pomerania

Drawsko Pomorskie siedziba wladz powiatu

Dramburg became part of the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918. Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. ...

in 1701. With the reorganization of the Prussian provinces in 1815 following the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

, Dramburg left the Neumark region and in 1818 became the seat of ''Landkreis Dramburg'' in the ''

Regierungsbezirk A ' () means "governmental district" and is a type of administrative division in Germany. Four of sixteen ' ( states of Germany) are split into '. Beneath these are rural and urban districts. Saxony has ' (directorate districts) with more res ...

'' of

Köslin Koszalin (pronounced ; csb, Kòszalëno; formerly german: Köslin, ) is a city in northwestern Poland, in Western Pomerania. It is located south of the Baltic Sea coast, and intersected by the river Dzierżęcinka. Koszalin is also a county-sta ...

within the Prussian Province of Pomerania. Dramburg became part of the German Empire after the 1871

unification of Germany The unification of Germany (, ) was the process of building the modern German nation state with federal features based on the concept of Lesser Germany (one without multinational Austria), which commenced on 18 August 1866 with adoption of t ...

. In 1877 the Pommersche Zentralbahn (Pomeranian Central Railway) became connected to the town, which was also connected in 1896 to the Saatziger Kleinbahnnetz (Saatzig District railroad network). Dramburg's access to the railroads led to the establishment of wood and textile industries. This led the Pommersche ''Saatzucht Gesellschaft'' based in Stettin to use the Dramburg region as a testing area for its plant breeding experiments. After

regained its independence and reincorporated many areas previously annexed by the Germans (but not Drawsko/Dramburg), following the 1919

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...

after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, many Germans from the former Province of Posen immigrated to Dramburg, expanding settlement in the south of the town. When the province of Posen-West Prussia was disbanded in 1938, Dramburg became part of ''Regierungsbezirk'' Schneidemühl (Piła). During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the '' SS'' established a large training school for motorcyclists and mechanics in Dramburg. Drawsko Pomorskie cmentarz wojenny (1)

Post-war Poland

In the course of the Vistula–Oder Offensive, on March 4, 1945 the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...

and the

Polish First Army Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

captured the city, whose center was largely destroyed during the fighting. Polish authorities began administering the town on March 6, 1945. The town was granted to the Republic of Poland according to the Potsdam Agreement and the remaining German citizens were expelled. The town, initially named Drawsko, was renamed Drawsko Pomorskie by adding the adjective ''Pomorskie'' (meaning ''Pomeranian'' or ''in Pomerania'') in 1948 to distinguish it from other Polish settlements of the same name. It was the administrative seat of a

powiat A ''powiat'' (pronounced ; Polish plural: ''powiaty'') is the second-level unit of local government and administration in Poland, equivalent to a county, district or prefecture ( LAU-1, formerly NUTS-4) in other countries. The term "''powiat ...

until 1975. After the Local Government Reorganization Act of 1998, Drawsko became a county seat again in 1999.

Population

Notable people

* Karl Christoph von der Goltz (1707–1761) a lieutenant general in the Prussian army during the reign of Frederick the Great * Hans Wolter (1911–1978) a German physicist who worked with mirrors * Małgorzata Rohde (born 1962) a Polish politician * Mariusz Rumak (born 1977) a Polish football manager * Krystian Zalewski (born 1989) a Polish distance runner in the 3000 metres steeplechase, competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics

International relations

Drawsko Pomorskie is twinned with: *

Bad Bramstedt Bad Bramstedt () is a municipality in the district of Segeberg, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated approximately 40 km north of Hamburg. It is famous for its statue of Roland and its rheumatism clinic. Geography and transport B ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

* Strasburg (Uckermark),

* Złocieniec,

References

External links

Official website

Portal of Drawsko Pomorskie

Portal

Jewish Community in Drawsko Pomorskie
on Virtual Shtetl {{Authority control Cities and towns in West Pomeranian Voivodeship Drawsko County