Recovered Territories

Recovered Territories
Recovered Territories (Polish: Ziemie Odzyskane, literally "Regained Lands") was an official term used by the People's Republic of Poland to describe the territory of the former Free City of Danzig
Free City of Danzig and the parts of pre-war Germany
Germany that became part of Poland after World War II. The rationale for the term "Recovered" was the Piast Concept that these territories were once part of the traditional Polish homeland. They had been part of, or fiefs of, a Polish state during the medieval Piast
Piast dynasty. Over the centuries, however, they had become Germanized through the processes of German eastward settlement (Ostsiedlung) and political expansion (Drang nach Osten) and for the most part did not even contain a Polish-speaking minority. Nowadays the term Western Territories (Polish: Ziemie Zachodnie) is more popular because of its ideological neutrality. The great majority of the German inhabitants either fled or were expelled from the territories during the later stages of the war and after the war ended, although a small German minority remains in some places. The territories were resettled with Poles
Poles who moved voluntarily from Central Poland, with Polish repatriates forced to leave areas of former eastern Poland that had been annexed by the Soviet Union, and with Ukrainians, Rusyns
Rusyns and other minorities forcibly resettled under "Operation Vistula". The 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, from gained territories. The post-war border between Germany
Germany and Poland (the Oder-Neisse line) was recognized by East Germany
Germany in 1950 and by West Germany
Germany in 1970, and was affirmed by the re-united Germany
Germany in the German-Polish Border Treaty
Treaty of 1990.

Contents

1 History before 1945

1.1 Pomerania

1.1.1 Gdańsk, Lębork
Lębork and Bytów

1.2 Lubusz Land 1.3 Parts of Greater Poland
Greater Poland and Kuyavia 1.4 Silesia 1.5 Warmia
Warmia and Masuria

2 Origin and use of the term 3 Polish minorities already living in the Recovered Territories 4 Polonization
Polonization of the Recovered Territories

4.1 Removal of Germans
Germans and traces of German habitation 4.2 Resettlement of the Territories

5 Role of the Recovered Territories
Recovered Territories in the Communists' rise to power 6 Legal status of the territories 7 See also 8 References

History before 1945[edit] Further information: History of Poland

Early Piast
Piast Poland at the death of Mieszko I
Mieszko I in 992, who is considered as the first historical ruler of Poland and the creator of the Polish state

Several different West Slavic tribes inhabited most of the area of present-day Poland from the 6th century. Duke Mieszko I
Mieszko I of the Polans, from his stronghold in the Gniezno
Gniezno area, united various neighboring tribes in the second half of the 10th century, forming the first Polish state and becoming the first historically recorded Piast
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.

Map (published in 1917 in the United States) showing Poland at the death of Boleslaw III in 1138

Mieszko's son and successor, Duke Bolesław I Chrobry, upon the 1018 Peace of Bautzen
Peace of Bautzen expanded the southern part of the realm, but lost control over the lands of Western Pomerania
Pomerania on the Baltic coast. After fragmentation, pagan revolts and a Bohemian invasion in the 1030s, Duke Casimir I the Restorer
Casimir I the Restorer (reigned 1040-1058) again united most of the former Piast
Piast realm, including Silesia
Silesia and Lubusz Land
Lubusz Land on both sides of the middle Oder
Oder River, but without Western Pomerania, which became part of the Polish state again under Bolesław III
Bolesław III Wrymouth from 1116 until 1121, when the noble House of Griffins
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 the Silesian and Masovian duchies remained independent Piast
Piast holdings. In the course of the 12th to 14th centuries, Germanic, Dutch and Flemish settlers moved into East Central and Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe in a migration process known as the Ostsiedlung. In Pomerania, Brandenburg, East Prussia
East Prussia and Silesia, the former West Slav ( Polabian Slavs
Polabian Slavs and Poles) or Balt population became minorities in 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
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 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 the territories that were part of, or dependent on, the Polish Crown upon the death of Bolesław III
Bolesław III in 1138. Some of the territories (such as Pomerelia
Pomerelia and Masovia) reunited with Poland during the 15th and 16th centuries. However all Polish monarchs
Polish monarchs until the end of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795 had to promise to do everything possible to reunite the rest of those territories with the Crown.[1] The areas of the Recovered Territories
Recovered Territories fall into three categories:

Those that once had been part of the Polish state during the rule of the Piasts Those that had not been part of Poland, but were fiefs of the Polish crown in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries (Ducal Prussia) Territories that had been part of Poland until the Partitions (parts of Royal Prussia
Royal Prussia including Warmia, as well as the regions of Piła, Wałcz, and Złotów, which went to Prussia in the First Partition of 1772; and Gdańsk, Międzyrzecz, and Wschowa, which followed in the Second Partition of 1793)

Pomerania[edit] Main article: History of Pomerania

Location of the annexed part (orange) of the Province of Pomerania
Pomerania and of the other "Recovered Territories" (green)

The Pomeranian parts of the Recovered Territories
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
Bolesław III in several campaigns lasting from 1116 to 1121. Successful Christian missions ensued in 1124 and 1128; however, by the time of Bolesław's death in 1138, most of West Pomerania
Pomerania (the Griffin-ruled areas) was no longer controlled by Poland. Over the following centuries the area was largely Germanized, although a small Slavic or Polish minority remained. At the turn of the 20th century there lived about 14,200 persons of Polish mother-tongue in the Province of Pomerania
Pomerania (in the east of Farther Pomerania
Pomerania in the vicinity of the border with West Prussia), and 300 persons using the Kashubian language
Kashubian language (at the Leba Lake and the Garde Lake), the total population of the province consisting of almost 1.7 million inhabitants. Gdańsk, Lębork
Lębork and Bytów[edit]

Ducal Prussia
Ducal Prussia (to 1525 Monastic state of the Teutonic Knights) as a feudal fief of the Crown of the Polish Kingdom
Crown of the Polish Kingdom 1466-1657

Further information: History of Gdańsk
Gdańsk and Lauenburg and Bütow Land

Location of the former Free City of Danzig
Free City of Danzig (orange) and of the other "Recovered Territories" (green)

The region of Pomerelia
Pomerelia at the eastern end of Pomerania, including Gdańsk
Gdańsk (Danzig), 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 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 the region became part of the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights. In the Second Peace of Thorn
Second Peace of Thorn (1466) most of the region became part of Royal Prussia
Royal Prussia within the Kingdom of Poland, as it remained until being acquired by the Kingdom of Prussia
Kingdom of Prussia in the partitions of 1772 and 1793. A small area in the west of Pomerelia, the Lauenburg and Bütow Land
Lauenburg and Bütow Land (the region of Lębork
Lębork and Bytów) was granted to the rulers of Pomerania, although it remained a Polish fief until the First Partition. (A large part of Pomerelia
Pomerelia formed the Polish Corridor
Polish Corridor between the World Wars, and so was not part of the post-war Recovered Territories.) Lubusz Land[edit] Main articles: Lubusz Land
Lubusz Land and Brandenburg Further information: Neumark

Location of East Brandenburg
Brandenburg (orange) and of the other "Recovered Territories" (green)

Lubusz Land
Lubusz Land during the Piast
Piast period (marked in yellow).

The medieval Lubusz Land
Lubusz Land on both sides of the Oder
Oder River up to the Spree
Spree in the west, including Lubusz (Lebus) itself, also formed part of Mieszko's realm. Poland lost Lubusz when the Silesian duke Bolesław II Rogatka
Bolesław II Rogatka sold it to the Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg in 1248. Brandenburg
Brandenburg also acquired the castellany of Santok
Santok from Duke Przemysł I of Greater Poland
Greater Poland and made it the nucleus of their Neumark ("New March") region. The Bishopric of Lebus
Lebus remained a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Gniezno
Gniezno until 1424, when it passed under the jurisdiction of the Archbishopric of Magdeburg. The present-day Polish Lubusz Voivodeship
Lubusz Voivodeship comprises most of the former Brandenburgian Neumark territory east of the Oder. Parts of Greater Poland
Greater Poland and Kuyavia[edit] Further information: Province of Posen-West Prussia

Location of Posen- West Prussia
West Prussia (orange) and of the other "Recovered Territories" (green)

A portion of the Recovered Territories
Recovered Territories east of the Lubusz Land
Lubusz Land had previously formed the western parts of the Polish provinces of Pomerelia
Pomerelia and Greater Poland
Greater Poland (Polonia Maior), being lost to Prussia in the First Partition (the Pomerelian parts) and the Second Partition (the remainder). 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
Province of Posen and of West Prussia
West Prussia that were not restored as part of the Poland were administered as Grenzmark Posen-Westpreußen (the German Province of Posen–West Prussia) until 1939. Silesia[edit] Main article: History of Silesia

Polish city names in Silesia; from a 1750 Prussian official document published in Berlin
Berlin during the Silesian Wars.[2]

Location of Silesia
Silesia (orange) in the "Recovered Territories" (green)

Piast
Piast dukes continued to rule Silesia
Silesia following the 12th-century fragmentation of Poland. The Silesian Piasts
Silesian Piasts retained power in most of the region until the early 16th century, the last (George William, duke of Legnica) dying in 1675. 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[3] (Duke of Silesia from 1201 to 1238). After the era of German colonisation, the Polish language still predominted in Upper Silesia
Silesia and in parts of Lower and Middle Silesia
Silesia north of the Odra river. Here the Germans
Germans who arrived during the Middle Ages became mostly Polonized; Germans
Germans dominated in large cities and Poles
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.[4][5] The province came under the control of Kingdom of Bohemia, in the 14th century. Silesia
Silesia passed to the Habsburg Monarchy
Habsburg Monarchy of Austria
Austria in 1526, and Prussia's Frederick the Great conquered most of it in 1742. A part of Upper Silesia
Silesia became part of Poland after World War I, but the bulk of Silesia
Silesia formed part of the post-1945 Recovered Territories.

History of Brandenburg
Brandenburg and Prussia

Northern March pre–12th century Old Prussians pre–13th century

Margraviate of Brandenburg 1157–1618 (1806) Teutonic Order 1224–1525

Duchy of Prussia 1525–1618 Royal (Polish) Prussia 1466–1772

Brandenburg-Prussia 1618–1701

Kingdom in Prussia 1701–1772

Kingdom of Prussia 1772–1918

Free State of Prussia 1918–1947 Klaipėda Region (Lithuania) 1920–1939 / 1945–present

Brandenburg (Germany) 1947–1952 / 1990–present Recovered Territories (Poland) 1918/1945–present Kaliningrad Oblast (Russia) 1945–present

Warmia
Warmia and Masuria[edit] Further information: Prussia (region)
Prussia (region) and East Prussia

Location of southern East Prussia
East Prussia (orange) and of the other "Recovered Territories" (green)

The northern territories of Warmia
Warmia and Masuria
Masuria form the areas of the Recovered Territories
Recovered Territories that had been Polish fiefs. Originally inhabited by pagan Old Prussians, these regions became incorporated into the state of the Teutonic Knights
Teutonic Knights in the 13th and 14th centuries. By the Second Peace of Thorn
Second Peace of Thorn (1466), an area of Warmia
Warmia around Lidzbark was awarded to the Polish crown as part of Royal Prussia, though with considerable autonomy. The remainder of today's Warmia- Masuria
Masuria region became part of Ducal Prussia, formally a Polish fief. Prussia took direct control of the region in the First Partition of Poland
First Partition of Poland (1772). It formed the southern part of East Prussia
East Prussia after World War I, becoming part of Poland after World War II, with northern East Prussia going to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union to form the Kaliningrad Oblast. Origin and use of the term[edit]

Polish communist Władysław Gomułka, Minister of Recovered Territories

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 Zaolzie
Zaolzie by the Polish army.[6] It became the official propaganda term[7] coined in the aftermath of World War II
World War II to denote the former eastern territories of Germany
Germany that were being handed over to Poland. The underlying concept was to define post-war Poland as heir to the medieval Piasts' realm,[8][9][10] which was simplified into a picture of an ethnically homogeneous state that matched post-war borders,[11] as opposed to the later Jagiellon Poland, which was multi-ethnic and located further east.[12] The argument that this territory in fact constituted "old Polish lands"[13][14] seized on a pre-war concept developed by Polish right-wing circles attached to the SN.[15]

US Department of State demographics map from 10 January 1945 Germany – Poland Proposed Territorial Changes

One reason for post-war Poland's favoring a Piast
Piast rather than a Jagiellon
Jagiellon tradition was Joseph Stalin's refusal to withdraw from the Curzon line
Curzon line and the Allies' readiness to satisfy Poland with German territory instead.[16] 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.[13][15][17][18] Dmitrow says that "in official justifications for 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
Piast lands.'"[15] Objections to the Allies' decisions and criticism of the Polish politicians' role at Potsdam were censored.[15] 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.[16][18] The People's Republic of Poland under the Polish Workers' Party
Polish Workers' Party thus supported the idea of Poland based on old Piast
Piast lands.[16][17] 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
Communist press called for the Piast
Piast borders, that would end Germanisation
Germanisation and Drang nach Osten.[19] Great efforts were made to propagate the view of the Piast
Piast Concept. It was actively supported by the Catholic Church.[20] The sciences were responsible for the development of this perception of history. In 1945 the Western Institute
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 a historical background.[21] Historical scientists, archaeologists, linguists, art historians and ethnologists worked in an interdisciplinary effort to legitimize the new borders.[22] Their findings were popularised in monographs, periodicals, schoolbooks, travel guides, broadcasts and exhibitions.[23] Official maps were drawn showing that the Polish frontiers under the first known Piast
Piast princes matched the new ones.[10] According to Norman Davies, 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.[24] The official view was that the Poles
Poles had always had the inalienable and inevitable right to inhabit the Recovered Territories, even if prevented from doing so by foreign powers.[24] Furthermore, the Piast
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."[10] Because the Recovered Territories
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.[25] Polish scholars thus concentrated on the Polish aspects of the territories: mediaeval Piast
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.[22] By 1949, the term "Recovered Territories" had been dropped from Polish communist propaganda, but it is still used occasionally in common language.[26] 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 Territories".[26][27] Wolff and Cordell say that along with the debunking of communist historiography, "the 'recovered territories' thesis [...] has been discarded", and that "it 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.[28] 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 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.[29] After the Second World War, the Soviet Union
Soviet Union annexed the Polish territories in the east, and encouraged or forced the Polish population from the region to move west. In the framework of the campaign, the Soviets put up posters in public places with messages that promised a better life in the West.[30] Polish minorities already living in the Recovered Territories[edit] Since the time of the Piast
Piast Dynasty, which unified many of the western Slavic tribes and ruled Poland from the 10th to the 14th centuries, ethnic Poles
Poles continued to live inside Germany's pre-war borders, this despite the Germanization
Germanization process (Ostsiedlung), which began in the 13th century with the arrival of German, Dutch and Flemish colonists to Silesia
Silesia and Pomerania
Pomerania at the behest of the feudal Silesian Piasts and the House of Griffins.[31] Likewise, in the 16th century many Polish settlers from Mazovia
Mazovia migrated into the southern portions of the Duchy of Prussia.[32] Before the outbreak of war, regions of Masuria, Warmia
Warmia and Upper Silesia
Silesia contained significant ethnic Polish populations, and in many areas the Poles
Poles constituted a majority of the inhabitants.[33] Under German rule, these communities faced discrimination and oppression. In 1938, the Nazi government changed thousands of toponyms (especially names of cities and villages) of Polish origin to the newly invented German place-names; about 50% of the existing names were changed in that year alone.[34] Also, undercover operatives were sent to spy on Polish communities. Information 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
Poles were routinely attacked by members of the Schutzstaffel
Schutzstaffel (SS).[35] Also, small isolated enclaves of ethnic Poles
Poles could be found in Pomerania, Lubusz Land
Lubusz Land and Lower Silesia. These included scattered villages which remained ethnically Polish and large cities such as Wrocław
Wrocław (Breslau), Szczecin
Szczecin (Stettin) and Zielona Góra
Zielona Góra (Grünberg in Schlesien) which contained small Polish communities.[36][37][38] Polonization
Polonization of the Recovered Territories[edit]

Marking the new Polish-German border in 1945

The People's Republic had to locate its population inside the new frontiers.[10] With its eastern territories (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 km2 (150,194 to 120,464 sq mi)).[39] Millions of non- Poles
Poles – mainly Germans
Germans from the Recovered Territories, as well as some Ukrainians
Ukrainians in the east – were to be expelled from the new Poland, while large numbers of Poles
Poles needed to be resettled having been expelled from the Kresy. The expellees were termed "repatriates".[10] The result was the largest exchange of population in European history.[10] 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,[40] and to justify the removal of the German inhabitants.[10] Largely excepted from the expulsions of Germans
Germans were the "autochthons", close to three million ethnically Slavic inhabitants of Masuria
Masuria (Masurs), Pomerania (Kashubians, Slovincians) and Upper Silesia
Silesia (Silesians). The Polish government aimed to retain as many autochthons as possible for propaganda purposes, as their presence on former German soil was used to indicate the intrinsic "Polishness" of the area and justify its incorporation into the Polish state as "recovered" territories.[41] "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.[41] The "autochthons" not only disliked the subjective and often arbitrary verification process, but they also faced discrimination even after completing it,[42] such as the Polonization
Polonization of their names.[43] In 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.[44]

Pre-1945 administrative division (yellow)

Projected Polish administration (Okreg I-IV) in March, 1945

Integration into the Voivodeships of Poland
Voivodeships of Poland as of June, 1946

Present-day administrative division of Poland, Western and Northern Territories in dark green

Removal of Germans
Germans and traces of German habitation[edit]

Choir stalls (Engelsgestühl) from 1680, collegiate church, Lubiąż abbey

The baroque interior of Lubiąż abbey was removed and transferred to Inner Poland. The choir stalls are now in Stężyca.

Further information: Flight and expulsion of Germans
Germans from Poland during and after World War II
World War II and Committee for Settling of Place Names See also: Emigration from Poland to Germany
Germany after World War II After the brutal experiences of German rule, some Poles
Poles wanted to erase traces of German history and culture which reminded them of the atrocities[45] The "Recovered Territories" after 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.[46] 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 2,288,000 Germans, of which 2,075,000—nearly 91 per cent—lived in the Recovered Territories. By this stage Germans
Germans still constituted more than 41 per cent of the inhabitants of these regions. However, by 1950 there were only 200,000 Germans
Germans remaining in Poland, and by 1957 that number fell to 65,000.[47] The flight and expulsion of the remaining Germans
Germans in the first post-war years presaged a broader campaign to remove signs of former German rule.[48] More than 30,000 German placenames were replaced with Polish[49] or Polonized medieval Slavic ones.[50][51] Previous Slavic and Polish names before Germanisation
Germanisation were used; in the cases when one was absent either the German name was translated or new names were invented.[52] In January 1946, a Committee for Settling of Place Names
Committee for Settling of Place Names was set up to assign new official toponyms.[53] The German language
German language was banned from public schools, government media and church services.[49][51] Many German monuments, graveyards, buildings or entire ensembles of buildings were demolished.[54] Objects of art were moved to other parts of the country.[55] German inscriptions were erased, including those on religious objects, in churches and in cemeteries.[48] In Ziemia Lubuska
Ziemia Lubuska "Socialist competitions" were organized to search and destroy final German traces.[48] Historian John Kulczycki argues that the Communist
Communist authorities discovered that forging an ethnically homogenous Poland in the Recovered Territories
Recovered Territories was quite complicated, for it 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 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.[56] Resettlement of the Territories[edit] Further information: Repatriation of Poles
Poles (1944–1946) and Repatriation of Poles
Poles (1955–59) 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.[57] However these data, concerning ethnic minorities, that came from the census conducted during the reign of the NSDAP
NSDAP (Nazi Party) is usually not considered by historians and demographers as trustworthy but as drastically falsified.[58] Therefore, while this German census
German census placed the number of Polish-speakers and bilinguals below 700,000 people, Polish demographers have estimated that the actual number of Poles
Poles in the former German East was between 1.2[57] and 1.3 million.[59] In the 1.2 million figure, approximately 850,000 were estimated for the Upper Silesian regions, 350,000 for southern East Prussia
East Prussia and 50,000 for the rest of the territories.[57] People from all over Poland quickly moved in to replace the former German population in a process parallel to the expulsions, with the first settlers arriving in March 1945.[60] These settlers took over farms and villages close to the pre-war frontier while the Red Army was still advancing.[60] In addition to the settlers, other Poles
Poles went for "szaber" or looting expeditions, soon affecting all former eastern territories of Germany.[60] On 30 March 1945, the Gdansk Voivodeship was established as the first administrative Polish unit in the "recovered" territories.[61] While the Germans
Germans were interned and expelled, close to 5 million settlers[62][63] 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
Poles to 5,894,600 as of 1950.[57] The settlers can be grouped according to their background:

settlers from Central Poland moving voluntarily (the majority)[62] Poles
Poles that had been freed from forced labor in Nazi Germany
Germany (up to two million)[62][64] so-called "repatriants": Poles
Poles expelled from the areas east of the new Polish-Soviet border were preferably settled in the new western territories, where they made up 26% of the population (up to two million)[62][64] non- Poles
Poles forcibly resettled during the Operation Vistula
Operation Vistula in 1947. Large numbers of Ukrainians
Ukrainians were forced to move from south-eastern Poland under a 1947 Polish government operation aimed at dispersing, and therefore assimilating, those Ukrainians
Ukrainians who had not been expelled eastward already, throughout the newly acquired territories. Belarusians living around the area around Białystok were also pressured into relocating to the formerly German areas for the same reasons. This scattering of members of non-Polish ethnic groups throughout the country was an attempt by the Polish authorities to dissolve the unique ethnic identity of groups like the Ukrainians, Belarusians and Lemkos,[65] and broke the proximity and communication necessary for strong communities to form. Tens of thousands of Jewish Holocaust-survivors, most of them "repatriates" from the East, settled mostly in Lower Silesia, creating Jewish cooperatives and institutions – the largest communities were founded in Wrocław
Wrocław (Breslau, Lower Silesia), Szczecin
Szczecin (Stettin, Pomerania) and Wałbrzych
Wałbrzych (Waldenburg, Lower Silesia).[66] However most of them left Poland in 1968 due to the Polish 1968 political crisis.[67]

"The 10th stage, Zgorzelec
Zgorzelec to Wrocław, leads you through primeval Polish lands." Photograph from the 1955 Peace Race

Polish and Soviet newspapers and officials encouraged Poles
Poles to relocate to the west – "the land of opportunity".[62] These new territories were described as a place where opulent villas abandoned by fleeing Germans
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, 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).[57] While the estimates of how many Germans
Germans remained vary, a constant German exodus took place even after the expulsions. Between 1956 and 1985, 407,000 people from Silesia
Silesia and about 100,000 from Warmia- Masuria
Masuria declared German nationality and left for Germany. In the early 1990s, after the Polish Communist
Communist regime had collapsed 300,000-350,000 people declared themselves German.[57] Today the population of the territories is predominantly Polish, although a small German minority still exists in a few places, including Olsztyn
Olsztyn (German: Allenstein), Masuria, and Upper Silesia, particularly in Opole Voivodeship. Role of the Recovered Territories
Recovered Territories in the Communists' rise to power[edit] The Communist
Communist government, not democratically legitimized, sought to legitimize itself through anti-German propaganda.[46] The German "revanchism" was played up as a permanent German threat, with the Communists being the only guarantors and defenders of Poland's continued possession of the "Recovered Territories". Gomułka asserted that:

"The western territories are one of the reasons the government has the support of the people. This neutralizes various elements and brings people together. Westward expansion and agricultural reform will bind the nation with the state. Any retreat would weaken our domestic position."[49][68]

The redistribution of "ownerless property" among the people by the regime brought it broad-based popular sympathy.[49] After the Second World War, the Soviet Union
Soviet Union annexed the Polish territory of the Kresy—located east of the Curzon line—and encouraged or forced ethnic minorities in these parts of Poland, including ethnic Poles, to move west. In the framework of the campaign, Soviets exhibited posters in public places with messages such as,[69]

“ Western territories. Eldorado. In bloody battles, the Polish soldier has liberated very old Polish territories. Polish territory for Poland. 5,000 lorries are available to bring settlers to the west. ”

Legal status of the territories[edit] Main article: Oder-Neisse line During the Cold War
Cold War the official position in the First World
First World was that the concluding document of the Potsdam Conference
Potsdam Conference was not an international treaty, but a mere memorandum.[citation needed] It regulated the issue of the German eastern border, which was to be the Oder-Neisse line, but the final article of the memorandum said that the final status of the German state and therefore its territories were subject to a separate peace treaty between Germany
Germany and the Allies of World War II. During the period from 1945 to 1990 two treaties between Poland and both East and West Germany
Germany were signed concerning the German-Polish border. In 1950 the German Democratic Republic and the People's Republic of Poland
People's Republic of Poland signed the Treaty
Treaty of Zgorzelec, recognizing the Oder-Neisse line, officially designated by the Communists as the "Border of Peace and Friendship".[70] On 7 December 1970 the Treaty
Treaty of Warsaw between the Federal Republic of Germany
Germany and Poland was signed concerning the Polish western border. Both sides committed themselves to nonviolence and accepted the existing de facto border - the Oder-Neisse line. However a final treaty was not signed until 1990 as the " Treaty
Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany". Until the Treaty
Treaty on the Final Settlement, the West German government regarded the status of the German territories east of the Oder-Neisse rivers as that of areas "temporarily under Polish or Soviet administration". To facilitate wide international acceptance of German reunification in 1990, the German political establishment recognized the "facts on the ground" and accepted the clauses in the Treaty
Treaty on the Final Settlement whereby Germany
Germany renounced all claims to territory east of the Oder-Neisse line. This allowed the treaty to be negotiated quickly and for unification of democratic West Germany
Germany and socialist East Germany
Germany to go ahead quickly. In accordance with a duty imposed on Germany
Germany by the Treaty
Treaty on the Final Settlement, in the same year, 1990, Germany
Germany signed a separate treaty with Poland, the German-Polish Border Treaty, confirming the two countries' present borders. The signature and ratification of the border treaty between Germany and Poland formalized in international law the recognition of the existing border and put an end to all qualified German claims. See also[edit]

Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany Territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union History of German settlement in Central and Eastern Europe Former eastern territories of Germany Territorial changes of Poland after World War II Irredentism Poland A and B Polonization Germanization Russification

References[edit]

^ Juliusz Bardach, Bogusław Leśnodorski, Michał Pietrzak (2001). Lexis Nexis, ed. Historia Ustroju i Prawa Polskiego (in Polish). Warszawa. p. :85–86. ISBN 83-88296-02-7. CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link) ^ "Śląska Biblioteka Cyfrowa - biblioteka cyfrowa regionu śląskiego - Wznowione powszechne taxae-stolae sporządzenie, Dla samowładnego Xięstwa Sląska, Podług ktorego tak Auszpurskiey Konfessyi iak Katoliccy Fararze, Kaznodzieie i Kuratusowie Zachowywać się powinni. Sub Dato z Berlina, d. 8. Augusti 1750". Sbc.org.pl. Retrieved 2013-11-20. ^ Hugo Weczerka, Handbuch der historischen Stätten: Schlesien, 2003, p.XXXVI, ISBN 3-520-31602-1 ^ M. Czapliński [in:] M. Czapliński (red.) Historia Śląska, Wrocław
Wrocław 2007, s. 290 ^ Ernst Badstübner, Dehio - Handbuch der Kunstdenkmäler in Polen: Schlesien, 2003, p.4, ISBN 3-422-03109-X ^ Dziennik Ustaw
Dziennik Ustaw 1938 no. 78 item 533. ^ An explanation note in "The Neighbors Respond: The Controversy Over the Jedwabne Massacre in Poland", ed. by Polonsky and Michlic, p. 466 ^ Joanna B. Michlic, Poland's Threatening Other: The Image of the Jew from 1880 to the Present, 2006, pp. 207–208, ISBN 0-8032-3240-3, ISBN 978-0-8032-3240-2 ^ Norman Davies, God's Playground: A History of Poland
History of Poland in Two Volumes, 2005, pp. 381ff, ISBN 0-19-925340-4, ISBN 978-0-19-925340-1 ^ a b c d e f g Geoffrey Hosking, George Schopflin, Myths and Nationhood, 1997, p. 153, ISBN 0-415-91974-6, ISBN 978-0-415-91974-6 ^ Jan Kubik, The Power of Symbols Against the Symbols of Power: The Rise of Solidarity and the Fall of State Socialism in Poland, 1994, pp. 64–65, ISBN 0-271-01084-3, ISBN 978-0-271-01084-7 ^ Jan Kubik, The Power of Symbols Against the Symbols of Power: The Rise of Solidarity and the Fall of State Socialism in Poland, 1994, pp. 65, ISBN 0-271-01084-3, ISBN 978-0-271-01084-7 ^ a b Alfred M. De Zayas, Nemesis at Potsdam, p. 168 ^ Zimniak, Pawel (2007). "Im Schatten des Zweiten Weltkrieges. Machtverhältnisse und Erinnerungsinteressen beim Umgang mit dem Deprivationsphänomen in der deutsch-polnischen Öffentlichkeit". In Glunz, Claudia; Pełka, Artur; Schneider, Thomas F. Information Warfare. Osnabrück/Göttingen: University of Osnabrück/V&R unipress. pp. 547–562; 556. ISBN 3-89971-391-5. ^ a b c d Dmitrow, Edmund (2000). "Vergangenheitspolitik in Polen 1945-1989". In Borodziej, Wlodzimierz; Ziemer, Klaus. Deutsch-polnische Beziehungen 1939 - 1945 - 1949. Osnabrück. pp. 235–264; 250. As cited by Zimniak, Pawel (2007). "Im Schatten des Zweiten Weltkrieges. Machtverhältnisse und Erinnerungsinteressen beim Umgang mit dem Deprivationsphänomen in der deutsch-polnischen Öffentlichkeit". In Glunz, Claudia; Pełka, Artur; Schneider, Thomas F. Information Warfare. Osnabrück/Göttingen: University of Osnabrück/V&R unipress. pp. 547–562; 556, 562. ISBN 3-89971-391-5. ^ a b c Rick Fawn, Ideology and national identity in post-communist foreign policies, 2003, p. 190, ISBN 0-7146-5517-1, ISBN 978-0-7146-5517-8 ^ a b Joanna B. Michlic, Poland's Threatening Other: The Image of the Jew from 1880 to the Present, 2006, p. 208, ISBN 0-8032-3240-3, ISBN 978-0-8032-3240-2 ^ a b Jan Kubik, The Power of Symbols Against the Symbols of Power: The Rise of Solidarity and the Fall of State Socialism in Poland, 1994, p. 65, ISBN 0-271-01084-3, ISBN 978-0-271-01084-7 ^ Redrawing Nations: Ethnic Cleansing in East- Central Europe
Central Europe 1944-1948 By Philipp Ther, Ana Siljak, Page 81 ^ Gregor Thum, Die fremde Stadt. Breslau nach 1945", 2006, pp. 287, ISBN 3-570-55017-6, ISBN 978-3-570-55017-5 ^ Gregor Thum, Die fremde Stadt. Breslau nach 1945", 2006, p. 282, ISBN 3-570-55017-6, ISBN 978-3-570-55017-5 ^ a b Gregor Thum, Die fremde Stadt. Breslau nach 1945", 2006, p. 281, ISBN 3-570-55017-6, ISBN 978-3-570-55017-5 ^ Gregor Thum, Die fremde Stadt. Breslau nach 1945", 2006, p. 283, ISBN 3-570-55017-6, ISBN 978-3-570-55017-5 ^ a b Norman Davies, God's Playground: A History of Poland
History of Poland in Two Volumes, 2005, p. 386, ISBN 0-19-925340-4, ISBN 978-0-19-925340-1 ^ Norman Davies, God's Playground: A History of Poland
History of Poland in Two Volumes, 2005, p. 393, ISBN 0-19-925340-4, ISBN 978-0-19-925340-1 ^ a b Gregor Thum, Die fremde Stadt. Breslau nach 1945", 2006, p. 298, ISBN 3-570-55017-6, ISBN 978-3-570-55017-5 ^ Martin Åberg, Mikael Sandberg, Social Capital and Democratisation: Roots of Trust in Post- Communist
Communist Poland and Ukraine, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2003, ISBN 0-7546-1936-2, Google Print, p. 51 ^ Karl Cordell, Stefan Wolff, Germany's Foreign Policy Towards Poland and the Czech Republic: Ostpolitik Revisited, 2005, p. 139: "In addition [...] it has been relatively easy for Polish historians and others to attempt to debunk communist historiography and present a more balanced analysis of the past - and not only with respect to Germany. It has been controversial, and often painful, but nevertheless it has been done. For example, Poland's acquisition in 1945 of eastern German territories is increasingly presented as the price Germany
Germany paid for launching a total war, and then having lost it totally. The 'recovered territories' thesis previously applied in almost equal measures by the communists and Catholic Church
Catholic Church has been discarded. Some circles freely admit that on the whole, 'the recovered territories' in fact had a wholly German character. The extent to which this fact transmitted to groups other than the socially and politically engaged is a matter of debate. [1]" ISBN 0-415-36974-6, ISBN 978-0-415-36974-9 ^ Krzysztof Kwaśniewski, Smutek anegdot, 2010, p. 93, ISBN 978-83-86944-75-0, also his previous work Adaptacja i integracja kulturowa ludności Śląska po drugiej wojnie światowej 1969 ^ Norman Davies
Norman Davies and Roger Moorhouse: Die Blume Europas. Breslau, Wrocław, Vratislavia. Die Geschichte einer mitteleuropäischen Stadt. Munich 2002, ISBN 3-426-27259-8, pp. 533–534. ^ Klaus Herbers, Nikolas Jaspert, Grenzräume und Grenzüberschreitungen im Vergleich: Der Osten und der Westen des mittelalterlichen Lateineuropa, 2007, pp. 76ff, ISBN 3-05-004155-2, ISBN 978-3-05-004155-1 ^ Kossert, Andreas (2006). Masuren, Ostpreussens vergessener Süden (in German). Pantheon. pp. 210, 211. ISBN 3-570-55006-0. ^ Blanke, Richard (2001). Polish-speaking Germans? Language and national identity among the Masurians since 1871. Böhlau. pp. 253, 254. ISBN 3-412-12000-6. ^ Bernd Martin, p. 55 ^ Maria Wardzyńska: "Intelligenzaktion" na Warmii, Mazurach oraz Północnym Mazowszu. Główna Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni Przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu. Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej nr. 12/1, 2003/2004, ss. 38-42 ^ Microcosm: A Portrait of a Central European City, Norman Davies, Roger Moorhouse, page 90, Pimlico; 2003 ^ Polonia szczecińska 1890-1939 Anna Poniatowska Bogusław Drewniak, Poznań 1961 ^ Weczerka, p. 166 ^ Paczkowski, Andrzej (2003). The Spring Will Be Ours: Poland and the Poles
Poles from Occupation to Freedom. translation Jane Cave. Penn State Press. p. 14. ^ Martin Åberg, Mikael Sandberg, Social Capital and Democratisation: Roots of Trust in Post- Communist
Communist Poland and Ukraine, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2003, ISBN 0-7546-1936-2, Google Print, p.79 ^ a b Tomasz Kamusella in Prauser and Reeds (eds), The Expulsion of the German communities from Eastern Europe, p.28, EUI HEC 2004/1 [2] ^ 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 ^ Gregor Thum, Die fremde Stadt. Breslau nach 1945", 2006, pp.363, ISBN 3-570-55017-6, ISBN 978-3-570-55017-5 ^ Curp, T. David (2006). A clean sweep?: the politics of ethnic cleansing in western Poland, 1945-1960. Boydell & Brewer. pp. 84–85. ISBN 1-58046-238-3. Retrieved 2009-08-04. ^ Pomocnik Historyczny POLITYKI - "Prusy - wzlot i upadek" 137 16.03.2012 ^ a b Karl Cordell, Andrzej Antoszewski, Poland and the European Union, 2000, p.167, ISBN 0-415-23885-4, ISBN 978-0-415-23885-4 ^ Sakson, Andrzej. "National minorities in northern and western Poland" (PDF). Retrieved 21 December 2009. ^ a b c Curp, T. David (2006). A clean sweep?: the politics of ethnic cleansing in western Poland, 1945-1960. Boydell & Brewer. p. 83. ISBN 1-58046-238-3. Retrieved 2009-08-04. ^ a b c d Dan Diner, Raphael Gross, Yfaat Weiss, Jüdische Geschichte als allgemeine Geschichte, p.164 ^ Gregor Thum, Die fremde Stadt. Breslau nach 1945", 2006, p.344, ISBN 3-570-55017-6, ISBN 978-3-570-55017-5 ^ a b Tomasz Kamusella and Terry Sullivan in Karl Cordell, Ethnicity and Democratisation in the New Europe, 1999, pp.175ff, ISBN 0-415-17312-4, ISBN 978-0-415-17312-4 ^ Gregor Thum, Die fremde Stadt. Breslau nach 1945", 2006, p.344, 349, ISBN 3-570-55017-6, ISBN 978-3-570-55017-5 ^ Jun Yoshioka: Imagining Their Lands as Ours: Place Name Changes on Ex-German Territories in Poland after World War II ^ Marek Zybura, Impressionen aus der Kulturlandschaft Schlesien, Band 3, Der Umgang mit dem deutschen Kulturerbe in Schlesien nach 1945", 2005, p.65, ISBN 3-935330-19-7 ^ Gregor Thum, Die fremde Stadt. Breslau nach 1945", 2006, p.520, ISBN 3-570-55017-6, ISBN 978-3-570-55017-5 ^ John J. Kulczycki, "Who Is a Pole? Polish Nationality Criteria in the "Recovered Lands," 1945-1951," Canadian Review of Studies in Nationalism (2001) 28#1 pp 107-118. ^ a b c d e f Piotr Eberhardt, Jan Owsinski, Ethnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth-century Central-Eastern Europe: History, Data, Analysis, 2003, pp.142ff, ISBN 0-7656-0665-8, ISBN 978-0-7656-0665-5 ^ Witold Sienkiewicz; Grzegorz Hryciuk; et al. (2008). Demart, ed. Wysiedlenia, wypędzenia i ucieczki 1939-1959 Atlas ziem polski (in Polish). Warszawa. pp. :15. ISBN 978-83-7427-391-6. ^ Wojciech Roszkowski "Historia Polski 1918-1997" page 157 ^ a b c Curp, T. David (2006). A clean sweep?: the politics of ethnic cleansing in western Poland, 1945-1960. Boydell & Brewer. p. 42. ISBN 1-58046-238-3. Retrieved 2009-08-04. ^ Roos, Hans (1966). A history of modern Poland: from the foundation of the State in the First World
First World War to the present day. Knopf. Retrieved 2009-08-04. ^ a b c d e Karl Cordell, Andrzej Antoszewski, Poland and the European Union, 2000, p.168, ISBN 0-415-23885-4, ISBN 978-0-415-23885-4: gives 4.55 million in the first years ^ Piotr Eberhardt, Jan Owsinski, Ethnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth-century Central-Eastern Europe: History, Data, Analysis, 2003, p.142 gives 4,79 million as of 1950, ISBN 0-7656-0665-8, ISBN 978-0-7656-0665-5 ^ a b Dierk Hoffmann, Michael Schwartz, Geglückte Integration?, p.142 ^ Thum, p.129 ^ 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 ^ Thum, p.127 + p.128 ^ Aleksander Kochański, Protokół obrad KC PPR w maju 1945 roku [The Minutes of the Session of the Central Committee of the Polish Workers' Party in May 1945], Dokumenty do dziejów PRL, 1 (Warsaw: Instytut Studiów Politycznych PAN), 1992. ^ Norman Davies
Norman Davies and Roger Moorhouse: Die Blume Europas. Breslau, Wrocław, Vratislava. Die Geschichte einer mitteleuropäischen Stadt. Droemer, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-426-27259-8, pp. 533-534 (in German, The Flower of Europe. Breslau, Wrocław, Vratislava. The History of a Town in Central Europe) ^ Why is the Oder-Neiße Line a Peace Border? (1950)

v t e

Geography of Pomerania

Regions

Current

Western Pomerania West Pomeranian Voivodeship Pomerelia

Kashubia Pomorskie

Pomerania
Pomerania euroregion

Former

Farther Pomerania Circipania Lauenburg and Bütow Land Lands of Schlawe and Stolp

Administration

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern West Pomeranian Voivodeship Pomeranian Voivodeship Złotów
Złotów County

Towns

Lists

List of towns in Vorpommern List of towns in Farther Pomerania List of placenames in the Province of Pomerania

A–H I–P Q–Z

Largest

>100,000

Tricity

Gdańsk Gdynia Sopot

Szczecin Koszalin

>50,000

Słupsk Stargard Stralsund Greifswald

Islands

Greifswalder Oie Hiddensee Rügen Ummanz Usedom Vilm Wolin

Peninsulae

Fischland-Darß-Zingst Jasmund Hela Mönchgut Wittow

Rivers

Dziwna Grabowa Ina Łeba Oder Parsęta Peene Peenestrom Randow Recknitz Rega Ryck Słupia Świna Tollense Trebel Uecker Vistula Wieprza

Lakes

Lake Dąbie Lake Gardno Kummerower See Lake Łebsko Lake Miedwie

Bays, lagoons

Bay of Gdańsk Bay of Greifswald Bay of Pomerania Szczecin
Szczecin Lagoon

National parks

Western Pomerania
Pomerania Lagoon Area National Park Jasmund
Jasmund National Park Lower Oder
Oder Valley National Park Wolin
Wolin National Park Słowiński National Park

v t e

History of Pomerania

10,000 BC – 600 AD 600–1100 1100–1300 1300–1500 1500–1806 1806–1933 1933–1945 1945–present

Administrative

Western Pomerania Farther Pomerania (before 1945)

Billung March Northern March Principality of Rügen Duchy of Pomerania

House of Pomerania List of Dukes Cammin Gützkow Schlawe-Stolp Lauenburg-Bütow Partitions Pomerania-Stolp

Swedish Pomerania Brandenburgian Pomerania
Pomerania (Draheim) Province of Pomerania
Pomerania 1815–1945

Neumark Köslin Region Stettin Region Stralsund
Stralsund Region Posen- West Prussia
West Prussia Region List of placenames

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

Zachodniopomorskie (after 1945)

Szczecin
Szczecin Voivodeship Koszalin
Koszalin Voivodeship Słupsk
Słupsk Voivodeship West Pomeranian Voivodeship

Pomerelia
Pomerelia (Kashubia)

Medieval duchies (Samborides) State of the Teutonic Order Royal Prussia
Royal Prussia ( Pomeranian Voivodeship
Pomeranian Voivodeship 1466–1772) Free City of Danzig
Free City of Danzig 1807–1814 West Prussia Pomeranian Voivodeship
Pomeranian Voivodeship 1919–1939 (Polish Corridor) Free City of Danzig
Free City of Danzig 1920–1939 Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia Pomeranian Voivodeship

Ecclesiastical

Roman Catholic

Historical

Conversion of Pomerania Diocese of Kolberg (Congress of Gniezno) Diocese of Cammin Diocese of Culm Diocese of Roskilde Diocese of Włocławek (Leslau) Prelature of Schneidemühl

Extant

Archdiocese of Berlin Archdiocese of Szczecin-Kamień Diocese of Koszalin-Kołobrzeg Diocese of Pelplin

Protestant

Protestant Reformation Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Poland Pentecostal Church in Poland Evangelical State Church in Prussia
Evangelical State Church in Prussia (extinct) Pomeranian Evangelical Church
Pomeranian Evangelical Church (extinct)

Demography

Archaeological cultures

Hamburg Maglemosian Ertebølle-Ellerbek Linear Pottery Funnelbeaker Havelland Corded Ware Comb Ceramic Nordic Bronze Age Lusatian Jastorf Pomeranian Oksywie Wielbark Gustow Dębczyn (Denzin)

Peoples

Gepids Goths Lemovii Rugii Vidivarii Vistula
Vistula Veneti Slavic Pomeranians Prissani Rani Ukrani Veleti Lutici Velunzani German Pomeranians Kashubians Poles Slovincians

Major demographic events

Migration Period Ostsiedlung WWII flight and expulsion of Germans Post-WWII settlement of Poles
Poles and Ukrainians

Languages and dialects

West Germanic

Low German

Low Prussian Central Pomeranian Mecklenburgisch-Vorpommersch East Pomeranian West Pomeranian

Standard German

West Slavic

Polabian Polish Pomeranian

Kashubian Slovincian

Treaties

1200–1500

Kremmen (1236) Landin (1250) Kępno (1282) Soldin (1309) Templin (1317) Stralsund
Stralsund (1354) Stralsund
Stralsund (1370) Thorn (1411) Soldin (1466) Thorn (1466) Prenzlau (1448 / 1472 / 1479) Pyritz (1493)

1500–1700

Grimnitz (1529) Stettin (1570) Franzburg (1627) Stettin (1630) Westphalia (1648) Stettin (1653) Labiau (1656) Wehlau and Bromberg (1657) Oliva (1660) Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1679) Lund (1679)

1700–present

Stockholm (1719 / 1720) Frederiksborg (1720) Kiel (1814) Vienna (1815) Versailles (1919) Potsdam (1945)

v t e

Silesia
Silesia topics

History

Offensives Uprisings Wars (First, Second, Third) Upper Silesia
Silesia plebiscite Treaty
Treaty of Dresden Treaty
Treaty of Teschen Book of Henryków Battle of Legnica Battle of Leuthen more...

Geography

Areas

Jelenia Góra valley Kłodzko Valley Lower Silesian Wilderness Obniżenie Milicko-Głogowskie Ostrava Valley Oświęcim Basin Przedgórze Sudeckie Silesian Walls Silesian Foothills Silesian Lowlands Silesian Przesieka Silesian Upland Silesian-Lusatian Lowlands Silesian-Moravian Foothills Wał Trzebnicki Zielona Góra
Zielona Góra Acclivity

Lakes

Jezioro Goczałkowickie Jezioro Otmuchowskie Jezioro Sławskie Nyskie Slezská Harta Dam

Mountains

Carpathian

Silesian Beskids Moravian-Silesian Beskids

Sudetes

Eastern Central Western

Rivers

Elbe

Divoká Orlice Jizera Úpa

Oder

Barycz Bóbr Kaczawa Kłodnica Kwisa Liswarta Mała Panew Nysa Kłodzka Olza Ślęza

Vistula

Biała Brynica Gostynia Przemsza Pszczynka Rawa

Politics

Subdivisions

Former

Duchies

Piasts dukes

Silesian Voivodeship
Voivodeship (1920–39)

parliament politicians treasury

State country Silesia
Silesia Province

Upper Silesia Lower Silesia

Sudetenland New Silesia Austrian Silesia Eastern Silesia

Current

Jeseník District Moravian–Silesian Region Niederschlesischer Oberlausitzkreis / Görlitz

Voivodeships

Lower Silesian Lubusz Voivodeships Opole Silesian

EP constituencies

Lower Silesian and Opole Silesian

Economy

Bielski Okręg Przemysłowy Katowice urban area Legnicko-Głogowski Okręg Miedziowy Lower Silesian Coal Basin Upper Silesian Coal Basin

Industrial Region Ostrava-Karviná / Rybnik Coal Areas

Upper Silesian metropolitan area Tourism

Society

Culture

Architecture

Familok

Regional costume (Śląskie stroje ludowe)

Cuisine

Black noodles Bryja Ciapkapusta Dumplings Galert Hauskyjza Karminadle Kołocz Kreple Krupniok (Kaszanka) Makówki Moczka Modra kapusta Siemieniotka Szałot Wodzionka Żur śląski

Religion

Evangelical Church in Berlin, Brandenburg
Brandenburg and Silesian Upper Lusatia Silesian Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Poland Roman Catholic Church Pentecostal Church in Poland

Sport

Football Association Moravian–Silesian Football League National football team Silesian Stadium

Languages

Silesian

Bytom Cieszyn Jabłonków Lach Lower Namysłów Niemodlin Opole Prudnik Sulkovian Syców Texas

Czech German

Silesian German (Lower Silesian)

Moravian Polish

Symbols

Coats of arms Flags

Unofficial anthems

Schlesien Unvergessene Heimat Schlesierlied Slezská hymna