HOME WEB NEWS IMAGES CLASSIFIEDS YELLOW PAGESPOLLS - SURVEYS WIKI COUNTRIES PHOTOS US UK INDIA
Cities Stocks Weather Movies Coupons Travel Blogs Health Horoscope Maps ASIA EUROPE Classifieds Yellow Pages
|
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.
Administrative division of Pomerania
Pomerania is a collective term used to refer to the three regions of Hither Pomerania, Farther Pomerania, and Pomerelia.Pomerelia overlaps with and is also sometimes called West Prussia. 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,For instance whether Pomerelia is to be included. 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 |
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.
Pomerania (Polish: Pomorze, German and Swedish: Pommern, Kashubian: Pòmòrze or Pòmòrskô, Latin: Pomerania or Pomorania) means "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 DOLCE RULES 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).
In the German tradition Pomerania is often divided into:
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:
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).
| 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):
and Świnoujście, Kołobrzeg, Sopot, Malbork, Kwidzyn, Szczecinek, Lębork, Chojnice, Iława, Ostróda, Police, Wałcz
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.
The history of the region is rich and varied, probably due to its having been fragmented into several independent duchies through the centuries.
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.
Pomerania was first conquered by the Polish duke Mieszko I in the second half of the 10th century. Pagan uprisings in 1005 and 1038 resulted in independancy for Western Pomerania and Pomerelia, respectively. 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.
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.
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.
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.Vegelahn Familiengeschichte The now Polish parts of Pomerania were resettled with Poles.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
"Pomerania". Catholic Encyclopedia. (1913). New York: Robert Appleton Company.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia
