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Teutonic takeover of Danzig (Gdańsk)
Part of the Polish–Teutonic Wars
Pomerelia (Polish Pomerania) while part of the Monastic state of the Teutonic Knights
Date 13 November 1308 Location Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) Result Polish–Teutonic defeat and slaughter of the rebels, followed by the Order's capture of the city, leading to expansion of the Teutonic Order and Polish–Teutonic Wars over the following two centuries. Territorial changes Pomerelia became German territory, only nominally subject to Poland, leaving Poland landlocked from the Baltic Sea.
Belligerents
Brandenburg margraves Pomerelian rebels	Piast dynasty	Teutonic Knights
Commanders and leaders
Waldemar, Margrave of Brandenburg-Stendal	Władysław the Elbow-high, Duke of Poland	Heinrich von Plötzke

The city of Danzig (Gdańsk) was captured by the State of the Teutonic Order on 13 November 1308, resulting in a massacre of its inhabitants and marking the beginning of tensions between Poland and the Teutonic Order. Originally the knights moved into the fortress as an ally of Poland against the Margraviate of Brandenburg. However, after disputes over the control of the city between the Order and the King of Poland arose, the knights killed local nobles and burghers and took the city as their own.

Background

In the 13th century, the Pomerelian duchy was ruled by members of the Samborides, up until 1227 stewards for the Polish Piast kings and dukes. The stewards asserted their power from fortified strongholds. The major stronghold of the area was at the location of present-day Gdańsk's Old Town. The adjacent town developed from a market place of tradesmen and was granted Lübeck city rights by Duke Swietopolk (Swantopolk) II in 1224.

Under Swantopolk, the town became an important trading site on the lower Vistula.

The Margraviate of Brandenburg entered the scene after Mestwin II, son of Swantopolk, in 1269 took Pomerelia as a Brandenburgian fief to receive aid against his brother, Wartislaw. The margraves took over the town in 1270/1 from Wartislaw, but did not hand it over to Mestwin until the latter was able to force them out by concluding an alliance with Boleslaw Pobozny, duke of Greater Poland. In the 1282 Treaty of KępnoUnder the rule of Brandenburg conflicts erupted between Slavic and German population, which costed many lives. Mestwin II promised his Pomerelian duchy to his ally Przemysł II, duke and later king of Poland, who succeeded to the duchy after Mestwin's death in 1294.

The Margraves of Brandenburg however upheld their claims to Pomerelia, and had Przemysł assassinated in early 1296. Lokietek, Przemysł's successor, was only in loose control of Pomerelia and Gdansk/Danzig, with the actual control of the area being in the hands of the local Swenzones family who had come into power already under Mestwin II. In 1301, one year after Wenceslaus II of Bohemia had been crowned king of Poland, the princes of Rügen, who also claimed to be the heirs of Pomerelia, mounted an expedition. Wenceslaus, who with the Polish crown had also acquired the claim to Pomerelia, called the Teutonic Order for help. The Teutonic knights occupied Gdansk/Danzig, repelled the princes of Rügen, and left the town in 1302. While the Norwegian king Haakon backed Rügen's claims, his 1302 call to Hanseatic cities for aid remained without consequences.

Wenceslaus II died in 1305 and was succeeded by Wenceslaus III, murdered in 1306. In a treaty of 8 August 1305, the margraves of Brandenburg promised to Wenceslaus III the Meissen territory in exchange for Pomerelia, but that treaty was never finalized. The Teutonic Order had inherited Gniew (Mewe) from Sambor II, thus gaining a foothold on the left bank of the Vistula. Brandenburg occupied the west of the duchy after neutralizing another claimant to the area, the Cammin bishop, by burning down his see.

Rebellion of 1308 and Brandenburgian siege

Meanwhile, Władysław I the Elbow-high (Lokietek) had reestablished his power in Poland, but was occupied in the south of his realm. He appointed Bogusza (Bogussa) as his Pomerelian governor in Gdansk/Danzig. In the summer of 1308, a Pomerelian rebellion in the city unseated the forces loyal to Lokietek, who later would become King of Poland, and allied with Waldemar of Brandenburg. The rebellion was led by the Swenzones, who called the margraves for help. The latter entered Danzig with an army and were welcomed by its burghers. Bogusza and his men had retreated to the castle next to the town, and were besieged by the margraves.

Bogusza, on the advice of the Dominican prior Wilhelm, appealed to the Teutonic Knights in Prussia for assistance.

Teutonic takeover

The Knights, under the leadership of Heinrich von Plotzke, agreed to aid Bogusza, and a force of 100 knights and 200 supporters, led by Günther von Schwarzburg, arrived at the castle around August.

While historians agree that the castle as well as the adjacent town were in the hands of the Teutonic Knights by late November 1308, they disagree about how this was accomplished. Contemporary accounts already differed substantially, and so do modern era assessments. Historians are divided regarding

• the circumstances allowing the Teutonic Knights to enter the town
• the number of casualties
• the extend of destruction
• the ethnicity of the town's inhabitants

Teutonic Knights entering the town

According to Błażej Śliwiński, the forces of the order had arrived in two columns: one re-inforced the Polish garrison in the castle, the other one marched against the town from the south and raised a siege. In the castle, conflict arose between the Teutonic and Polish knights, with the latter opposing a take-over by the former. After several encounters, the outnumbered Polish forces left the castle, with some of them defecting to the rebellious inhabitants of the town and the Brandenburgers. In the evening of 12 November 1308, the Teutonic Knights succeeded in forcing their way inside the town. During the ensuing close combat in the streets, the Teutonic Knights gained the upper hand over the defending Brandenburgian forces, burghers and Pomerelian knights. By the morning of 13 November, the defendants were utterly defeated, bodies were lying in the streets and executions were going on. Rüdiger, abbott of Oliva, entered the town in the morning, shrove some of the doomed and transferred 16 bodies to his abbey where they were buried near St Jacob's church.

According to Halina Wątróbska, half of the town was promised to the Teutonic Order in return for aiding Bogusza's men. The Teutonic Knights then moved in, defeated the Brandenburgers and had the townspeople accept Lokietek as their suzerain. However, on 13 November they "took over the whole town, thereby killing everyone who defied their will."

Frank Fischer says that half of the castle and "generous reparations of all incurring costs of war" was promised to the Teutonic knights in return for aiding Bogusza's men, who were running out of supplies. When Schwarzburg's forces had entered the castle, the Brandenburgers lost confidence in capturing it and left. After tensions between Bogusza's men and the Teutonic knights about the outstanding payment arose, Plotzke arrived with another force of 4,000 knights in mid-November, whereupon the population of Danzig opened the gates and handed over Bogusza as well as his men and supporters of the Swenzones, who were executed on the Long Market. Since Plotzke feared that the force he intended to leave in town was too small to prevent it from being captured and manned by an opponent in the future, making it difficult to re-capture, he ordered the population to demolish the city walls and part of the city's build-up area.

According to William Urban, the Teutonic Knights had repelled the Brandenburgers by September 1308, were welcomed by the city's burghers and seized the authority over the city for themselves. They refused to return the city to Lokietek's officials before being paid for their service by the Polish king, which in turn led to a revolt of the townspeople against the order's rule in November 1308. The order crushed the revolt, killing mostly German artisans and merchants, and remained in charge of the city.

Udo Arnold says that a dispute between the castle's garrison and the Teutonic knights arose when the Brandenburgers were about to leave. While the dispute was about the co-ordination of further action and unsettled payment, Arnold says that it was at the same time that "the order's policy changed from providing aid towards annexing Pomerelia and buying up existing legal claims," which was opposed by the population of Danzig. This was answered by the order on 13 November "by the uncompromising levelling of the greater part of the town."

According to Hans Georg Siegler the Teutonic Knights re-inforced the Polish garrison in the castle, checked subsequent attacks of the Brandenburgers and forced the latter to leave. When the Brandenburgers were gone, the Polish garrison wanted the order's forces to leave, too, but refused a payment which previously had been agreed on. The Teutonic Knights thereupon refused to leave and took over the castle. Thereafter, another dispute arose about Pomerelian knights who had incursed the order's territory and were taking refuge in the town. The order demanded to have them handed over, the town refused, which led Plotzke to siege the town with a force of 4,000 knights. On 14 November 1308 the town gave in, opened the gates and handed over 15 or 16 Pomerelian knights. These knights were executed by the order, who also forced the townspeople to demolish their city walls. those inhabitants who opposed the order's take-over were expelled. A similar description of the events was given by Heinz Neumeyer,, who however says that no further action was taken by the order after seizing the town and having the walls demolished.

Massacre records

In the aftermath of the take-over, law suits against the order were filed by the Polish side which included reports that, after the siege, the order had killed up to 10,000 people. The Teutonic Order admitted the killing of 15 to 16 Pomerelian knights. As a result of the suit, the Teutonic Knights were briefly excommunicated by the pope, although the decision was reversed soon after. The respective Papal Bull of 19 April 1310 includes a reference to the 10,000 dead. While in the consequence the Knights moved their headquarters from Venice to the Marienburg Castle (Malbork Castle), the lawsuits did not have any practical effect on the order. In the 15th century, era of the Polish-Teutonic Wars, medieval Polish chronicler Jan Długosz in epic prose described the event as a slaughter of Polish nationals that regardless of condition, age or gender.

Modern sources are divided as to the actual extent of the massacre though they all agree that killings did take place. Historian Matthew Kuefler states: "German and Polish historians in the twentieth century tended to have diverging both on the question of whether Pomerelia really "belonged" to Poland and also on the degree of ferocity of the order's conquest". The city of Gdansk states that "The Teutonic Knights, having captured the castle in 1308 butchered the population. Since then the event is known as the Gdańsk slaughter". In many Polish works, the takeover is indeed referred to as "Gdańsk slaughter" (rzeź Gdańska). Norman Davies in his extensive history of Poland says, while not insisting on the number of 10,000 dead, that the knights "drove Waldemar from the city, and calmly slaughtered its inhabitants", similar descriptions are presented also in some other English books with sections on Polish history. Jerzy Lukowski in "A concise history of Poland" says that the knights massacred "Lokietek's men". Błażej Śliwiński says that there was a bloodbath which cost an abundance of lives, though not 10,000, and that such massacres were common in medieval Europe.

According to Peter Oliver Loew, German historians and many post-World War II Polish scholars agree that "10,000 dead in a town with barely as many inhabitants is just impossible, and that there were 60 to 100 victims at the most." Hartmut Boockmann asserts that 10,000 is a "typical medieval number abundantly used by contemporary chroniclers" meaning "very much", and he states that the original figure seems far too high compared to an overall population of Pomerelia which he estimates at 130,000. William Urban says that the number of 10,000 dead has been considered greater than the city's population at the time. Based on Polish research up to 2002, Boockmann gives a number close to a hundred dead.Gerard Labuda and Marian Biskup write that the number of murdered inhabitants isn't established, but the victims of the massacre include at least several dozen notable knights and members of nobility as well as significant number of commoners and simple soldiers Biskup in later publication from 1993 writes that victims included defenders of the castle and burghers along with members of their families in addition to 100 murdered knights. According to Maksymilian Grzegorz, German historians tend to minimize the number of murdered victims of the Teutonic Knights, while Polish historians estimate the number at between at minimum 60 to several hundred

Destruction of the town

Historians are divided on whether the townspeople after the take-over had to demolish only the city walls or, in addition, at least part of the town's buildings. Based on recent archaeological findings, Loew says that this conflict is about to be decided in favor of the destruction thesis: "burn marks and clear evidence for planation of the terrain in the early 14th century prove its destruction in the years of 1308/09 by the Teutonic Order."

Ethnicity of the town's inhabitants

According to Raphael Lemkin the population in the city at the time was Polish. According to Hartmut Boockmann, the town was primarily inhabited by Germans. James Minahan wrote that the city inhabitants, for the most part, were Kashubians. According to Peter Oliver Loew, there were German as well as Slavic inhabitants of the town. According to Stefan Maria Kuczyński, the German population only achieved the majority after local Polish population was murdered and a new settlement was built by Teutonic Knights.

Aftermath

When the Poles refused to accept monetary compensation for the Knights' takeover of the city, the Order resorted to conquering further towns like Schwetz (Świecie). The local colony of merchants and artisans was specifically attacked because they competed with the Knights' town of Elbing (Elbląg), a nearby city. The Knights also attacked Tczew (Dirschau).

The Knights then captured the rest of Pomerelia from Brandenburg's troops. In September 1309, Margrave Waldemar of Brandenburg-Stendal sold his claim to the territory to the Teutonic Order for 10,000 marks in the Treaty of Soldin (now Myślibórz), thereby connecting the State of the Teutonic Order with that of the Holy Roman Empire. While for the order, this landbridge with the empire was a major strategic improvement by connecting its Baltic territories to its German bailiwicks (ballei), it was at the same time a major loss for Poland who had become a landlocked country again.

Thus, the takeover triggered a series of conflicts between Poland and the Teutonic Order, and these conflicts in turn triggered a conflict within the order itself. Some prominent brethren favoured a concession of Pomerelia in exchange for good relations with Poland, but were opposed by a majority of the knights who thought that such a concession would eventually lead to the total expulsion of the knights from their state. These disagreements caused the abdication of Grand Master Charles of Trier in 1318 and the murder of the succeeding Grand Master Werner of Orseln in 1330. The possession of Danzig and Pomerelia by the Teutonic Order was questioned consistently by the Polish kings Władysław I and Casimir the Great in legal suits in the papal court in 1320 and 1333. Both times, as well as in 1339, the Teutonic Knights were ordered by the Pope to return Pomerelia and other lands back to Poland, but did not comply. As a result, in the late 1330s, a war ensued.

Peace was established in the Treaty of Kalisz in 1343; although the Polish kings were able to retain the title "Duke of Pomerania" and were recognized as titular overlords of the crusaders, the Knights retained control of Danzig. - this time, with the permission of the papal court.

Development of the city stagnated after its capture by the Teutonic Knights. Initially the new rulers tried to reduce the economic significance of Danzig by abolishing the local government and the privileges of the merchants. This was exemplified by the fact that the city council, including Arnold Hecht and Conrad Letzkau, was removed and beheaded in 1411. Later the Knights were forced to accept the fact that city defended its independence and was the largest and most important seaport of the region after overtaking Elbing. Subsequently it flourished, benefiting from major investment and economic prosperity in the Monastic state and Poland, which stimulated trade along the Vistula. The city had become a full member of the merchant association, the Hanseatic League by 1361, but its merchants remained resentful at the barriers to trade up the Vistula river with Poland, along with the lack of political rights in a state ruled in the interest of the Order's religiously-motivated knight-monks. As a result the city became a co-founder of the Prussian Confederation which formally petitioned Casimir IV Jagiellon, to incorporate Prussia, including Danzig, into the Kingdom of Poland in 1454.

Lasting legacy

When the area was disputed between Weimar Germany and the Second Polish Republic, the Poles recalled the massacre quoting the number of 10,000 murdered. After Nazi Germany had annexed the Free City of Danzig in World War II, the exiled Polish government in releases said that the knights had "massacre ten thousand souls", portrayed the contemporary Germans in the tradition of these events and linked these events with National Socialism. In 1969 the post-war Polish city authorities dedicated a monument that commemorates the massacre of the population of Gdańsk in 1308, its aim was to propagate an analogy of the events of 1308 and the German crimes of World War II.

See also

• Siege of Danzig
• History of Gdańsk
• Teutonic Order#Against Poland
• History of Pomerania#Eastern Pomerania and Poland

References

1. ^ Loew, Peter Oliver (2010). Danzig. C.H.Beck. p. 33. ISBN 3406605877.
2. Poland and Germany, East & West, Published by Studies Centre on Polish-German Affairs, London, 1971
3. ^ Loew, Peter Oliver (2010). Danzig. C.H.Beck. p. 34. ISBN 3406605877.
4. Loew, Peter Oliver (2010). Danzig. C.H.Beck. p. 33-34. ISBN 3406605877.
5. ^ Niess, Ulrich (1992). Hochmeister Karl von Trier (1311-1324). Stationen einer Karriere im Deutschen Orden. Quellen und Studien zur Geschichte des Deutschen Ordens. Vol. 47. Elwert. p. 50.
6. ^ David Abulafia et al., The New Cambridge Medieval History, 1999, Vol.5
7. Norman Davies, God's Playground: A history of Poland, 1979 , pg. 74
8. Poland's Ministerstwo Spraw Zagranicznych, Dzieje miast Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej: Polska w słowie i obrazach, 1928
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19. ^ Hartmut Boockmann, Ostpreussen und Westpreussen, Siedler, 2002, p.158, ISBN 3-88680-212-4
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24. Raphael Lemkin, Samantha Power, Axis rule in occupied Europe: laws of occupation, analysis of government, proposals for redress, The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd., 2005, p.154, ISBN 1584775769: cite of an excerpt of Dlugosii Joanni canonii Cracoviensis Historiae Polonicae, fn.1
25. www.en.gdansk.gda.pl History of the City Gdańsk
29. Norman Davies, God's Playground: A history of Poland, 1979
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33. Hartmut Boockmann, Ostpreussen und Westpreussen, Siedler, 2002, p.157, ISBN 3-88680-212-4
34. Dzieje Zakonu Krzyżackiego w Prusach Marian Biskup, Gerard Labuda, page 256, Wydawnictwo Morskie, 1986
35. Wojny Polski z zakonem krzyżackim, 1308-1521 Marian Biskup, page 12, Wydawnictwo "Marpress", 1993
36. Pomorze Gdańskie pod rza̜dami Zakonu krzyżackiego w latach 1308-1466 Maksymilian Grzegorz, Wydawnictwo Uczelniane Wyższej Szkoły Pedagogicznej,page 63 1997
37. Loew, Peter Oliver (2010). Danzig. C.H.Beck. pp. 36–38. ISBN 3406605877.
38. Loew, Peter Oliver (2010). Danzig. C.H.Beck. p. 28. ISBN 3406605877.
39. Axis rule in occupied Europe Raphael Lemkin 1944 reprinted in 2004
40. James Minahan, One Europe, Many Nations: A Historical Dictionary of European National Groups, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000, ISBN 0313309841, p.376
41. Bitwa pod Grunwaldem Stefan M. Kuczyński, page 17, 1987
42. Norman Housley, The later Crusades, 1274-1580: from Lyons to Alcazar, Oxford University Press, 1992, p.326, ISBN 0198221363
43. Brigitte Jäger-Dabek, Polen: Eine Nachbarschaftskunde für Deutsche 2nd edition, Ch. Links Verlag, 2006, p.91, ISBN 386153407
44. ^ Norman Housley, The later Crusades, 1274-1580: from Lyons to Alcazar, Oxford University Press, 1992, p.327, ISBN 0198221363
45. Natalia i Waldemar Borzestowscy, "Dlaczego zginął burmistrz" ("Why did the mayor die?"),
46. Ministerstwo Spraw Zagranicznych, Poland, Dzieje miast Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej: Polska w słowie i obrazach, Nakładem wydawn. D̋zieje miast Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej ̋sp. z ogr. odp., 1928, v. 2;v. 4, p.11
47. Poland Ministerstwo Informacji, The German Invasion of Poland: Polish Black Book Containing Documents, Authenticated Reports and Photographs, Pub. by authority of the Polish ministry of information by Hutchinson & co. ltd., 1941, p.10:e.g. "the Germans of today are the worthy successors" who "massacre ten thousand souls"
48. Poland. Ministerstwo Spraw Zagranicznych, Official documents concerning Polish-German and Polish–Soviet relations, 1933–1939, 1940
49. Lech Krzyżanowski, Gdańsk, Sopot, Gdynia: A Guide to the Triune City, 1974
50. Loew, Peter Oliver (2011). Danzig - Biographie einer Stadt (in German). C.H. Beck. p. 38. ISBN 3-406-60587-1. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)

• 1308 in Europe
• Conflicts in 1308
• History of Gdańsk
• Wars involving Poland
• Wars involving the Teutonic Knights
• History of Prussia
• History of Poland (966–1385)
• Polish–Teutonic wars