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Grudziądz

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Revision as of 01:36, 26 January 2011 by JamesAM (talk | contribs) (→Prussia and Germany: Repairing links to disambiguation pages - You can help!)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) Place in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland
Grudziądz
Panorama of Grudziądz Old Town districtPanorama of Grudziądz Old Town district
Flag of GrudziądzFlagCoat of arms of GrudziądzCoat of arms
Motto(s): Grudziądz - miasto na szczęście
(Grudziądz - city of good luck)
Country Poland
VoivodeshipKuyavian-Pomeranian
Countycity county
Established11th century
Town rights1291
Government
 • MayorRobert Malinowski
Area
 • Total57.76 km (22.30 sq mi)
Elevation50 m (160 ft)
Population
 • Total96,042
 • Density1,700/km (4,300/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code86-300 to 86-311
Area code+48 056
Car platesCG
Websitehttp://www.grudziadz.pl

Grudziądz (Template:Lang-de, Template:Lang-la) is a city in northern Poland on the Vistula River, with 96 042 inhabitants (2010). Situated in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship (since 1999), the city was previously in the Toruń Voivodeship (1975–1998).

History

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Polish-Swedish war (1656), depicted by Erik Dahlbergh

Early history

Initially a defensive gród founded by Polish ruler Bolesław Chrobry, the settlement adopted Kulm law in 1291 while under the rule of monastic state of the Teutonic Knights becoming a city. In 1440, the city joined the Prussian Confederation, and between 1466 and 1772, the city belonged to Polish province of Royal Prussia.

Prussia and Germany

Following the First Partition of Poland in 1772, the city (then called Graudenz) was annexed by the German Kingdom of Prussia and became part of the unified German Empire in 1871.

City walls of Grudziądz, the southern side, 14th/15th century

The city was place of a military prison for Polish activists-those released formed Gromada Grudziądz in Portsmouth on 1835, as part of Great Emigration movement

After the construction of a railroad bridge across the Vistula in 1878, Graudenz became a rapidly growing industrialized city as well as a district centre in 1900. In the official German census of 1910 84% of the population of the town and 58% of the county declared to be German

Memorial to Wiktor Kulerski in Grudziądz founder of Gazeta Grudziądzka

A light cruiser of the German Imperial Navy, built in 1912-1914, was named after the city. In the 1912 Reichstag elections, 21% of the votes were given to Polish candidates, while the National Liberal Party of Germany received 53% of all votes. To organise defense against oncroaching Germanisation, Polish activists started publishing the newspaper "Gazeta Grudziądzka", which in 1913 reached 128.000 issue, making it the third largest Polish newspaper at the time in the world. Besides fighting against Germanisation, the newspaper advocated social and economical emancipation of rural society, published critical articles regarding Germany and aimed to protect Polish areas-all of which made it popular among rural readers;additionally the repressions against its editor Wiktor Kulerski by Germany authorities helped to raise popularity. It's chief activity-resistance against anti-polish policies of Prussian government, made it the opponent of organised and well-functioning state mechanism.

Interwar years

On January 23, 1920, in accordance with the Treaty of Versailles, Grudziądz, described as "unfortunately completely German" by the newly appointed Polish mayor, became part of the Second Polish Republic. The local populace had to acquire Polish citizenship or leave the country. This led to a significant decline of ethnic Germans, whose number within the town decreased from 34,194 in 1910 to 3,542 in 1926 and from 28,698 to 9,317 in the district, however in 1920 a German-language school was founded.

In the 20 years between the world wars, Grudziądz served as an important centre of culture and education with one of the biggest Polish military garrisons and several military schools located both within the confines of the city and around it. A large economic potential, and the existence of important institutions like the Pomeranian Tax Office and the Pomeranian Chamber of Industry and Trade, helped Grudziądz become the economic capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship in the interwar period. Grudziądz's economic potential was featured at the First Pomeranian Exhibition of Agriculture and Industry in 1925, officially opened by Stanisław Wojciechowski, the President of the Second Polish Republic.

The famous granaries

The 64th and 65th Infantry Regiments and the 16th Light Artillery Regiment of the Polish Army were stationed in Grudziądz during the 19 years of interwar period. They were part of the 16th Infantry Division, which had its headquarters in the city, as did the cavalry's famous 18th Pomeranian Uhlans Regiment. The Grudziądz Centre of Cavalry Training educated many notable army commanders. Military education in Grudziądz was also provided by the Centre of the Gendarmerie, the Air School of Shooting and Bombarding, and the N.C.O. Professional School, which offered courses for infantry reserve officer cadets.

Historical population
of Grudziądz

1880 17,321
1905 35,958
1980 90,000
1990 102,300
1995 102,900
1999 102,434
2000 100,787
2006 99 578
2007 99 090
2010 96 042

In 1931 the Polish government decreed to expel Catholics and those pupils with a "Polish-sounding" name from the German school to Polish ones regardless of their ethnicity. In November 1933 two German craftsmen were killed by a Polish mob in the context of a local election campaign.

On September 3, 1939 military troops of Nazi Germany entered Grudziądz and, as Graudenz, annexed the city into the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia, starting a five-year long occupation lasting till the end of World War II. Poles and Jews were classified by German state as untermenschen and subject to repressions and murder, with their ultimate fate to be slavery and extermination;Grudziądz was the location of the German concentration camp Graudenz, a subcamp of the Stutthof concentration camp. As the result of heavy fighting in 1945, over 60% of the city was destroyed. Soviet Major Lev Kopelev is reporting those battles and the final surrender of the German garrison in his book "To Be Preserved Forever". As the war ended and German plans to exterminate Poles and Jews were stopped by the Allies, the German-speaking population of the city fled or was expelled to Germany, the city also became home to Poles moved from Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union.

Notable residents

See also: Category:People from Grudziądz

Education

  • Nicolaus Copernicus University
  • Grudziądzka Szkoła Wyższa

International relations

See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in Poland

Twin towns — Sister cities

Gallery

  • Night-time landscape Night-time landscape
  • Former Jesuit college, today City Council Former Jesuit college, today City Council
  • Spichrzowa Street Spichrzowa Street
  • Memorial to a Polish soldier in the main square Memorial to a Polish soldier in the main square
  • St. Mary's Church St. Mary's Church
  • Church of St. Francis Xavier Church of St. Francis Xavier
  • St. Mikołaj (Nicholas) church St. Mikołaj (Nicholas) church
  • Miejski Park Miejski Park

Notes

  1. - registered press Faktygrudziadz.pl
  2. Wielka encyklopedia polski: Tom 1 Wojciech Słowakiewicz, Jacek Słowiński, Piotr Turkot page 270 Fogra, 2000
  3. Historia Polski, 1795-1918 Stefan Kieniewicz Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1975 page 142
  4. Gemeindelexikon für die Regierungsbezirke Allenstein, Danzig, Marienwerder, Posen, Bromberg und Oppeln (in German). Berlin: Königlich Preußisches Statistisches Landesamt. 1912.
  5. Census numbers published by the German Empire have been criticised as unreliable and Polish historians believe they have a high degree of falsfification; potential pressure from census takers(predominatly schoolteachers) takes couldn't be excluded, additionaly a bilingual category was created further complicating the results (Neither German nor Pole: Catholicism and National Indifference in a Central European Borderland James E. Bjork 2008 page 152-153 University of Michigan Press). Some analysts asserted that all people registering as bilingual have been classified as Germans (National Identity and Weimar Germany: Upper Silesia and the Eastern Border, 1918-1922 T. Hunt Tooley page 14 University of Nebraska Press)
  6. ^ Kraj a emigracja. Ruch ludowy wobec wychodźstwa chłopskiego do krajów Ameryki Łacińskiej (do 1939 roku) Muzeum Historii Polskiego Ruchu Ludowego 2006, page 285
  7. Kraj a emigracja. Ruch ludowy wobec wychodźstwa chłopskiego do krajów Ameryki Łacińskiej (do 1939 roku) Muzeum Historii Polskiego Ruchu Ludowego 2006, page 290
  8. ^ Borodziej, Wlodzimierz; Endres, Gerald; Lachauer, Ulla (2009). Als der Osten noch Heimat war (in German). Rowohlt. ISBN 978-3871346446.
  9. Kotowski, Albert S. (1998). Polens Politik gegenüber seiner deutschen Minderheit 1919-1939 (in German). Forschungsstelle Ostmitteleuropa, University of Dortmund. p. 55. ISBN 3-447-03997-3.
  10. Eser, Ingo (2010). Volk, Staat, Gott, Die deutsche Minderheit in Polen und ihr Schulwesen 1918-1939 (in German). Nordost Institut, University of Hamburg. p. 415. ISBN 978-3-447-06233-6.

External links

[REDACTED] Media related to Grudziądz at Wikimedia Commons

Counties of Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship
City counties Coat of arms of Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship
Land counties
Grudziądz County
Seat (not part of the county): Grudziądz
Urban-rural gminas Coat of arms of Grudziądz County
Rural gminas

53°29′N 18°46′E / 53.483°N 18.767°E / 53.483; 18.767

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