The historical urban center of Western Pomerania - Szczecin (Stettin) at the mouth of the Oder river.

The Pomeranian Griffin

The historical urban center of Pomerelia - Gdańsk (Danzig) at the mouth of the Vistula river.

Pomerania - Polish: Pomorze, Kashubian: Pòmòrze or Pòmòrskô, (German: Pommern, Latin: Pomerania or Pomorania) is a historical region on the south shore of the Baltic Sea. Divided between Germany and Poland, it stretches roughly from the Recknitz River near Stralsund in the West, via the Oder River delta near Szczecin, to the mouth of the Vistula River near Gdańsk in the East.^[1] Pomerania was strongly affected by 20th century, post-World War I and II border and population shifts.

Pomerania belongs to the lowlands of the North European Plain. Outside its few urban centers − most notably the Szczecin and Tricity metropolitan areas − the poor soil is mostly used as farmland, dotted with numerous lakes, forests, and small towns. Agriculture primarily consists of raising livestock, forestry, fishery and the cultivation of cereals, sugar beets, and potatoes. Since the late 19th century, tourism has become an important sector of the economy, primarily in the numerous seaside resorts along the coast. Of the limited industrial zones, the most important products are ships, metal products, refined sugar, and paper.^[1]

Geography[link]

Historical fishing boat ("Zeesenboot") in a Bodden.

Typical landing bridge and Baltic beach (Ahlbeck (Usedom))

Pomerania is the area along the Bay of Pomerania of the Baltic Sea between the rivers Recknitz in the west and Vistula in the east.^[1][2] It formerly reached as far south as the Noteć (Netze) and Warta (Warthe) rivers, but since 1250 its southern boundary has been placed further north. Most of the region is coastal lowland of the North European Plain; its southern, hilly parts belong to the Baltic Ridge, a belt of terminal moraines formed during the Pleistocene. Within this ridge, a chain of moraine-dammed lakes constitutes the Pomeranian Lake District. The soil is generally poor, often sandy or marshy.^[1] The western coastline is jagged, with lots of peninsulae (e.g., Darß–Zingst) and islands (Rügen, Usedom, Wolin and other, small isles) enclosing numerous bays (Bodden) and lagoons (e.g., the Lagoon of Szczecin).

The eastern coastline is smooth. The lakes Łebsko, Jamno and Gardno were formerly bays but have been cut off from the sea. The easternmost coastline along the Gdańsk Bay (with Bay of Puck) and Vistula Bay has the Hel peninsula and the Vistula peninsula jutting out into the Baltic.

Etymology[link]

Pomerania in all languages is derived from Old Slavic po, meaning "by/next to/along", and more, meaning "sea", thus "Pomerania" is literally "seacoast", referring to its proximity to the Baltic Sea.^[3]

Pomerania was first mentioned in an imperial document of 1046, referring to a Zemuzil dux Bomeranorum (Zemuzil, Duke of the Pomeranians).^[4] Pomerania is mentioned repeatedly in the chronicles of Adam of Bremen (ca. 1070) and Gallus Anonymous (ca. 1113).

Subdivisions[link]

Pomerania

Western Pomerania Lagoon Area National Park (Vorpommern)

Jasmund National Park (Vorpommern)

Lower Oder Valley National Park (shared by Germany and Poland)

Wolin National Park (West Pomeranian Voivodeship)

Słowiński National Park (Pomeranian Voivodeship)

Historical Pomerania is currently sub-divided into the following contemporary political regions:

• Vorpommern ("Western" or "Hither Pomerania") in northeastern Germany, stretching from the Recknitz River to the Oder–Neisse line. This region is part of the Federal State of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The southernmost parts of historical Vorpommern (Gartz area) are now in Brandenburg, Germany, while its historical easternmost parts (Oder estuary, "Stettiner Zipfel") are in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland. Vorpommern comprises the historical regions inhabited by Slavic tribes Rugians and Volinians, alter Principality of Rugia/Rügen and County of Gützkow.
• Zachodniopomorskie ("West Pomeranian Voivodeship") in Poland, stretching from the Oder–Neisse line to the Słupia River.
• Pomerelia (most of the Pomeranian Voivodeship and northernmost parts of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship), stretching from the Słupia River to the Vistula delta in the vicinity of Gdańsk.

The bulk of historical Farther Pomerania is included within the modern West Pomeranian Voivodeship, its easternmost parts (Słupsk (Stolp) area) now constitute the northwestern Pomeranian Voivodeship. Farther Pomerania in turn comprised several other historical regions itself, most notably the Lands of Schlawe and Słupsk/Stolp, the Lębork/Lauenburg and Bytów/Bütow Land, the County of Nowogard/Naugard and the principality of the Cammin bishops under the Polish Gniezno Archbishop's rule. In the South, Farther Pomerania comprised historical Ziemie LubuskaNeumark regions, and former Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia was attached during World War II.

Parts of Pomerania and surrounding regions have constituted a euroregion since 1995. The Pomerania euroregion comprises Germany's Vorpommern and Uckermark, Poland's Zachodniopomorskie, and Scania in Sweden.

Terminology[link]

The term "West(ern) Pomerania" is potentially ambiguous, since it may refer to either Vorpommern (in historical^[5] and German usage), to the Polish West Pomeranian Voivodeship (in common Polish usage), or both (in Polish historical usage).

The term Eastern Pomerania may similarly carry different meanings, referring either to historical Farther Pomerania (in historical^[5] and German usage), or the Pomeranian Voivodeship (in Polish usage).

History[link]

History of Pomerania
This article is part of a series
Early history
Early Middle Ages
High Middle Ages
Late Middle Ages
Early Modern Age
1806–1933
1933–1945
1945–present
Pomerania Portal v t e

Prehistory and Early Middle Ages[link]

Pomeranian culture - Pomerelian faced urns.

Settlement in Pomerania started by the end of the Vistula Glacial Stage, some 13,000 years ago.^[6] Archeological traces have been found of various cultures during the Stone and Bronze Age, Baltic peoples, Germanic peoples and Veneti during the Iron Age and, in the Middle Ages, Slavic tribes and Vikings.^{[7][8][9][6][10][11][12]} The Pomeranian (Western) Balts who lived between the Jutland peninsula in the west and the Vistula river in the east were partly assimilated by Germanic tribes advancing to the east from 1500 BC to the 1st century AD. Starting in the 10th century, early Polish dukes on several occasions subdued parts of the region from the southeast, while the Holy Roman Empire and Denmark augmented their territory from the west and north.^{[13][14][15][16][17][18][19]}

High Middle Ages to Early Modern Age[link]

Stralsund, one of several Hanseatic cities built in typical Brick Gothic style.

Castle of the Pomeranian dukes in Szczecin (Stettin).

Fragment of ruin of Augustinians' cloister in Jasienica, Police (14th century)

In the High Middle Ages, the area became Christian and was ruled by local dukes of the House of Pomerania (Griffins) and the Samborides, at various times vassals of Poland, Denmark and the Holy Roman Empire. ^[20][21][22] From the late 12th century, the Griffin Duchy of Pomerania stayed with the Holy Roman Empire and the Principality of Rugia with Denmark, while Pomerelia, part of the rebuilt Ladislaus's Polish Kingdom was invaded by Brandenburg and the Teutonic Knights.^[22][23][24] The Teutonic Knights succeeded in integrating Pomerelia into their monastic state in the early 14th century. Meanwhile the Ostsiedlung started to turn Slavic-Polish Pomerania into an increasingly German-settled area; the remaining Wends and Poles, often known as Slovincians and Kashubians, continued to settle within the rural East.^[25][26] In 1325 the line of the princes of Rugia (Rügen) died out, and the principality was inherited by the Griffins.^[27] In 1466, with the Teutonic Order's defeat, Pomerelia became again subject to the Polish Crown as a part of Royal Prussia.^[28] While the German population in the Duchy of Pomerania adopted the Protestant reformation in 1534,^[29][30][31] the Polish and Kashubian populations remained with the Roman Catholic Church. The Thirty Years' and subsequent wars severely ravaged and depopulated most of Pomerania.^[32] With the extinction of the Griffin house during the same period, the Duchy of Pomerania was divided between the Swedish Empire and Brandenburg-Prussia in 1648, while Pomorze gdanskie/Pomerelia remained in with the Polish Crown.

Modern Age[link]

1980 strike at Gdańsk Shipyard, birthplace of Solidarnosc. This marked the beginning of the collapse of Communist rule in Pomerania.

Prussia gained the southern parts of Swedish Pomerania in 1720,^[33] Pomerelia in 1772, and the remainder of Swedish Pomerania in 1815, when French occupation during the Napoleonic Wars was lifted.^[34] The former Brandenburg-Prussian Pomerania and the former Swedish parts were reorganized into the Prussian Province of Pomerania,^[35] while Pomerelia was made part of the Province of West Prussia. With Prussia, both provinces joined the newly constituted German Empire in 1871. Following the empire's defeat in World War I, Pomorze Gdańskie Pomerelia returned again to the rebuilt Polish state (now the region called by the Germans as the Polish Corridor, while Gdansk/Danzig was transformed into the Free City of Danzig. Germany's Province of Pomerania was expanded in 1938 to include northern parts of the former Province of Posen–West Prussia, and in 1939 the annexed Pomorze Gdańskie/Polish Corridor became part of the wartime Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia. The Nazis deported the Pomeranian Jews to a reservation near Lublin^{[36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46]} and, in Pomerelia, mass murdered Jews, as well as Poles to some extent, through Nazi Germany's anti-semitic and untermensch pogroms. The Polish population also suffered heavily from the German Nazi oppression, primarily the educated elite - more than 40 000 people died in executions, death camps, prisons and forced labour, primarily teachers, businessmen, priests, politicians, former army officers, civil servants. Thousands of Poles and Kashubians suffered deportation, their homes taken by German military (including Erika Steinbach's parents) and civil servants, as well as some East Germans resettled between 1940-1943.

After Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II, the German–Polish border was shifted west to the Oder–Neisse line and all of Pomerania was under Soviet military control.^[47][48] The German population of the areas east of the line was expelled, and the area was resettled primarily with Poles (some themselves expellees from former eastern Poland) and some Ukrainians (resettled under Operation Vistula) and Jews.^{[49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57]} Most of Western Pomerania (Vorpommern) remained in Germany and today forms the eastern part of the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, while the Polish part of the region is divided between the West Pomeranian and Pomeranian voivodeships, with their capitals in Szczecin (Stettin) and Gdańsk (Danzig), respectively. During the 1980s, the Solidarity and Die Wende ('the change') movements overthrew the Communist regimes implemented during the post-war era; since then, Pomerania is democratically governed.

Demographics[link]

Western Pomerania is inhabited by German Pomeranians. In the eastern parts, Poles are the dominating ethnic group since World War II. Kashubians, descendants of the medieval Slavic Pomeranians, are numerous in rural Pomerelia.

Cities and towns with more than 50,000 inhabitants[link]

Kashubians in regional dress

(with population figures for 1999):

• Tricity metropolitan area (Pomeranian Voivodeship) (population (2001): 1,035,000; area 1,332,51 km²), including:
  • Gdańsk (458,988)
  • Gdynia (253,521)
  • Sopot (46,000)
• Szczecin (West Pomeranian Voivodeship, 416,988)
• Koszalin (West Pomeranian Voivodeship, 112,375)
• Słupsk (Pomeranian Voivodeship, 102,370)
• Stargard Szczeciński (Stargard i.P., West Pomeranian Voivodeship, 72,000)
• Stralsund (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, 57,613)
• Greifswald (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, 52,984)

Languages and dialects[link]

In the German part of Pomerania, Standard German and the East Low German Pomeranian dialects Vorpommersch and Mittelpommersch are spoken, though Standard German dominates. Polish is the dominating language in the Polish part; Kashubian dialects are also spoken by the Kashubians in Pomerelia.

East Pomeranian, the East Low German dialect of Farther Pomerania and western Pomerelia, Low Prussian, the East Low German dialect of eastern Pomerelia, and Standard German were dominating in Pomerania east of the Oder-Neisse line before most of its speakers were expelled after World War II. Slovincian was spoken at the Farther Pomeranian-Pomerelian frontier, but is now extinct.

Kashubian and Low German Pomeranian dialects are also spoken by the descendants of émigrées, most notably in the Americas (e.g. Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Canada).

Museums[link]

National Museum in Szczecin, Pałac Sejmu Stanów Pomorskich (Landeshaus)

The Pomeranian State Museum in Greifswald, dedicated to the history of Pomerania, has a variety of archeological findings and artefacts from the different periods covered in this article. At least 50 museums in Poland cover history of Pomerania, the most important of them The National Museum in Gdańsk, Central Pomerania Museum in Słupsk,^[58] Darłowo Museum,^[59] Koszalin Museum,^[60] National Museum in Szczecin.^[61]

See also[link]

• German exonyms (Pomorze)
• History of Pomerania
• Kashubian-Pomeranian Association
• Pomerania State Museum
• Pomeranian (disambiguation)

Footnotes[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Pomerania

Internet directories[link]

• Western Pomerania at the Open Directory Project
• Pomerania at the Open Directory Project
• Kuyavia and Pomerania at the Open Directory Project
• Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania at the Open Directory Project

Culture and history[link]

• Pomeranian dukes castle in Szczecin (Polish, German, English)
• Pomeranian (German)
•  "Pomerania". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. 
• Collection of historical eBooks about Pomerania (German)
•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Pomerania". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

Maps of Pomerania[link]

• Map of Pomerania as in 1905, in German Wikipedia
• Woiewództwa Pomorskie i Małborskie oraz Pomerania Elektorska, G.B.A.Rizzi-Zannoni 1772
• FEEFHS Map Room: German Empire - East (1882) - Pommern (Pomerania), Prussia
• Pomerania in 1789

Coordinates: 54°17′40″N 18°09′11″E / 54.29443°N 18.15312°E / 54.29443; 18.15312