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Szczecin
Top: Jagiellońska Street, Hey Market and old town hall Middle: The Oder, Sea Museum and Voivodeship Office Bottom: St James' Cathedral, Virgin Tower, PAZIM building
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: "Szczecin jest otwarty" ("Szczecin is open")
Szczecin
Coordinates: 53°25′N 14°35′E / 53.417°N 14.583°E / 53.417; 14.583
Country	Poland
Voivodeship	West Pomeranian
County	city county
Established	8th century
Town rights	1243
Government
• Mayor	Piotr Krzystek
Area
• City	301 km2 (116 sq mi)
Population (2009)
• City	406,427
• Density	1,400/km2 (3,500/sq mi)
• Metro	777,000
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code	PL-70-017 to 71-871
Area code(s)	+48 91
Car plates	ZS
Website	http://www.szczecin.pl

Szczecin ([ˈʂt​͡ʂɛt​͡ɕin] ( listen); German: Stettin [ʃtɛˈtiːn] ( listen)}), is the capital city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland. In the vicinity of the Baltic Sea, it is the country's seventh-largest city and the largest seaport in Poland. As of June 2011 the population was 407,811.^[1]

Szczecin is located on the Oder River, south of the Szczecin Lagoon and the Bay of Pomerania. The city is situated along the southwestern shore of Dąbie Lake, on both sides of the Oder and on several large islands between the western and eastern branches of the river. Szczecin borders with the town of Police.

The city's beginnings were as an 8th century Slavic Pomeranian stronghold, built at the site of today's castle. In the 12th century, when Szczecin had become one of Pomerania's main urban centres, it lost its independence to Piast Poland, Saxony, the Holy Roman Empire and Denmark. At the same time, the Griffin dynasty established themselves as local rulers, the population was converted to Christianity, and German settlers arrived. The native Slavic population was assimilated and sometimes discriminated against in the following centuries. In 1237/43, the town was built anew and granted vast autonomy rights, and it joined the Hanseatic League.

After the Treaty of Stettin (1630) the town came under Swedish control. It was fortified and remained a Swedish fortress until 1720, when it was acquired by the Kingdom of Prussia and became capital of the Province of Pomerania, which after 1870 was part of the German Empire. In the late 19th century, Stettin became an industrial town, and vastly increased in size and population, serving as a major port for Berlin. During the Nazi era, opposition groups were persecuted and minorities such as the city's Jews and the few Poles living there were classified as subhumans and subjected to genocide. At the end of World War II Stettin's status was in doubt, and the Soviet occupation authorities at first appointed officials from the city's almost entirely German pre-war population. In July 1945, however, Polish authorities were permitted to take power. Stettin was renamed Szczecin and became part of the People's Republic of Poland, and from 1989 the Republic of Poland. After the flight and expulsion of the German population and Polish settlement, Szczecin became the administrative and industrial center of Polish Western Pomerania, the site of the University of Szczecin and Szczecin University of Technology, and the see of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Szczecin-Kamień. Szczecin was an important site of anti-communist unrest in the communist era.

Name and its etymology[link]

The city's first recorded name is "Stetin", in the early 12th century.^[2] The German version "Stettin", and the Polish version, "Szczecin" as well as the names of the town's neighbourhoods and oldest districts are of Pomeranian language origins (West Slavic language group), however the exact words upon which they is based on is subject of ongoing research.^[3]

Historian Marian Gumowski (1881–1974) argued, based on his studies of early city stamps and seals, that the earliest name of the town was, in modern Polish spelling, Szczycin.^[4][5]

History[link]

Middle Ages[link]

The history of Szczecin, began in the 8th century, when West Slavs settled Pomerania and erected a new stronghold on the site of the modern castle.^[6] Since the 9th century, the stronghold was fortified and expanded toward the Oder bank.^[6] Mieszko I of Poland took control of part of Pomerania between the 960s and 1005 and annexed the city of Szczecin to Poland^[7] in 967^[8] Subsequent Polish rulers, the Holy Roman Empire and the Liutician federation aimed at control of the territory.^[3]

After the decline of neighboring regional center Wolin in the 12th century, the city became one of the more important and powerful seaports of the Baltic Sea south coasts.

In a campaign in the winter of 1121–1122,^[9] Bolesław III Wrymouth, the Duke of Poland, gained control of the region as well the city of Szczecin and its stronghold.^{[3][10][11][12][13][14][15]} The inhabitants were converted to Christianity^[3] by two missions of bishop Otto of Bamberg in 1124 and 1128.^[16] At this time, the first Christian church of St. Peter and Paul was erected. Polish minted coins were commonly used in trade in this period.^[3] The population of the city at that time is estimated to be at around 5,000-9,000 people^[17]

Polish rule ended with Boleslaw's death in 1138.^[18] During the Wendish Crusade in 1147, a contingent led by the German margrave Albert the Bear, an enemy of Slavic presence in the region,^[3] papal legat, bishop Anselm of Havelberg and Konrad of Meißen besieged the town.^{[19][20][21][22]} There, a Polish contingent supplied by Mieszko III the Old^[23][24] joined the crusaders.^[19][20] However the citizens had placed crosses around the fortifications,^[25] indicating they already had been Christianized.^[3][26] Ratibor I, Duke of Pomerania, negotiated the disbandement of the crusading forces.^[19][20][27]

Old Szczecin (Stettin), 1575

After the Battle of Verchen in 1164, Szczecin duke Bogislaw I became a vassal of the Saxony's Henry the Lion.^[28] In 1173, Szczecin castellan Wartislaw II could not resist a Danish attack and became vassal of Denmark.^[28] In 1181, duke Bogislaw I of Szczecin became a vassal of the Holy Roman Empire.^[29] In 1185, Bogislaw again became a Danish vassal.^[29] Following a conflict between his heirs and king Canute VI, the settlement was destroyed in 1189,^[30] but the fortress was reconstructed and manned with a Danish force in 1190.^[31] While the empire restored her superiority over Pomerania in the Battle of Bornhöved in 1227,^[29] Szczecin was one of two bridgeheads remaining under Danish control (until 1235, Wolgast until 1241/43 or 1250).^[30]

In the second half of the 12th century, a group of German tradesmen ("multus populus Teutonicorum"^[32] from various parts of the Holy Roman Empire) settled in the city around St. Jacob's Church, which was donated in 1180^[32] by Beringer, a trader from Bamberg, and consecrated in 1187.^[32][33] Hohenkrug (now in Szczecin-Struga) was the first village in the Duchy of Pomerania which was clearly recorded as German (villa teutonicorum) in 1173.^[34] Ostsiedlung accelerated in Pomerania during the 13th century.^[35] Duke Barnim I of Pomerania granted Szczecin a local government charter in 1237, separating the German settlement from the Slavic community settled around the St. Nicholas Church in the neighborhood of Kessin (Polish: Chyzin). In the charter, the Slavs were put under German jurisdiction.^[36]

When Barnim granted Szczecin Magdeburg rights in 1243, part of the Slavic settlement was reconstructed^[37] The duke had to promise to level the burgh in 1249.^[38] Most Slavic inhabitants were resettled to two new suburbia north and south of the town.^[39] Last records of Slavs in Stettin are from the 14th century, when a Slavic bath (1350) and bakery are recorded, and within the walls, Slavs lived in a street named Schulzenstrasse.^{[40][inconsistent]} By the end of the century, the remaining Slavs had been assimilated.^{[41][inconsistent]}

The city's fortifications, as seen in 1642

In 1249, Barnim I granted town law also the town of Damm (also Altdamm) on the eastern bank of the Oder,^[42][43] which only on 15 October 1939 was merged to neighboring Szczecin and is now the Dąbie, Szczecin neighborhood.^[44] This town had been built on the site of a former Pomeranian burg, "Vadam" or "Dambe", which Boleslaw had destroyed during his 1121 campaign.^[43]

On 2 December 1261, Barnim I allowed Jewish settlement in Szczecin according to Magdeburg law in a privilege renewed in 1308 and 1371.^[45] The Jewish Jordan family was granted citizenship in 1325, but none of the 22 Jews allowed to settle in the duchy in 1481 lived in the city, and in 1492, all Jews in the duchy were ordered to convert to Christianity or leave - this order remained effective throughout the rest of the Griffin era.^[45]

Stettin was part of the federation of Wendish towns, a predecessor of the Hanseatic League, in 1283.^[46] The city prospered due to the participation in the Baltic Sea trade, primarily with herrings, grain and timber; also craftmenship prospered and more than forty guilds were established in the city.^[47] The far-reaching autonomy from the House of Pomerania was in part reduced when the dukes reclaimed Stettin as their main residence in the late 15th century.^[47] The anti-Slavic policies of German merchants and craftsmen intensified in this period, resulting in bans on people of Slavic descent joining craft guilds, doubling customs tax for Slavic merchants, or bans against public usage of their native language.^[3] More prosperous Slavic citizens were forcefully stripped of their possessions which were awarded to Germans.^[3] In 1514, the guild of the tailors added a Wendenparagraph to its statutes, banning Slavs.^[48]

While not as heavily affected by medieval witchhunts as other regions of the empire, there are reports of the burning of three women and one man convicted of witchcraft in 1538.^[49]

In 1570, during the reign of Pomeranian duke Johann Friedrich, a congress was held at Stettin ending the Northern Seven Years' War. During the war, Stettin had tended to side with Denmark, while Stralsund tended toward Sweden - as a whole, the Duchy of Pomerania however tried to maintain neutrality.^[50] Nevertheless, a Landtag that had met in Stettin in 1563 introduced a sixfold rise of real estate taxes to finance the raising of a mercenary army for the duchy's defense.^[50] Johann Friedrich also succeeded in elevating Stettin to one of only three places allowed to coin money in the Upper Saxon Circle of the Holy Roman Empire, the other two places were Leipzig and Berlin.^[51] Bogislaw XIV, who resided in Stettin since 1620, became the sole, and Griffin duke when Philipp Julius died in 1625. Before the Thirty Years' War reached Pomerania, the city as all of the duchy declined economically due to the sinking importance of the Hanseatic League and a conflict between Stettin and Frankfurt (Oder).^[52]

The 17th to 19th Centuries[link]

Stettin in the late 19th century.

Following the Treaty of Stettin of 1630, the town (along with most of Pomerania) was allied to and occupied by the Swedish Empire, which managed to keep the western parts of Pomerania after the death of Bogislaw XIV in 1637 and the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 – despite the protests of Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg, who had a legal claim to inherit all of Pomerania. The exact partition of Pomerania between Sweden and Brandenburg was settled in Stettin in 1653.

Sedina Monument (1899-1913)

Stettin was turned into a major Swedish fortress, which was repeatedly besieged in subsequent wars.^[53] It was on the path of Polish forces led by Stefan Czarniecki moving from Denmark; Czarniecki's sea based route which led his forces to the city^[54] is today mentioned in Polish anthem and numerous locations in the city honour his name. Wars inhibited the city's economical prosperity, which had undergone a deep crisis during the devastations of the Thirty Years' War and was further impeded by the new Swedish-Brandenburg-Prussian frontier, cutting Stettin off its traditional Farther Pomeranian hinterland.^[47] Due to a Black Death epidemic during the Great Northern War, the city's population dropped from 6,000 people in 1709 to 4,000 inhabitants in 1711.^[55] In 1720, after the Great Northern War, Sweden was forced to cede the city to King Frederick William I of Prussia. Stettin was made the capital city of the Brandenburg-Prussian Pomeranian province, since 1815 reorganized as Province of Pomerania. In 1816, the city had 26,000 inhabitants.^[56]

The Prussian administration deprived Stettin of her administrative autonomy rights, abolished guild privileges as well as its status as a staple town, and subsidized manufacturers.^[53] Also, colonists were settled in the city, primarily Hugenots.^[53]

In October 1806, during the War of the Fourth Coalition, believing he was facing a much larger force and after a threat to treat the city harshly, the Prussian commander Lieutenant General Friedrich von Romberg agreed to surrendered the city to the French led by General Lassalle. In fact Lassalle had only 800 men against von Romberg's 5,300 men. In March 1809, Romberg was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for giving up Stettin without a fight.

From 1683 to 1812, one Jew was permitted to reside in Stettin, and an additional Jew was allowed to spend a night in the city in case of an "urgent business".^[45] These permissions were repeatedly withdrawn between 1691 and 1716, also between 1726 and 1730 although else the Swedish regulation was continued by the Brandenburg-Prussian administration.^[45] Only after the Prussian Edict of Emancipation of 11 March 1812, which granted Prussian citizenship to all Jews living in the kingdom, did a Jewish community emerge in Stettin, with the first Jews settling in the town in 1814.^[45] Construction of a synagogue started in 1834; the community also owned a religious and a secular school, an orphanage since 1855 and a retirement home since 1893.^[57] The Jewish community had between 1,000 and 1,200 members by 1873 and between 2,800 and 3,000 members by 1927/28.^[57] These numbers dropped to 2,701 in 1930 and to 2,322 in late 1934.^[57]

After the Franco Prussian war of 1870–1871, 1,700 French POWs were imprisoned there in deplorable conditions. As a result, 600 of them died;^[58] after the Second World War monuments in their memory were built by the Polish authorities.

Until 1873, Stettin remained a fortress.^[53] When part of the defensive structures were levelled, a new neighborhood, Neustadt ("New Town") as well as canalization, water pipes and gas works, were built to meet the demands of the growing population.^[53]

19th-20th century[link]

Monument, erected in 1967 in Szczecin, Poland, commemorating French PoWs who died in German captivity from 1870 to 1871 in what was then Stettin, Germany^[59]

Stettin developed into a major Prussian port and became part of the German Empire in 1871. While most of the province retained an agrarian character, Stettin was industrialized and its population rose from 27,000 in 1813 to 210,000 in 1900 and 255,500 in 1925.^[60] Major industries prospering in Stettin since 1840 were shipbuilding, chemical and food industries and machinery construction.^[53] Starting in 1843, Stettin became connected to the major German and Pomeranian cities by railways, and the water connection to the Bay of Pomerania was enhanced by the construction of the Kaiserfahrt (now Piast) canal.^[53] On 20 October 1890, some of the city's Poles created the Towarzystwo Robotników Polsko Katolickich (Society of Polish-Catholic Workers) in the city, one of the first Polish organisations.^[61] In 1914, before World War I, the Polish community in the city numbered about 3,000 people.^[3] These were primarily industrial workers and their families who came from the Poznań (Posen) area^[62] and a few local wealthy industrialists and merchants. Among them was Kazimierz Pruszak, director of the Gollnow industrial works and a Polish patriot, who predicted the eventual return of Szczecin to Poland.^[3]

Stettin was long Germany's largest Baltic port, a situation which greatly helped speed development and attract public investment.

During the interwar era, Stettin was Weimar Germany's largest port at the Baltic Sea, and her third-largest port after Hamburg and Bremen.^[63] Cars of the Stoewer automobile company were produced in Stettin from 1899 to 1945. By 1939, the Reichsautobahn Berlin-Stettin was completed.^[53]

In the March 1933 German elections to Reichstag, the Nazis and German nationalists from DNVP won most of the votes in the city, obtaining together 98,626 of 165,331 votes (59.3%), with the NSDAP getting 79,729 (47.9%) and the DNVP 18,897 (11.4%)^[64]

In 1935 the Wehrmacht made Stettin the headquarters for Wehrkreis II, which controlled the military units in all of Mecklenburg and Pomerania. It was also the Area Headquarters for units stationed at Stettin I and II; Swinemünde; Greifswald; and Stralsund.

In the interwar period the Polish minority numbered 2,000 people.^[3][65] A number of Poles were members of the Union of Poles in Germany (ZPN), which was active in the city since 1924,^[66] A Polish consulate was hosted in the city between 1925 and 1939.^[67] On initiative of the consulate^[67] and ZPN activist Maksymilian Golisz,^[68] a number of Polish institutions were established, e.g. a Polish Scout team and a Polish school.^[3][67] German historian Musekamp writes that "however, only very few Poles were active in these institutions, which for the most part were headed by employees of the [Polish] consulate."^[68]  The withdrawal of the consulate from these institutions led to a general decline of these activities, which were in part upheld by Golisz and Aleksander Omieczyński.^[69] Intensified repressions by the Nazis,^[3][65] who exaggerated the Polish activities to propagate an infiltration,^[68] led to the closing of the school.^[3] In 1938 the head of Szczecin’s Union of Poles unit, Stanisław Borkowski, was imprisoned in Oranienburg.^[3] In 1939 all Polish organisations in Szczecin were disbanded by the German authorities.^[3] Golisz and Omieczyński were murdered during the war.^[3] According to Musekamp the role of the pre-war Polish community has been exaggerated for propagandistic purposes in post-war Poland which made "the numerically insignificant Polonia of Stettin... probably the best-researched social group" in the history of the city^[67] After Nazi Germany was defeated, Golisz had a street named after him.^[68]

World War II[link]

Two soldiers of the German Wehrmacht take a stroll along the river front in Stettin.

During the 1939 invasion of Poland, which started World War II in Europe, Stettin was the base for the German 2nd Motorized Infantry Division, which cut across the Polish Corridor and was later used in 1940 as an embarkation point for Operation Weserübung, Germany's assault on Denmark and Norway.^[70]

On 15 October 1939, neighbouring municipalities were amalgamated into Stettin, creating Groß-Stettin with about 380,000 inhabitants in 1940.^[53] The city had become the third-largest German city by area, after Berlin and Hamburg.^[71]

As the war started, the number of non-Germans in the city increased as slave workers were brought in. The first transports came in 1939 from Bydgoszcz, Toruń and Łódż. They were mainly used in a synthetic silk factory near Szczecin.^[3] The next wave of slave workers was brought in 1940, in addition to PoWs who were used for work in the agricultural industry.^[3] According to German police reports from 1940, 15,000 Polish slave workers lived within the city.^[3][72]

During the war, 135 forced labour camps for slave workers were established in the city. Most of the 25,000 slave workers were Poles, but Czechs, Italians, Frenchmen and Belgians, as well as Dutch citizens, were also enslaved in the camps.^[3]

In February 1940, the Jews of Stettin were deported to the Lublin reservation. International press reports emerged, describing how the Nazis forced Jews, regardless of age, condition and gender, to sign away all property and loaded them on to trains headed to the camp, escorted by members of the SA and SS. Due to publicity given to the event, German institutions ordered such future actions to be made in a way unlikely to attract public notice.^[73]

With the remaining and returned Germans expelled after the war, Poles rebuilt and resettled the city, which became capital of the Szczecin Voivodeship. It played an important role in the anti-communist uprisings of 1970 and the rise of Solidarity trade union in the 1980s.

Throughout the war, Stettin (Szczecin) was a major port of disembarkation for Baltic Germans returning to the 'fatherland', and later in the war those fleeing the advancing Soviet Red Army.

Allied air raids in 1944 and heavy fighting between the German and Soviet armies destroyed 65% of Stettin's buildings and almost all of the city centre, the seaport and local industries. Polish Home Army intelligence assisted in pinpointing targets for Allied bombing in the area of Stettin.^[74] The city itself was covered by Home Army's structure "Bałtyk" and Polish resistance infiltrated Stettin's naval yards^[75][76] Other activities of the resistance consisted of smuggling people to Sweden.^[77]

In April 1945, Nazi authorities of the city issued an order of evacuation and most of the city’s German population fled. The Soviet Red Army captured the city on 26 April. Stettin was virtually deserted when it fell, with only approx. 6,000 Germans in the city, when Polish authorities tried to gain control.^[3] In the following month the Polish administration was forced to leave again twice. Finally the permanent handover occurred on 5 July 1945.^[78] In the meantime, part of the German population had returned, believing it might become part of the Soviet occupation zone of Germany^[79] and the Soviet authorities had already appointed the German Communists Erich Spiegel and Erich Wiesner as mayors.^[80] Stettin is located mostly west of the Oder river, which was considered to become Poland's new western border, placing Stettin in East Germany. This would have been in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement between the victorious Allied Powers, which envisaged the new border to be in "a line running from the Baltic Sea immediately west of Swinemünde, and thence along the Oder River[...]". Because of the returnees, the German population of the town swelled to 84,000 again.^[79] The mortality rate was at 20%, primarily due to starvation.^[81] However, Stettin and the mouth of the Oder River (German: Stettiner Zipfel) became Polish on 5 July 1945, which had been decided in a treaty signed on 26 July 1944 between the Soviet Union and the Soviet-controlled Polish Committee of National Liberation (PKWN) (also known as "the Lublin Poles," as contrasted with the London-based Polish government-in-exile).^[3] On 4 October 1945, the decisive land border of Poland was established west of the 1945 line,^[3][82] but excluded the Police (Pölitz) area, the Oder river itself and the Szczecin port, which remained under Soviet administration.^[82] The Oder river was handed over to Polish administration in September 1946, and the port was subsequently handed over between February 1946 and May 1954.^[82]

After 1945[link]

The city centre in 1945.

After World War II the city was transferred to Poland. Szczecin, as it was now called, was also demographically transformed from a German into a Polish city. At the same time as the flight and expulsion of the German population, Poles moved in. Settlers from Central Poland made up about 70% of Szczecin's new population.^[83] Additionally Poles and Ukrainians from Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union. settled there.^[83] In 1945 and 1946 the city was the starting point of the northern route used by the Jewish underground organization Brichah to channel Jewish DPs from Eastern Europe to the American occupation zone.^[84]

Monument to Polish Endeavor (Pomnik Czynu Polaków, Szczecin), dedicated to three Generations of Poles in Zachodniopomorskie: the pre-war Poles in Szczecin, the Poles who rebuilt the city after World War II and the modern generation

Szczecin was rebuilt and the city's industry was expanded. At the same time, Szczecin became a major Polish industrial centre and an important seaport (particularly for Silesian coal) for Poland, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany.^{[citation needed]} Cultural expansion was accompanied by a campaign resulting in the "removal of all German traces."^[85] In 1946 Winston Churchill prominently mentioned Szczecin in his Iron Curtain speech: "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent".^[86]

The 1962 Szczecin military parade led to a road traffic accident in which a tank of the Polish People's Army crushed bystanders, killing seven children and injuring many more. The resultant panic in the crowd led to further injuries in the rush to escape. The incident was covered up for many years by the Polish communist authorities.

The city witnessed anti-communist revolts in 1970. In 1980, one of the four agreements, known as the August Agreements, which led to the first legalization of Solidarity, was signed in Szczecin. Pope John Paul II visited the city on 11 June 1987.^[87] The introduction of martial law in December 1981 met with a strike by the dockworkers of Szczecin shipyard, joined by other factories and workplaces in a general strike. All these were suppressed by the authorities.^[88][89] Another wave of strikes in Szczecin broke out in 1988 and 1989, which eventually led to the Round Table Agreement and first semi free elections in Poland.

Since 1999 Szczecin has been the capital of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship.

Architecture and urban planning[link]

A panoramic view of Szczecin's centre (situated on the left bank of the Oder), taken from the river's right bank

Lotników Square

Szczecin's architectural style is due to trends popular in the last half of the 19th century and the first years of the 20th century, Academic art and Art Nouveau. In many areas built after 1945, especially in the city centre, which had been destroyed due to Allied bombing, social realism is prevalent.^{[citation needed]}

Jasne Błonia Square

The city has an abundance of green areas: parks and avenues – wide streets with trees planted in the island separating opposite traffic (where often tram tracks are laid); and roundabouts. In that manner, Szczecin's city plan resembles that of Paris, mostly because Szczecin was rebuilt in the 1880s according to a design by Georges-Eugène Haussmann, who had redesigned Paris under Napoléon III.^{[citation needed]} This course of designing streets in Szczecin is still used, as many recently built (or modified) city areas include roundabouts and avenues.^{[citation needed]}

New and reconstructed buildings in the Old Town

During the city's reconstruction in the aftermath of World War II, the communist authorities of Poland wanted the city's architecture to reflect a old Polish Piast era. Since no buildings from the that time existed, instead Gothic, as well as Renaissance buildings,were picked as worthy of conservation.^{[90][Need quotation to verify]} The motivation behind this decision was that Renaissance architecture was used by the Griffin dynasty, who had Slavic roots and was viewed to be of Piast extraction by some historians^{[91][Need quotation to verify]} (later the Piast myth was replaced by a local Griffin myth, whereby the Slavic roots of the Griffin dynasty were to justify the post-war Polish presence in Pomerania).^[91] This view was manifested e.g. by erecting respective memorials, and the naming of streets and enterprises,^[92] while else German traces were replaced by symbols of three main categories: Piasts, Martyrdom of Poles and gratitude to the Soviet and Polish armies which ended Nazi German genocide of Polish people.^[93] The ruins of the former Griffin residence, initially renamed "Piast Palace", also played a central role in this concept^[91] and were reconstructed in Renaissance style, with all traces of later eras removed.^[94] In general, post-Renaissance buildings, especially from the 19th and early 20th centuries were deemed unworthy of conservation until the 1970s,^[90] and were in part used in the Bricks for Warsaw campaign (an effort to rebuild Warsaw after it had been razed to the ground by the Germans as part of genocide against Polish people): with 38 million bricks, Szczecin became Poland's largest brick supplier.^[95]

The Old Town was rebuilt in the late 1990s, consisting of new buildings, some of which were reconstructions of buildings destroyed in World War II.

A portion of the Szczecin Landscape Park, in the forest of Puszcza Bukowa, lies within Szczecin's boundaries.

Municipal administration[link]

Szczecin's administrative divisions

The city is administratively divided into districts (Polish: dzielnica), which are further divided into smaller neighbourhoods. The governing bodies of the latter serve the role of auxiliary local government bodies called Neighborhood Councils (Polish: Rady Osiedla). Elections for Neighborhood Councils are held up to six months after each City Council elections. Attendance is rather low (on 20 May 2007 it ranged from 1.03% to 27.75% and was 3.78% on average). Councillors are responsible mostly for small infrastructure like trees, park benches, playgrounds, etc. Other functions are mostly advisory. Official list of districts

Dzielnica Śródmieście (City Centre) Centrum, Drzetowo-Grabowo, Łękno, Międzyodrze-Wyspa Pucka, Niebuszewo-Bolinko, Nowe Miasto, Stare Miasto, Śródmieście-Północ, Śródmieście-Zachód, Turzyn.

Dzielnica Północ (North) Bukowo, Golęcino-Gocław, Niebuszewo, Skolwin, Stołczyn, Warszewo, Żelechowa.

Dzielnica Zachód (West) Arkońskie-Niemierzyn, Głębokie-Pilchowo, Gumieńce, Krzekowo-Bezrzecze, Osów, Pogodno, Pomorzany, Świerczewo, Zawadzkiego-Klonowica.

Dzielnica Prawobrzeże (Right-Bank) Bukowe-Klęskowo, Dąbie, Kijewo, Osiedle Majowe, Osiedle Słoneczne, Płonia-Śmierdnica-Jezierzyce, Podjuchy, Wielgowo-Sławociesze, Załom, Zdroje, Żydowce-Klucz.

Other historical neighborhoods[link]

Babin, Barnucin, Basen Górniczy, Błędów, Boleszyce, Bystrzyk, Cieszyce, Cieśnik, Dolina, Drzetowo, Dunikowo, Glinki, Grabowo, Jezierzyce, Kaliny, Kępa Barnicka, Kijewko, Kluczewko, Kłobucko, Kniewo, Kraśnica, Krzekoszów, Lotnisko, Łasztownia, Niemierzyn, Odolany, Oleszna, Podbórz, Port, os.Przyjaźni, Rogatka, Rudnik, Sienna, Skoki, Słowieńsko, Sosnówko, Starków, Stoki, Struga, Śmierdnica, os.Świerczewskie, Trzebusz, Urok, Widok, Zdunowo.

Demographics[link]

Monument by Czesław Dźwigaj to the workers killed during the 1970 anti-communist protests, known as the "Angel of Freedom"

Up to the end of World War II the vast majority of the population of Stettin were German Lutheran Protestants.

Number of inhabitants in years

• 1720: 6,081^[96]
• 1740: 12,360^[96]
• 1756: 13,533^[96]
• 1763: 12,483^[96]
• 1782: 15,372 (no Jews)^[96]
• 1794: 16,700 (no Jews)^[96]
• 1812: 21,255 incl. 476 Catholics and 5 Jews^[96]
• 1816: 21,528, incl. 742 Catholics and 74 Jews.^[96]
• 1831: 27,399, incl. 840 Catholics and 250 Jews^[96]
• 1852: 48,028, incl. 724 Catholics, 901 Jews and 2 Mennonites.^[96]
• 1861: 58,487, incl. 1,065 Catholics and 1,438 Jews, 6 Mennonites, 305 German Catholics and 3 other citizens.^[96]
• 1875: 80,972^[97]
• 1880 91,756^[97]
• 1885 99,543^[97]
• 1905: 224,119 (incl. the military), among them 209,152 Protestants, 8,635 Catholics and 3,010 Jews.^[98]
• 1933: 269,557, mostly Protestant inhabitants.^[99]
• 1939: 268,421 including 233,424 Protestants, 10,845 Catholics, and 1,102 Jews^[97]
• 2009: 406,427

Politics[link]

Recently the city has favoured the centre right Civic Platform. Over two thirds (64.54%) of votes cast in the second round of the 2010 presidential election went to the Civic Platform's Bronisław Komorowski ^[100] and in the next year's Polish parliamentary election the party won 46.75% of the vote in the Szczecin constituency with Law and Justice second garnering 21.66% and Palikot's Movement third with 11.8%.^[101]

Members of European Parliament (MEPs) from Szczecin[link]

• Zdzisław Chmielewski, PO, historian, former rector of University of Szczecin.
• Bogusław Liberadzki, SLD-UP, economist, minister of transport.
• Sylwester Chruszcz, LPR, architect and politician, elected in Silesian constituency, but lives in Szczecin.

Economy[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

The Radisson Hotel, Szczecin

Szczecin has three shipyards (Stocznia Remontowa Gryfia, Stocznia Pomerania, Stocznia Szczecińska). Stocznia Szczecińska is the biggest shipyard in Poland. It has a fishing industry and a steel mill. It is served by Szczecin-Goleniów "Solidarność" Airport and by the Port of Szczecin, third biggest port of Poland. It is also home to several major companies. Among them is the major food producer Drobimex, Polish Steamship Company, producer of construction materials Komfort, Bosman brewery and Cefarm drug factory. It also houses several of the new business firms in the IT sector.

Transportation[link]

The S3 Expressway links Szczecin with its airport (at Goleniów) and Baltic ferry terminal (in Świnoujście), as well as with the major cities of Western Poland to the south.

There is a popular public transit system operating throughout Szczecin, including a bus network and electric trams, that is run by.^[102]

Szczecin Shipyard

The A6 motorway (recently upgraded) serves as the southern bypass of the city, and connects to the German A11 autobahn (portions of which are currently undergoing upgrade), from where one can reach Berlin in about 90 minutes (about 150 km). Road connections with the rest of Poland are of lower quality (no motorways), though the S3 Expressway that is currently under construction will begin to improve the situation after its stretch from Szczecin to Gorzów Wielkopolski is opened around 2010. Construction of Express Roads S6 and S10 which are to run east from Szczecin has also started, though these roads will not be fully completed until about 2015.

Szczecin has good railway connections with the rest of Poland, but it is connected by only two single track, non-electrified lines with Germany to the west (high quality double-track lines were degraded after 1945). Because of this, the rail connection between Berlin and Szczecin is much slower and less convenient than one would expect between two European cities of that size and proximity. Plans have been made to restore the double track on the Berlin-Szczecin main line with complete electrification and other upgrades to allow 160 km/h (99.42 mph) running, but these have not been funded yet.

Szczecin is served by Szczecin-Goleniów "Solidarność" Airport which is 45 km northeast of the city.

Culture[link]

Cultural events[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

The Tall Ships' Races 2007 & Days of the Sea

Major cultural events in Szczecin are:

• Days of the Sea (Polish Dni Morza) held every June.
• European Night of Museums (Polish Europejska Noc Muzeów)
• Street Artists' Festival (Polish Festiwal Artystów Ulicy) held every July.
• Days of The Ukrainian Culture (Polish Dni Kultury Ukraińskiej) held every May.
• Air show on Dabie airport held every May.
• InSPIRATIONS (Polish InSPIRACJE)

Szczecin was a candidate for The European Capital of Culture 2016.^[103]

Museums and galeries[link]

• National Museum in Szczecin (Polish Muzeum Narodowe w Szczecinie) is the largest cultural institution in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship. It has branches:
  • The Main Building of Muzeum Narodowe w Szczecinie, Wały Chrobrego 3 Street.^[104]
  • Szczecin's History Museum (Polish Muzeum Historii Szczecina) in the Old City Town Hall, Szczecin, Księcia Mściwoja II Street.^[104]
  • The Old Art Galery of Muzeum Narodowe w Szczecinie, Staromłyńska 27 Street.^[104]
  • The Museum of Contemporary Art, Staromłyńska 1 Street.^[104]
  • The Narrow Gauge Railway Exhibition in Gryfice^[104]
  • Planned investments: Dialogue Center Breakthroughs (Polish Centrum Dialogu Przełomy)^[105] and Maritime Museum - Science Center (Polish Muzeum Morskie - Centrum Nauki).
• Literature Museum (Polish Muzeum Literatury)^[106]
• EUREKA - the miracles of science.^[107]
• The Castle Museum (Polish Muzeum Zamkowe) in the Pomeranian Dukes' Castle, Szczecin.
• Museum of Technique and Communication - Art Depot (Polish Muzeum Techniki i Komunikacji - Zajezdnia Sztuki).^[108]

Arts and entertainment[link]

The Pleciuga Puppetry Theatre (newly built)

• Bismarck tower Szczecin
• Kana Theatre (Polish Teatr Kana)
• Modern Theatre (Polish Teatr Współczesny)
• Opera in the Castle (Polish Opera na Zamku)
• Polish Theatre (Polish Teatr Polski)
• (ruins of) The Quistorp's Tower (Polish Wieża Quistorpa, German Quistorpturm)
• The Pomeranian Dukes' Castle in Szczecin (Polish Zamek Książąt Pomorskich w Szczecinie)
• The Castle Cinema (Polish Kino Zamek)
• The Cellar by the Vault Cabaret (Polish Kabaret Piwnica przy Krypcie)
• The Crypt Theatre (Polish Teatr Krypta)
• The Pleciuga Puppetry Theatre^[109] (Polish Teatr Lalek Pleciuga)
• The Niema Theatre (Polish Teatr Niema)

Education and science[link]

The rectorate of the Pomeranian Medical University

• University of Szczecin (Polish Uniwersytet Szczeciński) with 35.000 students, rector Waldemar Tarczyński
• West Pomeranian University of Technology (Polish: Zachodniopomorski Uniwersytet Technologiczny)
• Pomeranian Medical University (Polish Pomorska Akademia Medyczna)
• Branch of Academy of Music in Poznań (Polish Akademia Muzyczna w Poznaniu)
• Maritime University of Szczecin (Polish Akademia Morska w Szczecinie)
• The West Pomeranian Business School (Polish Zachodniopomorska Szkoła Biznesu)
• Higher School of Public Administration in Szczecin (Polish Wyższa Szkoła Administracji Publicznej w Szczecinie)
• High Theological Seminary in Szczecin (Polish Arcybiskupie Wyższe Seminarium Duchowne w Szczecinie)
• Higher School of Applied Arts (Polish Wyższa Szkoła Sztuki Użytkowej)
• Academy of European Integration (Polish Wyższa Szkoła Integracji Europejskiej)
• Wyższa Szkoła Ekonomiczno-Turystyczna
• Wyższa Szkoła Humanistyczna TWP
• Wyższa Szkoła Języków Obcych
• Wyższa Szkoła Techniczno-Ekonomiczna
• Wyższa Szkoła Zawodowa- Collegium Balticum
• Wyższa Szkoła Zawodowa "OECONOMICUS" PTE
• Wyższa Szkoła Zarządzania

Scientific and regional organizations[link]

• Western Pomeranian Institute (Polish Instytut Zachodnio-Pomorski)
• Szczecin Scientific Society (Polish Szczecińskie Towarzystwo Naukowe)

Sports[link]

A stadium of Pogoń Szczecin

A match of Pogoń Szczecin

There are many popular professional sports team in Szczecin area. The most popular sport today is probably football (thanks to Pogoń Szczecin just promoted to play in the 1st league in season 2004/2005). Amateur sports are played by thousands of Szczecin citizens and also in schools of all levels (elementary, secondary, university).

Professional teams[link]

• Pogoń Szczecin - football team (2nd league in season 2008/2009)
• STK Wilki Morskie Szczecin - basketball team
• Arkonia Szczecin - football team (5th league in season 2008/2009)
• Pogoń II Szczecin - 2nd Pogoń football team (regional 6th league in season 2008/2009)
• KS Stal Szczecin - 15 youth and junior teams, 1 senior, being in 4th regional league in season 2008/2009
• Pogoń '04 Szczecin - futsal team (1st league of Polish futsal in season 2008/2009)
• KS Piast Szczecin - women's volleyball team, (Seria A in season 2003/2004 and 2004/2005)
• Pogoń Handball Szczecin - handball men and women teams playing in 2nd Polish Handball League
• Wicher Warszewo - futsal team playing in Środowiskowa Liga Futsalu (Futsal League) - 2 regional Futsal League: 2nd place in 2006/2007 season - promotion in the first regional Futsal League
• Husaria Szczecin - American football team playing in Polish American Football League

Amateur leagues[link]

• Halowa Amatorska Liga Pilkarska - Hall Amateur Football League^[110]
• Halowa Liga Pilki Noznej- Hall Football League
• Szczecinska Liga Amatorskiej Koszykowki - Szczecin Amateur Basketball League^[111]
• Szczecinska Amatorska Liga Pilki Siatkowej - Szczecin Amateur Volleyball League^[112] - women league, 1st, 2nd and 3rd men league
• Elita Professional Sport - Elita Hall Football League^[113] - 1st and 2nd league, futsal cup
• Kaskada Szczecin Rugby Club - club rugby^[114] - 7 and 15 league, rugby cup

International relations[link]

Twin towns — Sister cities[link]

The twin towns and sister cities of Szczecin are:

Famous residents[link]

Over the long course of its history Szczecin has been a place of birth and of residence for many famous individuals, including Empress Catherine the Great, actress Dita Parlo, the mathematician Hermann Günther Grassmann, and the poet Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński.

Panorama[link]