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Pomerania has experienced several transitions not only of culture and administration, but also of its population.
Pomerania is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Germany and Poland.
In 997 AD many Old Prussians were baptized by Adalbert of Prague in the Vistula Delta. By that time Slavs had moved up north and the territory became known as Pomerania by 1046 AD.
Adalbert of Prague ; c. 956 – 23 April 997), known in Czech by his birth name Vojtěch, was a Bohemian missionary and Christian saint. He was the Bishop of Prague and a missionary to the Hungarians, Poles, and Prussians, who was martyred in his efforts to convert the Baltic Prussians to Christianity. He is said to be the composer of the oldest Czech hymn Hospodine, pomiluj ny and Bogurodzica, the oldest known Polish hymn, but his authorship of it has not been confirmed. St. Adalbert was later declared the patron saint of the Czech Republic, Poland, and the former polity of Prussia. He is also the patron saint of the Archdiocese of Esztergom.
The second major transition of most of the Pomeranian tribes was from Slavic to German in the 14th century. At the end of the first millennium, Piast Poland incorporated whole of Pomerania into its state. Afterwards, in the beginning of the second millennium, Denmark and the German Holy Roman Empire started to incorporate pagan Pomeranian territories into their expanding feudal states. Most Slavic Pomeranian tribes west of the Oder had lost their independence in late 12th century. In the course of the 14th and 15th century, German settlement in the Duchy of Pomerania increased. Where Slavic population was left, they were called Wends , Kashubians or Slovincians to distinguish them from the German Pomeranians. Whereas through later history the Kashubs were only minority in the Eastern Duchy of Pomerania, their numbers were notably higher in Pomerelia as well as the numbers of Germans were significantly lower there either. Pomerenian history was, from that time, closely tied to the history of Germany, Denmark and Sweden, whereas Pomerelian history was also until 1308 and between 1466 and 1772 closely tied to Poland.[ citation needed ]
Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe, who share a common German ancestry, culture and history. German is the shared mother tongue of a substantial majority of ethnic Germans.
The Piast dynasty was the first historical ruling dynasty of Poland. The first documented Polish monarch was Duke Mieszko I. The Piasts' royal rule in Poland ended in 1370 with the death of king Casimir III the Great.
Denmark, officially the Kingdom of Denmark, is a Nordic country. Denmark proper, which is the southernmost of the Scandinavian countries, consists of a peninsula, Jutland, and an archipelago of 443 named islands, with the largest being Zealand, Funen and the North Jutlandic Island. The islands are characterised by flat, arable land and sandy coasts, low elevation and a temperate climate. The southernmost of the Scandinavian nations, Denmark lies southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and is bordered to the south by Germany. The Kingdom of Denmark also includes two autonomous territories in the North Atlantic Ocean: the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Denmark has a total area of 42,924 km2 (16,573 sq mi), land area of 42,394 km2 (16,368 sq mi), and the total area including Greenland and the Faroe Islands is 2,210,579 km2 (853,509 sq mi), and a population of 5.8 million.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Thirty Years' War and the Nordic Wars had a severe impact on all of Germany including the Pomeranian population. More than half died and many villages were wiped out. After this enormous population drop, new settlers were called in from less devastated German territories. Yet, not all villages were repopulated, so today's density of communities is not as high as back in the Middle Ages.[ citation needed ]
The Thirty Years' War was a war fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648. One of the most destructive conflicts in human history, it resulted in eight million fatalities not only from military engagements but also from violence, famine, and plague. Casualties were overwhelmingly and disproportionately inhabitants of the Holy Roman Empire, most of the rest being battle deaths from various foreign armies. The deadly clashes ravaged Europe; 20 percent of the total population of Germany died during the conflict and there were losses up to 50 percent in a corridor between Pomerania and the Black Forest. In terms of proportional German casualties and destruction, it was surpassed only by the period January to May 1945; one of its enduring results was 19th-century Pan-Germanism, when it served as an example of the dangers of a divided Germany and became a key justification for the 1871 creation of the German Empire.
"Northern Wars" is a term used for a series of wars fought in northern and northeastern Europe in the 16th and 17th century. An internationally agreed nomenclature for these wars has not yet been devised. While the Great Northern War is generally considered to be the last of the Northern Wars, there are different scholarly opinions on which war constitutes the First Northern War.
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and transitioned into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. The Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history: classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is itself subdivided into the Early, High, and Late Middle Ages.
The third major change of Pomeranian population happened in the course of World War II and its aftermath. In Nazi Germany, Jews and many members of the Polish minority were murdered. Due to the advance of the Red Army and the territorial changes after the war, nearly all Germans populating post-war Poland that survived the war and failed to evacuate in 1945 were expelled to post-war Germany 1945-1947. The major, now Polish part of Pomerania was resettled mostly with Poles, in part expellees from the former eastern territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union.
World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from more than 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 70 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.
Nazi Germany is the common English name for Germany between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party (NSDAP) controlled the country through a dictatorship. Under Hitler's rule, Germany was transformed into a totalitarian state where nearly all aspects of life were controlled by the government. The official name of the state was Deutsches Reich until 1943 and Großdeutsches Reich from 1943 to 1945. Nazi Germany is also known as the Third Reich, meaning "Third Realm" or "Third Empire", the first two being the Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) and the German Empire (1871–1918). The Nazi regime ended after the Allies defeated Germany in May 1945, ending World War II in Europe.
Stutthof was a Nazi German concentration camp established in a secluded, wet, and wooded area near the small town of Sztutowo 34 km (21 mi) east of the city of Danzig in the former territory of the Free City of Danzig. The camp was set up around existing structures after the invasion of Poland in World War II, used for the imprisonment of Polish leaders and intelligentsia. The actual barracks were built the following year by hundreds of prisoners.
