Gryfice (pronounced ; Kashubian: ''Grëfice''; formerly german: Greifenberg)". 1880. is a historic town in

Pomerania Pomerania ( pl, Pomorze; german: Pommern; Kashubian: ''Pòmòrskô''; sv, Pommern) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The western part of Pomerania belongs to ...

, north-western

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

, with 16,600 inhabitants (2017). It is the capital of

Gryfice County __NOTOC__ Gryfice County ( pl, powiat gryficki) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in West Pomeranian Voivodeship, north-western Poland, on the Baltic coast. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of ...

West Pomeranian Voivodeship The West Pomeranian Voivodeship, also known as the West Pomerania Province, is a voivodeship (province) in northwestern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Szczecin. Its area equals 22 892.48 km² (8,838.84 sq mi), and in 2021, it was i ...

(since 1999), previously in

Szczecin Voivodeship Szczecin Voivodeship may also refer to: * Szczecin Voivodeship (1946–1975) *Szczecin Voivodeship (1975–1998) *West Pomeranian Voivodeship, with the capital in Szczecin Szczecin (, , german: Stettin ; sv, Stettin ; Latin: ''Sedinum'' or ...

(1975–1998). The town is situated approximately 22 kilometres from the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

coast and seaside resorts.

History

Middle Ages

The region was part of Poland during the reign of the first Polish rulers

Mieszko I Mieszko I (; – 25 May 992) was the first ruler of Poland and the founder of the first independent Polish state, the Duchy of Poland. His reign stretched from 960 to his death and he was a member of the Piast dynasty, a son of Siemomysł and ...

and

Bolesław I the Brave Bolesław I the Brave ; cs, Boleslav Chrabrý; la, Boleslaus I rex Poloniae (17 June 1025), less often known as Bolesław the Great, was Duke of Poland from 992 to 1025, and the first King of Poland in 1025. He was also Duke of Bohemia betw ...

. The Battle of Niekładź took place in the area of Gryfice in 1121, in which Polish ruler

Bolesław III Wrymouth Bolesław III Wrymouth ( pl, Bolesław III Krzywousty; 20 August 1086 – 28 October 1138), also known as Boleslaus the Wry-mouthed, was the duke of Lesser Poland, Silesia and Sandomierz between 1102 and 1107 and over the whole of Poland between ...

defeated

Wartislaw I, Duke of Pomerania Wartislaw I (''Warcisław I'') (around 1092 – August 9, 1135) was the first historical ruler of the Duchy of Pomerania and the founder of the Griffin dynasty. Most of the information about him comes from the writings on the life of Otto of Ba ...

and Swantopolk I, Duke of Pomerania. The area was part of the

Duchy of Pomerania The Duchy of Pomerania (german: Herzogtum Pommern; pl, Księstwo Pomorskie; Latin: ''Ducatus Pomeraniae'') was a duchy in Pomerania on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, ruled by dukes of the House of Pomerania (''Griffins''). The country ha ...

, a vassal state of

, which later on separated itself from Poland as a result of the

fragmentation of Poland The period of rule by the Piast dynasty between the 10th and 14th centuries is the first major stage of the history of the Polish state. The dynasty was founded by a series of dukes listed by the chronicler Gall Anonymous in the early 12th cen ...

. In 1262

Wartislaw III, Duke of Pomerania Wartislaw III (c. 1210 – 17 May 1264) was a Griffin duke of Pomerania-Demmin. Son of Casimir II of Pomerania-Demmin and Ingardis of Denmark, he was married to a Sophia of an unknown house. As he did not have any children, Pomerania-Demmin cease ...

founded a town under

Lübeck law The Lübeck law (german: Lübisches (Stadt)Recht) was the family of codified municipal law developed at Lübeck, which became a free imperial city in 1226 and is located in present day Schleswig-Holstein. It was the second most prevalent form of ...

on the

Rega The Rega is a river in north-western Poland, flowing into the Baltic Sea. It is the country's 24th longest river, with a total length of 188 km and a catchment area of 2,767 km2.German settlers. After his death, his successor,

Barnim I, Duke of Pomerania Barnim I the Good ( – 13 November 1278) from the Griffin dynasty was a Duke of Pomerania (''ducis Slauorum et Cassubie'') from 1220 until his death. Life Son of Duke Bogislaw II and Miroslava of Pomerelia, he succeeded to the Duchy of Pomeran ...

, named the settlement ''Civitat Griphemberch super Regam'' (

Middle High German Middle High German (MHG; german: Mittelhochdeutsch (Mhd.)) is the term for the form of German spoken in the High Middle Ages. It is conventionally dated between 1050 and 1350, developing from Old High German and into Early New High German. High ...

'Griphemberch' meaning Griffin's mountain) after the coat of arms symbol of the

Dukes of Pomerania This is a list of the duchies and dukes of Pomerania. Dukes of the Slavic Pomeranian tribes (All Pomerania) The lands of Pomerania were firstly ruled by local tribes, who settled in Pomerania around the 10th and 11th centuries. Non-dynastic ...

. In 1365 the town entered the

Hanseatic League The Hanseatic League (; gml, Hanse, , ; german: label=Modern German, Deutsche Hanse) was a medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Central and Northern Europe. Growing from a few North German to ...

and prospered due to the right of free navigation on the Rega. A town wall was built and at the end of the 13th century the construction of the St. Mary's church was begun. In a document of 1386 a Latin school is mentioned, which is generally called the oldest in Pomerania.

Modern era

In the 16th century, the local Germans pursued a policy of

Germanisation Germanisation, or Germanization, is the spread of the German language, German people, people and German culture, culture. It was a central idea of German conservative thought in the 19th and the 20th centuries, when conservatism and ethnic nationa ...

towards the indigenous population, which, however, did not bring results quickly. At that time, some of the indigenous peasants fled to

, while Scottish immigrants settled in the town. As a result of the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (80 ...

, the population of the town decreased dramatically. The town was occupied by the

Imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * Imperial, Texa ...

and

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

armies. After the death of the last Pomeranian Duke and by the

Treaty of Westphalia The Peace of Westphalia (german: Westfälischer Friede, ) is the collective name for two peace treaties signed in October 1648 in the Westphalian cities of Osnabrück and Münster. They ended the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) and brought peac ...

Greifenberg became part of

Brandenburg-Prussia Brandenburg-Prussia (german: Brandenburg-Preußen; ) is the historiographic denomination for the early modern realm of the Brandenburgian Hohenzollerns between 1618 and 1701. Based in the Electorate of Brandenburg, the main branch of the Hohenz ...

in 1648 and part of

Imperial Germany The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

in 1871. In 1818 the town became the capital of the Greifenberg district (Kreis Greifenberg). Panorama Gryfic (1940)

In 1894 the town was connected to the railway line Dąbie (Altdamm) - Kołobrzeg (Kolberg). On July 1, 1896 the Greifenberger Kleinbahn was opened, a narrow-gauge railway today used as a railway Museum. In 1933 a Polish association of agricultural workers was established in Gryfice. Local

Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in Ce ...

and

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

were subjected to increased repressions, after the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

came to power in Germany in 1933. After the German

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...

, forced labourers from Poland were brought to the town.K. Golczewski, ''Miasto Gryfice i powiat na przełomie lat 1944-1945'', p. 60-61 (in Polish) At the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, on March 5, 1945, the Soviet

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

conquered the town, and on March 8, Poles entered the town. Approximately 40 percent of the town was destroyed, however many historical monuments stayed intact or were reconstructed. Following the post-war boundary changes, the town became part of Poland. Initially called ''Zagórze'', it was eventually given the Polish name ''Gryfice''. The Germans who did not escape during the battle with the Soviets, were expelled and the town was populated with

, some of them expellees themselves from

Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union Seventeen days after the German invasion of Poland in 1939, which marked the beginning of the Second World War, the Soviet Union entered the eastern regions of Poland (known as the ''Kresy'') and annexed territories totalling with a population o ...

. The post-war administration of Gryfice was created with the participation of the just freed Polish forced labourers.

After the war, the life of the town was being rebuilt. In 1945, the first post-war schools, a hospital and a cinema were opened and the following year a mill, a

gasworks A gasworks or gas house is an industrial plant for the production of flammable gas. Many of these have been made redundant in the developed world by the use of natural gas, though they are still used for storage space. Early gasworks Coal ...

and a

marmalade Marmalade is a fruit preserve made from the juice and peel of citrus fruits boiled with sugar and water. The well-known version is made from bitter orange. It is also made from lemons, limes, grapefruits, mandarins, sweet oranges, bergamo ...

factory were opened. In 1948 a

sugar factory A sugar refinery is a refinery which processes raw sugar from cane or beets into white refined sugar. Many cane sugar mills produce raw sugar, which is sugar that still contains molasses, giving it more colour (and impurities) than the white ...

was established, which already in 1951 was one of the leading sugar factories in Poland. Gryfice deptak ruta

Gryfice local court new part facade 2010-10

Demographics

Between its foundation and 1945, Greifenberg was predominantly inhabited by German-speaking people. By the 18th century, almost all inhabitants where Lutheran Protestants, with small Jewish and Catholic minorities. With the expropriation and expulsion of the German inhabitants at the end of World War II and the occupation of the vacated buildings by Polish settlers, the majority of its population has been composed of

Roman Catholics The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. ImageSize = width:530 height:220 PlotArea = left:70 right:40 top:20 bottom:20 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify Colors = id:gray1 value:gray(0.9) DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:0 till:18100 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:2000 start:0 gridcolor:gray1 PlotData = bar:1939 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:10817 width:15 text:10,8 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:1946 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:4898 width:15 text:4,9 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:1950 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:8737 width:15 text:8,7 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:1955 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:10320 width:15 text:10,3 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:1960 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:11548 width:15 text:11,6 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:1965 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:12290 width:15 text:12,3 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:1970 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:13175 width:15 text:13,2 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:1975 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:13939 width:15 text:13,9 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:1980 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:15239 width:15 text:15,3 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:1985 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:16523 width:15 text:16,5 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:1990 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:17593 width:15 text:17,6 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:1995 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:18078 width:15 text:18,1 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:2000 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:17244 width:15 text:17,3 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:2005 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:16850 width:15 text:16,9 textcolor:red fontsize:8px

Notable residents

David Christiani David Christiani (25 December 1610 – 13 February 1688) was a German mathematician, philosopher and Lutheran theologian. He became an ordinary professor of mathematics at the University of Marburg in 1643, ordinary professor of theology at the ...

(1610–1688), a German mathematician, philosopher and Lutheran theologian *

Karl Wilhelm Gottlob Kastner Karl Wilhelm Gottlob Kastner (31 October 1783 – 13 July 1857) was a German chemist, natural scientist and a professor of physics and chemistry. Biography Kastner received his doctorate in 1805 under the guidance of Johann Göttling and began l ...

, (1783–1857) a German chemist, natural scientist and a professor of physics and chemistry * Gustav von Struensee (1803–1875) a German writer. *

Herman Schatz Herman Schatz, Sr. (December 26, 1843 – June 28, 1906) was an American politician and blacksmith. Born in Greifenberg, Kingdom of Bavaria, Schatz emigrated with his parents to the United States in 1851. Schatz lived in Watertown, Wisconsin, ...

(1843–1906) an American politician and blacksmith emigrated to the US in 1851 * Friedrich Heinrich Albert Wangerin (1844–1933) a German mathematician. * Richard C. H. Lenski (1864−1936), Lutheran scholar, emigrated to the US in 1872 * Conrad Pochhammer (1873–1932) a German physician and surgeon * Rita von Gaudecker (1879–1968) a German author of books for children and young people *

Moritz Seeler Moriz Seeler (1 March 1896 – ''after'' 15 August 1942) was a German poet, writer, film producer, and man of the theatre. He was murdered in the Holocaust. Early life Seeler was born in the small, provincial town of Greifenberg in Pomerania, Ge ...

(1896–1942) a German poet, writer, film producer and victim of the Holocaust. * Ehrengard Schramm (1900–1985) a German politician and writer * Krzysztof Linkowski (born 1949) a retired Polish runner who specialized in the 800 metres *

Bartosz Nowicki Bartosz Nowicki (born 26 February 1984 in Gryfice Gryfice (pronounced ; Kashubian: ''Grëfice''; formerly german: Greifenberg)". 1880. is a historic town in Pomerania, north-western Poland, with 16,600 inhabitants (2017). It is the capital of ...

(born 1984) a Polish middle distance runner. *

Grzegorz Krychowiak Grzegorz Krychowiak (; born 29 January 1990) is a Polish professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Saudi Arabian club Al-Shabab, on loan from Krasnodar, and the Poland national team. Beginning his senior career in France ...

(born 1990) a Polish professional football player.

International relations

Twin towns — Sister cities

Gryfice is twinned with: *

Güstrow Güstrow (; la, Gustrovium) is a town in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is capital of the Rostock district; Rostock itself is a district-free city and regiopolis. It has a population of 28,999 (2020) and is the seventh largest town in Me ...

, Germany *

Meldorf Meldorf (Holsatian: ''Meldörp'' or ''Möldörp'') is a town in western Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, that straddles the river Miele in the district of Dithmarschen. Overview Meldorf was first mentioned in writing before 1250 AD. In 1265 it rece ...

, Germany *

Gryfów Śląski Gryfów Śląski (), simplified to Gryfów (german: Greiffenberg), is a historic town in Lwówek Śląski County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. It is the seat of the administrative district (gmina) called Gmina Gryfów Śl� ...

, Poland

Notes

Literature

* Gustav Kratz: ''Die Städte der Provinz Pommern - Abriß ihrer Geschichte, zumeist nach Urkunden''. Berlin 1865 (reprinted in 1996 by Sändig Reprint Verlag, Vaduz/Liechtenstein, ; reprinted in 2011 by

Kessinger Publishing Kessinger Publishing LLC is an American print-on-demand Print on demand (POD) is a printing technology and business process in which book copies (or other documents, packaging or materials) are not printed until the company receives an orde ...

, U.S.A., ), pp. 32–38
online
.

External links

Official website

Jewish Community in Gryfice
on Virtual Shtetl {{Authority control Cities and towns in West Pomeranian Voivodeship Gryfice County