Kreis Birnbaum ( pl, Powiat międzychodzki) was a district in Prussia (''Kreis'') in the west of the

Grand Duchy of Posen The Grand Duchy of Posen (german: Großherzogtum Posen; pl, Wielkie Księstwo Poznańskie) was part of the Kingdom of Prussia, created from territories annexed by Prussia after the Partitions of Poland, and formally established following the ...

and the succeeding

Province of Posen The Province of Posen (german: Provinz Posen, pl, Prowincja Poznańska) was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1848 to 1920. Posen was established in 1848 following the Greater Poland Uprising as a successor to the Grand Duchy of Posen, w ...

, as part of ''

Regierungsbezirk A ' () means "governmental district" and is a type of administrative division in Germany. Four of sixteen ' ( states of Germany) are split into '. Beneath these are rural and urban districts. Saxony has ' (directorate districts) with more res ...

'' Posen between 1815 and 1920. Today the area belongs to the

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

voivodeships of

Greater Poland Greater Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska (; german: Großpolen, sv, Storpolen, la, Polonia Maior), is a Polish historical regions, historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief and largest city is Poznań followed ...

and

Lubusz Lebus ( pl, Lubusz) is a historic town in the Märkisch-Oderland District of Brandenburg, Germany. It is the administrative seat of ''Amt'' ("collective municipality") Lebus. The town, located on the west bank of the Oder river at the border with ...

History

The lands around the Greater Polish town of

Międzychód Międzychód (, german: Birnbaum) is a town in Greater Poland Voivodeship, Poland, the administrative seat of Międzychód County. It is located on the southern shore of the Warta river, about west of Poznań. Population is 10,915 (2009). His ...

had been part of the

Poznań Voivodeship Poznań Voivodeship was the name of several former administrative regions (''województwo'', rendered as ''voivodeship'' and usually translated as "province") in Poland, centered on the city of Poznań, although the exact boundaries changed over t ...

since the 14th century, they were annexed by the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Re ...

during the

Second Partition of Poland The 1793 Second Partition of Poland was the second of three partitions (or partial annexations) that ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. The second partition occurred in the aftermath of the Polish–Russian War ...

in 1793. Part of Napoleon's titular

Duchy of Warsaw The Duchy of Warsaw ( pl, Księstwo Warszawskie, french: Duché de Varsovie, german: Herzogtum Warschau), also known as the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and Napoleonic Poland, was a French client state established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807, during ...

from 1807, it was returned to Prussia at the 1815

Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon B ...

. The district's borders were finally determined by resolution of 1818. The administrative seat from 1833 was at Zirke, from 1867 in Birnbaum itself. Along with the Province of Posen, ''Kreis Birnbaum'' became part of the

German Empire 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. With effect of 1 October 1887, its westernmost part, including Schwerin an der Warthe and Blesen was separated as ''

Kreis Schwerin an der Warthe Kreis Schwerin an der Warthe ( pl, Powiat skwierzyński) was a district in Prussia, first in the southern administrative Region of Posen within the Prussian Province of Posen (until 1920), then within the Province of the Frontier March of Posen- ...

''. In the aftermath of the German collapse on the Western Front in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...

awarded most of the province, including ''Kreis Birnbaum'', to the new state of Poland. The handover was executed by between 17 January and 4 February 1920.

Demographics

Before the bifurcation of the district in 1887, it had a German majority population. According to the Prussian census of 1860, it had a population of 45,425, of which 34,608 (76.2%) were

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

and 10,817 (23.8%) were

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 ...

. The district population, after the separation of the predominantly German Kreis Schwerin was almost evenly split among

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

and

Police districts

In 1833 the office of a ''

Wójt Wójt is a Polish senior civil administrative officer and the highest representative of the government of a ''rural gmina'', i.e., of a commune (''gmina'') comprising only villages. (Heads of towns and cities are called "burgomaster" (Polish: ''bur ...

'' (''Vogt'', reeve) was established in the districts of the predominantly

-settled Grand Duchy of Posen, a voluntary administrator who often was a member of the local nobility. However, in the course of the Prussian

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 ...

policies under Governor

Eduard Heinrich von Flottwell Eduard Heinrich Flottwell (23 July 1786 – 28 May 1865; after 1861 von Flottwell) was a Prussian '' Staatsminister''. He served as ''Oberpräsident'' (governor) of the Grand Duchy of Posen (from 1830) and of the Saxony (from 1841), Westphalia ...

, they were replaced by Prussian commissioners. In 1905, the municipalities in ''Kreis Birnbaum'' were governed within three police districts (''Polizeidistrikte''): * Birnbaum * Orzeschkowo * Zirke The administrative seats of Birnbaum and Zirke themselves were not incorporated.

Court system

The district court (''Landgericht'') was in Meseritz, with the lower court (german: Amtsgericht) in Birnbaum.

Civil registry offices

In 1905, these

civil registry Civil registration is the system by which a government records the vital events (births, marriages, and deaths) of its citizens and residents. The resulting repository or database has different names in different countries and even in differen ...

offices (Standesämter'') served the following towns in ''Kreis Birnbaum'': * Birnbaum * Kurnatowitze * Lubosch * Milostowo * Orzeschkowo * Zirke * Groß Chrzypsko * Radusch

Catholic churches

In 1905, these Catholic parish churches served towns in ''Kreis Birnbaum'': * Birnbaum * Biezdrowo * Groß Chrzypsko * Groß Luttom * Kähme * Kwiltsch * Lubosch * Psarskie * Zirke * Polikinpe * Iliktrans * Ritardinka

Protestant churches

In 1905, Protestant parish churches served towns in ''Kreis Birnbaum'': * Altsorge * Birnbaum * Groß Chrzypsko * Hauland * Lewitz * Milostowo * Neuthal * Orzeschkowo * Radusch *

Pinne Pniewy (german: Pinne) is a town in Szamotuły County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, Poland, with 7,747 inhabitants as of 2020 including 6 270 women and 5969 meThere is a lake and a beach with access to a playground, stage and a softball pitch. ...

* Zirke

References

*http://www.geschichte-on-demand.de/pos_birnbaum.html
Gemeindeverzeichnis des Kreises Birnbaum 1910
{{Coord missing, Germany Birnbaum