Kreis Meseritz (''Landkreis Meseritz'' from 1939; pl, Powiat międzyrzecki) was a district in Prussia, first in the southern administrative Region of Posen within 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 ...

(till 1848), then the

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 ...

(till 1920), then within the Province of Posen-West Prussia (till 1938) and at last as part of the administrative Region of Frankfurt within the

Province of Brandenburg The Province of Brandenburg (german: Provinz Brandenburg) was a province of Prussia from 1815 to 1945. Brandenburg was established in 1815 from the Kingdom of Prussia's core territory, comprised the bulk of the historic Margraviate of Brandenburg ...

(till 1945). Its former territory presently lies in the eastern part of the

Lubusz Voivodeship Lubusz Voivodeship, or Lubuskie Province ( pl, województwo lubuskie ), is a voivodeship (province) in western Poland. It was created on January 1, 1999, out of the former Gorzów Wielkopolski and Zielona Góra Voivodeships, pursuant to the Po ...

, a region of

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 ...

, roughly resembling the extent of the present

Międzyrzecz County __NOTOC__ Międzyrzecz County ( pl, Powiat międzyrzecki) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Lubusz Voivodeship, western Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government ...

History

When the area later forming the territory of the Kreis Meseritz was first annexed to

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

from 1793 to 1807 it formed the ''Meseritzer Kreis'' (Meseritz district) within the Province of South Prussia, then governed by the ''Departement der Kriegs- und Domänen-Kammer zu Posen'' (Department of the chamber of war and domains at Posen). After being part of the

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 ...

, the area returned to Prussia as a result of the

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 Kreis Meseritz came into existence on 1 January 1818 after separation from

Kreis Birnbaum Kreis Birnbaum ( pl, Powiat międzychodzki) was a district in Prussia (''Kreis'') in the west of the Grand Duchy of Posen and the succeeding Province of Posen, as part of ''Regierungsbezirk'' Posen between 1815 and 1920. Today the area belongs ...

. In 1837 it measured 21.78 Prussian square miles (). It consisted mostly of the rural territories around the town of Meseritz. It became part of the

North German Confederation The North German Confederation (german: Norddeutscher Bund) was initially a German military alliance established in August 1866 under the leadership of the Kingdom of Prussia, which was transformed in the subsequent year into a confederated st ...

in 1867 and 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 ...

when it was founded in 1871. After

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 administration had to be reorganized because the Region of Posen was split. Thus the eastern part of the district was handed over to Poland in 1920, according to the

Versailles treaty 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 ...

. In 1920, the remaining district, measuring , joined the newly founded

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 ...

Schneidemühl, which became part of the Province of the Frontier March of Posen-West Prussia, established in 1922. Together with

Kreis Bomst The district of Bomst was a Prussian district which existed from 1793 to 1807 in the province of South Prussia and from 1815 to 1938 successively in the Grand Duchy of Posen, the Province of Posen and the Frontier March of Posen-West Prussia. The ...

and Kreis Schwerin the Kreis Meseritz formed a western territorial

exclave An enclave is a territory (or a small territory apart of a larger one) that is entirely surrounded by the territory of one other state or entity. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is sometimes used improperly to deno ...

of Posen-West Prussia. When that province was dissolved in 1938, the bulk of its territory, anyway neighboring

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 ...

, was merged into that province, whereas its western exclave including Meseritz became part of Brandenburg. In 1945, the ''Landkreis Meseritz'' was occupied by the

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 ...

and was integrated into

Demographics

The district had a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

majority population, with a significant

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 ...

minority. After 1920, with the loss of the eastern part of the district to

, the remainder of the district in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

had a Polish minority of 5.8% (including bilinguals), according to the 1925 census.

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 (german: Standesamt) served the following towns in ''Kreis Meseritz'': * Altvorwerk * Bauchwitz * Bentschen * Betsche * Brätz * Friedenhorst * Kurzig * Kranz * Lowin * Meseritz * Rogsen * Tirschtiegel * Paradies * Weißensee

References

Districts of Prussia Former subdivisions of Brandenburg Districts of the Province of Posen 1818 establishments in Prussia 1945 disestablishments in Germany {{Germany-hist-stub