The Neustadt district was a
Prussian district that existed from 1818 to 1920. It was in the part of
West Prussia that fell to
Poland after
World War I through the
Treaty of Versailles. From 1939 to 1945 the district was re-established in occupied Poland as part of the
Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia. Today the area of the former district is in the
Polish Pomeranian Voivodeship
Pomeranian Voivodeship, Pomorskie Region, or Pomerania Province (Polish: ''Województwo pomorskie'' ; ( Kashubian: ''Pòmòrsczé wòjewództwò'' ), is a voivodeship, or province, in northwestern Poland. The provincial capital is Gdańsk.
The ...
.
History
With the
First Partition of Poland, the district became part of the
Kingdom of Prussia in 1772 and initially belonged to the
Dirschau district in the province of
West Prussia. In the course of the
Prussian administrative reforms, on April 30, 1815, the area became part of the
Danzig administrative region in the province of
West Prussia. As part of a comprehensive district reform in the Danzig region, the new ''district of Neustadt was'' formed on April 1, 1818 from the northern part of the Dirschau district. It included the urban centers of
Neustadt,
Hela and
Putzig
Puck ( csb, Pùckò, Pùck, Pëck, formerly german: Putzig) is a town in northern Poland with 11,350 inhabitants. It is in Gdańsk Pomerania on the south coast of the Baltic Sea (Bay of Puck) and part of Kashubia with many Kashubian speakers in ...
. The district office was established in
Neustadt.
From December 3, 1829 to April 1, 1878,
West Prussia and
East Prussia
East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label=Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 187 ...
were united to form the
Province of Prussia, which had belonged to the
German Reich since January 1871. Due to the continuous growth of the population in the 19th century, some districts in West Prussia turned out to be too large and a downsizing appeared to be necessary. On October 1, 1887, the new Putzig district with the district office in the town of
Putzig
Puck ( csb, Pùckò, Pùck, Pëck, formerly german: Putzig) is a town in northern Poland with 11,350 inhabitants. It is in Gdańsk Pomerania on the south coast of the Baltic Sea (Bay of Puck) and part of Kashubia with many Kashubian speakers in ...
was formed from the northern part of the Neustadt district. The rural community of
Zoppot received the town charter on April 1, 1902.
After
World War I, due to the provisions of the
Versailles Treaty, almost the entire Neustadt district had to be ceded by the German Reich on January 10, 1920. Most of the district was assigned to
Poland. The city of Zoppot became part of the
Free City of Danzig
The Free City of Danzig (german: Freie Stadt Danzig; pl, Wolne Miasto Gdańsk; csb, Wòlny Gard Gduńsk) was a city-state under the protection of the League of Nations between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gda ...
. A strip of territory west of
Lake Żarnowiec with the municipality of Kniewenbruch remained in
Germany and became part of the Lauenburg district in the
Province of Pomerania.
In the
Second Polish Republic
The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...
, the city of Neustadt was renamed ''Wejherowo'', after its founder
Jakub Wejher. As a result of emigration, the
German population in the area shrank considerably after 1920.
Demographics
Elections
In 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 ...
, the districts of Neustadt,
Karthaus and Putzig formed the
Reichstag constituency of ''Danzig 4''. This constituency was won by candidates from the
Polish Party in all elections between
1871
Events January–March
* January 3 – Franco-Prussian War – Battle of Bapaume: Prussians win a strategic victory.
* January 18 – Proclamation of the German Empire: The member states of the North German Confederation and the sout ...
and
1912
Events January
* January 1 – The Republic of China (1912–49), Republic of China is established.
* January 5 – The Prague Conference (6th All-Russian Conference of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party) opens.
* January 6 ...
.
Municipalities
In 1910, the Neustadt district comprised two cities and 55 rural communities:
The city of
Zoppot became part of the
Free City of Danzig
The Free City of Danzig (german: Freie Stadt Danzig; pl, Wolne Miasto Gdańsk; csb, Wòlny Gard Gduńsk) was a city-state under the protection of the League of Nations between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gda ...
in 1920 and the municipality of Kniewenbruch remained in Germany. All other municipalities were transferred to Poland in 1920.
Landkreis Neustadt in occupied Poland (1939–1945)
History
After the
invasion of Poland by
Nazi Germany, the territories of the former districts of Neustadt and Putzig were annexed and added to the newly formed Reichsgau West Prussia, later renamed
Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia.
In the spring of 1945, the district was occupied by the
Red Army and was restored to Poland.
Germans who settled in the district during the occupation, as well as native members of the
German minority in Poland either
fled or were expelled.
Place names
In some cases, place names were considered "not German" enough and were given a phonetic alignment, were translated or replaced by newly created names, for example:
* Bojahn: Blücherode
* Ceynowa: Ziegenhagen
* Darslub: Buchheide
* Gohra: first Bergen, then Rhedaberg
* Goschin: Kaiserhof
* Kolletzkau: Kollendorf
* Polzin: Konradswiese
* Quaschin: Quassendorf
* Slawoschin: first Wittenbrock, then Wittenbrook
Notable people
*
Florian Ceynowa (1817–1881),
Kashubian Kashubian can refer to:
* Pertaining to Kashubia, a region of north-central Poland
* Kashubians, an ethnic group of north-central Poland
* Kashubian language
See also
*Kashubian alphabet
The Kashubian or Cassubian alphabet (''kaszëbsczi alf ...
activist, born in 1817 in Slawoschin, Neustadt district
*
Stanisław Maroński (1825–1907), grammar school teacher in Neustadt, published works on the subject of Polish history
References
{{coord missing
Neustadt district
Neustadt WestPrussia
Neustadt Westprussia district
Wejherowo County