Sterławki Wielkie is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

in the administrative district of

Gmina Ryn __NOTOC__ Gmina Ryn is an urban-rural gmina (administrative district) in Giżycko County, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. Its seat is the town of Ryn, which lies approximately south-west of Giżycko and east of the regional ...

, within

Giżycko County __NOTOC__ Giżycko County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, northern Poland. It came into being on 1 January 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms of 1998. ...

, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, in northeastern Poland. It lies approximately 10 km (6 mi.) north of

Ryn Ryn () is a town in northeastern Poland located southwest of Giżycko, in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, in Masuria. It had a population of 3,062 inhabitants as of December 31, 2004. Ryn is located between and . Among the notable landmarks ...

, 12 km (7 mi.) west of

Giżycko Giżycko (former or ''Łuczany''; ) is a town in northeastern Poland with 28,597 inhabitants as of December 2021. It is situated between Lake Kisajno and Lake Niegocin in the region of Masuria, within the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship. It is ...

and 76 km (47 mi.) east of the regional capital,

Olsztyn Olsztyn ( , ) is a city on the Łyna River in northern Poland. It is the capital of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, and is a city with powiat rights, city with county rights. The population of the city was estimated at 169,793 residents Olsz ...

History

Groß Stürlack was founded in 1387 by the

Teutonic Knights The Teutonic Order is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem was formed to aid Christians on their pilgrimages to t ...

(German Order). The town was burned down during an invasion of East Prussia by the

Crimean Tatars Crimean Tatars (), or simply Crimeans (), are an Eastern European Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group and nation indigenous to Crimea. Their ethnogenesis lasted thousands of years in Crimea and the northern regions along the coast of the Blac ...

in 1656, but was recovered by the Germans in 1661. By 1811 Groß Stürlack was a village numbering 48 houses with a population of 411. In 1874 it became a German administrative town (''Amtsdorf'') belonging to the district of Lötzen (now

, Poland), which it remained until the border changes of 1945. In 1910, four years before the outbreak of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Groß Stürlack was home to 877 residents. After the war, on July 11, 1920, the

East Prussian plebiscite The East Prussian plebiscite (), also known as the Allenstein and Marienwerder plebiscite or Warmia, Masuria and Powiśle plebiscite (), was a plebiscite for the self-determination of the regions of southern Warmia (Ermland), Masuria (Mazury, Ma ...

, mandated by the

Versailles Treaty The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace of Versailles, exactl ...

, was held in the District of

Allenstein Olsztyn ( , ) is a city on the Łyna River in northern Poland. It is the capital of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, and is a city with county rights. The population of the city was estimated at 169,793 residents Olsztyn is the largest city ...

(now Olzstyn). District-wide results were 1,480 votes for Germany and 1 (one) vote for Poland. In Groß Stürlack, 700 votes were cast for remaining in Germany, none for joining Poland. Eight years later, the neighboring village of Adlig Stürlack (Polish: ''Sterławki Szlacheckie'') was annexed to Groß Stürlack, and by 1933 the town's population had risen to 941. After World War II, southern East Prussia was assigned to Poland under border changes promulgated at the Potsdam Conference in July–August 1945. The name Groß Stürlack was rendered in Polish as Sterławki Wielkie, remaining German residents were expelled, and Polish settlers eventually replaced them. Sterławki Wielkie has been part of the Polish Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship since 1988.

Notable residents

Rudolf Nadolny Rudolf Nadolny (12 July 1873 – 18 May 1953) was a military intelligence officer under German Foreign Office cover. During the First World War, he worked in a branch of the German General Staff that experimented in biological warfare. He was the ...

(1873-1953), German diplomat *

Heinz-Günter Wittmann Heinz-Günter Wittmann (16 January 1927 – 31 March 1990) was a German biochemist known for his research in ribosomes Ribosomes () are macromolecular machines, found within all cells, that perform biological protein synthesis (messenger ...

(1927–1990), German biochemist

References

{{Gmina Ryn Villages in Giżycko County