Biały Bór (; formerly german: Baldenburg) is a town in

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

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 ...

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 populou ...

, with 2,226 inhabitants as of December 2021.

History

Kościółek centrum miasteczka - panoramio

The settlement was founded in the 13th century. It was part of

, until the Teutonic invasion in the early 14th century. Located at a formerly important crossroad, the

Teutonic Knights The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians o ...

built a fortification here, and in 1382 the settlement received Kulm law

town rights Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the tradition ...

. The town's development was stopped by a large fire in 1408. No traces remain of the castle, but remnants of the medieval

city wall A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications with towers, bastions and gates ...

have been incorporated in some later houses. During the Thirteen Years' War it was recaptured by the Poles in 1461, and it was confirmed as part of

in 1466. Since then it was part of the

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. Th ...

until the First Partition of Poland in 1772, when it was annexed by

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 e ...

, and subsequently from 1871 it was part of

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 betwee ...

. Up until the 20th century, the town economy consisted mostly of fishing, agriculture, crafts and local trade. It was the centre of a cloth manufacturing industry from the 16th century until the 19th century, when it had to close due to competition from more modern industries. A railway connection to the town was established in 1878. While most of

Gdańsk Pomerania Gdańsk Pomerania ( pl, Pomorze Gdańskie), csb, Gduńsczim Pòmòrzã, german: Danziger Pommern) is a geographical region within Pomerelia in northern and northwestern Poland, covering the bulk of Pomeranian Voivodeship. It forms a part and ...

was reintegrated with Poland after the country regained independence in 1918, the town was one of the few which remained within Germany and was included in the newly established province, provocatively named towards Poles the Frontier March of Posen-West Prussia. In 1939, the town had 2,292 inhabitants. The town had a Jewish community and a small synagogue prior to

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

and the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

. The town was reintegrated with Poland in 1945. From 1950 to 1998, the town belonged to the Koszalin Voivodeship.

Transport

There is a railway station in Biały Bór.

Notable residents

Georg Ludwig Rudolf Maercker Georg Ludwig Rudolf Maercker (21 September 1865 in Baldenburg – 31 December 1924 in Dresden) was a German general of World War I. Following the Armistice of 1918 that saw the end of fighting and of the Bolshevik revolution that led to the cr ...

(1865-1924), World War I general *

Karl Ruß Karl Friedrich Otto Ruß (January 14, 1833, Baldenburg – September 29, 1899, Berlin) was a Prussian pharmacist, aviculturist, author of bird-keeping books, and the founding editor of the world's first bird-fancier magazine ''Die Gefiederte Welt ...

(1833-1899), ornithologistPopular Science Monthly Volume 39 September 1891, Take Care of the Birds! by Karl Russ
retrieved 26 October 2018

References

External links

Official website

Jewish Community of Biały Bór
on

Virtual Shtetl The Virtual Shtetl ( pl, Wirtualny Sztetl) is a bilingual Polish-English portal of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, devoted to the Jewish history of Poland. History The Virtual Shtetl website was officially launched on June ...

Cities and towns in West Pomeranian Voivodeship Szczecinek County Kulm law {{Szczecinek-geo-stub