Gdańsk

Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic coast of northern Poland, and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. With a population of 486,492, Data for territorial unit 2261000. it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport. Gdańsk lies at the mouth of the Motława River and is situated at the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay, close to the city of Gdynia and the resort town of Sopot; these form a metropolitan area called the Tricity (''Trójmiasto''), with a population of approximately 1.5 million.

The city has a complex history, having had periods of Polish, German and self rule. An important shipbuilding and trade port since the Middle Ages, between 1361 and 1500 it was a member of the Hanseatic League, which influenced its economic, demographic and urban landscape. It also served as Poland's principal seaport and was its largest city since the 15th century until the early 18th century when Warsaw surpassed it. With the Partitions of Poland, the city was annexed by Prussia in 1793, and became a part of the German Empire in 1871. In 1807–1814 and 1920–1939 it was a free city. On 1 September 1939 it was the scene of a military clash at Westerplatte, one of the first which initiated World War II. In the 1980s, Gdańsk was the birthplace of the Polish Solidarity movement, which helped precipitate the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact.

Gdańsk is home to the University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk University of Technology, the National Museum, the Gdańsk Shakespeare Theatre, the Museum of the Second World War, the Polish Baltic Philharmonic, the Polish Space Agency and the European Solidarity Centre. Among Gdańsk's most notable historical landmarks are the Town Hall, the Green Gate, Artus Court, Neptune's Fountain, and St. Mary's Church, one of the largest brick churches in the world. The city is served by Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport, the country's third busiest airport and the most important international airport in northern Poland.

Gdańsk is among the most visited cities in Poland, having received 3.4 million tourists according to data collected in 2019. The city also hosts St. Dominic's Fair, which dates back to 1260, and is regarded as one of the biggest trade and cultural events in Europe. Gdańsk has also topped rankings for the quality of life, safety and living standards worldwide, and its historic city centre has been listed as one of Poland's national monuments.

Names

Origin

The name of the city was most likely derived from ''Gdania'', a river presently known as Motława on which the city is situated. Other linguists also argue that the name stems from the Proto-Slavic adjective/prefix ''gъd-'', which meant ' wet' or ' moist' with the addition of the morpheme '' ń''/''ni'' and the suffix ''-sk''.

History

The name of the settlement was recorded after St. Adalbert's death in 997 CE as ''urbs Gyddanyzc'' and it was later written as ''Kdanzk'' in 1148, ''Gdanzc'' in 1188, ''Danceke'' in 1228, ''Gdańsk'' in 1236, ''Danzc'' in 1263, ''Danczk'' in 1311, ''Danczik'' in 1399, ''Danczig'' in 1414, and ''Gdąnsk'' in 1656.

In Polish documents, the form Gdańsk was always used. The Germanised form ''Danzig'' developed later, simplifying the consonant clusters to something easier for German speakers to pronounce. The cluster "gd" became "d" (''Danzc'' from 1263), the combination "ns" became "nts" (''Danczk'' from 1311), and finally an epenthetical "i" broke up the final cluster (''Danczik'' from 1399).

In Polish, the modern name of the city is pronounced . In English (where the diacritic over the "n" is frequently omitted) the usual pronunciation is or . The Germanised name, ''Danzig'', is usually pronounced , or alternatively in more Southern German-speaking areas. The city's Latin name may be given as either ''Gedania'', ''Gedanum'', or ''Dantiscum''; the variety of Latin and German names typically reflects the difficulty of pronunciation of the original Polish city's name, all German- and Latin/Romance-speaking populations always encounter in trying to pronounce the difficult and complex Polish/ Lechitic words.

Ceremonial names

In the Kashubian language the city is called . On special occasions, the city is also referred to as "The Royal Polish City of Gdańsk" (; ; ). Although some Kashubians may also use the name "Our Capital City Gduńsk" () or "Our egionalCapital City Gduńsk" (), the cultural and historical connections between the city and the region of Kashubia are debatable and use of such names raises controversy among Kashubians.

History

Ancient history

The oldest evidence found for the existence of a settlement on the lands of what is now Gdańsk comes from the Bronze Age (which is estimated to be from 2500–1700 BC). The settlement that is now known as Gdańsk began in the 9th century, being mostly an agriculture and fishing-dependent village. In the beginning of the 10th century, it began becoming an important centre for trade (especially between the Pomeranians) until its annexation in 975 by Mieszko I.

Early Poland

The first written record thought to refer to Gdańsk is the ''vita'' of Saint Adalbert. Written in 999, it describes how in 997 Saint Adalbert of Prague baptised the inhabitants of ''urbs Gyddannyzc'', "which separated the great realm of the duke Bolesław the Brave of Poland">Bolesław_I_Chrobry.html" ;"title=".e., Bolesław I Chrobry">Bolesław the Brave of Polandfrom the sea."Loew, Peter Oliver: Danzig. Biographie einer Stadt, Munich 2011, p. 24. No further written sources exist for the 10th and 11th centuries. Based on the date in Adalbert's ''vita'', the city celebrated its millennial anniversary in 1997.Wazny, Tomasz; Paner, Henryk; Golebiewski, Andrzej; Koscinski, Bogdan: Early medieval Gdańsk/Danzig revisited (EuroDendro 2004), Rendsburg 2004
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Archaeological evidence for the origins of the town was retrieved mostly after World War II had laid 90percent of the city centre in ruins, enabling excavations.Loew (2011), p. 24; Wazny et al. (2004)
abstract
. The oldest seventeen settlement levels were dated to between 980 and 1308. Mieszko I of Poland erected a stronghold on the site in the 980s, thereby connecting the History of Poland (966–1385), Polish state ruled by the Piast dynasty with the trade routes of the Baltic Sea. Traces of buildings and housing from the 10th century have been found in archaeological excavations of the city.

Pomeranian Poland

The site was ruled as a duchy of Poland by the Samborides. It consisted of a settlement at the modern Long Market, settlements of craftsmen along the Old Ditch, German merchant settlements around St Nicholas' Church and the old Piast stronghold. In 1215, the ducal stronghold became the centre of a Pomerelian splinter duchy. At that time the area of the later city included various villages.

In 1224/25, merchants from Lübeck were invited as ''hospites'' (immigrants with specific privileges) but were soon (in 1238) forced to leave by Świętopełk II of the Samborides during a war between Świętopełk and the Teutonic Order, during which Lübeck supported the latter. Migration of merchants to the town resumed in 1257. Significant German influence did not reappear until the 14th century, after the takeover of the city by the Teutonic Order.

At latest in 1263 Pomerelian duke, Świętopełk II granted city rights under Lübeck law to the emerging market settlement. It was an autonomy charter similar to that of Lübeck, which was also the primary origin of many settlers. In a document of 1271 the Pomerelian duke Mestwin II addressed the Lübeck merchants settled in the city as his loyal citizens from Germany.

In 1300, the town had an estimated population of 2,000. While overall the town was far from an important trade centre at that time, it had some relevance in the trade with Eastern Europe. Low on funds, the Samborides lent the settlement to Brandenburg, although they planned to take the city back and give it to Poland. Poland threatened to intervene, and the Brandenburgians left the town. Subsequently, the city was taken by Danish princes in 1301.

Teutonic Order

In 1308, the town was taken by Brandenburg and the Teutonic Knights restored order. Subsequently, the Order took over control of the town. Primary sources record a massacre carried out by the Teutonic Order against the local population, of 10,000 people, but the exact number killed is subject of dispute in modern scholarship. Hartmut Boockmann, ''Ostpreußen und Westpreußen'', Siedler, 2002, p. 158, Multiple authors accept the number given in the original sources,James Minahan, One Europe, Many Nations: A Historical Dictionary of European National Groups, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000,
p. 376 Google Books
while others consider 10,000 to have been a medieval exaggeration, although scholarly consensus is that a massacre of some magnitude did take place. The events were used by the Polish crown to condemn the Teutonic Order in a subsequent papal lawsuit. Thomas Urban:
Rezydencja książąt Pomorskich
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The knights colonized the area, replacing local Kashubians and Poles with German settlers. In 1308, they founded ''Osiek Hakelwerk'' near the town, initially as a Lechitic fishing settlement. In 1340, the Teutonic Order constructed a large fortress, which became the seat of the knights' Komtur. In 1346 they changed the Town Law of the city, which then consisted only of the '' Rechtstadt'', to Kulm law. In 1358, Danzig joined the Hanseatic League, and became an active member in 1361. It maintained relations with the trade centres Bruges, Novgorod, Lisboa, and Sevilla. Around 1377, the Old Town was equipped with city rights as well. In 1380, the ''New Town'' was founded as the third, independent settlement.

After a series of Polish-Teutonic Wars, in the Treaty of Kalisz (1343) the Order had to acknowledge that it would hold Pomerelia as a fief from the Polish Crown. Although it left the legal basis of the Order's possession of the province in some doubt, the city thrived as a result of increased exports of grain (especially wheat), timber, potash, tar, and other goods of forestry from Prussia and Poland via the Vistula River trading routes, although after its capture, the Teutonic Order tried to actively reduce the economic significance of the town. While under the control of the Teutonic Order German migration increased. The Order's religious networks helped to develop Danzig's literary culture. A new war broke out in 1409, culminating in the Battle of Grunwald (1410), and the city came under the control of the Kingdom of Poland. A year later, with the First Peace of Thorn, it returned to the Teutonic Order.

Kingdom of Poland

In 1440, the city participated in the foundation of the Prussian Confederation which was an organisation opposed to the rule of the Teutonic Order. The organisation in its complaint of 1453 mentioned repeated cases in which the Teutonic Order imprisoned or murdered local patricians and mayors without a court verdict. On the request of the organisation King Casimir IV of Poland reincorporated the territory to the Kingdom of Poland in 1454. This led to the Thirteen Years' War between Poland and the State of the Teutonic Order (1454–1466). Since 1454, the city was authorized by the King to mint Polish coins. The local mayor pledged allegiance to the King during the incorporation in March 1454 in Kraków, and the city again solemnly pledged allegiance to the King in June 1454 in Elbląg, recognizing the prior Teutonic annexation and rule as unlawful. On 25 May 1457 the city gained its rights as an autonomous city.

On 15 May 1457, Casimir IV of Poland granted the town the Great Privilege, after he had been invited by the town's council and had already stayed in town for five weeks. With the Great Privilege, the town was granted full autonomy and protection by the King of Poland.: "Geben wir und verlehen unnsir Stadt Danczk das sie zcu ewigen geczeiten nymands for eynem herrn halden noc gehorsam zcu weszen seyn sullen in weltlichen sachen." The privilege removed tariffs and taxes on trade within Poland, Lithuania, and Ruthenia (present day Belarus and Ukraine), and conferred on the town independent jurisdiction, legislation and administration of her territory, as well as the right to mint her own coin. Furthermore, the privilege united Old Town, Osiek, and Main Town, and legalised the demolition of New Town, which had sided with the Teutonic Order. By 1457, New Town was demolished completely, no buildings remained.

Gaining free and privileged access to Polish markets, the seaport prospered while simultaneously trading with the other Hanseatic cities. After the Second Peace of Thorn (1466) between Poland and the Teutonic Order the warfare ended permanently; Gdańsk became part of the Polish province of Royal Prussia, and later also of the Greater Poland Province. The city was visited by Nicolaus Copernicus in 1504 and 1526, and '' Narratio Prima'', the first printed abstract of his heliocentric theory, was published there in 1540. After the Union of Lublin between Poland and Lithuania in 1569 the city continued to enjoy a large degree of internal autonomy (cf. Danzig law). Being the largest and one of the most influential cities of Poland, it enjoyed voting rights during the royal election period in Poland.

In the 1560s and 1570s, a large Mennonite community started growing in the city, gaining significant popularity. In the 1575 election to the Polish throne, Danzig supported Maximilian II in his struggle against Stephen Báthory. It was the latter who eventually became monarch but the city, encouraged by the secret support of Denmark and Emperor Maximilian, shut its gates against Stephen. After the Siege of Danzig, lasting six months, the city's army of 5,000 mercenaries was utterly defeated in a field battle on 16 December 1577. However, since Stephen's armies were unable to take the city by force, a compromise was reached: Stephen Báthory confirmed the city's special status and her Danzig law privileges granted by earlier Polish kings. The city recognised him as ruler of Poland and paid the enormous sum of 200,000 guldens in gold as payoff ("apology").

During the Polish–Swedish War of 1626–1629, in 1627, the naval Battle of Oliwa was fought near the city, and it is one of the greatest victories in the history of the Polish Navy. During the Swedish invasion of Poland of 1655–1660, commonly known as the Deluge, the city was unsuccessfully besieged by Sweden. In 1660, the war was ended with the Treaty of Oliwa, signed in the present-day district of Oliwa. In 1677, a Polish-Swedish alliance was signed in the city. Around 1640, Johannes Hevelius established his astronomical observatory in the Old Town. Polish King John III Sobieski regularly visited Hevelius numerous times.

Beside a majority of German-speakers, whose elites sometimes distinguished their German dialect as Pomerelian, the city was home to a large number of Polish-speaking Poles, Jewish Poles, Latvian-speaking Kursenieki, Flemings, and Dutch. In addition, a number of Scots took refuge or migrated to and received citizenship in the city, with first Scots arriving in 1380, and a French Huguenot commune was founded in 1686. During the Protestant Reformation, most German-speaking inhabitants adopted Lutheranism. Due to the special status of the city and significance within the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the city inhabitants largely became bi-cultural sharing both Polish and German culture and were strongly attached to the traditions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.Historia Polski 1795–1815 Andrzej Chwalba Kraków 2000, p. 441

The city suffered a last great plague and a slow economic decline due to the wars of the 18th century. After peace was restored in 1721, Danzig experienced steady economic recovery. As a stronghold of Stanisław Leszczyński's supporters during the War of the Polish Succession, it was taken by the Russians after the Siege of Danzig in 1734. In the 1740s and 1750s Danzig was restored and Danzig port was again the most significant grain exporting ports in the Baltic region. The Danzig Research Society, which became defunct in 1936, was founded in 1743.

In 1772, the First Partition of Poland took place and Prussia annexed almost all of the former Royal Prussia, which became the Province of West Prussia. However, Gdańsk remained a part of Poland as an exclave separated from the rest of the country. The Prussian king cut off Danzig with a military controlled barrier, also blocking shipping links to foreign ports, on the pretense that a cattle plague may otherwise break out. Danzig declined in its economic significance. However, by the end of the 18th century, Gdańsk was still one of the most economically integrated cities in Poland. It was well-connected and traded actively with German cities, while other Polish cities became less well-integrated towards the end of the century, mostly due to greater risks for long-distance trade, given the number of violent conflicts along the trade routes.

Prussia and Germany

Danzig was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia in 1793, in the Second Partition of Poland. Both the Polish and the German-speaking population largely opposed the Prussian annexation and wanted the city to remain part of Poland. The mayor of the city stepped down from his office due to the annexation. The notable city councilor Jan (Johann) Uphagen, historian and art collector, also resigned as a sign of protest against the annexation. His house exemplifies Baroque in Poland and is now a museum, known as Uphagen's House. An attempted student uprising against Prussia led by Gottfried Benjamin Bartholdi was crushed quickly by the authorities in 1797.

During the Napoleonic Wars, in 1807, the city was besieged and captured by a coalition of French, Polish, Italian, Saxon, and Baden forces. Afterwards, it was a free city from 1807 to 1814, when it was captured by combined Prussian-Russian forces.

In 1815, after France's defeat in the Napoleonic Wars, it again became part of Prussia and became the capital of within the province of West Prussia. Since the 1820s, the Wisłoujście Fortress served as a prison, mainly for Polish political prisoners, including resistance members, protesters, insurgents of the November and January uprisings and refugees from the Russian Partition of Poland fleeing conscription into the Russian Army, and insurgents of the November Uprising were also imprisoned in Biskupia Górka (''Bischofsberg''). In May–June 1832 and November 1833, more than 1,000 Polish insurgents departed partitioned Poland through the city's port, boarding ships bound for France, the United Kingdom and the United States (see ''Great Emigration'').

The city's longest serving mayor was Robert von Blumenthal, who held office from 1841, through the revolutions of 1848, until 1863. With the unification of Germany in 1871 under Prussian hegemony, the city became part of the German Empire and remained so until 1919, after Germany's defeat in World War I. Starting from the 1850s, long-established Danzig families often felt marginalized by the new town elite originating from mainland Germany. This situation caused the Polish to allege that the Danzig people were oppressed by German rule and for this reason allegedly failed to articulate their natural desire for strong ties with Poland.

Free City of Danzig and World War II

When Poland regained its independence after World War I with access to the sea as promised by the Allies on the basis of Woodrow Wilson's "Fourteen Points" (point 13 called for "an independent Polish state", "which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea"), the Poles hoped the city's harbour would also become part of Poland. However, in the end – since Germans formed a majority in the city, with Poles being a minority (in the 1923 census 7,896 people out of 335,921 gave Polish, Kashubian, or Masurian as their native language) – the city was not placed under Polish sovereignty. Instead, in accordance with the terms of the Versailles Treaty, it became the Free City of Danzig, an independent quasi-state under the auspices of the League of Nations with its external affairs largely under Polish control. Poland's rights also included free use of the harbour, a Polish post office, a Polish garrison in Westerplatte district, and customs union with Poland. The Free City had its own constitution, national anthem, parliament, and government (). It issued its own stamps as well as its currency, the Danzig gulden.

With the growth of Nazism among Germans, anti-Polish sentiment increased and both Germanisation and Racial segregation, segregation policies intensified, in the 1930s the rights of local Poles were commonly violated and limited by the local administration. Polish children were refused admission to public Polish-language schools, premises were not allowed to be rented to Polish schools and preschools.Wardzyńska, p. 40 Due to such policies, only eight Polish-language public schools existed in the city, and Poles managed to organize seven more private Polish schools.

In the early 1930s, the local Nazi Party capitalised on pro-German sentiments and in 1933 garnered 50% of vote in the parliament. Thereafter, the Nazis under Gauleiter Albert Forster achieved dominance in the city government, which was still nominally overseen by the League of Nations' High Commissioner.

In 1937, Poles who sent their children to private Polish schools were required to transfer children to German schools, under threat of police intervention, and attacks were carried out on Polish schools and Polish youth. German militias carried out numerous beatings of Polish activists, scouts and even postal workers, as "punishment" for distributing the Polish press.Wardzyńska, p. 41 German students attacked and expelled Polish students from the technical university. Dozens of Polish surnames were forcibly Germanized, while Polish symbols and monuments that reminded that for centuries Gdańsk was part of Poland were removed from the city's landmarks, such as the Artus Court and the Neptune's Fountain.Wardzyńska, p. 42

From 1937, the employment of Poles by German companies was prohibited, and already employed Poles were fired, the use of Polish in public places was banned and Poles were not allowed to enter several restaurants, in particular those owned by Germans. In 1939, before the German invasion of Poland and outbreak of World War II, local Polish railwaymen were victims of beatings, and after the invasion, they were also imprisoned and murdered in Nazi concentration camps, concentration camps.

NSDAP, The German government officially demanded the return of Danzig to Germany along with an extraterritorial (meaning under German jurisdiction) highway through the area of the Polish Corridor for land-based access from the rest of Germany. Hitler used the issue of the status of the city as a pretext for attacking Poland and in May 1939, during a high-level meeting of German military officials explained to them: "It is not Danzig that is at stake. For us it is a matter of expanding our Lebensraum in the east", adding that there will be no repeat of the Czech situation, and Germany will attack Poland at first opportunity, after isolating the country from its Western Allies.

After the German proposals to solve the three main issues peacefully were refused, German-Polish relations rapidly deteriorated. Germany Invasion of Poland, attacked Poland on 1 September after having signed Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union.

The German attack began in Danzig, with a bombardment of Polish positions at Westerplatte by the German battleship , and the landing of German infantry on the peninsula. Outnumbered Polish defenders at Westerplatte Battle of Westerplatte, resisted for seven days before running out of ammunition. Meanwhile, after a fierce day-long Defence of the Polish Post Office in Danzig, fight (1 September 1939), defenders of the Polish Post office were tried and executed then buried on the spot in the Danzig quarter of Zaspa in October 1939. In 1998 a German court overturned their conviction and sentence. The city was officially annexed by Nazi Germany and incorporated into the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia.

About 50 percent of members of the History of the Jews in Gdańsk, Jewish community had left the city within a year after a pogrom in October 1937. After the Kristallnacht riots in November 1938, the community decided to organize its emigration and in March 1939 a first transport to Mandatory Palestine, Palestine started. By September 1939 barely 1,700 mostly elderly Jews remained. In early 1941, just 600 Jews were still living in Danzig, most of whom were later murdered in the Holocaust. Out of the 2,938 Kehilla (modern), Jewish community in the city, 1,227 were able to escape from the Nazis before the outbreak of war.

Gestapo, Nazi secret police had been observing Polish minority communities in the city since 1936, compiling information, which in 1939 served to prepare lists of Poles to be captured in Operation Tannenberg. On the first day of the war, approximately 1,500 Polish people, ethnic Poles were arrested, some because of their participation in social and economic life, others because they were activists and members of various Polish organisations. On 2 September 1939, 150 of them were deported to the Stutthof concentration camp, Sicherheitsdienst camp Stutthof some from Danzig, and murdered. Many Poles living in Danzig were deported to Stutthof or executed in the Massacres in Piaśnica, Piaśnica forest.

During the war, Germany operated a prison in the city, an ''Einsatzgruppen''-operated penal camp, a camp for Romani people, two subcamps of the Stalag XX-B German prisoner-of-war camps in World War II, prisoner-of-war camp for Allies of World War II, Allied POWs, and several subcamps of the Stutthof concentration camp within the present-day city limits.

In 1941, Hitler ordered the Operation Barbarossa, invasion of the Soviet Union, eventually causing the fortunes of war to turn against Germany. As the Red Army, Soviet Army advanced in 1944, German populations in Central Europe took flight, resulting in the beginning of a great population shift. After the East Pomeranian Offensive, final Soviet offensives began in January 1945, hundreds of thousands of German refugees converged on Danzig, many of whom had fled on foot from East Prussia, some tried to escape through the city's port in a large-scale evacuation involving hundreds of German cargo and passenger ships. Some of the ships were sunk by the Soviets, including the after an evacuation was attempted at neighbouring Gdynia. In the process, tens of thousands of refugees were killed.

The city also endured heavy Allied and Soviet air raids. The city was Siege of Danzig (1945), captured by 1st Warsaw Armoured Brigade, Polish and Red Army, Soviet troops in March 1945. The city was heavily damaged and Soviet soldiers and German saboteurs set fire to houses. Soviet soldiers committed large-scale Rape during the liberation of Poland, rape and Looting of Poland in World War II, looting, especially of the port, shipyard and factories.

In line with the decisions made by the Allies at the Yalta Conference, Yalta and Potsdam Conference, Potsdam conferences, the city became again part of Poland, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime, which stayed in power until the Fall of Communism in the 1980s. The remaining German residents of the city who had survived the war Flight and expulsion of Germans from Poland during and after World War II, fled or were expelled to postwar Germany. The city was repopulated by ethnic Polish people, Poles; up to 18 percent (1948) of them had been Polish population transfers (1944–1946), deported by the Soviets in Repatriation of Poles (1955–1959), two major waves from pre-war eastern Territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union, Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union.

Post World War II (1945–1989)

In 1946, the communists executed 17-year-old Danuta Siedzikówna and 42-year-old :pl:Feliks Selmanowicz, Feliks Selmanowicz, known Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish resistance members, in the local prison. The port of Gdańsk was one of the three Polish ports through which Greeks and Macedonians (ethnic group), Macedonians, refugees of the Greek Civil War, reached Poland. In 1949, four transports of Greek and Macedonian refugees arrived at the port of Gdańsk, from where they were transported to new homes in Poland.

Parts of the historic old city of Gdańsk, which had suffered large-scale destruction during the war, were rebuilt during the 1950s and 1960s. The reconstruction sought to dilute the "German character" of the city, and set it back to how it supposedly looked like before the annexation to Prussia in 1793. Nineteenth-century transformations were ignored as "ideologically malignant" by post-war administrations, or regarded as "Prussian barbarism" worthy of demolition, while Flemish/Dutch, Italian and French influences were emphasized in order to "neutralize" the German influx on the general outlook of the city.

Boosted by heavy investment in the development of its port and three major shipyards for Soviet ambitions in the Baltic region, Gdańsk became the major shipping and industrial centre of the People's Republic of Poland. In December 1970, Gdańsk was the scene of Polish 1970 protests, anti-regime demonstrations, which led to the downfall of Poland's communist leader Władysław Gomułka. During the demonstrations in Gdańsk and Gdynia, military as well as the police opened fire on the demonstrators causing several dozen deaths. Ten years later, in August 1980, Gdańsk Shipyard was the birthplace of the Solidarity trade union movement.

In September 1981, to deter Solidarity, Soviet Union launched Exercise Zapad-81, the largest military exercise in history, during which amphibious landings were conducted near Gdańsk. Meanwhile, the Solidarity held its first national congress in Hala Olivia, Gdańsk in which more than 800 deputies participated. Its opposition to the Communist regime led to the end of Communist Party rule in 1989, and sparked a series of protests that overthrew the Communist regimes of the former Eastern Bloc.

Contemporary history (1990–present)

Solidarity's leader, Lech Wałęsa, became President of Poland in 1990. In 2014 the European Solidarity Centre, a museum and library devoted to the history of the movement, opened in Gdańsk.

On 9 July 2001, the city was flooded, with 200 million Polish złoty, zł being estimated in damage, 4 people killed, and 304 evacuated. As a result, the city has built 50 reservoirs, the number of which is rising.

Gdańsk native Donald Tusk is Prime Minister of Poland from 2007 to 2014 and again from 2023 to present and was President of the European Council from 2014 to 2019. In 2014, the remains of Danuta Siedzikówna and Feliks Selmanowicz were found at the local Garrison Cemetery, and then their state burial was held in Gdańsk in 2016, with the participation of thousands of people from all over Poland and the highest Polish authorities.

In January 2019, the Mayor of Gdańsk, Paweł Adamowicz, was Assassination of Paweł Adamowicz, assassinated by a man who had just been released from prison for violent crimes. After stabbing the mayor in the abdomen near the heart, the man claimed that the mayor's political party had been responsible for imprisoning him. Though Adamowicz underwent a multi-hour surgery, he died the next day.

In October 2019, the City of Gdańsk was awarded the Princess of Asturias Awards, Princess of Asturias Award in the Concord category as a recognition of the fact that "the past and present in Gdańsk are sensitive to solidarity, the defense of freedom and human rights, as well as to the preservation of peace".

In a 2023 Report on the Quality of Life in European Cities compiled by the European Commission, Gdańsk was named as the fourth best city to live in Europe alongside Leipzig, Stockholm and Geneva.

Geography

Gdańsk lies at the mouth of the Motława river to the Martwa Wisła, a branch of the Vistula. It is located on the border between different physiographic regions: Vistula Spit (waterside part of the city), Vistula Fens (eastern part of the city), Kashubian Coastland (north-western part of the city) and Kashubian Lake District (western part of the city).

Climate

Gdańsk has a climate with both oceanic and continental influences. According to some categorizations, it has an oceanic climate (Cfb), while others classify it as belonging to the humid continental climate (Dfb). It actually depends on whether the mean reference temperature for the coldest winter month is set at or . Gdańsk's dry winters and the precipitation maximum in summer are indicators of continentality. However seasonal extremes are less pronounced than those in inland Poland.Gdansk
". ''Weatherbase.com''. Retrieved 14 February 2018.

The city has moderately cold and cloudy winters with mean temperature in January and February near or below and mild summers with frequent showers and thunderstorms. Average temperatures range from and average monthly rainfall varies per month with a rather low annual total of . In general, the weather is damp, variable, and mild.

The seasons are clearly differentiated. Spring starts in March and is initially cold and windy, later becoming pleasantly warm and often increasingly sunny. Summer, which begins in June, is predominantly warm but hot at times with temperature reaching as high as at least couple times a year with plenty of sunshine interspersed with heavy rain. Gdańsk averages 1,700 hours of sunshine per year. July and August are the warmest months. Autumn comes in September and is at first warm and usually sunny, turning cold, damp, and foggy in November. Winter lasts from December to March and includes periods of snow. January and February are the coldest months with the temperature sometimes dropping as low as .

Economy

The industrial sections of the city are dominated by shipbuilding, petrochemical, and chemical industries, as well as food processing. The share of high-tech sectors such as electronics, telecommunications, IT engineering, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals is on the rise. Amber processing is also an important part of the local economy, as the majority of the world's amber deposits lie along the Baltic coast.

Major companies based in Gdańsk include multinational clothing company LPP (company), LPP, Energa, Remontowa, the Gdańsk Shipyard, Ziaja, and BreakThru Films. The city also served as a major base for Grupa Lotos, with the Gdańsk Refinery having been the second-largest in Poland, with a capacity of . Gdańsk also hosts the biennial BALTEXPO International Maritime Fair and Conference, the largest fair dedicated to the maritime industry in Poland.

The largest shopping center located in the city is Forum Gdańsk, which covers a large plot in the city centre. In 2021, the registered unemployment rate in the city was estimated at 3.6%.

Main sights

Architecture

The city has some buildings surviving from the time of the Hanseatic League. Most tourist attractions are located in the area of the Main City of Gdańsk, along or near Ulica Długa (''Long Street'') and Długi Targ (''Long Market''), a pedestrian thoroughfare surrounded by buildings reconstructed in historical (primarily during the 17th century) style and flanked at both ends by elaborate city gates. This part of the city is sometimes referred to as the Royal Route, since it was once the path of processions for visiting Kings of Poland.

Walking from end to end, sites encountered on or near the Royal Route include:

* Highland Gate ('':pl:Brama Wyżynna w Gdańsku, Brama Wyżynna''), which marks the beginning of the Royal Route
* Torture House (''Katownia'') and Prison Tower (''Wieża więzienna''), now housing the Amber Museum ('':pl:Muzeum Bursztynu w Gdańsku, Muzeum Bursztynu'')
* Mansion of the Society of Saint George ('':pl:Dwór Bractwa św. Jerzego w Gdańsku, Dwór Bractwa św. Jerzego'')
* Golden Gate (Gdańsk), Golden Gate (''Złota Brama'')
* ''Ulica Długa'' ("Long Lane"), filled with picturesque tenements
** Uphagen's House (''Dom Uphagena''), branch of the Museum of Gdańsk
** Lion's Castle ('':pl:Lwi Zamek, Lwi Zamek'')
** Gdańsk Town Hall, Main Town Hall (''Ratusz Głównego Miasta'', built 1378–1492)
* ''Długi Targ'' ("Long Market")
** Artus Court, Artus' Court (''Dwór Artusa'')
** Neptune's Fountain (''Fontanna Neptuna''), a masterpiece by architect Abraham van den Blocke, 1617. It is the oldest working fountain in Poland.
** New Jury House ('':pl:Nowy Dom Ławy w Gdańsku, Nowy Dom Ławy''), in which the seemingly 17th-century ''Maiden in the Window'' appears every day during the tourist season, referring to a popular novel ''Panienka z okienka'' ("Maiden in the Window") by Jadwiga Łuszczewska, set in 17th-century Gdańsk
** Golden House ('':pl:Złota Kamienica w Gdańsku, Złota Kamienica''), a distinctive Renaissance in Poland, Renaissance townhouse from the early 17th century, decorated with numerous reliefs and sculptures
* Green Gate (''Zielona Brama''), a Mannerist architecture and sculpture in Poland, Mannerist gate, built as a formal residence of Polish kings, now housing a branch of the National Museum, Gdańsk, National Museum in Gdańsk

Gdańsk has a number of historical churches, including St Catherine's Church, Gdańsk, St. Catherine's Church, Basilica of St. Nicholas, Gdańsk, St. Nicholas' Church and St. Mary's Church (''Bazylika Mariacka''). The St. Mary's Church is a municipal church built during the 15th century, and is one of the largest brick churches in the world. The city center within 17th-century fortifications represent one of Poland's official national List of Historical Monuments (Poland), Historic Monuments (''Pomnik historii''), as designated on 16 September 1994 and tracked by the Narodowy Instytut Dziedzictwa, National Heritage Board of Poland.

Other main sights in the historical city centre include:

* Royal Chapel of the Polish King John III Sobieski
* ''Żuraw'' – medieval port crane
* Mannerist architecture and sculpture in Poland, Mannerist Great Armoury
* Granaries on the Ołowianka and Granary Islands
* John III Sobieski Monument in Gdańsk, John III Sobieski Monument
* Old Town Hall
* Mariacka Street
* Polish Post Office (Danzig), Polish Post Office, site of the Defence of the Polish Post Office in Danzig, 1939 battle
* Brick gothic town gates, i.e., Mariacka Gate, Straganiarska Gate, Cow Gate

Main sights outside the historical city centre include:

* Abbot's Palace (Oliwa), Abbot's Palace in the Oliwa Park
* Oliwa Cathedral
* Brzeźno Pier
* City walls of Gdańsk, Medieval city walls
* Westerplatte
* Wisłoujście Fortress
* Gdańsk Zoo
* Olivia Business Centre, a district made up of six buildings
** Olivia Star, the tallest building in Gdańsk and the rest of northern Poland. It was finished in 2018 and measures at .

File:Gdansk Royal Chapel.jpg, Royal Chapel of the Polish King – John III Sobieski was built in baroque style between 1678 and 1681 by Tylman van Gameren.
File:Bazylika Mariacka DSC01870.jpg, St. Mary's Church – one of the largest brick churches in the world
File:Gdańsk (DerHexer) 2010-07-15 091.jpg, Polish Post Office (Danzig), Polish Post Office, site of the Defence of the Polish Post Office in Danzig, 1939 battle

Museums

* National Museum (''Muzeum Narodowe'')
** Department of Ancient Art – contains a number of important artworks, including Hans Memling's ''The Last Judgment (Memling), The Last Judgement''
** Green Gate
** Department of Modern Art – in the Abbot's Palace (Oliwa), Abbot's Palace in Oliwa
** Ethnography Department – in the Abbot's Granary in Oliwa
** Gdańsk Photography Gallery
* Historical Museum ('':pl:Muzeum Historyczne Miasta Gdańska, Muzeum Historyczne Miasta Gdańska''):
** Gdańsk Town Hall, Main Town Hall
** Artus Court, Artus' Court
** Uphagen's House
** Amber Museum ('':pl:Muzeum Bursztynu w Gdańsku, Muzeum Bursztynu'')
** Museum of the Polish Post ('':pl:Muzeum Poczty Polskiej w Gdańsku, Muzeum Poczty Polskiej'')
** '':pl:Wartownia nr 1 na Westerplatte, Wartownia nr 1 na Westerplatte''
** Museum of Tower Clocks ('':pl:Muzeum Zegarów Wieżowych, Muzeum Zegarów Wieżowych'')
** Wisłoujście Fortress
* National Maritime Museum, Gdańsk (''Narodowe Muzeum Morskie''):
** museum ship ''SS Sołdek'' is anchored on the Motława River and was the first ship built in post-war Poland.
* European Solidarity Centre. Museum and library dedicated to the history of the Solidarity movement.
* Archdiocese Museum ('':pl:Muzeum Archidiecezjalne w Gdańsku, Muzeum Archidiecezjalne'')
* Museum of the Second World War

Entertainment

* Polish Baltic Philharmonic
* Baltic State Opera, Baltic Opera
* Gdańsk Shakespeare Theatre is a Shakespearean theatre built on the historical site of a 17th-century playhouse where English travelling players came to perform. The new theatre, completed in 2014, hosts the annual Gdańsk Shakespeare Festival.

Transport

The city's core transport infrastructure includes Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport, an international airport located in Gdańsk,
and the Szybka Kolej Miejska (Tricity), Szybka Kolej Miejska, (SKM) which functions as a rapid transit system for the Tricity area, including Gdańsk, Sopot and Gdynia, operating frequent trains to 27 stations covering the Tricity.

The principal station in Gdańsk is Gdańsk Główny railway station, served by both Szybka Kolej Miejska (Tricity), SKM local trains and Polskie Koleje Panstwowe, PKP long-distance trains. In addition, long-distance trains also stop at Gdańsk Oliwa railway station, Gdańsk Wrzeszcz railway station, Sopot railway station, Sopot, and Gdynia Główna railway station, Gdynia. Gdańsk also has nine other railway stations, served by local Szybka Kolej Miejska (Tricity), SKM trains; Long-distance trains are operated by PKP Intercity which provides connections with most major List of cities and towns in Poland, Polish cities, including Warsaw, Kraków, Łódź, Poznań, Katowice, Szczecin, Częstochowa, and Wrocław. Polregio operates regional trains with the neighbouring Kashubian Lake District, Kashubian Lakes Region along with trains to Słupsk, Hel, Poland, Hel, Malbork, and Elbląg.

Between 2011 and 2015, the rail route between Gdańsk, Gdynia, and Warsaw underwent a major upgrade, resulting in improvements in the railway's speed and critical infrastructure such as signalling systems, as well as the construction of the Pomorska Kolej Metropolitalna, a major suburban railway, which was opened in 2015.

City buses and Trams in Gdańsk, trams are operated by ZTM Gdańsk (Zarząd Transportu Miejskiego w Gdańsku). The Port of Gdańsk is a seaport located on the southern coast of Gdańsk Bay, located within the city, and the Obwodnica Trójmiejska and A1 autostrada (Poland), A1 autostrada allow for automotive access to the city. Additionally, Gdańsk is part of the Rail-2-Sea project. This project's objective is to connect the city with the Romanian Black Sea port of Constanța with a long railway line passing through Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania.

Sport

There are many popular professional sports teams in the Gdańsk and Tricity area. The city's professional Association football, football club is Lechia Gdańsk. Founded in 1945, they play in the , Poland's top division. Their home stadium, Stadion Miejski (Gdańsk), Stadion Miejski, was one of the four Polish stadiums to host the UEFA Euro 2012 competition, as well as the host of the 2021 UEFA Europa League Final. Other notable football clubs are Gedania 1922 Gdańsk and SKS Stoczniowiec Gdańsk, which both played in the second tier in the past. Other notable clubs include speedway club Wybrzeże Gdańsk, rugby club RC Lechia Gdańsk, Lechia Gdańsk, ice hockey club Stoczniowiec Gdańsk, and volleyball club Trefl Gdańsk.

The city's Hala Olivia was a venue for the official 2009 EuroBasket, and the Ergo Arena was one of the 2013 Men's European Volleyball Championship, 2014 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship and 2014 IAAF World Indoor Championships venues.

Politics and local government

Contemporary Gdańsk is one of the major centres of economic and administrative life in Poland. It has been the seat of a Polish central institution, the Polish Space Agency, several supra-regional branches of further central institutions, as well as the supra-regional (appellate-level) institutions of justice. As the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship it has been the seat of the Pomeranian Voivodeship Office, the Sejmik, and the Marshall's Office of the Pomeranian Voivodeship and other voivodeship-level institutions.

Legislative power in Gdańsk is vested in a unicameral Gdańsk City Council (Rada Miasta), which comprises 34 members. Council members are elected directly every four years. Like most legislative bodies, the City Council divides itself into committees, which have the oversight of various functions of the city government.

Districts

Gdańsk is divided into 34 administrative divisions: 6 and 28 . A full list can be found at Districts of Gdańsk, but the largest include Śródmieście, Gdańsk, Śródmieście, Przymorze Wielkie, Chełm, Gdańsk, Chełm, Wrzeszcz Dolny, and Wrzeszcz Górny.

Education and science

There are 15 higher schools in the city, including three universities. Notable educational institutions include the University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk University of Technology, and Gdańsk Medical University. The city is also home to the Baltic Institute.

International relations

Consulates

There are four consulates general in Gdańsk – China, Germany, Hungary, Russia, one consulate – Ukraine, and 17 honorary consulates – Austria, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Estonia, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Moldova, Netherlands, Peru, Seychelles, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Uruguay.

Twin towns – sister cities

Gdańsk is Sister cities, twinned with:

* Helsingør, Denmark
* Bremen, Germany
* Cleveland, Ohio, Cleveland, United States
* Kalmar, Sweden

* Nice, France
* Astana, Kazakhstan

* Rotterdam, Netherlands
* Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Sefton, United Kingdom
* Turku, Finland
* Vilnius, Lithuania

Former twin towns

* Kaliningrad, Russia
* Saint Petersburg, Russia

On 3 March 2022, Gdańsk City Council passed a unanimous resolution to terminate the cooperation with the Russian cities of Kaliningrad and Saint Petersburg as a response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Partnerships and cooperation

Gdańsk also cooperates with:

* Ghent, Belgium
* Le Havre, France
* Marseille, France
* Odesa, Ukraine

Demographics

The 1923 census conducted in the Free City of Danzig indicated that of all inhabitants, 95% were German, and 3% were Polish and Kashubian. The end of World War II is a significant break in continuity with regard to the inhabitants of Gdańsk.

German citizens began to flee en masse as the Soviet Red Army advanced, composed of both spontaneous flights driven by rumors of Soviet war crimes, Soviet atrocities, and organised evacuation starting in the summer of 1944 which continued into the spring of 1945.Arie Marcelo Kacowicz, Pawel Lutomski, ''Population resettlement in international conflicts: a comparative study'', Lexington Books, 2007, pp. 100, 101

Approximately 1% (100,000) of the German civilian population residing east of the Oder–Neisse line perished in the fighting prior to the surrender in May 1945. German civilians were also sent as "reparations labour" to the Soviet Union.

Poles from other parts of Poland replaced the former German-speaking population, with the first settlers arriving in March 1945. On 30 March 1945, the Gdańsk Voivodeship (1945–1975), Gdańsk Voivodeship was established as the first administrative Polish unit in the Recovered Territories. As of 1 November 1945, around 93,029 Germans remained within the city limits. The locals of German descent who declared Polish nationality were permitted to remain; as of 1 January 1949, 13,424 persons who had received Polish citizenship in a post-war "ethnic vetting" process lived in Gdańsk.

The settlers can be grouped according to their background:

*Poles that had been freed from forced labor in Nazi GermanyKarl Cordell, Andrzej Antoszewski, ''Poland and the European Union'', 2000, p. 168, , : gives 4.55 million in the first years
*Polish population transfers (1944–1946), Repatriates: Poles expelled from the areas east of the new Polish-Soviet border. This included assimilated minorities such as Armenians in Poland, the Polish-Armenian community
*Poles incl. Kashubians relocating from nearby villages and small towns
*Settlers from central Poland migrating voluntarily
*Non-Poles forcibly resettled during Operation Vistula in 1947. Large numbers of Ukrainians were forced to move from south-eastern Poland under a 1947 Polish government operation aimed at dispersing, and therefore assimilating, those Ukrainians who had not been expelled eastward already, throughout the newly acquired territories. Belarusians living around the area around Białystok were also pressured into relocating to the formerly German areas for the same reasons. This scattering of members of non-Polish ethnic groups throughout the country was an attempt by the Polish authorities to dissolve the unique ethnic identity of groups like the Ukrainians, Belarusians, and Lemkos, and broke the proximity and communication necessary for strong communities to form.
*Jews, Jewish Holocaust survivors, most of them Polish population transfers (1944–1946), Polish repatriates from the Eastern Borderlands.
*Greeks in Poland, Greeks and Macedonians (ethnic group), Slav Macedonians, refugees of the Greek Civil War.

People

See also

*Tourism in Poland
*List of honorary citizens of Gdańsk
*764 Gedania – a minor planet orbiting the Sun
*Danzig Highflyer
*Father Eugeniusz Dutkiewicz SAC Hospice
*Kashubians
*List of neighbourhoods of Gdańsk
*St. Mary's Church, Gdańsk
*Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art
*Ronald Reagan Park
*''Live in Gdańsk''
*Orunia Park
*Danzig Trilogy - novels by Günter Grass

Notes

References

Sources

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External links

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{{Authority control

Gdańsk,
980s establishments
10th-century establishments in Poland
Populated places established in the 10th century
Members of the Hanseatic League
City counties of Poland
Cities and towns in Pomeranian Voivodeship
Port cities and towns of the Baltic Sea
Port cities and towns in Poland
Geographical naming disputes
Holocaust locations in Poland
Sites of Nazi war crimes during the Invasion of Poland
Former exclaves
Capitals of former nations