The Preußisch Stargard district was a

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

n district that existed from 1772 to 1920 with varying borders. It was in the part of

West Prussia The Province of West Prussia (; ; ) was a province of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and from 1878 to 1919. West Prussia was established as a province of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1773, formed from Royal Prussia of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonweal ...

that fell to Poland after

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 ...

through the

Treaty of Versailles 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 Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...

in 1920. Its county seat was

Preußisch Stargard Preußisch is the German language adjective for "Prussian". Preußisch may refer to: ;Places in Germany * Preußisch Oldendorf, town in North Rhine-Westphalia ;Places outside of Germany *Preußisch Eylau, now Bagrationovsk, Russia *Preußisch F ...

. From 1939 to 1945 the district was re-established in

German-occupied Poland German-occupied Poland can refer to: * General Government * Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany * Occupation of Poland (1939–1945) * Prussian Partition The Prussian Partition (), or Prussian Poland, is the former territories of the Polish� ...

as part of the newly established

Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia () was an Reichsgau, administrative division of Nazi Germany created on 8 October 1939 from annexed territory of the Free City of Danzig, the Greater Pomeranian Voivodship (Polish Corridor), and the Marienwerder (regi ...

. Today the territory of the district is located in the

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

Pomeranian Voivodeship Pomeranian Voivodeship ( ; ) is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship, or province, in northwestern Poland. The provincial capital is Gdańsk. The voivodeship was established on January 1, 1999, out of the former voivodeships of Gdańsk Voivo ...

History

With the

First Partition of Poland The First Partition of Poland took place in 1772 as the first of three partitions that eventually ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. The growth of power in the Russian Empire threatened the Kingdom of Prussia an ...

, the area of the Preußisch Stargard district was annexed by the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...

in 1772 and became part of the newly formed province of

, which was divided into six large districts, including the ''Stargard'' district. On 30 April 1815 the district became part of

Regierungsbezirk Danzig Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia () was an administrative division of Nazi Germany created on 8 October 1939 from annexed territory of the Free City of Danzig, the Greater Pomeranian Voivodship (Polish Corridor), and the ''Regierungsbezirk'' West P ...

in the province of

. As part of a comprehensive district reform, a new, smaller Preußisch Stargard district was formed on 1 April 1818, containing the towns of Dirschau and Preußisch Stargard. The district office was in Preußisch Stargard. From 3 December 1829 to 1 April 1878 the provinces of West Prussia and

East Prussia East Prussia was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1772 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871); following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's ...

were united to form the

Province of Prussia The Province of Prussia (; ; ; ) was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1824 to 1878. The province was established in 1824 from the provinces of East Prussia and West Prussia, and was dissolved in 1878 when the merger was reversed. König ...

, which had belonged to the

German Reich German ''Reich'' (, from ) was the constitutional name for the German nation state that existed from 1871 to 1945. The ''Reich'' became understood as deriving its authority and sovereignty entirely from a continuing unitary German ''Volk'' ("na ...

since 1871. The continuous population growth in the 19th century necessitated a district reform in West Prussia. So, on 1 October 1887, the new Dirschau district was created from the northern part of the Preußisch Stargard district, which included the town of

Dirschau Tczew (, formerly ) is a city on the Vistula River in the Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland, with 59,111 inhabitants (December 2021). It is the capital of Tczew County and the largest city of the ethnocultural region of Kociewie within th ...

and its surrounding area. Due to the provisions of 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 ...

, the Preußisch Stargard district had to be ceded by

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

on 10 January 1920.

Demographics

Politics

District administrators

* 1850–1851:Bruno von Schrötter * 1851–1872:Karl von Neefe * 1872–1875:Anton Rothe * 1875–1887:Axel Döhn * 1887–1908:Franz Hagen * 1908–1911:Konrad Schulte-Heuthaus * 1911–1919:Leopold Wiesner

Elections

In the

German Empire The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...

, the Preußisch Stargard and Berent districts formed the ''Danzig 5'' Reichstag constituency within the boundaries of 1871. This constituency was won by candidates from the

Polish Party The Polish Party () was a political party in the German Empire and the Free City of Danzig. Representing the Polish population in Germany, it was the largest of the minority parties. History The party had its origins in the national associatio ...

in all elections to the Reichstag between 1871 and 1912: *

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 ...

:Michael von Kalkstein *

1874 Events January * January 1 – New York City annexes The Bronx. * January 2 – Ignacio María González becomes head of state of the Dominican Republic for the first time. * January 3 – Third Carlist War: Battle of Caspe &n ...

:Michael von Kalkstein *

1877 Events January * January 1 – Queen Victoria is proclaimed Empress of India by the Royal Titles Act 1876, introduced by Benjamin Disraeli, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom . * January 8 – Great Sioux War of 1876: Batt ...

:Adam von Sierakowski *

1878 Events January * January 5 – Russo-Turkish War: Battle of Shipka Pass IV – Russian and Bulgarian forces defeat the Ottoman Empire. * January 9 – Umberto I becomes King of Italy. * January 17 – Russo-Turkish War: ...

:Adam von Sierakowski *

1881 Events January * January 1– 24 – Siege of Geok Tepe: Russian troops under General Mikhail Skobelev defeat the Turkomans. * January 13 – War of the Pacific – Battle of San Juan and Chorrillos: The Chilean army ...

:Michael von Kalkstein *

1884 Events January * January 4 – The Fabian Society is founded in London to promote gradualist social progress. * January 5 – Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera '' Princess Ida'', a satire on feminism, premières at the Savoy The ...

:Michael von Kalkstein *

1887 Events January * January 11 – Louis Pasteur's anti-rabies treatment is defended in the Académie Nationale de Médecine, by Dr. Joseph Grancher. * January 20 ** The United States Senate allows the United States Navy to lease Pearl Har ...

:Michael von Kalkstein *

1890 Events January * January 1 – The Kingdom of Italy establishes Eritrea as its colony in the Horn of Africa. * January 2 – Alice Sanger becomes the first female staffer in the White House. * January 11 – 1890 British Ultimatum: The Uni ...

:Boleslaw von Kossowski *

1893 Events January * January 2 – Webb C. Ball introduces railroad chronometers, which become the general railroad timepiece standards in North America. * January 6 – The Washington National Cathedral is chartered by Congress; th ...

:Michael von Kalkstein *

1898 Events January * January 1 – New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York as the world's second largest. The city is geographically divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queen ...

:Anton Neubauer *

1903 Events January * January 1 – Edward VII is proclaimed Emperor of India. * January 10 – The Aceh Sultanate was fully annexed by the Dutch forces, deposing the last sultan, marking the end of the Aceh War that have lasted for al ...

:Wladislaus von Wolszlegier *

1907 Events January * January 14 – 1907 Kingston earthquake: A 6.5 Moment magnitude scale, Mw earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica, kills between 800 and 1,000. February * February 9 – The "Mud March (suffragists), Mud March", the ...

:Jan Brejski *

1912 This year is notable for Sinking of the Titanic, the sinking of the ''Titanic'', which occurred on April 15. In Albania, this leap year runs with only 353 days as the country achieved switching from the Julian to Gregorian Calendar by skippin ...

:Petrus Dunajski

Municipalities

In 1910, the Preußisch Stargard district comprised the town of

and 76 rural communities:

Landkreis Preußisch Stargard in occupied Poland (1939–1945)

History

After the German

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

and the subsequent annexation of the district area by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

, the district was re-established under the name ''Landkreis Preußisch Stargard'' in the newly established

from 1939 to 1945. The towns of Großwollental (

Skórcz Skórcz () is a town in Starogard County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland, with 3,609 inhabitants (2017). It is located in the ethnocultural region of Kociewie in the historic region of Pomerania. History Following the joint German-So ...

) and Preußisch Stargard were subject to the German municipal code of 30 January 1935, which was valid in the Altreich and provided for the enforcement of the

Führerprinzip The (, ''Leader Principle'') was the basis of authority, executive authority in the government of Nazi Germany. It placed the Führer's word above all written law, and meant that Law of Nazi Germany, government policies, decisions, and officia ...

at the municipal level. The Germans immediately carried out mass arrests of Polish teachers, priests and local activists in Starogard and county as part of the ''

Intelligenzaktion The ''Intelligenzaktion'' (), or the Intelligentsia mass shootings, was a series of mass murders committed against the Polish people, Polish intelligentsia (teachers, priests, physicians, and other prominent members of Polish society) during the ...

''. Arrested Poles were then held both in the pre-war prison and the medieval Gdańsk Tower in Starogard and often subjected to brutal beatings and mistreatment, especially clergymen, some of whom had even

swastika The swastika (卐 or 卍, ) is a symbol used in various Eurasian religions and cultures, as well as a few Indigenous peoples of Africa, African and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, American cultures. In the Western world, it is widely rec ...

s cut into their foreheads. Already in September 1939, the Germans murdered 150 Poles, including inhabitants of Starogard, Skórcz and

Gdynia Gdynia is a city in northern Poland and a seaport on the Baltic Sea coast. With an estimated population of 257,000, it is the List of cities in Poland, 12th-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in the Pomeranian Voivodeship after Gdańsk ...

, in Starogard and its vicinity. In the spring of 1945, the

Soviet Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of Peop ...

captured the district after which it was restored to Poland. In the following years, the remaining

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

population was expelled.

Place names

By an unpublished decree of 29 December 1939 the German place names valid until 1918 were provisionally valid in the district. By an order of the Reich Governor in Danzig-West Prussia on 25 June 1942, all place names were Germanized with the consent of the Reich Minister of the Interior. Either the name from 1918 was retained or - if "not German enough" - acoustically adjusted or translated, for example: * Adlig Lippinken: Adliglinde * Barloschno: Schenkenberg * Dombrowken: Damerau * Groß Jablau: Großgabel * Lesnian: Waldjahn * Lubichow: Liebichau * Osiek: Burgfelde * Schlachta: Edelwalde * Skorschenno: Wurzelacker * Skurz: Großwollental

References

Bibliography

* {{Authority control Starogard County PreussischStargard PreussischStargard PreussischStargard