Police (; ) is a town in the

West Pomeranian Voivodeship West Pomeranian Voivodeship is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship (province) in northwestern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Szczecin. Its area equals , and in 2021, it was inhabited by 1,682,003 people. It was established on 1 Janua ...

, in northwestern

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 ...

. It is the capital of

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

and one of the biggest towns of the Szczecin metropolitan area. The town is situated on the

Oder River The Oder ( ; Czech and ) is a river in Central Europe. It is Poland's second-longest river and third-longest within its borders after the Vistula and its largest tributary the Warta. The Oder rises in the Czech Republic and flows through west ...

and its

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime enviro ...

, south of the Szczecin Lagoon and the Bay of Pomerania. The centre of Police is situated about north of the centre of

Szczecin Szczecin ( , , ; ; ; or ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the Poland-Germany border, German border, it is a major port, seaport, the la ...

Etymology

The name of the town comes from

Proto-Slavic Proto-Slavic (abbreviated PSl., PS.; also called Common Slavic or Common Slavonic) is the unattested, reconstructed proto-language of all Slavic languages. It represents Slavic speech approximately from the 2nd millennium BC through the 6th ...

''pole'', which means field.

History

The settlement was first mentioned in 1243. Pomeranian duke Barnim of Pomerania granted

Magdeburg law Magdeburg rights (, , ; also called Magdeburg Law) were a set of town privileges first developed by Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (936–973) and based on the Flemish Law, which regulated the degree of internal autonomy within cities and villages gr ...

to the town in 1260.Thomas Gallien, Reno Stutz, Geschichtswerkstatt Rostock, Landesheimatverband Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, ''Landeskundlich-historisches Lexikon Mecklenburg-Vorpommern'', Hinstorff, 2007, p.503 At the end of the 13th century, the town had become a fief of a local dynasty of

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

s, the Drake family. In 1321, with the death of Otto Drake, the town became a dependency of nearby

Stettin Szczecin ( , , ; ; ; or ) is the capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the German border, it is a major seaport, the largest city of northwestern Poland, and se ...

(now Szczecin),Peter Johanek et al.: ''Städtebuch Hinterpommern Ausg. 2-3'',

Kohlhammer Verlag W. Kohlhammer Verlag GmbH, or Kohlhammer Verlag, is a German publishing house headquartered in Stuttgart. History Kohlhammer Verlag was founded in Stuttgart on 30 April 1866 by . Kohlhammer had taken over the businesses of his late father-in-la ...

, 2003, p.268, hindering its growth until the mid-18th century. Nearby Jasienica Abbey, now within the Police city limits, was secularized during the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the papacy and ...

, which was adapted in the

Duchy of Pomerania The Duchy of Pomerania (; ; Latin: ''Ducatus Pomeraniae'') was a duchy in Pomerania on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, ruled by dukes of the House of Pomerania (''Griffins''). The country existed in the Middle Ages between years 1121–11 ...

in 1534. After its secularization, the abbey became a ducal domain, and was the site of the treaty that for the first time partitioned the duchy into a

western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

and eastern part ( Pomerania-Wolgast and Pomerania-Stettin) in 1569. From the

Treaty of Stettin (1630) The Treaty of Stettin ( or ''Fördraget i Stettin'') or Alliance of Stettin () was the legal framework for the occupation of the Duchy of Pomerania by the Swedish Empire during the Thirty Years' War. Concluded on 25 August Old Style and New Styl ...

until the Treaty of Stockholm (1720), Pölitz was part of

Swedish Pomerania Swedish Pomerania (; ) was a dominions of Sweden, dominion under the Sweden, Swedish Crown from 1630 to 1815 on what is now the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of Germany and Poland. Following the Polish-Swedish War, Polish War and the Thirty Years' War ...

, and of Prussian Pomerania thereafter. In 1808, Pölitz became independent from Stettin again. In 1815, Pölitz became part of the restructured Province of Pomerania, administered within Landkreis Randow county. In 1939, this county was dissolved and Pölitz was made part of Groß-Stettin.Johannes Hinz, ''Pommern Lexikon'', Kraft, 1994, p.236,

German synthetic fuel factory

In 1937, the

synthetic fuel Synthetic fuel or synfuel is a liquid fuel, or sometimes Fuel gas, gaseous fuel, obtained from syngas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, in which the syngas was derived from gasification of solid feedstocks such as coal or biomass or by ...

plant ''Hydrierwerke Pölitz AG'' was founded by

IG Farben I. G. Farbenindustrie AG, commonly known as IG Farben, was a German Chemical industry, chemical and Pharmaceutical industry, pharmaceutical conglomerate (company), conglomerate. It was formed on December 2, 1925 from a merger of six chemical co ...

, Rhenania-Ossag, and Deutsch-Amerikanische Petroleum Gesellschaft which by 1943 was producing 15% of

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 ...

's synthetic fuels, 577,000

ton Ton is any of several units of measure of mass, volume or force. It has a long history and has acquired several meanings and uses. As a unit of mass, ''ton'' can mean: * the '' long ton'', which is * the ''tonne'', also called the ''metric ...

s. The plant derived its workforce from an adjacent system of camps (Pommernlager, Nordlager, Tobruklager, Wullenwever-Lager, Arbeitserziehungslager Hägerwelle, Dürrfeld Lager) plus a ship moored on the

serving as a camp (Umschulungslager Bremerhaven). In addition, a subcamp of the

Stutthof concentration camp Stutthof was a Nazi concentration camp established by Nazi Germany in a secluded, marshy, and wooded area near the village of Stutthof (now Sztutowo) 34 km (21 mi) east of the city of Danzig (Gdańsk) in the territory of the German-an ...

was located in Pölitz, whose prisoners were mostly Poles, Lithuanians, Latvians, Russians, and Germans, but also Frenchmen, Yugoslavians, and Greeks. Up to 28,000 laborers were placed in all the camps. Exhausting labor, hunger, abuse, and executions resulted in a high death toll in the subcamp of Stutthof, and there were also several escape attempts. On 17 April 1945, the prisoners were sent on a

death march A death march is a forced march of prisoners of war, other captives, or deportees in which individuals are left to die along the way. It is distinct from simple prisoner transport via foot march. Article 19 of the Geneva Convention requires tha ...

, whereas the most ill and unable to march were massacred on 25 April 1945. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the plant made Pölitz a nine-time bombing target of the Allied Oil Campaign from late April 1943 onward, leading to 70% of the town being destroyed.

Post–World War II

The city with the plant was captured by the Soviet Union's

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 People ...

during the

Battle of Berlin The Battle of Berlin, designated as the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union, and also known as the Fall of Berlin, was one of the last major offensives of the European theatre of World War II. After the Vistula–Od ...

on 26 April 1945. While most of the former German territory east of the Oder-Neisse line became Polish, Pölitz, situated on the western bank of the Oder, remained a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

-administered

exclave An enclave is a territory that is entirely surrounded by the territory of only one other state or entity. An enclave can be an independent territory or part of a larger one. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is s ...

: Marshal Zhukov decreed the establishment of a Soviet county with Pölitz, Ziegenort, Jasenitz, Messenthin and Scholwin,Jan M Piskorski, ''Pommern im Wandel der Zeit'', 1999, p.380, although officially also declared part of Poland. 25,000 German workers had to disassemble the plant before it was sent to the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. Gradually, the area without the plant was given to Poland: Mścięcino on 7 September 1946, and Police with Jasienica on 19 September. On 25 February 1947 the plant also passed to Polish control. As a result, the Soviet Union allowed Polish annexations of territory west of the river Odra, beyond the border as agreed on the Potsdam Conference. Polish settlers, partially expellees from the east of former Poland, arrived in the region to replace the German population that had fled or were expelled. They were joined by

refugees A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...

from

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

and Yugoslav Macedonia in 1953. The ruins of the plant still remain standing, though they are not secured and are dangerous to visit. A large chemical plant (''Zakłady Chemiczne "Police"'') was built in the town in 1969 and has grown since to become one of the largest in Poland. It produces mostly

titanium dioxide Titanium dioxide, also known as titanium(IV) oxide or titania , is the inorganic compound derived from titanium with the chemical formula . When used as a pigment, it is called titanium white, Pigment White 6 (PW6), or Colour Index Internationa ...

pigments and nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers. Police was in the Szczecin Voivodeship from 1946 to 1998. In 1973, town limits were expanded by including Jasienica as a new district. Since 1999 the town has been part of the

Districts

* Police Old Town * Mścięcino * Jasienica *New Town (Nowe Miasto: Osiedle Dąbrówka, Osiedle Gryfitów, Osiedle Księcia Bogusława X, Osiedle Anny Jagiellonki)

Sights

Notable buildings from the pre-WW2 era: *the ruins of Jasienica Abbey, a former Augustinian abbey in Police-Jasienica (14th century) *a Gothic Church in Police-Jasienica (14th/18th century) *a Gothic

Chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...

(15th century) in The Chrobry Square in The Old Town *a

Neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

Church (19th century) in Old Town *the Police

Lapidary Lapidary () is the practice of shaping rock (geology), stone, minerals, or gemstones into decorative items such as cabochons, engraved gems (including cameo (carving), cameos), and faceted designs. A person who practices lapidary techniques of ...

in The Staromiejski Park in Old Town * Tenement houses (19th century) *

Town hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

(1906) (not rebuilt after WWII) The tourist and cultural information office is localised in The Gothic Chapel in Bolesław Chrobry Square in The Old Town of Police

Geography and nature

Police is situated on the

and an

of the

- Roztoka Odrzańska, south of the Lagoon of Szczecin and the Bay of Pomerania. The centre of Police Town is situated about north of the centre of

. Police is at located in the Ueckermünder Heide () with the Świdwie Nature Reserve around Lake Świdwie near Tanowo and Dobra. A

kayak ] A kayak is a small, narrow human-powered watercraft typically propelled by means of a long, double-bladed paddle. The word ''kayak'' originates from the Inuktitut word '' qajaq'' (). In British English, the kayak is also considered to be ...

route follows the

Gunica Gunica is a small river in Poland, a left tributary of the Oder near Police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforce ...

River from Węgornik through Tanowo, Tatynia and Wieńkowo to Police-Jasienica. At the Szczecin Lagoon is a small

yacht A yacht () is a sail- or marine propulsion, motor-propelled watercraft made for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a ...

marina on the mouth of the Łarpia River (part of

Oder The Oder ( ; Czech and ) is a river in Central Europe. It is Poland's second-longest river and third-longest within its borders after the Vistula and its largest tributary the Warta. The Oder rises in the Czech Republic and flows through wes ...

) - 'Olimpia'. The ruins of the synthetic petrol plant (Hydrierwerke Pölitz – Aktiengeselschaft) are now a habitat of

bat Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...

s ( Barbastelle, Greater mouse-eared bat, Daubenton's Bat,

Natterer's bat Natterer's bat (''Myotis nattereri'') is a European Vespertilionidae, vespertilionid bat with pale wings. It has brown fur tending to greyish-white on its underside. It is found across most of the continent of Europe, parts of the Near East and No ...

, Brown long-eared bat).

Population

Infrastructure

Major roads under state control connect Police to Trzebież and Nowe Warpno, No. 114; to Tanowo, No. 114; and to

over Przęsocin. Main streets in Police include: ul. Tanowska, ul. Bankowa, ul. Grunwaldzka, ul. Kościuszki, ul. Jasienicka, ul. Dworcowa, ul. Piastów, ul. Wojska Polskiego, ul. Asfaltowa, ul. Cisowa, ul. Piłsudskiego, and ul. Wyszyńskiego. *Railway: :*

- Police - Trzebież *

Harbour A harbor (American English), or harbour (Commonwealth English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences), is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be Mooring, moored. The t ...

s: :* Port of Police:

Sea A sea is a large body of salt water. There are particular seas and the sea. The sea commonly refers to the ocean, the interconnected body of seawaters that spans most of Earth. Particular seas are either marginal seas, second-order section ...

:* Port of Police:

River A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

*Airport in

Goleniów Goleniów (; ) is a town in Pomerania, northwestern Poland with 22,844 inhabitants as of 2011. It is the capital of Goleniów County in West Pomeranian Voivodeship. The town's area is , and its geographical position is 53°33'N, 14°49'E. It is ...

, a town behind the

River ( Szczecin-Goleniów "Solidarność" Airport) *

Public transport Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whic ...

: **10

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...

lines in a town. Bus communication between all districts of a town, a few villages near Police ( Trzeszczyn, Tanowo, Siedlice, Leśno Górne, Pilchowo, Przęsocin, LS to Trzebież over Dębostrów, Niekłończyca and Uniemyśl) and

City. *

Taxicab A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a Driving, driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of thei ...

Culture and sport

* Chemik Police - football club * KPS Chemik Police - female volleyball club * Łarpia Sail Festival - shanty music festival - in May, periodic * ''Augustinian Fair'' (Polish: ''Jarmark Augustiański'') in Jasienica - at the end of August, periodic * Police Nationwide Quarter-Marathon (''Ćwierćmaraton Policki'') - in October, periodic * ''Police Music Days'' (Polish: ''Polickie Dni Muzyki "Cecyliada"'') - in October, periodic

Hospital

A clinic hospital in Police (Siedlecka Street, The New Town, Osiedle Gryfitów) is a part of The Pomeranian Medical University.

Notable residents

* Ludwig Hollonius (1570s-1621), pastor and playwright * Hans Modrow (1928–2023), former premier of

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

Major corporations

* Zakłady Chemiczne Police SA * Port of Police (The

Seaport A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Hamburg, Manc ...

, The

Barge A barge is typically a flat-bottomed boat, flat-bottomed vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. Original use was on inland waterways, while modern use is on both inland and ocean, marine water environments. The firs ...

Port, The 'Mijanka' cargo berth) *

Industrial Park An industrial park, also known as industrial estate or trading estate, is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development. An industrial park can be thought of as a more heavyweight version of a business park or office par ...

- Policki Park Przemysłowy ( Infrapark Police)

Twinning cities

The

sister cities A sister city or a twin town relationship is International relations, a form of legal or social agreement between two geographically and politically distinct localities for the purpose of promoting cultural and commercial ties. While there ar ...

of Police are: * Pasewalk, Germany * Novyi Rozdil, Ukraine *

Slagelse Slagelse () is a town on Zealand (Denmark), Zealand, Denmark. The town is the seat of Slagelse Municipality, and is the biggest town of the municipality. It is located 15 km east of Korsør, 16 km north-east of Skælskør, 33 km south-east of Ka ...

, Denmark

Towns near Police

, Poland * Nowe Warpno, Poland *

, Poland * Eggesin, Germany *

Ueckermünde Ueckermünde () is a seaport town in northeast Germany, located in the district of Vorpommern-Greifswald, Pomerania, Western Pomerania, near Germany's border with Poland's Police County. Ueckermünde has a long and varied history, going back to ...

, Germany * Pasewalk, Germany

References

; Notes

External links

Official town webpage

The Factory: Zakłady Chemiczne "Police"

Police Harbour

Jasienica VR360
{{Authority control Cities and towns in West Pomeranian Voivodeship Police County Populated riverside places in Poland Port cities and towns in Poland Sites of Nazi war crimes in Poland