History of Pomerania

[9][10][11][12][13][14][15] In the High Middle Ages, the area became Christian and was ruled by local dukes of the House of Pomerania and the Samborides, at various times vassals of Denmark, the Holy Roman Empire and Poland.

Meanwhile, the Ostsiedlung started to turn Pomerania into a German-settled area; the remaining Wends, who became known as Slovincians and Kashubians, continued to settle within the rural East.

[21][22] In 1325, the line of the princes of Rügen died out, and the principality was inherited by the House of Pomerania,[23] themselves involved in the Brandenburg-Pomeranian conflict about superiority in their often internally divided duchy.

After Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II, the German–Polish border was shifted west to the Oder–Neisse line and all of Pomerania was placed under Soviet military control.

After the glaciers of the Vistula Glacial Stage retreated from Pomerania during the Allerød oscillation,[2] a warming period that falls within the Early Stone Age, they left a tundra.

[66] Veneti, Germanic peoples (Goths, Rugians, and Gepids) and possibly Slavs are assumed to have been the bearers of these cultures or parts thereof.

[67] The southward movement of Germanic tribes and Veneti during the Migration Period had left Pomerania largely depopulated by the 7th century.

[9][75] Meanwhile, Polish Piasts managed to acquire parts of eastern Pomerania during the late 960s, where the Diocese of Kołobrzeg was installed in 1000 AD.

[10][12][13][failed verification][14][15][76][77][78][79][80] During the first half of the 11th century, the Liuticians participated in the Holy Roman Empire's wars against Piast Poland.

[83] The Liutician capital was destroyed by the Germans in 1068/69,[84] making way for the subsequent eastward expansion of their western neighbour, the Obodrite state.

[86] In the early 12th century, Obodrite, Polish, Saxon, and Danish conquests resulted in vassalage and Christianization of the formerly pagan and independent Pomeranian tribes.

[92] Monasteries were founded at Grobe, Kolbatz, Gramzow, and Belbuck which supported Pomerania's Christianization and advanced German settlements.

[95] The dukes of Pomerania expanded their realm into Circipania and Uckermark to the Southwest, and competed with the Margraviate of Brandenburg for territory and formal overlordship over their duchies.

To the east of the Oder this development occurred later; in the area from Stettin eastward, the number of German settlers in the 12th century was still insignificant.

Garrison, plunder, numerous battles, famine and diseases left two thirds of the population dead and most of the country ravaged.

[147] Brandenburg-Prussia was able to integrate southern Swedish Pomerania into her Pomeranian province during the Great Northern War, which was confirmed in the Treaty of Stockholm in 1720.

[156] The Industrial Revolution had an impact primarily on the Stettin area and the infrastructure, while most of the province retained a rural and agricultural character.

[157] Since 1850, the net migration rate was negative, Pomeranians emigrated primarily to Berlin, the West German industrial regions and overseas.

After the First World War, under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the Pomeranian Voivodeship of the Second Polish Republic was established from the bulk of West Prussia.

[163] The German minority in the newly created Polish Republic moved to Germany in large numbers, mostly of their own free will and due to their economic situation.

After the Kaiser's abdication, democracy and the women's right to vote were introduced to the Weimar Republic and through it to the Free State of Prussia and the Province of Pomerania of which it was a part.

[168] Between 1920 and 1932, the government of the state of Prussia was led by the Social Democrats, with Otto Braun Prussian minister-president almost continuously during this time.

Concerning Pomerania, Nazi diplomacy aimed at incorporation of the Free City of Danzig and a transit route through the corridor, which was rejected by the Polish government.

Inhabitants of the region from all ethnic backgrounds were subject to numerous atrocities by Nazi Germany forces, of which the most affected were Polish and Jewish civilians.

[188][189] Around 70 camps were set up for Polish populations in Pomerania where they were subjected to murder, torture and in case of women and girls, rape before executions.