Gdańsk is among the most visited cities in Poland, having received 3.4 million tourists according to data collected in 2019.[11] The city also hosts St. Dominic's Fair, which dates back to 1260,[12] and is regarded as one of the biggest trade and cultural events in Europe.[13] 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.[14][15][16][17]
Names
Origin
A manuscript fragment featuring gyddanyzc
The name of the city was most likely derived from Gdania, a river presently known as Motława on which the city is situated.[18] Other linguists also argue that the name stems from the Proto-Slavicadjective/prefixgъd-, which meant 'wet' or 'moist' with the addition of the morphemeń/ni and the suffix-sk.[19]
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[20] in 1228, Gdańsk in 1236,[b]Danzc in 1263, Danczk in 1311,[c]Danczik in 1399,[d]Danczig in 1414, and Gdąnsk in 1656.[21]
In Polish documents, the form Gdańsk was always used. The German form Danzig developed later, simplifying the consonant clusters to something easier for German speakers to pronounce.[22] The cluster "gd" became "d" (Danzc from 1263),[23] the combination "ns" became "nts" (Danczk from 1311).,[23] and finally an epenthetical "i" broke up the final cluster (Danczik from 1399).[23]
In Polish, the modern name of the city is pronounced [ɡdaj̃sk]ⓘ. In English (where the diacritic over the "n" is frequently omitted) the usual pronunciation is /ɡəˈdænsk/ or /ɡəˈdɑːnsk/. The German name, Danzig, is usually pronounced [ˈdantsɪç]ⓘ, or alternatively [ˈdantsɪk]ⓘ 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 Polish/Slavonic city's name, all German- and Latin/Romance-speaking populations always encounter in trying to pronounce the difficult and complex Polish/Slavonic words.
Ceremonial names
On special occasions, the city is also referred to as "The Royal Polish City of Gdańsk" (Polish: Królewskie Polskie Miasto Gdańsk, Latin: Regia Civitas Polonica Gedanensis, Kashubian: Królewsczi Pòlsczi Gard Gduńsk).[24][25][26] In the Kashubian language the city is called Gduńsk. Although some Kashubians may also use the name "Our Capital City Gduńsk" (Nasz Stoleczny Gard Gduńsk) or "Our (regional) Capital City Gduńsk" (Stoleczny Kaszëbsczi Gard 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.[27]
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 BCE). The settlement that is now known as Gdańsk began in the 9th century, being mostly an agriculture and fishing-dependent village.[28][29] In the beginning of the 10th century, it began becoming an important centre for trade (especially between the Pomeranians) until its annexation in c. 975 by Mieszko I.[30]
Early Poland
The largest medieval port crane in Europe, situated over the river Motława.[31]
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 [i.e., Bolesław the Brave of Poland] from the sea."[32] No further written sources exist for the 10th and 11th centuries.[32] Based on the date in Adalbert's vita, the city celebrated its millennial anniversary in 1997.[33]
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.[34] The oldest seventeen settlement levels were dated to between 980 and 1308.[33]Mieszko I of Poland erected a stronghold on the site in the 980s, thereby connecting the Polish state ruled by the Piast dynasty with the trade routes of the Baltic Sea.[35] Traces of buildings and housing from the 10th century have been found in archaeological excavations of the city.[36]
Pomeranian Poland
Excavated remains of 12th-century buildings in Gdańsk
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.[37] 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 Swietopelk II of the Samborides during a war between Swietopelk and the Teutonic Knights, during which Lübeck supported the latter. Migration of merchants to the town resumed in 1257.[38] Significant German influence did not reappear until the 14th century, after the takeover of the city by the Teutonic Knights.[39]
At latest in 1263 Pomerelian duke, Swietopelk II granted city rights under Lübeck law to the emerging market settlement.[40] It was an autonomy charter similar to that of Lübeck, which was also the primary origin of many settlers.[37] In a document of 1271 the Pomerelian duke Mestwin II addressed the Lübeck merchants settled in the city as his loyal citizens from Germany.[41][42]
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.[43]
Teutonic Knights
Monument to defenders of Polish Gdańsk also commemorates the victims of the 1308 massacre carried out by the Teutonic Knights.
In 1308, the town was taken by Brandenburg and the Teutonic Knights restored order. Subsequently, the Knights took over control of the town. Primary sources record a massacre carried out by the Teutonic Knights against the local population,[44] of 10,000 people, but the exact number killed is subject of dispute in modern scholarship.[45] Multiple authors accept the number given in the original sources,[46] while others consider 10,000 to have been a medieval exaggeration, although scholarly consensus is that a massacre of some magnitude did take place.[45] The events were used by the Polish crown to condemn the Teutonic Knights in a subsequent papal lawsuit.[45][47]
The knights colonized the area, replacing local Kashubians and Poles with German settlers.[46] In 1308, they founded Osiek Hakelwerk near the town, initially as a Slavic fishing settlement.[44] In 1340, the Teutonic Knights constructed a large fortress, which became the seat of the knights' Komtur.[48] In 1346 they changed the Town Law of the city, which then consisted only of the Rechtstadt, to Kulm law.[49] In 1358, Danzig joined the Hanseatic League, and became an active member in 1361.[50] It maintained relations with the trade centres Bruges, Novgorod, Lisboa, and Sevilla.[50] Around 1377, the Old Town was equipped with city rights as well.[51] In 1380, the New Town was founded as the third, independent settlement.[44]
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 Knights 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.[52] 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.[53]
Kingdom of Poland
Apotheosis of Gdańsk by Izaak van den Blocke. The Vistula-borne trade of goods in Poland was the main source of prosperity during the city's Golden Age.
In 1440, the city participated in the foundation of the Prussian Confederation which was an organisation opposed to the rule of the Teutonic Knights. The organisation in its complaint of 1453 mentioned repeated cases in which the Teutonic Knights imprisoned or murdered local patricians and mayors without a court verdict.[54] On the request of the organisation King Casimir IV of Poland reincorporated the territory to the Kingdom of Poland in 1454.[55] 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.[56] The local mayor pledged allegiance to the King during the incorporation in March 1454 in Kraków,[57] and the city again solemnly pledged allegiance to the King in June 1454 in Elbląg, recognizing the prior Teutonic annexation and rule as unlawful.[58] On 25 May 1457 the city gained its rights as an autonomous city.[59]
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.[60] With the Great Privilege, the town was granted full autonomy and protection by the King of Poland.[61] 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 its own coin.[60] Furthermore, the privilege united Old Town, Osiek, and Main Town, and legalised the demolition of New Town, which had sided with the Teutonic Knights.[60] By 1457, New Town was demolished completely, no buildings remained.[44]
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.[62] 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.[63] 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").[64]
Beside a majority of German-speakers,[68] whose elites sometimes distinguished their German dialect as Pomerelian,[69] the city was home to a large number of Polish-speaking Poles, Jewish Poles, Latvian-speakingKursenieki, 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.[70] 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.[71]
Old Town in the 1770s with the Saint James church on the left and Saint Bartholomew church on the right
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 in the Baltic region.[72] The Danzig Research Society, which became defunct in 1936, was founded in 1743.[73]
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.[74]
Prussia and Germany
Danzig was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia in 1793,[75] in the Second Partition of Poland. Both the Polish and the German-speaking population largely opposed the Prussian annexation and wished the city to remain part of Poland.[76] The mayor of the city stepped down from his office due to the annexation.[77] 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.[78] An attempted student uprising against Prussia led by Gottfried Benjamin Bartholdi was crushed quickly by the authorities in 1797.[79][80][81]
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.[75] 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.[86]
An aerial view of the historic city centre around 1920
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.[87] 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)[88] – 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.[89] 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.[89] The Free City had its own constitution, national anthem, parliament, and government (Senat). It issued its own stamps as well as its currency, the Danzig gulden.[87]
With the growth of Nazism among Germans, anti-Polish sentiment increased and both Germanisation and segregation policies intensified, in the 1930s the rights of local Poles were commonly violated and limited by the local administration.[89] Polish children were refused admission to public Polish-language schools, premises were not allowed to be rented to Polish schools and preschools.[90] Due to such policies, only eight Polish-language public schools existed in the city, and Poles managed to organize seven more private Polish schools.[90]
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 GauleiterAlbert 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.[90] German militias carried out numerous beatings of Polish activists, scouts and even postal workers, as "punishment" for distributing the Polish press.[91] German students attacked and expelled Polish students from the technical university.[91] Dozens of Polish surnames were forcibly Germanized,[91] while Polish symbols 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.[92]
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.[92] 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 concentration camps.[93]
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.[94][95][96][97][98]
After the German proposals to solve the three main issues peacefully were refused, German-Polish relations rapidly deteriorated. Germany attacked Poland on 1 September after having signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union.[99]
The German attack began in Danzig, with a bombardment of Polish positions at Westerplatte by the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein, and the landing of German infantry on the peninsula. Outnumbered Polish defenders at Westerplatte resisted for seven days before running out of ammunition. Meanwhile, after a fierce day-long 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.[99] The city was officially annexed by Nazi Germany and incorporated into the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia.
About 50 percent of members of the Jewish community had left the city within a year after a pogrom in October 1937.[100] After the Kristallnacht riots in November 1938, the community decided to organize its emigration[101] and in March 1939 a first transport to Palestine started.[102] 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.[100][103] Out of the 2,938 Jewish community in the city, 1,227 were able to escape from the Nazis before the outbreak of war.[104]
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 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 Sicherheitsdienst camp Stutthof some 50 km (30 mi) from Danzig, and murdered.[105] Many Poles living in Danzig were deported to Stutthof or executed in the Piaśnica forest.[106]
In 1941, Hitler ordered the invasion of the Soviet Union, eventually causing the fortunes of war to turn against Germany. As the Soviet Army advanced in 1944, German populations in Central and Eastern Europe took flight, resulting in the beginning of a great population shift. After the 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 Wilhelm Gustloff after an evacuation was attempted at neighbouring Gdynia. In the process, tens of thousands of refugees were killed.[112]
The port of Gdańsk was one of the three Polish ports through which Greeks and Macedonians, refugees of the Greek Civil War, reached Poland.[120] 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.[120]
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.[121][122][123] Nineteenth-century transformations were ignored as "ideologically malignant" by post-war administrations, or regarded as "Prussian barbarism" worthy of demolition,[124][125] while Flemish/Dutch, Italian and French influences were emphasized in order to "neutralize" the German influx on the general outlook of the city.[126]
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 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.[127]
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 when 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.[128]
On 9 July 2001, the city was flooded, with 200 million 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.[129][130]
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.[131] 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.[119]
In January 2019, the Mayor of Gdańsk, Paweł Adamowicz, was 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.[132][133]
In October 2019, the City of Gdańsk was awarded the 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".[134]
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.[135]
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).[136] It actually depends on whether the mean reference temperature for the coldest winter month is set at −3 °C (27 °F) or 0 °C (32 °F). 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.[137]
The city has moderately cold and cloudy winters with mean temperature in January and February near or below 0 °C (32 °F) and mild summers with frequent showers and thunderstorms. Average temperatures range from −1.0 to 17.2 °C (30 to 63 °F) and average monthly rainfall varies 17.9 to 66.7 mm (1 to 3 in) per month with a rather low annual total of 507.3 mm (20 in). In general, the weather is damp, variable, and mild.[137]
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 30 to 35 °C (86 to 95 °F) 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 −15 °C (5 °F).[137]
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.[149]
Major companies based in Gdańsk include multinational clothing 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 210,000 bbl/d (33,000 m3/d).[150][149] Gdańsk also hosts the biennial BALTEXPO International Maritime Fair and Conference, the largest fair dedicated to the maritime industry in Poland.[151][152]
The largest shopping center located in the city is Forum Gdańsk,[153] which covers a large plot in the city centre.[154] In 2021, the registered unemployment rate in the city was estimated at 3.6%.[155]
Main sights
View of Gdańsk's Main Town from the Motława River (2012)
Architecture
Sights at the Royal Route
Highland Gate
Mansion of the Society of Saint George and Golden Gate
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,[156] 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.[157]
Walking from end to end, sites encountered on or near the Royal Route include:[157]
Highland Gate (Brama Wyżynna), which marks the beginning of the Royal Route
Torture House (Katownia) and Prison Tower (Wieża więzienna), now housing the Amber Museum (Muzeum Bursztynu)
New Jury House (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[164]
Golden House (Złota Kamienica), a distinctive Renaissance townhouse from the early 17th century, decorated with numerous reliefs and sculptures[165]
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.[180]
The city's core transport infrastructure includes Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport, an international airport located in Gdańsk,[181]
and the Szybka Kolej Miejska, (SKM)[182] 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.,[183] as well as the long-distance railways.
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.[185][186][187]
City buses and trams are operated by ZTM Gdańsk (Zarząd Transportu Miejskiego w Gdańsku).[188] The Port of Gdańsk is a seaport located on the southern coast of Gdańsk Bay, located within the city,[189] and the Obwodnica Trójmiejska and A1 autostrada allow for automotive access to the city.[190] 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 3,663 km (2,276 mi) long railway line passing through Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania.[191][192]
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,[207] several supra-regional branches of further central institutions,[208] as well as the supra-regional (appellate-level) institutions of justice.[209] 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.[210]
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.[211]
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 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[219][220]
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.[226]
German citizens began to flee en masse as the Soviet Red Army advanced, composed of both spontaneous flights driven by rumors of Soviet atrocities, and organised evacuation starting in the summer of 1944 which continued into the spring of 1945.[227] 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.[228] German civilians were also sent as "reparations labour" to the Soviet Union.[229][230]
Poles from other parts of Poland replaced the former German-speaking population, with the first settlers arriving in March 1945.[231] On 30 March 1945, the Gdańsk Voivodeship was established as the first administrative Polish unit in the Recovered Territories.[232] As of 1 November 1945, around 93,029 Germans remained within the city limits.[233] 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.[234]
The settlers can be grouped according to their background:
Poles incl. Kashubians relocating from nearby villages and small towns[237]
Settlers from central Poland migrating voluntarily[235]
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.[238]
^Stefan Ramułt, Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego, Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6.
^ abJohann Georg Theodor Grässe, Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benennungen der bekanntesten Städte etc., Meere, Seen, Berge und Flüsse in allen Theilen der Erde nebst einem deutsch-lateinischen Register derselben. T. Ein Supplement zu jedem lateinischen und geographischen Wörterbuche. Dresden: G. Schönfeld's Buchhandlung (C. A. Werner), 1861, p. 71, 237.
^"Local Data Bank". Statistics Poland. Retrieved 18 July 2022. Data for territorial unit 2261000.
^ abHess, Corina (2007). Danziger Wohnkultur in der frühen Neuzeit. Berlin-Hamburg-Münster: LIT Verlag. p. 40. ISBN978-3-8258-8711-7.
^Zbierski, Andrzej (1978). Struktura zawodowa, spoleczna i etnicza ludnosci. In Historia Gdanska, Vol. 1. Wydawnictwo Morskie. pp. 228–9. ISBN978-83-86557-00-4.
^Turnock, David (1988). The Making of Eastern Europe: From the Earliest Times to 1815. Routledge. p. 180. ISBN978-0-415-01267-6.
^Harlander, Christa (2004). Stadtanlage und Befestigung von Danzig (zur Zeit des Deutschen Ordens). GRIN Verlag. p. 2. ISBN978-3-638-75010-3.
^Lingenberg, Heinz (1982). Die Anfänge des Klosters Oliva und die Entstehung der deutschen Stadt Danzig: die frühe Geschichte der beiden Gemeinwesen bis 1308/10. Klett-Cotta. p. 292. ISBN978-3-129-14900-3.
^'The Slippery Memory of Men': The Place of Pomerania in the Medieval Kingdom of Poland by Paul Milliman p. 73, 2013
^Hess, Corina (2007). Danziger Wohnkultur in der frühen Neuzeit. Berlin-Hamburg-Münster: LIT Verlag. pp. 40–41. ISBN978-3-8258-8711-7.
^ abcdHess, Corina (2007). Danziger Wohnkultur in der frühen Neuzeit. Berlin-Hamburg-Münster: LIT Verlag. p. 41. ISBN978-3-8258-8711-7.
^Hess, Corina (2007). Danziger Wohnkultur in der frühen Neuzeit. Berlin-Hamburg-Münster: LIT Verlag. pp. 41–42. ISBN978-3-8258-8711-7.
^Frankot, Edda (2012). 'Of Laws of Ships and Shipmen': Medieval Maritime Law and its Practice in Urban Northern Europe. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. p. 100. ISBN978-0-7486-4624-1.
^ abHess, Corina (2007). Danziger Wohnkultur in der frühen Neuzeit. Berlin-Hamburg-Münster: LIT Verlag. p. 42. ISBN978-3-8258-8711-7.
^Loew, Peter O. (2011). Danzig: Biographie einer Stadt. München: C.H. Beck. p. 43. ISBN978-3-406-60587-1.
^ abcHess, Corina (2007). Danziger Wohnkultur in der frühen Neuzeit. Berlin-Hamburg-Münster: LIT Verlag. p. 45. ISBN978-3-8258-8711-7.
^Hess, Corina (2007). Danziger Wohnkultur in der frühen Neuzeit. Berlin-Hamburg-Münster: LIT Verlag. p. 45. ISBN978-3-8258-8711-7.: "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."
^"Gdańsk". Szlak Kopernikowski (in Polish). Retrieved 11 January 2024.
^de Graaf, Tjeerd (2004). The Status of an Ethnic Minority in Eurasia: The Mennonites and Their Relation with the Netherlands, Germany and Russia.
^Zamoyski, Adam (2015). Poland. A History. William Collins. pp. 26, 92. ISBN978-0007556212.
^Bömelburg, Hans-Jürgen, Zwischen polnischer Ständegesellschaft und preußischem Obrigkeitsstaat: vom Königlichen Preußen zu Westpreußen (1756–1806), München: Oldenbourg, 1995, (Schriften des Bundesinstituts für Ostdeutsche Kultur und Geschichte (Oldenburg); 5), zugl.: Mainz, Johannes Gutenberg-Univ., Diss., 1993, p. 549
^Wijaczka, Jacek (2010). "Szkoci". In Kopczyński, Michał; Tygielski, Wojciech (eds.). Pod wspólnym niebem. Narody dawnej Rzeczypospolitej (in Polish). Warszawa: Muzeum Historii Polski, Bellona. p. 201. ISBN978-83-11-11724-2.
^Andrzej Januszajtis, Karol Fryderyk von Conradi, "Nasz Gdańsk", 11 (196)/2017, p. 3 (in Polish)
^"Jan Uphagen". Gdańskie Autobusy i Tramwaje (in Polish). Archived from the original on 19 February 2019. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
^Dzieje Gdańska Edmund Cieślak, Czesław Biernat Wydawn. Morskie, 1969 p. 370
^Dzieje Polski w datach Jerzy Borowiec, Halina Niemiec p. 161
^Polska, losy państwa i narodu Henryk Samsonowicz 1992 Iskry p. 282
^Kubus, Radosław (2019). "Ucieczki z twierdzy Wisłoujście w I połowie XIX wieku". Vade Nobiscum (in Polish). XX. Łódź: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego: 154–155.
^Kasparek, Norbert (2014). "Żołnierze polscy w Prusach po upadku powstania listopadowego. Powroty do kraju i wyjazdy na emigrację". In Katafiasz, Tomasz (ed.). Na tułaczym szlaku... Powstańcy Listopadowi na Pomorzu (in Polish). Koszalin: Muzeum w Koszalinie, Archiwum Państwowe w Koszalinie. p. 177.
^"Rozmaite wiadomości". Gazeta Wielkiego Xięstwa Poznańskiego (in Polish). No. 155. Poznań. 6 July 1832. p. 852.
^Loew, Peter Oliver (207). "Danzig oder das verlorene Paradies. Vom Herausgeben und vom Hineinerzählen". Germanoslavica Zeitschrift für germano-slawische Studien. 28 (1–2). Hildesheim: Verlag Georg Olms: 109–122.
^Ergebnisse der Volks- und Berufszählung vom 1. November 1923 in der Freien Stadt Danzig (in German). Verlag des Statistischen Landesamtes der Freien Stadt Danzig. 1926.. Polish estimates of the Polish minority during the interwar era, however, range from 37,000 to 100,000 (9%–34%). Studia historica Slavo-Germanica, Tomy 18–20page 220 Uniwersytet Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu. Instytut Historii Wydawnictwo Naukowe imienia. Adama Mickiewicza, 1994.
^ abcWardzyńska, Maria (2009). Był rok 1939. Operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczeństwa w Polsce. Intelligenzaktion (in Polish). Warszawa: IPN. p. 37.
^"Gdansk, Poland". jewishgen.org. Archived from the original on 28 January 2018. Retrieved 27 January 2018.
^Żydzi na terenie Wolnego Miasta Gdańska w latach 1920–1945:działalność kulturalna, polityczna i socjalnaGrzegorz Berendt Gdańskie Tow. Nauk., Wydz. I Nauk Społecznych i Humanistycznych, 1997 p. 245
^"Zigeunerlager Danzig". Bundesarchiv.de (in German). Archived from the original on 18 September 2021. Retrieved 18 September 2021.
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^Gliński, Mirosław. "Podobozy i większe komanda zewnętrzne obozu Stutthof (1939–1945)". Stutthof. Zeszyty Muzeum (in Polish). 3: 165, 167–168, 175–176, 179. ISSN0137-5377.
^Voellner, Heinz (31 August 2020). "Bitwa o Gdańsk 1945". wiekdwudziesty.pl. Retrieved 9 August 2021.
^ abKubasiewicz, Izabela (2013). "Emigranci z Grecji w Polsce Ludowej. Wybrane aspekty z życia mniejszości". In Dworaczek, Kamil; Kamiński, Łukasz (eds.). Letnia Szkoła Historii Najnowszej 2012. Referaty (in Polish). Warszawa: IPN. p. 114.
^"Średnia dobowa temperatura powietrza". Normy klimatyczne 1991-2020 (in Polish). Institute of Meteorology and Water Management. Archived from the original on 3 December 2021. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
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^"Średnia maksymalna temperatura powietrza". Normy klimatyczne 1991-2020 (in Polish). Institute of Meteorology and Water Management. Archived from the original on 15 January 2022. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
^"Miesięczna suma opadu". Normy klimatyczne 1991-2020 (in Polish). Institute of Meteorology and Water Management. Archived from the original on 9 January 2022. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
^"Liczba dni z opadem >= 0,1 mm". Normy klimatyczne 1991-2020 (in Polish). Institute of Meteorology and Water Management. Archived from the original on 15 January 2022. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
^"Średnia grubość pokrywy śnieżnej". Normy klimatyczne 1991-2020 (in Polish). Institute of Meteorology and Water Management. Archived from the original on 15 January 2022. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
^"Liczba dni z pokrywą śnieżna > 0 cm". Normy klimatyczne 1991-2020 (in Polish). Institute of Meteorology and Water Management. Archived from the original on 21 January 2022. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
^"Średnia suma usłonecznienia (h)". Normy klimatyczne 1991-2020 (in Polish). Institute of Meteorology and Water Management. Archived from the original on 15 January 2022. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
^Arie Marcelo Kacowicz, Pawel Lutomski, Population resettlement in international conflicts: a comparative study, Lexington Books, 2007, pp. 100, 101 ISBN0-7391-1607-X[2]Archived 8 March 2021 at the Wayback Machine
^Spieler, Silke. ed. Vertreibung und Vertreibungsverbrechen 1945–1948. Bericht des Bundesarchivs vom 28. Mai 1974. Archivalien und ausgewählte Erlebnisberichte. Bonn: Kulturstiftung der deutschen Vertriebenen. (1989). ISBN3-88557-067-X. pp. 23–41
^Pavel Polian-Against Their Will: The History and Geography of Forced Migrations in the USSR Central European University Press 2003 ISBN963-9241-68-7 pp. 286-293
^Sylwia Bykowska (2020). The Rehabilitation and Ethnic Vetting of the Polish Population in the Voivodship of Gdańsk after World War II. Peter-Lang-Verlagsgruppe. p. 116. ISBN978-3-631-67940-1.
^Bykowska, Sylwia (2020). The Rehabilitation and Ethnic Vetting of the Polish Population in the Voivodship of Gdańsk after World War II. Peter Lang. p. 239. ISBN978-3-631-67940-1.
^ abcKarl Cordell, Andrzej Antoszewski, Poland and the European Union, 2000, p. 168, ISBN0-415-23885-4, ISBN978-0-415-23885-4: gives 4.55 million in the first years
^Selwyn Ilan Troen, Benjamin Pinkus, Merkaz le-moreshet Ben-Guryon, Organizing Rescue: National Jewish Solidarity in the Modern Period, pp. 283-284, 1992, ISBN0-7146-3413-1, ISBN978-0-7146-3413-5
^Grzegorz Waligóra; Łukasz Kamiński, eds. (2010). NSZZ Solidarność, 1980-1989: Wokół Solidarności (in Polish). Warszawa (Warsaw): Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni Przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu. p. 463. ISBN9788376291765. Archived from the original on 1 February 2022. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
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Kamusella, Tomasz (2004), "The Expulsion of the Population Categorized as 'Germans' from the Post-1945 Poland"(PDF direct download, 2.52 MB), Steffen Prauser and Arfon Rees (ed.), The Expulsion of the 'German' Communities from Eastern Europe at the End of the Second World War, European University Institute, Florence. Department of History and Civilization, pp. 21–30, EUI Working Paper HEC No. 2004/1, retrieved 17 August 2012
Śliwiński, Błażej (2006). "O rzece "Gdani" i początkach Gdańska. Uwagi historyka do ustaleń językoznawców" [About the river "Gdania" and the beginnings of Gdańsk. Historian's comments on the findings of linguists]. Acta Cassubiana. 8: 11–23.
The list includes the 107 urban municipalities governed by a city mayor (prezydent miasta) instead of a town mayor (burmistrz) · Cities with powiat rights are in italics · Voivodeship cities are in bold
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