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Contents

   



(Top)
 


1 Geographical location  





2 History  



2.1  Middle Ages  





2.2  Modern era  





2.3  World War II  





2.4  Recent period  





2.5  Number of inhabitants by year  







3 Coat of arms  





4 Sights  





5 Transport  





6 Sports  





7 English Language Camp  





8 Notable people  





9 Twin towns  sister cities  





10 References  





11 External links  














Tczew






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Coordinates: 54°515N 18°4750E / 54.08750°N 18.79722°E / 54.08750; 18.79722
 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 


Tczew
Tczew Market Square
Tczew Market Square
Flag of Tczew
Coat of arms of Tczew
Tczew is located in Poland
Tczew

Tczew

Coordinates: 54°5′15N 18°47′50E / 54.08750°N 18.79722°E / 54.08750; 18.79722
Country Poland
Voivodeship Pomeranian
County Tczew
GminaTczew (urban municipality)
Established12th century
City rights1260
Government
 • City mayorŁukasz Brządkowski
Area
 • Total22.26 km2 (8.59 sq mi)
Elevation
25 m (82 ft)
Population
 (31 December 2021)
 • Total59,111 Decrease[1]
Time zoneUTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code
83-110
Area code+48 58
Car platesGTC
Websitehttps://wrotatczewa.pl/

Tczew ([tt͡ʂɛf] , Kashubian: Dërszewò; formerly German: Dirschau) is a city on the Vistula River in Eastern Pomerania, Kociewie, northern Poland with 59,111 inhabitants (December 2021).[1] The city is known for its Old Town and the Vistula Bridge, or Bridge of Tczew, which played a key role in the Invasion of Poland during World War II.

It is the capital of Tczew County in the Pomeranian Voivodeship and the largest town of the ethnocultural region of Kociewie.

Geographical location[edit]

Tczew is located on the west bank of river Vistula, approximately 30 kilometres (19 miles) south of Gdańsk Bay at the Baltic Sea and 35 kilometres (22 miles) south-east of Gdańsk.

History[edit]

Middle Ages[edit]

Tczew (Trsow, Dersowe, ‘weaver's town’[2]) was first mentioned as Trsow in a document by Pomeranian Duke Grzymisław bestowing the land to the Knights Hospitaller in 1198.[3] Around 1200 Sambor I, Duke of Pomerania, built a fortress here.[2] In some documents, the name Derszewo appears, which stems from the name of a feudal lord, Dersław. It is unknown whether Trsow and Derszewo referred to the same or two neighboring settlements. In order to obtain better control of traffic on the Vistula, Pomeranian Duke Sambor II moved his residence from Lubiszewo Tczewskie to Tczew.[4] By 1252 the settlement was known by the names Tczew and Dirschau.

Medieval town walls

In 1258 a city council was created and in 1260 Tczew was granted town rights.[3] It is the only case in Poland for a city council to be established before granting city rights.[3] Craft and trade developed, there was a port on the Vistula and a mint.[3] Duke Mestwin II in 1289 brought the Dominican Order to the city.[3] It was part of Poland until 1308. Following the Treaty of Soldin in 1309, Tczew was purchased from BrandenburgbyHeinrich von Plötzke of the Teutonic Knights, despite the fact that the initial claims to the region by Brandenburg were of dubious legality.[5] The townspeople were expelled by the Teutonic Knights[6] and the town's organization ceased to exist for more than half a century. It was rebuilt from 1364 to 1384, and was granted Kulm lawbyWinrich von Kniprode. After the Polish victory in the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, the town was briefly recaptured by Poland.[4] In 1434 the town was burnt down by the Hussites. In 1440 the town joined the Prussian Confederation, opposing Teutonic Order's rule.[4][7] In 1457, during the Thirteen Years’ War, Bohemian mercenaries on the Order's service sold Tczew to Poland in lieu of indemnities.[8] The Second Peace of Thorn (1466) confirmed the reincorporation of Tczew to Poland. It became a county seat within the Pomeranian Voivodeship in the newly created Polish province of Royal Prussia, soon also part of the Greater Poland Province.

Modern era[edit]

During the Protestant Reformation most of the town's inhabitants converted to Lutheranism. In 1626, it was occupied by king Gustav II AdolfofSweden, who built a pontoon bridge across river Vistula and who had his camp at the southern side of the town.[2] After the war Tczew was visited twice by Polish King Władysław IV Vasa, in 1634/1635 and 1636.[9] Although it was rebuilt, it then suffered during the Polish-Swedish Wars. In a nearby battle on 2 September 1657, the Poles were defeated by the combined troops of Brandenburg and Sweden under general Josias II, Count of Waldeck-Wildungen.[2]

The bridge over Vistula in 1858

The region was annexed from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by the Kingdom of Prussia during the First Partition of Poland in 1772. Tczew, as Dirschau, became part of the newly founded Province of West Prussia. During the Napoleonic Wars and the Polish national liberation fights the town was captured by Polish troops of General Jan Henryk Dąbrowski in 1807, but became Prussian again in 1815. In 1818 Prussians closed down the Dominican monastery.[4] In October and November 1831, some Polish infantry, cavalry and artillery units of the November Uprising stopped in the city on the way to their internment places,[10] and later on, one of the insurgents' main escape routes from partitioned Poland to the Great Emigration led through the city.[11]

With the unification of Germany, the town became part of the German Empire in 1871 and from 1887 was the capital of the Dirschau district in the province of West Prussia. The town grew rapidly during the 19th century after the opening of the Prussian Eastern Railway line connecting Berlin and Königsberg, with the Vistula bridge near Dirschau being an important part.

Under Prussian and German rule, the Polish population suffered from forced Germanization; for example Poles were denied Polish schools, and refused to teach their children German. The German official Heinrich Mettenmeyer wrote that German-appointed teachers were treated with the highest disdain by Polish children and their parents.[12] The town remained a center of Polish resistance, and Poles established various organizations, including the Bank Ludowy ("People's Bank").[4] According to the census of 1910, Dirschau had a population of 16,894, of which 15,492 (91.7%) were Germans and 1,397 (8.3%) were Poles.[13][14]

Maritime Academy in Tczew in the 1920s

After Poland regained independence in 1918, local Poles formed the People's Council in preparation for reintegration with Poland.[4] After World War I as a consequence of the Treaty of Versailles, Tczew became part of the so-called Polish Corridor and was incorporated into the re-established Polish state. The official handover happened on January 10, 1920, and on January 30, Polish General Józef Haller arrived in the town with his troops. The town became a center of cultural activities of the German minority in Poland, a German-language school and a theater was founded.[citation needed] The regional member of the Polish Parliament represented the German minority. In this period, the proportion of Germans in the town decreased drastically from over 90% in 1910 to around 9% in 1939. In 1921, Tczew had a population of 16,250, of which 4,600 (28.3%) were Germans.

During the Interwar period, Tczew was famous for its maritime academy (Szkoła Morska) which later moved to Gdynia.[3]

World War II[edit]

The Vistula bridge demolished by sappers of the Polish Army in September 1939 after the Wehrmacht invasion

According to the city's website, Tczew was the location of the start of World War II when German bombers attacked Polish sapper installations to prevent the bridges from being blown up at 04:34 on 1 September 1939 (the shelling of Westerplatte commenced at 04:45). The Germans sent two trains with soldiers to capture the bridges, disguised as freight trains, but thanks to Polish railroaders at Szymankowo, they came late, losing surprise factor, and the bridges were blown up after 6 am that day.[15]

During the German occupation of Poland (1939–45) Tczew, as Dirschau, was annexed into the newly formed province of Reichsgau Danzig-West PrussiaofNazi Germany. The Polish population was subjected to mass arrests, repressions, expulsions and murder. The SS-Heimwehr-Sturmbann Götze entered the town in September 1939 to carry out actions against Poles, including mass arrests with the help of local Germans organized in the Selbstschutz, who denounced local Polish activists.[16] The Germans imprisoned hundreds of Poles in camps established in a former factory (present-day museum), in a craft school and in military barracks.[17] In November 1939, Germans carried out executions of numerous Poles from Tczew, including local teachers, officials (including pre-war mayor Karol Hempel,) craftsmen, a policeman, and even a seventeen-year-old student.[18] Catholic priests from Pelplin, who were not murdered in Pelplin, were imprisoned in the Tczew barracks and then murdered in the Szpęgawski Forest (see also Nazi persecution of the Catholic Church in Poland).[19] In January 1940, the SS and Selbstschutz carried out two public executions of 33 Polish residents, including railway employees, officials, craftsmen and merchants, at the market square.[20] Also Poles from Starogard and Tuchola counties, who refused to sign the Volksliste, were imprisoned in Tczew and then murdered in a nearby forest.[21] From 1939 to 1941, the Einsatzgruppe operated a penal forced labour camp in the town.[22]

Monument to Poles murdered in Tczew by the Germans during World War II

In 1941, the Germans created a transition camp for Poles expelled from the region in a local factory (present-day museum).[23][24] People were held there for several weeks, and then expelled to the General Government.[23] Hundreds of Polish inhabitants of Tczew were expelled in 1940 and 1941.[25] Some inhabitants were also deported to forced labour to Germany.[4] In 1943, local Poles managed to save some kidnapped Polish children from the Zamość region, by buying them from the Germans at the local train station.[26]

After World War II the town, was one of the most damaged cities of Gdańsk Pomerania. Virtually none of its remaining factories were capable of production. There had been considerable loss of population down to around 18-20 thousand people. Shortly before the end of World War II it was occupied by the Soviet Army. After the end of war the town became part of People's Republic of Poland and renamed Tczew again. German residents were dispossessed and expelled; Polish residents took the first effort of reconstruction, and revitalization.[27]

Recent period[edit]

From 1975 to 1998, it was administratively located in the Gdańsk Voivodeship. In 1984 the Museum of the Vistula River, a branch of the National Maritime MuseuminGdańsk, was opened in the building of the pre-war metal products factory, in which during World War II Germans operated a transit camp for Poles expelled from the region.[24]

Currently, there are several companies in the electrical industry and machine building.

January 30, i.e. the date of Tczew's return to Poland after the partition period, is celebrated as Tczew Day.[3]

Number of inhabitants by year[edit]

Road and railway bridges on the Vistula river in Tczew
Year Number
1772 1,442
1782 1,587
1831 2,310
1875 9,713
1880 10,939
1890 11,897
1900 12,808
1905 14,164
1921 16,250
1943 25,869
1960 33,700
1970 41,100
1980 53,600
1990 59,500
2000 61,200
2009 60,279
2020 59,430

Note that the above table is based on primary sources which may be biased:[2][28][29][30]

Coat of arms[edit]

The coat of arms of Tczew depicts a red griffin in honor of Duke Sambor II, who granted the town municipal rights in 1260.

Sights[edit]

Sights of Tczew (examples)
Józef Haller Square
Church of Exaltation of the Cross
Saint Stanislaus Kostka church
Road bridge
Museum of the Vistula River
Main post office
Town Hall
Municipal Park
Municipal Public Library
Five-sailed windmill

Transport[edit]

Tczew train station

It is an important railway junction with a classification yard. The Polish A1 motorway runs nearby, west of the city.

Sports[edit]

Sports clubs in Tczew include Unia Tczew (football and rowing), Wisła Tczew (football and boxing) and Sambor Tczew (handball, athletics and swimming).[31]

English Language Camp[edit]

For the last 19 years, the town has been the host location for the annual English Language Camp. The camp, often nicknamed "Camp Tczew" is hosted by the American-Polish Partnership for Tczew and offers students a three-week program where they have the opportunity to interact with Americans and improve their English.

Notable people[edit]

  • Johann Reinhold Forster (1729–1798), Reformed (Calvinist) pastor and naturalist, contributed to early ornithology
  • Bernhard Kamnitzer (1890–1959), German jurist and Senator of the Free City of Danzig
  • Alfred Eisenstaedt (1898–1995), German-born American photographer and photojournalist
  • Roman Korynt (1929–2018), footballer, played 327 games for Lechia Gdańsk and 32 for Poland
  • Kazimierz Zimny (born 1935), athlete, competed at the 1960 Summer Olympics
  • Teresa Budzisz-Krzyżanowska (born 1942), stage and film actress
  • Grzegorz Kołodko (born 1949), professor of economics, former deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance
  • Barbara Wenta-Wojciechowska (born 1953), rower, competed in the 1976 Summer Olympics
  • Janusz Akermann (born 1957), painter and Professor of Fine Arts in Gdańsk
  • Grzegorz Ciechowski (1957–2001), singer, composer, record producer, leader of Republika
  • Czesława Kościańska (born 1959), rower, competed in the 1980 Summer Olympics
  • Krzysztof Kosedowski (born 1960), boxer, bronze medallist at the 1980 Summer Olympics
  • Leon Koźmiński (1904–1993), economist and academic, Home Army member
  • Wojciech Wentura (born 1972), musician, actor, composer, pianist and Polish Operatic tenor
  • Jarosław Kukowski (born 1972), contemporary painter dealing with moral and social issues
  • Kornelia Stawicka (born 1973), swimmer, competed in the 1988 Summer Olympics
  • Sebastian Wenta (born 1975), shot putter, strongman and Highland Games competitor
  • Zbigniew Grzybowski (born 1976), footballer
  • Zbigniew Robert Promiński (born 1978), black/death metal drummer
  • Michał Zblewski (born 1980), bobsledder competed in the 2010 Winter Olympics
  • Piotr Trochowski (born 1984), footballer, 280 pro games and 35 for Germany
  • Bartosz Piasecki (born 1986), Norwegian fencer
  • Paweł Wszołek (born 1992), footballer, over 200 pro games and 11 for Poland
  • Agnieszka Buczyńska (born 1986), politician
  • Twin towns – sister cities[edit]

    Tczew is twinned with:[32]

  • Israel Lev HaSharon, Israel (1997)
  • Lithuania Biržai, Lithuania (1998)
  • Germany Werder, Germany (1998)
  • England Barking and Dagenham, England, United Kingdom (1999)
  • Poland Dębno, Poland (2000)
  • France Beauvais, France (2005)
  • Ukraine Chornomorsk, Ukraine (2006)
  • Latvia Aizkraukle, Latvia (2007)
  • Former twin towns:

    On 8 March 2022, Tczew ended its partnership with the Russian city of Kursk and the Belarusian city of Slutsk as a response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[33]

    References[edit]

    1. ^ a b "Local Data Bank". Statistics Poland. Retrieved 18 August 2022. Data for territorial unit 2214011.
  • ^ a b c d e Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon, 6th edition, Vol. 5, Leipzig and Vienna 1903, p. 43.
  • ^ a b c d e f g "Historia miasta Tczewa". Tcz.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 22 October 2019.
  • ^ a b c d e f g "W grodzie Sambora II". Retrieved 15 April 2020.
  • ^ Norman Davies. God's Playground: A History of Poland in Two Volumes. Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-19-925339-0.
  • ^ Mikołajczyk, Witold (2009). Wojny polsko-krzyżackie (in Polish). Wydawnictwo Replika Zakrzewo. p. 26.
  • ^ Górski, Karol (1949). Związek Pruski i poddanie się Prus Polsce: zbiór tekstów źródłowych (in Polish). Poznań: Instytut Zachodni. p. XXXVII.
  • ^ Józef Wiesław Dyskant, Zatoka Świeża 1463, p. 115–116.
  • ^ "Wizyta Władysława IV". DawnyTczew.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 22 October 2019.
  • ^ 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. pp. 138, 140, 146.
  • ^ Umiński, Janusz (1998). "Losy internowanych na Pomorzu żołnierzy powstania listopadowego". Jantarowe Szlaki (in Polish). No. 4 (250). p. 16.
  • ^ Historia Pomorza, Tom 3, Część 2, Gerard Labuda Wydawnictwo Poznańskiego Towarzystwa Przyjaciół Nauk, 1996, page 144.
  • ^ Landesamt, Prussia (Kingdom) Statistisches (1912). Gemeindelexikon für die regierungsbezirke Allenstein, Danzig, Marienwerder, Posen, Bromberg und Oppeln: Auf grund der ergebnisse der volkszählung vom. 1. Dezember 1910 und anderer amtlicher quellen bearbeitet vom Königlich Preussischen Statistischen Landesamte (in German). verlag des Königlichen Statistischen Landesamts.
  • ^ "Willkommen bei Gemeindeverzeichnis.de". www.gemeindeverzeichnis.de. Retrieved 2021-04-12.
  • ^ Andrzej Ziółkowski. "1 września 1939 r. Fiasko Planu "Dirschau"" [1 September 1939. A fail of "Dirschau" plan]. Do Broni! (in Polish). No. special 2/2009. ZP Grupa. pp. 62–70. ISSN 1732-9450.
  • ^ Wardzyńska, Maria (2009). Był rok 1939. Operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczeństwa w Polsce. Intelligenzaktion (in Polish). Warszawa: IPN. pp. 106–107.
  • ^ Wardzyńska (2009), p. 109
  • ^ Wardzyńska (2009), p. 150
  • ^ Wardzyńska (2009), p. 155-156
  • ^ Wardzyńska (2009), p. 157
  • ^ Wardzyńska, Maria (2017). Wysiedlenia ludności polskiej z okupowanych ziem polskich włączonych do III Rzeszy w latach 1939-1945 (in Polish). Warszawa: IPN. p. 113. ISBN 978-83-8098-174-4.
  • ^ "Einsatzgruppen-Straflager Dirschau". Bundesarchiv.de (in German). Retrieved 7 September 2021.
  • ^ a b Wardzyńska (2017), p. 88
  • ^ a b c d "History of the building - Vistula River Museum". National Maritime Museum in Gdańsk. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
  • ^ Wardzyńska (2017), p. 71, 105, 107
  • ^ Kozaczyńska, Beata (2020). "Gdy zabrakło łez... Tragizm losu polskich dzieci wysiedlonych z Zamojszczyzny (1942-1943)". In Kostkiewicz, Janina (ed.). Zbrodnia bez kary... Eksterminacja i cierpienie polskich dzieci pod okupacją niemiecką (1939–1945) (in Polish). Kraków: Uniwersytet Jagielloński, Biblioteka Jagiellońska. p. 123.
  • ^ "Historia miasta Tczewa". Retrieved 15 April 2020.
  • ^ Johann Friedrich Goldbeck: Vollständige Topographie des Königreichs Preußen. Teil II, Marienwerder 1789, p. 52, no 2.
  • ^ Michael Rademacher: Deutsche Verwaltungsgeschichte Westpreußen, Kreis Dirschau Archived 2010-05-16 at the Wayback Machine (2006) (in German).
  • ^ August Eduard Preuß: Preußische Landes- und Volkskunde. Königsberg 1835, pp. 390–391, no. 24.
  • ^ "MKS Sambor Tczew" (in Polish). Retrieved 12 March 2023.
  • ^ "Miasta partnerskie i zaprzyjaźnione". wrotatczewa.pl (in Polish). Tczew. 21 April 2020. Retrieved 2021-04-02.
  • ^ "Tczew zrywa współpracę z miastami partnerskimi z Rosji i Białorusi" (in Polish). 9 March 2022. Retrieved 13 March 2022.
  • External links[edit]



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