Vanished kingdoms of Europe 4: Pomerania

The components of old Pomerania as they are on the map of 2020

Reaching back to my anglo-centric history education at school, I can recall nothing about Scandinavia – beyond the Vikings and how they impacted on our country. There was little or nothing about Northern Europe, represented by the implacable foe of Germany, scourge of two world wars, and the hidden Soviet Union, bogeyman of that era. Even in the last thirty years Germany has been substantially re-modelled and the USSR – the world’s largest empire – has ceased to exist.

Interesting then, to learn at this late stage of a voluminous and rich pre-20^th century history of what may be loosely termed Northern Europe. At the heart of this region lies a huge sea – the Baltic. It resembles the Mediterranean insofar as numerous countries rely on it for their maritime access to the great oceans of the world. The Baltic has a very tight outlet to the North Sea and thence the Atlantic (like the Dardanelles and Straits of Gibraltar at east and west ends of the Mediterranean respectively. This outlet, the Kattegat, is sufficiently narrow to be crossed by a series of bridges from Denmark to Sweden. Once mankind discovered the need for sea travel – for exploration and then trade – then geography began to determine history, which is filled with the politics and wars resulting from ‘control of the straits’, wherever they may be. All of which makes for an oblique introduction to Pomerania, and apparently insignificant strip of land straddling Germany and Poland on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea. The shore line of today’s Baltic gives sea access to no less than nine countries. Over time, most of these, and several of their predecessors, have controlled Pomerania.

Pomerania means, simply, ‘by the sea’, derived from old Polish/Slavic words ‘po morze’: It is – or was - a fairly unremarkable territory: a coastal strip of land stretching from today’s Gdansk in the east, at the outflow of the great river Vistula, to the smaller outflow of the river Recknitz between Szczecin and Rostock, nearly three hundred miles to the west along the southern Baltic shore. There is something of a west/east divide both in Pomerania’s geography and in the twists and turns of its history. The land is situated at the coastal northern end of the great European plain, and is often marshy, with many lakes and limited agricultural potential. There is hilly land to the south; the western coast is rugged, with peninsulas and many small islands, whereas to the east it is smooth, with the large lagoon of Gdansk (the Zalew-Wiślany) as its main feature. Today, Pomerania lies mostly in Poland.

100-1500 AD. Before the second millennium various tribes – Germanic and other cultures – occupied or passed through what could not have been a very enticing area. The first to settle and take control were the Poles, from the 10^th century onwards. In the past three hundred years Poland has had a very rough deal positioned between the hegemonic powers of Germany, Austria and Russia, but it was not always so. Until the partitions and subjugations began in 1772 (see VKE Post 22/1/2020) Poland was for centuries one of the leading and most enlightened nations in northern Europe. By the 12^th century, the first of Pomerania’s east-west divisions occurred with the western ‘Duchy of Pomerania’ becoming Christian, whereas the eastern ‘Duchy of Pomerelia’ came under control of a pagan Polish dynasty, the Samborides. Confused?* It gets worse, and I may have got this wrong. Pomerania came under the influence of the Holy Roman Empire, and the growing influence of Prussia and the Margrave of Brandenburg (a future dedicatee of Bach’s great concertos). Whereas Pomerelia remained part of Poland (and helpfully changed its name sometime later to the Duchy of Pomerania). So at some point, two separate Duchies of Pomerania existed, controlled by different powers. Think of Macedonia in the last fifty years, but there wasn’t a United Nations to sort out Pomerania. All changed with the advent in the fourteenth century of the Teutonic Knights. Their Baltic Crusades on behalf of the Pope sought to protect and extend their version of Christianity. During their advances north eastwards they annexed Eastern Pomerania (aka Pomerelia), leaving only the citadel at Gdansk unconquered. By 1466 the Teutonic Knights had been defeated and Pomerelia (aka Eastern Pomerania) was back under Polish control.

Pomerania after the Thirty Years War.
Note the hither/thither terminology

1500-1815. The Protestant Catholic schism that prompted the Thirty Years War in 1618 led to untold death and suffering not only in Pomerania but across central Europe. When it was over in 1648, Pomerania was split in three. Western Pomerania became part of Protestant Brandenburg Prussia; Pomerania east came into the orbit of the Protestant Swedish empire, one of the victors of the Thirty Years War. Pomerelia, meantime, reverted to Poland, and Catholicism. Fifty years of relative inactivity ensued until, in 1720, ambitious Prussia took advantage of relative weakness in Sweden, and took control of the southern parts of Swedish Pomerania. Then, during the partitions of poor Poland from 1772-1793 (See Post VKE Galicia 22/1/2020) Prussia swallowed Pomerelia. Finally after the Napoleonic wars and Treaty of Vienna in 1815, Prussia gained the remainder of Swedish Pomerania.

1870-1918. During the years leading up to German unification and the birth of the German Empire, Pomerania reverted to its east west configuration, although this time both parts were firmly under Prussian control. The western section was the ‘Prussian Province of Pomerania’, whilst what had been Pomerelia became part of the ‘Province of West Prussia’. I have no idea why. In any event, with the arrival of the German First Reich following the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, both these provinces became part of the empire. There followed a sustained period of Germanisation, with the consequent elimination of Polish influence and culture – a foretaste of even darker events in the 20^th century.

1918-1945. Surprisingly there were no major military actions or events during WW1, although the population suffered from hardships of poverty, unemployment and hunger like the rest of Germany’s civilian population. After the early major German victory at Tannenberg in 1914 (See WW1 Blog post 23/1/2015), the Russians did not threaten north eastern Germany again. At the end of the war, however, major unrest, even revolution occurred. The communist presence was strong in the early days of the Weimar Republic. As part of the Versailles and subsequent settlements territory was allocated to newly independent Poland. President Wilson had promised Poland access to the sea, and so the old Pomerelia was handed to Poland, creating the infamous Danzig corridor. Gdansk itself was named a free city. This unstable arrangement lasted only twenty years, disappearing in the run up to WW2. Ethnic Germans living in the Danzig corridor became another propaganda tool and a casus belli for Hitler. August 1939 saw the Nazi invasion of Poland, and four years of brutality followed. All Jews in Pomerania were exterminated, and many thousands of Poles suffered the same fate, or deportation to prison or forced labour. Relief, when it came, by the liberating Soviet Army was short lived. After 1945 all of Pomerania was behind the iron curtain, whether in the GDR or in Poland. Gdansk, of course, became the epicentre of the Solidarnosc freedom movement that contributed to the collapse of the USSR in the late 1980s.

Today, what was Pomerania exists in the form of voivodeships (provinces) in democratic Poland – West Pommerania with Szczecin as its capital, and Pommerania, with Gdansk. Across the national border in re-unified Germany, Mecklenberg-Vorpommern includes the remnant of Western Pomerania.

A Pedigree Pomeranian

Was Pomerania ever really a kingdom? After all this, it seems not. Constantly split and reformed by rival nations, it has been a Duchy; multiple Duchies; provinces and voivodeships. Like most subjects in this series it has suffered terrible hard times and emerged on the other side. That at least is a comfort. And its dogs are famous.

* There is also a German based nomenclature that refers to Hither and Farther Pomerania, not attempted in this blog.