Czaplinek [t͡ʂaˈplʲinɛk] ( German : Tempelburg ; Kashubian : Czôplënkò ) is a town in Drawsko County , West Pomeranian Voivodeship , Poland , with 7,012 inhabitants as of December 2021. It is situated between Drawsko and Czaplino lakes.
137-553: The former name of Tempelburg refers to the Templar Knights , which settled nearby at the orders of King Przemysł II . Until 1668, the town was part of Poland. Afterwards it was part of Brandenburg , Prussia and Germany, until the end of World War II . It is one of the northernmost towns of the historical region of Greater Poland . Czaplinek is a local tourist destination, which has the second deepest lake in Poland and
274-724: A monastic Catholic religious order for the protection of these pilgrims. King Baldwin and Patriarch Warmund agreed to the request, probably at the Council of Nablus in January 1120, and the king granted the Templars a headquarters in a wing of the royal palace on the Temple Mount in the captured Al-Aqsa Mosque . The order, with about nine knights including Godfrey de Saint-Omer and André de Montbard , had few financial resources and relied on donations to survive. Their emblem
411-404: A Nazi ethnic German organisation called Selbstschutz carried out executions during Intelligenzaktion alongside operational groups of German military and police, in addition to such activities as identifying Poles for execution and illegally detaining them. To Poles, expulsion of Germans was seen as an effort to avoid such events in the future. As a result, Polish exile authorities proposed
548-500: A document indicating the value of their deposit, then showed that document upon arrival in the Holy Land to claim treasure of equal value to their funds. This innovative arrangement was an early form of banking and may have been the first use of bank cheques ; it protected pilgrims from robbery, while augmenting Templar finances. Based on this mix of donations and business dealings, the Templars established financial networks across
685-628: A force of French, Spanish, and English Templars left France to join the Second Crusade , led by King Louis VII . At a meeting held in Paris on 27 April 1147 they were given permission by Pope Eugenius III to wear the red cross on their uniforms. They were led by the Templar provincial master in France, Everard des Barres , who was later one of the ambassadors that King Louis sent to negotiate
822-610: A large marina . The main market square features events, exhibitions and annual festivals. The oldest trace of a settlement dates back over 2,500 years; a palisade was once discovered on the island of Bielawa on Drawsko Lake , the second deepest lake in Poland, as well as in the village of Stare Drawsko . The area was initially inhabited by the Goths in the ancient times , followed by the West Slavs , whose settlements called gords were most likely burned down by Duke Bolesław III
959-640: A major Templar presence (France, Poitou , Anjou , Jerusalem, England , Spain , Portugal , Italy , Tripoli , Antioch , Hungary , and Croatia ) had a Master of the Order for the Templars in that region. All of them were subject to the Grand Master, appointed for life, who oversaw both the order's military efforts in the East and their financial holdings in the West. The Grand Master exercised his authority via
1096-528: A mixed Muslim-Christian heritage who became Christians, or members of the local population in Syria . Sometime in the 13th century, turcopole became a formal rank held by Templar brothers, including Latin Christians. Starting with founder Hugues de Payens, the order's highest office was that of Grand Master, a position which was held for life, though considering the martial nature of the order, this could mean
1233-602: A population transfer of Germans as early as 1941. The Czechoslovak government-in-exile worked with the Polish government-in-exile towards this end during the war. The participants at the Potsdam Conference asserted that expulsions were the only way to prevent ethnic violence. As Winston Churchill expounded in the House of Commons in 1944, "Expulsion is the method which, insofar as we have been able to see, will be
1370-606: A series of expulsions of ethnic Germans occurred throughout the Soviet-controlled Eastern European countries. Property and materiel in the affected territory that had belonged to Germany or to Germans was confiscated; it was either transferred to the Soviet Union, nationalised, or redistributed among the citizens. Of the many post-war forced migrations, the largest was the expulsion of ethnic Germans from Central and Eastern Europe, primarily from
1507-709: A tenth were actual knights. There was a threefold division of the ranks of the Templars: the noble knights, the non-noble sergeants, and the chaplains. The knights wear white mantles to symbolise their purity and chastity. The sergeants wore black or brown. All three classes of brothers wore the order's red cross. Before they received their monastic rule in 1129 at the Council of Troyes, the Templars were referred to only as knights ( milites in Latin), and after 1129 they were also called brothers of their monastic order. Therefore
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#17327913782641644-600: A tort et a péché. Il va bientôt arriver malheur à ceux qui nous ont condamnés à mort" ("God knows who is wrong and has sinned. Soon a calamity will occur to those who have condemned us to death"). Clement died only a month later, and Philip died while hunting within the same year. The remaining Templars around Europe were either arrested and tried under the Papal investigation (with virtually none convicted), absorbed into other Catholic military orders, or pensioned off and allowed to live out their days peacefully. By papal decree,
1781-592: A very short tenure. All but two of the Grand Masters died in office, and several died during military campaigns. For example, during the Siege of Ascalon in 1153, Grand Master Bernard de Tremelay led a group of 40 Templars through a breach in the city walls. When the rest of the Crusader army did not follow, the Templars, including their Grand Master, were surrounded and beheaded. Grand Master Gérard de Ridefort
1918-526: A year earlier), was sent to retake the town after it was captured by Muslims. They were initially successful, but the Muslims regrouped outside the town and were able to take it back from the Templars. The Order's mission also developed from protecting pilgrims to taking part in regular military campaigns early on, and this is shown by the fact that the first castle received by the Knights Templar
2055-646: The Baltic states , were evacuated to Nazi-occupied Denmark , based on an order issued by Hitler on 4 February 1945. When the war ended, the German refugee population in Denmark amounted to 5% of the total Danish population. The evacuation focused on women, the elderly and children—a third of whom were under the age of fifteen. After the war, the Germans were interned in several hundred refugee camps throughout Denmark,
2192-628: The Battle of Czaplinek took place, in which the First Polish Army defeated the forces of Nazi Germany and captured the town. Following Germany's defeat in 1945, Czaplinek, as part of historic Greater Poland, was finally reintegrated with Poland. The town's German population was expelled in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement . The remaining pre-war Polish inhabitants of the town, were joined by various other groups of Poles,
2329-521: The British captured it from the Ottoman Empire . The Templars were forced to relocate their headquarters to other cities in the north, such as the seaport of Acre , which they held for the next century. It was lost in 1291, followed by their last mainland strongholds, Tortosa ( Tartus in present-day Syria ) and Atlit (in present-day Israel ). Their headquarters then moved to Limassol on
2466-413: The Council of Pisa in 1135, Pope Innocent II initiated the first papal monetary donation to the Order. Another major benefit came in 1139, when Innocent II's papal bull Omne Datum Optimum exempted the order from obedience to local laws. This ruling meant that the Templars could pass freely through all borders, were not required to pay any taxes and were exempt from all authority except that of
2603-866: The First Austrian Republic after losing their privileged status in those foreign lands, where they had maintained minority communities. In 1919 ethnic Germans became national minorities in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Romania. In the following years, the Nazi ideology encouraged them to demand local autonomy. In Germany during the 1930s, Nazi propaganda claimed that Germans elsewhere were subject to persecution. Nazi supporters throughout eastern Europe (Czechoslovakia's Konrad Henlein , Poland's Deutscher Volksverband and Jungdeutsche Partei , Hungary's Volksbund der Deutschen in Ungarn ) formed local Nazi political parties sponsored financially by
2740-698: The German Ministry of Foreign Affairs , e.g. by the Hauptamt Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle . However, by 1939 more than half of Polish Germans lived outside of the formerly German territories of Poland due to improving economic opportunities. Notes: During the Nazi German occupation, many citizens of German descent in Poland registered with the Deutsche Volksliste . Some were given important positions in
2877-608: The Holy Land . The Templars were closely tied to the Crusades. As they became unable to secure their holdings in the Holy Land, support for the order faded. Rumours about the Templars' secret initiation ceremony created distrust, and King Philip IV of France , deeply in debt to the order, turned this distrust to his own advantage. In 1307, he pressured Pope Clement V to have many of the order's members in France arrested, tortured into giving false confessions, and then burned at
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#17327913782643014-627: The Holy Land . Although the city of Jerusalem was relatively secure under Christian control, the rest of Outremer was not. Bandits and marauding highwaymen preyed upon these Christian pilgrims, who were routinely slaughtered, sometimes by the hundreds, as they attempted to make the journey from the coastline at Jaffa through to the interior of the Holy Land. In 1119, the French knight Hugues de Payens approached King Baldwin II of Jerusalem and Warmund, Patriarch of Jerusalem , and proposed creating
3151-661: The Oder and from lands which from May 1945 fell inside the Soviet occupation zones. In 1941, his government had already transported Germans from Crimea to Central Asia. Between 1944 and 1948, millions of people, including ethnic Germans ( Volksdeutsche ) and German citizens ( Reichsdeutsche ), were permanently or temporarily moved from Central and Eastern Europe. By 1950, a total of about 12 million Germans had fled or been expelled from east-central Europe into Allied-occupied Germany and Austria . The West German government put
3288-713: The Polish Committee of National Liberation signed a treaty in Lublin on population exchanges of Ukrainians and Poles living on the "wrong" side of the Curzon Line . Many of the 2.1 million Poles expelled from the Soviet-annexed Kresy , so-called 'repatriants', were resettled to former German territories, then dubbed 'Recovered Territories'. Czech Edvard Beneš , in his decree of 19 May 1945, termed ethnic Hungarians and Germans "unreliable for
3425-644: The Second Polish Army , briefed his soldiers to "exact on the Germans what they enacted on us, so they will flee on their own and thank God they saved their lives." In Poland, which had suffered the loss of six million citizens, including its elite and almost its entire Jewish population due to Lebensraum and the Holocaust , most Germans were seen as Nazi-perpetrators who could now finally be collectively punished for their past deeds. Stalin, who had earlier directed several population transfers in
3562-675: The Soviet Union . The idea to expel the Germans from the annexed territories had been proposed by Winston Churchill , in conjunction with the Polish and Czechoslovak exile governments in London at least since 1942. Tomasz Arciszewski , the Polish prime minister in-exile , supported the annexation of German territory but opposed the idea of expulsion, wanting instead to naturalize the Germans as Polish citizens and to assimilate them. Joseph Stalin , in concert with other Communist leaders, planned to expel all ethnic Germans from east of
3699-542: The Temple Mount , and existed for nearly two centuries during the Middle Ages . Officially endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church by such decrees as the papal bull Omne datum optimum of Pope Innocent II , the Templars became a favoured charity throughout Christendom and grew rapidly in membership and power. The Templar knights, in their distinctive white mantles with a red cross , were among
3836-502: The Vatican Archives by Barbara Frale , apparently after having been filed in the wrong place in 1628. It is a record of the trial of the Templars and shows that Clement absolved the Templars of all heresies in 1308 before formally disbanding the order in 1312, as did another Chinon Parchment dated 20 August 1308 addressed to Philip IV of France , also mentioning that all Templars that had confessed to heresy were "restored to
3973-695: The historical German settlement areas , as well as the Soviet occupation zone in eastern Germany . The Allies settled on the terms of occupation , the territorial truncation of Germany , and the expulsion of ethnic Germans from post-war Poland , Czechoslovakia and Hungary to the Allied Occupation Zones in the Potsdam Agreement, drafted during the Potsdam Conference between 17 July and 2 August 1945. Article XII of
4110-620: The reborn Sunni regime in Egypt . Dissension arose among Christian factions in and concerning the Holy Land. The Knights Templar were occasionally at odds with the two other Christian military orders , the Knights Hospitaller and the Teutonic Knights , and decades of internecine feuds weakened Christian positions, both politically and militarily. After the Templars were involved in several unsuccessful campaigns, including
4247-424: The turcopolier commanded auxiliary forces, and the prior was the head of the church at the headquarters. The headquarters and its most senior officials were known as the convent and its role was to assist and advise the Grand Master with running the administration of the Order. No precise numbers exist, but it is estimated that at the order's peak, there were between 15,000 and 20,000 Templars, of whom about
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4384-652: The 1939 Nazi census remained in Czechoslovakia; however the Czechs counted 165,790 Germans remaining in December 1955. Male Germans with Czech wives were expelled, often with their spouses, while ethnic German women with Czech husbands were allowed to stay. According to the Schieder commission, Sudeten Germans considered essential to the economy were held as forced labourers . The West German government estimated
4521-636: The Cross, but only from my mouth and not from my heart"). The Templars were accused of idolatry and were charged with worshipping either a figure known as Baphomet or a mummified severed head they recovered, amongst other artefacts, at their original headquarters on the Temple Mount. Some have theorised that this head might have been believed to be that of John the Baptist , among other things. Relenting to King Phillip's demands, Pope Clement then issued
4658-591: The Crusaders states of Antioch, Tripoli , and Edessa his vassals between 1137 and 1142. Templar knights accompanied Emperor John II with troops from those states during his campaign against Muslim powers in Syria from 1137 to 1138, including at the sieges of Aleppo and Shaizar . In 1143, the Templars also began taking part in the Reconquista in Iberia at the request of the count of Barcelona . In 1147
4795-545: The Germans established a labor camp for Soviet POWs and prisoners in Czaplinek. A large group of ethnic Poles was also employed as forced labor . The town was part of the so-called Pomeranian Wall , which was a line of defense created by the Germans. It was constructed as a light defensive position in case of an attack from the Second Polish Republic . In the final stages of the war, on March 3, 1945,
4932-408: The Grand Master. These were held as temporary appointments rather than for life. The second-in-command of the Order was the seneschal . The highest ranking military official was the marshal , while the preceptor (who was also sometimes called the commander) was responsible for the administration and provisions. The draper was responsible for their uniforms, the treasurer was in charge of finance,
5069-474: The Holy Land. With the order's military mission now less important, support for the organization began to dwindle. The situation was complex, however, since during the two hundred years of their existence, the Templars had become a part of daily life throughout Christendom. The organization's Templar Houses, hundreds of which were dotted throughout Europe and the Near East , gave them a widespread presence at
5206-627: The Latin East. In the kingdoms of Castile and León, they obtained some major strongholds (such as Calatrava la Vieja or Coria ), but their vulnerablility along the border was exposed during the Almohad offensive. In Aragon, the Templars subsumed the Order of Mountjoy in the late 12th century, becoming an important vanguard force on the border, while in Portugal they commanded some castles along
5343-516: The Levant still under Muslim control. Gaza was given to the Knights Templar, becoming the first major Templar castle. In 1152 Everard stepped down as the Grand Master of the Order for unknown reasons, and his successor was Bernard de Tremelay . In January of the following year, Bernard led the Templars when King Baldwin III led a Crusader army to besiege Ascalon . Several months of fighting went by until
5480-695: The Middle East are vague, though it appears their first battles were defeats, because the Seljuk Turks and other Muslim powers used different tactics than those in Europe at that time. In later years, the Templars adapted to this and also became strategic advisors to the leaders of the Crusader states. The first recorded battle involving the Knights Templar was in the town of Teqoa , south of Jerusalem, in 1138. A force of Templars led by their Grand Master, Robert de Craon (who succeeded Hugues de Payens about
5617-514: The Nazi propaganda machine. Plans to evacuate the ethnic German population westward into Germany, from Poland and the eastern territories of Germany, were prepared by various Nazi authorities toward the end of the war. In most cases, implementation was delayed until Soviet and Allied forces had defeated the German forces and advanced into the areas to be evacuated. The abandonment of millions of ethnic Germans in these vulnerable areas until combat conditions overwhelmed them can be attributed directly to
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5754-710: The Order of Solomon's Temple, and mainly the Knights Templar ( French : Les Chevaliers Templiers ), or simply the Templars ( French : Les Templiers ). The Temple Mount where they had their headquarters had a mystique because it was above what was believed to be the ruins of the Temple of Solomon . After the Franks in the First Crusade captured Jerusalem from the Fatimid Caliphate in 1099, many Christians made pilgrimages to various sacred sites in
5891-436: The Order on 26 February 1310: Henri Zappellans or Chapelain, Anceau de Rocheria, Enard de Valdencia, Guillaume de Roy, Geoffroy de Cera or de La Fere-en-Champagne, Robert Harle or de Hermenonville, and Dreux de Chevru. Some had sufficient legal experience to defend themselves in the trials , but in 1310, having appointed the archbishop of Sens , Philippe de Marigny, to lead the investigation, Philip blocked this attempt, using
6028-415: The Order was assigned "4 horses, and one chaplain-brother and one clerk with three horses, and one sergeant brother with two horses, and one gentleman valet to carry his shield and lance, with one horse". As the order grew, more guidelines were added, and the original list of 72 clauses was expanded to several hundred in its final form. Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944%E2%80%931950) During
6165-704: The Russian Empire , and the German Empire at the end of World War I, the Treaty of Versailles pronounced the formation of several independent states in Central and Eastern Europe, in territories previously controlled by these imperial powers. None of the new states were ethnically homogeneous. After 1919, many ethnic Germans emigrated from the former imperial lands back to the Weimar Republic and
6302-403: The Sacraments and to the unity of the Church". This other Chinon Parchment has been well known to historians, having been published by Étienne Baluze in 1693 and by Pierre Dupuy in 1751. The current position of the Roman Catholic Church is that the medieval persecution of the Knights Templar was unjust, that nothing was inherently wrong with the order or its rule, and that Pope Clement
6439-498: The Soviet Union, strongly supported the expulsions, which worked to the Soviet Union's advantage in several ways. The satellite states would now feel the need to be protected by the Soviets from German anger over the expulsions. The assets left by expellees in Poland and Czechoslovakia were successfully used to reward cooperation with the new governments, and support for the Communists was especially strong in areas that had seen significant expulsions. Settlers in these territories welcomed
6576-531: The Soviets shipped 3,000 refugees and 17,000 Wehrmacht soldiers from there to Kolberg . In 1945, 13,492 German refugees died, among them 7,000 children under five years of age. According to Danish physician and historian Kirsten Lylloff , these deaths were partially due to denial of medical care by Danish medical staff, as both the Danish Association of Doctors and the Danish Red Cross began refusing medical treatment to German refugees starting in March 1945. The last refugees left Denmark on 15 February 1949. In
6713-399: The Tagus line. One of these was Tomar, which was unsuccessfully besieged by the Almohad Caliphate in 1190. Due to the expense of sending a third of their revenues to the East, Templar and Hospitaller activities in the Iberian Peninsula were at a disadvantage to the Hispanic military orders expended all their resources in the region. The details of the Order's early military activities in
6850-448: The Templar Order controlled vast wealth even beyond direct donations. A nobleman participating in the Crusades might place all his assets under Templar management during his absence. Accumulating wealth in this manner throughout Christendom and the Outremer, in 1150 the order began to issue letters of credit for pilgrims journeying to the Holy Land: pilgrims deposited their valuables with a local Templar preceptory before embarking, received
6987-541: The Templars considered their ships to be mainly for commerce rather than military purposes. From 1139, chaplains constituted a third Templar rank. They were ordained priests who cared for the Templars' spiritual needs. These Templar clerics were also referred to as priest brothers or chaplain brothers. The Templars also employed lightly armed mercenaries as cavalry in the 12th century that were known as turcopoles (the Greek term for descendants of Turks). Its meaning has been interpreted as either referring to people of
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#17327913782647124-613: The Templars were charged with numerous other offences such as financial corruption, fraud, and secrecy. Many of the accused confessed to these charges under torture (even though the Templars denied being tortured in their written confessions), and their confessions, even though obtained under duress , caused a scandal in Paris. The prisoners were coerced to confess that they had spat on the Cross. One said: "Moi, Raymond de La Fère, 21 ans, reconnais que [j'ai] craché trois fois sur la Croix, mais de bouche et pas de cœur" ("I, Raymond de La Fère, 21 years old, admit that I have spat three times on
7261-404: The Templars were indicating an interest in founding their own monastic state, just as the Teutonic Knights had done in Prussia and the Baltic and the Knights Hospitaller were doing in Rhodes . The Templars were accused of enabling corruption in their ranks which often allowed them to influence the legal systems of Europe to act in their favor and gain influence over local rulers' lands at
7398-415: The Treaty of London, signed 26 February 1953, West Germany and Denmark agreed on compensation payments of 160 million Danish kroner for its extended care of the refugees, which West Germany paid between 1953 and 1958. The Second World War ended in Europe with Germany's defeat in May 1945 . By this time, all of Eastern and much of Central Europe was under Soviet occupation . This included most of
7535-430: The United Kingdom, and Joseph Stalin of the USSR, had agreed in principle before the end of the war that the border of Poland's territory would be moved west (though how far was not specified) and that the remaining ethnic German population were subject to expulsion. They assured the leaders of the émigré governments of Poland and Czechoslovakia, both occupied by Nazi Germany , of their support on this issue. Given
7672-466: The West German Schieder commission , there were 4.5 million German civilians present in Bohemia-Moravia in May 1945, including 100,000 from Slovakia and 1.6 million refugees from Poland. Between 700,000 and 800,000 Germans were affected by irregular expulsions between May and August 1945. The expulsions were encouraged by Czechoslovak politicians and were generally executed by order of local authorities, mostly by groups of armed volunteers and
7809-416: The Wrymouth , thus incorporating Pomerania into the Polish state. The abundance of isthmuses on the numerous lakes in the region helped to protect the towns from invasions and plunder. In the autumn of 1286, the Duke of Greater Poland and future King of Poland Przemysł II brought the Templar Knights to a nearby fishing village for defensive purposes, hence the former name of Tempelburg . Czaplinek
7946-437: The actions of the German state. In Poland and Czechoslovakia, newspapers, leaflets and politicians across the political spectrum, which narrowed during the post-war Communist take-over , asked for retribution for wartime German activities. Responsibility of the German population for the crimes committed in its name was also asserted by commanders of the late and post-war Polish military. Karol Świerczewski , commander of
8083-470: The agreement is concerned with the expulsions to post-war Germany and reads: The Three Governments, having considered the question in all its aspects, recognize that the transfer to Germany of German populations, or elements thereof, remaining in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary, will have to be undertaken. They agree that any transfers that take place should be effected in an orderly and humane manner. The agreement further called for equal distribution of
8220-419: The animus engendered by the war crimes and atrocities perpetrated by the German belligerents and their proxies and supporters. Czechoslovak President Edvard Beneš , in the National Congress , justified the expulsions on 28 October 1945 by stating that the majority of Germans had acted in full support of Hitler; during a ceremony in remembrance of the Lidice massacre , he blamed all Germans as responsible for
8357-426: The area with Germans. The death toll attributable to the flight and expulsions is disputed, with estimates ranging from 500,000 up to 2.5 million according to the German government. The removals occurred in three overlapping phases, the first of which was the organized evacuation of ethnic Germans by the Nazi government in the face of the advancing Red Army , from mid-1944 to early 1945. The second phase
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#17327913782648494-449: The armour of steel. He is thus doubly armed, and need fear neither demons nor men. ― Bernard of Clairvaux , c. 1135 De Laude Novae Militae – In Praise of the New Knighthood Although the primary mission of the order was military, relatively few members were combatants. The majority acted in support positions to assist the knights and manage their financial infrastructure. Although individual members were sworn to poverty,
8631-488: The army. Transfers of population under the Potsdam agreements lasted from January until October 1946. 1.9 million ethnic Germans were expelled to the American zone, part of what would become West Germany. More than 1 million were expelled to the Soviet zone, which later became East Germany . About 250,000 ethnic Germans were allowed to remain in Czechoslovakia. According to the West German Schieder commission 250,000 persons who had declared German nationality in
8768-706: The complex history of the affected regions and the divergent interests of the victorious Allied powers, it is difficult to ascribe a definitive set of motives to the expulsions. The respective paragraph of the Potsdam Agreement only states vaguely: "The Three Governments, having considered the question in all its aspects, recognize that the transfer to Germany of German populations, or elements thereof, remaining in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, will have to be undertaken. They agreed that any transfers that take place should be effected in an orderly and humane manner." The major motivations revealed were: The creation of ethnically homogeneous nation states in Central and Eastern Europe
8905-409: The concept. Churchill cited the operation as a success in a speech discussing the German expulsions. In view of the desire for ethnically homogeneous nation-states, it did not make sense to draw borders through regions that were already inhabited homogeneously by Germans without any minorities. As early as 9 September 1944, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and Polish communist Edward Osóbka-Morawski of
9042-479: The control of the Allied governments. From 1946 to 1950 around 4.5 million people were brought to Germany in organized mass transports from Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary. An additional 2.6 million released POWs were listed as expellees. From the Baltic coast , many soldiers and civilians were evacuated by ship in the course of Operation Hannibal . Between 23 January and 5 May 1945, up to 250,000 Germans, primarily from East Prussia, Pomerania , and
9179-659: The devastating defeat at the Battle of Hattin. The last Grand Master was Jacques de Molay , burned at the stake in Paris in 1314 by order of King Philip IV. Bernard de Clairvaux and founder Hugues de Payens devised a specific code of conduct for the Templar Order, known to modern historians as the Latin Rule . Its 72 clauses laid down the details of the knights' way of life, including the types of garments they were to wear and how many horses they could have. Knights were to take their meals in silence, eat meat no more than three times per week, and not have physical contact of any kind with women, even members of their own family. A Master of
9316-399: The enemy lines ahead of the main army. One of their most famous victories was in 1177 during the Battle of Montgisard , where some 500 Templar knights helped several thousand infantry to defeat Saladin 's army of more than 26,000 soldiers. A Templar Knight is truly a fearless knight, and secure on every side, for his soul is protected by the armour of faith, just as his body is protected by
9453-454: The expense of the rulers. In 1305, the new Pope Clement V , based in Avignon , France, sent letters to both the Templar Grand Master Jacques de Molay and the Hospitaller Grand Master Fulk de Villaret to discuss the possibility of merging the two orders. Neither was amenable to the idea, but Pope Clement persisted, and in 1306 he invited both Grand Masters to France to discuss the matter. De Molay arrived first in early 1307, but de Villaret
9590-486: The expulsion death toll at 273,000 civilians, and this figure is cited in historical literature. However, in 1995, research by a joint German and Czech commission of historians found that the previous demographic estimates of 220,000 to 270,000 deaths to be overstated and based on faulty information. They concluded that the death toll was between 15,000 and 30,000 dead, assuming that not all deaths were reported. The German Red Cross Search Service ( Suchdienst ) confirmed
9727-441: The expulsions were an injustice. During the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, especially after the reprisals for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich , most of the Czech resistance groups demanded that the "German problem" be solved by transfer/expulsion. These demands were adopted by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile , which sought the support of the Allies for this proposal, beginning in 1943. The final agreement for
9864-652: The few cases when this happened and expellees were proven to have been bystanders, opponents or even victims of the Nazi regime, they were rarely spared from expulsion. Polish Communist propaganda used and manipulated hatred of the Nazis to intensify the expulsions. With German communities living within the pre-war borders of Poland, there was an expressed fear of disloyalty of Germans in Eastern Upper Silesia and Pomerelia , based on wartime Nazi activities. Created on order of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler ,
10001-553: The first of which were the just freed forced laborers and prisoners of war. The first post-war transport of several hundreds Poles came to Czaplinek on May 17, 1945 from Skierniewice , while the next transports came from former eastern Poland annexed by the Soviet Union , particularly from the Nowogródek and Wilno Voivodeships and the eastern part of the Białystok Voivodeship . In the meantime, German Nazi militias, with
10138-457: The flight and evacuations. Polish historians Witold Sienkiewicz and Grzegorz Hryciuk maintain that civilian deaths in the flight and evacuation were "between 600,000 and 1.2 million. The main causes of death were cold, stress, and bombing." The mobilized Strength Through Joy liner Wilhelm Gustloff was sunk in January 1945 by Soviet Navy submarine S-13 , killing about 9,000 civilians and military personnel escaping East Prussia in
10275-489: The former German territories that were awarded to Poland after the war. During and after the war, 2,208,000 Poles fled or were expelled from the former eastern Polish regions that were merged to the USSR after the 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland ; 1,652,000 of these refugees were resettled in the former German territories. The final agreement for the transfer of the Germans was reached at the Potsdam Conference . According to
10412-421: The former eastern territories of Germany, which were annexed by Poland , as well as the Soviet Union after the war and Germans who were living within the borders of the pre-war Second Polish Republic , Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia, and the Baltic states . The Nazis had made plans —only partially completed before the Nazi defeat—to remove Jews and many Slavic people from Eastern Europe and settle
10549-427: The help of some local Germans, carried out terrorist attacks and sabotage acts against Poles. The first 1945 Polish mayor of Czaplinek was Bolesław Kondulski, a freed forced laborer. After the war, the town's life was organized anew. Already in 1945, restaurants, cafes, shops, bakeries, butcheries, a brewery, a pharmacy , a carbonated water plant and a dairy cooperative were founded. The first post-war primary school
10686-568: The hierarchy of the Nazi administration, and some participated in Nazi atrocities , causing resentment towards German speakers in general. These facts were later used by the Allied politicians as one of the justifications for the expulsion of the Germans. The contemporary position of the German government is that, while the Nazi-era war crimes resulted in the expulsion of the Germans, the deaths due to
10823-418: The idea of ethnicity-based settlement in an attempt to ensure its territorial integrity. It was also the first modern European state to propose population transfers as a means of solving "nationality conflicts", intending the removal of Poles and Jews from the projected post– World War I " Polish Border Strip " and its resettlement with Christian ethnic Germans. Following the collapse of Austria-Hungary ,
10960-523: The influence of Philip & the crown. Under his protection, Templar organizations simply changed their name, from "Knights Templar" to the reconstituted Order of Christ and also a parallel Supreme Order of Christ of the Holy See ; both are considered successors to the Knights Templar. In September 2001, a document known as the Chinon Parchment dated 17–20 August 1308 was discovered in
11097-570: The island of Cyprus, and they also attempted to maintain a garrison on tiny Arwad Island , just off the coast from Tortosa. In 1300, there was some attempt to engage in coordinated military efforts with the Mongols via a new invasion force at Arwad . In 1302 or 1303, however, the Templars lost the island to the Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate in the siege of Arwad . With the island gone, the Crusaders lost their last foothold in
11234-501: The largest loss of life in a single ship sinking in history . Many refugees tried to return home when the fighting ended. Before 1 June 1945, 400,000 people crossed back over the Oder and Neisse rivers eastward, before Soviet and Polish communist authorities closed the river crossings; another 800,000 entered Silesia through Czechoslovakia. In accordance with the Potsdam Agreement, at the end of 1945—wrote Hahn & Hahn—4.5 million Germans who had fled or been expelled were under
11371-548: The largest of which was the Oksbøl Refugee Camp with 37,000 inmates. The camps were guarded by Danish Defence units. The situation eased after 60 Danish clergymen spoke in defence of the refugees in an open letter, and Social Democrat Johannes Kjærbøl took over the administration of the refugees on 6 September 1945. On 9 May 1945, the Red Army occupied the island of Bornholm ; between 9 May and 1 June 1945,
11508-586: The late 12th century the Templars were also politically powerful in the Holy Land. Secular nobles in the Kingdom of Jerusalem began granting them castles and surrounding lands as a defense against the growing threat of the Zengids in Syria . The Templars were even allowed to negotiate with Muslim rulers independently of the feudal lords. The Templar castles became de facto independent lordships with their own markets, further growing their political authority. During
11645-410: The later stages of World War II and the post-war period , Germans and Volksdeutsche fled and were expelled from various Eastern and Central European countries, including Czechoslovakia , and from the former German provinces of Lower and Upper Silesia , East Prussia , and the eastern parts of Brandenburg ( Neumark ) and Pomerania ( Hinterpommern ), which were annexed by Poland and
11782-481: The letter In Praise of the New Knighthood , and in 1129, at the Council of Troyes , he led a group of leading churchmen to officially approve and endorse the order on behalf of the church. With this formal blessing, the Templars became a favoured charity throughout Christendom , receiving money, land, businesses, and noble-born sons from families who were eager to help with the fight in the Holy Land . At
11919-532: The local level. The Templars still managed many businesses, and many Europeans had daily contact with the Templar network, such as by working at a Templar farm or vineyard , or using the order as a bank in which to store personal valuables. The order was still not subject to local government, making it everywhere a "state within a state" – its standing army , although it no longer had a well-defined mission, could pass freely through all borders. This situation heightened tensions with some European nobility, especially as
12056-413: The major cities of Central and Eastern Europe , people in various ethnic groups had interacted every day for centuries, while not always harmoniously, on every civic and economic level. With the rise of nationalism in the 19th century, the ethnicity of citizens became an issue in territorial claims, the self-perception/identity of states, and claims of ethnic superiority. The German Empire introduced
12193-434: The measures taken by the Nazis against anyone suspected of 'defeatist' attitudes (as evacuation was considered) and the fanaticism of many Nazi functionaries in their execution of Hitler's 'no retreat' orders. The first exodus of German civilians from the eastern territories was composed of both spontaneous flight and organized evacuation, starting in mid-1944 and continuing until early 1945. Conditions turned chaotic during
12330-433: The most satisfactory and lasting. There will be no mixture of populations to cause endless trouble... A clean sweep will be made. I am not alarmed by the prospect of disentanglement of populations, not even of these large transferences, which are more possible in modern conditions than they have ever been before". Polish resistance fighter, statesman and courier Jan Karski warned President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1943 of
12467-531: The most skilled fighting units of the Crusades . They were prominent in Christian finance ; non-combatant members of the order, who made up as much as 90% of their members, managed a large economic infrastructure throughout Christendom. They developed innovative financial techniques that were an early form of banking , building a network of nearly 1,000 commanderies and fortifications across Europe and
12604-574: The opportunities presented by their fertile soils and vacated homes and enterprises, increasing their loyalty. Late in the war, as the Red Army advanced westward, many Germans were apprehensive about the impending Soviet occupation. Most were aware of the Soviet reprisals against German civilians. Soviet soldiers committed numerous rapes and other crimes. News of atrocities such as the Nemmersdorf massacre were exaggerated and disseminated by
12741-405: The order but were instead outsiders who were hired for a set period of time. The Templars did not perform knighting ceremonies, so anyone wishing to become a knight in the Templar had to be a knight already. Beneath the knights in the order and drawn from non-noble families were the sergeants. They brought vital skills and trades from blacksmiths and builders, including administration of many of
12878-524: The order's European properties. In the Crusader States , they fought alongside the knights as light cavalry with a single horse. Several of the order's most senior positions were reserved for sergeants, including the post of Commander of the Vault of Acre, who was also the de facto admiral of the Templar fleet. But he was subordinated to the Order's preceptor instead of the marshal, indicating that
13015-522: The order, and Ad providam , which turned over most Templar assets to the Hospitallers. As for the leaders of the order, the elderly Grand Master Jacques de Molay, who had confessed under torture, retracted his confession. Geoffroi de Charney , Preceptor of Normandy , also retracted his confession and insisted on his innocence. Both men, under pressure from the king, were declared guilty of being relapsed heretics and sentenced to burn alive at
13152-465: The papal bull Pastoralis praeeminentiae on 22 November 1307, which instructed all Christian monarchs in Europe to arrest all Templars and seize their assets. Clement called for papal hearings to determine the Templars' guilt or innocence, and once freed of the Inquisitors ' torture, many Templars recanted their confessions. Several Templars are listed as having come from Gisors to defend
13289-543: The passage of the Crusader army through the Byzantine Empire on its way to the Holy Land. During the dangerous journey of the Second Crusade through Anatolia , the Templars provided security to the rest of the army from Turkish raids. After the Crusaders arrived in 1148, the kings Louis VII, Conrad III of Germany , and Baldwin III of Jerusalem made the decision to capture Damascus , but their siege in
13426-566: The pivotal Battle of Hattin , Jerusalem was recaptured by Muslim forces under Saladin in 1187. The Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II reclaimed the city for Christians in the Sixth Crusade of 1229, without Templar aid, but only held it for a little more than a decade. In 1244, the Ayyubid dynasty together with Khwarezmi mercenaries recaptured Jerusalem, and the city did not return to Western control until 1917 when, during World War I ,
13563-483: The pope. However, in practice, they often had to respect the wishes of the European rulers in whose kingdoms they resided, especially in their handling of funds for the local noblility in their banks . With its clear mission and ample resources, the order grew rapidly. Templars were often the advance shock troops in key battles of the Crusades, as the heavily armoured knights on their warhorses would charge into
13700-474: The possibility of Polish reprisals, describing them as "unavoidable" and "an encouragement for all the Germans in Poland to go west, to Germany proper, where they belong." The expulsions were also driven by a desire for retribution, given the brutal way German occupiers treated non-German civilians in the German-occupied territories during the war. Thus, the expulsions were at least partly motivated by
13837-423: The previously forced confessions to have dozens of Templars burned at the stake in Paris. With Philip threatening military action unless the pope complied with his wishes, Clement finally agreed to disband the order, citing the public scandal that had been generated by the confessions. At the Council of Vienne in 1312, he issued a series of papal bulls, including Vox in excelso , which officially dissolved
13974-640: The property of the Templars was transferred to the Knights Hospitaller except in the Kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, and Portugal. Portugal was the first country in Europe where they had settled, occurring only two or three years after the order's foundation in Jerusalem and even having a presence during Portugal's conception. The Portuguese king, Denis I , refused to pursue and persecute the former knights, as had occurred in some other states under
14111-718: The regency after the death of King Baldwin IV in 1185, the royal castles were placed in the custody of the Templars and Hospitallers : the Grand Masters of the two orders, along with the Patriarch of Jerusalem , each had a key to the crown jewels. From the mid-12th century, the Templars were recruited (jointly with the Hospitallers ) to fight the Muslim kingdoms in the Iberian Peninsula, in addition to their campaigns in
14248-492: The region and other provinces. A gathering of Harley-Davidson motorcycles also occurs annually as well as an exhibition of pigeons and doves . Other points of interest include the reconstructed early medieval Slavic stronghold Sławogród and the Gothic Holy Trinity church, which is the oldest preserved brick building of Czaplinek. There is also a local museum ( Izba Muzealna ). There are several schools in
14385-452: The remaining Germans were not expelled; ethnic German villages were turned into internment camps where over 50,000 perished from deliberate starvation and direct murders by Yugoslav guards. In late 1945 the Allies requested a temporary halt to the expulsions, due to the refugee problems created by the expulsion of Germans. While expulsions from Czechoslovakia were temporarily slowed, this
14522-476: The stake in Paris on 18 March 1314. De Molay reportedly remained defiant to the end, asking to be tied in such a way that he could face the Notre Dame Cathedral and hold his hands together in prayer. According to legend, he called out from the flames that both Pope Clement and King Philip would soon meet him before God . His actual words were recorded on the parchment as follows: "Dieu sait qui
14659-510: The stake. Under further pressure, Pope Clement V disbanded the order in 1312. The abrupt disappearance of a major medieval European institution gave rise to speculation and legends, which have currently kept the "Templar" name alive. The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon ( Latin : Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Salomonici and French : Pauvres Chevaliers du Christ et du Temple de Salomon ) are also known as
14796-412: The state", clearing a way for confiscations and expulsions. One of the reasons given for the population transfer of Germans from the former eastern territories of Germany was the claim that these areas had been a stronghold of the Nazi movement. Neither Stalin nor the other influential advocates of this argument required that expellees be checked for their political attitudes or their activities. Even in
14933-513: The summer of that year failed and ended with the defeat of the Christian army. In the fall of 1148 some returning Templars took part in the successful siege of Tortosa in Spain , after which one-fifth of that city was given to the Order. Robert de Craon died in January 1149 and was succeeded as Grand Master by Everard des Barres, one of the few leaders at the siege of Damascus whose reputation
15070-607: The territory of 1937 Czechoslovakia (which included the historically German-speaking area in the Sudeten mountains along the German-Czech-Polish border (Sudetenland)), and the territory that became post-war Poland. Poland's post-war borders were moved west to the Oder-Neisse line , deep into former German territory and within 80 kilometers of Berlin. Polish refugees expelled from the Soviet Union were resettled in
15207-453: The three main ranks were eventually known as knight brothers, sergeant brothers, and chaplain brothers. Knights and chaplains were referred to as brothers by 1140, but sergeants were not full members of the Order at first, and this did not change until the 1160s. The knights were the most visible division of the order. They were equipped as heavy cavalry , with three or four horses and one or two squires . Squires were generally not members of
15344-522: The total at 14.6 million, including a million ethnic Germans who had settled in territories conquered by Nazi Germany during World War II, ethnic German migrants to Germany after 1950, and the children born to expelled parents. The largest numbers came from former eastern territories of Germany ceded to the People's Republic of Poland and the Soviet Union (about seven million), and from Czechoslovakia (about three million). The areas affected included
15481-479: The total number of people of German ancestry still living in Central and Eastern Europe in 1950 ranged from 700,000 to 2.7 million. Before World War II, East-Central Europe generally lacked clearly delineated ethnic settlement areas. There were some ethnic-majority areas, but there were also vast mixed areas and abundant smaller pockets settled by various ethnicities. Within these areas of diversity, including
15618-671: The town, including a primary school , high school , and a kindergarten . Templar Knights The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , mainly known as the Knights Templar , was a French military order of the Catholic faith, and one of the wealthiest and most popular military orders in Western Christianity . They were founded c. 1119 to defend pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem , with their headquarters located there on
15755-536: The transfer of the Germans was not reached until the Potsdam Conference . The expulsion policy was part of a geopolitical and ethnic reconfiguration of postwar Europe. In part, it was retribution for Nazi Germany's initiation of the war and subsequent atrocities and ethnic cleansing in Nazi-occupied Europe . Allied leaders Franklin D. Roosevelt of the United States, Winston Churchill of
15892-508: The transferred Germans for resettlement among American, British, French and Soviet occupation zones comprising post–World War II Germany. Expulsions that took place before the Allies agreed on the terms at Potsdam are referred to as "irregular" expulsions ( Wilde Vertreibungen ). They were conducted by military and civilian authorities in Soviet-occupied post-war Poland and Czechoslovakia in the first half of 1945. In Yugoslavia ,
16029-484: The visitors-general of the order, who were knights specially appointed by the Grand Master and convent of Jerusalem to visit the different provinces, correct malpractices, introduce new regulations, and resolve important disputes. The visitors-general had the power to remove knights from office and to suspend the Master of the province concerned. The central headquarters of the Templars had several offices that answered to
16166-565: The vizier of Egypt, when he tried to flee from Cairo to Damascus after losing a power struggle. Abbas was killed and the Templars captured his son, who they later sent back to the Fatimids. In the late 1150s the Egyptians launched raids against the Crusaders in the areas of Gaza and Ascalon. In the mid-12th century, the tide began to turn in the Crusades. The Islamic world had become more united under effective leaders such as Saladin , and
16303-547: The wall of the city was breached in August 1153, at which point Bernard led forty knights into Ascalon. But the rest of the army did not join them and all of the Templars were killed by the Muslim defenders. Ascalon was captured by the rest of the army several days later, and Bernard was eventually succeeded by André de Montbard . After the fall of Ascalon, the Templars continued operating in that region from their castle at Gaza. In June 1154 they attacked Abbas ibn Abi al-Futuh ,
16440-424: The whole of Christendom. They acquired large tracts of land, both in Europe and the Middle East; they bought and managed farms and vineyards; they built massive stone cathedrals and castles; they were involved in manufacturing, import, and export; they owned fleets of ships; and at one point they even owned the entire island of Cyprus . The order arguably qualifies as the world's first multinational corporation . By
16577-552: The winter of 1149 and 1150, King Baldwin III oversaw the reconstruction of the fortress at Gaza City , which had been left in ruins. It was part of the ring of castles that were built along the southern border of the Kingdom of Jerusalem to protect it from raids by the Egyptian Fatimid Caliphate , and specifically from the Fatimid troops at the fortress of Ascalon , which by then was the last coastal city in
16714-415: The winter when kilometers-long queues of refugees pushed their carts through the snow trying to stay ahead of the advancing Red Army. Refugee treks which came within reach of the advancing Soviets suffered casualties when targeted by low-flying aircraft, and some people were crushed by tanks. The German Federal Archive has estimated that 100–120,000 civilians (1% of the total population) were killed during
16851-675: The words: "Dieu n'est pas content, nous avons des ennemis de la foi dans le Royaume" ("God is not pleased. We have enemies of the faith in the kingdom"). Claims were made that during Templar admissions ceremonies, recruits were forced to spit on the Cross, deny Christ, and engage in indecent kissing; brethren were also accused of worshipping idols , and the order was said to have encouraged homosexual practices. Many of these allegations contain tropes that bear similarities to accusations made against other persecuted groups such as Jews, heretics, and accused witches. These allegations, though, were highly politicised without any real evidence. Still,
16988-541: Was already deeply in debt to the Templars from his war against England , decided to seize upon the rumours for his own purposes. He began pressuring the church to take action against the order, as a way of freeing himself from his debts. At dawn on Friday, 13 October 1307 – a date that helped influence the superstition, but not necessarily the origin, of the popular stories about Friday the 13th – King Philip IV ordered de Molay and scores of other French Templars to be simultaneously arrested. The arrest warrant started with
17125-399: Was also the site of heavy fires. In the late 18th century the town's castle gradually lost its importance and began to fall into ruin. At the end of the 19th century, Czaplinek was connected via railways to large cities like Szczecin . The construction of roads, cobblestone streets and a proper gas network begun, simultaneously with the establishment of the telegraph . During World War II ,
17262-487: Was beheaded by Saladin in 1189 at the Siege of Acre . The Grand Master oversaw all of the operations of the order, including both the military operations in the Holy Land and Eastern Europe and the Templars' financial and business dealings in Western Europe . Some Grand Masters also served as battlefield commanders, though this was not always wise: several blunders in de Ridefort's combat leadership contributed to
17399-406: Was delayed for several months. While waiting, De Molay and Clement discussed criminal charges that had been made two years earlier by an ousted Templar and were being discussed by King Philip IV of France and his ministers. It was generally agreed that the charges were false, but Clement sent King Philip a written request for assistance in the investigation. According to some historians, Philip, who
17536-643: Was granted town rights in 1291 and in around 1300, it was annexed by Brandenburg . In 1345 the Templar estates passed to the Knights Hospitaller . In 1368 the town was purchased by King Casimir III the Great . For the next centuries Czaplinek remained a part of Poland, as a royal town , administratively in the Wałcz County in the Poznań Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province . Czaplinek
17673-528: Was granted various privileges by Polish kings in 1504, 1635 and 1640. In the 1658 Treaty of Bydgoszcz , it came under the control of Brandenburg-Prussia , and was definitively lost by Poland in 1668, although Poles made diplomatic efforts to regain the town until the First Partition of Poland in 1772, but to no avail. In the 17th century the town experienced rapid development in infrastructure, which increased its population. In 1725 and 1765, Czaplinek
17810-643: Was located four hundred miles north of the pilgrim road from Jaffa to Jerusalem, on the northern frontier of the Principality of Antioch : the castle of Bagras in the Amanus Mountains . It may have been as early as 1131, and by 1137 at the latest, that the Templars were given the mountainous region that formed the border of Antioch and Cilician Armenia , and included the castles of Bagras, Darbsak , and Roche de Roissel . The Templars were there when Byzantine emperor John II Komnenos tried to make
17947-542: Was not damaged by the event. After the Second Crusade, Zengid forces under Nur ad-Din of Aleppo attacked the Principality of Antioch , and in June 1149 his army defeated the Crusaders at the Battle of Inab , where Prince Raymond of Antioch was killed. King Baldwin III led reinforcements to the principality, which led Nur to accept a truce with Antioch and not advance any further. The force with King Baldwin included 120 Templar knights and 1,000 sergeants and squires. In
18084-526: Was not true in Poland and the former eastern territories of Germany. Sir Geoffrey Harrison , one of the drafters of the cited Potsdam article, stated that the "purpose of this article was not to encourage or legalize the expulsions, but rather to provide a basis for approaching the expelling states and requesting them to co-ordinate transfers with the Occupying Powers in Germany." After Potsdam,
18221-591: Was of two knights riding on a single horse, emphasizing the order's poverty. The impoverished status of the Templars did not last long. They had a powerful advocate in Saint Bernard of Clairvaux , a leading Church figure, the French abbot primarily responsible for the founding of the Cistercian Order of monks and a nephew of André de Montbard , one of the founding knights. Bernard put his weight behind them and wrote persuasively on their behalf in
18358-546: Was opened in 1945, the first preschool was opened in 1947, the vocational school in 1949. In 2005, a monument of Pope John Paul II was unveiled in Czaplinek on the 50th anniversary of his visit to the town as a young priest. Czaplinek is a tourist town and a popular destination for holidaymakers in West Pomerania . There is a large marina located on the Drawsko Lake , which attracts tourists from all over
18495-504: Was presented as the key reason for the official decisions of the Potsdam and previous Allied conferences as well as the resulting expulsions. The principle of every nation inhabiting its own nation state gave rise to a series of expulsions and resettlements of Germans, Poles, Ukrainians and others who after the war found themselves outside their supposed home states. The 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey lent legitimacy to
18632-402: Was pressed into his actions by the magnitude of the public scandal and by the dominating influence of King Philip IV, who was Clement's relative. The Templars were organised as a monastic order similar to Bernard's Cistercian Order, which was considered the first effective international organization in Europe. The organizational structure had a strong chain of authority. Each country with
18769-837: Was the disorganised fleeing of ethnic Germans immediately following the Wehrmacht 's surrender. The third phase was a more organised expulsion following the Allied leaders' Potsdam Agreement , which redefined the Central European borders and approved expulsions of ethnic Germans from the former German territories transferred to Poland, Russia and Czechoslovakia. Many German civilians were sent to internment and labour camps where they were used as forced labour as part of German reparations to countries in Eastern Europe. The major expulsions were completed in 1950. Estimates for
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