Bydgoszcz Department (Polish: Departament bydgoski) was a unit of administrative division and local government in Polish Duchy of Warsaw in years 1806–1815.
68-466: Its capital city was Bydgoszcz . Following the Decree of 19 December 1807, the area was further divided onto 10 counties ( powiats ). This Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Bydgoszcz Bydgoszcz is a city in northern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Kuyavia . Straddling the confluence of
136-578: A voivode . Bydgoszcz metropolitan area comprising the city and several adjacent communities is inhabited by half a million people, and forms a part of an extended polycentric Bydgoszcz-Toruń metropolitan area with the population of approximately 0.8 million inhabitants. Since the Middle Ages, Bydgoszcz served as a royal city of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland until partitions and experienced
204-644: A decision taken by the Polish king, a salt depot was established in Bydgoszcz, the second in the region after Toruń . In 1594, Stanisław Cikowski founded a private mint , which in the early 17th century was transformed into a royal mint, one of the leading mints in Poland . In 1621, on the occasion of the Polish victory over the Ottoman Empire at Chocim , one of the most valuable and largest coins in
272-586: A late-Gothic painting entitled Madonna with a Rose or the Holy Virgin of Beautiful Love from the 16th century. The colourful 20th-century polychrome is also especially worthy of note. The Church of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin , commonly referred to as "The Church of Poor Clares ," is a famous landmark of the city. It is a small, Gothic-Renaissance (including Neo-Renaissance additions), single-aisle church built between 1582 and 1602. The interior
340-734: A military alliance between Poland and Prussia while marking the withdrawal of Prussia from its alliance with Sweden. After the Convocation Sejm of 1764 , Bydgoszcz became one of three seats of the Crown Tribunal for the Greater Poland Province of the Polish Crown alongside Poznań and Piotrków Trybunalski . In 1766 royal cartographer Franciszek Florian Czaki , during a meeting of the Committee of
408-443: A role of the biggest centre of NATO headquarters in Poland . The city is served by an international airport and is a member of Eurocities . Bydgoszcz is an architecturally rich city, with gothic , neo-gothic , neo-baroque , neoclassicist , modernist and Art Nouveau styles present, for which, combined with extensive green spaces, it has earned the nickname Little Berlin . The notable granaries on Mill Island and along
476-643: A territory rather than a population, is a matter of scholarly debate. The early Slavic expansion reached Central Europe in the 7th century, and the West Slavic dialects diverged from common Slavic over the following centuries. The West Slavic tribes settled on the eastern fringes of the Carolingian Empire , along the Limes Saxoniae . Prior to the Magyar invasion of Pannonia in the 890s,
544-528: A very prestigious Academy of Music . Bydgoszcz is also an important place for contemporary European culture; one of the most important European centers of jazz music, the Brain club, was founded in Bydgoszcz by Jacek Majewski and Slawomir Janicki. Bydgoszcz was a candidate for the title of European Capital of Culture in 2016. It joined the list of UNESCO 's Cities of Music in 2023. Muzeum Okręgowe im. Leona Wyczółkowskiego ( Leon Wyczółkowski District Museum )
612-567: Is a municipally-owned museum. Apart from a large collection of Leon Wyczółkowski 's works, it houses permanent as well as temporary exhibitions of art. It is based in several buildings, including the old granaries on the Brda River and Mill Island and the remaining building of the Polish royal mint. Exploseum , a museum built around the World War II Nazi Germany munitions factory, is also part of it. In Bydgoszcz,
680-413: Is among the most spectacular and atmospheric places in Bydgoszcz. What makes it unique is the location in the very heart of the city centre, just a few steps from the old Market Square. It was the 'industrial' centre of Bydgoszcz in the Middle Ages and for several hundred years thereafter, and it was here that the famous royal mint operated in the 17th century. Most of the buildings which can still be seen on
748-570: Is rather austere since the church has been stripped of most of its furnishings. This is not a surprising fact, considering that in the 19th century the Prussian authorities dissolved the Order of St Clare and turned the church into a warehouse, among other uses. Nonetheless, the church is worth visiting. In particular, the original wooden polychrome ceiling dating from the 17th century draws the attention of every visitor. Wyspa Młyńska ( Mill Island )
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#1732772500625816-558: Is the biggest center of NATO headquarters in Poland, the most known being the Joint Force Training Centre . In May 2023, debris of a Russian Kh-55 air-sol missile was found in the forest of the near village Zamość . The oldest building in the city is the Cathedral of St Martin and St Nicolas , commonly known as Fara Church. It is a three-aisle late Gothic church, erected between 1466 and 1502, which boasts
884-581: Is the largest church in Bydgoszcz and one of the biggest in Poland. It can accommodate around 12,000 people. This monumental church, modeled after the Pantheon in Rome, was designed by the Polish architect Adam Ballenstaedt. The most characteristic element of the neo-classical temple is the reinforced concrete dome 40 metres in diameter. The three granaries in Grodzka Street , picturesquely located on
952-738: The Bloody Sunday by the propaganda of Nazi Germany , which exaggerated the number of victims to 5,000 "defenceless" Germans, was used as an excuse to carry out dozens of mass executions of Polish residents in the Old Market Square and in the Valley of Death . Between September 3–10, 1939, the Germans executed 192 Poles in the city. On September 5, while the Wehrmacht entered the city, German-Polish skirmishes still took place in
1020-814: The Battle of Nations in 1813, the town was re-annexed by Prussia as part of the Grand Duchy of Posen (Poznań), becoming the capital of the Bromberg Region . During the November Uprising , a Polish insurgent organization was active in the city and local Poles helped smuggle volunteers, weapons and ammunition to the Russian Partition of Poland. After the fall of the uprising, one of the main escape routes for surviving insurgents and civilian insurgent authorities from partitioned Poland to
1088-568: The German invasion of Poland and the Holocaust . The city's Jewish citizens, who constituted a small community in the city (about two percent of the prewar population) and many of whom spoke German, were sent to extermination camps or murdered in the town itself. The city renamed Bromberg was the site of Bromberg-Ost , a women's subcamp of the Stutthof concentration camp . A deportation camp
1156-721: The Great Emigration led through the city. In 1871 the Province of Posen, along with the rest of the Kingdom of Prussia, became part of the newly formed German Empire . During German rule, the oldest church of the city (church of Saint Giles), the remains of the castle, and the Carmelite church and monastery were demolished. In the mid-19th century, the city saw the arrival of the Prussian Eastern Railway . The first stretch, from Schneidemühl ( Piła ),
1224-604: The Latin alphabet , and tending to be more closely integrated into cultural and intellectual developments in western Europe than the East Slavs , who converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity and adopted the Cyrillic alphabet . Linguistically, the West Slavic group can be divided into three subgroups: Lechitic , including Polish , Silesian , Kashubian , and the extinct Polabian and Pomeranian languages ; Sorbian in
1292-692: The Netze District in the newly established province of West Prussia . At the time, the town was seriously depressed and semi-derelict. Under Frederick the Great the town revived, notably with the construction of a canal from Bromberg to Nakel (Nakło) which connected the north-flowing Vistula River via the Brda to the west-flowing Noteć , which in turn flowed to the Oder via the Warta . From this period until
1360-709: The Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War in 1409 the city was briefly captured by the Teutonic Knights. In the mid-15th century, during the Thirteen Years' War , King Casimir IV of Poland often stayed in Bydgoszcz. At that time, the defensive walls were built and the Gothic parish church (the present-day Bydgoszcz Cathedral ). The city was developing dynamically thanks to river trade. Bydgoszcz pottery and beer were popular throughout Poland. In
1428-635: The Polish–Teutonic War (1326–1332) , the city was captured and destroyed by the Teutonic Knights in 1330. Briefly regained by Poland, it was occupied by the Teutonic Knights from 1331 to 1337 and annexed to their monastic state as Bromberg . In 1337, it was recaptured by Poland and was relinquished by the Knights in 1343 at their signing of the Treaty of Kalisz along with Dobrzyń and
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#17327725006251496-728: The Pomeranian Military Museum specializes in documenting 19th- and 20th-century Polish military history, particularly the history of the Pomeranian Military District and several other units present in the area. West Slavs The West Slavs are Slavic peoples who speak the West Slavic languages . They separated from the common Slavic group around the 7th century, and established independent polities in Central Europe by
1564-636: The Vistula River and its left-bank tributary, the Brda , the strategic location of Bydgoszcz has made it an inland port and a vital centre for trade and transportation. With a city population of 339,053 as of December 2021, Bydgoszcz is the eighth-largest city in Poland. Today, it is the seat of Bydgoszcz County and one of the two capitals of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship as a seat of its centrally appointed governor,
1632-520: The Zamość region, by buying them from the Germans at the local train station. The Polish resistance was active in Bydgoszcz. Activities included distribution of underground Polish press, sabotage actions, stealing German ammunition to aid Polish partisans, espionage of German activity and providing shelter for British POWs who escaped from the Stalag XX-A POW camp. The Gestapo cracked down on
1700-431: The 15th and 16th centuries, Bydgoszcz was a significant location for wheat trading, one of the largest in Poland. The first mention of a school in Bydgoszcz is from 1466. In 1480, a Bernardine monastery was established in Bydgoszcz. The Bernardines erected a new Gothic church and founded a library, part of which has survived to this day. A Sejm of the Kingdom of Poland was held in Bydgoszcz in 1520. In 1522, after
1768-538: The 8th to 9th centuries. The West Slavic languages diversified into their historically attested forms over the 10th to 14th centuries. Today, groups which speak West Slavic languages include the Poles , Czechs , Slovaks , Silesians , Kashubians , and Sorbs . From the ninth century onwards, most West Slavs converted to Roman Catholicism , thus coming under the cultural influence of the Latin Church , adopting
1836-655: The Brahe River" (Polish: Brda ). The Latin names for the city is Bidgostia and Civitas Bidgostiensis . In Polish , the city's name has feminine grammatical gender. In ancient times, there was a development of settlements related to lively trade contacts with the Roman Empire , as a convenient location of today's Bydgoszcz laid on the Amber Road heading northwest to the Baltic coastline avoiding crossing
1904-539: The Brda River near the old Market Square, are the official symbol of the city. Built at the turn of the 19th century, they were originally used to store grain and similar products, but now house exhibitions of the city's Leon Wyczółkowski District Museum. The building of the former Prussian Eastern Railway Headquarters erected between 1886 and 1889 in Dutch Mannierist style is another notable structure in
1972-844: The Crown Treasury in Warsaw , proposed a plan of building a canal, which would connect the Vistula via the Brda with the Noteć river. Józef Wybicki , Polish jurist and political activist best known as the author of the lyrics of the national anthem of Poland , worked at the Crown Tribunal in Bydgoszcz. In 1772, in the First Partition of Poland , the town was acquired by the Kingdom of Prussia as Bromberg and incorporated into
2040-860: The German explosives factory built in World War II occupy an area which has its own rail lines, internal communication and housing, plus a large forested area. An open-air museum , the Exploseum , is located here as well. Since 2001, Bydgoszcz has been annually subjected to international 'verification' ratings. In February 2008 the ' Fitch Ratings ' Agency recategorised the city, increasing its rating from BBB-(stable forecast) to BBB (stable estimate). In 2004, Bydgoszcz launched an Industrial and Technology Park of 283 hectares, an attractive place for doing business as companies that relocate there receive tax breaks, 24-hour security, access to large plots of land and to
2108-451: The Polish elites and preventing the establishment of a Polish resistance movement , which emerged regardless. On September 24, the local German Kreisleiter called local Polish city officials to a supposed formal meeting in the city hall, from where they were taken to a nearby forest and exterminated. The Kreisleiter also ordered the execution of their family members to "avoid creating martyrs". By decision from September 5, 1939, one of
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2176-478: The Polish resistance several times. In spring 1945, Bydgoszcz was occupied by the advancing Red Army . Those German residents who had survived were expelled in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement and the city was returned to Poland, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime, which stayed in power until the 1980s. The Polish resistance remained active in Bydgoszcz. In the same year 1945,
2244-535: The Szwederowo district, and the German occupation of the city began. The German Einsatzgruppe IV , Einsatzkommando 16 and SS -Totenkopf-Standarte "Brandenburg" entered the city to commit atrocities against the Polish population , and afterwards some of its members co-formed the local German police. Many of the murders were carried out as part of the Intelligenzaktion , aimed at exterminating
2312-507: The Vistula river. During the early Slavic period a fishing settlement called Bydgoszcza ("Bydgostia" in Latin) became a stronghold on the Vistula trade routes . The gród of Bydgoszcz was built between 1037 and 1053 during the reign of Casimir I the Restorer . In the 13th century it was the site of a castellany , mentioned in 1238, probably founded in the early 12th century during
2380-463: The West Slavic polity of Great Moravia spanned much of Central Europe between what is now Eastern Germany and Western Romania. In the high medieval period, the West Slavic tribes were again pushed to the east by the incipient German Ostsiedlung , decisively so following the Wendish Crusade in the 11th century. The early Slavic expansion began in the 5th century, and by the 6th century
2448-613: The church in the Old Market Square and the Municipal Theatre . Additionally, the Old Town lost a few characteristic tenement houses, including the western frontage of the Market Square. The city also lost its Gothic castle and defensive walls. In Bydgoszcz, there are a great number of villas in the style of typical garden suburbs . In the city, there are 38 banks represented through a network of 116 branches (including
2516-481: The city was briefly recaptured by Poles, commanded by General Jan Henryk Dąbrowski , and the local Polish administration was co-organized by Józef Wybicki . In 1807, after the defeat of Prussia by Napoleon and the signing of the Treaty of Tilsit , Bydgoszcz became part of the short-lived Polish Duchy of Warsaw , within which it was the seat of the Bydgoszcz Department . With Napoleon's defeat at
2584-563: The city was made the seat of the Pomeranian Voivodship , the northern part of which was soon separated to form Gdańsk Voivodship . The remaining part of the Pomeranian Voivodship was renamed Bydgoszcz Voivodeship in 1950. In 1951 and 1969, Bydgoszcz University of Science and Technology and Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz were founded respectively. In 1973, the former town of Fordon , located on
2652-399: The city's historic buildings to erect new structures in the Nazi style . The Germans built a huge secret dynamite factory ( DAG Fabrik Bromberg ) hidden in a forest in which they used the slave labor of several hundred forced laborers, including Allied prisoners of war from the Stalag XX-A POW camp in Toruń. In 1943, local Poles managed to save some kidnapped Polish children from
2720-431: The city, at the Valley of Death and in the nearby village of Tryszczyn . The victims were both men and women, including activists, school principals, teachers, priests, local officials, merchants, lawyers, and also boy and girl scouts, gymnasium students and children as young as 12. The executions were presented as punishment for supposedly "murdering Germans" and "destroying peace", and were used by Nazi propaganda to show
2788-445: The city. Initially it served as a headquarters of the Prussian Eastern Railway and later it belonged to the Polish State Railways. Since 2022 it is privately owned. The city is mostly associated with water, sports, Art Nouveau buildings, waterfront, music, and urban greenery. Bydgoszcz boasts the largest city park in Poland (830 ha). The city was also once famous for its industry. Some great monuments have been destroyed, for example,
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2856-409: The clergy, the Jews were expelled and returned only with their annexation to Prussia in 1772. After 1370, Bydgoszcz castle was the favourite residence of the grandson of the king and his would-be successor Duke Casimir IV , who died there in 1377. In 1397 thanks to Queen Jadwiga of Poland , a Carmelite convent was established in the city, the third in Poland after Gdańsk and Kraków . During
2924-466: The domination of the Holy Roman Empire after the Wendish Crusade in the Middle Ages and had been strongly assimilated by Germans at the end of the 19th century. The Polabian language survived until the beginning of the 19th century in what is now the German state of Lower Saxony . Various attempts have been made to group the West Slavs into subgroups according to various criteria, including geography, historical tribes, and linguistics. In 845
2992-416: The end of the German Empire, a large majority of the city's inhabitants spoke German as their main language, and the city woud later acquire the nickname "little Berlin" from its similar architectural appearance to the prewar image of the German capital and the work of shared architects such as Friedrich Adler , Ferdinand Lepcke , Heinrich Seeling , or Henry Gross . During the Kościuszko Uprising , in 1794
3060-422: The first three German special courts in occupied Poland was established in Bydgoszcz. The Germans established several camps and prisons for Poles. As of September 30, 1939, over 3,000 individuals were imprisoned there, and in October and November, the Germans carried out further mass arrests of over 7,200 people. Many of those people were then murdered. Poles from Bydgoszcz were massacred at various locations in
3128-430: The following West Slav tribes in the 11th century from "the coastlands and hinterland from the aby of Kiel to the Vistula, including the islands of Fehmarn, Poel, Rügen, Usedom and Wollin", namely the Wagrians , Obodrites (or Abotrites), the Polabians , the Liutizians or Wilzians, the Rugians or Rani, the Sorbs, the Lusatians, the Poles, and the Pomeranians (later divided into Pomerelians and Cassubians). They came under
3196-586: The groups that would become the West, East , and South Slavic groups had probably become geographically separated. One of the distinguishing features of the West Slavic tribes was manifested in the structure of the Pagan sanctuaries of the closed (long) type, while the East Slavic sanctuaries had a round (most often open) shape ( see also : Peryn ). Early modern historiographers such as Penzel (1777) and Palacky (1827) have claimed Samo's Empire to be first independent Slavic state in history by taking Fredegar's Wendish account at face value. Curta (1997) argued that
3264-409: The headquarters of the Bank Pocztowy SA ), whilst 37 insurance companies also have offices in the city. JP Morgan Chase , one of the largest financial institutions in the world, has established a branch in Bydgoszcz. Most industrial complexes are scattered throughout the city. Of note are the 'Zachem' chemical works , covering dozens of square kilometers in the south-east of the city. These remnants of
3332-417: The history of Europe was minted in Bydgoszcz – 100 ducats of Sigismund III Vasa . In 1617 the Jesuits came to the city, and subsequently established a Jesuit college. During the year of 1629, shortly before the end of the Polish-Swedish War of 1626–29 , the town was conquered by Swedish troops led by king Gustav II Adolph of Sweden personally. During this war, the town suffered destruction. The town
3400-407: The industrialisation period bolstered by the construction of the Bydgoszcz Canal in the late 18th century. Its academic and cultural landscape is shaped by Casimir the Great University , Bydgoszcz University of Science and Technology , the Medical College of Nicolaus Copernicus University , Feliks Nowowiejski Music Academy , the Pomeranian Philharmonic , and the Opera Nova . Bydgoszcz also plays
3468-417: The island date from the 19th century, but the so-called Biały Spichlerz (the White Granary) recalls the end of the 18th century. However, it is the water, footbridges, historic red-brick tenement houses reflected in the rivers, and the greenery, including old chestnut trees, that create the unique atmosphere of the island. "Hotel pod Orłem" (The Eagle Hotel), an icon of the city's 19th-century architecture,
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#17327725006253536-436: The left bank of the Vistula, was included in the city limits and became the easternmost district of Bydgoszcz. In March 1981, Solidarity 's activists were violently suppressed in Bydgoszcz . With the Polish local government reforms of 1999, Bydgoszcz became the seat of the governor of a province entitled Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship . In 2005, Casimir the Great University was opened in Bydgoszcz. Currently, Bydgoszcz
3604-398: The media, the railway line Chorzów Batory – Tczew (passenger, coal), the DK5 and DK10 national roads, and future freeways S10 and S5 . Bydgoszcz Airport is also close by. Bydgoszcz is a major cultural centre in the country, especially for music. Traditions of the municipal theatre date back to the 17th century, when the Jesuit college built a theatre. In 1824, a permanent theatre building
3672-600: The newly formed province of Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia as the seat of the district or county ( kreis ) of Bromberg. However, the annexation was not recognised in international law. Extermination of the inhabitants continued throughout the war, and in total, around 10,000 inhabitants, mostly Poles , but also Polish Jews , were killed. Some Polish inhabitants were also murdered in the village of Jastrzębie in January 1940, and local teachers were also among Polish teachers murdered in both Mauthausen and Dachau concentration camps. The history of Jews in Bydgoszcz ended with
3740-428: The region of Lusatia ; and Czecho–Slovak in the Czech lands . In the Early Middle Ages , the name " Wends " (probably derived from the Roman-era Veneti ) may have applied to Slavic peoples. However, sources such as the Chronicle of Fredegar and Paul the Deacon are neither clear nor consistent in their ethnographic terminology, and whether "Wends" or "Veneti" refer to Slavic people, pre-Slavic people, or to
3808-444: The reign of Bolesław III Wrymouth . In the 13th century, the church of Saint Giles was built as the first church of Bydgoszcz. The Germans later demolished it in the late 19th century. The first bridge was constructed at the reign of Casimir I of Kuyavia . In the early 14th century, the Duchy of Bydgoszcz and Wyszogród was created, with Bydgoszcz serving as its capital with Wyszogród, a settlement today within its borders. During
3876-520: The remainder of Kuyavia . King Casimir III of Poland granted Bydgoszcz city rights (charter) on 19 April 1346. The king granted a number of privileges, regarding river trade on the Brda and Vistula and the right to mint coins, and ordered the construction of the castle, which became the seat of the castellan. Bydgoszcz was an important royal city of Poland located in the Inowrocław Voivodeship . The city increasingly saw an influx of Jews after that date. In 1555, however, due to pressure from
3944-401: The riverside belong to one of the most recognized timber-framed landmarks in Poland. In 2023, the city entered the UNESCO Creative Cities Network and was named UNESCO City of Music . The name Bydgoszcz , originally Bydgoszcza , derives from Bydgost , a personal name, and the suffix - ja , denoting ownership. The German name Bromberg is an alteration of Braheberg , meaning "hill on
4012-441: The surrounding suburbs of Okole, Szwederowo, Bartodzieje, Kapuściska, Wilczak, Jachcice and more, which made Bydgoszcz the third largest city in the Second Polish Republic in terms of area. In 1938, the city was made part of the Polish Greater Pomerania . During the invasion of Poland , at the beginning of World War II , on September 1, 1939, Germany carried out air raids on the city. The Polish 15th Infantry Division , which
4080-487: The text is not as straightforward: according to Fredegar, Wends were a gens , Sclavini merely a genus , and there was no "Slavic" gens . He further states that " Wends occur particularly in political contexts: the Wends, not the Slavs, made Samo their king." Other such alleged early West Slavic states include the Principality of Moravia (8th century–833), the Principality of Nitra (8th century–833), and Great Moravia (833–c. 907). Christiansen (1997) identified
4148-411: The world that it was alleged "Polish terror" that forced Hitler to start the war. On the Polish National Independence Day , November 11, 1939, the Germans symbolically publicly executed Leon Barciszewski, the mayor of Bydgoszcz. On November 17, 1939, the commander of the local SD - EK unit declared there was no more Polish intelligentsia capable of resistance in the city. The city was annexed to
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#17327725006254216-478: Was conquered a second and third time by Sweden in 1656 and 1657 during the Second Northern War . On the latter occasion, the castle was destroyed completely and has since remained a ruin. After the war only 94 houses were inhabited, 103 stood empty and 35 had burned down. The suburbs had also been considerably damaged. The Treaty of Bromberg , agreed in 1657 by King John II Casimir Vasa of Poland and Elector Frederick William II of Brandenburg-Prussia , created
4284-421: Was designed by the distinguished Bydgoszcz architect Józef Święcicki, the author of around sixty buildings in the city. Completed in 1896, it served as a hotel from the very beginning and was originally owned by Emil Bernhardt, a hotel manager educated in Switzerland. Its façade displays forms characteristic of the Neo-baroque style in architecture. Saint Vincent de Paul's Basilica , erected between 1925 and 1939,
4352-442: Was erected, and this was rebuilt in 1895 in a monumental form by the Berlin architect Heinrich Seeling. The first music school was established in Bydgoszcz in 1904; it had close links to the very well-known European piano factory of Bruno Sommerfeld. Numerous orchestras and choirs, both German (Gesangverein, Liedertafel) and Polish (St. Wojciech Halka, Moniuszko), have also made the city their home. Since 1974, Bydgoszcz has been home to
4420-399: Was opened in July 1851. At the time of World War I , Poles in Bydgoszcz formed secret organizations, preparing to regain control of the city in the event of Poland regaining its independence. After the war, Bydgoszcz was assigned to the recreated Polish state by the 1919 Versailles Treaty . Now officially Bydgoszcz again, the city belonged to the Poznań Voivodeship . The local populace
4488-419: Was required to acquire Polish citizenship or leave the country. This led to a drastic decline in ethnically German residents , whose number within the town decreased from over 40.000 in 1910 to 11,016 in 1926. A Nazi German youth organization was subsequently founded, which distributed Nazi propaganda books from Germany among the German minority. The city's boundaries were greatly expanded in 1920 to include
4556-422: Was situated in Smukała village, now part of Bydgoszcz. On February 4, 1941, the first mass transport of 524 Poles came to the Potulice concentration camp from Bydgoszcz. The local train station was one of the locations, where Polish children aged 12 and over were sent from the Potulice concentration camp to slave labor. The children reloaded freight trains. During the occupation , the Germans destroyed some of
4624-399: Was stationed in Bydgoszcz, fought off German attacks on September 2, but on September 3 was forced to retreat. During the withdrawal of Poles, as part of the diversion planned by Germany, local Germans opened fire on Polish soldiers and civilians. Polish soldiers and civilians were forced into a defensive battle in which several hundred people were killed on both sides. The event, referred to as
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