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70-533: It is the capital of Tczew County in the Pomeranian Voivodeship and the largest town of the ethnocultural region of Kociewie . Tczew is located on the west bank of river Vistula , approximately 30 kilometres (19 miles) south of Gdańsk Bay at the Baltic Sea and 35 kilometres (22 miles) south-east of Gdańsk . Tczew ( Trsow , Dersowe , ‘weaver's town’) was first mentioned as Trsow in

140-697: A mint . Duke Mestwin II in 1289 brought the Dominican Order to the city. It was part of Poland until 1308. Following the Treaty of Soldin in 1309, Tczew was purchased from Brandenburg by Heinrich von Plötzke of the Teutonic Knights , despite the fact that the initial claims to the region by Brandenburg were of dubious legality. The townspeople were expelled by the Teutonic Knights and

210-721: A Polish fief , which it remained until the First Partition of Poland . East Prussia around Königsberg , on the other hand, remained with the State of the Teutonic Knights , who were reduced to vassals of the Polish kings. Their territory was secularised to become the Lutheran Duchy of Prussia according to the 1525 Treaty of Kraków and the Prussian Homage . The duchy was later ruled in personal union with

280-476: A document by Pomeranian Duke Grzymisław bestowing the land to the Knights Hospitaller in 1198. Around 1200 Sambor I, Duke of Pomerania , built a fortress here. In some documents, the name Derszewo appears, which stems from the name of a feudal lord, Dersław. It is unknown whether Trsow and Derszewo referred to the same or two neighboring settlements. In order to obtain better control of traffic on

350-533: A former factory (present-day museum), in a craft school and in military barracks. In November 1939, Germans carried out executions of numerous Poles from Tczew, including local teachers, officials (including pre-war mayor Karol Hempel,) craftsmen, a policeman, and even a seventeen-year-old student. Catholic priests from Pelplin , who were not murdered in Pelplin, were imprisoned in the Tczew barracks and then murdered in

420-543: A lamentable condition." Frederick invited German immigrants to redevelop the province. Many German officials also regarded the Poles with contempt. According to the Polish historian Jerzy Surdykowski, Frederick the Great introduced 300,000 German colonists. According to Christopher Clark , 54 percent of the annexed area and 75 percent of the urban population were German-speaking Protestants. Further Polish areas were annexed in

490-402: A letter to his brother Henry , Frederick wrote about the province that "it is a very good and advantageous acquisition, both from a financial and a political point of view. In order to excite less jealousy I tell everyone that on my travels I have seen just sand, pine trees, heath land and Jews. Despite that there is a lot of work to be done; there is no order, and no planning and the towns are in

560-720: A nearby forest. From 1939 to 1941, the Einsatzgruppe operated a penal forced labour camp in the town. In 1941, the Germans created a transition camp for Poles expelled from the region in a local factory (present-day museum). People were held there for several weeks, and then expelled to the General Government . Hundreds of Polish inhabitants of Tczew were expelled in 1940 and 1941. Some inhabitants were also deported to forced labour to Germany. In 1943, local Poles managed to save some kidnapped Polish children from

630-411: A red griffin in honor of Duke Sambor II , who granted the town municipal rights in 1260. It is an important railway junction with a classification yard . The Polish A1 motorway runs nearby, west of the city. Sports clubs in Tczew include Pogoń Tczew (football), Unia Tczew (football and rowing), Wisła Tczew (football and boxing) and Sambor Tczew (handball, athletics and swimming). For

700-405: A wide, flat plain, with adjacent escarpments sometimes exceeding 60 meters in height above the river valley. This area includes the fertile Chełmno Land ( German : Kulmerland ), with historic cities such as Chełmno ( German : Kulm ), Toruń ( German : Thorn ), and Grudziądz ( German : Graudenz ). The Chełmno Land stretched eastward to the border with East Prussia, partially bound on

770-501: Is Tczew , which lies 31 kilometres (19 mi) south of the regional capital Gdańsk . The county also contains the towns of Pelplin , lying 20 km (12 mi) south of Tczew , and Gniew , 31 km (19 mi) south of Tczew . The county is part of the area traditionally inhabited by the Kociewiacy ethnic group. The county covers an area of 697.54 square kilometres (269.3 sq mi). As of 2019 its total population

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840-403: Is 115,738, out of which the population of Tczew is 60,120, that of Pelplin is 7,784, that of Gniew is 6,707, and the rural population is 41,127. Tczew County on a map of the counties of Pomeranian Voivodeship Tczew County is bordered by Gdańsk County to the north, Malbork County , Sztum County and Kwidzyn County to the east, Świecie County to the south, and Starogard County to

910-548: The Bank Ludowy ("People's Bank"). According to the census of 1910, Dirschau had a population of 16,894, of which 15,492 (91.7%) were Germans and 1,397 (8.3%) were Poles . After Poland regained independence in 1918, local Poles formed the People's Council in preparation for reintegration with Poland. After World War I as a consequence of the Treaty of Versailles , Tczew became part of the so-called Polish Corridor and

980-515: The Chełmno Land , forming altogether around 36% of the population of the province as a whole. There were also sizeable minorities of Mennonites and Jews settling in the region. The landscape of West Prussia consisted of the lower reaches of the Vistula River ( German : Weichsel , Polish : Wisła ) near its mouth on the Baltic Sea , and neighboring lands to the west and east. In

1050-775: The Great Emigration led through the city. With the unification of Germany , the town became part of the German Empire in 1871 and from 1887 was the capital of the Dirschau district in the province of West Prussia. The town grew rapidly during the 19th century after the opening of the Prussian Eastern Railway line connecting Berlin and Königsberg , with the Vistula bridge near Dirschau being an important part. Under Prussian and German rule,

1120-603: The Second Partition of Poland in 1793, now including the cities of Danzig ( Gdańsk ) and Thorn ( Toruń ). After the defeat of Prussia by the Napoleonic French Empire at the 1806 Battle of Jena-Auerstedt followed by the Treaties of Tilsit , West Prussia lost its southern territory in the vicinity of Thorn and Kulm (Chełmno) to the short-lived Duchy of Warsaw ; it also lost Danzig, which

1190-697: The Szpęgawski Forest (see also Nazi persecution of the Catholic Church in Poland ). In January 1940, the SS and Selbstschutz carried out two public executions of 33 Polish residents, including railway employees, officials, craftsmen and merchants, at the market square. Also Poles from Starogard and Tuchola counties, who refused to sign the Volksliste , were imprisoned in Tczew and then murdered in

1260-676: The Thirteen Years’ War , Bohemian mercenaries on the Order's service sold Tczew to Poland in lieu of indemnities . The Second Peace of Thorn (1466) confirmed the reincorporation of Tczew to Poland. It became a county seat within the Pomeranian Voivodeship in the newly created Polish province of Royal Prussia , soon also part of the Greater Poland Province . During the Protestant Reformation most of

1330-678: The Treaty of Versailles in 1919, most of pre-war West Prussia's territory (62%) and population (57%, the majority of whom were Polish) was granted to the Second Polish Republic or the Free City of Danzig (8% of territory, 19% of population), while parts in the west (18% of territory, 9% of population) and east (12% of territory, 15% of population) of the former province remained in Weimar Germany . The western remainder formed Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia in 1922, while

1400-589: The Tuchola Forest , were located in this part of the province. Further north near the sea is the Kashubian Lake District , where the highest point of the former province, Wieżyca ( German : Turmberg ), reaches 329 meters above sea level. The headwaters of Pomeranian rivers such as the Słupia ( German : Stolpe ) and Łeba ( German : Leba ) are located in these uplands. In the north

1470-514: The Zamość region, by buying them from the Germans at the local train station. After World War II the town, was one of the most damaged cities of Gdańsk Pomerania. Virtually none of its remaining factories were capable of production. There had been considerable loss of population down to around 18-20 thousand people. Shortly before the end of World War II it was occupied by the Soviet Army . After

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1540-617: The 1772 First Partition of Poland the Prussian king Frederick the Great took the occasion to annex most of Royal Prussia. The addition gave Prussia a land connection between the Province of Pomerania and East Prussia , cutting off the Polish access to the Baltic Sea and rendering East Prussia more readily defensible in the event of war with the Russian Empire . The annexed voivodeships of Pomerania (i.e. Pomerelia ) excluding

1610-518: The Catholic Church and the kingdom's Polish subjects by granting amnesty to imprisoned Polish bishops and by re-establishing Polish instruction in schools in districts having Polish majorities. With rise of nationalism , the Hohenzollern-ruled territory increasingly became a target of aggressive Germanisation efforts , German settlement, anti-Catholic campaigns ( Kulturkampf ), as well as disfranchisement and expropriations of Poles, and

1680-537: The City of Danzig, Malbork (German: Marienburg ) and Chełmno (German: Kulm ) excluding the City of Thorn (Polish: Toruń ) were incorporated into the Province of West Prussia the following year, along with the formerly East Prussian Marienwerder Kreis . Ermland (Polish: Warmia ) became part of East Prussia while the annexed parts of Greater Poland and Kuyavia formed a separate Netze District located to

1750-755: The German state, with their fate being slavery and extermination, the latter in particular during Intelligenzaktion Pommern , as well as in the Stutthof concentration camp . Later in the war, many West Prussian Germans fled westward as the Red Army advanced on the Eastern Front . All of the areas occupied by Nazis were restored to Poland according to the post-war Potsdam Agreement in 1945, along with further neighbouring areas of former Nazi Germany and areas that had been part of Germany before. The vast majority of

1820-627: The Great) looked askance upon many of his new citizens. In a letter from 1735, he calls them "dirty" and "vile apes". He had nothing but contempt for the szlachta , the numerous Polish nobility, and wrote that Poland had "the worst government in Europe with the exception of Ottoman Empire ". He considered West Prussia less civilized than Colonial Canada and compared the Poles to the Iroquois . In

1890-596: The Imperial Margraviate of Brandenburg from 1618. The Hohenzollern rulers of Brandenburg-Prussia were able to remove the Polish suzerainty by the 1657 Treaty of Wehlau , taking advantage of the Russo-Swedish Deluge , shortly thereafter transforming their possessions into a kingdom. This development turned out to be fatal to the Polish monarchy, as the two parts of the rising Kingdom of Prussia were separated by Polish land. Subsequently,

1960-667: The Poles were defeated by the combined troops of Brandenburg and Sweden under general Josias II, Count of Waldeck-Wildungen . The region was annexed from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by the Kingdom of Prussia during the First Partition of Poland in 1772. Tczew, as Dirschau, became part of the newly founded Province of West Prussia . During the Napoleonic Wars and the Polish national liberation fights

2030-409: The Polish population suffered from forced Germanization ; for example Poles were denied Polish schools, and refused to teach their children German. The German official Heinrich Mettenmeyer wrote that German-appointed teachers were treated with the highest disdain by Polish children and their parents. The town remained a center of Polish resistance , and Poles established various organizations, including

2100-604: The Russian city of Kursk and the Belarusian city of Slutsk as a response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine . Tczew County Tczew County ( Polish : Powiat Tczewski , Kashubian : Dërszewo kréj ) is a unit of territorial administration and local government ( powiat ) in Pomeranian Voivodeship , northern Poland . It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat and largest town

2170-506: The Teutonic Knights were ordered by the Pope to return Pomerelia and other lands back to Poland, but did not comply. These events resulted in a series of Polish–Teutonic Wars throughout the 14th and 15th centuries. Under the Teutonic rule, an influx of western, mainly German-speaking farmers, traders and craftsmen was encouraged. Subsequent rebellions organized by the local population against

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2240-678: The Teutonic state, initially by the Lizard Union and later by the Prussian Confederation , both pledging allegiance to the Polish king, caused the Thirteen Years' War which ultimately led to the Second Peace of Thorn , when most of the region and was reclaimed by Poland and henceforth formed Royal Prussia , consisting of the originally Polish Pomerelia and Chełmno Land , expanded by the addition of parts of

2310-410: The Vistula, Pomeranian Duke Sambor II moved his residence from Lubiszewo Tczewskie to Tczew. By 1252 the settlement was known by the names Tczew and Dirschau . In 1258 a city council was created and in 1260 Tczew was granted town rights . It is the only case in Poland for a city council to be established before granting city rights. Craft and trade developed, there was a port on the Vistula and

2380-496: The aristocracy and urban burghers initially highly Germanised as a result of earlier Teutonic policies, but gradually Polonized in the later years, while the peasantry continued as predominantly Kashubian- and Polish-speaking. A small area in the west of Pomerelia, the Lauenburg and Bütow Land , was granted to the rulers of Pomerania as a Polish fief before it was reintegrated with Poland in 1637, and later again transformed into

2450-495: The bridges from being blown up at 04:34 on 1 September 1939 (the shelling of Westerplatte commenced at 04:45). The Germans sent two trains with soldiers to capture the bridges, disguised as freight trains, but due to Polish railroaders' intervention at Szymankowo , they came late, losing the element of surprise, and the bridges were blown up after 6 am that day. During the German occupation of Poland (1939–45) Tczew, as Dirschau ,

2520-505: The earliest estimations on ethnic or national structure of West Prussia are from 1819. At that time West Prussia had 630,077 inhabitants, including 327,300 Poles (52%), 290,000 Germans (46%) and 12,700 Jews (2%). Karl Andree , " Polen: in geographischer, geschichtlicher und culturhistorischer Hinsicht " (Leipzig 1831), gives the total population of West Prussia as 700,000 – including 50% Poles (350,000), 47% Germans (330,000) and 3% Jews (20,000). The population more than doubled during

2590-576: The eastern remainder became part of Regierungsbezirk West Prussia within East Prussia . The 1920 East Prussian plebiscite was also held in the eastern part of West Prussia, which was known as the Marienwerder Plebiscite Area, and included partially or fully, the districts of Marienwerder , Stuhm , Rosenberg and Marienburg . The residents of this region voted by a majority of 92.4% to remain with Germany. In 1939,

2660-699: The end of war the town became part of People's Republic of Poland and renamed Tczew again. German residents were dispossessed and expelled; Polish residents took the first effort of reconstruction, and revitalization. From 1975 to 1998, it was administratively located in the Gdańsk Voivodeship . In 1984 the Museum of the Vistula River, a branch of the National Maritime Museum in Gdańsk ,

2730-527: The former Ducal Prussia and those territories gained during the partitions of Poland. This included both predominantly Polish- or Kashubian-speaking areas (former Greater Poland and Pomerelia within West Prussia and the Grand Duchy of Posen ) and German-speaking areas ( Malbork Land within West Prussia and most of East Prussia ). A failed attempt to include these lands in the German Empire (1848–49)

2800-647: The formerly Old Prussian territories of Pomesania , Pogesania and Warmia . The region had initially a degree of autonomy with an own local legislature, the Prussian Estates , and maintaining its own laws, customs and rights, but was ultimately re-absorbed directly into the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland , following the Union of Lublin in 1569 . The locally spoken language differed among social classes, with

2870-494: The last 19 years, the town has been the host location for the annual English Language Camp. The camp, often nicknamed "Camp Tczew" is hosted by the American-Polish Partnership for Tczew and offers students a three-week program where they have the opportunity to interact with Americans and improve their English. Tczew is twinned with: Former twin towns: On 8 March 2022, Tczew ended its partnership with

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2940-592: The newly established kingdom entered into an alliance with Austria and Russia, invading Polish territories. Even though some German authors viewed the establishment of West Prussia as a historic reunification of the lands of the Teutonic State , officially, the Prussian government shunned from justifying the annexation by such argument. The reason was that the Teutonic Order still called for reestablishment of their rule over East- and West Prussia. In

3010-408: The next seven decades, reaching 1,433,681 inhabitants (including 1,976 foreigners) in 1890. According to the German census of 1910, in areas that became Polish after 1918, 42% of the populace were Germans (including German military, officials and colonists ), while the Polish census of 1921 found 19% of Germans in the same territory. Contemporary sources in late 19th and early 20th centuries gave

3080-608: The nominal leadership of Austrian Empire , as a replacement for the dissolved Holy Roman Empire . Its boundaries largely followed those of its predecessor, the Holy Roman Empire, defining the territory of Germany for much of the 19th century. Except for the Lauenburg and Bütow Land and the former Starostwo of Draheim , the Prussian lands which had been outside the Empire remained outside the Confederation, namely

3150-443: The population of West Prussia was put at 1,703,474, of whom around 64 percent listed their first language as German, 28 percent Polish and 7 percent Kashubian. According to Polish authors the real share of Poles and Kashubians was 43% (rather than 35.5% as in official figures), but many of them were counted as Catholic Germans by Prussian census clerks. In 1910, ethnic Poles were between 36% and 43% of West Prussia's populace. After

3220-585: The pretext of helping the King Władysław I Łokietek to quell a rebellion, with subsequent Teutonic atrocities against the Polish population, such as the Slaughter of Gdańsk . The possession of Danzig and Pomerelia by the Teutonic Order was questioned consistently by the Polish kings Władysław I and Casimir the Great in legal suits in the papal court in 1320 and 1333. Both times, as well as in 1339,

3290-467: The proportion of Germans in the town decreased drastically from over 90% in 1910 to around 9% in 1939. In 1921, Tczew had a population of 16,250, of which 4,600 (28.3%) were Germans . During the Interwar period , Tczew was famous for its maritime academy ( Szkoła Morska ) which later moved to Gdynia . According to the city's website, Tczew was the location of the start of World War II when German bombers attacked Polish sapper installations to prevent

3360-400: The region was invaded, then included in the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia within Nazi Germany during World War II and settled with 130,000 German colonists, while between 120,000 and 170,000 Poles and Jews were removed by the Germans through expulsion , massacres, enslavement or killed in extermination camps . As in all other areas, Poles and Jews were classified as " Untermenschen " by

3430-419: The remaining German population of the region that had not fled was subsequently expelled westward. Many German civilians were deported to labor camps like Vorkuta in the Soviet Union , where a large number of them perished or were later reported missing. In 1949, the refugees established the non-profit Landsmannschaft Westpreußen to represent West Prussians in the Federal Republic of Germany . ] Perhaps

3500-407: The remaining part of the territory lying to the east of the Vistula River . The Teutonic Order's conquest of the region resulted in German colonization in the 14th century. As a result of Germanisation , Germans became in the middle of the 19th century the most numerous ethnic group in West Prussia as a whole, remaining as such until the dissolution of the province in 1920, though their distribution

3570-401: The south by the path of the river Drwęca ( German : Drewenz ), which formed part of the province's southeastern border with Congress Poland and the Russian Empire . The region of Pomerelia or Gdańsk Pomerania , historically Polish and never inhabited by Old Prussians , was forcibly occupied by the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights in 1308, following an invasion of Poland under

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3640-450: The south. The Partition Sejm ratified the cession on 30 September 1773, complemented by renouncement by the Polish king of his royal title in regard to Prussia. Thereafter, Frederick finally started to style himself "King of Prussia" rather than "King in Prussia." Both abovementioned exempted cities were ultimately captured by the Kingdom of Prussia upon the Second Partition of Poland in 1793 . The Polish administrative and legal code

3710-420: The town was captured by Polish troops of General Jan Henryk Dąbrowski in 1807, but became Prussian again in 1815. In 1818 Prussians closed down the Dominican monastery. In October and November 1831, some Polish infantry, cavalry and artillery units of the November Uprising stopped in the city on the way to their internment places, and later on, one of the insurgents' main escape routes from partitioned Poland to

3780-432: The town's inhabitants converted to Lutheranism . In 1626, it was occupied by king Gustav II Adolf of Sweden , who built a pontoon bridge across river Vistula and who had his camp at the southern side of the town. After the war Tczew was visited twice by Polish King Władysław IV Vasa , in 1634/1635 and 1636. Although it was rebuilt, it then suffered during the Polish-Swedish Wars . In a nearby battle on 2 September 1657,

3850-415: The town's organization ceased to exist for more than half a century. It was rebuilt from 1364 to 1384, and was granted Kulm law by Winrich von Kniprode . After the Polish victory in the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, the town was briefly recaptured by Poland. In 1434 the town was burnt down by the Hussites . In 1440 the town joined the Prussian Confederation , opposing Teutonic Order's rule. In 1457, during

3920-476: The west, the province shared a border with easternmost Brandenburg , and comprised those lands between the provinces of Posen and Pomerania . This region of the province was characterized by the Baltic Uplands , with southward flowing rivers joining the Noteć ( German : Netze ). The Brda ( German : Brahe ) drains much of this area, joining the Vistula after passing through Bydgoszcz ( German : Bromberg ). Numerous large expanses of woodland, including

3990-414: The west. The county is subdivided into six gminas (one urban, two urban-rural and three rural). These are listed in the following table, in descending order of population. West Prussia The Province of West Prussia ( German : Provinz Westpreußen ; Kashubian : Zôpadné Prësë ; Polish : Prusy Zachodnie ) was a province of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and 1878 to 1919. West Prussia

4060-522: Was a Free City from 1807 until 1814. After the final defeat of Napoleon in 1815, Danzig, Kulm, and Thorn were returned to West Prussia by resolution of the Vienna Congress . Some of the areas of Greater Poland annexed in 1772 that had formed the Netze District were added to West Prussia as well (the remainder became part of the Grand Duchy of Posen ). The Congress of Vienna established the German Confederation (German: Deutscher Bund ), an association of 39 German-speaking states in Central Europe under

4130-578: Was a province of the Free State of Prussia within Weimar Germany , losing most of its territory to the Second Polish Republic and the Free City of Danzig in the Treaty of Versailles . West Prussia was dissolved in 1920, and its remaining western territory was merged with Posen to form Posen-West Prussia , and its eastern territory merged with East Prussia as the Region of West Prussia district. West Prussia's provincial capital alternated between Marienwerder (present-day Kwidzyn, Poland ) and Danzig (Gdańsk, Poland) during its existence. West Prussia

4200-488: Was annexed into the newly formed province of Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia of Nazi Germany . The Polish population was subjected to mass arrests, repressions, expulsions and murder. The SS-Heimwehr-Sturmbann Götze entered the town in September 1939 to carry out actions against Poles, including mass arrests with the help of local Germans organized in the Selbstschutz , who denounced local Polish activists. The Germans imprisoned hundreds of Poles in camps established in

4270-403: Was established as a province of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1773, formed from Royal Prussia of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth annexed in the First Partition of Poland . West Prussia was dissolved in 1829 and merged with East Prussia to form the Province of Prussia , but was re-established in 1878 when the merger was reversed and became part of the German Empire . From 1918, West Prussia

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4340-401: Was finally annexed into Germany following the North German Confederation Treaty (1866). The Polish historian Andrzej Chwalba cites Germanization measures that included: At the time of German Unification in 1871, the Kingdom of Prussia was the largest and dominant part of the North German Confederation , the predecessor of the newly-formed German Empire . In the German census of 1910,

4410-414: Was found at the northwestern end of the delta. The Nogat river, a distributary of the Vistula, flows to the northeast past the city of Malbork ( German : Marienburg ) and into the Vistula Lagoon . Further east near Elbląg ( German : Elbing ), the border with East Prussia crossed the Vistula Spit , Vistula Lagoon, and the Elbląg Upland . In the southeast, the course of the Vistula river forms

4480-424: Was incorporated into the re-established Polish state . The official handover happened on January 10, 1920, and on January 30, Polish General Józef Haller arrived in the town with his troops. The town became a center of cultural activities of the German minority in Poland, a German-language school and a theater was founded. The regional member of the Polish Parliament represented the German minority. In this period,

4550-403: Was notable for its ethnic and religious diversity due to immigration and cultural changes, with the population becoming mixed over the centuries. Since the early Middle Ages the bulk of the region was inhabited by West Slavic Lechitic tribes ( Pomeranians in the Pomerelia region and Masovians in Kulmerland ), while the actual Old Prussians ( Pomesanians and Pogesanians ) populated only

4620-481: Was opened in the building of the pre-war metal products factory, in which during World War II Germans operated a transit camp for Poles expelled from the region. Currently, there are several companies in the electrical industry and machine building. January 30, i.e. the date of Tczew's return to Poland after the partition period , is celebrated as Tczew Day. Note that the above table is based on primary sources which may be biased. The coat of arms of Tczew depicts

4690-466: Was replaced by the Prussian system, and 750 schools were built from 1772-1775. Both Protestant and Roman Catholic teachers taught in West Prussia, and teachers and administrators were encouraged to be able to speak both German and Polish. Frederick II of Prussia also advised his successors to learn Polish, a policy followed by the Hohenzollern dynasty until Frederick III decided not to let William II learn Polish. Despite this, Frederick II (Frederick

4760-403: Was the Baltic coast, consisting of a graded shoreline with landmarks such as the Hel Peninsula stretching 35 kilometers into the Gdańsk Bay , and the Vistula Fens where that river meets the sea. The Vistula delta encompasses a heavily cultivated area of approximately 2,000 square kilometers of land, much of it below sea level. Gdańsk ( German : Danzig ), the largest city of the province,

4830-403: Was undertaken by the Frankfurt Parliament . In 1815, the province was administratively subdivided into the Regierungsbezirke Danzig and Marienwerder . From 1829 to 1878, West Prussia was combined with East Prussia to form the Province of Prussia , after which they were re-established as separate provinces. In 1840, King Frederick William IV of Prussia sought to reconcile the state with

4900-438: Was uneven: their majority was concentrated in Danzig, the western lands of the province, along the Vistula river, and in the Pomesanian and Pogesanian portion of the province located east of the Vistula, with a small admixture of Poles (Gedanians and Powiślans). Meanwhile, Poles (Kociewians, Borowians and Chełminians) as well as Kashubians continued to predominate in parts of Pomerelian territories west of Vistula and in parts of

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