Elbląg

Elbląg (; ) is a city in northern Poland with 130,000 inhabitants. In the local Polish dialect it is known as Elbiąg ().

Elbląg is the capital of Elbląg County and has been situated in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship since 1999. Before then it was the capital of Elbląg Voivodeship (1975–1998) and a county seat in Gdańsk Voivodeship (1945–1975).

Geography

The Old City (Stare MiastoGerman Altstadt Elbing.) is located on the Elbląg River connecting Lake Drużno to the Vistula Lagoon, six mi. from the lagoon and 80 km from Gdańsk. It was totally destroyed in World War II but about the year 2000 rebuilding was started in a style emulating the previous architecture, in many cases over the same foundations and utilising the old bricks and portions of the same walls.

The modern city covers over 50% of the distance between Lake Drużno and Elbląg Bay (Zatoka Elbląska), an arm of the Vistula Lagoon, and extends on either side of the river, but especially to the east. On the east is the Elbląg Upland (Wysoczyzna Elbląska), a dome pushed up by glacial compression, 390 square km in diameter and 200 m high at its greatest elevation.REGIONAL GLACIATION OF SOUTHERN & EASTERN BALTIC, Emporia State University Lecture #14, by James S. Aber. It gives the appearance of ridges and parkland.

Elbląg is situated in flat land extending to the west in the Vistula Delta (Żuławy Wiślane) used mainly for agricultural purposes. Views to the west show flat fields extending to the horizon, while to the south are the marshes and swamps of Drużno. The Elbląg River has been left in a more natural state through the city, but elsewhere it is a controlled channel with branches. One of them, the Jagielonski Channel (Kanał Jagieloński ), leads to the Nogat River, along which navigation to Gdańsk is common. The Elbląg Canal (Kanał Elbląski) connecting Lake Drużno with Drwęca River and Lake Jeziorak is a popular tourist site.

Elbąg is not a deep-water port. The draft of vessels using its waterways must be no greater than 1.5 m by law. The turning area at Elbląg is 120 m diameter and a pilot is required for large vessels.Port Elblag, site maintained by Polfracht Shipping Agency Ltd. Deep water vessels cannot maneuver; in that sense, Elbląg has become a subsidiary port of Gdańsk. The city features three quay complexes, movable cranes, and railways. One of its specialties is heavy machinery.Image:Elbląg.JPG|Panoramic view.Image:Elblag Merian 1626.jpg|The Old City of 1626. Since the city is concentrated on the east, the view is toward Lake Drausen (Drużno) in the south.Image:Starówka w Elblągu 4.JPG|Reconstructed buildings in the Old City.Image:Elblag1.jpg|Market Gate, Old City.

Names

Etymology

Elbląg is the Polish derivative of the German name Elbing, which was assigned by the Teutonic Knights to the citadel and subsequent town placed by them in 1237 next to the river. The purpose of the citadel was to prevent the Old Prussian settlement of Truso from being reoccupied, as the German crusaders were at war with the pagan Prussians. The citadel was named after the river, itself of uncertain etymology. One traditional etymology connects it to the name of the Helveconae, a Germanic tribe mentioned in Ancient Greek and Latin sources, but the etymology or language of the tribal name is not known.

Historical names

Early sources: river Ilfing (890), Castrum de Elbingo quod a nomine fluminis Elbingum appellavit (1237 — Peter of Dusburg, Chronicon terrae Prussiae), in Elbingo (1239), in Elbing (1242), in Elbinge ... fluvium Elbinc (1246, city charter), de Elbingo (1250), in Elbyngo (1258), vitra Elbingum (1263), Elvingo (1293), in Elbingo (1300), in Elvingo (1389), czum Elbinge (1392), czu Elbing (1403), Elwing (1410), czum Elwinge (1412), Elbing (1414–1438), Elbyang (before 1454), Elbing (1508), ku Elbiągowi (1634), w Elblągu (1661), w Elblągu (1661).Elbląg, in: Kazimierz Rymut, Nazwy Miast Polski, Ossolineum, Wrocław 1987Hubert Gurnowicz, Elbląg, in: Nazwy miast Pomorza Gdańskiego, Ossolineum, Wrocław 1978

History

During the Middle Ages the Old Prussian settlement of Truso was located near the current site of Elbląg. The Teutonic Knights conquered the region, possibly destroying the settlement and dispersing its inhabitants in the process. The crusaders founded Elbing nearby and populated it with Germans. After the defeat of the Teutonic Knights, the city successively passed under the control of Poland, the Kingdom of Prussia, and Germany. Elbing was heavily damaged in World War II and had its German citizens expelled. The city was granted to Poland in 1945, renamed Elbląg, and repopulated with Polish-speaking citizens.

Old Prussian Truso

Elblag River today

The seaport of Truso was first mentioned ca. 890 by Wulfstan of Hedeby, an Anglo-Saxon sailor, travelling on the south coast of the Baltic Sea at the behest of King Alfred the Great of England. The exact location of Truso is not certain, as the seashore has significantly changed, but most historians trace the settlement inside or near to modern Elbląg on Lake Drużno.

It was an important seaport serving the Vistula river bay on the early medieval Baltic Sea trade routes which led from Birka in the north to the island of Gotland and to Visby in the Baltic Sea. From there, traders continued further south to Carnuntum along the Amber Road. The ancient Amber Road led further southwest and southeast to the Black Sea and eventually to Asia. The east-west trade route went from Truso, along the Baltic Sea to Jutland, and from there inland by river to Hedeby, a large trading center in Jutland. The main goods of Truso were amber, furs, and slaves.

The founders of Truso are not known for certain. Toward the end of its life the ethnicity of the town was the Pomesanian tribe of Old Prussians.

Prussian Crusade

Old town and St. Nicholas Cathedral

The war that led to the loss of Old Prussian sovereignty began with the preaching of a crusade against them in 1217 and 1218 by Pope Honorius III. The Prussians were bordered by the Slavic Pomeranians and the Duchy of Masovia, both by then Christianised peoples. The crusade came in 1223, but was soundly defeated by the Prussians. They besieged the Polish forces in Culm, the seat of Christian of Oliva, the first Bishop of Prussia, and attacked Pomerania and Masovia.

In 1226 Duke Konrad I of Masovia summoned the Teutonic Knights for assistance; by 1230 they had secured Culm and begun claiming conquered territories for themselves under the authority of the Holy Roman Empire, although these claims were rejected by the Poles. Their strategy was to move down the Vistula and secure the delta, establishing a barrier between the Prussians and Gdańsk. Next in order was Pomesania, containing Truso.

The Chronicon terrae Prussiae3.14 describes the conflict in the vicinity of Lake Drużno shortly before the founding of Elbing:

''Omnia propugnacula, que habebant in illo loco, qui dicitur (list) ... circa stagnum Drusine ... occisis et captiis infidelibus, potenter expugnavit, et in cinerem redigendo terre alteri coequavit."

"All the little redoubts that they had in that place, which are said to be (list) ... and around the Drusine marsh ... he (frater Hermannus magister) assaulted and levelled by rendering them into ash, after the infidels had been killed or captured."

Truso disappeared suddenly to be replaced with the citadel and town of Elbing during the Prussian Crusade. Population continuity at that early phase of the war is unlikely.

Foundation of Elbing

The Chronicon terrae Prussiae3.15 describes the founding of Elbing. After building two ships, the Pilgerim (Pilgrim) and the Vridelant (Friedland), the Teutonic knights used them to clear Frisches Haff of Prussians::... et recens mare purgatum fuit ab insultu infidelium ... :... "and Frisches Haff was purged of the insult of the infidels..."

Apparently the river was in Pomesania, which the knights had just finished clearing, but the bay was in Pogesania. The first Elbing was placed in Pogesania:Magister ... venit ad terram Pogesanie, ad insulam illam ... que est in media fluminis Elbingi, in illo loco, ubi Elbingus intrat recens mare et erexit ibi castrum, quod a nomine fluminis Elbingum appellavit, anno dominice incarnacionis MCCXXXVII. Aliqui referunt, quod idem castrum postea ab infidelibus fuerit expugnatum, et tunc ad eum locum, ubi nunc situm est, translatum, et circa ipsum civitas collocata.Notes on the passage. Medieval Latin often used e for ae: Pogesanie for Pogesaniae, que for quae, etc. Recens mare is "the fresh-water sea". Castrum is citadel, not yet of brick.

"The master ... came to the region of Pogesania, to that island which is in the middle of the Elbing river, in that place where the Elbing enters Frisches Haff, and built there a fort, which he called by the name of the Elbing River, in the year of the incarnation of the Lord, 1237. Others report that the same fort was attacked by the infidels and then was moved to the place where it is now situated, and the city gathered around it."

Both landings were amphibious operations conducted from the ships. The Chronicon relates that they were in use for many years and then were sunk in Lake Drusen. In 1238 the Dominican Order was invited to build a monastery on a grant of land. Pomesania was not secured, however, and from 1240-1242 the order began building a brick castle on the south side of the settlement, where archaeologists now believe Truso had been. It may be significant that Elbing's first industry was the same as Truso's had been: manufacture of amber and bone artifacts for export. In 1243 William of Modena created the Diocese of Pomesania and three others. They were at first only ideological constructs, but the tides of time turned them into reality in that same century.

The foundation of Elbing was perhaps not the end of the Old Prussian story in the region. In 1825 a manuscript listing a vocabulary of the Baltic Old Prussian language, named the Elbing-Prussian Dictionary (), or more commonly in English just Elbing Vocabulary, was found among some manuscripts from a merchant's house. It contained 802 words in a dialect now termed Pomesanian with their equivalents in an early form of German.

The origin of the vocabulary remains unknown. Its format is like that of modern travel dictionaries; i.e., it may have been used by German speakers to communicate with Old Prussians, but the specific circumstances are only speculative. The manuscript became the Codex Neumannianus. It disappeared after a British bombing raid destroyed the library at Elbing but before then facsimiles had been made. The date of the MSS was estimated at ca. 1400, but it was a copy. There is no evidence concerning the provenience of the original, except that it must have been in Pomesanian.

Hanseatic Elbing

Seal of the city of Elbing from 1350.

In 1246 Elbing was granted a constitution under Lübeck law, used in maritime circumstances, instead of Magdeburg rights common in other cities in central Europe. This decision of the order was in keeping with its general strategy of espousing the trade association that in 1358 would become the Hanseatic League. The order seized on this association early and used it to establish bases throughout the Baltic. The order's involvement in the league was somewhat contradictory. In whatever cities they founded the ultimate authority was the commander of the town, who kept office in the citadel, typically used as a prison. Lübeck law, on the other hand, provided for self-government of the town.

Membership in the Hanseatic League meant having important trading contacts with England, Flanders, France, and the Netherlands. The city received numerous merchant privileges from the rulers of England, Poland, Pomerania, and the Teutonic Order. For instance, the privilege of the Elbing Old Town was upgraded in 1343, while in 1393 it was granted an emporium privilege for grains, metals, and forest products.

Except for the citadel and churches, Elbing at the time was more of a small village by modern standards. Its area was 300 m by 500 m. It featured a wharf, a marketplace and five streets, as well as a number of churches. The castle was completed in 1251. In 1288 fire destroyed the entire settlement except for the churches, which were of brick. A new circuit wall was started immediately. From 1315 to 1340 Elblag was rebuilt. A separate settlement called Elbing New Town was founded ca. 1337 and received a Lübeck rights in 1347. In 1349 Black Death struck Elblag, toward the end of the European plague. Recovering, the population went on constructing. In 1364 a crane was built for the port.

Now by some considered to be the oldest copy of the Polish common law, called the Book of Elbląg () was written in the second half of the 13th century.

Western Prussia and the Kingdom of Poland

The Teutonic Order originally planned a total conquest of the region comprised by today's Baltic Countries and creation of a Christian state, Livonia. Toward that end they attacked from the flanks, Riga and the Vistula.

Delayed by resistance of the western Balts they were unable to complete that goal; meanwhile the eastern Balts united into the first Baltic state, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and allied itself with the Kingdom of Poland, turning suddenly Christian. The two campaigned successfully against Russia, building an empire, and turning against the order defeated it decisively at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410. As all the parties were now Christian, the allies left the order in place but imposed reparations, which the cities of the Hanseatic league resisted paying.

In 1440 several western and eastern Prussian towns formed the Prussian Confederation, which led the successful revolt of Prussia against the rule of the Teutonic Order in 1454. The Confederation asked King Casimir IV of Poland, for help in their struggle against the Teutonic Knights. Casimir claimed Prussia, which led to the Thirteen Years' War. After Poland's victory over the Teutonic Order, the city became part of the autonomous province of Royal Prussia under the suzerainty of the Polish crown, and became (perhaps ?) known by the Polonized version of Elbing, Elbląg.

However the official name of the city remained Elbing from its foundation in 1237 until 1945.
With the creation of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569, the city was brought under some control of the Polish crown, although local (German) law system, language and custom were retained. The administration then switched from Germanic Middle Saxon to Standard German, as was the case in all Hanseatic cities.

With the 16th century Protestant Reformation the burghers became Protestants and the first Protestant Gymnasium was established in Elbing in 1535.

From 1579 Elbing had close trade relations with England, to which the city accorded free trade. English and Scottish merchants settled in the city and formed the Scottish Reformed Church in Elbing. The Scottish newcomers remained and aided Protestant Sweden in the Thirty Years' War. The rivalry of nearby Danzig interrupted trading links several times. By 1618 Elbląg left the Hanseatic League owing to its close business dealings with England.

Famous inhabitants of the city at that time included native sons Hans von Bodeck, Samuel Hartlib, and for six years the Moravian Brethren refugee Johann Amos Comenius. In 1646 the city recorder Daniel Barholz noted that the city council employed licensed and guilded amber craftsmen who worked on rosaries. Members of the Barholz family became mayors and councillors. The poet Christian Wernicke was born in 1661 in Elbing, while Gottfried Achenwall became famous for his teachings in natural law and human rights law.

The Imperial cartographer Johann Friedrich Endersch completed a map of Warmia (Karte des Ermlandes) in 1755 and also made a copper etching of the galley named Die Stadt Elbing (The City of Elbing).

Hohenzollern Prussia

During the First Partition of Poland in 1772, Elbing was annexed by King Frederick the Great of the Kingdom of Prussia. The city became part of the new Prussian Province of East Prussia in 1773.

Elbing industrialized under the sovereignty of the Hohenzollern kings in Berlin. In 1828 the first steamship was built by Ignatz Grunau. In 1837 Ferdinand Schichau started the Schichau-Werke in Elbing as well as another shipyard in Danzig later on. Schichau constructed the Borussia, the first screw-vessel in Germany. Elbing's Schichau-Werke built hydraulic machinery, ships, steam engines, and torpedoes. After the inauguration of the railway to Königsberg in 1853, Elbing's industry began to grow. Schichau worked together with his son-in-law Carl H. Zise, who continued the industrial complex after Schichau's death. Schichau erected large complexes for his many thousands of workers.

Georg Steenke, an engineer from Königsberg, connected Elbing near the Baltic Sea with the southern part of Prussia by building the Oberländischer Kanal (Elbląg Canal).

During the unification of Germany, Elbing became part of the German Empire in 1871. As Elbing became an industrialized city, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) frequently received the majority of votes; in the 1912 Reichstag elections the SPD received 51% of the vote.

Mormons started filming the church records of Elbing's citizens in Kirchenbücher. Records dating to 1577 are available.

Nazi Germany

During the time of Nazi Germany, three subcamps of the Stutthof concentration camp were located near Elbing: Elbing, Elbing (Org. Todt), and Elbing (Schinau).

A large number of the German inhabitants of Elbing fled when the Soviet Red Army approached the city during World War II. During the siege of February 1945 the Old Town was burnt down by the Red Army. The city was 65% destroyed, including most of the historical city center. Almost all Germans who returned or remained were expelled as the city was granted to Poland in the Potsdam Conference.

History after 1945

After the German population had been expelled, the city was repopulated and the name changed to Elbląg. 98% of the new inhabitants were Poles expelled from Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union or were Polish peasants from overpopulated villages in central Poland. Some of the damaged historical city center was demolished and the bricks were used to rebuild Warsaw and Gdańsk.

The Communist authorities planned that the Old Town, utterly destroyed in 1945, be rebuilt with blocks of flats. However, economic difficulties thwarted this plan. The ruins of the old town were torn down in the 1960s and only two churches were left for reconstruction.

Elbląg was the scene of one of the riots in the coastal cities in 1970 together with Tricity and Szczecin (see also coastal cities events).

After 1989 restoration of the Old Town began. The local authorities passed a plan of rebuilding it with new houses that fit the same dimensions and size rather than the reconstruction of historical buildings. On some occasions the private investors incorporated parts of preserved stonework into new architecture. So far approximately 2/3 of the Old Town has been reconstructed.

Since the beginning of the restoration, an extensive archaeological programme has been carried out. Most of the city's heritage was destroyed in the 19th century during the construction of basements and the 1945 bombardment, however the backyards of the houses were not changed and the latrines are a source of priceless information on the city's history. Many pieces of art and utilities of everyday use can be seen in the city museum. Among them are the only 15th century binoculars preserved in Europe.

Since 1990 there has been an emergence of an Elbing German minority group, named Elbinger Minderheit; it counts some 100 persons.

Tourist attractions

Until World War II there were many Gothic, renaissance and baroque houses in Elbląg's Old Town; some of them are reconstructed. Other preserved builings are:
*St. Nicholas Cathedral - a monumental 13th century Gothic church (cathedral only from 1992, before it was a parochial church), damaged by fire in the late 18th century, then destroyed in WWII and reconstructed
*city gate (Brama Targowa) - erected in 1319
*St. Mary's Church - former Dominican church, erected in the 13th century, rebuilt in the 14th and 16th centuries; damaged in WWII and reconstructed in 1961 as an art gallery; remnants of cloister are partially preserved
*Holy Ghost church with hospital, from the 14th century
*Corpus Christi church from the 14th century
*Teutonic Knights' castle

Elbląg Institutions of Higher Education

Elbląg Higher School of Arts and Economics (in Polish: Elbląska Uczelnia Humanistyczno-Ekonomiczna) [1]
* Faculty of Economics and Political Sciences
* Faculty of Administration
* Faculty of Pedagogy (Education)
* Faculty of Health Sciences

Elbląg Higher State College of Vocational Education (in Polish: Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Zawodowa) [2]
* Institute of Languages and Pedagogy

     - Department of English Studies 
     - Department of German Studies 
     - Department of Polish Language and Literature
     - Department of Pedagogy and Primary Education

- Section of Foreign Languages
* Institute of Economics (and Administration)

     - Department of Economics
     - Department of Administration

- Section of Physical Education
* Institute of Technology (and Environmental Protection)

     - Department of Electrotechnics
     - Department of Mechanics

- Department of Environmental Protection
* Institute of Applied Computer Science

     - Department of Computer Science

Bogdan Jański Higher School, Faculty in Elbląg (in Polish: Szkoła Wyższa im. Bogdana Jańskiego) [3]
* Department of Management and Marketing
* Department of Urban Management
* Department of International Relationships

Regent College - Foreign Language Teacher Training College (in Polish: Nauczycielskie Kolegium Języków Obcych - Regent College) [4]
* Department of English Studies and English Teaching Methodology

Elbląg Diocese Theological Seminary (in Polish: Wyższe Seminarium Duchowne Diecezji Elbląskiej) [5]
* Department of Theology

Sports

* EB Start Elbląg - women's handball team playing in Polish Ekstraklasa Women's Handball League: 5th place in 2003/2004 season.

Politics

Elbląg constituency

Members of Parliament (Sejm) elected from Elbląg constituency
* Jan Antochowski, SLD-UP
* Danuta Ciborowska, SLD-UP
* Witold Gintowt-Dziewałtowski, SLD-UP
* Stanisław Gorczyca, PO
* Jerzy Müller, SLD-UP
* Adam Ołdakowski, Samoobrona
* Andrzej Umiński, SLD-UP
* Stanisław Żelichowski, PSL

City partnerships

Elbląg has partnerships with the following cities:
* Leer (Germany)
* Kaliningrad (Russia)
* Baltiysk (Russia)
* Ronneby (Sweden)
* Druskininkai (Lithuania)
* Liepāja (Latvia)
* Navahradak (Belarus)
* Ternopil (Ukraine)
* Compiègne (France)
* Trowbridge (United Kingdom)
* Coquimbo (Chile)
* Baoji (China)
* Tainan (Taiwan)

Famous people

* Hans von Bodeck (1582-1658), diplomat and Chancellor of Brandenburg
* Samuel Hartlib (ca. 1600-1662), teacher and scientist
* Christian Wernicke (1661-1725), epigramist and diplomat
* Johann Friedrich Endersch (1705-1769), mathematician
* Gottfried Achenwall (1719-1772), statistician
* Wilhelm Eduard Albrecht (1800-1876), lawyer
* Bruno Erhard Abegg (1803-1848), statesman of Königsberg
* Ferdinand Schichau (1814-1896), founder of the Schichau-Werke in Elbing and Danzig.
* Johann Ludwig Hinrichs (1818-1901), co-founder of the German Baptists
* Max Georg Zimmermann (1861-?), art historian
* John Prince-Smith (1809-1874), liberal economist and politician in Germany
* Max Reimann (1898-1977), president of the Communist Party of Germany
* Lutz Weltmann (1901-?), journalist, director of the Jewish Culture Foundation
* Ortwin Runde (born 1944), mayor of Hamburg 1997-2001.
* Andrzej Sakson (born 1950), sociologist and director of the Western Institute
* Ewa Białołęcka (born 1967), fantasy writer

Notes

See also

* EB - Polish beer produced by the Elbrewery Company
* List of cities and towns in East Prussia

External links

* Municipal website
* Gmina of Elbląg
* Elbląg County
* CastlesOfPoland.com
* A 1755 Ermland-Warmia map incl. Elbing city and surrounding Elbing Territory and Drausensee- lake
* History of German Elbing until 1947
* Interactive map of Elbląg
* Tourism information
* Elbing Vocabulary, presentation by Dr. Letis Palmaitis
* Prussia, The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge
* Elblag (Polfracht Shipping Agency Ltd.)Web portals:
* Wirtualny Elbląg - portal
* Elbląska Gazeta Internetowa - portal
* Elblag24 - portal
* info.elblag.pl - portal
* Nocny Elbląg - portal
* Dziennik Elbląski newspaper