Ancestry Chapter 1
Brief History of West Prussia,
Danzig, Dirschau and Pr. Stargard
(click maps to see details)
West Prussia -- Die Alte Heimat
A region of valleys, hills,
lakes and forests. Cities with grand historic streets and buildings. Bordered
by the Baltic Sea on the north and the Vistula River on the west. The area is
also known as Pommern, or variants, from the Slavic word Pomorze, which means
"by the sea."
Prussia originally was the region both west and east of the Vistula, inhabited by a Slavic people known as Prussians. The German Brandenburgs adopted the Prussian name when they acquired the East Vistula region. This German Prussia eventually encompassed extensive territories in Western Germany, and became the primary kingdom of Germany. When the West Vistula region was acquired, the two Vistula River provinces were renamed West Prussia and East Prussia -- although both were east of the Prussian capital of Berlin.
Prussia (the German Prussia
not the original Slavic tribe) ultimately succeeded in unifying Germany into an
empire, and its own Hohenzollern dynasty held the position of Kaiser (Emperor).
Backing up in time, in the 1200's West Prussia was a part of Poland. The towns of Dirschau and Prussian Stargard first appear in written records in 1198 (under a different name of course). Both existed well before then. Pr. Stargard was the site of a Neolithic settlement along the "amber route" in 4,000-5,000 years B.C.
In the early 1300's the
German Teutonic Knights acquired the territory containing both Dirschau and Pr.
Stargard. The Teutonic Knights brought western European culture and
Christianity to the area by annihilation of the native population. The Teutonic
Knights' rule ended in about 1470 and West Prussia was returned to Poland. The
population then was predominantly of Polish.
In 1772 (first partition of Poland) the West Prussian area was taken by Prussia. An intense effort to Germanize the area began, and urban population exploded despite competition with emigration to the U.S. that resumed when the Revolutionary War ended in 1778. In 1818, the population of Dirschau was 1,800. By 1890 -- just before the first of our ancestors left for America -- Dirschau's population had grown to 12,000. It had a slight Catholic majority over Lutherans, and a small (3%) Jewish minority. In 1818 Pr. Stargard was larger than Dirschau, with a population of 2,600. By 1880 its population grew to only 7,000. Catholics had a somewhat larger majority over Lutherans and the Jewish held a larger minority (6%).
Danzig is the primary city
of the region, and is located on the Baltic at the mouth of the Vistula -- which
is also known as the Weichsel River. Dirschau also is on the Vistula, 40 miles
south of Danzig. Pr. Stargard is about 28 miles west/south-west of Dirschau,
straddling another river that flows into the Vistula. In 1890, Danzig was more
than 10 times the size of Dirschau. Lutherans outnumbered Catholics more than 2
to 1. Danzig also had both Jewish (2%) and Mennominite (1%) minorities. (The
Amish are a conservative sect of the Mennominite religion.)
Vintage postcard photo on left.
Both Dirschau and Pr. Stargard came under the rule of Poland after WWI and were wholly integrated into Poland after WWII. Dirschau is now Tczew. Pr. Stargard is now Starogard Gdanski. After WWII the free city of Danzig became the Polish city of Gdansk, the home of the Polish Solidarity movement. See middle and bottom maps opposite in which first the towns are identified by both German and Polish names, and then only the current Polish names. Top map shows Germanic tribal movements 373-500 A.D. - West Prussia is up from the LANGOBARDI's "O" and "B."
Years of communist rule left all three of these cities struggling economically. Danzig/Gdansk now attracts tourists with its many festivals and a restored Old Town area. All three are surrounded by beautiful countryside and have historic Old Town areas. Dirschau/Tczew boasts the historic bridge over the Vistula, the longest bridge in Europe when it was build in the 1850's. All three cities now have official web sites.
