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Olsztyn (; Old Prussian: Alnāsteini) is a city on the Łyna River in northern Poland. It is the capital of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, and is a city with county rights. The population of the city was estimated at 169,793 residents in 2021.[1] Founded as Allenstein in the 14th century, Olsztyn was under the control and influence of the Teutonic Order until 1463, when it passed to the Polish Crown, what was then confirmed in the Second Peace of Thorn in 1466. For centuries the city was an important centre of trade, crafts, science and administration in the Warmia region linking Warsaw with Königsberg. Following the First Partition of Poland in 1772 Warmia was annexed by Prussia and ceased to be the property of the clergy. In the 19th century the city changed its status completely, becoming the most prominent economic hub of the southern part of the province of East Prussia. The construction of a railway and early industrialisation greatly contributed to Olsztyn's significance. Following World War II, the city returned to Poland in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement. Olsztyn is the largest city in Warmia, and has been the capital of the voivodeship since 1999. In the same year, the University of Warmia and Masuria was founded from the fusion of three other local universities. Today, the Castle of Warmian Cathedral Chapter houses a museum and is a venue for concerts, art exhibitions, film shows and other cultural events, which make Olsztyn a popular tourist destination. The most important sights of the city include the medieval Old Town and the St. James Pro-cathedral (former St. James Parish Church), which dates back more than 600 years. The picturesque market square is part of the European Route of Brick Gothic and the pro-cathedral is regarded as one of the greatest monuments of Gothic architecture in Poland. Olsztyn, for a number of years, has been ranked very highly in quality of life, income, employment and safety. It currently is one of the best places in Poland to live and work. It is also one of the happiest cities in the country.[2]
[edit] History
[edit] Middle AgesIn 1334, a watchtower was established on the Łyna River. In 1346, the forest was cleared at the location for a new settlement, mentioned in a historical document from 1348.[3] The following year, Teutonic Knights began the construction of an Ordensburg castle as a stronghold against the Baltic Prussians. Allenstein was granted municipal rights by the cathedral chapter of the Bishopric of Warmia in October 1353.[4] The German "Allenstein" referred to the river's Baltic Prussian name Alna, which meant a hind.[5] Local Poles, having arrived along with German settlers, called it Holstin and Olsztyn,[4] which are Polonizations of the German name. The castle was completed in 1397. The town was captured by the Kingdom of Poland during the Polish-Lithuanian-Teutonic War in 1410, and again in 1414 during the Hunger War, but it was returned to the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights after hostilities ended. The city joined the Prussian Confederation in 1440, and rebelled against the Teutonic Knights in 1454 upon the outbreak of the Thirteen Years' War to join Poland under King Casimir IV Jagiellon. In 1454, upon the request of Confederation, King Casimir IV signed the act of incorporation of the region to Poland, and the townspeople took the castle and recognized the Polish king as the rightful ruler.[5] Although the Teutonic Knights recaptured the city the following year, it was retaken by Polish troops in 1463. The Second Peace of Thorn in 1466 confirmed Olsztyn as part of the Kingdom of Poland. Administratively it was located in the Prince-Bishopric of Warmia within the provinces of Royal Prussia and Greater Poland. [edit] Modern eraFrom 1516 to 1521, Nicolaus Copernicus lived in the town castle as an administrator and then in Mehlsack (Melzak, now Pieniężno). Copernicus was in charge of the Polish defences in the Siege of Allenstein during the Polish-Teutonic War of 1519–21. He also started and managed the repopulation of the region, inviting a new wave of Polish settlers from Mazovia.[5] The town along with Warmia then entered what is considered golden age of the region,[6] when crafts and trade developed, thanks also to the city's location on the Warsaw-Königsberg (Królewiec) trade route.[5] During this period, the city was still visited several times by Copernicus, as well as leading figures of Polish Renaissance, writers, royal secretaries and diplomats: Johannes Dantiscus, called the "father of Polish diplomacy", and Marcin Kromer, who was also a historian and music theorist. St. James' Pro-Cathedral, one of the most distinctive landmarks of the cityscape, was completed at that time.[7] Prosperity was halted in the 1620s, when the town suffered a fire[7] and an epidemic.[6] In 1626, during the Swedish invasion, clerics from Frombork (Frauenburg) took refuge in the town, which the Swedes did not reach.[6] The city was sacked by Swedish troops later, in 1655 and 1708, during the next Polish-Swedish wars, and its population was nearly wiped out in 1710 by epidemics of the bubonic plague and cholera. The town became part of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1772 after the First Partition of Poland and its economy initially collapsed.[3] Poles became subject to extensive Germanisation policies. A Prussian census recorded a population of 1,770 people, predominantly farmers, and Allenstein was administered within the newly created Province of East Prussia.
The growth of the city started again after it became a district seat in 1818,[6] a significant influx of German settlers began and by 1825, the town was inhabited by 1,341 Germans and 1,266 Poles. In the early 1830s the city suffered from a cholera epidemic and a hunger crisis, however afterwards it flourished again, when despite Germanisation policies it was administered by Polish mayor Jakub Rarkowski from 1836 to 1865.[6] Under Rarkowski the city was expanded and modernized,[6] and the mayor also hid Polish insurgents in the city during the January Uprising.[8] The first German-language newspaper, the Allensteiner Zeitung, began publishing in 1841. Polish historian Wojciech Kętrzyński was arrested in Jomendorf (the present-day district of Jaroty),[6] and imprisoned in the city's High Gate in 1863 for smuggling weapons for the Polish January Uprising in the Russian Partition of Poland. The town hospital was founded in 1867. In 1871, with the unification of Germany, Allenstein became part of the German Empire. Two years later, the city was connected by railway to Thorn (Toruń). Despite Germanisation attempts the city remained an important Polish centre. Its first Polish language newspaper, the Gazeta Olsztyńska, was founded in 1886.[7] Allenstein's infrastructure developed rapidly: gas was installed in 1890, telephones in 1892, public water supply in 1898, and electricity in 1907. The Provincial Mental Sanatorium Kortau was established in 1886 just south of Allenstein (today part of Olsztyn-Kortowo). In 1905, the city became the capital of Regierungsbezirk Allenstein, a government administrative region in East Prussia. From 1818 to 1910, the city was administered within the East Prussian Allenstein District, after which it became an independent city. [edit] World War I, interbellum and World War IIShortly after the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Russian troops captured Allenstein, but it was recovered by the Imperial German Army in the Battle of Tannenberg. After the defeat of Germany in World War I, the East Prussian plebiscite was held in 1920 to determine whether the populace of the region, including Allenstein, wished to remain in German East Prussia or become part of Poland, which had just regained independence. In order to advertise the plebiscite, special postage stamps were produced by overprinting German stamps and sold on 3 April of that year. One kind of overprint read PLÉBISCITE / OLSZTYN / ALLENSTEIN, while the other read TRAITÉ / DE / VERSAILLES / ART. 94 et 95 inside an oval whose border gave the full name of the plebiscite commission. Each overprint was applied to 14 denominations ranging from 5 Pfennigs to 3 Marks. The Polish community faced discrimination, Polish rallies were dispersed, the participants were threatened and beaten.[6] In March, Polish activist died in Olsztyn, a few weeks after being brutally beaten by the German militia in nearby Szczytno in Masuria. He was buried in Olsztyn, however, his grave was soon devastated by local German nationalists.[9][10] A monument to Linka was unveiled after Poland regained control of the city after World War II.[9][10] The presence of a Royal Irish battalion ensured a relative peace in Allenstein. The plebiscite, held on 11 July, produced 16,742 votes for Germany and 342 votes for Poland.[6]
Beginning in 1936, members of the Polish minority was increasingly persecuted, especially members of the Union of Poles in Germany.[6] In early 1939, many local Polish activists were expelled. In an attempt to rig the results of an upcoming census and understate the number of Poles in the city and region, the Germans terrorized the Polish population and, in May 1939, the Gestapo confiscated 10,000 Polish information leaflets in the headquarters of the Gazeta Olsztyńska. In August 1939, Germany introduced martial law in the region, which allowed for even more blatant persecution of Poles. In August and September 1939, the Germans carried out mass arrests of local Poles, including the chairman of the local Polish bank and his assistant, the chief of the "Rolnik" Cooperative, and the principal of the local Polish school. Nazi Germany co-formed the Einsatzgruppe V in the city, which then entered several Polish cities and towns, including Grudziądz, Mława, Ciechanów, Łomża and Siedlce, to commit various atrocities against Poles during the German invasion of Poland that began World War II in 1939. German troops invaded Poland also from Olsztyn.[11] After the German invasion of Poland, local Poles were also subjected to mass executions[3] and deportations to occupied Poland. Arrested Poles were held in a local prison and then forced to remove Polish signs and inscriptions in the city, while the German population gathered and insulted them. The Gazeta Olsztyńska was abolished by the German authorities, the newspaper's headquarters was demolished and the editor-in-chief Seweryn Pieniężny was arrested and executed in the [6][11] along with co-publisher Wojciech Gałęziewski and the "Rolnik" Cooperative chief Leon Włodarczyk, while Pieniężny's wife was deported to the Ravensbrück concentration camp. The last pre-war Polish consul in Allenstein, Bohdan Jałowiecki, along with the consulate staff, was imprisoned in the Hohenbruch and Soldau concentration camps, and then murdered. Polish teachers were deported to the Dachau concentration camp.[12]
On 22 January 1945, near the end of the war, Allenstein was plundered and burned by the conquering Soviet Red Army, and much of its German population fled. The remaining, mostly Polish population, was subjected to various crimes, including murder, rape and looting.[11][6] The Soviets also murdered the remaining patients and staff of the psychiatric hospital, who were either burned alive or shot.[13] Remains of three Roman Catholic nuns who served as nurses at Olsztyn's St. Mary's Hospital and were killed by Soviet soldiers in 1945 were excavated in October 2020. On 23 May 1945, Olsztyn became again part of Poland and the transfer was confirmed under border changes promulgated at the Potsdam Conference. In October 1945, the remaining German population was expelled, to be replaced by new Polish settlers, mostly those expelled from pre-war Polish regions of Vilnius, Grodno and Volhynia, annexed by the Soviet Union, as well as settlers from Warsaw destroyed by the Germans.[6] Reconstruction and removal of damages lasted until the 1950s. [edit] Contemporary historyIn December 1945, a match factory was launched in Olsztyn, as the city's first post-war industrial plant of national importance. A tyre factory was founded in Olsztyn in 1967. Its subsequent names included OZOS, Stomil and Michelin. City limits were greatly expanded in 1966 and 1987.[11] On the 500th anniversary of the birth of Nicolaus Copernicus, in 1973, a planetarium was opened in Olsztyn.[7] In 1989 the former Gazeta Olsztyńska headquarters was rebuilt and re-opened as a museum. In 1991 Pope John Paul II visited the city.[7] In 1999 the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn was established, which is now one of the largest universities in northeastern Poland. Olsztyn became the capital of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship in 1999. It was previously in the Olsztyn Voivodeship. [edit] Research Tips
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