Danzig and Gdynia

O N the southern shores of the Baltic only a few miles apart stand two of the great ports of that sea-Danzig and Gdynia. In other respects they are far apart. What greater contrasts could be conceived than those that lie between the old Hanse town with six centuries of notable economic history behind it and the Polish port, twelve years ago a fishing hamlet? The new rivalry marks for Danzig the latest phase of a career in the shaping of which political geography has played a strong part. Danzig has been a storm center of rival aspirants since the fighting order of Teutonic Knights acquired control in I308. When that control was shaken off a century and a half later, Danzig became nominally a protectorate of Poland and so remained until the partitions. The conclusion of the Napoleonic wars found Prussia the successful claimant for the city, against the Russian ambition to secure the entire Basin, with Danzig its key. In the often-quoted words of Frederick the Great, He who possesses the of the and Danzig is more the master of the country than the King who reigns there. It was to provide an outlet for Poland and thus make economically effective the acquisition of the bed of the Vistula by a politically independent Poland that the Treaty of Versailles and subsequent conventions declared Danzig a free city in 1920. In consequence much controversy has risen between German and Polish interests bearing on the legality and ethics of operations of the authorities seated at Danzig and Warsaw. Out of the situation an important literature has developed containing much of interest to the geographer. It is with this that the present discussion is concerned

Ancient history · History · Local Governance and Planning · Polish Historical and Cultural Studies · Urbanization and City Planning

• American geographers and the geography of East Central Europe

  Open Access•David Turnock•GeoJournal•2004

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• Trieste and Danzig after the Great War

  Marco Bresciani, Klaus Richter•The Journal of Modern History•2023

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