The 17th century was a turning point in the history of the Griffins’ Duchy, which had existed since the 12th century. In 1637, Bogislaw XIV, the last ruler of the dynasty, died. This event marked the end of an important phase of dynastic rule and the functioning of the Duchy of Pomerania, which had…
Until 1945, today’s West Pomerania was part of the Prussian, and subsequently German, province of Pomerania (Provinz Pommern). Just as in other regions of Germany, a well-developed network of regional museums emerged here as well. Both in district towns and in many smaller localities, there existed regional museums of the Heimatmuseum type or memory rooms…
At the beginning of the 19th century, Pomerania for the most part formed a province of the Prussian state. Only the north-western borderlands, a small fragment of the former Duchy of Pomerania (Western Pomerania north of the Peene River, including the island of Rügen), remained under Swedish rule. In terms of its political system, Prussian…
The German province of Pomerania (Provinz Pommern) held an important place in the preparations for the attack on Poland in 1939. Its most important city, Szczecin (Stettin), was situated in a strategically vital location, by a main transportation route based on the unfinished Berlin–Königsberg highway, which allowed for the deployment of troops to the north-western…
From seasonal labor to forced exploitation for the economy of the Third Reich The labor market in the German Empire, proclaimed in 1871, was characterized by a distinct wage gap between the western and eastern parts of the country, as well as between urban and rural areas. The rural depopulation (Landflucht), which escalated…
The birthplace of the V1 and V2 rockets. History and the politics of memory regarding World War II Peenemünde is not just one of many charming tourist municipalities on the island of Usedom in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Until the mid-1930s, this small fishing village—known only as the place where Swedish King Gustavus…
The beginning of the automotive history of the Stoewer company took place in March 1896. In that year, Bernhard Stoewer Sr. launched a factory under the name Stettiner Eisenwerke Bernhard Stoewer Sen., located on today’s Aleja Wojska Polskiego (back then Falkenwalder Chaussee). Initially, its production was based on metalworking machinery (lathes) and, additionally, bicycle…
Terror from the sky and the Nazi phantom factory in Police: how the Third Reich wanted to win the war with synthetic fuel from coal Introduction World War II left behind many non-obvious material traces embedded in the contemporary cultural landscape. Among the more intriguing are the remains of Nazi synthetic liquid fuel…
