Pomeranian-Polish relations in the times of the Griffins in the 12th century included the exercise of supremacy over the Duchy of Pomerania by Polish rulers (Polish fiefdom). In the following centuries, mutual relations were based on dynastic ties, including those of Bogislaw X with Anna Jagiellon (1491), as well as political and military alliances against…
The time has come to face the legend of the Junak. This is a dangerous task, because for many people it is a practically mythically perfect vehicle, simply because it is Polish. As if we were marked by God to invent and produce perfect things, in this case motorcycles. […] Every word of criticism…
On a beautiful, sunny Friday, July 17, 1959, at 11:45 AM, an Il-18 landed at the airport near Szczecin in Goleniów, carrying the Prime Minister of the Soviet Union and First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Nikita Khrushchev. This visit—one of three, alongside the city’s visits by John Paul II in 1987…
Initially, the Duchy of Pomerania constituted a patrimonial monarchy governed by ducal law. During the thirteenth century, with colonization and the adoption of Western models (colonization under German law), the duchy transformed into a feudal monarchy, with relations based on feudal law and estate privileges. Following a period of feudal dependence on Polish dukes, the…
The colonization under German law in Pomerania during the thirteenth century introduced a new form of organization for the population engaged in non-agricultural occupations. In place of strongholds and their adjacent trading settlements (suburbia), towns chartered under Magdeburg or Lübeck law emerged in accordance with Western models. They constituted self-governing communes, with their own administrative…
The slogan ‘We hold watch over the Oder’ returns every few or dozen years, and although the political and social contexts change, it still evokes emotions. Their scale is no longer what it was when it was conceived—during the initial postwar period—yet it remains fraught with references that trigger broad historical connotations. The most important…
The beginning of Polish literary life in Szczecin was marked by the campaign of “cultural repolonization of the Recovered Territories,” also known as “literary settlement.” Prof. Erazm Kuźma, an eminent literary theorist and historian, considered this project to be “an artificial creation that disintegrated as quickly as it arose.” At the same time, he pointed…
The political and systemic transformations that occurred in Poland after 1989 manifested themselves in all major spheres of state functioning, including education. They concerned, among other things, the reorganization of the school management system, the development of institutional autonomy, the emergence of proprietary curricula, as well as new forms of general and vocational education. These…
Kazimierz Majdański was born on March 1, 1916, in Małgów near Kalisz, as the youngest of thirteen children of Rozalia and Józef Majdański. His family was deeply religious, so it came as no surprise to anyone that after graduating from the Pius X Gimnazjum (secondary school) in Włocławek and passing his matura (high school exit…
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…
