ChatGPT powiedzia\u0142: \n \nOn March 10, 1637, Bogislaw XIV, the last Duke of Pomerania from the Griffin dynasty, died. According to succession treaties, including the one concluded in 1529 (Gramenz), the Pomeranian dominion was to pass to the Elector of Brandenburg. However, the Swedes, who had controlled Pomerania since 1630, refused to relinquish the inheritance, intending instead to keep the land as part of their project to build their own Dominium Maris Baltici. \n \nDuring the peace negotiations aimed at ending the Thirty Years\u2019 War (1618\u20131648) in the Empire, both sides sought to secure the Griffin inheritance for themselves. Ultimately, as a result of the negotiations in Osnabr\u00fcck in 1648, it was decided to divide Pomerania into two parts: the Swedish part, comprising Western Pomerania with Szczecin and the entire Oder estuary (the islands of Wolin and Usedom, Kamie\u0144 Pomorski, Goleni\u00f3w, D\u0105bie, and Gryfino), and the Brandenburg part, i.e., Eastern Pomerania (from Stargard eastward to S\u0142upsk). \n \nOn May 4, 1653, the Elector of Brandenburg concluded a border agreement with Sweden (the Szczecin Border Recess), which ended the Hohenzollern ruler\u2019s efforts to claim the Duchy of Pomerania\u2014an inheritance he was entitled to under previous succession treaties with the Griffins. In June, electoral troops entered Pomerania and took possession of the territory assigned to them in the negotiations.<\/p>\n\n
ChatGPT powiedzia\u0142: \n \nEven while negotiations with Sweden were still ongoing, in 1650 the Elector concluded an agreement with Bishop Ernst Bogislaw von Croy, the nephew of Bogislaw XIV, concerning the transfer of the episcopal dominion\u2014the Bishopric of Kamie\u0144\u2014which included the lands of Ko\u0142obrzeg, Karlino, Koszalin, and Bobolice. The Elector incorporated this territory into the newly formed Pomeranian province, known as the Electoral Duchy of Pomerania and Kamie\u0144.<\/p>\n\n
In 1657, under the Treaties of Wehlau and Bydgoszcz, the Elector received the L\u0119bork-Byt\u00f3w Land as a fief from the Polish king, John II Casimir. This territory had been held by the Pomeranian dukes until 1637 as a hereditary fief. The L\u0119bork-Byt\u00f3w Land (1,715 km\u00b2), although formally a separate administrative entity within the Hohenzollern monarchy, was administratively connected to Brandenburg Pomerania (and, after 1701, to Prussian Pomerania). \n \nFurthermore, in 1668, the Drahim Starosty, including the town of Czaplinek (330 km\u00b2), was also incorporated into the province. It was pledged as collateral for King John II Casimir\u2019s debts, amounting to 120,000 thalers.<\/p>\n\n
The new province, known as Hinterpommern (Farther Pomerania), incorporated into the Brandenburg state, did not, however, experience peace. Already between 1655 and 1660, the Elector actively participated in another Northern War (the Swedish Deluge), seeking to free himself from the suzerainty of the Polish\u2013Lithuanian Commonwealth in Ducal Prussia. Later\u2014after switching allies from the Swedish king to the emperor and the kings of Poland and Denmark\u2014he unsuccessfully tried to gain further territories in Pomerania, especially Szczecin and the mouth of the Oder River. \n \nThis resulted in numerous marches and raids by Swedish and Polish troops across Brandenburg Pomerania, which, together with the heavy tax burden imposed by the Elector on the new province, further worsened the already poor economic condition of the region.<\/p>\n\n
The capture of the Oder estuary and Szczecin was the primary objective of the Brandenburg (later Prussian) monarchs for several subsequent decades. It was for this reason, among others, that the Great Elector took an active part in the war between France and the Habsburgs and their allies from 1672 to 1679. During this conflict, Pomerania once again became a theater of war between Brandenburg and Swedish forces (1674\u20131678). \n \nDespite military successes\u2014including the capture of Szczecin in December 1677\u2014the Elector did not gain any significant new territories in Western Pomerania (as confirmed by the Peace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1679). This goal was not fully achieved until 1713 (see: Prussian Pomerania in the 18th Century).<\/p>\n\n
By the late 17th century, the Pomeranian province\u2014together with the L\u0119bork-Byt\u00f3w Land\u2014extended in the west to the Lower Oder River, including Widuchowa and Gryfino, though without D\u0105bie and Goleni\u00f3w, which remained in Swedish hands. It also encompassed the eastern shore of the Szczecin Lagoon and the Dziwna River, including Stepnica and Kamie\u0144 Pomorski. \n \nThe eastern boundary of the province was formed by the L\u0119bork-Byt\u00f3w Land, which, although formally outside the province, was in practice closely connected to it administratively. To the south, Brandenburg Pomerania bordered the Neumark (New March) and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth\u2019s Greater Poland and Royal Prussia. \n \nIn 1655, the province covered approximately 309.5 square miles (17,000 km\u00b2), and by the end of the 17th century, it had expanded to an area of 370 square miles.<\/p>\n\n
Demographically and economically, the territory taken over by the Elector was heavily devastated, although as early as the 1640s the Swedish authorities\u2014anticipating the possibility of acquiring the entire duchy\u2014had begun its reconstruction (efforts to repopulate deserted areas, privileges to promote craft and trade development). \n \nNevertheless, by 1653 the land remained economically poor, and the Elector\u2019s involvement in the Swedish Deluge and the Dutch Wars brought further serious demographic and economic losses.<\/p>\n\n
In 1655\u2014according to Zygmunt Szultka\u2014Farther Pomerania had a population of about 135,000 inhabitants. Fifty years later, thanks to the efforts of the electoral authorities (the settlement of new colonists and the stimulation of craft development), the population of Farther Pomerania increased\u2014to around 225,000 by about 1710, according to the same researcher.<\/p>\n\n
The Population of Brandenburg Pomerania in the 17th Century<\/p>\n\n including the L\u0119bork-Byt\u00f3w Land<\/p>\n\n When the Elector assumed control of the land, he already had a plan prepared for organizing the administration. On June 6, 1653, the troops of Frederick William occupied Ko\u0142obrzeg, which became the first seat of the provincial authorities. There, the Regency (provincial administration), the Evangelical Consistory, as well as the Domain Chamber and the Court of Appeal were established.
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\nIn time, a War Commissioner for Pomerania and a Pomeranian War Commissariat were also appointed\u2014offices that reflected the increasingly close integration of Pomerania into the structures of the absolutist Hohenzollern monarchy, as well as the growing militarization of the country.<\/p>\n\n Already in July, the Elector summoned the Pomeranian estates to a diet in Stargard. After a year of turbulent deliberations, on July 11, 1654, the assembly adopted a resolution\u2014Regimentsform\u2014which served as the \u201cconstitution\u201d of the duchy.
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\nHowever, even during the proceedings, the new ruler made it clear that any resolutions contrary to his political vision and the dynastic raison d\u2019\u00e9tat would not be recognized by him, emphasizing that the primary duty of his subjects was to pay taxes.
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\nBetween 1654 and 1665, based on the tax resolutions of this first diet, the Great Elector extracted from Pomerania the equivalent of 11 \u201cbarrels of gold\u201d in additional taxes, primarily to fund the maintenance of the army and participation in the Second Northern War (1655\u20131660)\u2014the Swedish Deluge.<\/p>\n\n The Elector\u2019s \u201cabsolutist\u201d rule angered the estates, especially the nobility, among whom a significant opposition movement arose. Its influence grew over time, as Frederick William violated not only political but also religious rights\u2014being a Calvinist, he favored candidates of his own confession for administrative positions.
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\nTo calm his subjects, in 1665 the Elector appointed a Governor of Pomerania, naming Prince Ernst Bogislaw von Croy, a Griffin on his mother\u2019s side. The new provincial administrator proved to be an excellent collaborator of the monarch: he neutralized the anti-electoral opposition and, above all, was an outstanding organizer and politician who thought in terms of the \u201centire Brandenburg state.\u201d
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\nPrince von Croy became one of the monarch\u2019s trusted advisers, and in 1670 he was also entrusted with the governorship of Ducal Prussia.<\/p>\n\n The provincial diets, composed mainly of representatives of the nobility and delegates from the towns, were held annually up to the early 18th century, although their significance was gradually diminished. Elector Frederick III, who became King Frederick I in 1701, introduced the principle that tax demands presented by the ruler were to be implemented even without the consent of the estates\u2019 assembly.
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\nIn order to further reduce the importance of this institution, the rulers transferred many of its functions to the Estates\u2019 Department and the Repartition Commission\u2014a body responsible for dividing Pomerania\u2019s tax obligations to the Elector among specific administrative districts and social groups.<\/p>\n\n Moreover, following the model of his hereditary lands (Brandenburg), the Elector took advantage of the rivalry between the estates\u2014the nobility and the towns. He concluded with the former a compromise between the throne and the noble estate. In exchange for privileges such as a monopoly on royal offices and officer ranks in the army, full authority over the rural population, and exemption of manorial lands from taxation, the Elector compelled the nobility to recognize the monarch\u2019s absolute power and to restrain its own political ambitions.
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\nThe burgher class, on the other hand\u2014economically and thus politically weakened after the Thirty Years\u2019 War\u2014was quickly subordinated to the monarch\u2019s absolute authority through the actions of electoral officials, particularly the war commissioners.<\/p>\n\n In social and economic terms, the process of refeudalization in Pomerania during the Brandenburg period\u2014and even more so after the coronation of Elector Frederick III as King in Prussia in 1701\u2014continued to deepen. The dominance of the nobility, represented by large landed estates in rural areas, over the peasantry was solidified by the aforementioned alliance between the throne and the noble estate, the main outcome of which was the expansion of the manorial-serf economy.
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\nThe rural population was subjected to strict personal, economic, and legal subjugation. Some historians, describing the social relations of the time, have remarked that the monarch\u2019s power \u201cended at the boundary of the noble estates,\u201d as each landowner was effectively a \u201cking\u201d on his own property. Peasants were bound to the land, and in exchange for holding farms they were required to perform corv\u00e9e labor, sometimes amounting to as many as seven days a week, as well as to render other services (such as transport duties and road maintenance) and tributes to the manor.
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\nFurthermore, the rural population became, through their farms, the main taxpayers supporting the monarch (through levies and contributions) and the primary source of military recruits.
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\nThe situation of peasants in the ducal domains (state estates), which covered about one-third of the province\u2019s territory, was hardly better. The Elector entrusted their administration to leaseholding officials, who\u2014seeking maximum personal profit and obliged to pay high fees to the monarch\u2014applied to the peasants the same oppressive practices as the nobility did in their private estates.<\/p>\n\n In Farther Pomerania during the second half of the 17th century, there were 15 ducal towns and 14 private towns, mostly belonging to the nobility (e.g., \u0141obez, W\u0119gorzyno, Resko, Polan\u00f3w, Miastko) or to the ducal domains (e.g., Maszewo, Sucha\u0144). The most important urban centers included Stargard, Ko\u0142obrzeg, S\u0142upsk, followed by Gryfice and Koszalin.
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\nAs mentioned earlier, the war-ravaged towns were placed under the authority of war commissioners, who were responsible not only for tax collection but also for provisioning the army and arranging billeting. Until the 1690s, they retained their ducal-era municipal systems and were governed by city councils representing the local patriciate.
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\nAt the end of the century, an electoral commission for towns, established in 1685, began a gradual reform of municipal governance by drafting new organizational regulations\u2014town hall ordinances (Rathausordnungen). This process continued into the 1730s, and the new regulations transformed the former representative bodies of local elites\u2014the city councils\u2014into magistrates, which formally served as municipal administrative organs but were now fully controlled by the provincial administration of the Elector, and from 1710, of the King.<\/p>\n\n In the second half of the 17th century, Pomeranian towns were primarily small craft centers with limited commercial significance. The more important hubs of craftsmanship and trade were Ko\u0142obrzeg, S\u0142upsk, and Stargard. Agriculture also played a major role in urban life, serving as the primary source of livelihood for many townspeople (townsmen-farmers).
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\nAmong the urban trades, the most common were shoemakers, tailors, bakers, brewers, millers, cloth-makers and weavers, carpenters, joiners, blacksmiths, and construction craftsmen. The emergence of new specialized crafts took place mainly in the three major centers mentioned above. In Stargard, there were foundries, dyers, slipper-makers, tanners, and glassmakers, while in Ko\u0142obrzeg there were locksmiths, turners, and also sailors.
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\nUnable to capture Szczecin, the Elector supported the development of the port of Ko\u0142obrzeg, as well as smaller harbors in Dar\u0142owo and Ustka. In addition, electoral officials prepared plans for the construction of navigable canals linking the Pars\u0119ta with the Drawa and Gwda rivers, in order to redirect part of the trade from the Neumark and even from Greater Poland to Ko\u0142obrzeg. However, these projects were never realized.<\/p>\n\n Alongside the peasants, the towns also served as important taxpayers for Elector Frederick William and his successors. Until the early 1680s, townspeople paid the monarch a contribution tax (Kontribution)\u2014a property tax levied on urban real estate such as houses, workshops, cellars, and plots. In 1682, this tax was replaced in Pomeranian towns by an excise tax, a change that became one of the impulses for the gradual economic development of certain urban centers.
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\nThe main foundation for the improvement of urban conditions was the mercantilist policy of the Elector and his successors. One of its elements was the settlement of immigrants. This became possible, among other reasons, through the Edict of Potsdam issued by Elector Frederick William in 1685, in which he invited French Protestant refugees (Huguenots) persecuted by King Louis XIV to settle in Brandenburg and other provinces of the Hohenzollern monarchy.
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\nOut of nearly 20,000 French emigrants, several hundred families settled by the end of the 17th century in the towns of Farther Pomerania, forming compact colonies, including in Ko\u0142obrzeg and Stargard. These newcomers gave an important stimulus to the development of new professions\u2014such as tobacco cultivation and processing\u2014and to the growth of trade.<\/p>\n\n The rule of Elector Frederick William, known as the Great Elector, and his successors was also a period in which Calvinism spread throughout Farther Pomerania. Upon assuming control of the region, the Elector guaranteed his Pomeranian subjects the right to remain faithful to the Evangelical-Augsburg (Lutheran) faith.
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\nHowever, raised in the Calvinist tradition, Frederick William\u2014though, like his predecessors and successors, he formally upheld the rights of the Lutheran majority\u2014often appointed Evangelical-Reformed (Calvinist) officials to positions in Pomerania. In many towns, alongside Lutheran parishes, Calvinist congregations also began to appear.
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\nThis process intensified with the settlement of French Huguenots in Farther Pomerania. Nevertheless, the majority of the province\u2019s population\u2014nobility, burghers, and especially the rural population\u2014remained faithful to the Augsburg Confession.<\/p>\n\n The economic weakness of Farther Pomerania in the 17th century was also reflected in its culture and education. The Pomeranian University, as well as the Ducal Pedagogium, remained within Swedish Pomerania.
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\nIn the mid-17th century, grammar schools (gymnasia) were established\u2014during the Thirty Years\u2019 War\u2014in Stargard (from 1630) and Szczecinek (from 1640). These were secondary schools whose graduates could continue their education at the university level.
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\nDuring the reign of Elector Frederick III (from 1701, King Frederick I), initiatives emerged to transform Groening\u2019s Gymnasium in Stargard into a university. Similar plans were considered for the school in Szczecinek, with proposals to relocate it to Koszalin or Ko\u0142obrzeg.
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\nBetween 1715 and 1718, the Szczecinek Gymnasium educated Ewald Georg von Kleist, later dean of the Kamie\u0144 Cathedral Chapter, but also a pioneering researcher in the field of electricity. In 1745, he discovered the principle of storing electrical charge (the Kleist jar), anticipating by one year Pieter van Musschenbroek\u2019s similar invention\u2014the Leyden jar.<\/p>\n\n In 1655, the Knight\u2019s Academy in Ko\u0142obrzeg was established\u2014an officer school for young noblemen from Pomerania. The institution\u2019s purpose was not only to educate future officers but, above all, to instill in young nobles a sense of loyalty and devotion to the Hohenzollern dynasty.
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\nIn 1701, the academy was relocated to Berlin, where it became an institution serving young Junkers from across the Prussian monarchy.<\/p>\n\n In addition, during the Brandenburg period, urban and parish schools operated in the towns and some villages. In the former, children were taught primarily German, sometimes Latin, as well as arithmetic and religious studies. The rural schools, on the other hand, served mainly as centers of religious instruction, though they also provided basic education in reading and writing.<\/p>\n\n In the second half of the 17th century and the early 18th century, Farther Pomerania gradually underwent a process of integration with the Brandenburg-Prussian monarchy. Throughout this period, the estates\u2014especially the nobility\u2014although they had formally recognized electoral absolutism, repeatedly opposed the decisions of the Brandenburg monarchs. The region nonetheless preserved its distinct identity and attachment to Pomeranian traditions.
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\nSignificant qualitative changes in this regard occurred only during the era of the classical Prussian monarchy, under Kings Frederick William I and Frederick II (see Prussian Pomerania in the 18th Century).<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n More:<\/p>\n\n Historia Pomorza tom II, cz\u0119\u015b\u0107 III: Pomorze Zachodnie (1648-1815)<\/em>, red. G. Labuda, Pozna\u0144 2003.<\/p>\n\n Pomorze Zachodnie poprzez wieki<\/em>, red . Jan Maria Piskorski, Szczecin 1999.<\/p>\n\n Bogdan Wachowiak, Andrzej Kamie\u0144ski, Dzieje Brandenburgii-Prus. Na progu czas\u00f3w nowo\u017cytnych 1500-1701<\/em>, Pozna\u0144 2001.<\/p>\n\n Pawe\u0142 Gut<\/em><\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2958,"parent":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false},"kategoria-epoki":[69],"class_list":["post-1878","epoka","type-epoka","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","kategoria-epoki-swedish-pomerania-and-brandenburg-prussian-pomerania"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"kategoria-epoki":[{"value":69,"label":"Swedish Pomerania and Brandenburg-Prussian Pomerania"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/historiapomorza.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Pom_Br_1-APS_ZK_99-1.jpg",1024,844,false],"author_info":[],"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/historiapomorza.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/epoka\/1878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/historiapomorza.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/epoka"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/historiapomorza.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/epoka"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/historiapomorza.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/historiapomorza.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"kategoria-epoki","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/historiapomorza.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kategoria-epoki?post=1878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Year<\/td> The Population<\/td><\/tr> 1655<\/td> 135\u00a0000<\/td><\/tr> 1660<\/td> 142\u00a0000<\/td><\/tr> 1670<\/td> 158\u00a0000<\/td><\/tr> 1690<\/td> 175\u00a0000\/195\u00a0000*<\/td><\/tr> 1710<\/td> 225\u00a0000*<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n