Poznan before and after World War 2

Poznan before and after World War 2

Before the World War II Following Germany's defeat in World War I Polish independence seemed assured, but it was not clear whether Greater Poland would become part of the new state of Poland. A speech given in Poznan by Ignacy Paderewski on December 27, 1918 ignited the Greater Poland Uprising of 1918 1919, in which Polish troops attempted to take control of the region from Germany. The uprising was largely successful, and in the Versailles peace treaty (signed June 28, 1919) most of the region was granted to Poland, with Poznań as the capital of the newly formed Poznań Voivodeship within the Second Polish Republic. Many German inhabitants left to live within the new German borders, partly because of discrimination. Germans made up 5.5% of the city's population in 1921, and 2.6% in 1931 (after the expansion of the city's boundaries). German soldiers in Poznan-1939

Before the World War II In 1919 Poznan University was opened, taking over the buildings of the Prussian Settlement Commission and Royal Academy. In 1921 Poznan first hosted trade fairs, which from 1925 became the Poznajn International Fairs. From 16 May to 30 September 1929 the fairs site became the venue for a major National Exhibition (Powszechna Wystawa Krajowa, popularly PeWuKa), held to mark ten years of Polish independence. The exhibition attracted around 4.5 million visitors. In the interwar period the city's borders were expanded to include Glowna, Komandoria, Rataje, Staroleka, Debiec, Szelag and Winogrady (including the Citadel) in 1925, and Golecin and Podolany in 1933. The city's area was now 76.9 square kilometres. University Poznan 1919

Before the World War II

Poznań during the World War 2 With the outbreak of the World War II Poznań was annexed by Germany, and was organized into the province called initially Reichsgau Posen, and later Reichsgau Wartheland (Warthe being the German name for the Warta river). The governor (Gauleiter) was Arthur Greiser, who would be hanged for crimes against humanity after the war.

Poznań during the World War 2 During the Nazi occupation some 100,000 inhabitants were expelled to the central Polish General Government. Many people were murdered, executed, tortured or detained in inhumane conditions, particularly at the notorious Fort VII concentration camp, set up in one of the late 19thcentury defensive forts, and later at the camp in Żabikowo. Many others were sent to central Germany as forced labour or conscripted into the German army. Poznań's Jewish population, which had numbered 2,000 in 1939,[1] was largely murdered in the Holocaust. Property belonging to expelled or murdered Poles and Jews was often given to Volksdeutsche resettled from Baltic States, Eastern Europe and central Germany. Figures for 1944 show 94,000 Germans living in Poznań.

Poznań during the World War 2

Poznań during the World War 2 As the Soviet Red Army advanced into Poland in January 1945, Poznań was declared a Festung, meaning that it was to be defended at all costs. Greiser himself fled, but evacuation of civilians was forbidden until January 20. Soviet forces reached the city on January 25 and, following nine days of artillery bombardment, began their ground assault on February 18, aided by some Polish civilians and a unit of the 2nd Polish Army. On the night of February 22, the German commander, Ernst Gomell, committed suicide, and the following morning the remaining garrison surrendered. The struggle left over 55% of the city destroyed, including over 90% of the Old Town. Soviet Army

Battle of Poznań (1945) The Battle of Poznan (Battle of Posen) during World War II in 1945 was a massive assault by the Soviet Union's Red Army that had as its objective the elimination of the Nazi German garrison in the stronghold city of Poznan in occupied Poland. The defeat of the German garrison required almost an entire month of painstaking reduction of fortified positions, intense urban combat, and a final assault on the city's citadel by the Red Army, complete with medieval touches.

Battle of Poznań (1945)

In June 1956, workers at the city's Cegielski locomotive factory, the largest factory in Poland, demanded talks with Prime Minister Józef Cyrankiewicz to protest at low wages, lack of overtime pay, tax changes and food shortages. The government refused to talk, and after a series of strikes, on June 28 a workers' protest march was fired on by the authorities. The situation escalated; crowds ransacked the communist party headquarters and attacked the secret police headquarters, where they were repulsed by police fire. According to official figures, 67 people were killed; hundreds more were injured or arrested. The riots continued for two days until being quelled by the army. These protests are seen as an early expression of resistance to communist rule in Poland. For more details, see Poznań 1956 protests. June 1956

Poznań 1956 protests The Poznań 1956 protests, also known as Poznań 1956 uprising or Poznań June (Polish: Poznański Czerwiec), were the first of several massive protests of the Polish people against the communist dictatorial government of the People's Republic of Poland. Demonstrations by workers demanding better conditions began on June 28, 1956, at Poznań's Cegielski Factories and were met with violent repression. A crowd of approximately 100,000 gathered in the city center near the local Ministry of Public Security building. About 400 tanks and 10,000 soldiers of the People's Army of Poland and the Internal Security Corps under Polish- Soviet general Stanislav Poplavsky were ordered to suppress the demonstration and during the pacification fired at the protesting civilians.

Structures destroyed after war The Old Market- 1956 The Old Market- 1945

Citadel- 1945

Aula Uniwersytecka- 1945 Staroleka bridge- 1945

Town hall rebuild, 50 s years XX cent. Fort Winiary (Citadel), war damage, 1945

Stary Rynek, 1945 Chwaliszewski s Bridge, 1945

After War After the Soviet "liberation" of Poland, the country was incorporated into the Soviet Bloc, though Poznan became once again a Polish city and its German population was expelled, and largely replaced by the expelled Polish population from Lviv and Vilnius and Poland's former eastern territories. The Sovietization of Poland brought hard times, but it also saw the rebuilding of Poznan and the rest of Poland's badly damaged cities.

During communist times, Poznan suffered shortages and censorship and the climate of fear with the rest of Poland, though worsening economic conditions led to the first anti-communist protests in the city in June 1956. After a strike workers from the largest factory in Poland in Poznan took to the streets, ransacking the Communist Party Headquarters until secret police began firing into the crowd, killing between 53 and 76 people, injuring hundreds, and arresting 700. Nevertheless, the riots lasted two days until the army came in with tanks, armoured cars, and field guns, quelling the present riot but failing to control anticommunist sentiment that would last until the fall of communism.

At the beginning of the 1980s, the communist machine was starting to fall apart throughout Poland and later the rest of the Eastern Bloc. In 1981, a monument to the June 1956 uprising was erected, and in 1983 Pope John Paul II visited Poznan for the first time. Finally, when communism ended for good in Poland in 1990, the first free elections were held for local government in the city, and Poznan was made the capital of the Greater Poland Voivodship in 1999.

Today, with Poland in the European Union and NATO (whose first Polish base was located in Poznan), the city is facing the rebirth of economic prosperity, free artistic expression and cultural renewal, and inevitable tourism boom that being a free nation in the EU brings. We can only hope that the hard times are behind us, and that the city will only continue to grow and remain an important centre of cultural and economic exchange for western Poland.

Poznań today!

Thanks for reading Source: wikipedia.com poznanskiehistorie.blogspot.com zapytaj.onet.pl www.poznanczyk.com www.local-life.com Done by: Karol Marciniak & Cyryl Smoleński