Poznan's Past

Though several great Polish cities have served as capitals (Krakow, Warsaw), Poznan still holds the official name "Stoleczne Miasto Poznan" ("The Capital City of Poznan"), though it's only used on special occasions. References to the city date back to as far as 970 AD, in the chronicles of a man named Thietmar. The name of the city is most likely a derivative of the surname "Poznan" or "Poznany," which comes from the verb "poznac," or "to get to know." We strongly believe you should get to know Poznan well, including its long and fascinating history!

Above: One of the earliest maps of Poznan, from the 17th century

Poznan is one of Poland's oldest cities, and was its capital during the middle of the 10th century. As such, several important early Polish rulers are buried in its Archicathedral Basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul (the oldest cathedral in Poland), including Duke Mieszko I and King Boleslaus the Brave.

Though the area of Greater Poland has been inhabited since the Stone Age, the settlement that would become Poznan began at the end of the 8th century AD, when the first stronghold was built on the island of Ostrow Tumski, between the Warta and Cybina rivers. The 10th century was the start of Poland as a kingdom, and Poznan and Gniezno (its first capital) were the main centres of the developing Polish state. Thus, when the first Polish monarch Mieszko I died, he was buried in Poznan's cathedral.

In 999, the Diocese of Poznan was founded under the jurisdiction of the archbishopric of Gniezno. However, both cities were destroyed during the Bohemian Czech invasion of Bretislaus I in 1038, and the capital was moved to Cracow under Casimir I the Restorer. Luckily, King Boleslaus II the Generous rebuilt Poznan, but the capital status would remain lost forever.

Poznan was to remain a capital of sorts though, and it became the capital of the division (today the voivodship) of Greater Poland (Wielkopolska) from 1138 on, when Poland was divided into feudal districts. The 12th century saw the city develop quickly, becoming a centre of trade and crafts. Due to Poznan's location in western Polish territory, it would grow to have a significant German population, with Teutonic settlements popping up in the area as early as the 13th century, and many German settlers moving to the city. The 13th century was also when King Przemysl II built a castle in Poznan and surrounded the city with a wall.

When a unified Poland soon emerged, Poznan became a major political, economic, cultural, and academic centre, much of it thanks to its location on a major trade route between Germany and Bohemia in the west and Ruthenia and Lithuania in the east. In 1519 Lubranski Academy was founded in Poznan, becoming the second oldest higher academic institution in Poland after Krakow's Jagiellonian University; in 1573 a Jesuit college opened in Poznan as well.

With the large German population of Poznan ("Posen" in German), the Protestant Church developed alongside the Polish Catholic Church, and also had its own academic institutions. All of these new developments in trade, culture, religion, and education brought about the "Golden Age" of Poznan, generally agreed to be the 16th century. With a population of about 20,000, it was one of the largest cities in Poland, and it was steadily growing and flourishing until disaster struck in 1655: the Swedish armies invaded, starting a series of wars, epidemics, and catastrophes, which killed many and significantly slowed the economic and cultural development of the city.

Luckily, Poznan sprung back at the end of the 18th century, and settlers from German and Dutch lands came to the city and enriched its cultural development even more. When Poland was partitioned in 1793, Poznan fell to the Kingdom of Prussia, and became the capital of South Prussia. While it tasted a brief bout of independence during the Napoleonic Wars, Poznan would remain under Prussian control until all of Poland regained its independence after the First World War.

At the brink of war, the population of Poznan was roughly half Polish and half German, and the city had rapidly industrialized and developed culturally and economically, and was also made into a major military post by the German army. When war broke out, Poznan was heavily militarized, but as it was nearing its end and Germany was in retreat, the Great Poland Uprising of 1918-1919 and the subsequent treaty of Versailles returned most of the province of Posen to the newly established Polish nation, and Poznan became once again a Polish city and the capital of the Poznan Voivodship. Most of the German population moved to Germany, leaving about 10% of the city German.

Now part of a growing and prospering Second Polish Republic, Poznan opened Poznan University in 1919, and in 1925 the Poznan International Trade Fairs became a major event of culture and commerce in the area. Even as a second war loomed near, Poznan continued to grow and prosper, until Nazi invasion in 1939 made Poznan a German city again, and the German authorities started a programme of the "re-Germanization of Poznan," expelling some 100,000 Polish citizens to central Poland bringing German settlers into the city.

Poznan's Jewish population suffered especially during the occupation, as in all of Poland, though large numbers of non-Jewish Poles were murdered as well in notorious executions by the SS. But the Poles who remained refused to surrender, many joining guerilla units of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa) and fighting alongside the Soviet army which liberated the city in January-February 1945. In the process much of Poznan was destroyed, including over 90% of the Old Town.

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 anti-communist 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.