Kostrzyn nad Odra
Encyclopedia
Kostrzyn nad Odrą ' is a town
in western Poland
, at the confluence of the Oder
and Warta rivers, on the border with Germany
. Located in the Lubusz Voivodeship
, in Gorzów County, it had 19,952 inhabitants as of 2007.
until the 9th century, when Slavic people arrived in the area, and the region came under the control of Pomerania
. From the 960s-1200 most of the territory, along with its castle, belonged to the dukes of Poland. Duke Mieszko I of Poland
used Kostrzyn's strategic location as a staging area during his expedition to Cedynia
. Bolesław I the Brave also prepared here for conquests and battles in Bautzen
.
The name of the town was first mentioned in 1232 in a Polish letter to the Teutonic Knights
, in which the old Slavic
name Cozsterine (kostrzyca) was mentioned. In the 12th century it developed into a fortified outpost and a Polish taxation chamber. In 1223 Prince Władysław Odonic granted the town to German brothers of the Knights Templar
, although it was seized by the Margraviate of Brandenburg
in 1261. By 1300 the town received Magdeburg rights
by Margrave Albrecht III of Brandenburg and started to grow rapidly, owing largely to trade on the rivers.
From 1535-1571 the town was the seat of John of Brandenburg-Küstrin, who made it the capital of the Neumark
region and built a castle. With time the castle was expanded into a fortress, one of the largest such facilities in the region. While still crown prince, Frederick the Great
was imprisoned in the fortress, from which he witnessed the execution of his friend Hans Hermann von Katte
on 6 November 1730. Captured by the French in 1806, it remained under occupation from a French military garrison for the remainder of the Napoleonic Wars
. During the retreat from the east in 1814 the town was set on fire and burnt to the ground. After that the town recovered and became one of the most important railway hubs in the Kingdom of Prussia
and later the German Empire
. In 1857 it was linked to Berlin
and Frankfurt (Oder)
and in 1875 with Stettin (Szczecin)
on the Pomeranian coast. In 1900 its population reached 16,473, including the garrison of the fortress.
At the outbreak of World War II
Küstrin had 24,000 inhabitants. However, due to Allied
air raids on the railway hub and local factories and especially during the Battle of the Oder-Neisse
and Battle of the Seelow Heights
, almost 95% of the buildings were destroyed (including all 32 of the city's factories) and the town was generally deserted. The suburb Alt-Drewitz (modern Drzewice
, one of Kostrzyn's boroughs) contained the Nazi
POW camp Stalag III-C Alt-Drewitz
, used mostly for French
, Soviet, and Italian prisoners of war. From 1943-45 the town also housed a number of German forced labour camps and a sub-camp of Sachsenhausen concentration camp
. After the war the ruined town was placed under Polish administration by the Potsdam Conference
; Germans remaining in the town were subsequently murdered or expelled westward
and replaced with expelled Poles. The remnants of the old town within the fortress walls, including the castle in which the young Frederick the Great had been imprisoned, were razed after the war and the bricks used to rebuild Polish cities elsewhere. More recently, plans to rebuild some of the old town in a historical style were mooted, but this project appears to be on hold. The section of the town on the west bank of the Oder remained in Germany and is now called Küstrin-Kietz
.
Since 2004 Kostrzyn annually hosts Przystanek Woodstock
in the summer, the largest open-air music festival in Europe and one of the largest in the world.
Poland national football team:
Town
A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...
in western Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, at the confluence of the Oder
Oder
The Oder is a river in Central Europe. It rises in the Czech Republic and flows through western Poland, later forming of the border between Poland and Germany, part of the Oder-Neisse line...
and Warta rivers, on the border with Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Located in the Lubusz Voivodeship
Lubusz Voivodeship
- Administrative division :Lubusz Voivodeship is divided into 14 counties : 2 city counties and 12 land counties. These are further divided into 83 gminas....
, in Gorzów County, it had 19,952 inhabitants as of 2007.
History
The region of Kostrzyn was settled by Germanic peoplesGermanic peoples
The Germanic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.Originating about 1800 BCE from the Corded Ware Culture on the North...
until the 9th century, when Slavic people arrived in the area, and the region came under the control of Pomerania
Pomerania
Pomerania is a historical region on the south shore of the Baltic Sea. Divided between Germany and Poland, it stretches roughly from the Recknitz River near Stralsund in the West, via the Oder River delta near Szczecin, to the mouth of the Vistula River near Gdańsk in the East...
. From the 960s-1200 most of the territory, along with its castle, belonged to the dukes of Poland. Duke Mieszko I of Poland
Mieszko I of Poland
Mieszko I , was a Duke of the Polans from about 960 until his death. A member of the Piast dynasty, he was son of Siemomysł; grandchild of Lestek; father of Bolesław I the Brave, the first crowned King of Poland; likely father of Świętosława , a Nordic Queen; and grandfather of her son, Cnut the...
used Kostrzyn's strategic location as a staging area during his expedition to Cedynia
Cedynia
Cedynia is a town in Poland, in West Pomeranian Voivodeship, in Gryfino County. It lies close to the Oder River, near the border with Germany, and is the westernmost town in Poland...
. Bolesław I the Brave also prepared here for conquests and battles in Bautzen
Bautzen
Bautzen is a hill-top town in eastern Saxony, Germany, and administrative centre of the eponymous district. It is located on the Spree River. As of 2008, its population is 41,161...
.
The name of the town was first mentioned in 1232 in a Polish letter to the Teutonic Knights
Teutonic Knights
The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem , commonly the Teutonic Order , is a German medieval military order, in modern times a purely religious Catholic order...
, in which the old Slavic
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
name Cozsterine (kostrzyca) was mentioned. In the 12th century it developed into a fortified outpost and a Polish taxation chamber. In 1223 Prince Władysław Odonic granted the town to German brothers of the Knights Templar
Knights Templar
The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...
, although it was seized by the Margraviate of Brandenburg
Margraviate of Brandenburg
The Margraviate of Brandenburg was a major principality of the Holy Roman Empire from 1157 to 1806. Also known as the March of Brandenburg , it played a pivotal role in the history of Germany and Central Europe....
in 1261. By 1300 the town received Magdeburg rights
Magdeburg rights
Magdeburg Rights or Magdeburg Law were a set of German town laws regulating the degree of internal autonomy within cities and villages granted by a local ruler. Modelled and named after the laws of the German city of Magdeburg and developed during many centuries of the Holy Roman Empire, it was...
by Margrave Albrecht III of Brandenburg and started to grow rapidly, owing largely to trade on the rivers.
From 1535-1571 the town was the seat of John of Brandenburg-Küstrin, who made it the capital of the Neumark
Neumark
Neumark comprised a region of the Prussian province of Brandenburg, Germany.Neumark may also refer to:* Neumark, Thuringia* Neumark, Saxony* Neumark * Nowe Miasto Lubawskie or Neumark, a town in Poland, situated at river Drwęca...
region and built a castle. With time the castle was expanded into a fortress, one of the largest such facilities in the region. While still crown prince, Frederick the Great
Frederick II of Prussia
Frederick II was a King in Prussia and a King of Prussia from the Hohenzollern dynasty. In his role as a prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire, he was also Elector of Brandenburg. He was in personal union the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel...
was imprisoned in the fortress, from which he witnessed the execution of his friend Hans Hermann von Katte
Hans Hermann von Katte
Hans Hermann von Katte was a Lieutenant of the Prussian Army and close friend and possibly lover of the future Frederick II of Prussia, then the Crown Prince. He was executed by Frederick's father King Frederick William I of Prussia when he and Frederick plotted to escape from the Kingdom of...
on 6 November 1730. Captured by the French in 1806, it remained under occupation from a French military garrison for the remainder of the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
. During the retreat from the east in 1814 the town was set on fire and burnt to the ground. After that the town recovered and became one of the most important railway hubs in the Kingdom of Prussia
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...
and later the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
. In 1857 it was linked to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
and Frankfurt (Oder)
Frankfurt (Oder)
Frankfurt is a town in Brandenburg, Germany, located on the Oder River, on the German-Polish border directly opposite the town of Słubice which was a part of Frankfurt until 1945. At the end of the 1980s it reached a population peak with more than 87,000 inhabitants...
and in 1875 with Stettin (Szczecin)
Szczecin
Szczecin , is the capital city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland. It is the country's seventh-largest city and the largest seaport in Poland on the Baltic Sea. As of June 2009 the population was 406,427....
on the Pomeranian coast. In 1900 its population reached 16,473, including the garrison of the fortress.
At the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Küstrin had 24,000 inhabitants. However, due to Allied
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
air raids on the railway hub and local factories and especially during the Battle of the Oder-Neisse
Battle of the Oder-Neisse
The Battle of the Oder–Neisse is the German name for the initial phase of one of the last two strategic offensives conducted by the Red Army in the Campaign in Central Europe during World War II. Its initial breakthrough phase was fought over four days, from 16 April until 19 April 1945, within...
and Battle of the Seelow Heights
Battle of the Seelow Heights
The Battle of the Seelow Heights , was a part of the Seelow-Berlin Offensive Operation ; one of the last assaults on large entrenched defensive positions of World War II. It was fought over three days, from 16–19 April 1945...
, almost 95% of the buildings were destroyed (including all 32 of the city's factories) and the town was generally deserted. The suburb Alt-Drewitz (modern Drzewice
Drzewice
Drzewice is the north-western borough of the town of Kostrzyn nad Odrą in western Poland. Until 1952 it was but a village. During World War II Stalag III-C Alt-Drewitz, a Nazi POW camp, was located there....
, one of Kostrzyn's boroughs) contained the Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
POW camp Stalag III-C Alt-Drewitz
Stalag III-C Alt-Drewitz
Stalag III-C Alt-Drewitz was a German Army World War II prisoner-of-war camp for Allied soldiers. It was located on a plain near the village of Alt-Drewitz, Brandenburg about east of Berlin.Initially the camp served as a place of internment of several thousands of soldiers and NCOs from Poland,...
, used mostly for French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
, Soviet, and Italian prisoners of war. From 1943-45 the town also housed a number of German forced labour camps and a sub-camp of Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Sachsenhausen or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used primarily for political prisoners from 1936 to the end of the Third Reich in May, 1945. After World War II, when Oranienburg was in the Soviet Occupation Zone, the structure was used as an NKVD...
. After the war the ruined town was placed under Polish administration by the Potsdam Conference
Potsdam Conference
The Potsdam Conference was held at Cecilienhof, the home of Crown Prince Wilhelm Hohenzollern, in Potsdam, occupied Germany, from 16 July to 2 August 1945. Participants were the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States...
; Germans remaining in the town were subsequently murdered or expelled westward
Expulsion of Germans after World War II
The later stages of World War II, and the period after the end of that war, saw the forced migration of millions of German nationals and ethnic Germans from various European states and territories, mostly into the areas which would become post-war Germany and post-war Austria...
and replaced with expelled Poles. The remnants of the old town within the fortress walls, including the castle in which the young Frederick the Great had been imprisoned, were razed after the war and the bricks used to rebuild Polish cities elsewhere. More recently, plans to rebuild some of the old town in a historical style were mooted, but this project appears to be on hold. The section of the town on the west bank of the Oder remained in Germany and is now called Küstrin-Kietz
Küstrin-Kietz
Küstrin-Kietz is a small village located in the German state of Brandenburg, at the Oder river and the border with Poland. Since 1998 it is part of the Küstriner Vorland municipality.-Overview:...
.
Since 2004 Kostrzyn annually hosts Przystanek Woodstock
Przystanek Woodstock
Przystanek Woodstock is an annual free rock music festival in Poland, inspired by and named for the Woodstock Festival, that has taken place since 1995...
in the summer, the largest open-air music festival in Europe and one of the largest in the world.
Number of inhabitants in years
- 1900: 16,473 (incl. the military), among them 1,095 CatholicsRoman Catholic ChurchThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
and 143 JewsJewsThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
. - 1925: approx. 19,500, incl. approx. 1,800 Catholics and 120 Jews.
- 1939: approx. 24,000
- 1971: approx. 11,000
Notable residents
- Kaspar von BarthKaspar von BarthKaspar von Barth was a German philologist and writer.Barth was born at Küstrin in the Neumark region of Brandenburg. A precocious child, he was looked upon as a marvel of learning. After studying at Gotha, Eisenach, Wittenberg, and Jena, he travelled extensively, visiting most of the countries of...
(1587-1658), philologist - Philipp von StoschPhilipp von StoschBaron Philipp von Stosch was a Prussian antiquarian who lived in Rome and Florence.Stosch was born in Küstrin in the Neumark region of Brandenburg...
(1691-1757), antiquarian - Alfred von TirpitzAlfred von TirpitzAlfred von Tirpitz was a German Admiral, Secretary of State of the German Imperial Naval Office, the powerful administrative branch of the German Imperial Navy from 1897 until 1916. Prussia never had a major navy, nor did the other German states before the German Empire was formed in 1871...
(1849-1930), grand admiral - Fedor von BockFedor von BockFedor von Bock was a German Generalfeldmarshall who served in the Wehrmacht during the Second World War. As a leader who lectured his soldiers about the honor of dying for the German Fatherland, he was nicknamed "Der Sterber"...
(1880-1945), Generalfeldmarschall - Gerhard MatzkyGerhard MatzkyGerhard Matzky was a highly decorated General der Infanterie in the Wehrmacht during World War II who commanded several corps. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful...
(1894–1983), general
Poland national football team:
- Dariusz DudkaDariusz DudkaDariusz Dudka is a Polish footballer who currently plays for AJ Auxerre and the Polish national football team as a defensive midfielder or full-back. He can also play as a centre back.-Career:...
(born 1983), AJ AuxerreAJ AuxerreAssociation de la Jeunesse Auxerroise is a French association football club based in the commune of Auxerre in Burgundy. The club was founded in 1905 and currently play in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. Auxerre plays its home matches at the Stade l'Abbé-Deschamps on the banks of the...
defender - Grzegorz WojtkowiakGrzegorz WojtkowiakGrzegorz Wojtkowiak is a Polish footballer who currently plays for Lech Poznań.-National team:He debuted for the Poland national team on April 1, 2009 against San Marino.- External links :* * - lechpoznan.pl...
(born 1984), Lech PoznanLech PoznanLech Poznań is a Polish football club based in Poznań, Poland. The club is named after Lech, the legendary founder of Polish nation.The club was established in 1922 as Lutnia Dębiec, later changing its name several times. From 1933 until 1994, the club was closely linked to Polish State Railways...
defender - Łukasz Fabiański (born 1985), Arsenal F.C.Arsenal F.C.Arsenal Football Club is a professional English Premier League football club based in North London. One of the most successful clubs in English football, it has won 13 First Division and Premier League titles and 10 FA Cups...
goalkeeper
Twin towns — Sister cities
Kostrzyn nad Odrą is twinned with:| Sambir Sambir Sambir is a city in the Lviv Oblast, Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of the Sambir Raion , the city itself is also designated as a separate raion within the oblast. It is located at around , close to the border with Poland.-History:... , Ukraine Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia... |