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History of Pomerania (1950-present) covers the History of Pomerania during the Communist and Democratic era.

With the consolidation of Communism in East Germany and Poland, Pomerania became part of the Eastern Bloc. In the 1980s, the Solidarnosc movement in Gdansk (Danzig) and the Wende movement in East Germany forced the Communists out of power and led to the establishment of democracy in both the Polish and German part of Pomerania.

Communist era

Polish part of Pomerania

The situation changed for the worse in 1948, when all countries of the Eastern Bloc had to adopt Soviet economic principles. Private shops were banned and most farmers were forced to join agricultural cooperatives, managed by local communists.

In 1953 Poland was forced to accept the end of war reparations, which previously were solely placed on East Germany, while West Germany enjoyed the benefits of the Marshall Plan. In 1956 Poland was on the verge of a Soviet invasion, but the crisis was solved and the Polish government's communism developed a more human face with Władysław Gomułka as the head of politburo. Poland developed the ports of Pomerania and restored the destroyed shipyards of Gdańsk, Gdynia and Szczecin.

These were organised as two harbour complexes: one of Szczecin port with Swinoujscie avanport and the other was Gdańsk-Gdynia set of ports. Gdańsk and Gdynia, along with the spa of Sopot located between them, became one metropolitan area called Tricity and populated by more than 1,000,000 inhabitants.

In 1970, after putting an end to the uncertain border issue with West Germany under Willy Brandt, the massive unrest in the coastal cities marked the end of Władysław Gomułka's rule. The new leader, Edward Gierek, wanted to modernize the country by the wide use of western credits. Although the policy failed, Poland became one of the main world players in the shipyard industry. Polish open sea fishing scientists discovered new species of fish for the fishing industry. Unfortunately, countries with direct access to the open seas declared 200 mile (370 km) economic zones that finally put the end to the Polish fishing industry. Shipyards also came under growing pressure from the subsidized Japanese and Korean enterprises.

During 1970, Poland built also the Northern Harbour in rebuilt Gdańsk, which allowed the country independent access to oil from OPEC countries. The new oil refinery had been built in Gdańsk, and an oil pipeline connected both with main Polish pipeline in Płock.

East German part of Pomerania

The part of Pomerania west of the Oder Neisse line was attached to Mecklenburg by a SMAD order of 1946 to form the Land of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. This Land was renamed Mecklenburg in 1947, became a constituent state of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) in 1949 and was dissolved by the GDR government in 1952, when the East Berlin government abandoned "states" in favour of districts (German: Bezirke). The area of Western Pomerania was split into the eastern Kreis districts of the newly established Bezirk administrative GDR subdivisions Bezirk Rostock and Bezirk Neubrandenburg, Gartz (Oder) joined Bezirk Frankfurt (Oder). The administrative changes also made the historical border between Mecklenburg and Pomerania vanish from the maps.

The Pomeranian counties had already undergone changes in 1950: Randow county, recreated in 1945, was dissolved, the southern parts with Gartz (Oder) joined Brandenburg. Thus, Western Pomerania lost the last link with the Oder river, the historical eastern border. Ueckermünde county was renamed Pasewalk county and 22 Brandenburgian communities were merged in.<ref name="Buchholz, p.519"> The Pomeranian town Damgarten was fused with the Mecklenburgian town Ribnitz to Ribnitz-Damgarten, thus Western Pomerania's historical western boirder (Recknitz river, flowing between Ribnitz and Damgarten) vanished from the administartive maps.<ref name="Buchholz, p.519">

Throughout the 1950s, small farms including those created in the previous land reform were forced to group to Socialist-style LPG units. In Aktion Rose, private property of housing was turned over to the state. From this stock, various state organizations ran the GDR's seaside resort.

The Western Pomeranian areas retained their agricultural character, yet the farms were reorgainzed by a land reform, splitting the large estates into small units distributed to land-less peasants and expellees from the former eastern territories of Germany who by then made up for about 40% of the population. The peasants were then forcibly grouped into Communist-style LPG units. The East German policy of industrialization led to the establishement of a nuclear power plant in Lubmin near Greifswald and the development of the Stralsund Volkswerft shipyard as well as the Sassnitz ferry terminal directly linking Western Pomerania to the Soviet Union via Klaipeda.

Democratic era

Polish part of Pomerania

In 1980, Polish Pomeranian coastal cities, notably Gdańsk, became the place of birth for the anticommunist movement, Solidarity. Gdańsk become the capital for the Solidarity trade union. In 1989 it was found that the border treaty with the Communist German Democratic Republic had one mistake, concerning the naval border. Subsequently, a new treaty was signed.

The West Pomeranian Voivodeship's rural countryside from 1945 until 1989 remained underdeveloped and often neglected, as the pre-1945 German structures of Prussian-style nobility leading and steering agricultural cultivation had been destroyed by expulsion and communism.

German part of Pomerania

In 1990, after the GDR regime was overthrown by the peaceful Wende revolution, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern was reconstituted and joined the Federal Republic of Germany. Since then, the region suffers from a population drain as mostly young people migrate to the West due to high unemployment rates.

Pomerania euroregion

The Pomerania euroregion was set up in 1995 as one of the euroregions, thought to connect regions divided between states of the European Union. The name is taken from the region of Pomerania, yet the euroregion is of a different shape than the historical region. It comprises German Western Pomerania and Uckermark, Polish Zachodniepomorskie, and Scania in Sweden.

See also

References

1. ^ Werner Buchholz, Pommern, Siedler, 1999, p.519, ISBN 3886802728

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