Timeline of Gdańsk

The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Gdańsk, Poland.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.

Middle Ages

Timeline of Gdańsk
Historical affiliations

Duchy of Poland 997–1025

Kingdom of Poland 1025–1227
Duchy of Pomerelia 1227–1282
Kingdom of Poland 1282–1308
Teutonic Order 1308–1410
Kingdom of Poland 1410–1411
Teutonic Order 1411–1454
Kingdom of Poland 1454–1569
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth 1569–1793
Kingdom of Prussia 1793–1807
Free City of Danzig 1807–1814
Kingdom of Prussia 1814–1871
German Empire 1871–1918
Weimar Germany 1918–1920
Free City of Danzig 1920–1939
Nazi Germany 1939–1945
People's Republic of Poland 1945–1989

 Republic of Poland 1989–present

• 997 - Gdańsk existence confirmed.
• 1224 - Gdańsk granted city rights.
• 1227 - Dominican Monastery founded in Gdańsk.
• 1260 - St. Dominic's Fair begins.
• 1263 - The village of Wrzeszcz, today's borough of Gdańsk, mentioned for the first time[1]
• 1294, 1295 - Visits of Polish King Przemysł II.[2]
• 1308 - November 13: Teutonic takeover of Gdańsk.
• 1326 - St. Catherine's Church built.[3]
• 1346 - Gaol Tower built.[4]
• 1350 - Artus Court built (approximate date).
• 1360 - City joins Hanseatic League (approximate date).[3]
• 1391 - Foundation of the Marienbrunn Abbey.
• 1410 - The city recognized Polish King Władysław II Jagiełło as rightful ruler,[5] but the next year it came under Teutonic rule again.
• 1440 - City joins the anti-Teutonic Prussian Confederation.
• 1454
  • March: City reincorporated to the Kingdom of Poland by King Casimir IV Jagiellon upon the request of the Prussian Confederation.[6]
  • March: City authorized by the Polish king to mint Polish coins[7]
  • June: City solemnly pledged allegiance to the King in Elbląg, recognizing the Teutonic annexation and rule as unlawful.[8]
• 1455 - Danzig law in effect (approximate date).
• 1465 - St. John's Church built.[3]
• 1481 - Artus Court rebuilt.[4]
• 1494 - Hall of the Brotherhood of St. George built.[4]

16th to 18th centuries

• 1502 - St. Mary's Church built.
• 1514 - Trinity Church built.[3]
• 1537 - Franz Rhode sets up printing press.
• 1558 - Academic Gymnasium established.
• 1561 - Main Town Hall tower built,[3] with a gilded statue of Polish King Sigismund II Augustus placed at its top.[9]
• 1568 - Green Gate built.
• 1569
  • City becomes part of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
  • Mennonite Church founded.
• 1575 - Danzig rebellion begins.
• 1577
  • April 17: Battle of Lubieszow.
  • Siege of Danzig by Stephen Báthory of Poland.
• 1588 - Highland Gate erected.[3]
• 1594 - Oliwa Cathedral consecrated.
• 1596 - Bibliotheca Senatus Gedanensis established.[10]
• 1605 - Arsenal built at the Coal Market Square.[3]
• 1606 - Der Lachs distillery in business.
• 1614 - Golden Gate built.
• 1627 - Battle of Oliwa during the Polish–Swedish War (1626–1629), won by Poland.
• 1633 - Neptune's Fountain installed at the Long Market.[4]
• 1640 - Jan Heweliusz established his astronomical observatory in the Old Town.
• 1655 - Deluge (Swedish invasion of Poland): Siege of Danzig (1655–1660) begins.
• 1660 - Treaty of Oliva signed.
• 1681 - Royal Chapel of the Polish King John III Sobieski built.
• 1709 - Bubonic plague.

Map of Danzig area, 1730

• 1734 - Siege of Danzig by Russians during the War of the Polish Succession.
• 1742
  • Experimental Physics Society organized.
  • Corn exchange opens in Artus Court.[4]
• 1756 - Abbot's Palace expanded.
• 1772 - After the First Partition of Poland the city became separated from the rest of Poland,[11] it remained a Polish exclave.
• 1793
  • Second Partition of Poland - city annexed by Prussia.[11]
  • Municipal Library established.[10]
• 1797 - Attempt of student uprising against Prussia, crushed quickly by the Prussian authorities.[12]

19th century

Siege by French forces in 1807

• 1807
  • March 19-May 24: Siege of Danzig by French forces.[11]
  • September 9: Free City of Danzig established by Napoleon.
• 1813 - January–December 29: Siege of Danzig by Russian and Prussian forces.
• 1814 - City becomes part of Prussia again.[11]
• 1815 - City becomes administrative capital of Danzig (region).
• 1832 - Handelsakademie established.[13]
• 1852 - Königliche Werft Danzig in business.
• 1871
  • City becomes part of German Empire.
  • Franciscan monastery building restored.[11]
• 1880 - Westpreussische Provinzial-Museum opens.[14]
• 1885 - Population: 114,805.[11]
• 1887 - Great Synagogue built.[15]
• 1896 - Old fortifications dismantled in north and west of city.[11]
• 1899 - Harbor built at Neufahrwasser.[11]
• 1900 - Main railway station opens.

Photochrome print from around 1900

20th century

1900–1945

• 1901
  • Königliche Staatsarchiv für Westpreussen (National Archives) opens.[16]
  • House of the Sheriffs restored.[4]
• 1903 - Fußball Club Danzig formed.
• 1904 - Königliche Technische Hochschule founded.
• 1905 - Population: 159,088.[11]
• 1918 - City becomes part of Weimar Germany.
• 1919 - Free City of Danzig created by Treaty of Versailles.

Aerial photo from circa 1920, showing St. Mary's Church

• 1920
  • Polish Post Office and Sportverein Schutzpolizei Danzig established.
  • Volkstag (parliament) becomes active.
• 1921 - Danziger Werft in business.
• 1922 - Gedania Danzig football club formed.
• 1927 - MOSiR Stadium built.
• 1937
  • Mass Anti-Polish discrimination by Germans: employing Poles by German companies prohibited, already employed Poles fired.[17]
  • October: Pogrom against Jews by the Germans.
• 1938, May 3: Over 100 German attacks on Polish homes on the day of the Polish 3 May Constitution Day.[17]

German battleship SMS Schleswig-Holstein firing at the Polish Military Transit Depot during the battle of Westerplatte in September 1939

• 1939
  • March: Ban and mass requisition of Polish press.[17]
  • September 1: Battle of the Danzig Bay; Defense of the Polish Post Office in Danzig.
  • September 1–7: Battle of Westerplatte.
  • October 5: The Germans executed 39 Polish defenders of the Polish Post Office in the present-day district of Zaspa.[18]
  • October 8: City occupied by Nazi Germany; city becomes capital of Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia.
• 1941 - Lufttwaffensportverein Danzig formed.
• 1945
  • March 27–30: City taken by forces of Soviet Union.
  • Gdańsk becomes part of Republic of Poland.
  • City becomes capital of Gdańsk Voivodeship.
  • Franciszek Kotus-Jankowski becomes mayor.
  • Gdańsk Shipyard, Akademia Lekarska, Baltia Gdańsk (Lechia Gdańsk) and Stoczniowiec Gdańsk football clubs, Gdańsk Symphony Orchestra, and Academy of Fine Arts established.

1946–1990s

• 1946
  • August 28: Execution of Danuta Siedzikówna and Feliks Selmanowicz, members of the Polish resistance movement in World War II and the anti-communist resistance movement, Polish national heroes, by the communists.[19][20]
  • October 1: Gdańsk College of Education established.
• 1951 - Wybrzeże Gdańsk handball team established.

Długi Targ and Main Town Hall in the 1950s

• 1952 - City becomes part of Polish People's Republic.
• 1953
  • Baltic State Opera and Philharmonic formed.
  • Stoczniowiec Gdańsk ice hockey team established.
• 1956 - Lechia Gdańsk rugby union team established.
• 1957 - Wybrzeże Gdańsk motorcycle speedway team established.
• 1960 - Lechia Gdańsk wins its first Polish rugby championship.
• 1962 - National Maritime Museum established.
• 1963 - Gdańsk hosts the 1963 World Fencing Championships.
• 1965 - Abbot's Palace rebuilt.
• 1966
  • Wybrzeże Gdańsk wins its first Polish handball championship.
  • Westerplatte Monument unveiled.
• 1970
  • University of Gdańsk established.
  • Gdańsk Power Station commissioned.
  • Hala Olivia arena opens.
• 1972 - National Museum, Gdańsk established.
• 1974
  • Airport opens.
  • Population: 402,200.[21]
• 1977 - Monument of Polish poet Maria Konopnicka unveiled.[22]
• 1979
  • Museum of the Polish Post (Muzeum Poczty Polskiej) established at the site of the 1939 defence of the Polish Post Office.
  • Defenders of the Polish Post Office Monument unveiled.
• 1980
  • Summer: Shipbuilders strike.
  • August 31: Solidarity (Polish trade union) founded; Gdańsk Agreement signed.
  • Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers of 1970 unveiled.
• 1982 - August 31: Anti-government demonstration.
• 1985 - SS Soldek museum opens.
• 1989 - City becomes part of Republic of Poland.

Old Town with the Gdańsk Shipyard in the background in the 1990s

• 1991 - Franciszek Jamroż becomes mayor.
• 1993 - Gdańsk Shakespeare Days begin.
• 1994
  • May: Gdańsk hosts the 1994 European Judo Championships.
  • July: Tomasz Posadzki becomes mayor.
• 1996 - International Festival of Street & Open-Air Theatres begins (approximate date).[23]
• 1997 - Gdańsk hosts the 1997 European Fencing Championships.
• 1998
  • Pawel Adamowicz becomes mayor.
  • Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art founded.
• 1999
  • Gdańsk becomes capital of Pomeranian Voivodeship.
  • Solidarity Centre Foundation established.

21st century

• 2001
  • Wybrzeże Gdańsk wins its tenth Polish handball championship.
  • Third Millennium John Paul II Bridge opens.
• 2002
  • The Monument Cemetery of the Lost Cemeteries installed.
  • Lechia Gdańsk wins its tenth Polish rugby championship.
• 2004 - May 1: Poland becomes part of European Union.
• 2005 - Trefl Gdańsk volleyball team established.
• 2007
  • Deepwater Container Terminal Gdańsk launched.
  • Tricity Charter signed.

Ergo Arena

• 2009 - Gdańsk co-hosts the EuroBasket 2009.
• 2010
  • Ergo Arena opens.
  • Population: 455,830.
• 2011
  • Baltic Arena opens.
  • October: Gdańsk hosts the 2011 European Table Tennis Championships.
• 2012 - Gdańsk co-hosts the UEFA Euro 2012.
• 2013 - Gdańsk co-hosts the 2013 Men's European Volleyball Championship.
• 2014
  • August: European Solidarity Centre opens.[24]
  • September: Gdańsk co-hosts the 2014 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship.
  • September: Gdańsk Shakespeare Theatre opens.[25]
• 2015 - August 30: Monument of Danuta Siedzikówna unveiled in the Orunia district.[20]
• 2016
  • January: Gdańsk co-hosts the 2016 European Men's Handball Championship.
  • August 28: State burial of Polish national heroes Danuta Siedzikówna and Feliks Selmanowicz in the 70th anniversary of their execution.[26]
• 2017 - Museum of the Second World War founded.

See also

• History of Gdańsk
• List of mayors of Danzig, 1308 to 1945
• List of mayors of Gdańsk, pre-1308 and post-1945
• List of Gdańsk aristocratic families
• Category:Timelines of cities in Poland (in Polish)

References

1. Kazimierz Małkowski, Stanisław Podgórczyk, Przewodnik po Trójmieście: Gdańsk – Sopot – Gdynia. Wyd. drugie poprawione i uzupełnione, Gdańsk, Wydawnictwo Morskie, 1979, p. 146 (in Polish)
2. Kodeks Dyplomatyczny Wielkopolski Vol. II, No. 726, 739
3. "Dantsic", Northern Germany (5th ed.), Coblenz: Karl Baedeker, 1873, OCLC 5947482, OL 6935820M
4. Baedeker 1910.
5. Marian Biskup, Historia Gdańska t. I, p. 479–481 (in Polish)
6. Karol Górski, Związek Pruski i poddanie się Prus Polsce: zbiór tekstów źródłowych, Instytut Zachodni, Poznań, 1949, p. 51, 56 (in Polish)
7. Górski, p. 63
8. Górski, p. 79-80
9. "Ratusz Głównego Miasta". Muzeum Historyczne Miasta Gdańska (in Polish). Archived from the original on 14 March 2016.
10. "Historia" (in Polish). Wojewódzka i Miejska Biblioteka Publiczna w Gdansku. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
11. Britannica 1910.
12. Edmund Cieślak, Czesław Biernat, Dzieje Gdańska, Wydawn. Morskie, 1969, p. 370 (in Polish)
13. Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus (1865), "Danzig", Allgemeine Deutsche Real-Encyklopädie für die Gebildeten Stände (in German) (11th ed.), Leipzig: F.A. Brockhaus
14. H. Conwentz (1905), Das Westpreussische Provinzial-Museum, 1880-1905 (in German), Danzig, OL 14002883M
15. "Gdansk". Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. Yivo Institute for Jewish Research. Archived from the original on December 2014.
16. "Dzieje Archiwum Panstwowego w Gdansku" (in Polish). Archiwum Panstwowe w Gdansku. Archived from the original on October 8, 2011. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
17. Maria Wardzyńska, Był rok 1939. Operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczeństwa w Polsce. Intelligenzaktion, IPN, Warszawa, 2009, p. 42 (in Polish)
18. Wardzyńska, p. 86
19. Piotr Czartoryski-Sziler. "You have waited a long time, Poland". Retrieved 11 June 2020.
20. "Inka Monument". Europe Remembers. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
21. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Statistical Office (1976). "Population of capital city and cities of 100,000 and more inhabitants". Demographic Yearbook 1975. New York. pp. 253–279.
22. Marek Adamkowicz. "Gdańsk. Pomnik Marii Konopnickiej na razie zostanie na skwerze". Dziennik Bałtycki. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
23. "FETA". Gdańsk. Archived from the original on November 14, 2011. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
24. "W Gdańsku otwarto Europejskie Centrum Solidarności" (in Polish). Onet.pl. 31 August 2014. Archived from the original on 13 December 2015.
25. Gentle, Peter (20 September 2014). "Bomb scare disrupts Gdansk Shakespeare theatre opening". thenews.pl. Polish Radio External Service.
26. "Grave of Danuta Siedzikówna, alias 'Inka'". Liberation Route.com. Retrieved 1 June 2020.

This article incorporates information from the Polish Wikipedia.

Bibliography

See also: History of Gdańsk § Further reading

In English

• Thomas Bartlett (1841). "Dantzic". New Tablet of Memory; or, Chronicle of Remarkable Events. London: Thomas Kelly.
• "Danzig", Jewish Encyclopedia, 4, New York, 1907, hdl:2027/osu.32435029752912
• "Danzig", Northern Germany (15th ed.), Leipzig: Karl Baedeker, 1910, OCLC 78390379
• "Danzig", The Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.), New York, 1910, OCLC 14782424
• Szymon Askenazy (1921), Dantzig & Poland, London: G. Allen & Unwin, Ltd., OCLC 2181707, OL 6638482M
• "Historic Danzig: Last of the City-States", National Geographic Magazine, Washington DC, 76, 1939
• "Poland: Gdansk", Eastern and Central Europe (17th ed.), Fodor's, 1996, OL 7697674M
• George Lerski (1996). "Gdansk". Historical Dictionary of Poland, 966-1945. Greenwood. ISBN 978-0-313-03456-5.
• Piotr Wróbel (1998). "Gdansk". Historical Dictionary of Poland 1945-1996. Fitzroy Dearborn. ISBN 978-1-135-92694-6.

In other languages

• Johannes Bolte (1895), Das Danziger Theater im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert [Danzig Theatre in the 16th and 17th Centuries] (in German), Hamburg: L. Voss, OL 23292860M
• Max Foltz (1912), Geschichte des Danziger Stadthaushalts [History of the Danzig City Budget] (in German), Danzig: A.W. Kafemann, OCLC 12495569, OL 6557575M
• P. Krauss und E. Uetrecht, ed. (1913). "Danzig". Meyers Deutscher Städteatlas [Meyer's Atlas of German Cities] (in German). Leipzig: Bibliographisches Institut.
• Wolfgang Adam; Siegrid Westphal, eds. (2012). "Danzig". Handbuch kultureller Zentren der Frühen Neuzeit: Städte und Residenzen im alten deutschen Sprachraum (in German). De Gruyter. pp. 275+. ISBN 978-3-11-029555-9.

External links

• Links to fulltext city directories for Gdansk via Wikisource
• Europeana. Items related to Gdansk, various dates.
• Digital Public Library of America. Items related to Gdansk, various dates
• "Danzig Collection". New York: Jewish Museum. Archived from the original on 2013-04-15.