Poznań Totally Explained

Everything about Pozna totally explained

ť This article is about the city in Poland. For other uses, see Poznan (disambiguation).

Poznań (which during periods of Prussian and German rule was known as Posen) is a city in west-central Poland with over 567,882 inhabitants (2006). Located on the Warta River, it's one of the oldest cities in Poland, making it an important historical centre and a vibrant centre of trade, industry, and education. Poznań is Poland's fifth largest city and fourth biggest industrial centre. It is also the administrative capital of the Greater Poland Voivodeship.
Poznań's cathedral is the oldest in the country, containing the tombs of the first Polish rulers: Duke Mieszko I, King Boleslaus the Brave, King Mieszko II, Duke Casimir I the Restorer, Duke Przemysł I, and King Przemysł II.

Etymology

The name Poznań probably comes from a personal name Poznan (from the Polish participle poznan(y)) and would mean "Poznan's town." It is also possible the name comes directly from the verb poznać which means "to get to know" or "to recognize".
The earliest surviving references to the city were by Thietmar in his chronicles: episcopus Poznaniensis ("Bishop of Poznań", 970) and ab urbe Poznani ("by" or "from the city Poznań", 1005). Early spellings include Posna and Posnan. The official city name in full is The Capital City of Poznań . Poznań is known as Posen in German, and was officially known as Haupt- und Residenzstadt Posen ("Capital and Residence City of Poznań") between 20 August 1910, and 28 November 1918. The city has been known in Latin as Posnania and civitas Posnaniensis. Its Yiddish name is פּױזן, or Poyzn.

Geography

City area (2002)
Geographical location:
52°17'34N - 52°30'27N
16°44'08E - 17°04'28E
Highest point: Mt. Morasko asl
Lowest point: Warta river valley: asl

Administrative division

The Poznań metropolitan area, consisting of the autonomous towns of Poznań, Ostrów, Ostrówek, Środka, Chwaliszewo, Łacina, was integrated into one city from 1793–1800. The rapidly growing city annexed the neighboring villages of Grunwald, Łazarz, Górczyn, Jeżyce, Wilda, Winogrady in 1900, Piątkowo and Rataje in later years. Today, Poznań is divided into five districts, which are further divided onto several dozens of neighborhoods. The districts are:

Stare Miasto

Nowe Miasto

Jeżyce

Grunwald

Wilda

Culture

The annual Malta Theater festival is probably the most characteristic cultural event of the city. There are also Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition (held every 5 years), and Classical Music Festival (annual).

History

Mieszko I, the first known duke of the Polans, built one of his castles in Poznań. The Cathedral Basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul is the oldest Polish cathedral, founded in Poznań during the latter half of the 10th century. The city would become the capital of Greater Poland. Mieszko I's son, Boleslaus the Brave, was crowned king in 1025 and the Kingdom of Poland was formed. Greater Poland became the 'cradle of the Polish state', and both Mieszko I and Boleslaus I are buried in Poznań. Lubrański Academy, the second Polish university (not a "full" university, in fact, as science students had to go to Kraków) was established in 1519.
Poznań was the capital of the Greater Poland area when it came under the control of Prussia in 1793 and had its administrative area renamed to South Prussia. During the Greater Poland Uprising of 1806, local Polish resistance fighters rebelled, thereby assisting the efforts of Napoleon while simultaneously driving out the occupying Prussian forces. The city became part of the Duchy of Warsaw in 1807 and was capital of the Poznań Department. Napoleon's defeat led to the Congress of Vienna, where the boundaries of Europe were redrawn by the victors. Greater Poland was returned to Prussia and became the capital of the autonomous Grand Duchy of Posen. From the time of the Revolutions of 1848, Poznań was the capital of the Prussian Province of Posen. It became part of the German Empire during the unification of German states in 1871.
Shortly after Imperial Germany's defeat in World War I, the Great Poland Uprising (1918-1919) occurred, leading to the creation of the Second Polish Republic, in which Poznań became the capital of Poznań Voivodeship. During World War II, Poland suffered under Nazi occupation and the Polish population was severely repressed. In 1945, the city was declared a Festung (a fortified locale in which German forces were expected to conduct a last-ditch defense) by order of Hitler. As Poznań lay on the direct route from Warsaw to Berlin, the Red Army first besieged and then assaulted the German defenses, culminating in the assault on the Cytadela (citadelle) and resulting in serious damage to the city. Since the war's end, Poznań has been the capital of the surrounding area through administrative district boundary changes in 1957, 1975, and 1999; Poznań currently administrates Greater Poland Voivodeship, one of 16 provinces in the country. Anti-communist protests in 1956 played a significant role in liberalising the post-war communist regime.

Historical population

Historical population of Poznań Historical population summary:

1600 : about 20,000 inhabitants

1732 : 4000 inhabitants

1793 : 15,000 inhabitants before

1918 : 156,091 inhabitants (from government data)

1939 : 274,155 inhabitants

1946 : 268,000 inhabitants

2000 : 572,900 inhabitants

May 2002: 578,900 inhabitants 2020 population Forecast:

Poznań City 584,500 (small increase)

Poznań County 305,500 (significant increase)

Poznań Metro Area 890,000

Notable residents

Karl Franzewitsch Albrecht (1807-1863), composer

Anna Anderson (c. 1900 - 1984), pretender of Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia

Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière (1886 - 1941), German U-boat commander

Isidor Ascheim (1891-1968), painter and printmaker

Stanisław Barańczak (born 1946), poet

Herbert Baum (1912 – 1942) resistance fighter

Zygmunt Bauman (born 1925), sociologist

Bernhard Baumeister (1828-1917), actor

Józef Brzeziński, biologist

Brigitte Burmeister (died 1940), novelist

Heinrich Caro (1834-1910), chemist

Hipolit Cegielski (1815-1868), businessman

Dezydery Chłapowski (1788-1848), general

August Cieszkowski (1814-1894), philosopher

Antoni Czubiński (1928-2003), historian

Leopold Damrosch (1832 – 1885), conductor

Ludwig Dessoir, (1810 - 1874), actor

Franciszek Dobrowolski (1830-1896), theater director

Tytus Działyński (1796-1861), political activist

Małgorzata Dydek (born 1974), basketball player

Akiva Eiger (1761-1837), Rabbi of Poznań (1815-1837)

Jean Paul Ertel (1865-1933), composer

Ewaryst Estkowski (1820-1856), teacher

Fredrak Fraske (1872-1973), the last surviving United States veteran of the Indian Wars

Jean Gebser (1905-1973), human consciousness scientist

Eduard Gerhard (1795 - 1867), archaeologist

Friedrich Goltz (1834 - 1902), physiologist

Paul von Hindenburg (1847-1934), Field Marshal and President of the Weimar Republic

Maksymilian Jackowski (1815-1905), activist

John Jonston (1603-1675), naturalist and physician

Stefan Jurga (born 1946), professor and rector of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (1996-2002)

Jan A.P. Kaczmarek (born 1954), composer

Richard Kandt (1867-1918), doctor and explorer

Ernst Hartwig Kantorowicz (1895-1963), historian

Marek Karpinski, computer scientist

Günther von Kluge (1882-1944), Field Marshal

Krzysztof Komeda (1931-1969), jazz musician

Leo Königsberger (1837-1921), mathematician

Antoni Kraszewski (1797-1870), politician

Max Kretzer (1854-1941), writer

Antoni Krzyżanowski, 19th century architect

Gerard Labuda (born 1916), historian

Arthur Liebehenschel (1901 - 1948), commandant of Auschwitz and Majdanek

Paul Leonhardt (1877-1934), chess master

Karol Libelt (1807-1875), philosopher

Włodzimierz Łęcki (born 1937), politician and writer

Andrzej Maleszka (born 1955), theatre and movie director

Karol Marcinkowski (1800-1848), physician and social activist

Władysław Markiewicz (born 1920), sociologist

Teofil Matecki (1810-1886), philosopher

Heinrich Mendelssohn (1881-1959), building tycoon

Karl-Friedrich Merten (1905 - 1993), U-boat commander

Maciej Mielżyński (1799-1870), politician

Julius Moses (1868-1942), politician

Małgorzata Musierowicz (born 1945), novelist

Andrzej Niegolewski (1787-1857), colonel

Władysław Niegolewski (1814-1880), politician

Gustav Oelsner (1879-1956), architect

Władysław Oleszczyński (1809-1866), sculptor

Lilli Palmer (1914-1986), actress

Janusz Pałubicki (born 1948), politician

Kazimierz Piwarski, (1903-1968), historian

Gustaw Potworowski (1800-1860), activist

Tomasz Przybecki (born 1981), articled clerk

Edward Raczyński (1786-1845), politician

Cyryl Ratajski (1875-1942), mayor of Poznań

Antoni Radziwiłł (1775-1833), aristocrat

Richard Rothe (1799 - 1867), Lutheran theologian.

Michał Sczaniecki (1910-1977), historian

Józef Struś (1510-1568), scientist and mayor of Poznań

Sir Paweł Edmund Strzelecki (July 20, 1797 - October 6, 1873), Polish explorer and geologist

Tiago Ferreira (born 1979), accountant

Stefan Stuligrosz (born 1920), choral conductor

Rafał Szukała (born 1971), butterfly swimmer

Roman Szymański (1840-1908), political activist

Mirosław Szymkowiak (born 1976) football player

Lech Trzeciakowski (born 1931), historian

Jan Węglarz (born 1947), computer scientist

Piotr Wiśniewski (born 1955), Statistician

Zygmunt Wojciechowski, (1900-1955), historian and founder of the Western Institute

Leon Wegner (1824-1873), economist

Anna Wolff-Powęska, historian

Tadeusz Zwiefka (born 1954), TV journalist

Maciej Żurawski (born 1976), football player

Education

Poznań is home to a few state-owned universities and a number of smaller, mostly private-run colleges and institutions of higher education. Adam Mickiewicz University (abbreviated UAM) is one of the most influential and biggest universities in Poland.

Adam Mickiewicz University

Poznań University of Technology

Poznań University of Medical Sciences

University of Life Sciences in Poznań

Poznań University of Economics

Poznań University School of Physical Education

Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań

Academy of Music in Poznań

Scientific and regional organizations

Western Institute

Poznań Society of Friends of Arts and Sciences

Economy

Poznań has been an important center of trade since the Middle Ages. Starting in the 19th century, local heavy industry began to grow. Several major factories were built, including the steel mill and railway factory of Hipolit Cegielski (see H. Cegielski - Poznań S.A.).
Today Poznań is one of the major centers of trade with Germany. Many Western European companies started their Polish branches in Poznań, or in the nearby localities of Tarnowo Podgórne and Swarzędz.
It is the site of annual Poznań International Fair. For a list of major Poznań-based corporations see Major corporations in Poznań

Sports

KKS Lech Poznań - men's football team (Polish Champion: 1983, 1984, 1990, 1992, 1993 ; Polish Cup winner 1982, 1984, 1988, 2004 ; Polish SuperCup winner 1990, 1992, 2004)

Warta Poznań - men's football team (Polish Champion: 1929, 1947), (2nd league in season 2007/2008).

AZS Poznań - women's basketball team playing in Torell Basket Liga: 2nd place in 2003/2004 season (formerly also called Danter AZS Poznań and Stary Browar AZS Poznań)

AZS AWF Poznań - women's volleyball team playing in Polish Seria A Women's Volleyball League: 8th place in 2003/2004 season.

TPS Winogrady Poznań - men's football team

Polonia Poznań - men's football team

WKS Grunwald Poznań - sports club with sections in field hockey, shooting, wrestling, handball and tennis.

KS Pocztowiec Poznań - men's field hockey team

KTKFiT Błękitny Express Lech Poznań - men's field hockey team

KS AZS AWF Poznań - men's field hockey team

KS Energetyk - rhythmic gymnastics club

MKS Dąbrówka - rhythmic gymnastics club, synchronized swimming

UKS Szóstka - synchronized swimming, football

UKS Wanda - synchronized swimming

SSW Malta Poznań - roller skating club

Lake Malta in Poznań will host the World Rowing Championships in 2009 and has previously hosted some regattas in the Rowing World Cup.

U-19 EURO CHAMP. in VI 2006 - [man'sFootball European Cup 19 year] - Open and Final.

Politics

Municipal politics

Since the end of the communist era in 1989, Poznań municipality and metro area have invested heavily in infrastructure, especially transportation and improved public administration. This has resulted in a massive investment from foreign companies in Poznań itself, as well as in communities west and south of Poznań (namely, Kórnik and Tarnowo Podgórne).
   Most foreign investors are German and Dutch companies (see "Major corporations" above), with a few others. Investors are mostly from the food processing, furniture, automotive and transport & logistics industries. Foreign companies are primarily attracted by low labour costs, but also by the relatively good road and railway networks in the vicinity, good vocational skills of workers (heritage of the communist era) and relatively liberal employment laws. As compared with Germany, there are far fewer restrictions, for example on shop opening hours.
   Worth noticing is also the positive attitude of public administration towards investments, and less annoying "red tape" than elsewhere in Poland.
   Investment into transportation was mostly in the public transport area. While the number of cars since 1989 has at least doubled, the policy of improving public transport gave good effects. Limiting car access to the city center, building new tram lines (inc. Poznański Szybki Tramwaj) and investing in new rolling stock (such as modern Combino trams by Siemens and Solaris low-floor buses) actually increased the level of ridership. This is a notable success, even considering the fact that Polish society only possesses about half of the "old EU"'s purchasing power, hence not everybody can afford to own a car.
   Future investments into transportation include the construction of a "third ring road" around the city, and the completion of A2 (E30) highway towards Berlin. In the public transport area (and non-car transportation), further investment must be made into the development bicycle paths (and the linking of presently existing ones), and an attempt is presently made of developing Karlsruhe-style light rail system for commuters. All that's made more complicated (and more expensive) by the heavy neglect of transportation throughout communist era.

Constituency

Members of Sejm elected in 2005 from Poznań constituency:

Arkady Radosław Fiedler, PO

Waldy Dzikowski, PO

Maria Pasło-Wiśniewska, PO

Dariusz Lipiński, PO

Michał Stuligrosz,PO

Tomasz Górski, PiS

Jan Filip Libicki, PiS

Małgorzata Stryjska, PiS

Jacek Tomczak, PiS

Krystyna Łybacka, SLD Members of European Parliament elected from Poznań constituency:

Filip Kaczmarek, PO

Marcin Libicki, PiS

Jan Kułakowski, Unia Wolności

Jan Masiel, Samoobrona

Witold Tomczak, LPR

Marek Siwiec, SLD

Twin towns

Poznań is twinned with:

Assen, Netherlands; since 1992.

Braşov, Romania; since 2003.

Brno, Czech Republic; since 1966.

Hannover, Germany; since 1979.

Jyväskylä, Finland; since 1979.

Kharkiv, Ukraine; since 1998.

Nablus, Palestine; since 1997.

Nottinghamshire, England; since 1994.

Pozuelo de Alarcón, Spain; since 1992.

Rennes, France; since 1998.

Shenzhen, China; since 1993.

Toledo, United States; since 1991.

Győr, Hungary; since 2008.

Footnotes

Bibliography

collective work, Poznań. Dzieje, ludzie kultura, Poznań 1953

Robert Alvis, Religion and the Rise of Nationalism: A Profile of an East-Central European City, Syracuse University Press, Syracuse 2005

K. Malinowski (red.), Dziesięć wieków Poznania, t.1, Dzieje społeczno-gospodarcze, Poznań 1956

collective work, Poznań, Poznań 1958

collective work, Poznań. Zarys historii, Poznań 1963

Cz. Łuczak, Życie społeczno-gospodarcze w Poznaniu 1815-1918, Poznań 1965

J. Topolski (red.), Poznań. Zarys dziejów, Poznań 1973

Zygmunt Boras, Książęta Piastowscy Wielkopolski, Wydawnictwo Poznańskie, Poznań 1983

Jerzy Topolskiego (red.), Dzieje Poznania,Wydawnictwo PWN, Warszawa - Poznań 1988

Alfred Kaniecki, Dzieje miasta wodą pisane, Wydawnictwo Aquarius, Poznań 1993

Witold Maisel (red.), Przywileje miasta Poznania XIII-XVIII wieku. Privilegia civitatis Posnaniensis saeculorum XIII-XVIII. Władze Miasta Poznania, Poznańskie Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Nauk, Wydawnictwa Żródłowe Komisji Historycznej, Tom XXIV, Wydawnictwo PTPN, Poznań 1994

Wojciech Stankowski, Wielkopolska, Wydawnictwo WSiP, Warszawa 1999

Gotthold Rhode : Geschichte der Stadt PosenFurther Information

Get more info on 'Pozna'.

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