Poznan

Előszó

In the more than thousand-year history of the Polish state Poznan has always played a leading role. After Gniezno, it was the main centre of the formation of the Polish state in the lOth to llth century. Expanding greatly on the left bank of the river Warta, it was granted town rights by Prince Przemyslaw I, as early as 1253. In the 15th and 16th centuries, Poznan was one of the towns, together with Gdansk and Cracow, with a highly developed economy, eagerly visited by numerous foreign merchants. Poznan's flourishing economy was accompanied by the development of science and culture. The former was centred mainly in the Lubranski Academy, founded in 1519; and a constant reminder of the latter is the beautiful renaissance Town Hall. Unfortunately Poznan was not spared the catastrophe of wars which were waged on Polish soil from the mid-17th to the beginning of the 18th century. The town was severely damaged, but its industrious inhabitants quickly rebuilt it. In the second half of the 18th century the Przemyslaw Stronghold, to restore Poznan's former reputation, became once more the centre of a growing economy whose dynamic development was again interrupted by the partition of Poland. In 1793 Poznan feli under Prussian rule which, with the exception of a brief interval (1806-1815), lasted till 1918. The Prussian rulers were persistent in their eíforts to convert this capital of Wielkopolska into one of the Germán centres of intellectual life in the conquered "East". The most important offices and institutions engaged in the germanization of Polish lands were located in Poznan, and it was in the Przemyslaw Stronghold that the strongest political pressure was exerted on the Poles. Even then, under Prussian occupation, Poznan was the primary centre of Polish political, economic and cultural life. It was here that the Poles mobilized the eíforts of the people, the materials and morale to withstand the pressure of germanization. Already before the middle of the 19th century the most experien- Vissza