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Pommern Duchy in 1939 |
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(Please click map for larger view)
The Roman Empire fell in the fifth century A.D. Constantinople and the Roman church were poised to take on the Teutons and Wend Barbarians to their north and west. Saint Boniface was one of the earliest missionaries to the German people in the northern regions in 745 A.D. In 967 the Roman Church converted and baptized Duke Miezko of Poland. He sealed this by marrying the daughter of the King of Bohemia who was also a Christian. Poland then formed an alliance with the western nations and western Christianity for a protection against Turk and Tartar invaders. In the 11th and 12th centuries, various nations organized three military, priestly orders. The Germans organized the Order of Teutonic Knights. The Christian world sent crusades of armed knights against Muslin, and later Turks, and heathens who occupied Jerusalem and the Holy Lands. Similar crusades were organized by Emperor Frederick II and Pope Gregory IX and the Teutonic Order. Duke Conrad of Poland invited the crusades, through the Pope and especially the Teutonic Order, to assist him in converting these heathens, who were irritating his borders with raids and also prevented Poland with access to the Sea. The Dukes of Greif (Griffon), a hereditary line, ruled the Wend tribes along the southwest part of the Baltic shoreline. However they were being harassed constantly by Denmark from the sea and from the west, who wanted to extend her empire throughout Norway, Sweden, Finland and the other Baltic lands. Pommern was also under siege from Poland who was trying to convert the heathen and establish access to the Baltic through her land. Poland advanced as far as Stettin several times, the last time in 1121, but they were unable to hold the position. A few years later, Poland finally recognized the house of Greif as the legitimate heirs of Pommern. Albert the Bear, ruler of the Mark of
Brandenburg, and others were leading crusades into Pommern in 1134 and through
the 12th century. Emperor Frederick I (Barbarossa) met with the Pommern
Dukes in 1181 at Lubeck. The Dukes decided they would be better off
allying themselves with the Germans, rather than the Danes or the Poles.
The Germans had established two Bishoprics in Pommern in 1133, one in Demmin and
one in Stettin and already had a number of German settlers there. The Dukes
liked what the German settlers were doing there in terms of agriculture and law.
Frederick I declared Pommern a principality of the Empire and elevated the
Pommern Duke Bogeslaw I to the rank of Prince of Pommern. The Empire of Prussia in 1939
A Thumbnail Sketch of Early Prussian History Prussia, the former kingdom, was the largest
and most important of the German states; originally, Berlin was the capital.
The area that was later called East
Prussia. was originally known as Prussia. In 1618, by then a duchy,
(East) Prussia, passed to the elector of
Brandenburg. In 1660, full independence from Polish authority was obtained
by Friedrich Wilhelm, the Great Elector.
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